[3] Ibid., 1700, ch xxx., vol. ii., p. 469.
[4] Arneth, ii, p. 206.
[5] Madame de Campan, ch. iv.
[6] Madame de Campan, ch. v., p. 106.
[7] Id., p. 101.
[8] "Sir Peter. Ah, madam, true wit is more neatly allied to good- nature than your ladyship is aware of."-School for Scandal, act ii., sc. 2.
CHAPTER X. [1] "Elle avait entierement le defaut contraire [a la prodigalite], et je pouvais prouver qu'elle portait souvent l'economie jusqu'a des details d'une mesquinerie blamable, surtout dans une souveraine."-MADAME DE CAMPAN, ch. v., p. 106, ed. 1858.
[2] Arneth, ii., p. 307.
[3] See the author's "History of France under the Bourbons," iii., p. 418. Lacretelle, iv., p. 368, affirms that this outbreak, for which in his eyes "une pretendue disette" was only a pretext, was "evidemment fomente par des hommes puissans," and that "un salaire qui etait paye par des hommes qu'on ne pouvait nommer aujourd'hui avec assez de certitude, excitait leurs fureurs factices."
[4] La Guerre des Farines.
[5] Arneth, ii., p. 342.
[6] "Souvenirs de Vaublanc," i., p. 231.
[7] August 23d, 1775, No. 1524, in Cunningham's edition, vol. vi., p. 245.
[8] The Prince of Wales and the Duke of York, who were just at this time astonishing London with their riotous living.
CHAPTER XI. [1] "Gustave III. et la Cour de France," i. p. 279.
[2] The Duc d'Angouleme, afterward dauphin, when the Count d'Artois succeeded to the throne as Charles X.
[3] Marie Antoinette to Maria Teresa, August 12th, 1775, Arneth, ii., p. 366.
[4] "Le projet de la reine etait d'exiger du roi que le Sieur Turgot fut chasse, meme envoye a la Bastille ... et il a fallu les representations les plus fortes et les plus instantes pour arreter les effets de la colere de la Reine."-Mercy to Maria Teresa, May 16th, 1776, Arneth, ii., p. 446.
[5] The compiler of "Marie Antoinette, Louis XVI., et La Famille Royale" (date April 24th, 1776) has a story of a conversation between the king and queen which illustrates her feeling toward the minister. She had just come in from the opera. He asked her "how she had been received by the Parisians; if she had had the usual cheers." She made no reply; the king understood her silence. "Apparently, madame, you had not feathers enough." "I should have liked to have seen you there, sir, with your St. Germain and your Turgot; you would have been rudely hissed." St. Germain was the minister of war.
[6] Mercy to Maria Teresa, May 16th, 1776, Arneth, ii., p. 446.
[7] January 14th, 1776, Arneth, ii., p. 414.
[8] The ground-floor of the palace was occupied by the shops of jewelers and milliners, some of whom were great sufferers by the fire.
[9] In a letter written at the end of 1775, Mercy reports to the empress that some of Turgot's economical reforms had produced real discontent among those "qui trouvent leur interet dans le desordre," which they had vented in scandalous and seditious writings. Many songs of that character had come out, some of which were attributed to Beaumarchais, "le roi et la reine n'y ont point ete respectes."-December 17th, 1775. Arneth, ii, p. 410.
[10] Mercy to Maria Teresa, November 15th, 1776, Arneth, ii., p. 524.
CHAPTER XII. [1] "Le petit nombre de ceux que la Reine appelle 'sa societe'"-Mercy to Marie Teresa, February 15th, 1777, Arneth, iii., p. 18.
[2] "Il faut cependant convenir que dans ces circonstances si rapprochees de la familiarite, la Reine, par un maintien qui tient a son ame, a toujours su imprimer a ceux qui l'entouraient une contenance de respect qui contrebalancait un peu la liberte des propos."-Mercy to Maria Teresa, Arneth, ii, p.520.
[3] Brunoy is about fifteen miles from Paris.
[4] "Au reste il est temps pour la sante de la Reine que le carnaval finisse. On remarque qu'elle s'en altere, et que sa Majeste maigrit beaucoup."-Marie Therese a Louis XVI., la date Fevrier 1, 1777, p 101.
[5] Once when he had spoken to her with a severity which alarmed Mercy, who feared it might irritate the queen, "Il me dit en riant qu'il en avait agi ainsi pour sonder l'ame de la reine, et voir si par la force il n'y aurait pas moyen d'obtenir plus que par la douceur."-Mercy to Maria Teresa, Arneth, iii., p. 79.
[6] Arneth, iii., p. 73.
CHAPTER XIII. [1] When Mercy remonstrated with her on her relapse into some of her old habits from which at first she seemed to have weaned herself, "La seule reponse que j'aie obtenu a ete la crainte de s'ennuyer."-Mercy to Maria Teresa, November 19th, 1777, Arneth, iii., p. 13.
[2] See Marie Antoinette's account to her mother of his quarrel with the Duchess de Bourbon at a bal de l'opera, Arneth, iii., p. 174.
[3] "Il y a apparence que notre marine dont on s'occupe depuis longtemps va bientot etre en activite. Dieu veuille que tous ces mouvements n'amenent pas la guerre de terre."-Marie Antoinette to Maria Teresa, March 18th, 1777, Arneth, iii., p. 174.
[4] "Jamais les Anglais n'ont eu tant de superiorite sur mer; mais ils en eurent sur les Francais dans tous les temps."-Siecle de Louis, ch xxxv.
[5] The Comte de la Marck, who knew him well, says of him, "Il etait gauche dans toutes ses manieres; sa taille etait tres elevee, ses cheveux tres roux, il dansait sans grace, montait mal a cheval, et les jeunes gens avec lesquels il vivait se montraient plus adroits que lui dans les diverses exercices d'alors a la mode." He describes his income as "une fortune de 120,000 livres de rente," a little under L5000 a year.- Correspondance entre le Comte de Mirabeau et le Comte de la Marck, i. p. 47.
[6] "On a parle de moi dans tous les cercles, meme apres que la bonte de la reine m'eut valu le regiment du roi dragons."-Memoires de ma Main, Memoires de La Fayette, i., p 86.
[7] "La lettre ou Votre Majeste, parlant du Roi de Prusse, s'exprime ainsi .... 'cela ferait un changement dans notre alliance, ce qui me donnerait la mort,' j'ai vu la reine palir en me lisant cet article."-Mercy to Maria Teresa, February 18th, 1778, Arneth, iii., p. 170.
[8] See Coxe's "House of Austria," ch. cxxi. The war, which was marked by no action or event of importance, was terminated by the treaty of Teschen, May 10th, 1779.
[9] "Il n'a pas voulu y consentir, et a toujours ete attentif a exciter lui-meme la reine aux choses qu'il jugeait pouvoir lui etre agreables."- Mercy to Maria Teresa, March 29th, 1778, Arneth, iii., p. 177.
[10] Marie Antoinette to Joseph II, and Leopold II., p. 21, date January 16th, 1778.
[11] Louis.
[12] Marie Antoinette to Maria Teresa, May 16th, Arneth, iii., p. 200.
[13] Weber, i., p.40.
[14] One of his admirers, seeing his mortification, said to him: "You are very simple to have wished to go to court. Do you know what would have happened to you? I will tell you. The king, with his usual affability, would have laughed in your face, and talked to you of your converts at Ferney. The queen would have spoken of your plays. Monsieur would have asked you what your income was. Madame would have quoted some of your verses. The Countess of Artois would have said nothing at all; and the count would have conversed with you about 'the Maid of Orleans.'"-Marie Antoinette, Louis XVI. et la Famille Royale, p. 125, March 3d.
CHAPTER XIV. [1] "La cour se precipite pele-mele avec la foule, car l'etiquette de France veut que tous entrent a ce moment, que nul ne soit refuse, et que le spectacle soit public d'une reine qui va donner un heritier a la couronne, ou seulement un enfant au roi."-Mem. de Goncourt, p. 105.
[2] Arneth, iii., p. 270.
[3] Madame de Campan, ch. ix.
[4] Ibid., ch. ix.
[5] Chambrier, i., p. 394.
[6] "Marie Antoinette, Louis XVI., et la Famille Royale," p. 147, December 24th, 1778.
[7] Garde-malades was the name given to them.
[8] "Du moment qu'ils [les enfants] peuvent etre a l'air on les y accoutume petit a petit, et ils finissent par y etre presque toujours; je crois que c'est la maniere la plus saine et la meilleure des les elever."
[9] Letter of Marie Antoinette to Maria Teresa, May 15th, 1779, Arneth, iii., p. 311.
/> [10] Maria Teresa had offered the mediation of the empire to restore peace between England and France.
[11] Spain had recently entered into the alliance against England in the hope of recovering Gibraltar. And just at the date of this letter the combined fleet of sixty-six sail of the line sailed into the Channel, while a French army of 50,000 men was waiting at St. Malo to invade England so soon as the British Channel fleet should have been defeated; but, though Sir Charles Hardy had only forty sail under his orders, D'Orvilliers and his Spanish colleague retreated before him, and at the beginning of September, from fear of the equinoctial gales, of which the queen here speaks with such alarm, retired to their own harbors, without even venturing to come to action with a foe of scarcely two-thirds of their own strength. See the author's "History of the British Navy," ch. xiv.
[12] Letter of September 15th.
[13] Letter of October 14th.
[14] Letter of November 16th.
[15] Letter of November 17th.
[16] Kaunitz had been the prime minister of the empress, who negotiated the alliances with France and Russia, which were the preparations for the Seven Years' War.
CHAPTER XV. [1] "On assure que sa majeste ne joue pas bien; ce que personne, excepte le roi, n'a ose lui dire. Au contraire, on l'applaudit a tout rompre."- Marie Antoinette, Louis XVI. et la Famille Royale p. 203, date September 28th, 1780.
[2] In May, 1780, Sir Henry Clinton took Charleston, with a great number of prisoners, a great quantity of stores and four hundred guns.-LORD STANHOPE'S History of England, ch. lxii.
[3] "Cette disposition a ete faite deux ans plutot que ne le comporte l'usage etabli pour les enfants de France."-Mercy to Maria Teresa, October 14th, Arneth, iii. p. 476.
[4] Madame de Campan, ch. ix.
[5] "Gustave III. et la Cour de France," i., p. 349.
[6] An order known as that "du Merite" had been recently distributed for foreign Protestant officers, whose religion prevented them from taking the oath required of the Knights of the Grand Order of St. Louis.
[7] "Sa figure et son air convenaient parfaitement a un heros de roman, mais non pas d'un roman francais; il n'en avait ni le brillant ni legerete."-Souvenirs et Portraits, par M. de Levis, p. 130.
[8] "La Marck et Mirabeau," p. 32.
[9] See his letter to Lord North proposing peace, date December 1st, 1780. Lord Stanhope's "History of England," vol. vii., Appendix, p. 13.
CHAPTER XVI. [1] "Gustave III. et la Cour de France," i., p. 357.
[2] Chambrier, i., p. 430; "Gustave III.," etc., i., p. 353.
[3] "Gustave III.," etc., i., p. 353.
[4] "Memoires de Weber," i., p. 50.
[5] "On s'arretait dans les rues, on se parlait sans se connaitre."- Madame de Campan, ch. ix.
[6] L'Oeil de Boeuf.
[7] Madame de Campan, ch. ix.; "Marie Antoinette, Louis XII., et la Famille Royale," p. 238.
[8] "Un soleil d'ete"-Weber, i., p. 53.
[9] La Muette derived its name from les mues of the deer who were reared there. It had been enlarged by the Regent d'Orleans, who gave it to his daughter, the Duchess de Berri; and it, was the frequent scene of the orgies of that infamous father and daughter, while more recently it had been known as the Parc aux Cerfs, under which title it had acquired a still more infamous reputation.
[10] "Apres le diner il y eut appartement jeu, et la fete fut terminee par un feu d'artifice."-Weber, i., p. 57, from whom the greater part of those details are taken. For the etiquette of the "jeu," see Madame de Campan, ch. ix., p. 17, and 2 ed. 1858.
CHAPTER XVII. [1] Mercy to Maria Teresa, June 18th, 1780, Arneth iii., p. 440.
[2] Le tabouret. See St. Simon.
[3] See infra, the queen's letter to Madame de Tourzel, date July 25th, 1789.
[4] "Souvenirs de Quarante Ans," by Mademoiselle de Tourzel, p. 20.
[5] "Filia dolorosa."-Chateaubriand.
[6] Napoleon, in 1814, called her the only man of her family.
[7] Madame de Campan, ch. x.
[8] Memoires de Madame d'Oberkirch, i., p. 279
[9] The Marshal Prince de Soubise, whose incapacity and cowardice caused the disgraceful rout of Rosbach, was the head of this family; his sister, Madame Marsan, as governess of the "children of France", had brought up Louis XVI.
[10] "Il [Rohan] a meme menace, si on ne veut pas prendre le bon chemin qui lui indique, que ma fille s'en ressentira."-Marie-Therese a Mercy, August 28th, 1774, Arneth, ii., p. 226.
[11] "Ils paraissent si excedes du grand monde et des fetes, qu'avec d'autres petites difficultes qui se sont elevees, nous avons decide qu'il n'y aurait rien a Marly."-Marie Antoinette to Mercy; Marie Antoinette, Joseph II., and Leopold II., p. 27.
[12] "No fewer than five actions were fought in 1782, and the spring of 1783, by those unwearied foes. De Suffrein's force was materially the stronger of the two; it consisted of ten sail of the line, one fifty-gun ship, and four frigates; while Sir E. Hughes had but eight sail of the line, a fifty-gun ship, and one frigate," See the author's "History of the British Navy," i., p. 400.
[13] Weber, i., p. 77. For the importance at this time attached to a reception at court, see Chateaubriand, "Memoires d'Outre-tombe," i., p. 221.
CHAPTER XVIII. [1] Joseph to Marie Antoinette, date September 9th, 1783.-Marie Antoinette, Joseph II., and Leopold II., p.30, which, to save such a lengthened reference, will hereafter be referred to as "Arneth."
[2] She was again expecting a confinement; but, as had happened between the birth of Madame Royale and that of the dauphin, an accident disappointed her hope, and her third child was not born till 1785.
[3] Date September 29th, 1783, Arneth, p. 35.
[4] Ministre de la maison du roi.
[5] Arneth, p. 38.
CHAPTER XIX. [1] "Le roi signa une lettre de cachet qui defendait cette representation."-Madame de Campan, ch. xi.; see the whole chapter. Madame de Campan's account of the queen's inclinations on the subject differs from that given by M. de Lomenie, in his "Beaumarchais et son Temps," but seems more to be relied on, as she had certainly better means of information.
[2] See M. Gaillard's report to the lieutenant of police.-Beaumarchais et son Temps, ii., p. 313.
[3] "Il n'y a que les petits hommes qui redoutent les petits ecrits."- Act v., scene 3.
[4] "Avec Goddam en, Angleterre on ne manque de rien nulle part. Voulez- vous tater un bon poulet gras ... Goddam ... Aimez-vous a boire un coup d'excellent Bourgogne ou de clairet? rien que celui-ci Goddam. Les Anglais a la verite ajoutent par-ci par-la autres mots en conversant, mais il est bien aise de voir que Goddam est le fond de la langue."-Act iii., scene 5.
[5] "Gustave III. et la Cour de France," ii., p.22
[6] Ibid., p. 35.
CHAPTER XX. [1] "De par la reine."
[2] Madame de Campan, ch. xi.
[3] "'La legerete a tout croire et a tout dire des souverains,' ecrit tres justement M. Nisard (Moniteur du 22 Janvier, 1886), 'est un des travers de notre pays, et comme le defaut de notre qualite de nation monarchique. C'est ce travers qui a tue Marie Antoinette par la main des furieux qui eurent peut-etre des honnetes gens pour complices. Sa mort devait rendre a jamais impossible en France la calomnie politique.'"-Chambrier, i., p. 494.
[4] "Memoires de la Reine de France," par M. Lafont d'Aussonne, p. 42.
[5] See her letters to Mercy, December 26th, 1784, and to the emperor, December 31st, 1784, and February 4th, 1785, Arneth, p. 64, et seq.
[6] "J'ai ete reellement touchee, de la raison et de la fermete que le roi a mises dans cette rude seance."-Marie Antoinette to Joseph II., August 22d, 1785, Arneth, p. 93.
[7] "La calomnie s'est attachee a poursuivre la reine, meme avant cette epoque ou l'esprit de parti a fait disparaitre la verite de la terre."- Madame de Stael, Proces de la Reine, p. 2
[8] Madame de Campan, "Eclaircissements Historiques," p. 461; "Marie Antoinette et le Proces du Collier," par M. Emile Campardon, p. 144, seq.
[9] "Permet au Cardinal de Rohan et au dit de Cagliostro de faire imprimer et afficher le present arret partout ou bon leur semblera."-Campardon, p. 152.
[10] "Sans doute le cardinal avait les mains pures de toute fraude; sans doute il n'etait pour rien dans l'escroquerie commise par les epoux de La Mothe."-Campardon, p. 155.
[11] Campardon, p. 153, quoting Madame de Campan.
[12] The most recent French historian, M.H. Martin, sees in this trial a proof of the general demoralization of the whole French nation. "L'impression qui en resulte pour nous est l'impossibilite que la reine ait ete coupable. Mais plus les imputations dirigees contre elle etaient vraisemblables, plus la creance accordee a ces imputations etait caracteristique, et attestait la ruine morale de la monarchie. C'etait l'ombre du Parc aux Cerfs qui couvrait toujours Versailles."-Histoire de France, xvi., p. 559, ed. 1860.
[13] Feuillet de Conches, i., p. 161.
[14] Feuillet de Conches, i., p. l62. Some of the critics of M.F. de Conches's collection have questioned without sufficient reason the probability of there having been any correspondence between the queen and her elder sister. But the genuineness of this letter is strongly corroborated by a mistake into which no forger would have fallen. The queen speaks as if the cardinal had alleged that he had given her a rose; while his statement really was that Oliva, personating the queen, had dropped a rose at his feet. A forger would have made the letter Correspond with the evidence and the fact. The queen, in her agitation, might easily make a mistake.
[15] "Il se retira dans son eveche de l'autre cote du Rhin. La sa noble conduite fit oublier les torts de sa vie passee," etc.-Campardon, p. 156.
[16] Campardon, p. 156.
[17] It was from Ettenheim that the Duke d'Enghien was carried off in March, 1804. The cardinal died in February, 1803.
CHAPTER XXI. [1] "Le duc declarait de son cote a Mr. Elliott que ... si la reine l'eut mieux traite il eut peut-etre mieux fait."-Chambrier, i., p.519
[2] Sophie Helene Beatrix, born July 9th, 1786, died June 9th, 1787, F. de Conches, i. p. 195.
[3] See her letter to her brother, February, 1788, Arneth, p. 112.
[4] "C'est un vrai enfant de paysan, grand frais et gros."-Arneth, pp. 113.
The Life of Marie Antoinette Page 53
