The Life and Letters of Madame Elisabeth De France, Sister of Louis
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THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Withdrawn III Jl and flmouvs of A Brilliant Description of the Courts of Louis XVI, Amours, Debauchery, Intrigues, and State Secrets,, including Suppressed and Confiscated MSS. * The Life and Letters of i Madame Elisabeth de France Sister of Louis XVI into PRIVATELY PRINTED FOR MEMBERS OF THE VERSAILLES HISTORICAL SOCIETY NEW YORK Copyright, 1899, BY H. P. & Co. All Rights Resen>ed. DC 137 lEMtton fce OUue This edition is limited to two hundred, copies, of which this is Number 752 CONTENTS. part jftrst* LIFE AND LETTERS OF MADAME ELISABETH DE FRANCE. CHAPTER I. PAGE Introductory. Sketch of the Life of Madame Elisabeth from her Childhood until August 10, 1792 1 CHAPTER II. Letters of Madame Elisabeth to the Marquise de Bombelles, the Mar- quise de Raigecourt, the Abbe de Lubersac, and others 33 CHAPTER III. Madame Elisabeth's Life in the Tower of the Temple recorded only by her Niece, Marie-Therese de France, and by Clery, Louis XVI/s Valet. Her Removal to the Conciergerie. Her Examination, Condemnation, and Death 90 JOURNAL OF THE TOWER OF THE TEMPLE, BY CLfiRY. CHAPTER I. The 10th of August, 1792. Clery permitted to serve the King and his Family. Life and Treatment of the Royal Family in the Tower . Ill of the Temple . yi CONTENTS. CHAPTER II. PAGE Continuation of their Life and Treatment. The King separated from his Family, and summoned for Trial before the Convention . 138 CHAPTER III. The King's Trial. His Will. The Decree of the Convention con- demning the King to Death. Last Meeting with his Family. Leaves the Temple for his Execution .......... 175 |9art NARRATIVE OF MARIE-THER^SE DE FRANCE, DUCHESSE D'ANGOULfiME. First Uprising of the Populace on the 5th and 6th of October, 1789. Removal of my Family to the Capital .......... 210 of his at Varennes his Return to Paris 216 Flight my Father; Stoppage ; Assault on the Tuileries by the Populace, June 20, 1792 ...... 230 Massacre at the Tuileries of Father. The ; Dethronement my Days from the 10th to the 13th of August, 1792 ......... 236 Imprisonment of my Family in the Tower of the Temple, August 13, 1792, followed by the Trial and Martyrdom of my Father, January 21, 1793 ..................... 243 Life in the Tower of the Temple from the Death of Louis XVI. to that of the Queen, October 16, 1793 ............. 259 Life in the Temple till the Martyrdom of Madame ^Elisabeth and the of the Death Dauphin, Louis XVII., June 9, 1795 ...... 278 Brief sketch of the Life of Marie-Therese until her death, October 18, 1851 289 THE DUCHESSE D'ANGOUL^ME. Homage to the Duchesse d'Angouleme, by C.-A. Sainte-Beuve ... 295 CONTENTS. Vll APPENDIXES. PAGE I. Montreuil 311 II. First Examination of Madame Elisabeth by Fouquier-Tinville, May 9, 1794 313 III. Extract from the Deliberations of the Commissioners of the Commune on the Service of the Temple 317 IV. Signs agreed upon to make known to the Princesses the Progress of the various Armies, etc.; and sundry Communications from Madame Elisabeth to M. Turgy 318 V. Louis XVL's Seal and Ring 323 INDEX 325 LIST OF PHOTOGRAVURE ILLUSTRATIONS. MADAME ELISABETH DK FRANCE Frontispiece By Mme. Vig^e Le Brun ; Portraits Nationaux. PAGE MADAME ELISABETH AT MONTREUIL 20 By Richard; Versailles. Louis XVI 80 By Duplessis; Versailles. THE PRINCE SSE DE LAMBALLE 122 By Mme. Vig^e Le Brun; Maitres du XIX Siecle. THE DAUPHIN AND MADAME KOTALE 182 By Mme. Vig<5e Le Brun; Versailles. MADAME KOYALE, DUCHESSE D'ANGOULEME 210 ByDanloux; Vienna. QUEEN MARIE-ANTOINETTE LEAVING THE TRIBUNAL AFTER HER CONDEMNATION TO DEATH 278 Paul Delaroche. Typogravures. FAC-SIMILE OP A FRAGMENT OF LETTER OF MADAME ELISABETH . 87 DIFFERENT SEALS USED BY MADAME ELISABETH AND ATTACHED TO HER LETTERS 89 THE TOWER OF THE TEMPLE 125 FAC-SIMILE OF SIGNATURES TO EXAMINATION OF MMB. ELISABETH 316 LIFE AND LETTERS OF MADAME ELISABETH DE FRANCE. PART FIRST. CHAPTEE I. Introductory. Sketch of the Life of Madame Elisabeth from her Child- hood until August 10, 1792. MANY records of Madame Elisabeth exist, but only two of " real authority : the Eloge historique de Mme. Elisabeth de France," by Antoine Ferrand, minister of State and peer of first in 1814 and in 1861 and the France, published again ; " Vie de Madame Elisabeth," by M. A. de Beauchesne, Paris, 1869. Both works contain a number of her letters. From these volumes the following record has been made, chiefly in their own (translated) words. The parts selected are the simple historical facts of Mme. Elisabeth's story. The other parts may not be false, far be it from us to say they are, but they are so romantically tender as to convey a sense of extravagance, and thus do injury to the noble figure which the truth presents. For instance, it is recorded by her biog- raphers that as her head fell into the basket a perfume of roses was wafted over the Place Louis XV. The impression that we of the present day receive from such a statement is i LIFE, AND LETTERS OF [CHAP. i. of anol the essential truth is in folly .f ulsoma .flattery ;- -3?;et : the simple fafcts; wlier-e' the^iDadying actions of the just Smell sweet, and blossom in the dust. This record of Madame Elisabeth is here followed by the " Journal of the Temple," written by Cle'ry, the valet who at- tended on Louis XVI. to the last hour of his life, and by the far more valuable and even precious Narrative of that em- bodiment of sorrow, Marie-The'rese de France, daughter of Louis XVI. and Marie-Antoinette, and later Duchesse d'An- gouleme. There we see the end of the great French mon- archy (for the restored kings were not the monarchy). No one can read this series of Memoirs Saint-Simon, d'Argen- son, Bernis without realizing the causes of that mighty of fall ; not to be found so much in the career the Great Monarch as in the lowered standards he left behind him, the corruption of the regency, and the long reign of his great-grandson's vice and ineptitude which consolidated the wrongs of France. it is One fact shines clear above this mass of evil ; and allowable to call the attention of the reader to it forcibly. Beside the enervating depravity of the Eegent, the personal cowardice and sloth of Louis XV., the lack of firmness and regal assertion of Louis XVI. and his brothers, stands the splendid courage, physical and moral, of the three women whose ends are here recorded. Elisabeth-Philippine-Marie-Helene de France, daughter of the Dauphin Louis, son of Louis XV., and Marie-Josephe de Saxe, was bom at Versailles, May 3, 1764. Her three brothers, the Due de Berry, the Comte de Provence, and the Comte d'Artois, were taken to the chapel on the same day, immediately after the king's mass, to witness her baptism, at which were present also the king and queen, the king's sis- 1792] MADAME ELISABETH DE FRANCE. 3 ters Mesdames Adelaide, Victoire, Sophie, and Louise, the Due d'Orle'ans, the Due de Chartres, the Prince de Conde', the Prince and Princesse de Conti, the Due de Penthievre, the Prince de Lamballe, and others. At her birth Madame Elisabeth was so delicate that for her existence a months was source of continual anxiety. Her father died the following year, and her mother, the wise and excellent Dauphine Marie-Josephe, in 1767. The little orphan was then given wholly to the care of the Comtesse de Marsan (daughter of the Prince de Soubise), governess of the Children of France, who was already bringing up Elisa- beth's sister, Madame Clotilde de France, afterwards Queen of Sardinia, who was four years and eight months older than Elisabeth. The difference in character and temper was greater still. Clotilde was born with the happiest disposi- tion, which needed only to be encouraged and aided. Elisa- beth was different it was often to her very ; necessary oppose nature, and always to direct it. Proud, inflexible, passionate, she had defects to be mastered which would have been re- in a lower rank in a of blood grettable ; princess royal they were intolerable. The task of Mme. de Marsan was a diffi- cult one. Madame Elisabeth's self-will was powerful, proud of her birth, she exacted around her supple instruments of it to ; she said she had no need learn and tire herself use- lessly, inasmuch as princes had about them persons whose duty it was to think for them. She stamped with anger if one of her women did not immediately bring her the thing she asked for. The difference in the characters of the sisters made a difference in the feelings of their governess towards each. Jealousy came to increase the asperity of the younger sister's nature. "If Clotilde had asked you," she said, one day, when Mme. de Marsan had refused a request, " she would have had it." 4 LIFE AND LETTERS OF [CHAP. i. But Elisabeth was taken ill, and Clotilde insisted on taking care of her. This illness developed between them feelings of the tenderest affection; Clotilde taught her little sister the alphabet and how to spell and form words, she gave her little counsels which tended to soften her character, and she inculcated in her the first notions of religion with which she was already nourishing her own soul. Still, Mme. de Marsan felt the want of aid in seconding the reform in the child's nature which she had so much at heart to bring about, and she cast her eyes on Mme.