Part 28 (1/2)

”'I aar, 'not to drink chocolate, or coffee, or anything with powdered sugar These are ti sent out of the world with all our sins upon our heads'

”'I alad to hear you say so; for you have reason to be particular, after what you once so cruelly suffered froain into your mind just now?'

”'Well, then, since Your Majesty approves of my circumspection, allow me to say I think it advisable that we should, at a moment like this especially, abstain froered For ive up all made dishes, and confine myself to the simplest diet'

”'Come, come, Princess,' interrupted Her Majesty; 'there is more in this than you wishthat ainst , s preventedto dissemble I candidly repeated all I had heard fro for one of her confidential wo,' said Her Majesty to the attendant, 'and if you find hi hiuards or other persons within hearing, merely say that the Princesse de Lamballe is with me and is desirous of the loan of a newspaper'

”The King's guard, and indeed most of those about him, were no better than spies, and this caution in the Queen was necessary to prevent any jealousy froer left us by ourselves, I observed to Her Majesty that it would be iive the least publicity to the circumstance, for were it really ht only put this scheme into some miscreant's head, and teht, and it should be kept secret

”Our a's apartment unobserved, and to find hi the apartment, however, she was noticed and watched She immediately went out of the Tuileries as if sent to make purchases, and so articles in her hand

[This incident will give the reader an idea of the cruel situation in which the first Sovereigns of Europe then stood; and how much they appreciated the few subjects who devoted theate the tyranny practised by the assembly over these illustrious victims I can speak from my own experience on these matters From the time I last accompanied the Princesse de Lamballe to Paris till I left it in 1792, what between irls, fancy toy sellers, perfuaiter makers, etc, I had myself assumed twenty different characters, besides that of a druconversations analogous to the senti my heart with the ree Indeed, I can safely say I was known, in some shape or other, to almost everybody, but to no one in raciously e appeared, 'Sire,' exclai to wear us to death by slow torment, have devised an expedient to relieve their own anxiety and prevent us fro them to further inconvenience'

”'What do youI repeated my conversation with M

Laporte 'Bah! bah!' resumed His Majesty, 'They never will atte rid of us They have not policy enough to allow our deaths to be ascribed to accident They are too reat crimes already'

”'But,' asked the Queen, 'do you not think it highly necessary to make use of every precaution, e are morally sure of the probability of such a plot?'

”'Most certainly! othere should be, in the eyes of God, aluilty of suicide But how prevent it? surrounded as we are by persons who, being seduced to believe that we are plotting against them, feel justified in the commission of any crime under the false idea of self-defence!'

”'Wefro in our diet wherein poison can be introduced; and that we can e either in the kitchen arrangements or in our own, except, indeed, this one Luckily, as we are restricted in our attendants, we have a fair excuse for dumb waiters, whereby it will be perfectly easy to choose or discard without exciting suspicion'

”This, consequently, was the course agreed upon; and every possible means, direct and indirect, was put into action to secure the future safety of the Royal Family and prevent the acco the Princess next er to which herself and the Royal Family were exposed She requested I would send my man servant to the persons who served me, to fill a moderate-sized hamper ine, salt, chocolate, biscuits, and liquors, and take it to her apartment, at the Pavilion of Flora, to be used as occasion required All the fresh bread and butter which was necessary I got ht by persons whom I knew at a distance from the palace, whither I always conveyed it myself]

SECTION XIII

Editor in continuation:

I a chapter, compelled to resureeable office of a transcriber for my illustrious patroness

I have alreadyfroes frorants The desertion of France by so many of the powerful could not but be a deathblow to the prosperity of the hts at the tiitives only set fire to the four quarters of the globe against their country It was natural enough that the servants whom they had left behind to keep their places should take advantage of their masters'

pusillanimity, and ned the sway into bolder andfor the dead; but, e see those bearing the lofty titles of Kings and Princesses, escaping with their wives and families, from an only brother and sister with helpless infant children, at the hour of danger, we cannot help wishi+ng for a little plebeian disinterestedness in exalted minds

I have travelled Europe twice, and I have never seen any woman with that indescribable charuished Marie Antoinette This is in itself a distinction quite sufficient to detach friends froh envy Besides, she was Queen of France, the wohest rank in a most capricious, restless and libertine nation The two Princesses placed nearest to her, and ere the first to desert her, though both very much inferior in personal and h not directly, may have entertained sos are not likely to decrease the distaste, which results froe It is, therefore, scarcely to be wondered at, that those nearest to the throne should be least attached to those who fill it How little do such persons think that the grave they are thus insensibly digging may prove their own! In this case it only did not by a miracle What the effect of the royal brothers' and the nobility's re in France would have been we can only conjecture That their departure caused, great and irreparable evils we know; and we have good reason to think they caused the greatest Those who abandon their houses on fire, silently give up their clairation kindled the French flan streauished till subdued by its native current

The unfortunate Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette ceased to be Sovereigns froed to their jail at the Tuileries Froeance ofthe nation with unprovoked and useless murders But from this moment also the zeal of the Princesses Elizabeth and de Lamballe became redoubled Out of one hundred individuals and more, male and female, who had been exclusively occupied about the person of Marie Antoinette, few, excepting this illustrious pair, and the inestimable Clery, remained devoted to the last The saint-like virtues of these Princesses, malice itself has not been able to tarnish Their love and unalterable friendshi+p becans, and their much injured relatives, till the dart struck their own faithful bosoreatness froreat