Produced by David Widger

MEMOIRS OF THE COURT OF MARIE ANTOINETTE,

QUEEN OF FRANCE

Being the Historic Memoirs of Madam Campan,

First Lady in Waiting to the Queen

Volume 5

BOOK 2.

CHAPTER I.

The ever-memorable oath of the States General, taken at the Tennis Courtof Versailles, was followed by the royal sitting of the 23d of June. Inthis seance the King declared that the Orders must vote separately, andthreatened, if further obstacles were met with, to himself act for thegood of the people. The Queen looked on M. Necker's not accompanying theKing as treachery or criminal cowardice: she said that he had converted aremedy into poison; that being in full popularity, his audacity, in openlydisavowing the step taken by his sovereign, had emboldened the factious,and led away the whole Assembly; and that he was the more culpableinasmuch as he had the evening before given her his word to accompany theKing. In vain did M. Necker endeavour to excuse himself by saying thathis advice had not been followed.

Soon afterwards the insurrections of the 11th, 12th, and 14th ofJuly—[The Bastille was taken on the 14th July, 1789.]—opened thedisastrous drama with which France was threatened. The massacre of M. deFlesselles and M. de Launay drew bitter tears from the Queen, and the ideathat the King had lost such devoted subjects wounded her to the heart.

The character of the movement was no longer merely that of a popularinsurrection; cries of "Vive la Nation! Vive le Roi! Vive la Liberte!"threw the strongest light upon the views of the reformers. Still thepeople spoke of the King with affection, and appeared to think himfavourable to the national desire for the reform of what were calledabuses; but they imagined that he was restrained by the opinions andinfluence of the Comte d'Artois and the Queen; and those two augustpersonages were therefore objects of hatred to the malcontents. Thedangers incurred by the Comte d'Artois determined the King's first stepwith the States General. He attended their meeting on the morning of the15th of July with his brothers, without pomp or escort; he spoke standingand uncovered, and pronounced these memorable words: "I trust myself toyou; I only wish to be at one with my nation, and, counting on theaffection and fidelity of my subjects, I have given orders to the troopsto remove from Paris and Versailles." The King returned on foot from thechamber of the States General to his palace; the deputies crowded afterhim, and formed his escort, and that of the Princes who accompanied him.The rage of the populace was pointed against the Comte d'Artois, whoseunfavourable opinion of the double representation was an odious crime intheir eyes. They repeatedly cried out, "The King for ever, in spite ofyou and your opinions, Monseigneur!" One woman had the impudence to comeup to the King and ask him whether what he had been doing was donesincerely, and whether he would not be forced to retract it.

The courtyards of the Chateau were thronged with an immense concourse ofpeople; they demanded that the King and Queen, with their children, shouldmake their appearance in the balcony. The Queen gave me the key of theinner doors, which led to the Dauphin's apartments, and desired me to goto the Duchesse de Polignac to tell her that she wanted her son, and haddirected me to bring him myself into her room, where she waited to showhim to the people. The Duchess said this order indicated that she was notto accompany the Prince. I did not answer; she sq

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