[1]Louis Charles, Duke de Normandie, second son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, was born at Versailles March 27, 1785, became Dauphin in 1789, and three years later was imprisoned in the Temple, where he died June 8, 1795. At the time this story opens, he was the only son. His brother, Louis Joseph Xavier FranÇois, born October 22, 1781, died June 7, 1789. He had two sisters, Maria Theresa Charlotte, born December 19, 1778, married the Duke d’AngoulÊme, eldest son of Charles X of France, died October 19, 1851; and Sophia HÉlÈne Beatrice, born July 9, 1786, died June 16, 1787.
[2]Louis XVI, grandson of Louis XV, was born at Versailles August 23, 1754. In 1770 he married Marie Antoinette, daughter of the Emperor Francis I and Maria Theresa, of Austria. Louis XVI was guillotined January 21, 1793, and Marie Antoinette October 16, 1793.
[3]The Champ de Mars is a large square on the left bank of the Seine, devoted to military exercises. From a very early period it has been the scene of battles, riots, pageants, festivals, and great public gatherings. Besides the FÊte of the Federation, sometimes called the “Feast of the Pikes,” mentioned above, it was the scene of the Massacres in 1791, and of the “FÊte À l’Être suprÊme,” the latter a festival in which an effort was made, under the auspices of Robespierre, who had obtained a decree from the Assembly recognizing the existence of the Supreme Being and the immortality of the soul, to set up a new religion in the place of Catholicism and reason worship. Carlyle calls it “the shabbiest page of human annals.”
[4]The Marquis de Lafayette was not only a statesman, but a soldier. He served with great distinction in the War of the American Revolution, commanded the French National Guard, 1789-90, fought the Austrians in 1792, commanded the National Guard in 1830, and helped place Louis Philippe on the throne. He came to this country twice, the second time in 1824.
[5]Talleyrand, a French abbÉ, was made Bishop of Autun in 1788, but he was much more celebrated as a statesman and diplomatist. He was prominent in all the political events of French history from 1789 to 1834, and was also a leading figure in all the diplomatic affairs of that period. He died at Paris May 17, 1838.
[6]Varennes-en-Argonne is a small town in the department of Meuse on the river Aire.
[7]Arnaud Berquin, a French author, was born at Langoiran in 1749, and died at Paris in 1791. He was famous as a writer for children. Among his most popular works are “The Children’s Friend” and “The Little Grandison.”
[8]The Marquis de BouillÉ, a French general, was born at Auvergne in 1739, and died at London in 1800. He was governor in the Antilles from 1768 to 1782, and when the French Revolution broke out was in command at Metz. In 1790 he quelled the mutiny of the garrison at Nancy, and in the following year made an effort to get Louis XVI out of the country; failing in which, he fled to England, where he died a few years afterward.
[9]Élisabeth Philippine Marie HÉlÈne, sister of Louis XVI, was born at Versailles, May 3, 1764, and was guillotined May 10, 1794. Of her courage at the scaffold, Carlyle says “Another row of tumbrils we must notice: that which holds Élisabeth, the sister of Louis. Her trial was like the rest, for plots, for plots. She was among the kindliest, most innocent of women. There sat with her, amid four-and-twenty others, a once timorous Marchioness de Crussol, courageous now, expressing toward her the liveliest loyalty. At the foot of the scaffold, Élisabeth, with tears in her eyes, thanked this marchioness, said she was grieved she could not reward her. ‘Ah! Madame, would your Royal Highness deign to embrace me, my wishes were complete.’ ‘Right willingly, Marquise de Crussol, and with my whole heart.’”
[10]Count de Axel Fersen, who accompanied the King in this flight, was born at Stockholm, September 4, 1755, and was murdered in the same city, June 20, 1810, by the populace, who suspected that he and his sister had been concerned in the death of Prince Christian of Holstein-Augustenburg, who was to be the successor of Charles XIII. Count Fersen was commander of the Royal Swedish Regiment in the service of Louis XVI.
[11]“Nor is Postmaster Drouet unobservant all this while, but steps out and steps in, with his long flowing nightgown, in the level sunlight, prying into several things.... That lady in slouched gypsy-hat, though sitting back in the carriage, does she not resemble someone we have seen sometime—at the Feast of Pikes or elsewhere? And this Grosse-TÊte in round hat and peruke, which, looking rearward, pokes itself out from time to time, methinks there are features in it—? Quick, Sieur Guillaume, Clerk of the Directoire, bring me a new assignat! Drouet scans the new assignat, compares the paper-money picture with the Gross Head in round hat there, by day and night; you might say the one was an attempted engraving of the other. And this march of troops, this sauntering and whispering—I see it.”—Carlyle’s “French Revolution.”
[12]Antoine Pierre Barnave, one of the French revolutionists, was deputy to the Third Estate in 1789, and President of the National Assembly in 1790. He was arrested for alleged treason in 1791, and was guillotined in 1793.
[13]PÉtion, mentioned in this connection, another of the revolutionists, was President of the Constituent Assembly in 1790, and Mayor of Paris in 1791-92. He was proscribed in June, 1793, but escaped, and at last committed suicide near Bordeaux in 1794.
[14]The Temple was a fortified structure of the Knights Templars, built in 1128. After the order was abolished in 1312, it was used for various purposes. The chapel remained until 1650, and the square tower, where the royal family were imprisoned, was destroyed in 1810.
[15]The Princess de Lamballe was the daughter of the Prince de Carignan of the house of Savoy-Carignan, and an intimate friend of Marie Antoinette, and shared the latter’s imprisonment in the Temple. She married the Prince de Lamballe, a great-grandson of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan. She was put to death in 1792, because she refused to take the oath against the monarchy. Carlyle, in his “French Revolution,” says of her murder: “The brave are not spared, nor the beautiful, nor the weak. Princess de Lamballe has lain down on bed. ‘Madame, you are to be removed to the Abbaye’ (the military prison at St. Germain-des-PrÉs). ‘I do not wish to remove; I am wel
