The ill-luck which seemed to follow the Dauphin had not forsaken him; a terrible catastrophe marked the ftes given in honour of his wedding. Some scaffolding in the place Louis XV. caught fire. The flames spread with fearful rapidity, a scene of panic and horror ensued, hundreds were burned or trampled to death by the frantic horses or maddened crowd; and with this terrible calamity began the married life of the boy and girl, the gloom and darkness of whose destiny it seemed to foreshadow. [71]The last time Mme. Le Brun saw the Queen was at the last ball given at Versailles, which took place in the theatre, and at which she looked on from one of the boxes. She observed with indignation the rudeness of some of the young Radical nobles; they refused to dance when requested to do so by the Queen, whose agitation and uneasiness were only too apparent. The demeanour of the populace was becoming every day more ferocious and alarming; the drives and streets were scarcely safe for any but the lower classes. At a concert given by Mme. Le Brun, most of the guests came in with looks of consternation. They had been driving earlier in the day to Longchamps, and as they passed the barrire de ltoile, a furious mob had surrounded and insulted everybody who passed in carriages. Villainous looking faces pressed close to them, horrible figures climbed on to the steps of the carriages, crying out, with infamous threats and brutal language, that next year they should be in the carriages and the owners behind them.
ONE:Perfectly calm and undisturbed, she helped her mother dress, remarking
THREE:Que deviendront nos belles dames?
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TWO:As to La Fayette, he had rushed to Paris, violently reproached the Assembly for the attack on the Tuileries, demanded the punishment of the Jacobins, and offered to the King the services which were of no value, and which, as long as they had been of any use, had been at the disposal of his enemies.
TWO:And yet there was one: a young, pale, sickly-looking Italian, who lived in a third-rate inn, wore a shabby uniform, and frequented the parties of Barras and the rest. He was not a conspicuous figure nor a particularly honoured guest; his military career had been apparently ruined by the spite of his enemies; he seemed to have no money, no connections, and no prospects. But in a few years all of themall France and nearly all Europewere at his feet, for it was Napoleon Buonaparte.[306]
FORE:The alliances with the House of Savoy were much more popular with the court than that with the House of Austria and Lorraine, [86] and caused continual jealousies and disputes. Foreseeing that such would be the case, Louis XV., before the marriage of the Comte de Provence, thought it necessary to caution him on the subject. Louis XVIII. gives in his memoirs [87] the following account of the interview:Lise, il faut avoir le c?ur
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The lines are as follows, and refer to a chateau then being built by Louis for the Marquise de [6] Pompadour, whose original name was Jeanne Antoinette Poisson:It is true! I have not my cocarde! No doubt I must have forgotten it and left it on my night-cap.Avec largent de son fatrasAt length she did so, and M. de Kercy, flinging himself upon her neck, exclaimedMARIE ANTOINETTE, QUEEN OF FRANCE
