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THE CELEBRATED
MADAME CAMPAN

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THE CELEBRATED
MADAME CAMPAN

LADY-IN-WAITING TO MARIE ANTOINETTE
AND CONFIDANTE OF NAPOLEON

VIOLETTE M. MONTAGU

AUTHOR OF

"SOPHIB DAWES, QUEEN OF CHANTILLY"

"THE Ahht BDGEWOSTH AND HIS FRIENDS "

'SUGtNB DE BEAUHARNAIS, THE ADOPTED SON OF NAPOLEON '

ETC. ETC

PHILADELPHIA

J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY

LONDON: EVELEIGH NASH
1914

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3:)C l4(o

« "•• • •

• r ;• • • •

• • ••• •

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MY MOTHER

TO WHOM I OWE THIS BOOK

moGvv/^

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PREFACE

'Tis but a mediocre author who needs to apologize for
his sins of omission or commission before the Arg^s-
eyed critic has had time to rend the ewe-lamb to
pieces ; the apologies, like the tears in Heine's im-
mortal Lyrisches Intermezzo^ usually come after the
frail bark has been launched upon the sea of Literature
to be wrecked on the sharp rocks of Criticism, become
becalmed in the Arctic Circle of Oblivion, or per-
chance sail with the chosen few into the peaceful
harbour of that ultima thule — Popularity.

I fear it will be said that I have taken strange
liberties with Mme Campans Memoirs, from which the
first part of my book was gleaned. Why are those
interesting memoirs so little read in England nowa-
days ? Perhaps because they fill three volumes — who,
in this age of hurry, takes the trouble or has the
leisure to read anything so lengthy ? — perhaps because
they are written in a somewhat stilted manner, lack
sequence, and contain too many repetitions of the
same fact, and perhaps because the authoress mentions
several persons who are mere names to the general
public, and concludes just at the most poignant period
of the Revolution. And yet the story of her own
adventures during the Reign of Terror is full of
exciting situations. In Part \\ At the Court of
Marie Antoinette^ I have been careful to omit none
of the chief events mentioned by the queen's waiting-
woman, I have furnished explanatory notes and

vii

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PREFACE

biographies of the personages who flit across the stage,
and have endeavoured to keep to the original diapason.

The second part of my book : The Governess of
the BonaparteSy is taken from contemporary memoirs,
and contains extracts from Mme Campan's corre-
spondence with her favourite pupil, Hortense de
Beauharnais, the wife of Louis Bonaparte, and the
mother of Napoleon iii, which letters have never been
translated into English ; they throw many side-lights
upon the Emperors home-life, for Mme Campan,
both as waiting-woman to Marie Antoinette, and as
governess to the Imperial family, enjoyed the con-
fidence of her masters, and heard many secrets which
led to the undoing of more than one of those masters.

So great was Mme Campan's fame, not only in
Europe but also in America and India, as the
governess of Pauline, Caroline, and Charlotte Bona-
parte and Hortense, Stephanie, and Emilie de
Beauharnais, and of many of the beautiful and witty
women who adorned Napoleon's Court — which Mme
Campan had helped to form — that when that great
Emperor organized the first Imperial Educational
Establishment of the Legion of Honour at Ecouen,
he gave Mme Campan the post of directress.

My intention in writing this book has been to
present a faithful picture of the France of the CEil
de Boeuf^xA of that greater France when no educa-
tion was considered complete without a sojourn in
Paris, that Parnassus whither Napoleon, the master-
mind, invited the world's most gifted artists, musicians,
litterateurs, scientists, and thinkers.

VIOLETTE M. MONTAGU.
Paris, 1914.

viii

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CONTENTS

PART I
AT THE COURT OF MARIE ANTOINETTE

CHAPTER I

PAOB

Birth of Henriette Genest— The origin of the Genest family—
Education of the future lecMce—Htnnette accepts her first
situation—She makes the acquaintance of the Rot Bien-Aim/
— Mesdames de France ...... i

CHAPTER II

Louis xv surprises his daughters' lectrice in the act of making
"cheeses" — Madame Louise takes the veil — Arrival in France
of Marie Antoinette — Henriette loses her heart — Mesdames
try to find a husband for their lectrice — The origin of the
Campan family — Marie Antoinette makes Henriette Campan
her waiting-woman — Mesdames^ hatred for Marie Antoinette —
Mesdames go to Bellevue, and Henriette leaves their service—
The Court is jealous of Mme Campan's influence . .26

CHAPTER III

The duties of the queen's waiting-woman — A day at Versailles —
Marie Antoinette adopts a little peasant-boy — Birth of the
queen's eldest child — Mesroer pays a visit to Paris — M. Campan
tries one of the Caimous physician's cures— Birth of the first
Dauphin — Indiscreet well-wishers — The young mother re-
ceives a deputation from the ladies of the Paris markets — The
comtes d'Haga and du Nord pay a visit to Versailles —
Madame Royale goes to see her great-aunt Louise 46

CHAPTER IV

The af&xr of the queen's necklace— Birth of Mme Campan's only
chil<| — Death of Madame Louise — Unpopularity of Marie
Antoinette — Death of Uie first Dauphin • .66

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CONTENTS

CHAPTER V

PAGB

The queen is persuaded to take an interest in politics — The first
stroke of midnight — Versailles receives a visit from the populace
— ^The queen prepares to go to the Tuileries — Her friends begin
to leave her—" Balthasar's Feast " — Versailles is visited for the
second time and the palace invaded — The royal family are
escorted to Paris — ^The queen confides a delicate mission to
her hairdresser ....... 86

CHAPTER VI

The royal family at the Tuileries — The Favras affair— The comte
d'Inisdal endeavours to save the king — Rumours are circu-
lated that the queen is about to be poisoned — A demonstra-
tion of affection — Mme Campan acts as the king's secretary —
The insurrection at Nancy — The queen's dislike for M. de
Lafayette — Mme Campan is asked to make a sacrifice — Mes-
dames leave France . . . . . .106

CHAPTER VII

The queen makes further preparations for flight — M. Campan /^^
is recommended to take a cure — Mme Campan bids farewell
to her mistress — She hears of the fiasco of Varennes — Marie
Antoinette sends for her waiting- woman — She returns to Paris
and again receives proofs of her mistress's confidence — She
suffers for her brother's opinions — An echo of an old affair —
Mme Campan accepts some delicate missions . . .127

CHAPTER VIII

Marie Antoinette changes her bedroom — Mme Campan provides
the king with some strange garments — Attempt upon the
queen's life — The king's imprudence — A false alarm— Potion
pays a visit to the Tuileries — ^The palace is besieged — Mme
Campan has a narrow escape — She is allowed to see the
royal prisoners at the Feuillants . . . • 152

CHAPTER IX

Doubts are expressed concerning the decease of M. Campan /^r/
— A dangerous trust — Mme Campan goes to Versailles — The
king's female armourer threatens to turn informant — Trial and
execution of Louis xvi — Marie Antoinette follows her husband
— An order is issued for the arrest of Mme Campan and her
sister — Mme Augui^ commits suicide — Mme Campan takes
her motherless nieces to live with her • • • • I79

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CONTENTS
PART n

THE GOVERNESS OF THE BONAPARTES
CHAPTER X

PAGB

Mme Campan realizes her vocation and opens a school — She is
persecuted by the Directoire — Matnan Campan earns her title
and the affection of her pupils — The Seminary at Montagne
de Bon-Air has many imitators — Hortense and Emilie de
Beauhamais, Pauline and Caroline Bonaparte join the school —
Pauline marries General Leclerc — Napoleon die match-maker 191

CHAPTER XI

A prize-giving at Mme Campan's establishment — The First Consul
assists at a performance of Esthei^-TYA prince of Orange
creates a sensation by his behaviour— Marriage of Caroline
Bonaparte to Murat — Hortense goes to dwell at the Tuileries
— Mme Campan nearly incurs the First Consul's displeasure
— Charlotte Bonaparte comes to Saint-Germain . .215

CHAPTER XII

A fashionable boarding-school in the beginning of the nineteenth
century — Anglomania and the anges gardiens — Mme Campan
gives Hortense de Beauhamais good advice concerning the
choice of a husband — Two more members of the de Beauhamais
family come to Saint-Germain — One of Mme Campan's former
pupils incurs the First Consul's displeasure — The young ladies
f&te the signing of the Treaty of Lun^ville — Peace is concluded
with England — Hortense is betrothed to Louis Bonaparte —
General Bonaparte finds a wife for General Davout — F^licit^
Fodoas becomes Mme Savary ..... 236

CHAPTER XIII

Mme Campan is able to put aside *' a crust of bread " for her
old age — Eliza Monroe — The young ladies of Saint-Germain
embroider a map of the French Republic — Hortense de
Beauhamais marries Louis Bonaparte— The Peace of Amiens
is signed— Mme Moreau again arouses the First Consul's
wrath — Mme Bonaparte finds a husband for one of Mme
Campan's nieces — Birth of Hortense's first child— The happy
days of Mme Campan— Another of her nieces marries — The
Emperor asks Mme Campan to help him form his Court —
The Emperor and the Orphans of Austerlitz — Stephanie de
Beauhamais is married to the hereditary prince of Baden . 263

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CONTENTS

CHAPTER XIV

Extravagance of Napoleon's cutstniires— The Emperor deputes
Mme de Lavalette to curb Josephine's passion for spending —
Hortense becomes queen of Holland — Mme Campan's plans
appear likely to miscarry — She is appointed directress of the
Establishment of the Legion of Honour at Ecouen — A girls'
boarding-school during the Empire .... 288

CHAPTER XV

The queen of Holland pays a visit to Ecouen — Stf^phanie Tascher
de La Pagerie marries Ae prince d'Arenberg — The Emperor's
birthday is kept by the Orphans of Austerlitz— Napoleon
comes to inspect his prot^g^s — The queen of Holland is
made patroness of Ecouen — Napoleon's divorce — Lolotte
Bonaparte returns to France — Mme Campan meets with a
serious accident — Napoleon and Marie Louise visit Ecouen —
France is invaded . . . . . < 311

CHAPTER XVI

Abdication of Napoleon — ^The Emperor Alexander pays a visit to
Mme Campan and makes a strange confession — The queen
of Holland as duchesse de Saint-Leu— Mme Campan bids
fskitwell to Ecouen — She suffers for Napoleon's favours—She
obtains an audience with the duchesse d'Angouldme —
Generosity of ".Petite Bonne*— The Hundred Days' Wonder
— ^The Silver Lilies give place to the Golden Bees — Napoleon
finds time to review his " little bees " — Farewell to France —
The White Terror claims its victuns .... 335

CHAPTER XVII

Mme Campan moves house for the last time — Her son comes to
live with her — Her last pupils — Illness and death of her only
child— She pays a visit to "Petite Bonne"— The finger of
Death touches her— One of Napoleon's droves — She lays down
her burden . • • . • • 355

INDK 375

Xll

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Mms Campan

Frontispiece

Marie Antoinette .....

From an Eighteenth-Century Pointing, French School.

Madame Royale .....

From a Painting by Grbuze.

Madame Adi^laide .....

From a Painting by Nattiek.

Madame Victoire .....

From a Ranting by GuiASD.

Madame Elisabeth .....

From a Painting by Lb Brun.

Maris Antoinette and her Children .

From a Painting by Lb Brun.

HORTENSE DE BeAUHARNAIS

From a Portrait by Francois Qlfi:RARD at the Miis4e Calvet, Avignon.

Emiue ds Beauharnais (Comtesse DE Layalette)
Caroline Bonaparte, with her daughter Marie

From a Painting by Lb Brun.

Stephanie de Beauharnais

From a Painting by Gerard.

Pauline Bonaparte ....

From a Painting by Lb FAvre.

HORTENSE DE BEAUHARNAIS

From the Painting by Regranbt.

xiii

124

160

186

196

208
224

246

256

328

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Mme Campan . . Mimoiris (3 volumes).
„ . . L^ dix-aoAt,

„ . De P Education,

„ . Manuel de lajeune JUfhne.

„ . Conseils aus jeunes filles,

», . Le tires de deux jeunes amies,

„ . Thddire eP Education,

„ . Correspondance inidite avec la reine Hortense

(2 volumes).

Journal anecdotique de Mme Campan,

M^mdres.

Memoires de Mesdames.

Discours sur Peducation desfilles,

Dessous de princesses et marichaUs de P Empire,

Dr. Maigne .
General Rapp

MONTIGNY
FiNELON .

Hector Fleisch-

MANN

L^ONCE DE BrO-

TONNE
COMTE FLEURY

Casimir Stryien-

SKI

Jean M^jan .
Napolion et la reine
M. Mercier .
CoMTE £. DE Bar

TH^LEMY

Joseph Turquan

Les Bonaparte et leurs alliances,

Les drames de PHistoire,
Mesdames de France,

LuciEN Gayet
M. T.

Ernest Hamel
Fr^d^ric Loli^e

. Les Filks de la Ugion cPHonneur,
Hortense^ cPaprh le journal de la lectrice,
• Madame de LavaUtte,
Mesdames de France,

St^hanie de Beauhamais,
Madame la duchesse (PAngoulhne.
La GhUrcde Bonaparte,
LImpircUrice Josdphine,
La Reine Hortense.
Les ScBurs de NapoUon.
Les Soeurs de NapoUon,
Mimoires historiques de Mesdames.
Histoire de la R^olutionfranqaise,
Talleyrand,

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J. J. Rousseau

ViCOMTE DE REISET

Albert Savine
Jean Harmand
W. F. VAN Scheel-

TEN
COMTB DE LaVA-

LETTE
COMTESSE DE

BOIGNE
Mlle COCHELET .

Georgette Du-

CREST
LEONARD .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

. Julie^ ou la nouvelle Hdlotse.
Louise ctEsparbls,
McLdame Elisabeth et ses Amies,
Madame de Cenlis,
Mdmoires,

Mimoires,

Mhnoires,

Mimmres,

Mhnoires sur r ImpircUrice Josiphine,

Souvenirs,

Le prince Lucien Bonaparte etsafamille.

Th. Jung
Fr^di&ric Masson .
Georges LENdTRE.
C. d'Arjuzon .
Mme de Blocque-

VILLE

Reni^ Savary.
General Victor .

M. J. NOLLET.

Charles Maurice

Talleyrand
Stephanie Ory
Paul Marmottan.
Emmanuel de

Beaufond
A. L. d'EckmOhl .
Mme de R^musat.
Funck-Brentano .
Henri Houssaye .

»
Henri Welsch-

INGER

comte f^dor

Golowkine
George Clinton

Genet
A. Hilliard Atte-

ridge
A. Hilliard Atte-

RIDGE

Mimoires de Lucien Bonaparte,

La Malmaison pendant le Consulat,

Le mariage de Josiphine,

Hortense de Beauhamais,

Le marichcU Davout racontipar les siens,

Mimoires,

Vie du marickal Cirard.

Mimoires,

Soirees dEcouen,
Elisa Bonaparte,
Elisa Bonaparte,

Le marickal Davout,

Mimoires,

Le Collier de la reine,

Lajoumie dune grande dame.

i8is : Les Cent-Jours,

Le marickal Ney^ i8i^.

La cour et le rlgne de Paul L

A Family Record of Nefs Execution,

NapoUoris Brothers,

Marshal Key : the Bravest of the Brave,

xvi

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THE

CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

FIRST PART
AT THE CX)URT OF MARIE ANTOINETTE

CHAPTER I

Birth of Henriette Genest— The origin of the Genest family— Education
of the future i>r/rrV»— Henriette accepts her first situation — She
makes the acquaintance of the Rin Bun^AinU—Mesdamis di
Franc9,

"The child is father of the man," wrote William
Wordsworth, the English Orpheus, who sang so
sweetly of sun-kissed hills and sleepy dales, of
whispering brooklets flowing through mossy channels,
of Nature in all her phases. He himself was a proof
of this fact, for he began to write his simple rhymes
at the early age of nine years.

How differently children amuse themselves ! One
child will spend hours drilling tin soldiers; another
will perform disastrous surgical operations upon his
little sister's favourite doll; this one is content to
pick out tunes on the piano by the hour ; that one,
with a taste for gardening, will, with a calm disregard
for the rules of agriculture, plant and sow, graft and
water, and occasionally pull up the plants in his own

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

g3^i;<len — ^(^1 : jtoyiietimes in other people's too— to
seVliow' tfiey' kfe\ "^getting on." Admiring relatives
/.^3icfeiui>;*y«'niis <chil<} will be a great soldier when he
grows up ; that one will be a famous surgeon ; this
one will rival Beethoven; that one will * invent' a
new rose." But what shall we say of a little girl
who, at twelve years of age, on passing in the street
what is called in schoolroom parlance '* a crocodile,"
feels an irrestible longing to play the little mother to
each and every member of that flock ? Such a child
was the little Henriette Genest, the future lectrics of
Mesdames de France, the waiting-woman of Marie
Antoinette, and the governess of the Bonapartes, the
de Beauharnais, and many marichales and duchesses
— Bonaparte's cuisiniires, as the Royalists termed them
during the Restoration. Hers was an eventful life,
less lengthy than that of Mme de Genlis, untouched
by the breath of scandal, a life which began in the
reign of Louis xv and ended during that of
Louis XVIII ; she lived amid the luxurious Court of
Louis le Bien-Aimi, regretted the follies enacted at
the Petit Trianon, wept for the horrors perpetrated
during the Reign of Terror, groaned under the
oppressive yoke of the Directoire, basked in the
splendour of the Empire, and died after witnessing
the pitiful fiasco of the return of the Bourbons. In
Mme Campan, as this little girl afterwards became,
the maternal instinct was very strongly marked.

Born in Paris, October 6, 1752, Henriette Genest
(or Genet, as the name was sometimes pronounced
in those days, and as it is now written by the
American descendants of Edmond Charles Genest,
Mme Campan's brother) was the eldest child of a

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HENBIETTE'S BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD

numerous family and, as such, early commenced her
career as a little mother. As she herself tells us in
her memoirs, she could not boast of either rich or
noble ancestry ; her father, at the time of her birth,
held a fairly lucrative post at the Foreign Office,
which he owed to his talents and to his love of hard
work. The story of the marriage of litde Henriette's
parents is a pretty echo of the days when young
people were content to begin life in a humble way,
possessed of far fewer of this world's goods than any
sane person would dream of setting up house with
nowadays, but endowed with an inexhaustible store of
courage with which to face the ups and downs of
daily existence.

^'On aimait de mon temps. La fenune qu'on prenait
Etait pauvre soovent, mais on n'y songeait gvAn.
La mis^re venait, on lui faisait la guerre,
On luttait vaillamment . . .

On vivait, mon ami, mais on vivait sans fisiste . . .
Le mobiiier petit : le meuble le plus beau
N^vait pas codt^ cher, ce n'dtait qu'un berceau." ^

M. Genest, Henriette's father, was the eldest child
of Edm^ Jacques Genest, who for twenty years was
secretary in Spain to Cardinal Alberoni, the prot^6
of the due de Venddme. M. £dm6 Genest brought
back with him from Spain the sum of 200,000 livres^
part of which he invested in landed property, while he
paid 80,000 livres for the purchase of the office of
head-crier at the Ch4telet-^a good investment, for
it brought him in an income of something like 15,000
francs a year, not won without plenty of hard work,
however; but his experience as the secretary of
Cardinal Alberoni had probably accustomed hini to
& Leopold Laluy^ Lts Mhiag^s tttmirt/ais*

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

work ; and then, as we shall see later, industry must
have been a family trait.

Having settled his future to his complete satisfac-
tion, M. Genest began to look about for a wife.
During a visit to a relative living in a convent in the
Faubourg Saint-Germain, M. Genest noticed a pretty
young girl who, like himself, frequently paid visits to
friends or relatives living in the same religious institu-
tion. This young lady's name was Jeanne Louise de
B^arn; she belonged to an old French family, but
she had had to endure many slights and much con-
tumely during her childhood owing to the fact that
her father, a Catholic, had married a Protestant at a
time when such unions were considei-ed illegal unless
they had been solemnized in both churches. M.
Genest having asked for Jeanne Louise's hand in
marriage, the couple were married, and a very happy
pair they were, notwithstanding M. Genest's rather
narrow mind. They had many children; only two,
however, survived infancy. The eldest of these was
Henriette's father, who seems to have been a most re-
markable and gifted creature ; at four years of age he
could write a letter unaided. As the boy showed
great elocutionary gifts, his father determined that
this wonder should be a lawyer. After spending
some time at the College de Navarre in Paris, the
boy was given into the charge of some Jesuit priests
with whom his father was on the best of terms. At
fifteen years of age, young Genest carried off all the
first prizes. His proud father then sent him to the
University of Paris, where he quickly became
acquainted with the cleverest students, many of
whom afterwards became members of the Acadimie

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HENRIETTES FATHER

frattfaise^ and these friends he kept all bis life. His
studies finished, he found himself face to face with the
problem, What profession should he choose? His
own desire was to enter the diplomatic career; this
wish, however, did not meet with his father's approval.
And when he informed M. Genest pire that he had
followed bis example and had fallen in love with a
well-born but dowerless girl with many impecunious
relatives, a certain Mile Cardon, his father called him
a fool and swore he would never give his consent to
the marriage.

It must be allowed that young Genest's life after
leaving college was not a pleasant one. His father,
who only cared for two things, religious ceremonies
and law, wished his son to attend Mass daily, go to
confession two or three times a month, communicate
every month, never miss High Mass or Vespers, and
walk with him in all the religious processions which
periodically took place in his parish church, Saint-
Sulpice. At home the youth was expected to retire
to the drawing-room and repeat the rosary after
dinner; but this he did with such reluctance that
painful scenes were frequently enacted between the
priest-ridden lawyer and the student, whose one wish
was to be allowed to go to his room and con his
beloved books in peace. In vain the father tried to
mould his talented son to his own pattern : severity,
reproaches, coldness, had no effect. So painful was
the poor youth's position at this time that he
determined, if he ever had children of his own, never
to err on the side of severity, but rather seek to be
their friend and guide. In his mother alone young
Genest found affection and sympathy.

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

M. Genest pire then began to treat his son as if
he were unfit to consort with his family. He was
made to take his meals by himself, or else to sit
through a chilly family reunion amid a mournful
silence occasionally relieved by a dry disquisition
concerning some point in liturgy. From time to
time his father would call him into his study and
repeat to him the oft-told tale that, unless he mended
his ways, he would certainly come to a bad end, which
fate he gave him two chances to avoid— one, by enter-
ing the legal profession ; the other, by marrying a rich
wife, when the father promised to obtain for him the
position of councillor at the Chitelet But with the
latter scheme the youth would have nothing to do;
he might have reminded his father with impunity that
he had not sold himself to a rich wife, but had chosen
his companion for her beauty and virtue. The first
scheme, after due consideration, appeared almost
equally distasteful, for it meant that, while finishing
his studies, he would have to remain under the
parental roof-tree. However, the young prodigal was
not without sympathizers, some of whom, strange to
say, were M. Genest's most devout fellow-worshippers
at Saint-Sulpice. The youth, encouraged by the
knowledge that he had his mother's support, held out
for two or three months, during which time he was
not allowed to appear in the drawing-room and had
to be content with meals snatched when the irate
head of the house was absent After several weeks
of this misery, M. Genest pire gave his consent to
his son going to Germany, where the youth proposed
to complete his education and acquire the German
language. On bidding his son farewell, the old

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JOURNEYS END IN LOVERS MEETING

gentleman gave him his blessing, a gold watch, 1500
livres in gold, and commands never again to appear
in his presence. The night before the prodigal
started on his journey, his mother slipped into his
room, where he was packing his few belongings, and,
with many tears and exhortations to work hard and
earn his father's praise, pressed into his hand a little
bundle of louis^ which she, with infinite trouble, un-
known to her husband, had managed to economize
from household expenses. She promised to try to
soften the father's heart during her son's absence.
With the first rays of dawn, the prodigal left his home,
and set out on the long journey which was to end in
lovers meeting. After spending two or three years
in Germany, young Genest went over to England,
where he learnt the language and completed his
studies. It is probable that the lovers corresponded
during their separation ; for young Genest, on attain-
ing his majority live years after his departure from
France, determined to return, claim his bride, and
marry without his father's consent if he could not do
so otherwise. In order to avoid detection, he entered
Paris disguised as an abbd Having ascertained
that Mile Cardon had not changed her mind during
his absence, he obtained an interview with his mother
in a friend's house, when he informed her of his
determination, and begged her not to mention his
return to his father. As Fate would have it, the
pretended abb^ was passing in a cab outside the
parental door when the vehicle broke down just at
the very moment when the unyielding father happened
to be stepping into the street On relating the
accident to his wife, M. Genest remarked that the

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

young abb^ whom he had seen extracted with some
difficulty from the ruins of the cab, bore such an
extraordinary resemblance to his son that, if he had
not received the very evening before a letter from
London, he would have sworn that the prodigal had
returned to his husks and swine. On learning the
truth, his wrath burst forth afresh. However, after a
fortnight spent in absorbing subtle doses of flattery
and persuasion discreetly administered by his wife,
household, and friends, he gave his consent to his
son's marriage with the dowerless beauty. While
matters were being arranged, young Genest busied
himself correcting the proofs of his first book — ^a
volume of essays upon England, the result of his
visit to that country. After his marriage, which took
place in 1751, the young husband invited his wife's
parents, her brother, who had just been called to the
Bar, and two younger brothers to live under his roof.
His wife's parents had an annuity of 2000 /wres{jCSo),
and this, including what the young husband earned,
had to feed and clothe seven people. Luckily, soon
after his marriage, M. Genest's essays upon England
having been read and appreciated at Versailles, he
was summoned to appear at Court by the marshal de
Belle- Isle, the grandson of the celebrated Fouquet,
and himself a distinguished diplomatist, who made
him interpreter to the Admiralty and the War and
the Foreign Offices. He now had clerks to work
under him, and had it not been for the burden of
his wife's brothers, the eldest of whom he tended
through a long and fatal illness caused by excesses,
and the two youngest whom he educated and placed
in the French army, he might have lived very com-

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EDUCATION OF HENRIETTE GENEST

foitably notwithstanding the facts that his salary was
none too large, and that the family cradle was filled
every year with a new little occupant which had to
be fed, clothed, and educated — that is to say, if it
survived the Spartan treatment accorded to infants in
those days.

In 1762 M. Genest was sent to England on a
mission, which he executed so entirely to the satis-
faction of the due de Choiseul, that ** poor imitation of
a great man among the pigmies of the reign of Louis
XV," that he was rewarded with the post of chief
clerk at the Foreign Office.

Though the family purse was often nearly empty,
M. Genest's pride forbade him to appeal to his father
for help ; he preferred to hamper himself with one of
those sops to Cerberus, a mortgage for 50,000 ^cus.
He was not able to free himself from this burden
until his father's death in 1767, when, having paid all
his debts, he found himself possessed of the sum of
100,000 francs, four daughters, and a son still in the
cradle.

M. Genest, the tenderest of fathers, determined
that his children should have a good education.
Their first teacher was a Mile Pdris, who had a niece
about the same age as Henriette, whom M. Genest
kindly allowed to spend her holidays with her aunt.
This little girl was very pretty, and apparently as
modest and innocent as her playmates. When she
was twelve years of age, M. Genest, judging that
the friendship had lasted long enough, and perhaps
noticing some evil trait in his children's companion,
gave Mile Pftris to understand that her niece, who
was probably destined to become a milliner or a

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

dressmaker, had better not associate with his children
any longer.

About ten years after this rupture, the future
due de la Vrilli^re, at that time the comte de Saint-
Florentin, came to see M. Genest, when the following
conversation took place : —

''Have you an elderly woman named P&ris in
your employ ? " asked M. de Saint- Florentin.

"Yes," replied M. Genest, who had refused to
dismiss the woman after she had brought up all his
children, and had given her a home when she was
past work.

" Do you know her young niece ? "

To this question M. Genest replied that he had
formerly allowed the child to spend her holidays with
his children, but that ten years ago he had thought
fit to forbid her his house.

"You acted very wisely," observed his visitor,
"for since I have been in office I have never met
with a more bold-faced intriguer than this little minx.
She, with her lies, has compromised our august
sovereign, our pious princesses, Mesdames Addaide
and Victoire, and that estimable priest, Father Baret,
the curi of Saint-Louis, who, in consequence of her
falsehoods, has been forbidden to exercise his sacred
duties until the infamous intrigue has been completely
cleared up. The young woman is now in the Bastille.
Just imagine : she, with her clever lies, has managed
to obtain over 60,000 francs from divers credulous
folk at Versailles ; to some she swore she was the
king's mistress, making them accompany her to the
glass door leading to his apartments, and even
going so far as to enter by his private door, which

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ATTEMPT TO MURDER LOUIS XV

she had bribed some of the footmen to open for
her."

After relating other crimes^ which consisted of
accusing the cur^ Baret of having persuaded her
to take the first step on the road to perdition, of
extorting money from Mesdames de France^ M. de
Saint-Florentin informed M. Genest that the culprit
had at last confessed her faults, and was about to be
transferred to the prison of Sainte-P^lagie.

Henriette was probably too young to notice any
peculiarities in the conduct of her first little play-
mate; but the memory of the tragic fate of her
governess's niece served Mme Campan as a good
excuse for being very careful whom she admitted to
her boarding school at Saint-Germain.

Henriette, from her earliest years, displayed a
remarkable memory. One of the most interesting
episodes which occurred during her childhood was
Damiens' attempt to murder Louis xv when she was
about five years of age and living with her parents
under the shadow of the palace of Versailles.

''I remember," says she, ''Damiens' attempt to
assassinate Louis xv. This event made such a deep
impression upon me that I recollect the minutest
details of the grief and confusion which reigned that
day at Versailles as clearly as if it only happened
yesterday. I was dining with my parents at a friend s
house; the saUm was lighted by numerous wax
candles. The guests had just sat down to four card-
tables when a friend of the family burst into the room
and, with his face distorted by emotion, gasped out :
' I am the bearer of terrible news : the king has been
assassinated ! ' Two of the ladies present immediately

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

fainted A corporal in the king's bodyguard flung
his cards on the table, exclaiming : ' I am not sur-
prised — it is all the fault of those vile Jesuits ! ' * For
mercy's sake, take care what you are saying, brother/
said a lady, flinging her arms round his neck ; ' do you
want to get yourself arrested ? ' — 'Arrested? Why
should I be arrested, just because I show up those
scoundrels who want their sovereign to be as bigoted
as themselves ? * My father now entered the room.
He recommended the company to be careful of what
they said and did, told us that the wound was not
fatal, and that we must all go home, because nobody
could think of playing cards during such a fearful
crisis. He had fetched a sedan-chair for my mother.
She took me on her lap. We were then living in the
Avenue de Paris. I heard sighing and weeping on
all sides. I saw a man arrested : he was gentleman-
usher to the king ; he had gone quite crazy, and was
yelling, * I know them, the villains, the scoundrels ! '
The crowd prevented our chair advancing. My
mother knew the unhappy man who had just been
arrested ; she gave his name to the mounted guard.
The officer contented himself with taking the faithful
servitor to the police station, which was then in the
same avenue. ... In those days the nation's love for
its sovereign amounted to a religion, and this attempt
to assassinate Louis xv led to a number of innocent
people being arrested. M. de La Serre, at that time
Governor of the Invalides, his wife, his daughter, and
some of his servants were arrested because Mile de La
Serre, who had left her convent that very day in
order to spend Twelfth Night at her home, had
been heard to say in her father's drawing-room when

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HENRIETTE BECOMES A PRODIGY

the news was brought from Versailles, * It is not to

be wondered at ; I heard Mother N say that it

was bound to happen sooner or later, because the

king was not sufficiently religious ! ' Mother N

and several nuns were cross-examined by the police.
For some time past the partisans of Port-Royal and
the partisans of the new sect of philosophers had
been trying to make the Jesuits unpopular with the
public ; and of a certainty, although no proof could
be found against this order, the attempt upon the
king^s life did a good turn to the party which a few
years later contrived to compass the downfall of the
Jesuits. That scoundrel Damiens revenged himself
upon many persons in whose service he had been by
getting them arrested. When confronted with his
former masters, he would say to them, ' I have given
you this fright in order to pay you out for what you
made me suffer/ "

When reading the account of the l6ng torture and
horrible death of Robert U Diable^ as Damiens was
called, the question presents itself whether the
executioners of Damiens and Ravaillac, the judges
of the Vehmic Court and the Inquisition, and the
leaders of that modem abomination, the Russian
Pogrom, did not make a mockery of Christianity and,
in the latter case, place themselves on a far lower
level than their victims.

At fourteen years of age Henriette Genest was in
danger of becoming a blue-stocking. Her remark-
able memory enabled her to learn by heart long
scenes from Racine's tragedies, which she then recited
to her father's friends, men of discernment such as
Rochon de Chabannes and Barthe, both playwrights,

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

Duclos, the fascinating Marmontel, and the latter's
good friend Thomas. Albanesi, the fashionable
singing-master of the day, taught her to warble
LuUy's charming melodies, while Goldoni, professor
of Italian to Mesdames de France, the little
Henriette's future mistresses, instructed her in his
own musical language. It is probable that Henriette's
speaking voice was more remarkable than her singing
voice ; she herself says that French voices, although
naturally sweet in tone, are neither distinguished for
compass nor for sonorousness. Rousseau was still
more severe upon the French school of singing:
" Let us for ever renounce," says he, " that lugubrious
and tedious style of singing which is more like the
crying of a person suffering from the colic than the
outpourings of a tender passion."

Henriette's fame soon spread beyond the narrow
walls of her father's salon. Some ladies at Court
having mentioned to Mesdames de France the fact
that M. Genest had a wonderfully clever daughter,
now in her fifteenth year, who could speak several
languages, sing and play the harpsichord like an
angel, and — most valuable asset in the frivolous
society of those days — had a remarkable gift for
reading aloud, the king's daughters, who were looking
for a lectrice, expressed a wish to see this little piece
of perfection. One interview sufficed. A week later,
Henriette, wearing a long train, her slender figure
enclosed in stiff stays and voluminous panniers, with
her little tear-stained face besmirched with rouge and
powder, bade farewell to her peaceful home and to
the little sisters and brother whom she had mothered,
and entered the splendid palace which was to shelter

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HENRIETTE*S FIRST SITUATION

her until the Revolution came and drove its numerous
inhabitants, great and small, into the wide world
Though proud of her success, her father was loath to
let the eldest fledgling spread her wings. Henriette
tells us : ''On the occasion of putting on Court dress
for the first time, I went into my father's study to
kiss him and to say good-bye. Tears fell from his eyes.
He said : ' The princesses will be glad to make use
of your talents; great people know how to bestow
praise graciously, but their praises are often fulsome.
Do not allow their compliments to elate you too
much; rather be on your guard. Whenever you
receive flattering attentions, you may be sure that
you will gain an enemy. I warn you, my daughter,
against the inevitable trials which you, in your new
career, will have to face ; and I swear on this day,
when you are about to enjoy your good fortune, if
I had been able to choose another profession for you,
never would I have abandoned my beloved child to
the torments and dangers of Court life.* "

Versailles, with its labyrinth of narrow passages
and dark staircases, must have seemed like a horrible
nightmare to the frightened little lectrice. Marie
Leczinska, after forty years of fidelity to an unworthy
husband, had lately died, and the Court had gone into
deep mourning. On entering the great courtyard,
Henriette beheld a group of royal coaches drawn
by horses wearing huge black plumes, led by pages
and footmen with heavy black shoulder-knots richly
embroidered with silver spangles. She was then con-
ducted through the state apartments, the walls of which
were hung with black cloth, while canopies surmounted
by more bunches of sable plumes were placed over the

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

arm-chairs of the king and his daughters. No wonder
that her spirits sank lower and lower the nearer she
approached the private apartments of Mesdames de
France. When she was at last ushered into Madame
Victoire's boudoir, her legs were trembling so she
could scarcely stand. If she was so terrified on merely
beholding her mistresses, what did she not feel when
she had to address them? Her first attempt at
reading aloud nearly ended in a fiasco. She says:
" I could not utter two sentences ; my heart beat, my
voice trembled, and I turned giddy." Luckily she
gathered courage as she went along, and at last the
dreadful ordeal was over.

Her first interview with her mistresses' father was
calculated to make her still more nervous. It was
her ill-luck to meet Louis xv just as he was starting
on one of his hunting expeditions, and when he
was surrounded by the usual rabble of courtiers,
courtesans, time-servers, and place - seekers. On
seeing a face he did not know, the king inquired of
one of his courtiers who this quaint, old-fashioned
little lady was, and then began to catechize his
daughters' lectrice.

" Mademoiselle Genest," said he, " I am told that
you are very learned — that you know four or five
foreign languages."

"I only know two, Sire," replied the child,
trembling with terror for what might come next.

-Which are they?"

"English and Italian."

" And can you speak them fluently ? "

" Yes, Sire, very fluently."

" Well, that is quite enough to drive any husband

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MESDAMES DE FRANCE

quite crazy!" remarked the king as he moved on»
convulsed with laughter at his own wit, leaving poor
litde Henriette covered with shame and confusion.

How bitterly Henriette learnt to regret her home
and the noisy litde sisters and brother during those
first weeks at Versailles ! She never left Mesdames'
apartments except when she accompanied her
mistresses on those dreary drives in state; for
Mesctatnes, although fond of walking, were forbidden
by etiquette to walk anywhere but in the palace
gardens. Sometimes Henriette spent the whole day
reading to Madame Victoire.

Oi Mesdames de France, the daughters of Louis
XV, Mme Campan said in after years that, if they had
not invented occupations for themselves, they would
have been much to be pitied. After the death of
their mother, whom they loved, although she did not
display much affection for her numerous daughters,
they saw but little of their father, for whose conduct
they have sometimes been blamed. It was to the
boudoir of Madame Addai'de that Louis xv was in
the habit of carrying his morning cup of coffee, when
Madame Adelaide would ring her bell as a signal to
announce his arrival to Madame Victoire, who in turn
would ring for Madame Sophie, and the latter for
Madame Louise. Now the last-named princess, the
king's youngest living daughter, was deformed and
rather lame. As her apartments were situated at
some distance from Madame Adda'ide's boudoir she,
on hearing the signal^ would jump up in great haste
and limp with all expedition through her sisters' huge
suites of rooms ; and yet, sometimes, notwithstanding
all her care, it happened that she could only reach her
B 17

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

eldest sister's room just in time to kiss her father good-
bye before he hurried off to his favourite occupation,
hunting.

Louis XV had had eight daughters : Elisabeth and
Henriette, twins, born in 1727, the first of whom
married the Infante of Spain, while the latter died
unmarried in 1752; Louise, bom 1728, died 1732;
Addaide, born 1732; Victoire, bom 1733; Sophie,
born 1734; Marie-Th^rtee-F^licit^ called Madame
SixiemCy born 1736, died 1744; and a second Louise,
called Madame DemQre, born 1737, who later became
a nun.

Louis was fond of giving nicknames : his favourite,
Adelaide, — a certain resemblance to his mother, the
duchesse de Bourgogne, was said to account for this
preference, — was called Loque (Scraggy) because she
was so thin ; Victoire was Coche (Sow) on account of
her embonpoint ; Sophie was Graille (Carrion-crow),
and poor deformed Louise, Chiffe (Rags).

At six o'clock every evening Henriette stopped
her reading, when Mesdames folded up their intermin-
able pieces of embroidery and prepared to attend the
king's ddbotter, which ceremony sometimes only lasted
fifteen minutes. Now etiquette reigned supreme at
the Court of Versailles, and Mesdames had, before
going to this ceremony, to array themselves in
enormous hoops worn over gold embroidered petti-
coats together with a train, all of which were fastened
round the waist and thus concealed the ddshabilU
underneath. Then, clad in long black taffeta mantles
which covered them up to the chin and kept them
from catching cold in draughty passages, the ladies
would hurry down their private staircase, assist at the

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MESDAMES' EDUCATION

king's dibotter^ and then return to their own rooms,
where they would sit down again to their embroidery-
frames and Henriette would open her book and
continue where she had left off.

Mesdatnes' education had been sadly neglected;
and it was thanks to Cardinal Fleury that they
received any education at all. It was at his advice
that the little princesses were sent to the convent of
Fontevrault instead of to the fashionable establish-
ment at Saint-Cyr, where their grandmother, the
duchesse de Bourgogne, had been educated. The
Cardinal had furnished as his reason for choosing
Fontevrault instead of Saint-Cyr that the education
given at the latter establishment — where, however,
the rule was so strict that the pupils never had any-
thing but dry bread for breakfast — ^was not adapted
to prepare such future great ladies as Mesdames de
France for the position which they would soon be
called upon to occupy. However, it is highly probable
that the dames de Saint-Cyr were quite as competent,
or incompetent, as their sisters at Fontevrault; for
Madame Louise, at twelve years of age, had not
contrived to master the alphabet, and she only learnt
to write after her return to Versaillea

Mesdames Quatrieme, Cinquiime, Sixiime, and
Septiime, as they were called, were packed off to
their convent while the two youngest were still so
small that they had to be held on their nurses' knees.
We can picture to ourselves the arrival of the four
little misses, two of whom, Marie-Th6rise-Fdlicit^
and Louise, remained several years at Fontevrault
without their parents once taking the trouble to
come and see them or sending for them. The

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

Mother Superior and some of the elder nuns dressed
themselves in white garments to receive the little
ones lest their sombre garb should frighten the
babes. Mesdames made a favourable impression by
blowing kisses to the crowd of nuns and pupils which
had assembled to see the Court equipage drive
through the massive convent-gates.

The nuns by turns spoiled the young princesses
horribly or were absurdly strict. Madame Victoire
was subject all her life to attacks of unreasonable
terror owing to the fact that when she had been
naughty she used to be shut up all alone in a dark
vault used as the nuns' burying-place. On one
occasion the gardener belonging to the convent was
bitten by a mad dog ; while he was dying of hydro-
phobia, the pupils were taken to the chapel to recite
prayers for the dying, which prayers were frequently
interrupted by the yells of the poor gardener, who was
lying in a cottage near by.

Madame Addaide was the infant terrible of the
convent ; one person alone had the courage to resist
her imperious will, and that person was her dancing-
master, and the only one of Mesdames' professors who
had been allowed to follow them to Fontevrault
The dancing-master once wanted to teach the young
princess a new and fashionable dance called the
mentut rose, Adelaide took it into hpr head to
baptize the dance the menuet bleu. The professor
refused to change its name, and told his pupil she
would only be laughed at by her parents' courtiers if
she persisted in misnaming the minuet, upon hearing
which Adelaide tossed her head, stamped with her
foot, refused even to go through the first steps, and

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MADAME ADELAIDE

screamed ** Blue, blue, blue " at the top of her shrill
voice. However, the dancing-master kept up a bass
accompaniment of "Pink, pink, pink," until the
Mother Superior came to inquire what all the noise
was about, and then very unwisely decided that
Mademoiselle was to have her own way ; whereupon
that young lady, now all smiles and sweetness, daintily
seized the edge of her silken skirt, pointed her toes,
and went through her steps like an angel.^ Madame
Adelaide had considerable power over her father as
his favourite daughter, and was in the habit of saying
" fVe will do this," or '• We will do that"

MeselatPtes were still scarcely more than children
when they left their convent and returned to the splendid
but unhomelike palace of Versailles. Here they found
a friend, however, in the person of the Dauphin, and,
at his advice, they continued the education begun in
their convent ; indeed, they worked with such a will
that they were soon able to read and write their
native language quite correctly and had learnt some-
thing about French history.

Madame Adelaide had promised to be pretty in
her early youth, but, as her lectrice tells us, " never did
any woman lose her good looks earlier than she lost
hers." This loss probably embittered her temper, for
Madame Addaide, who was the wittiest of the king's
daughters, became with age harsh in manners and
voice. On one occasion Madame Adelaide's chaplain
having said the Domtnus VoHscum in what she con-
sidered an arrogant manner, his royal mistress had
him into her boudoir and told him to '' recollect that

^ M. de Barth^emy says the heroine of this incident was ^ Madame
Victoire, as Madame Adelaide was not at Fontevrault at that time."

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

he was not a bishop, and to be careful not to try to
imitate the ways of bishops."

Madame Adelaide fancied herself musical, and
insisted on learning such impossible and unfeminine
instruments as the horn and the Jew's harp, after
which she set herself to learn English, Italian, — which
language was to prove so useful during the years of
exile, — mathematics, watchmaking, etc. She had a
great opinion of her own importance : nothing
angered her more than to be called Royal Highness
by the ambassadors at her father's Court ; she wished
to be Madame. At six years of age she had gravely
informed her parents that she did not approve of her
sister Elisabeth's marriage. Although she had the
Bourbon fault of greediness, she never touched wine,
and any guest sitting by her side at dinner was
expected to turn away from her when drinking out of
his or her own glass.

Now Madame Adelaide had a great friend, Mme
de Narbonne, whose husband Lady Blennerhassett
and other authors say acted as chamberlain and
lover to his royal mistress. In order to avoid a
scandal, Mme de Narbonne consented to pass the
child born of this liaison off as her own. The
boy, " whose noble physiognomy," says Lamartine,
"reminded people of Louis xv in his youth," was
much petted by the royal family and especially by
Mesdames, Madame Adelaide had another friend,
the marquise de Durfort, made duchesse de Civrac
by the will of her royal mistress. These two ladies,
Mmes de Narbonne and de Durfort were accused,
rightly or wrongly, of doing everything they could to
make mischief between the royal sisters. Count

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MADAME VICTOIRE

Louis, the son of Mme de Narbonne, became rather
a spendthrift as he grew up : what was easier for him
than to worry his mother for money ? These cease-
less demands tried Mme de Narbonne's temper, and
Mme de Boigne hints that Madame Addaide's friend
was not above working off her fits of anger on her
royal mistress until Madame Addaide, weary of being
snapped at, consented to open her purse for the
prodigal's benefit

Madame Victoire was handsome and more gracious
in her manner than Addaide, and therefore more
beloved by her household. She also had the Bourbon
appetite, of which she vainly endeavoured to cure
herself. Lent to her was something more than a
period of fasting and abstinence: it was a time of
torture. The hour of midnight on Easter Eve was
looked upon by her as the hour of liberation, and was
duly celebrated by a copious meal of chicken, fish,
and other sustaining food. She suffered mental
anguish as to whether such and such a dish were
Lenten fare or not. There was a certain water-fowl
to which she was particularly partial; a bishop
happening to be dining with Madame Victoire when
this bird was served, he was asked whether his royal
hostess might partake of it without imperilling her
soul. The reverend gentleman informed the princess
that it was the custom, when in doubt, to carve the
fowl on an ice-cold silver dish ; if the gravy became
congealed within a quarter of an hour after this
operation, it showed that the animal was red meat and
therefore unfit to be eaten in Lent ; if, on the contrary,
the gravy remained liquid, the bird could be eaten
without any qualms of conscience. The experiment

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

was tried forthwith: the gravy remained liquid, to
Madame Victoire's great delight

Nobody who has seen Nattier's charming portrait
of Madame Sophie at Versailles would think that she
was the Ugly Duckling of the family ; but such was
the case, and poor Sophie knew it. Even her lectrice
calls her sauvage^^xiA adds that she never saw a more
timid, nervous creature. Casimir Stryienski says :
" She was insignificant from her birth, and remained
so until her last day." Perhaps the education
received at Fontevrault had something to do with her
eccentric manners. She was never known to walk
slowly, but always seemed as if she were running away
from somebody or something. Whenever any of the
palace attendants heard her hurried step, they drew
on one side until she had passed them blinking out
of the corners of her eyes like a frightened hare. A
whole year would elapse without her voice being heard
in her father's presence, and yet her lectrice says that
to certain ladies she could be very civil and even join
in witty repartee. She was fond of study, but pre-
ferred to read herself rather than be read to. This
timid princess, however, became another person on
the approach of a thunder-storm ; her brusque
manners disappeared completely, and she was sud-
denly metamorphosed into the most charming, affable
creature possible. In such moments she seemed to
feel the need of human companionship, and preferred
to talk with the humblest servitor in her father's
household rather than face the dreaded storm alone
in her own boudoir. With the first rumble of distant
thunder she became talkative, seized the hands of the
person nearest her, and displayed the greatest interest

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THE UGLY DUCKLING

in that person's family affairs. The storm over, the
Ugly Duckling released her victim and shuffled off to
her own apartments without so much as saying good-
bye to the good Samaritan.

Madame Louise was the favourite of her sisters
and her Uctrice. Owing to a fall during her babyhood,
this princess had one shoulder higher than the other,
besides which she had a slight limp. These physical
defects caused her to lead a retired life like her sister
Sophie, only in her case it was not timidity but dislike
for the society at her father's Court which was the
reason. She was kind to the litde Henriette. She
had made a rule that she must be read to for at least
five hours every day, but she frequently took pity on
the child when her voice became husky, and would
even place a glass of eau sucrie prepared by her own
hands on the table by her side.

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CHAPTER II

Louis XV surprises his daughters' Uctrice in the act of making
" cheeses "—Madame Louise takes the veil — Arrival in France of
Marie Antoinette — Henriette loses her heart — Mesdanus try to find
a husband for their Ucirice—TYit origin of the Campan family —
Marie Antoinette makes Henriette Campan her waiting-woman —
Mesdame^ hatred for Marie PintointXXt—Mesdames go to Bellevue,
and Henriette leaves their service — The Court is jealous of Mme
Campan's influence.

MssDAME^ tedious existence at Versailles was some-
times varied by visits to Compiigne. During one of
these visits, the king one day came unexpectedly into
Madame Victoire's boudoir while Henriette was
reading to her mistress; the Uctrice immediately
arose and retired into an adjoining room. Here the
child, weary of reading dry tomes, and mayhap
remembering the merry games with her little sisters
and brother in the old home, began to make what
nursery-maids call "cheeses": that is to say, after
having twirled swiftly round and round on one foot
with arms extended, the little Uctrice sank down on
the floor with her silken skirts inflated round her like
a balloon. So absorbed did she grow in this fascinat-
ing operation that she quite lost count of time. Just
as she had accomplished her most successful " cheese,"
while she was still squatting on the floor gazing in
ecstasy at the perfect circle made by her voluminous
skirts, the door of Madame Victoire's boudoir was

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A CHEESE-MAKING LECTRICE

thrown open and she and the king appeared. The
little lectrice^ overcome with horror at being caught
playing like a child in its nursery, endeavoured to
rise from the ground and assume a position more in
keeping with her post; but her head was probably
somewhat giddy from this unusual exercise, for, in-
stead of rising, she tumbled over her own feet and
again fell to the ground, making the most beautiful
" cheese " of all as she did so. Her sudden collapse
caused the king to burst into a fit of loud laughter.
** Daughter," said he to Madame Victoire, " I advise
you to send your cheese-making Uctrice back to her
convent"

The life led by Henriette at the Court of Versailles
was calculated to make her old before her time. It
had had a blighting effect upon the king's daughters ;
theirs was a strange existence, and each princess
accepted her fate according to her temperament.
Madame Adelaide found consolation in her male and
female friends ; Madame Victoire confessed that life
was worth living as long as she could enjoy a good
meal ; Madame Sophie's pride enabled her to lock up
in her own breast all her regrets for what Fate had
withheld from her, while Madame Louise sought
peace of mind on her prie-Dieu. This religious
tendency developed as she grew older, and eventually
led to her entering a convent

Henriette says in her memoirs: "One evening,
while I was reading aloud to Madame Louise, a
steward came in to tell her that M. Bertin, one of the
king's Ministers, asked to speak with her. She left
the room in a great hurry, returned, picked up her
embroidery and her silks, made me take up my book

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

again, and when I had finished and was leaving the
room, commanded me to come to her study at eleven
o'clock on the morrow. On doing so, I was in-
formed that the princess had left the palace at seven
o'clock that very morning, and had gone to the
Carmelite Convent at Saint- Denis, where she wished
to take the veil. I went to Madame Victoire's
apartments. Here I learnt that the king alone had
been told of Madame Louise's plan, that he had faith-
fully kept it secret, and that, after having for long
opposed her wishes, he had sent her his permission
on the previous evening ; that she had gone all alone
to the convent, where she was expected ; that a few
minutes after her arrival she had reappeared at the
grating, in order to show the princesse de Guistel and
her equerry who had accompanied her, the king's
permission for her to enter the convent"

Madame Adelaide, on learning of her sister's
sudden departure, coolly asked, ^' With whom has she
gone.^" and then fell into a violent passion and
scolded her father for having kept the matter secret
from her, his favourite daughter.

Madame Victoire shed many a tear over the loss
of the one person for whom she had any real affection
besides herself Her little lectrice was so afraid that
her mistress would be tempted to follow her sister's
example that she flung herself at the princess's feet
and begged her with tears In her eyes not to go
away and leave her. Whereupon, Madame Victoire
made her rise, kissed her, and with a smile, pointing
to the comfortable arm-chair in which she was sitting,
said : —

"Don't be afraid, my child; I shall never have

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MADAME LOUISE TAKES THE VEIL

Louise's courage. I am too fond of being comfort-
able. This arm-chair will be the undoing of me."

After a little time Henriette asked to be allowed
to go to visit her late mistress. To her surprise,
she found the princess, although occupied by the very
unfamiliar task of washing her clothes, looking much
stronger and happier than she had ever looked at
Versailles. Henriette was deeply touched when
Madame Louise begged her to forgive her for having
made her read so much aloud ; she then confessed to
her former lectrice that she had long ago determined
to become a nun, and, knowing that when once she
had taken the veil she would not be allowed to read
anything but religious works, she had wanted to hear
her favourite authors once more before she retired
from the world.

But although she no longer lived in a palace,
Madame Louise received many visitors, bishops^
archbishops; priests, who came to beg her to obtain
favours for them from her father. It is probable that
Madame Louise hoped to persuade her parent to
''make a good death," as the phrase goes, and that
she might be instrumental in getting him into the
heaven about which he never troubled himself to think.

Henriette's life at Versailles was, if possible, even
duller after Madame Louise's departure than it had
been before that event, and we can be sure that she
for one was glad to learn in 1770 that a young
princess, Marie Antoinette, was coming to enliven
the Court. However, the aunts of that princess's
future husband were less pleased Madame Adelaide,
for instance, loudly expressed her disapproval of her
ne{^ew's marriage to an archduchess, and swore that

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

if she had had any voice in the matter she should not
have chosen an Austrian. There was a good deal of
jealousy mingled with Madame Adelaide's dislike of
the Dauphine ; she could not forget that she herself
had once been young, pretty, full of life and spirit —
now she was elderly, ugly, harsh in voice and manner ;
the young bride's high spirits grated on her nerves.
Mesdames, during those long years of seclusion, had
learnt to hide their feelings, and so they managed to
receive the Dauphine with a certain show of cordiality.
They gave her some magnificent wedding-presents,
and Madame Addaide even went the length of pre-
senting her with the key leading to her private apart-
ments, begging her to pay her little visits whenever
she felt inclined to slip away from stiff Court etiquette.
This invitation the Dauphine readily accepted. How-
ever, the visits gave but little pleasure to either party.
Madame Victoire really wished to be of use to the
young, inexperienced princess, and to help her by
her good advice to avoid those rocks and pitfalls
which eventually led to the queen's ruin.

But there was one person who was determined
that Mesdames' friendship should not prosper, and
that was the Abbd de Vermond This man, the son
of a country physician and the brother of Marie
Antoinette's future Mcoucheur^ a doctor of theology
at the Sorbonne and the librarian of the Collie
Mazarin, had been chosen, thanks to his influence
with Lom^nie de Brienne, to go to Vienna there to
perfect the Dauphin s fiancde in the language of her
future country. Although the Abbd failed to com-
plete her education — for on her arrival the arch-
duchess was unable to speak or write French correcdy

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THE AUTBICHIENNE ARRIVES

— ^he managed to obtain the Dauphine*s entire confi-
dence and to exercise considerable influence over hen

The Abb^ prided himself upon being eccentric,
would receive Ministers and even bishops while in his
bath — ^but this Marie Antoinette and Marat also did
— and generally treated his superiors as if they were
his subordinates. During his daily visits to the
Dauphine he excited her to ridicule the advice of
that excellent creature, Mme de Noailles, whom she
baptized Madame P Etiquette.

The young bride's troubles began almost as soon
as she had set foot in France. During one of the
f6tes given in her honour, Louis xv invited the bride
and bridegroom, all the members of the royal family,
and the ladies of his Court to a grand supper. To
the surprise and disgust of the daughter of Maria
Theresa, she found that Mme du Barry had been
included among the favoured guests. However, she
managed to conceal her feelings until the end of the
evening. No sooner had she retired than the king
began to sing her praises and to congratulate himself
upon having chosen such a charming bride for his
grandson. But this praise gave great offence to
Mme du Barry, who was considerably older than the
fair bride, and so she gave vent to her spite by
criticizing the Dauphine's face, walk, and manners.

Madame Adelaide was soon enabled to find an
excuse for disliking the Autrickienne when, soon
after the latter's arrival, the card-tables which since
Marie Leczinska's death had been kept in her
daughter s apartments were removed to those of the
Dauphine. In order to show that she considered
herself slighted, Madame Addai'de established a rival

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

set of card-tables in her now empty rooms, and
abstained from any intercourse with her niece except
when obliged to visit her or receive her visits.

Reports of the archduchess's skill in composing
Latin speeches had preceded her arrival in France.
However, Mesdames' lectrice did not take long to
discover that the bride was quite unfamiliar with that
language, and she subsequently learnt that whenever
the young archduchess had had to deliver Latin
addresses at her mother's Court, somebody had '
written them for her so that she could read them as
a parrot talks without knowing what it is saying.
Henriette also found out that, though the Dauphine
could say a few sentences in Italian, she knew practi-
cally nothing about history, literature, or the fine arts.

During the Dauphine's none too frequent visits to
her husband's aunts, she noticed Mile Henriette,
heard her read aloud, and sometimes asked her to
accompany her on the piano or the harp. Indeed, she
was so struck by Henriette's charm of manner and
musical gifts that she begged the king to let her
share Mesdames' lectrice. This favour he granted
willingly.

Henriette Genest had now reached the age of
eighteen. Of course she had had several proposals,
for she was pretty and charming — and she had lost
her heart In a letter written to her beloved pupil
Hortense de Beauharnais, when the snow of many
winters had whitened her hair, she says (and we can
almost see the tears fall on the page) : '' Do not
laugh at my old love-affairs : I loved a man whom I
had known for six years, who was witty, handsome,
rich, and a soldier ; but when I was informed that the

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Co^right fy]

>«to.« *

Marie Antoinette.

Vron\ an eighteenth-century painting, French School.

[BrauH &* Co.

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• ••••••••••• • •• •

• ••••••••• •••••• •••

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•^I, TOO, HAVE BEEN IN ARCADY"

difference of religion, which unfortunately had not
been suspected until then, would cause me to lose my
place as lectrice at Court» that people would gossip
about me, that I should be blamed, that I should
bring disfavour upon the person who had formed an
attachment for me, I made up my mind. He was so
determined to marry me or nobody, that he would
not remain in Europe after this rupture, and requested
permission to serve in India in order to leave France.
I should be guilty of telling a falsehood if I were to
say that this rupture caused me no pain. I spent
more than one sleepless night hesitating between
my affection and my duty. You will allow that the
fact that my father had originally given his consent
was calculated to strengthen my attachment ; but the
subsequent withdrawal of that consent caused by his
respect for propriety appealed to my reason, and I
felt that I ought to submit to his will."

Did the old hand tremble as it wrote those
words ? Did the memory of a magic hour long past
cause a tear to fall on this confession ? . . . A litde
farther on in the same letter she says : " I afterwards
made a very unhappy marriage. And yet I might
have been happy with M. Campan if he had not been
fickle, extravagant, and entirely unfitted for married
life; had my parents made a better choice, they
might have been instrumental in procuring me happi-
ness. I assure you that during those twenty years of
marriage, love of duty always made me desire to live
in peace with my husband and be happy with him. . . ."*

It is evident that the man whom Henriette
married was not a success; she herself scarcely
mentions him in her memoirs, and when she does so,
c 33

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

it is in reference to his debts. Mesdanus were re-
sponsible for the disaster; they, probably noticing
that their little lectrice had seemed less light-hearted
since the departure of a certain friend, set about
looking for a husband for her. The king having
promised to allow her 5000 livres a year, she was
soon provided. Henriette met her future husband
at Court, where his father, besides being the Dauphine's
secretary and librarian, was well known to the king,
whom he had often accompanied to those bah it bouts
de chandelle to which the Bien-Aimi was so partial
during several winters. These balls were given by
what Mme Campan calls '' the last rung of society."
The king was in the habit of inquiring in Carnival-
time whether any of the hairdressers, milliners, and
small shopkeepers who swarmed at Versailles were
likely to bne giving entertainments when, masked and
accompanied by four or five members of his house-
hold sdso masked, he would appear uninvited at his
humble subjects* balls. Of course everybody guessed
the identity of the stout man who used as vulgar
expressions as the poorest of the guests at these
entertainments lighted by spluttering candle-ends —
hence their name.

The Campans, whose real name was Bertholet,
originally came from the valley of Campan, near
Tarbes, in the province of B6ara Pierre Bertholet,
being of an enterprising disposition, found the peace-
ful native valley too narrow for his ambitions ; so
after completing his studies at Toulouse, he entered
the army and for twenty years fought for the lilies of
France, winning many wounds and the affection and
esteem of his superior officers. He had one especi-

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HENRIETTE S HUSBAND

ally influential friend in the person of M. P4ris
Duverney, who confided to him divers small but
lucrative missicxis, and, at the time of Louis xv's
marriage to Marie Leczinska, obtained for M.
Campan, as his prot^^ now called himself, the post
of page of the back stairs to the young queen. This
post, which he shared with three other gentlemen,
was worth about 9000 livres a year besides many
perquisites, and was very much to M. Campan*s taste.
The functions of the four pages who took it in turn
to wait upon the queen for a fortnight at a time, were
various : they had to wait at table when their mistress
dined in private, and to carry messages to her
children and ladies, and they had always to be on the
spot to hand her to her coach when she went out
driving.

Soon after obtaining this post, M. Campan
married Mile HardivillierSi the daughter of a man
of good family who had once been wealthy but had
squandered all his fortune. The young couple had
two children, one son and one daughter; the latter
died in infancy, while the former, after receiving a
splendid education in Paris and devoting himself for
some time to literature, was given a post in the com*
missariat. He in turn married and had one son,
Henriette's future husband.

The Dauphine soon began to treat her secretary
and librarian with such confidence that the Abb^ de
Vermond, one of the future queen's many bad angels,
became jealous of the Frenchman, which jealousy the
Dauphine explained to her secretary in the following
compliment : —

'' The Abb^ my dear Campan, does not love you ;

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

he did not think that I should find on my arrival in
France a man who would suit me as perfectly as
you do."

As we have already seen, the young Dauphine's
education, like that of her husband's aunts, left much
to be desired ; she found music, perhaps, less irksome
than any other study, and soon after her marris^e she
asked M. Campan to allow his son, who sang very
well, to give her singing-lessons in secret, saying as
her reason : " The Dauphine must be careful of the
archduchess's reputation." So hard did she work that,
at the end of three months, she could read music at
sight and sang so well that she astonished the professor
who had first been called in to instruct hen

Marie Antoinette cared little or nothing about
literature or painting ; so bad a judge was she that
she allowed the most incompetent artists to paint her
portrait — which accounts, perhaps, for the hideous
portraits of her " discovered " from time to time —
and her one idea when she went to the Louvre seemed
to be to get away as soon as possible, for she never took
the trouble to examine any single picture in detail.

Although Mesdames were frequently at variance
with their nephew's wife, they seem to have agreed
that the son of the Dauphine's secretary and librarian
would make a suitable husband for their little lectrice ;
and so Henriette Genest was given in marriage to the
amateur singing-master, when the Dauphine appointed
the bride to be her waiting-woman, at the same time
permitting her to retain her post as lectrice to
Mesdames.

Mme Campan soon found that her advancement
had won her an enemy in the person of the Abbd de

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AMATEUR THEATRICALS

Vermond; as Ucteur to the Dauphine, he objected
to the young woman reading aloud to his mistress.
However, the latter's passion for being read to gave
her the courage to insist that her waiting-woman should
read to her whenever she wished, and so the Abb6
had to give in. The Dauphine learnt to prize M.
Campan's services during those first years of married
life» for she found him and his son invaluable in help-
ing her to arrange the amateur theatricals with which
she endeavoured to kill time. Now the Dauphine
stood in considerable awe of her husband's grandfather,
and did not wish him to know how she and the comtes
d'Artois and de Provence amused themselves. How-
ever, these entertainments came to an untimely end
owing to the following adventure. One day the
Dauphine told M. Campan to go to her boudoir and
fetch something which she had forgotten ; M. Campan,
dressed as a crisping with his face highly rouged, was
descending the secret staircase leading to the boudoir
when he thought he heard somebody following him,
so he quickly slipped behind a door — not so quickly
but that somebody heard him and saw him disappear
into a dark comer. Being of an inquisitive nature
and probably suspecting an intrigue — they were of
such frequent occurrence! — ^the amateur detective
pushed the door open. However, he was unprepared
for the grotesque sight which met his gaze, and he fell
back half fainting and screaming with all his might.
M. Campan picked him up and, begging him to stop
yelling if he did not wish to bring trouble upon himself
and others, recommended him to say nothing about
his fright On hearing of the incident, the Dauphine,
^ Crupin : a comic part played by a footman in one of Moli^'s plays.

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

fearing lest the harmless adventure should be turned
into a crime, ceased to indulge her passion for amateur
theatricals.

Mme Campan's position was somewhat painful in
that she more frequently heard her young mistress
blamed than praised. The Dauphine had at first tried
to live in peace with her husband's aunts, but she soon
found that she was hated by nearly all her new rela-
tions : Mesdames^ and the comtesses de Provence and
d'Artois (the latter perhaps had good cause to do so)
did not spare her. The Abb6 Baudeau* writing in
1774, when she was enjoying her new title of queen»
said : " They {Mesdames) let fly red-hot bullets at the
queen. It is all the fault of the old aunts, who are ever
on the war-path ; they are the instigators of the
detestable satires directed against her person. ..."

When their nephew protested against their conduct,
they threatened to retire to Fontevrault — but it was
only an idle threat.

Maria Theresa was well aware of Mesdames'
animosity towards her daughter, and in a letter to
Mercy-Argenteau, the Austrian Ambassador at the
Court of Louis xvi and Marie Antoinette, to whom he
was sincerely attached, begged him to warn her
daughter against the advice of Mesdames, '* who had
neither won the affection nor the respect of the French
nation."

In consequence of Mesdames very inimical be-
haviour towards his young wife, Louis xvi, notwith-
standing the fact that Madame Adelaide at one time
had exercised considerable influence over him, hinted
in 1775 that his aunts had better retire to Bellevue,
which estate they accordingly purchased at the cost

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MESDAMES RETIRE TO BELLEVUE

of 724,337 Uvres, with 50,000 /wres compensation to
M. de Champcenetz, the owner, for being turned out
of his house. M. le comte de Fleury in his Drames
de thistoire says that more bishops than politicians
were seen at Bellevue ; the truth was that Mesdames
kept a very good table and possessed a cook who
excelled in the art of making insipid Lenten fare taste
as delicious as any other ; indeed, as the same author
expresses it: "He was renowned even in Paris for
turning fish into meat"

When Mesdames retired to Bellevue, M. Campan
pire was given the post of master of the wardrobe to
those ladies; but his daughter-in-law, as waiting-
woman to the queen, was obliged to relinquish the
post of ltctrice\ she must have regretted her first
mistresses, who, although often harsh and disagreeable
to others, had never been otherwise than kind and
indulgent to her.

Mme Campan's fellow waiting-women were Mme
de Misery and Mme la comtesse de Noailles; the
former was the daughter of the comte de Chamant
and was related to the de Montmorency family through
her mother. Like Mme de Noailles she was a slave
to etiquette, and unfortunately she had no taste in the
matter of dress and fashion. When her term of
service came, Marie Antoinette used laughingly to
say to her ladies : " Now you must look out ; here's the
empress-queen coming!" Mme Campan relates an
amusing scene which Mme de Noailles, Madame
t Etiquette, did not at all enjoy. She says : " One day
I unintentionally put this poor lady to a terrible amount
of suffering. The queen was receiving somebody or
the other — ^some new presentation, I think. The

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

maids of honour and the ladies of the palace were
standing behind her ; I was close to her bed with the
two other waiting-women then on duty. Everything
was going quite smoothly (at least I thought so) when
I suddenly noticed that Mme de Noailles was staring
very hard at me; she nodded her head and then
worked her eyebrows up and down at a furious rate,
all the while making signs with her hands. This
extraordinary pantomime made me suspect that some-
thing was wrong; the countess became still more
agitated when I began to look all round me in order
to find out what was the matter. The queen, noticing
my bewilderment, looked at me and smiled ; I then
manned to get near her Majesty, who whispered to
me : ' Unfasten your lappets or the countess will
expire ! ' All this fuss was because I had forgotten
to remove the two pins which secured my lappets,
whereas the ladies that day had been commanded to
appear with their lappets unfastened."

Mme Campan, according to Leonard, the queen's
hairdresser, must have been a very taking little person
at that time ; he speaks of her pretty face, sparkling
wit, and wonderful conversational gifts which study
had perfected; he giv.es us to understand, however,
that the pretty waiting-woman encouraged her young
mistress to be extravagant, for he says : —

'' She was always careful to anticipate the queen's
desires and never troubled herself to ask the price
of anything ; thanks to her felicitous and numerous
innovations (which I and Mile Bertin^ seconded to

^ Rosa Bertm was immensely proud of the fact that the queen
deigned to consult her opinion, and her pride was still more increased
by the favour of the Empress Josephine, who made her mtmsirt des mcdis.

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THE DUCHESSE DE POLI6NAC

the best of our ability) her Majesty's extravagance
soon knew no bounds. ..."

We find Mme Campan during the Empire accused*
rightly or wrongly, of allowing her pupils to be
extravagant in the matter of dress.

Notwithstanding Marie Antoinette's love of pretty
things, she, like her brother Joseph ii, was peculiarly
averse to giving presents to her household; other
persons, however — the duchesse de Polignac for
instance, the queen's favourite — ^were more favoured.
Mme Campan says of this woman : —

'* She was grace personified ; she did not care for
jewellery. I do not think I ever saw her wear her
diamonds, not even when she was at the height of
her good fortune."

Mme Campan was less lenient to the queen's
friend when she wrote many years later to the duchesse
de Saint- Leu : —

** The queen chose as her favourite the amiable,
naive duchesse de Polignac, who lived quite openly
with M. de Vaudreuil ; the comtesse Diane, her sister,
was known to have several lovers — so little did people
care for morality ! The public noticed that, although
the king and queen's married life was absolutely blame-
less, they were not overburdened with scruples, and so
advantage was taken of that fact"

The Ahh6 de Vermond looked upon Marie

Antoinette's friendship for the duchesse de Polignac

with great disfavour ; jealousy, or perhaps a desire to

put an end to the queen's infatuation, prompted him

After Josephine's death, a lady went to Mile Benin's establishment and
asked to be shown some mourning suitable for the occasion, whereupon
MUe Bertin called out to one of her assistants : ** Show Madame some
examples of my last work with her Majesty."

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

to leave Versailles ; whereupon Marie Antoinette, who,
at that time, considered that she still had need of his
services, sent the comte de Mercy-Argenteau to
persuade him to return. But before consenting to do
so, the astute ecclesiastic submitted to the queen a
long list of conditions which she must fulfil if she
wished to see his face again ; after reproaching his
royal mistress for not having written to him lately, for
her foolish intimacy with the duchesse de Polignac
and for allowing that woman's family to exercise bad
influence over her; after complaining that she had
begun to scorn his advice, he swore that he himself
was devoid of all personal ambition, that he only
wanted to regain her confidence, impressed upon her
that in future she must write to him with her own
hand, and then ended with a demand that she would
increase his salary to 20,000 francs ; to this last con-
dition, the most important of all, the queen must
promise to consent or he would never again set foot
in the palace of Versailles. He got his own way, and
was back in his old place before another week had
elapsed.

Mme Campan's memoirs do not contain many
references to the queen's extravagance, which was
to be the last straw on the back of the long-suffering
nation. She mentions, however, a ffete given by the
queen at the Trianons in order to show what a
different view people take of the same event according
to their political opinions.

"The queen," says she, "twice caused her little
garden at Trianon to be illuminated ; a few hundred
miserable bundles of faggots were burnt in the ditches
in order to light up the foliage of the different trees,

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MME CAMPAN'S DUTIES

but the Court alone was admitted to these f6tes;
according to the strange rumours which were spread
abroad, it would seem as if every forest in the land
had been burnt down and the entire country devas-
tated. Why ? because the public was and could not
be admitted to these entertainments. . . . Never were
so many fireworks let off or so much money spent on
illuminations as during the Revolution ; those f&tes
were paid for with the nation's money. Did anybody
complain ? No, because the public shared in them/'

It was M. Campan's duty to organize the f6tes at
the Trianons, and right regally does he seem to
have fulfilled that duty.

Marie Antoinette's extravagance displayed itself
more in a passion for jewellery and rich furniture than
in fine clothes. She usually had twelve new Court-
dresses made at the beginning of the winter, twelve
simpler costumes, and twelve dresses with panniers
which she wore in the evening when playing cards or
supping in her private apartments. The same number
of dresses was ordered for summer wear. At the end
of each season her wardrobe was overhauled and two
or three costumes given away. As waiting- woman to
Marie Antoinette, it was Mme Campan's duty to see
that her mistress's wardrobe was kept in order.

Marie Antoinette's extravagance pales before
Josephine's mania for buying new clothes; for the
latter, while still only the wife of the First Consul,
owed her tradespeople the sum of 1,200,000 francs.
Did she not possess six hundred costumes at one
time ? and were not thirty new bonnets ordered every
month ? She practised no economy where dress was
concerned, whereas Mme Campan tells us that her

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

mistress made her spring costumes serve again for
the autumn.

M. Campan pir$ had given his daughter-in-law
some very excellent advice soon after she entered the
young Dauphine's service ; after recommending her
to avoid trying to obtain her mistress's confidence, a
dangerous trust, he said : —

' '' Serve her with zeal and intelligence, and always
be quick to obey."

Mme Campan soon discovered that she possessed
considerable influence over her young mistress ; the
queen treated her as her equal — ^the (Eil de Bosuf^,
she says, knew it and hated her accordingly. What
was more natural than that Mme Campan should
endeavour to turn the queen's thoughts to something
less frivolous than amateur theatricals, dances, and
masquerades ? She would plead for some unfortunate
family, or beg for advancement for some deserving
workman. Good M. Campan /^fv tried in the follow-
ing words to persuade the queen to cease reading
those insipid and ofttimes harmful novels which were
then the fashion in France, a fashion which like a
good many others equally foolish had come from
across the water : —

"What can your Majesty possibly learn from
those wretched books ?" said he. " Milord Lindsay's
passion for the orphan Anna, their meeting at a
wayside inn, the tribulations of the young miss, the
picture of middle-class society, the account of a masked
ball, an adventure with a rope-ladder, a conflagration,

^ CEil de Beeuf: an anteroom in the palace of Versailles, so called
from its round window ; it was a favourite meeting-place for courders
and place-seekers.

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THE QUEEN'S FRIVOLOUS TASTES

an elopement, a shipwreck, persecuted lovers? . . .
Read rather, Madame, of the prosperity, of the good
deeds, of the misfortunes and of the faults of sovereigns ;
make these a daily study. . • . History, of which men
(and especially women) usually only talk in order to
show off their learning, ought to be the sovereign's
Bible ; it should be read every day ; every page, as a
truth born of experience, should be engraved on the
mind as a useful and most valuable possession."

To this long rigmarole the queen listened atten-
tively and with docility ; she then replied : —

" You are quite right. Monsieur, let us read history
at once. Let us begin with Roman history ; another
day we will read Anacharsis or some French history."

Alas for good resolutions! on the morrow, M.
Campan invariably found, on presenting himself before
the queen, that she had changed her mind and was
engrossed in some trashy novel in five or six volumes
lately translated into French for her especial edifica-
tion ; she would say in an off-hand manner : —

** Do not come to-morrow, for I am reading a book
which I want to enjoy all by myself."

Years afterwards Mme Campan, probably thinking
of Marie Antoinette, wrote to Hortense de Beau-
hamais : —

" I have good reason to hate novels ; they nearly
ruined a woman who, with her natural good sense and
her elevated mind, might have saved France and left
the greatest name to posterity. I begged her on my
knees, with tears in my eyes, to give up this fatal
habit ; but she could not break herself of it."

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CHAPTER III

The duties of the queen's waiting-woman^A day at Versailles— Marie
Antoinette adopts a little peasant-boy — Birth of the queen's eldest
child— Mesmer pays a visit to Paris— M. Campan tries one of the
fiunous physician's cures — Birth of the first Dauphin — Indiscreet
well-wishers — The young mother receives a deputation from the
ladies of the Paris markets — ^The comtes d'Haga and du Nord pay
a visit to Versailles — Madame Royale goes to see her great-aunt
Louise.

Mme Campan's place as waiting-woman to the queen
was no sinecure; she had to supervise the other
waiting-women, to receive her royal mistress's orders,
to superintend her toilet, order her carriages, and
prepare for the few, short journeys taken by the
Court Not only did the queen's chief waiting-
woman have charge of her Majesty's jewels and
privy-purse, but she had to pay the numerous suite
and to reply to the still more numerous troop of
beggars of all ages and all classes and to content
everybody. She had to take the place of any absent
lady-in-waiting, and as such she had to usher the
queen's visitors into her Majesty's presence.

It is amusing to learn from her memoirs that
Mme Campan's salary of 12,000 francs a year was
considerably augmented by the sale of the candles
used to light Marie Antoinette's private apartments,
a nice little perquisite representing the sum of 38,000
francs a year, which candles she, as chief waiting-

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THE DUTIES OF A WAITING- WOMAN

woman, had the right to take away every evening
whether they had been lighted or not But it was
not until Mme Campan had been some years in the
queen's service that she and her sister, Adelaide
Augui4 also waiting-woman to Marie Antoinette,
were allowed to dispose of their mistress's discarded
clothing to their friends — another and a still more
valuable perquisite. Adelaide Augui^ was almost as
great a favourite with Marie Antoinette as her sister ;
the queen had given her 7000 francs and some valu*
able jewels at the time of her marriage to M. Augui^
a commissary-general of subsistence in the army, with
a promise to the bridegroom of advancement; this
promise was soon after fulfilled, for M. Augui^ was
given the receiver-generalship of the duchy of Bar
and Lorraine, a post worth nearly 100,000 francs a
year.

Mme Campan describes her duties in the following
words : —

'' The queen was usually called at eight o'clock in
the morning and breakfasted at nine either in bed or
sitting on a sofa with a little table by her side. Her
Majesty frequently received visitors at this time ; her
doctor, her chief surgeon, her reader, her secretary,
the king's four principal footmen and his physicians
and surgeons, had the right to be admitted to her
presence; there were often ten or twelve persons
present.

" It was the duty of the lady-in-waiting to arrange
the queen's breakfast on her bed or by her sofa ; the
princesse de Lamballe^ very frequently fulfilled this

^ The friend of Marie Antoinette and one of the victims of the
September massacres.

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

duty when she happened to be present The queen's
abstemiousness was remarkable ; she either had coffee
or chocolate for breakfast ; she ate nothing but white
meat at dinner, only drank water and supped off a
plate of soup, a chicken wing, and a glass of water in
which she used to dip litde biscuits. . . . The queen
having got out of bed, the mistress of the wardrobe
was admitted that she might take away the pillows
and prepare the bed for the footmen to make. She
then drew the curtains, leaving the bed to be made
when the queen had gone to Mass. This same lady
prepared the water for washing the queen's feet when
her Majesty did not take a bath. Except when she
was at Saint-Cloud, where she had a bathroom ad-
joining her bedroom, the queen used a sabot^ which
was rolled in and out of her room ; after the bath the
queen's waiting-women entered. The queen took
her bath clad in a long chemise of English flannel
buttoned down to the hem, with collar and cuffs lined
with soft linen. On getting out of her bath, the chief
lady-in-waiting held a sheet so as to conceal her
Majesty from the waiting-women, and then flung it
over the queen's shoulders. The bathing-women
having rolled her up in it, she was carefully dried;
she then put on a very long, loose-fitting night-dress,
richly trimmed with lace, and a white silk dressing-
gown. The waiting-women having warmed the bed,
the queen thus clad lay down in bed again, and the
bathing-women and footmen removed the sabot. On
the days when the queen took a bath, she always ate
her breakfast while in her bath. It was the maid-of-

^ Sab0t\ a bath shaped like a huge shoe ; seeprintsof the assassina-
tion of Marat

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A VICTIM TO ETIQUETTE

honour's duty when her Majesty did not have a bath,
to pour out the water for her to wash her hands and
to put her chemise over her head ; this duty she re-
linguished whenever a princess belonging to the royal
family happened to be present, in which case she
handed the chemise to the chief lady-in-waiting, who
then presented it to the princess. . . . The queen
happened one cold winter's day to be already un-
dressed and about to put on her chemise; I was
holding it out to her when a maid-of-honour entered,
tore off her gloves and took the chemise from my
hands. Somebody was heard knocking at the door ;
it was opened and Mme la duchesse d'Orl^ans
entered ; she immediately took off her gloves and
advanced in order to take the chemise ; however, as
it was not the maid-of-honour's place to give it into
her hands, she gave it to me and I presented it to the
princess. Again somebody was heard knocking at
the door ; this time it was Mme la comtesse de
Provence, whereupon the duchess presented the
chemise to her. Meanwhile the queen was standing
with her arms crossed over her chest and seemed to
be feeling very cold. Madame, seeing how uncom-
fortable her Majesty looked, forebore to waste more
time by removing her gloves and merely dropped her
handkerchief; in putting the chemise over the queen's
head, she pulled the latter's hair down, whereupon
her Majesty began to laugh in order to hide her
annoyance, while she muttered between her teeth : —

" • How odious ! what a horrible fuss about
nothing ! '

" The queen's official toilet took place at midday.
The dressing-table was pushed into the middle of
D 49

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

the room ; this piece of furniture was usually the
handsomest and most ornamented in the royal
apartment. . . •

"The queen slept in a bodice trimmed with
ribbon, the sleeves were covered with lace and there
was a lace fichu. The queen's dressing-gown was
presented to her by her chief waiting-woman if she
happened to be alone ; or if the maids-of-honour were
present, that duty devolved upon them. At midday
those ladies who had waited upon the queen for the
last twenty-four hours were relieved by two waiting-
women in full dress. Anybody having the grands
entrie was now admitted ; folding-stools were brought
and placed in a circle for the superintendent, the
maids-of-honour, and the governess of the Children of
France when she happened to be present

'' The duties of the ladies of the palace, which did
not include any menial services, only commenced
when the queen left her private apartments in order
to go to Mass ; these ladies waited in the large study
and entered when her toilet was completed. The
princes of the blood royal, the officers of the king's
body-guard, and other officials paid their respects to
the queen while her hair was being dressed. The
queen either nodded her head, bowed slightly, or else
bent over her toilet-table when any princes of the
blood entered. The king's brothers usually came to
pay their duty to her Majesty at this moment
During the first years of her reign she dressed in her
bedroom, that is to say the maid-of-honour helped the
queen to put on her chemise and poured out the
water for her to wash her hands. But when the
young queen began to pay more attention to fashion*

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SOME IMPOLITE VISITORS

when head-dresses became so high that ladies had to
step into their chemises ; when, in short, she wished
Mile Bertin to attend at her toilet (Mile Bertin, to
whom the queen's ladies had refused the honour of
attending their mistress), her Majesty ceased to dress
in her bedroom. So, having courtesied to all the
company, the queen would retire to her dressing-room
to finish her toilet. . . ."

Marie Antoinette's first years of married life were
clouded by the fact that she had borne her husband
no children. When, in 1775, she had to assist at the
accouchement of her sister-in-law, the comtesse
d'Artois, whose marriage was of more recent date
than her own, she had a very unpleasant experience,
for, on coming out of the young mother's room, she
ran into the arms of a deputation of fishwives, who
pursued her to her own apartments, making uncom-
plimentary remarks concerning her unwillingness or
inability to supply an heir to the throne. The
comtesse d'Artois became quite popular, only for a
time, however, for she was generally insignificant and
had no pretensions to beauty, her rather fresh com-
plexion being spoilt by a long thin nose.

Marie Antoinette proved herself in the day of
trouble far too good a mother not to have been
endowed with similar feelings to those which had
made the little Henriette Genest long to play the
mother to all the babies she happened to know.
Mme Campan tells us that Marie Antoinette, until
she had children of her own, was in the habit of
petting and spoiling her servants' children. Still she
was not content; and while looking about for a
suitable child to adopt as her own, a happy accident

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

enabled her to find what she was looking for. Mme
Campan relates the incident as follows : —

" One day, while the queen was driving through
the village of Saint-Michel near Luciennes, a pretty,
blue-eyed, fair-haired, little child of four years of age,
the picture of health, ran in front of her horses.
When the coachman and the postillions had stopped
the carriage and dragged the child from beneath the
horses* hoofs, it was discovered that he had not got
so much as a scratch. His grandmother rushed to the
door of her cottage in order to fetch him, but the
queen, standing up in her carriage, stretched out her
arms towards the old peasant woman, crying that the
child must belong to her, that Fate had given him to
her to comfort her, doubtless, until she had a child of
her own.

'* * Is his mother alive } * asked she.

** * No, Madame,' replied the peasant-woman, ' my
daughter died last winter, leaving me with five little
children to feed.'

" ' I will take this one and see that the others do
not want for anything. Do you consent ? * asked the
queen.

" ' Oh ! Madame, they will be only too happy,' was
the answer ; * but Jacques is a very naughty boy :
will he stay with you f '

" The queen took litde Jacques on her knee, said
that he would soon get accustomed. to her, and ordered
her coachman to drive on. The drive came to a
sudden end, so frightfully did Jacques scream and so
lustily did he kick the queen and her ladies. Marie
Antoinette's household at Versailles was much
astonished when she appeared holding the litde

5«

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LITTLE JACQUES IS REBAPTIZED

village brat by the hand ; he yelled with all his might,
bawled out that he wanted his grandam, his brother
Louis, his sister Marianne; nothing silenced him.
He was carried to the wife of one of the queen's
servants, who was to be his nurse. The other children
were boarded out Two days later little Jacques,
now called Armand, was brought to see the queen : a
white, lace-trimmed frock, a pink sash with a silver
fringe and a hat covered with plumes had taken the
place of the worsted cap, red petticoat, and wooden
shoes. The child was really very beautiful. The
queen was delighted; he came to see her every
morning at nine o'clock, and breakfasted and dined
with her when the king was often present. Though
nobody ever heard her give vent to the regret with
which her heart was filled, she loved to fondle him
and call him * my child. . . / "

When in 1778 these futile attempts to appease
her maternal instincts were rendered unnecessary by
the knowledge that she would soon havo a child of
her own, poor little Jacques^ and his brothers and
sisters were as completely forgotten as if they had
never existed Royalty soon wearies of its pup-
pets.

A few days before the birth of Marie Antoinette's
first child, the Court was amazed by the discovery of
a bundle of libellous songs concerning the queen's
favourites which somebody had flung through the
(Ell de Bosuf. A fortnight later the writer's name was

^ Jacques showed that he, too, had a short memory when he became
one of Marie Antoinette's most bitter enemies. Having volunteered
during the Revolution to defend his &therland, he was killed at the
battle of Jemappes (i 792).

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

in everybody's mouth: it was M. de Champcenetz,*
from whom Mesdames had purchased the estate of
Bellevue. However, everything is forgiven to a wag,
and his crime was soon forgotten.

The nation had expressed great delight at the
thought that the queen was about to provide an heir
to the throne of France ; so when it was known that
the long-expected child was a girl, the future Orphan
of the Temple, many persons were genuinely dis-
appointed. The queen was in much danger at one
time, and it was feared that she would lose her life.
The comte d'Esterhazy and the prince de Poix had
worked themselves up into such a state of nervousness
and excitement that when Mme Campan came to
inform them that the queen was no longer in danger,
they fell upon her neck and kissed her with tears
running down their pale faces.

The France of those days was scarcely less
superstitious than her neighbours, Spain and Italy.
Soon after the queen had begun to resume her daily
habits, M. Campan pire received a letter from the
cur^ of the Madeleine asking him to fix a secret
interview. During that interview M. Campan was
much astonished to see the cur^ hand him a little box
containing a wedding ring, with a request that he
would give it to the queen in secret and adding :
" While hearing a confession I received this ring, the
queen's wedding ring, which was stolen from her in
1 77 1 by somebody who wished to bewitch her and
prevent her bearing children."

^ When M. de Champcenetz was arrested and dragged before the
revolutionary tribunal, he asked, on hearing himself sentenced to death,
whether he could not find somebody to take his place.

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MESMER VISITS PARIS

M. Campan was still more astonished when, on
returning the ring to the queen, she told him that she
had lost it seven years ago while washing her hands,
but that suspecting the reason for which it had been
stolen, she had refrained from endeavouring to trace
the thief lest she should be thought superstitious.

Among the famous persons who flocked to Paris
about this time was Mesmer, who first became known
to the world as the author of the work, De planetarum
infltiXHy published while he was in Vienna, where he
had amazed everybody by his theories concerning
animal magnetism. His appearance in the French
capital was hailed with delight by a crowd of idle folk
keen for any new sensation. The Faculty, however,
at first received his attempts to show what power the
mind exercises over diseases of the body with derision,
for which, as he foolishly made a mystery of his
magnetic power, which he called his *' secret" and
refused to sell to the government for the sum of
20,000 livres^ he was partly responsible. His ''tub
treatment" was undoubtedly a precursor of the
electrical baths of to-day.

Mesmer, tall, handsome, with the imposing manner
and the deep-set eye of the bom mesmerist, became
the talk of the day. On first setting up in Paris, he
treated the poor gratuitously, and then began with a
few paying patients whom he consented to tend in
his own splendidly furnished apartment for ten louis
a month. He soon raised his terms, however, where-
upon his patients grew more and more numerous.
One of the forms of treatment consisted of the famous
baquets or tubs ; the patients were seated in a circle
round a covered tub from which protruded a number

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

of ropes and wires which could be moved in any
direction ; the ropes having been fastened round the
patients' bodies, they were instructed to seize hold of
the wires and apply them to any painful spot At a
given signal the patients dropped the wires and joined
hands : this was called '* making a chain." The
treatment was carried on in a darkened room to the
accompaniment of hidden music and was interrupted
by frequent fits of hysterics among the patients.
A prolonged siance usually ended with a chorus of
insane laughter and yells of agony.

The baquets were as numerous as the diseases
which they were supposed to cure : they included not
only la femme baquet and rkomme baquet, but also
le cheval baquet ^ le chien baqtut^ la paule baquet, le
mouton baquet. Fane baquet \ there were likewise
"moral" and "vicious tubs," warranted to cure
diseases of the soul.

Mme Campan's husband happened to be in poor
health at the time of Mesmer's appearance in the
French capital; she gives her own experience of
Mesmer's methods of curing disease in the following
amusing anecdote : —

" My husband, like many another who wanted to
be in the fashion, was a partisan of Mesmer. It was
quite the thing to be magnetized ; it was more than a
craze, it was a mania. One heard of nothing in the
Paris salons but this brilliant discovery ; people were
to live for ever. The public went quite crazy and im-
agined all sorts of ridiculous things; everybody wanted
to have his or herself mesmerized. Mesmer's peculiar
phraseology had produced this strange state of affairs.
The only way to put a stop to the craze was to get

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A STRANGE CURE

the Court to buy the secret, on which its owner had
placed an extremely high price; 50,000 /cus had
already been offered. By a very strange chance I
happened one day to find myself at one of these
stances of somnambulism : to great was the enthusiasm
of the numerous spectators that many of them rolled
their eyes and made hideous faces ; a stranger might
have thought himself in a lunatic asylum. Astonished
to see so many persons almost delirious, I retired in
disgust

'' My husband was suffering at that time from
inflammation of the lungs ; he had himself taken to
Mesmer's house. When I entered M. Campan's sick-
room, I asked the thaumaturgus what treatment he
proposed to prescribe. He replied with the greatest
coolness that, in order to obtain a prompt and
permanent cure, he must place either a dark-haired
young woman, a black hen, or an empty botde in the
sick man's bed next his heart

" ' Monsieur,' said I, 'if it is all the same to you,
I should prefer the empty bottle.'

''The illness made rapid strides; the patient's
breathing became laboured, his chest was sore; the
magnetic cures had no effect Mesmer, perceiving
that his patient was no better, seized the opportunity
when I happened to be absent from the sick-room in
order to put blisters on the invalid; I was not in-
formed of this fact until the latter was well again. M.
Campan was later asked to write a testimonial stating
that he had been cured by magnetism alone ; he did
so. This act shows to what lengths an enthusiast
will go ; truth has no power over such a person. On
returning to the palace, their Majesties asked me what

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

I thought of Mesmer's discovery ; I told them what
had happened, and expressed my indignation at such a
shameless charlatan. It was immediately decided that
no more was to be said about buying the secret. . . ."

When in 1781 the queen had fresh hopes of
becoming a mother, her joy knew no bounds. Mme
Campan, although delighted at her royal mistress's
good spirits, was sometimes tempted to curb her, at
least so L^nard, the queen's hairdresser, tells us.

•'One morning before the birth of the queen's
second child," says he, "I found her Majesty in
such a good humour that I ventured to make one
or two diverting remarks while I was dressing her
hair. Mme Campan began making signs to me to
stop my ceaseless flow of conversation, but Marie
Antoinette laughed until the tears came into her eyes
and said : —

•"Go on, Leonard, go on ; how very amusing ! ' "

And, nothing loath, L^nard begins, notwithstand-
ing Mme Campan's frowns and signs to cease, one of
those so-called witty but in reality highly indecorous
anecdotes with which his memoirs are filled, and this
to the queen's evident satisfaction.

With what delight did Louis xvi learn on October
22» 1 78 1, that his wife had given him the longed-for
heir. Mme Campan witnessed his joy ; she tells us
how the tears streamed from his eyes whenever he
looked at the baby, whom he was never tired of
calling "my son" and "the Dauphin," and about
whom he would talk whenever he could find somebody
willing to listen to him, how he wanted to shake hands
with everybody, and how this newly found happiness
completely changed his somewhat reserved character.

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THE BIRTH OF THE FIRST DAUPHIN

One of the happiest results of the child's birth was
that it not only brought the parents nearer together,
but it also gave satisfaction to a certain portion of the
nation. That satisfaction, however, like the little
one^s life, was of short duration.

Mme Campan paints an interesting picture of
how the Parisians manifested their pleasure on this
occasion : —

''The different corporations of Paris spent consider-
able sums on expeditions to Versailles ; their arrival,
clad in elegant habiliments and carrying their different
emblems, made a very pleasant scene ; nearly all of
them had bands marching at their head. On entering
the courtyard of the palace they displayed much intelli-
gence in the way in which they arranged themselves
in groups. Chimney-sweeps, as finely dressed as any
stage chimney-sweep, bore a highly decorated chimney
on the top of which one of their smallest members
was perched ; chairmen carried a much gilded sedan-
chair in which sat a beautiful nounou holding a little
Dauphin in her lap ; the butchers appeared with their
fat ox; the pastry-cooks, the bricklayers, the lock-
smiths — all trades were represented ; the farriers were
striking on an anvil ; the shoemakers were making a
little pair of boots for the Dauphin, the tailors a little
regimental uniform. ..."

The king watched the scene from his balcony,
that same balcony upon which Marie Antoinette
stood eight years later and heard that horrible cry :
"No children!"

But what malcontent, fatalist, or philosopher
prompted the Paris grave-diggers to send a deputa-
tion bearing a tiny coffin, two spades, and a little

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

tombstone? Madame Sophie, the Ugly Duckling,
was the first to notice the spoil-sports ; half choking
with fury she hobbled off to her nephew's apartment
and demanded that he should have the ''insolent
fellows " turned out of the procession.

It was Mme Campan's duty to receive fifty ladies
from the Paris halles clad in their best clothes — in
m^ny cases, a black silk dress and diamonds. Three
of these dames were then ushered into the young
mother's bedroom, when one of their number, who
had a fine speaking voice and was pretty into the
bargain, pulled a fan from her pocket and began to
read a speech written on the back of it from the pen
of M. de La Harpe, whose political opinions, like the
fan, had an obverse and a reverse. The queen was
more gracious to the ladies from the markets than
to the fishwives, whose remarks upon her sterility
had caused her to shed many a tear. However, the
fishwives were determined not to be behind hand, so
they came to Versailles and made numerous speeches.
To the happy father they said : " We are now con-
vinced that our children will be as happy as we have
been, for this child will resemble you."

When brought to the queen's bedside, they de-
clared : " We have loved you so long without daring
to tell you so, Madame, that we have need of all our
respect in order not to abuse the permission to speak
out"

They then proceeded to harangue Manseigneur U
Dauphin while he lay in his lace-trimmed cradle ; he
probably continued to suck his thumb in sublime
disdain, or perhaps he puckered up his mouth and
made faces at his loyal subjects. To him they said : —

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MESDAMES GIVE BAD ADVICE

"You cannot understand the wishes which we
now make around your cradle; but some day you
will be told how our dearest wish is to see you
resemble the authors of your being."

But it is a far cry from Paris to Versailles, and the
ladies were glad of the dinner which the king provided
for them. '* Many of the inhabitants of Versailles came
to see them at dinner," says Mme Campan. Before
returning to the capital the guests sang the following
song in honour of the new little Dauphin : —

^'Ne daignez pas, cher papa,
DVoir augmenter vot' famille,
Le bon Dieu zV pourvoira :
Fait '8-en-tant qa' Versiulle en fourmille ;
'Y eut-il cent Bourbons cheu nous,
^Y a du pain, du laurier pour tous."

Mme Campan does not say what her mistress
replied to these polite speeches ; however, she describes
how the king's aunts were in the habit of acting on
similar occasions : —

'* Mesdames no longer took the trouble to articu-
late any reply. Madame Adelaide scolded the queen
for not following their example, assuring her that she
need only mumble a few words, for the speech-
makers, completely taken up with their own perform-
ance, would be sure to declare that she had said the
very thing she ought to say."

In her work, De t J^ducatian^ Mme Campan says :
'* Education begins in the cradle," and goes on to
depict the trials of peasant-women uprooted from
their healthy homes and transplanted to the capital ;
she ends by begging her readers to be very careful in
their choice of a nurse for their children.

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

" I myself saw the first Dauphin's nurse suddenly
become enormously stout owing to want of exercise.
She used to be sent to walk up and down the terrace ;
but this exercise was quite insufficient for a country-
woman, and the young prince's bad health was later
attributed to his nurse's excessive stoutness."

In the following year the Court of Versailles was
visited by two princes, who, like their hosts, were to
perish by the hands of their faithful subjects ; they
were the king of Sweden,^ who travelled as the comte
d'Haga, and the comte du Nord, the future czar
Paul I.* Many ffetes were given in their honour.
Mme Campan noticed that the king and queen were
much more at their ease with the future czar than
with the comte d'Haga, whom the queen positively
disliked notwithstanding his friendship for France.
Marie Antoinette was never a good judge of character,
and she made a mistake in preferring the comte du
Nord to the comte d'Haga.

Mme Campan overheard a conversation between
Louis xvi and the future czar ; the French king having
incautiously asked his guest if it was true that he
could not trust a single member of his suite, the
comte du Nord replied in the presence of a number of
persons that the rumour was quite correct, and added
that he dared not keep a favourite dog, because he
was sure that his mother would order it to be thrown
into the Seine with a stone round its neck.

^ Gusiavus itt^ king of Sweden (1746- 1792}, was assassinated while
at a ball by Ankarstroem, the leader of a conspiracy.

' /'at^/(Petrowitch}, czar of Russia from 1796 to 1801, succeeded his
mother, Catherine 11. After having joined the second coalition against
France, he concluded an alliance with Napoleon. He was likewise
assassinated.

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COMTE D'HAGA COMES TO VERSAILLES

The comte d'Haga's visit caused Mme Campan to
spend many unpleasant quarters of an hour owing to
a little habit he had of dropping in to dinner or supper
uninvited ; and though no one would suspect that the
arrival of an unexpected guest was calculated to
cause Marie Antoinette's cook to imitate the immortal
Vatel, it would seem that the queen either feigned^ or
really entertained doubts as to whether the royal
larder could stand the strain of an extra guest Mme
Campan says : —

'*He came one day without an invitation and
without having given notice, and asked the queen to
let him stay to dinner. She received him in her
boudoir and immediately sent for me. She then
commanded me to interview her ^^ir/' without further
delay, and to find out if there was enough dinner for
M. le comte d'Haga, and to add something if there
was not sufficient. The king of Sweden assured her
that he was quite certain there would be enough for him,
at which I, thinking of the huge meal which was
always prepared for the king and queen, and more
than half of which never appeared upon the table
when their Majesties dined alone, smiled involuntarily.

" The queen signed to me to leave the room, which
I did. In the evening the queen asked me why I
had seemed so taken aback when she ordered me to
add to the dinner if it was not suifficient, and observed
that I ought to have seen that she wanted to give the
king of Sweden a lesson in politeness. I confessed to
her that the whole afifair had reminded me so strongly
of a scene often enacted in less wealthy homes, that I
had immediately thought of ordering grilled cudets
and an omelet, the usual fare when an unexpected

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

guest turns up. She laughed heartily at my reply,
and repeated it to the king, who also laughed . • /'

During the same year Marie Antoinette took her
little daughter, now aged four years, to visit her
husband's aunt, Louise, in the Carmelite convent at
Saint- Denis.

Marie Antoinette, fearful lest the nun's severe
costume should frighten the little girl, commanded
Mme Campan to dress one of the child's dolls as a
Carmelite nun. On the occasion of this visit the
child, as she was just about to be inoculated, was not
allowed to partake of the toothsome dainties which
her great-aunt had prepared for her. As Madame
Royale did not protest, although she was probably
very hungry, a nun, remarking that the child carefully
picked up and ate all the crumbs of the one brioche
she was allowed to have, immediately cried out that
Madame Royale's submission and frugal habits de-
noted a vocation, and asked the queen whether she
would permit her daughter to take the veil.

"I should be much flattered," answered Marie
Antoinette.

When bidding farewell to her aunt and the other
nuns, the queen called Madame Royale and asked her
if she had nothing to say to the ladies.

"Mesdames," replied the little creature with a
deep courtesy, " pray for me at Mass, I beg.'*

During the cruel winter of 1783-84, when the king
distributed in charity three million francs — a mere
drop in an ocean of misery — Marie Antoinette gave
her little daughter her first lesson in alms-giving.
Everybody knows that New Year's Day is the day of
days in France. Marie Antoinette was in the habit

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CopyrigfU by\

Madame Royale.

From a painting by (ireuze.

{Hraun &* Co.

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• • •*• <

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A SALUTARY LESSON

of sending to Paris a day or two before that f6te for
new toys for her little ones. That year Mme Campan
ransacked all the toyshops in the capital and returned
laden with the most beautiful toys imaginable, which
were then arranged in the queen's boudoir. Marie
Antoinette entered leading her children by the hand ;
but instead of allowing the little ones to grasp the
treasures, she restrained them, saying : —

"I should like to have given you these pretty
things, but the winter is very severe this year and
there are many, many unhappy creatures who have
nothing to eat, no clothes, nor wood to warm them-
selves. I have given all my money away in order to
help them ; I have none left for presents, so you
must do without this year."

Mme Campan says that when Marie Antoinette
took the children out of the room they, and especially
la petite Madame as she was often called, seemed quite
awed by their mother's litde sermon.

<5S

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CHAPTER IV

The affair of the queenS necklace— Birth of Mme Campan's only child
— Death of Madame Louise-— Unpopularity of Marie Antoinette-
Death of the first Dauphin*

Mme Campan, as Marie Antoinette's waiting-woman,
played a somewhat important r61e in the affair of the
queen's necklace. In 1774 Marie Antoinette had
bought from the celebrated jeweller Boehmer a set
of diamonds for 360,000 francs, which sum she
promised to pay in instalments, so much every year
until the debt was paid off. Boehmer knew, like
everybody else, that the queen was passionately fond
of jewels ; he began collecting all the most beautiful
stones he could find in the hope that when that collec-
tion was completed he would be able to tempt the
queen to persuade her husband to buy it for her.

After some years of searching, Bcehmer succeeded
in forming a most beautiful necklace which he showed
to M. Campan pirCy begging him as a favour to place
it before the king. M. Campan was an honest man ;
the year of famine had come, and M. Campan, on
hearing that the price was 1,600,000 francs, unwilling
to be instrumental in persuading the queen to indulge
her passion for jewels, refused to have anything to do
with the affair. Boehmer, with the help of a little
flattery, or a golden key, persuaded another member
of the royal household to show the jewel to his

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AN IMPORTUNATE JEWELLER

Majesty. Louis xvi expressed great admiration, and
manifested a desire to see the queen wear the necklace.
But when it was exhibited to Marie Antoinette, she
wisely refused to buy any more jewels, giving as her
reason : '' We have greater need of a ship than of a
necklace."

Bcehmer in despair took the necklace to different
Courts, but nobody was willing to give the price
demanded A year later Boehmer, now on the verge
of bankruptcy, returned to France and offered to sell
the jewel to the queen at a reduced price. Mme
Campan was present during this interview.

" I remember,'' says she, '' that the queen told him
that if the conditions of purchase were really not
extravagant, the king might buy the necklace as a
wedding-present for one of his children, but that she
herself would never wear it"

Whereupon Louis xvi replied that his children
might not live to grow up— two of them did not do so
— and that the money would therefore be thrown
away. But Boehmer would not confess himself
defeated.

Some months later he begged the queen to grant
him an interview — ^which she very imprudently did.
Boehmer began by saying that if she did not buy the
necklace he should be ruined and he should then
drown himself. The queen, annoyed at his impor-
tunity, ordered him to leave her presence as she had
no intention of purchasing anything more from him.
Boehmer retired apparendy overwhelmed with despair.
The queen, thinking that she had been harsh in her
manner, charged Mme Campan to find out whether
Boehmer had carried out his intention of committing

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

suicide, but that lady soon heard that far from doing
anything so foolish, M. Boehmer had disposed of his
" white elephant " to the Sultan of Turkey that it might
adorn the shoulders of a favourite slave.

Relieved in her mind that her passion for jewels
had not caused a tragedy, Marie Antoinette, after
expressing surprise that Boehmer should have found
a customer so quickly, promptly forgot the whole affair,
until the baptism in 1785 of one of the royal children
caused her to order the jewelled shoulder- and sword-
knots which their Majesties always presented to a
royal infant. This order, notwithstanding certain
disagreeable incidents, Marie Antoinette foolishly
entrusted to Boehmer. The jeweller chose the moment
when the queen was coming out of her chapel in
which to present the ornaments, and with them a
scrap of paper in which he begged the queen *' not to
forget him, and expressed his satisfaction at the
thought that her Majesty now owned the most beautiful
necklace in Europe." This last sentence made the
queen start and turn pale. Had the man gone quite
crazy? What did he mean.^ She expressed her
surprise to M. Campan that evening when in her
library; then having read the letter to her waiting-
woman, she twisted it up, and burnt it at a taper used
for sealing letters, saying —

" It is not worth keeping."

Before retiring to rest the queen said to Mme
Campan : —

*' Does he mean that he has made another collec-
tion of jewels ? I should be sorry if he had done so,
for I do not intend to have any further dealings with
him. If I want to have my diamonds re-set, I shall

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MARIE ANTOINETTE AND NECKLACE

employ my plate-cleaner who has never even tried to
sell me a single carat The fellow is fated to torment
me ; he always has some crazy plan in his head. Be
sure to remember to tell him when next you see him
that I no longer care for diamonds, and that I will
never buy another as long as I live ; that if I had any
money to spend on myself, I should prefer to add to
my property at Saint-Cloud ; explain all this to him
and make him thoroughly understand/'

Mme Campan then asked her mistress if she
wished Boehmer to come and see her, but Marie
Antoinette replied " No," that the slightest attempt at
arguing with such a man would be most unseemly, and
that she only desired her waiting-woman to speak to
him on the earliest opportunity.

We will now hear how Mme Campan executed
the queen's commission, and what reply she obtained
from Boehmer : —

" I then went to stay with my father-in-law at his
country-seat at Crespy, where he was in the habit of
having friends to dinner on Sundays. Boehmer
usually came there two or three times in the summer.
No sooner had I arrived than he appeared. I faith-
fully repeated to him all the queen had told me to tell
him; he seemed petrified with astonishment, and
asked me how it was that the queen had not under-
stood what was written on the paper he had handed
to her.

" * I myself read it,' I replied, * and I could not
understand a word of it'

" * I am not surprised that you did not,' answered
Boehmer. He added that I was not in the secret, and
begged me to grant him a private interview so that

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

he might relate all that had passed between him and
the queen. I told htm that I could not see him before
nightfall, when the guests would be returning to Paris.
When my presence was no longer necessary in the
salon, I went and walked with Boehmer up and down
one of the garden-paths. I believe I can remember
every word of the conversation which then took place
between that man and myself. I was so terrified on
discovering that vilest and most dangerous intrigue,
that every word remained engraved on my memory.
I was so overwhelmed with grief, I foresaw so many
dangers should the queen try to disculpate herself,
that I took no notice of a thunderstorm which came
on while I was talking to Bcehmer. I began thus :

" * What is the meaning of the paper which you
handed to her Majesty last Sunday as she was
leaving the chapel ? '

^^ Boskmer. — *The queen must surely know,
Madame.'

'' Mtne Campan. — ' Excuse me, she charged me to
ask you.'

•*A— 'I did it for fun.'

'^Mme C. — 'What can fun possibly have to do
with your relations with the queen? She, as you
know, seldom wears full dress nowadays : you your-
self told me that the extreme simplicity of the Court
of Versailles was doing harm to your business. She
fears that you will make something else for her, and
she charged me to tell you that she will never buy
another diamond.'

**B. — * I believe you, Madame — she has no need
to do so. But what did she say about the money ? '

'' MfHi C. — ' Your bill was paid long ago/

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THE SHADOW OF SCARLET ROBES

•* B. — • Ah ! Madame, you are finely mistaken !
She owes me a very large sum I '

'• Mtne C. — ^ What do you mean ? '

" B. — * I see I must confess everything ; the
queeif has purposely left you in the dark ; she has
bought my big necklace.'

** Mtne C. — * The queen ? But she refused to buy
ity as she refused to allow the king to give it to her.'

" B. — • Well, she changed her mind.'

" Mtne C. — • If she had changed her mind, she
would have told the king. I have never seen the
necklace among the queen's diamonds.'

"A — * She was to have worn it on Whitsunday ;
I was much astonished to see that she did not do so.'

" Mtne C — * When did the queen tell you that she
had made up her mind to purchase your necklace ? '

" B. — * She herself has never mentioned the subject
to me.'

''Mme C. — *Who then acted for her in the
matter?'

"A—* The cardinal de Rohan.' ^

" Mme C. — • She has not spoken to him for eight
years! I don't know the thief s name, my dear
Boehmer, but it is quite certain that you have been
cheated.'

*^ B. — 'The queen pretends to be on bad terms
with his Eminence, but they are really the best of
friends.'

''Mtne C. — *What do you mean? The queen
pretends to be on bad terms with such an important

^ Louis Ren^, prince de Rohan (1734-1805)9 cardinal. Af^er the affair
of the queen's necldace he was exiled to the monastery of Chaise-Dieu.
He emigrated during the Revolution and joined the prince de Cond^

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

person at Court ? Sovereigns usually keep on good
terms with such personages. For four years she
pretended that she did not wish to buy or accept your
necklace? She buys it and pretends that she has
forgotten that fact because she never wears it ? You
are crazy, my dear Bcehmer, and I see that you have
got mixed up in an intrigue which makes me tremble
for you and grieve for her Majesty. When I asked
you six months ago what had become of the necklace
and to whom you had sold it, you told me that you
had sold it to the Sultan of Turkey/

'^ B. — * I replied as the queen wished me to reply ;
it was she who told the cardinal to order me to make
that reply.*

*'Mme C. — 'Well then, how were her Majesty's
commands transmitted to you ? '

*'B. — 'On papers bearing her signature; for
some time past I have been obliged to show them to
my creditors in order to appease them.'

" Mme C. — • Have you, then, never received any-
thing?'

** B. — * Excuse me, I received a sum of 30,000
francs in notes which her Majesty told the cardinal to
give me when I delivered the necklace to him. And
you can be quite certain that he has private inter-
views with her Majesty, for he told me when he gave
me the money that he saw her take it out of a pocket-
book which she keeps in her escritoire with the Sivres
china plaques which stands in her small boudoir.'

''Mme C — *A11 this is nothing but a tissue of
lies ; and, having sworn to be faithful to the king and
queen on accepting the post which you owe to them,
you were guilty of a great crime in acting for the

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B(EHMER PRACTISES DECEIT

queen in such an important matter without the king's
knowledge and without having received his verbal
order/ . • ."

Boehmer seemed struck by this remark, and con-
descended to ask Mme Campan what he had
better do to clear up the intrigue. Mme Campan
recommended him to go and see the baron de
Breteuil who had charge of the crown jewels, confess
what had happened, ask his advice — and follow it
Before leaving Crespy, however, Bcehmer made one
more effort to get Mme Campan to explain everything
to her mistress and thus save him a humiliating
scene with the baron de Breteuil. This Mme
Campan prudently refused to do, and told him that
he must confess everything if he wanted to obtain the
queen's pardon. When Boehmer had departed, Mme
Campan regretted that she had not accompanied him
to Versailles ; however, her father-in-law persuaded
her to remain quietly at Crespy until the queen sent
for her. At the end of ten days the expected summons
came. Marie Antoinette wrote that she was at the
Petit Trianon studying the part of Rosina in the
Barbier de ShnlU^ and that she was anxious to have
Mme Campan's advice. Mme Campan, supposing
that this was only a feint to hide her natural curiosity
as to the outcome of her interview with Boehmer,
hastened to the Petit Trianon. She found the
queen alone, having apparently completely forgotten
Boehmer's existence, absorbed in the part of Rosina.
After having repeated trills and roulades for a whole
hour, the queen suddenly asked Mme Campan why
she had sent Boehmer to her, adding that she had
refused to see him. Mme Campan was aghast at the

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

fellow's impudence in pretending to go to Versailles
in order to consult the baron de Breteuil, whereas his
real motive was to interview the queen; her face
showed her dismay. Seeing how determined Boehmer
was to have an explanation with her mistress* Mme
Campan told her that, as her powerful enemy, the
cardinal de Rohan, was concerned in the affair, she
thought that the only way to clear up the intrigue
which had evidently been concocted in order to sully
the queen's character, was to grant the jeweller an
interview. When she told Marie Antoinette that
Boehmer was using papers signed with her name as
an inducement to his creditors to give him time to
pay his debts, the queen saw that she was standing
on the brink of a precipice. Hitherto Boehmer's im-
portunity had only annoyed her, but now she per-
ceived a gleam of scarlet robes behind the once loved,
now hated jewels. Having told Mme Campan to
remain at Trianon, Marie Antoinette sent a messenger
to Paris with orders to Boehmer to come immediately.

However, the interview between the queen and
her former jeweller did not have the desired effect ; it
only showed Marie Antoinette what she had long
suspected — that she had enemies among the highest
and the lowest classes of society.

Boehmer having been ushered into her boudoir, she
asked him by what fatality she was still obliged to
listen to reports of his mad assertions that he had
sold her a necklace which she had refused over and
over again to buy. He replied that he was obliged
to do so in order to appease his creditors.

"What do I care about your creditors?" retorted
Marie Antoinette in her most insolent tone.

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THE QUEEN'S WORD IS DOUBTED

Whereupon Boehmer repeated what he had
already said to Mme Campan.

The queen perceived that her reputation would
be ruined if she could not manage to extricate herself
from the net which her mother's enemy had cast over
hen Had not Maria Theresa years ago asked that
the cardinal might be removed from her Court on
account of his scandalous behaviour? In vain the
queen swore that she had never had the necklace, that
she had always refused to buy it on account of its
price. She could get Boehmer to say nothing but : —

*^ Madame, it is too late to pretend ; be so kind as
to confess you have my necklace and give me some
money, or the mystery will soon be cleared up by my
bankruptcy."

Mme Campan was not present at this interview
at the conclusion of which she found her mistress
trembling with indignation and anger : to think that
a low-bom shopkeeper should dare to doubt her
word ! that she should be suspected of buying jewels
without her husband's consent was a cruel blow to
the pride of Maria Theresa's daughter. She sent for
her trusted councillor, the Abb^i de Vermond. But
neither he nor the baron de Breteuil were able to
calm her fears. She cried to Mme Campan : —

^'This hideous crime must be laid bare. The
whole of France and Europe shall know that the
Roman purple and the tide of prince only conceal an
out-of-elbow, vulgar cheat who dares to try and com-
promise his sovereign's spouse."

The king's indignation on learning of the affair
was scarcely less than that of the queen. He chose
the following Sunday, the feast of the Assumption, to

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

demand an explanation from the cardinal de Rohan.
Just as the proud cardinal was stepping along in his
bejewelled and lace^trimmed vestments on his way to
celebrate Mass in the royal chapel at Versailles, he
received a command from the king to appear before
him and his aggrieved spouse in his study at mid-
day. The cardinal's thoughts during the Mass must
often have wandered from the sacred mystery which
he was celebrating.

In a tone of the deepest indignation the king
began thus : —

"Have you ever bought any diamonds of
Boehmer.^"

" Yes, Sire/' replied the cardinal.

" What have you done with them ? "

" I believe they have been given to the queen."

" Who gave you the commission ? "

** A lady named the comtesse de Lamotte-Valois
gave me a letter from the queen ; I thought I should
please her Majesty by accepting the negotiation."

Whereupon that much injured person broke in
with : —

'* What, Monsieur, you, to whom I have not
addressed one single word for the last eight years —
how was it that you thought I should choose you to
carry the matter through with the help of such a
woman ? "

The cardinal was visibly taken aback, but he
replied : —

'' 1 see that I have been cruelly deceived ; I will
pay for the necklace. I was blinded by my desire to
please your Majesty. ... I did not suspect any fraud

I am sorry."

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THE CARDINAL DE ROHAN AT BAY

As a proof of his good faith he took a letter from
his pocket and showed it to the king and queen : it
was an order to buy the jewel, and was not only
addressed by Marie Antoinette to Mme de Lamotte,
but it bore the signature " Marie Antoinette de
France." However, the king immediately saw it was
a forgery, " This is neither the queen's handwriting
nor her signature/' said he ; '' how could a prince of
the house of Rohan and the king's chapkun imagine
that the queen signed herself ' Marie Antoinette de
France'? Everybody knows that queens only sign
their Christian names, that even kings' daughters
have no other signature, and that, if the royal family
added any other name, it would not be d$ France^ . . .
But tell me, monsieur, did you ever see this letter ? "

So saying the king produced a copy of the
missive supposed to have been written to Boehmer by
the cardinal ; however, the latter swore that he had
no recollection of ever having written it

'' But, as it bears your signature, would you not
say it is genuine?"

''If the letter bears my signature it must be
authentic," answered the cardinal, beginning to
tremble and to turn pale, which seeing the king was
confirmed in his suspicions. He pressed the point : —

''Then please explain the whole enigma to me.
I do not wish to maJce you out guilty ; I desire to
hear you free yourself from blame. Explain to me
the meaning of all your interviews with, and your
letters and promises to Boehmer."

The cardinal was trembling so he was obliged
to lean against the table. His voice was thick as he
stammered out : —

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

"Sire, I am too overcome to reply to your
Majesty just at present ... I am not in a
condition. ..."

"Calm yourself, Monsieur le cardinal,'' replied
the king good-naturedly. " Go into my study where
you will find paper, pens, and ink, and write what
you have to tell me."

The cardinal passed a very bad quarter of an hour
trying to put his revelations on paper; the written
result was no better than the verbal explanation.
The king glanced at the crumpled, ink-stained paper
and said sternly —

" Leave the room, Monsieur ! "

A few minutes later the cardinal was arrested by
M. d'Agoult, at the order of the baron de Breteuil.
He was immediately taken to his own apartment
under the charge of a young lieutenant, who was so
overcome by the importance of his prisoner that he
lost his head and practically allowed him to do
whatever he liked While leaving the gallery behind
the royal chapel, the cardinal met his heiduqne\^
having called him to his side, the ecclesiastic
whispered in German that he had an important
commission for him. Then, coolly turning to the
young lieutenant, the cardinal asked him to lend him
a pencil as he wished to send a message to a friend in
Paris. Delighted to be of service to the cardinal
de Rohan, the youth did as he was requested;
whereupon the wily prelate wrote in German to his
grand-vicar, the Abb^ Georgel, ordering him to bum
all Mme de Lamotte's correspondence. And so

^ Haduqui, a servant ; a sort of courier usuaUy dressed in Hungarian
costume.

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BIRTH OF MME CAMPANS ONLY CHILD

history was cheated through the inexperience of a
youth unaccustomed to the wiles of a cardinal.

Some months afterwards, as no real proofs of de
Rohan's culpability could be found, he was acquitted
— by a majority of three votes only.

"Marie Antoinette was ccxnpletely crushed by
the verdict," wrote Mme Campan, " for she considered
that it was an insult to her dignity." And it was indeed
a cruel blow to royalty in France, and one from
which it never recovered. Mme Campan hints that
Mme de Lamotte was allowed to escape to England,
and perhaps she was right So much did the
Pope doubt the cardinal's good faith that he, in the
following year, asked that de Rohan might be tried
in Rome.

One wonders how Mme Campan with all her
numerous duties at Court found time to discharge
those of wife and mother. She does not give the
date of the birth of her only child, Henri; but
she tells us that when she was in Paris expecting
her confinement, four messengers stayed in her house
in order to carry the news to their respective masters
and mistresses: Louis xvi, Marie Antoinette,
Mesdames and Monsieur (later Louis xviii). On
the birth of this child, Louis xvi made the baby's
grandfather a nobleman, so that the little Henri
might occupy a high post at Court at some future
time.

The year 1787 saw Mme Campan on the top
wave of prosperity, for her salary — probably in
recognition of her services to the queen in the
Boehmer affair — was now raised to 1 15,000 francs.

It was during this same year that one of her

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

former mistresses, Madame Louise, passed away at
her convent at Saint-Denis. Although this princess
had nominally retired from the world, she, as we have
already hinted, still wished to exercise influence over
her relatives outside her convent walls. Not content
with the three or four visits which the Court paid her
every year, she continually wrote to the king begging
him to interest himself in this or that deserving
ecclesiastic. Marie Antoinette often complained to
Mme Campan that her husband's aunt would not
content herself with the daily routine of convent life,
but must needs meddle with matters which did not
concern her, a cloistered nun. Marie Antoinette
would say : —

" Here is yet another letter from my aunt Louise.
She is the most intriguing little Carmelite in the
kingdom."

This is how Louis xvi announced the death of
his aunt to her former lectrice.

*' My aunt Louise, your former mistress, has died
at Saint- Denis: I have just received the news. Her
piety and resignation were admirable. Nevertheless
my good aunt, while delirious, still remembered that
she was a princess, for her last words were : * To
Paradise, quick! quick! Whip up your horses!'
She probably thought she was addressing her
equerry."

The endurance of the already much tried poorer
classes in France was again put to the test during the
winter of 1788-89. The oldest inhabitants of the
capital could not remember another year when so
much snow had fallen. The king and queen gave
away huge sums of money. **In gratitude to

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EPHEMERAL POPULARITY

their sovereigns, the Parisians," says Mme Campan,
** erected in some of the chief squares of the
capital pyramids and obelisks of snow adorned with
laudatory inscriptions," A pyramid in the rue d'An-
giviller struck Mme Campan as being the most
remarkable. " It rested on a base five or six feet
high by twelve feet broad, and was surmounted
by a globe; the general effect was not wanting
in elegance. Several inscriptions in honour of the
king and queen were visible. I went to inspect
this singular monument and I remember noting
the following inscription: —

''A Maris Antginxttb.

'^Reine dont la beauts surpasse les appas,

Pr^ d'un roi bienfaisant occupe ici ta place.
Si ce monument M\t est de neige et de glace,
Nos coeurs pour toi ne le sont pas,
De ce monument sans exemple,
Couple auguste, I'aspect bien doux pour votre coeur
Sans doute vous plaira plus qu'un pal^s, quHm templ^
Que vous dl^verait un peuple adulateur.''

The people's enthusiasm melted with the snow.
The queen's few appearances in the capital during the
spring of 1789 were marked by hostile demonstra-
tions. On returning from one of these visits during
the month of May, Marie Antoinette remarked to her
husband's aunts ^ propos of the unfriendly reception
accorded to her : " Oh / c$s indignes Franfais ! " where-
upon Madame Adelaide, glad to be able to correct
her nephew's wife, retorted : " Dites indignds^
Madame''

It was towards the end of this same month of
May that Mme Campan witnessed a very curious
F 81

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMP AN

scene, one of those strange incidents which prompted
the poet to exclaim : —

"There are more things in heaven and earth
Than are dreamt of in our philosophy."

While Marie Antoinette was seated one evening
relating to her waiting- women several strange events
which had happened during the day, one of the four
wax candles on her dressing-table suddenly went out.
Mme Campan promptly re-lighted it No sooner had
she done so when the second candle also went out
Mme Campan, astonished, looked to see whether a
draught had caused the accident ; but the doors and
windows were firmly closed Scarcely had she re-
lighted, the candle and returned to her seat when the
third candle went out in the same mysterious manner.
Marie Antoinette, trembling with terror, seized her
waiting-woman by the hand and said : —

''Misfortune has the power to make us super-
stitious ; if the fourth candle goes out like the others,
nothing will prevent me considering it as a warning
of some fatal event"

While the queen was still speaking, the fourth
candle spluttered for a second and then went out

Before a fortnight had elapsed the Dauphin was
dead.

This child, according to Mme Campan, was
remarkably intelligent; at two years of age he was
able to talk as well as any child of six. On being
given a box of sweetmeats adorned with his mother's
portrait, he lisped : ** Ah ! there is Mama's picture ! "

He was very fond of animals. As his delicate
health prevented him riding a horse, he was given a
donkey instead. "This animal," remarked he one

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THE FIRST DAUPHIN

day to his great-aunts, '' this animal is just as useful
to me with its long ears as if it had none at all, so
why should my dog's ears be cropped ? "

His delicate health probably made him doubly
precious to his parents, who tried to humour him in
every way.

Mme Campan noticed with dismay that at four
years of age the little prince had ceased to care for
his wooden horse and tin soldiers.

" New Year's Day," says she, ** was approaching ;
the queen wished to give her son some gifts; the
Paris toyshops were turned inside out in order to
tempt the prince's taste; tables were arranged all
round one of the largest rooms in the queen's suite.
When everything was ready, the queen was informed.
She took the young prince by the hand and told him
to choose what he liked. I followed with my Henri,
who had been playing with the Dauphin. We walked
round the room and even I was astonished at the
quantity of ingenious mechanical toys which the toy-
seller wound up and set going : there were vintagers
emptying baskets of grapes into a vat in which other
little figures were treading the fruit with their feet ;
there were Russian ladies gliding along in sledges
over the surface of a polished mirror; there were
farriers making horseshoes, a huntsman shooting at
a hare running through a cornfield. Twenty other
mechanical toys lay on the tables : there were pretty
pieces of miniature mahogany furniture, horses with
bright harness. Punches with the drollest faces in the
world, sparkling with imitation jewels and gold lace.
The queen continually paused to ask her son :
'Would you like this, thoh ami}' The child calmly

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

replied : * IVe already got one.' — * And that ? ' — * IVe
got that also.' — 'Would you not like this pretty
Punch?' — M've broken three, I don't want any
more.' — * What about this horse ? ' — * I've still got
one.' — They went round the room without finding a
single toy that pleased him. He had already had so
many expensive toys that he no longer cared for any ;
meanwhile my son was jumping with joy and admira-
tion at every new object He squeezed my hand
and whispered to me when he admired anything very
particularly; his excitement formed a complete
contrast with the young prince's air of weariness.
The queen gave my son several objects, which
delighted him so much that we had to put them at
night at the foot of his bed, so greatly did he dread
being parted from his treasures. She returned to her
boudoir without having found a single present for the
young prince. The toy-seller, while packing up his
pretty mechanical toys, said : ' It is very sad to think
that I have shown Monseigneur three hundred lauis'
worth of toys, and yet he does not care for a single
one. • • •

The Dauphin had several likes and dislikes
among his mother's friends ; the duchesse de Polignac
was his particular bite noire. Why ? Because she
used very strong scent During his last illness she
came into his room and, after having asked after his
health, proceeded to takea seat by his bedside, upon
seeing which the little invalid cried: *'Go away.
Duchess ; you have a mania for using certain scents
which always make me feel sick."

But he had other and better friends, and among
these was his own footman, M. de Bourset Towards

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THE FIRST DAUPHIN DIES

the end of his illness, the Dauphin begged this man to
fetch him a pair of scissors, although he knew that he
was not allowed to have them. For a long time M. de
Bourset refused to grant his request, but the little invalid
pleaded so piteously that the faithful servitor at last
had to yield ; whereupon the Dauphin cut off one of
his long fair curls, wrapped it in a piece of paper and
giving it to his footman, said : ** There, Monsieur,
that is the only thing I have to give you ; but when I
am dead take this token to my papa and mama. I
hope that when they remember me they will not
forget your services,"

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CHAPTER V

The queen is persuaded to take an interest in politics— The first stroke
of midnight — Versailles receives a visit from the populace — ^The
queen prepares to go to the Tuileries — Her friends begin to leave
her — *' Balthasar's Feast "—-Versailles is visited for the second time
and the palace invaded — The royal family are escorted to Paris —
The queen confides a delicate mission to her hairdresser.

Mme Campan noticed that Marie Antoinette had
practically taken no interest in State affairs until after
the deaths of MM. de Maurepas and de Vergennes,
and until M. de Calonne left France after helping to
bring about the disaster which was to cost his royal
master his life. But now a change seemed about
to take place. Strange to say, Marie Antoinette,
always so easily influenced, had not joined M. de
Calonne's crowd of worshippers ; she thought him an
intriguer and even warned her husband not to trust
him ; however, other historians assert that he was a
favourite with the queen, and that it was to please
her that he consented to raise, in the space of two
years, divers loans amounting to 650 million francs so
that the Court might continue its downward course to
perdition. Attacked by the Parliaments in 1785, he
persuaded Louis xvi two years later to convoke the
Assembly of Notables. In order to obtain still more
money he proposed a land-tax, also a tax upon all
business transactions. To obtain this new tax, he

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QUEEN TAKES INTEREST IN POLITICS

promised that the ancient corvie ^ should be abolished,
likewise the tax upon provisions entering provincial
towns. He declared that this new scheme would
free France from debt within twelve months. But
the Assembly of Notables revolted against his decrees
and, backed by Lafayette, ordered him to give an
account of his transactions, whereupon the king was
forced to dismiss him and send him into exile in
Lorraine.

The queen now often complained to Mme Campan
that she had been drawn into politics against her will.
One day, while her waiting-woman was helping her
to fasten up the bundles of statements and memorials
which she had been requested by certain statesmen
to show to the king, she said : —

"Ah! there is no more peace for me now that
they have made me into an intriguer ! '*

On her waitings-woman expressing surprise at this
assertion, the queen explained : —

"Yes, I mean what I say: every woman who
meddles with matters which she cannot understand
and which do not concern her duties is nothing but
an intriguer. Remember that I am not blind to my
own faults, and that I deeply regret having to give
myself this title. The queens of France can only
hope to be happy by holding aloof from politics and
by exercising just enough influence to further the
good fortunes of their friends and a few zealous
servitors."

Mme Campan might have been tempted to
remark that this was exactly the sort of influence
a queen ought to refrain from exercising : were not
^ C&rvi9\ statute-labour.

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

her friends, the de Polignacs, among those who had
helped the queen to squander so many of M. de
Calonne's hardly obtained millions ?

The queen continued : —

" Do you know what happened to me the other
day ? I had been assisting at one of the king's secret
audiences, and I was crossing the CEil de Bceu/vfhen
I heard one of the musicians belonging to the chapel
say loud enough for me to distinguish every word:
' A queen who does her duty remains in her private
apartments making lace.' I said under my breath :
* Unhappy man, you are right, but you do not know
my position : I am forced to submit to my cruel fate.' "

On hearing of the fall of the Bastille, Louis xvi
expressed but little concern ; perhaps he was the only
person in his kingdom who realized that the king of
France had practically ceased to reign. When the
due de La Rochefoucauld- Liancourt arrived from
Paris with the news that the populace had taken
matters into their own hands, the king, still only half
awake, questioned the duke : ''Is there a riot in
Paris } " To which the messenger sadly replied : —

" No, Sire, 'tis a Revolution I "

On the morrow the king, apparently awakened
from his lethargy, consented to go with his brothers
to the Assemble and see for himself whether he had
really lost all power. He was received with many
marks of sympathy and respect, and returned to the
palace escorted by a crowd of enthusiasts. The
comte d'Artois, however, was not included in this
outburst of popular enthusiasm. Mme Campan fre-
quently heard people in the crowd cry out as he rode
past her : —

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VERSAILLES IS VISITED BY PARISIANS

^'Long live the king, notwithstanding you and
your opinions, Monseigneur I "

The king's first act on returning to his palace was
to send for his wife and son that they might show
themselves to their devoted subjects.

Mme Campan had returned to her own room in
the palace when the door was burst open by the
duchesse de Polignac, who, after telling her that the
queen desired her to bring the Dauphin to her
tx)udoir, began to grumble because she had been
told not to show herself to the crowd as she was so
unpopular.

"Ah! Mme Campan," sighed the aggrieved
duchess, covering the astonished little Dauphin with
tears and kisses, and seizing the hand of the queen's
waiting-woman as if to detain her, '' what a cruel blow
I have received ! "

Mme Campan cut this ridiculous scene short by
taking the child to his mother, having done which
she again descended into the courtyard and mingled
with the crowd.

"People were vociferating and gesticulating on
all sides," says she ; " it was easy to judge from the
different voices that many of the persons present were
disguised. A woman with her face partly covered by
a black lace veil seized me rather roughly by the arm,
and calling me by my name said : ' I know you well.
Tell your queen not to meddle any longer with our
government; tell her to let her husband and our
good states-general attend to our wants.' At the
same instant a man dressed like a porter at the Paris
markets, with his broad-brimmed hat pulled down
over his face, seizing me by my other arm, exclaimed :

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

* Yes, yes, tell her over and over again that these
states-generals are not going to imitate the other
states which never did the people any good, that the
nation is too wideawake not to profit by the advan-
tages won in 1789, and that deputies from the Tiers
£tai will no longer deliver their discourses on bended
knees ; tell her all that, do you hear ? '

'* I was terrified. The queen appeared on the
balcony at that moment

•' * Ah ! ' exclaimed the veiled woman, * the duchess
is not with her/

" ' No,' replied the man, ' but she is still at Ver-
sailles. She is like a mole ; she works underground,
but we shall find a way to dig her out ! ' "

Mme Campan was so shocked by what she heard
that she hurried into the palace as quickly as her
trembling legs could take her. She was crossing the
terrace that same afternoon about four o'clock in order
to pay^a visit to Madame Adelaide, who was staying
at the palace, when she noticed three men standing
under the windows of the Throne- Room.

" There is the throne," said one of them ; " before
very long people will search in vain for a vestige of
it."

Mme Campan waited to hear no more. She
found Madame Adelaide alone at her work, seated
behind the canvas blind which was necessary to
screen her from inquisitive visitors from Paris. Mme
Campan told her what she had just heard, and
begged her to take a peep at the three men, who were
still standing where she had left them. Madame
Addaide immediately recognized one of the speakers
as the marquis de Saint* Huruge, who, she said, had

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QUEEN LEAVING VERSAILLES

a spite against society on account of his having been
imprisoned for some time in the Bastille for a youthful
offence, and who had sold himself to the due d'Orldans.

Between the months of July and October of 1789
the due d'Orl^ns made frequent visits to England ;
his return to Paris was always marked by popular
disturbances, fomented, Mme Campan declares, by
English gold. On two or three occasions she had
planned a visit to the capital on business or for her
own pleasure, and the queen had begged her to
postpone the trip saying :-^

** Do not go up to Paris to-morrow ; the English
have been scattering their gold about — we shall have
trouble!"

With a view to calming the populace, the king
determined to pay a visit to his good town of Paris —
'twas but a brief one, however, for he was back at
Versailles before midnight Marie Antoinette now
began to make her preparations for leaving Versailles,
for she was beginning to understand that, sooner or
later, the king would have to live in his capital.
Mme Campan declares that the queen really wished
to do so, and that on July 16 she emptied her jewel-
cases and put all her diamonds in a casket, which she
intended to carry on her lap. Mme Campan also
helped her to bum a number of papers, one of which
the queen handed to her telling her not to read it
until she received commands to that effect. The
queen then went into the king's study, where they
conferred together for some time. On her return,
Marie Antoinette informed her waiting-woman that
the departure for Paris had been postponed, that the
army would start without the king, and then she

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

asked for the paper which she had just entrusted to
Mme Campan and read it aloud. It contained in-
structions for the journey up to Paris, and authorized
Mme Campan to act as governess to la petite
Madame. With tears in her eyes the queen tore up
the paper adding : —

"When I wrote this, I hoped that it would be
useful, but Fate has willed otherwise. I fear that
things are going to turn out badly for all of us."

However, there were many who were determined
to put themselves out of reach of harm's way.
Naturally those persons were some of the chief
offenders: the due and the duchesse de Polignac;
their daughter, the duchesse de Guiche; the duke's
vile sister, the duchesse Diane; the Abb& de
Vermond and de Baliviire, the princes de Cond6 and
de Conti, the comte d'Artois, the prince de Lambesc,
the mar^chal de Broglie, and several others fled from
France only three days after the fall of the Bastille !

To M. Campan the queen entrusted the arrange-
ments for the departure of her friends the de
Polignacs ; he had to provide them with funds — ^they
were not likely to go away empty-handed, — viz. : a
purse containing five hundred golden Umis, dubbed
a loan by the queen. On bidding farewell to her
dear friend — ^whose pretext for leaving France was
that she needed a cure — Marie Antoinette said that
she knew exacdy what a painful position the duchess
was in, that she had often calculated the expenses
which . a person at Court had to face, and that, as
neither the duke nor his wife had been able to put
anything aside — the Parisians thought otherwise — she
begged her to accept the loan.

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ABBfi DE VERMOND LEAVES FRANCE

By midnight everything was ready, and the queen's
friend, disguised as a lady's-maid, took her place in
the berlin with many injunctions to M. Campan to
mention her name frequently to his royal mistress,
so that she might not be forgotten.

Mme de Tourzel was immediately given the post
of governess to the Children of France vacated by the
duchess; the queen could not have made a better
choice.

When her friends had departed, the queen, unable
to sleep, called her waiting-woman to sit beside her.
During the course of the conversation, which lasted
until diree o'clock in the morning, Mme Campan was
surprised to hear the queen express the opinion that,
even supposing the present crisis came to naught, the
Abb^ de Vermond was not likely to return to France
for some time. After lamenting his departure, Marie
Antoinette remarked to her waiting-woman that she,
Mme Campan, had but little cause to regret his
absence. The queen then explained that the Ahh6
did not dislike Mme Campan personally, but that his
hatred of the Campan clan had dated from the early
days of her marriage, when M. Campan /^r^ was made
her librarian and secretary, two posts which brought
the owner into all-too-frequent intercourse with the
jealous Abb^ Marie Antoinette ended by begging
Mme Campan to tell her what she really thought of
the absent ecclesiastic. Mme Campan's astonishment
was great: here was the queen, who hitherto had
refused to hear anything against her spiritual guide,
speaking of him as if he had already passed out of
her life ; inviting, nay, almost commanding her to
give expression to the indignation which had been

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

rankling in her breast for so many years! No
wonder the duchesse de Polignac had prayed M.
Campan to keep her memory green at Court! In
order to make Mme Campan speak out, the queen
informed her that the Abb^ for twelve years had
been doing everything he could to get the Campan
clan into disfavour, but that he had failed in his
project, so she need not be afraid to say what she
thought Thus invited, Mme Campan endeavoured
to draw the Abbi s portrait in its true colours, and
concluded with the remark that, naturally talkative
and indiscreet, he pretended to be brusque and
eccentric in order to hide these failings, whereupon
Marie Antoinette exclaimed : —

" Ah ! how true that is I "

The next few months saw the eddies of the whirl-
pool which had swallowed up the capital spread to the
most remote corners of France. The king had done
nothing to stop the inundation; still comfortably
ensconced in his magnificent abode at Versailles, he
made no attempt to check the ridicule with which
the Court endeavoured to choke the new-bom
Revolution.

On October i a grand banquet was given in the
royal theatre by the king's guards to the lately
arrived Regiment de Flandre, summoned to Versailles
at the king's behest, when the guests in the presence
of the royal family refused to drink to the nation's
health, but drank so frequently to the health and
welfare of the king and queen that all prudence was
cast to the wind and the tricolour cockade trodden
under foot. Mme Campan and her little niece, the
child of her sister Mme Auguid, were present at this

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^•BALTHASAR'S FEAST ••

banquet, called by M. Ernest Hamel '' Balthasar's
Feast," and heard the orchestra play O Richard^
6 man roil and Peut-on affliger ce qu'on atme ?, airs
considered suitable for the occasion.

On returning to her own apartments, which she
found full of visitors, Mme Campan, delighted, as
a royalist, by what she had just seen, was met by one
of her relatives, who was chaplain to the queen, with
the news that he had just administered the Last
Sacraments to a soldier belonging to the R^ment
de Flandre who had shot himself and now lay dying
in a corner of the Place d'Armes. During his con-
fession the youth said that he had committed suicide
in remorse for having allowed himself to be led away
by the king's enemies.

Mme Campan's enthusiasm for the scene which
she had lately witnessed received another check when
she noticed the grave face of one of her visitors,
M. de Beaumetz, deputy for Arras. This gentleman
listened to her highly coloured account of the banquet
with an air of disdain. When she had finished, he
said that the whole affair was terrible, that he was
familiar with the Assemhlie^s plans, that the incident
would be productive of great misfortunes, and con-
cluded with a request that he might be allowed to
take leave of the company, as he wished — ^prudent
man I — ^to decide whether he had better emigrate or
go over to the popular party.

On the morrow, as if emboldened by this outburst,
the queen's ladies-in-waiting offered another insult to
the nation when they went about the streets of
Versailles distributing white cockades to the inhabit-
ants and visitors ; and on October 3 a second orgy,

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

similar to that enacted on the ist, took place, when
those nobles who had not already fled came by their
presence to encourage the soldiers in their foolish
behaviour.

These orgies and the rumour that the king was
about to be carried off to Metz by his friends, induced
the nation to declare that the safest place for its king
during such troublous times was in his good town of
Paris.

It happened that Mme Campan was not on duty
at the palace on October 5, when the peaceful court-
yard received its baptism of blood ; but her sister,
Mme Augui^ was there with M. Campan plre, and,
by her bravery on the terrible night of October
5-6, won for herself the name of "my lioness"
with which Marie Antoinette sought to reward her.
Mme Augui^ and M. Campan remained with their
royal mistress until two o'clock in the morning, when,
M. de Lafayette having declared that the royal
family could retire to rest, as he and his men would
answer for their lives, Marie Antoinette took leave of
her faithful servitors, begging M. Campan /^ri^ to tell
his daughter-in-law that all danger was over.

In the following letter written to her brother,
Edmond Charles Genest, who was then occupying
a post in Russia, Mme Campan describes her
sister's experiences on that horrible night: —

"... My mind is still so agitated, my dreams
so painful, and my sleep so interrupted, I know not
whether I shall have the strength to trace the piteous
scenes which I have lately witnessed. My sister was
with the queen on the night of October 5-6; to
her I owe some of the details which I am now going

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THE QUEEN HAS A NARROW ESCAPE

to relate. On hearing M. de Lafayette, as he left
the king, inform the latter that he was going to lodge
his troops as best he could, the inhabitants of the
palace thought that they could retire to rest The
queen undressed and went to bed. My sister, having
discharged her duties, withdrew to an adjoining
room ; here she gave way to her grief, and bursting
into tears said to her companions : * How can we
retire to rest when there are thirty thousand soldiers,
ten thousand brigands, and forty-two cannons in the
town ? ' — * No, certainly not ! ' replied they, * we will
not be guilty of such weakness.' So they lay down
still dressed on their beds. It was then four o'clock
in the morning. Exactly at six o'clock a band of
brigands overpowered the sentinels and rushed along
the corridors in the direction of the queen's apartment
My sister was the first to hear these terrible words :
* Save the queen ! * The king's bodyguard who had
uttered them received thirteen wounds outside the
door while he was warning us. If the queen's women
had undressed, nothing could have saved her; they
only had time to rush into her room, pull her out of
bed, throw a quilt over her, carry her to the king's
room, and shut the door leading to that room as best
they could. She fell fainting into the arms of her
august spouse. ..."

M. Hamel tells us that the Parisians, after
decapitating two of the king's bodyguard and
carrying their heads upon pikes, allowed themselves
to be pacified by another fleeting vision of their
king and queen standing on that gilt balcony from
which Louis xvi's ancestors had witnessed such
different scenes.

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

Marie Antoinette immediately after sent for Mme
Campan as well as M. Campan f>^re, as she wished to
give into the latter's charge two packets containing
valuable papers and those jewels which she did not de-
sire to take with her on that now inevitable journey.

Mme Campan found her mistress alone in her
boudoir; she was just about to start for Paris. It
was a most bitter moment for the daughter of Maria
Theresa. She could scarcely speak ; her face was
crimson ; tears were streaming down her cheeks.
She kissed her waiting-woman, gave her hand to
M. Campan f>^re^ and said: ''Come up to Paris
immediately ; I will lodge you at the Tuileries.
Come with me and do not leave me again ; at such
times faithful servitors become useful friends. We
are ruined ; perhaps we are being hurried along
towards death, for when kings are cast into prison
they are near the end."

M. Campan and his daughter-in-law were scarcely
less grieved than the queen. M. Campan, in especial,
was so shocked that his health became seriously
affected, and on the morrow of the queen's departure the
illness which eventually killed him manifested itself.

In the same letter, reproduced on a previous page,
Mme Campan says : —

'*. . . The journey to Paris lasted seven hours
and a half, throughout which we heard a continual
rattle and roar of thirty thousand muskets being
loaded with balls and discharged in honour of the
king's return to Paris. Cries of: 'Aim straight!'
were raised in vain ; notwithstanding that precaution,
the balls sometimes hit the carriages. We were
suffocated by the smell of gunpowder, and the crowd

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THE JOURNEY UP TO PARIS

was so dense that many were forced against the
carriages until the vehicles rocked up and down as if
at sea« If you would form an idea of this procession,
picture to yourself a multitude of naked brigands
armed with swords, pistols, saws, old halberds,
marching without any order, crying, screaming,
preceded by a monster, a tiger whom the Paris
municipality had long been searching for, a man with
a long beard who hitherto had acted as an artist's
model, and who, since the b^inning of the disturb-
ances, has abandoned himself to his passion for
murder, and who with his own hand had cut off the
heads of the unhappy victims of popular fury.
When one remembers that these were the same
people who, at six o'clock that morning, had over-
powered the sentinels at the foot of the marble staircase,
hacked open the doors of the ante-rooms, and pene-
trated to the very spot where the brave soldier stood
out long enough to give his queen time to escape,
when one remembers that this terrible band ran up
and down the streets of Versailles the whole night
long, we are forced to realize that we owed our lives
to Providence. The knowledge that the danger is
past gives one courage to face the future. People
now realize that the horrible events of which I liave
just drawn you such a poor picture were the result of
the blackest, most fearful conspiracies. The city of
Paris is about to search for the authors ; but I doubt
whether they will all be discovered, and I fancy that
posterity alone will know the truth about these
horrible mysteries.

''The severity of martial law, the prodigious
activity of the chiefs of the army, and of the town

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

municipality, the affection* the veneration of the
inhabitants of the capital for the members of the
august family who have now come to shut themselves
up within their walls, and who are quite determined
to remain there until the new Constitution has been
concluded — ^these are our only consolations.

" The queen's Court has been well attended since
her return to Paris. She and the king dine in public
thrice a week ; cards are played on those days.
Although the rooms are small, all Paris flocks thither.
She converses with the commanders of the different
districts ; she finds suitable occasions on which to say
polite things even to the humble fusileers, among
whom, however, are citizens of aristocratic birth as
well as the poorest artisans : gentleness, resignation,
courage, charm, popularity — she leaves nothing un-
done in order to pacify the different parties and
re-establish order; everybody does justice to her
touching anxiety to please, which compensates for the
cruel trials endured, for the horrible risks encountered.
In general, nothing could be wiser or more popular
than the conduct of the king and queen; their
partisans daily increase in number. Nearly all
classes speak with enthusiasm of it I myself have
lost much, but I am extremely flattered to think that
I am attached to the person of a princess who in
adversity has developed such a magnanimous and
generous disposition ; she is an angel of gentleness
and kindness; she is wonderfully courageous. I
hope that the clouds caused by the impure breath
of calumny will dissolve ; and when one is as young
as the queen, one can still hope to regain in history
and in the eyes of posterity that high place which

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THE END OF..A\©YijAS!ry

nobody can deny her without bemg'.g?«lttj^-pf MJ^stice.
Princes assailed by vices and weaknesses in their old
age have often shown fleeting signs of virtue in their
youth ; but their last years efface the memory of their
early days, and they carry down to the grave the
hatred and scorn of their subjects. How many
happy years our amiable sovereign still has to live !
She is sure to win applause when she obeys her own
conscience. She has just given a proof of this at a
most critical moment; and Paris imbued with the
most seditious opinions, Paris which is constantly
reading the most disgusting libels, cannot refuse
the admiration due to courage, to presence of mind,
and to natural charm. Her worst enemies can only
say: 'We must confess that she possesses presence
of mind' I cannot tell you how anxious I am to
know what the foreign Courts think of this interesting
princess. Have those fearful libels reached you yet ?
Do people in Russia believe that Mme Lamotte was
ever the queen's friend ? Do people believe all the
odious tales concerning that infernal conspiracy? I
hope not. I am for ever thinking of the justice and
reparation due to that princess. I should go crazy if
I were a little younger, and if my head were as
sensitive as my heart. I have known her for fifteen
years devoted to her august spouse, to her children,
kind to her servitors, unfortunately too polite, too
simple, too familiar with her courtiers. I cannot bear
to hear her character taken away. I wish I had
a hundred tongues, I wish I had wings, I wish I could
convince those who are all too prone to believe lies ;
let us wait a little. . • .''

Mme Campan in the above letter mentions that

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THJJPI C'^liEB^ii^JMADAME CAMPAN

the qu^jf :V^:t(itr:£auBifiar.4idth her courtiers — and
with her hairdresser too, as we have akeady seen.
L^nard prides himself in his memoirs upon the fact
that he was diosen by his royal mistress, after her
arrival in Paris, to return to Versailles and fetch some
important papers which she had left behind her. On
this occasion he acted with great discretion. He
describes the palace of Versailles after the departure
of the Parisians thus : —

** I beheld Louis xvi, his spouse, his sister, his
children, torn from that palace, the birthplace of
twenty members of his family, and led practically
prisoners to Paris, escorted by eighty thousand
drunken, ragged pretorians. I beheld that Court, but
lately so magnificent, take up its abode in the Tuileries,
where the first necessaries of life were still lacking.
I saw the most sensitive princess in the world, her
eyes inflamed and filled with tears, seated beside a
smoky fireplace in which no fire had been lighted for
sixty-six years. I watched her waiting-women nail
curtains over the doors of her apartment — ^they fre-
quendy hit their own fingers during the operation — ^so
as to keep out the /draughts which penetrated through
the warped wood. With my heart filled with pity for
the sovereigns of the most splendid kingdom in the
world, I returned to Versailles in order to fetch a
number of articles which the queen required.

'* On reaching the palace I found it deserted except
for a few servants too old to hurry away, and perhaps
loath to leave the palace where they had been born,
and where they had hoped to die. . . . Silence reigned
supreme ; everywhere I saw traces of sudden flight,
articles forgotten or overlooked. I gathered together

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A DELICATE MISSION

in the queen's apartments many valuable objects:
portraits, documents the contents of which I will
never divulge. I had orders to look everywhere,
take anything, read everything, because her Majesty
was well aware that L^nard knew how to forget
when necessary* . . • Nothing had been touched in
Marie Antoinette's room since her flight: the robe
which her Majesty wore on the night of October 6,*
the fichu under which her breast had beat so violently
on the approach of the Parisian gang, the silk stockings
half turned inside out just as she had taken them off
on retiring to rest ; and under Marie Antoinette's bed
I found the slippers which Maria Theresa's daughter
had not had time to put on, for the unfortunate
princess had only just escaped the assassins' daggers.
... I saw the gilded panels of the door all broken,
and the parquet covered with splinters. The wind
was whistling through the huge gap made by the
brigands in order to effect an entrance. They had
smashed the mirrors with the butt-ends of their
muskets, doubtless in order to punish the innocent
crystal for having reflected the features of the woman
they could not murder. . . . They had glutted their
fury on her Majesty's bed ; furious at finding it still
warm, they had riddled mattress, curtains, sheets, and
quilt with the bullets intended for that princess's fair
breast.

" Before getting into the carriage which was to
take me back to Paris I paused, sad and pensive, in
the middle of that vast courtyard through which,
during one hundred and twenty-five years, long pro-
cessions of nobles, ambitious, greedy courtiers, but
^ The date should be October 5-6.
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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

seldom moved, alas! by generous sentiments, had
passed and repassed on the way to their habitat, the
Court

"The huge deserted place was no longer filled
with soldiers ; the sentry-boxes were empty, the gates
open to all comers. . . • And farther on, that imposing
mass of pavilions and galleries, that colossus of stone
erected by the magnificent Louis xiv at such enormous
expense, * that Versailles built of louis (tor,' as Saint-
Simon termed it, was now nothing but a silent,
melancholy desert I knew that the queen was
anxiously awaiting my return, and I regretted having
prolonged the suspense in which her Majesty was
plunged, ... I made up for this delay by ordering
the coachman to drive as quickly as possible. We
did the drive between the palace of Versailles and
the Tuileries in less than an hour.

" I found Marie Antoinette striding up and down
her room ; she was waiting for me. She wished to be
alone to receive me. Mme la princesse de Lamballe
and Mme Campan, both offended, I fancy, at being
kept out of a secret which had been imparted to the
hairdresser Leonard, were in a little salon adjoining.
. . . They pretended not to see me when I passed
through the room. These ladies were doubtless un-
aware that there are secrets in a woman's life which she
would rather confide to a hundred men than to one
member of her own sex. Do not let my readers think
that it was a case of susceptibility-— oh ! no, the secrets
which women confide to one another usually concern
wounded vanity. . . . The sex is so fashioned that
you will far more often see a woman blush for a slight
endured than for her own faults.

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HAIRDRESSER TURNED PHILOSOPHER

" * Ah ! there you are at last/ cried the queen,
hurrying up to me as soon as she saw me enter the
room. * And have you got everything ? '

*' * Everything I could find, Madame.'

" • Let me see, let me see ! '

** I showed her Majesty what I had found in her
apartments. She did not attempt to conceal her
agitation while examining the different articles ; then
suddenly I beheld her face resume its expression of
sweet serenity while she said to me with a smile :

" • Good, good, Leonard, they are all here/

" * How glad I am, Madame, to have been chosen
by Fate to fulfil your wishes ! '

" • It has always been your custom to do more
than I required of you. Here are some jewels which
I never expected to see again after the invasion of
those brigands.' . . .'*

Leonard concludes the anecdote with the following
remark : —

"Marie Antoinette was not a good judge of
character. I myself was not at all surprised to find
that the men who had forced their way into her room
had not stolen her diamonds. . . . Two great passions
seldom dwell together in the human heart The
assassins of October 6 obeyed their thirst for
vengeance ; now, of all our passions, vengeance is the
least likely to be influenced by other motives, and
cupidity is seldom found in company with it . . .
The spirit of revenge is too occupied with its object
not to be disinterested."

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CHAPTER VI

The royal family at the Tuileries— The Favras affair— The comte
d'Inisdal endeavours to save the king — Rumours are circulated that
the queen is about to be poisoned — ^A demonstration of affection —
Mme Campan acts as the king's secretary — The insurrection at
Nancy — The queen's dislike for M. de Lafayette — Mme Campan is
asked to make a sacrifice — Mesdames leave France.

While many looked upon the arrival of the royal
family in the capital as the dawn of another Golden
Age, those who were calm enough or courageous
enough to reflect upon the events of the last few
months knew that it was the beginning of the end

'' It is finished I " Camille Desmoulins announced
in one of his witty numbers.

The habits of the royal family in their new abode
had undergone a radical change. The king, unable to
indulge his passion for hunting, amused himself making
locks and keys. Marie Antoinette passed her time
receiving visitors, including her old friends from the
markets. These ladies came in perspiring crowds,
smelling strongly of peppermint, carrying huge
bouquets and bundles of speeches with which they
alternately fanned themselves or flourished in each
others' faces, obstinately refusing to be bowed out
until they had read every word, down to the very last
name with a clumsily made cross beside it

Numerous plans were made to save the king and
his family, and were prompdy discovered. The most

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QUEEN'S LACK OF MORAL COURAGE

energetic leader of one of these plots, which was said
not only to aim at abducting the king but also at
assassinating Lafayette, Necker, and Bailly, was
Thomas Mahi, marquis de Favras, a lieutenant in
the bodyguard of Monsieur^ the comte de Provence,
in whose hands he was merely a tool M. de Favras,
throughout his imprisonment and trial, when he might
have saved his own life by denouncing Monsieur,
showed himself, like many another royalist, to be a far
braver man than his master. Condemned to death,
February i8, 1790, he was executed on the Place de
Grive on the following evening.

Marie Antoinette, accordmg to Mme Campan, was
too alarmed for her own safety to waste much pity
upon this victim of loyalty.

" The queen," writes she, " did not conceal from
me the fact that she dreaded what Favras might say
during his last moments. On the Sunday following
the marquis' execution, M. de Villeumoy came to tell
me that he was going to bring the widow Favras and
her son, clad in mourning garments for the brave
Frenchman who had been sacrificed for his king, to
be presented to the royal family while they were at
dinner, when all the royalists expected to see the queen
shower benefits upon the unhappy'man's family. I did
what I could to prevent the meeting. I foresaw what
an effect it would have upon the queen's sensitive
heart, and the painful feeling of constraint she would
experience, knowing that the horrible Santerre, com-
mander of the battalion of the Parisian Guard, was
standing behind her chair throughout the repast I
could not make M. de Villeumoy view the matter in
the same light as myself; the queen was already at

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

Mass» surrounded by all the court, and I could not even
warn her.

"When the dinner was over I heard somebody
knock at the door of my room, which communicated
with a passage leading to the queen's private apart-
ments. It was she herself. She asked if I had any-
body with me. I was alone. She flung herself into
an arm-chair and told me that she had come to weep
with me over the foolish behaviour of certain fool-
hardy royalists.

** * No one can hope for salvation/ cried she, * when
attacked by people who are as clever as they are
wicked, and defended by people who are doubtless
very estimable but have no idea of our real position.
They have compromised me with both parties by
introducing Favras' widow and son. Had I been free
to do as I wished, it would have been my duty to take
the child of the man who had just given his life for us
and place him between the king and myself; but
knowing that I was surrounded by the executioners
who had but lately beheaded his father, I did not
even dare to glance at him. The royalists blame me
for not having taken any notice of the poor child ;
the revolutionists will be furious to think that certain
persons hoped to win favour by introducing him.'

''The queen then added that she knew Mme de
Favras was in poor circumstances, and she commanded
me to send her on the morrow, by some trustworthy
person, a few rolls of dve-Iouis pieces, with the assur-
ance that she would always take care of her and her
son."

For a long time Louis xvi resisted his partisans'
desire to get him out of France. In the month of

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PLANS FOR FLIGHT

March Mme Campan had an opportunity to learn his
real wishes concerning flight

"One evening towards ten o'clock," says she,
" M. le comte d'Inisdal, deputy for the nobility, came
to beg me to give him a private interview, as he had
something very important to tell me. He informed
me that the king was to be abducted that very night,
that the section of the National Guard commanded that
day by M. Alexandre d'Aumont (brother to Jacques
d' Aumont de Villequier, who had adopted revolutionary
opinions) had been won over, and that relays of horses
provided by faithful royalists were waiting at con-
venient places along the route ; that he had just left
a group of nobles met together to carry the matter
through ; that he had been sent to me that I, through
the queen, might obtain the king's consent before
midnight ; that, although the king knew about their
plan, his Majesty had hitherto refused to discuss the
matter, but that now, at the moment of action, it was
necessary for him to give his consent to the enter-
prise. I remember that I greatly displeased the
comte d'Inisdal by expressing my astonishment that
the nobility should send for me, the queen's waiting-
woman, just as they were about tp execute this
important scheme, in order to obtain the consent
which should have formed the starting-point of any
well-laid plot. I told him that it was impossible for
me to go to the queen just then without my presence
being remarked, that the king was playing cards with
his family, and that I never appeared unless I was
summoned. I added, however, that M. Campan was
free to go down, and that if M. d'Inisdal would confide
in him, he could count upon his discretion. My father-

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

in-law» to whom the comte d'Inisdal repeated all
he had just said to me, undertook the mission and
went to the queen's apartments. The king was play-
ing fvhisk^ with the queen, Monsieur^ and Madame ;
Madame Elisabeth was leaning on a voyeuse ' near the
card-table.

** M. Campan repeated M. d'Inisdal's message to
the queen. Nobody uttered a word. The queen then
began to speak, and said to the king :

'' ' Monsieur, did you hear what Campan has just
told us } '

" * Yes, I heard,' replied the king, continuing to
play.

*' Monsieur, who was in the habtt of making
amusing quotations, said to my father-in-law :

" * M. Campan, repeat, I pray, that pretty tune ! *
and then requested the king to reply.

** At last the queen said :

" * You must say something to Campan.'

" The king then addressed the following words to
my father-in-law :

** * Tell M. d'Inisdal that I cannot consent to being
abducted.

** The queen enjoined upon M. Campan to repeat
this reply word for word.

" * You hear,' added she, * the king cannot consent
to being abducted.'

•• M. le comte d'Inisdal was very annoyed with
the king's reply, and left saying :

" * I see he wants to throw all the blame upon his
devoted servants.'

" He went off. I thought that the project had
^ Whisk: a corruption of whist ' Voyeuse: a high-backed chair.

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THE DANGER INCREASES

been abandoned. The queen remained alone with
me till midnight preparing her cash-box ; she com-
manded me not to go to bed. She imagined that
the king's reply would be interpreted either as a tacit
consent, or as a refusal to participate in the enterprise.
I do not know what passed in the king's chamber
during the night, but I looked at his windows from
time to time. Nobody kept watch in the garden.
I could hear no sound in the palace, and the break of
dawn convinced me that the project had been
abandoned.

" * We shall have to flee, however,' said the queen
to me some time afterwards ; ' nobody knows to what
lengths the factionists will go. The danger increases
from day to day.' . . •"

In the month of May 1790, among the many
important questions discussed at the various clubs,
was one of the keenest interest to the new-bom party.
Alexandre de Lameth at the Assemble nationale
voiced that question thus : —

•• Ought a powerful nation to allow the king to
make peace or war ? "

The Empress Catherine had no doubts upon the
matter when she wrote about this time to Marie
Antoinette : " Kings must go on their way without
allowing themselves to be troubled by the cries of the
people, as the moon follows her course heedless of the
barking of dogs."

Mme Campan accompanied her mistress when, in
the following month, the royal family went to Saint-
Cloud.

Plans for escape became more numerous. Now
was the time for the king to flee if he ever meant to

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

do so, for the royal family were allowed to take long
drives in the country, and night frequently fell before
they returned to the palace. On one occasion they
were so late coming home that Mme Campan really
thought that they had managed to get rid of the escort
which always accompanied them, and that she should
see her mistress no more.

"I thought they had gone," she says, "and I
scarcely dared breathe, so great was my anxiety,
when I suddenly heard the carriages returning. I
confessed to the queen that I thought she had fled.
She told me that they must wait until Mesdames had
left France, and then see if their plans agreed with
those of their friends abroad."

Both parties imagined that plots were everywhere ;
whereas the revolutionists were constantly on the
watch for attempts to save the king, the royal family
believed that people were trying to poison them.
One of the king's partisans having, as he imagined,
discovered a plot to poison Marie Antoinette, he
begged her to take every precaution in eating and
drinking.

'•The queen mentioned this plot to me without
betraying the slightest emotion," wrote Mme Campan,
" as well as to her physician-in-chief, M. Vicq d'Azyr.
He and I concerted together concerning what pre-
cautions we ought to take. He had entire confi-
dence in the queen's abstemiousness; nevertheless
he recommended me always to have at hand a litde
bottle of oil of sweet almonds, this oil, as is well known,
being one of the most efficacious counter-poisons
for lesions caused by corrosives, which I was to renew
from time to time. The queen had one habit which

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made M. Vicq d'Azyr particularly anxious : a bowl of
powdered sugar was always kept on a chest of drawers
in her Majesty's room; and often, when she was
thirsty, she would mix herself a glass of sugar and
water without troubling to summon any of her ladies.
It was arranged that I was to grate a large quantity
of sugar in my own room, that I was always to keep
some little packets of it in my reticule, and that three
or four times a day, whenever I found myself alone
in her Majesty's room, I was to empty the bowl and
put in fresh sugar. We knew that the queen, for
some unknown reason, disliked all precautions. One
day she caught me making the above-mentioned
change! she told me that she presumed that I and
M. Vicq d'Azyr had arranged the matter between us,
but that I was giving myself a great deal of trouble
for nothing. 'Remember,' added she, 'that nobody
will waste a single grain of poison on me. There are
no Brinvilliers ^ alive to-day ; calumny kills much more
quickly, and they will use calumny to kill me.' ..."

However the queen still had many friends.
During this same visit to Saint-Cloud, Mme Campan
witnessed a touching scene, so touching, indeed, that
twenty years later the tears still came into her eyes
when she thought of it

'' It was four o'clock in the afternoon," says she,
" the guard was off duty ; there was hardly anybody
that day at Saint-Cloud, and I was reading to the
queen, who was seated at her embroidery frame in a
room with a balcony overlooking the courtyard. The
windows were closed, which did not prevent us, how-

^ The Marquise de BrinvillSen, the celebrated poisoner, who was first
tortoied and then executed in Paris in 1676.
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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

ever, hearing a noise like the sound of many voices
whispering. The queen told me to go and see what
was happening. I lifted the muslin curtain and beheld
more than fifty persons standing beneath the balcony ;
they included young and old women, cleanly and
neatly dressed in the costume of the country, besides
elderly knights of the order of Saint Louis, young
knights of Malta, and a few ecclesiastics. I told the
queen that they were probably members of some
neighbouring families who wanted to see her. She
arose, opened the window and appeared upon the
balcony ; whereupon these good people said to her in
a low tone : —

"'Be brave, Madame, all good French people
suffer for, and with you. They pray for you ; Heaven
will hear their prayers. We love you, we repeat, and
we revere our virtuous king.'

" The queen burst into tears and held her hand-
kerchief to her face.

" * Poor queen ! she is crying ! ' said the women
and girls. But the fear of compromising her Majesty
and the persons who loved her so, prompted me to
take her hand and sign to her that I wanted her to
return to her room. I then informed these estimable
people that my conduct was dictated by prudence.
They evidendy agreed with me, for I heard them say :
• That lady is right ! * and then : * Adieu, Madame ! '
uttered in tones of such grief and sincerity that even
now, twenty years after this event, my heart still
aches at the thought of it"

During the month of September 1790, the king
gave Mme Campan a signal proof of his confidence
when he employed her as his secretary on the

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THE INSURRECTION AT NANCY

occasion of the insurrection at Nancy. The former
residence of Stanislas, king of Poland, then had as
military governor, M. de Noue, a royalist by birth
and education. Now three of the regiments quartered
at Nancy, viz. the cavalry regiment of Mestre de
Camp and the two infantry regiments of Ch4teau-
Vieux and du Roi, were noted for their *• patriotism,"
that is to say, for their enthusiam for the new opinions,
which opinions exposed the unfortunate men to all
sorts of vexations and humiliations ; when they dared
to complain, they were called "brigands" and
"traitors," and two of the leaders were flogged.
While M. de Noue was writing to the Assemblie
complaining of the indiscipline of ^the troops, the
soldiers sent eight of their number up to Paris to lay
the real facts of the case before the government The
little deputation found on its arrival, however, that a
decree had just been passed by which all soldiers
convicted of insubordination and not confessing their
error within twenty-four hours, were to be treated as
guilty of high treason against the nation. The
deputation, by Lafayette's orders, was immediately
thrown into prison. The patriots of Nancy, indignant
at this unjust treatment of their ambassadors, sent
another deputation composed of members of the
National Guard of their town ; these men were more
lucky, for this time they were allowed, notwithstand-
ing Lafayette's protests, to explain their grievances,
whereupon two members of the Assemble, thanks to
the intervention of Barnave and Robespierre, were
sent to Nancy in order to examine the assertions of
both parties. Unfortuately the soldiers in the former
refuge of Stanislas, king of Poland, without waiting

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

to hear what success their second deputation had
obtained, took the reins into their own hands on the
very day this decree was passed (August 31, 1790),
and, supported by the populace, rebelled, and threw
into prison de Noue and Malseigne, the latter a brutal
c^cer sent by the Assembl^e to keep peace in the
town. On learning of this insurrection, the marquis
de Bouilld decided to march upon Nancy and quell
the rebellion. Arrived outside the gates of the town,
he demanded the liberation of de Noue and Malseigne
and the departure of the three guilty regiments, four
members of each regiment to suffer whatever punish-
ment the government should decree. The revolu-
tionists had already released the unpopular governor,
and were discussing among themselves who were to
be the scapegoats when de Bouilld tried to force his
way through the Porte Stanislas. The soldiers,
indignant at this treatment, resisted the invader for
some time; however de Bouill^'s numerous army
soon put an end to the siege and burst into the town ;
that night the streets of Nancy ran red with -blood,
3000 persons, including 400 women, paid for the
rebellion with their lives. The AssembUe, on learning
of de Bouill^'s energetic repression, passed a vote of
thanks notwithstanding Robespierre's protests. As a
further punishment, thirty-two soldiers of the regiment
of Chateau- Vieux were shot and forty-two sent to the
galleys for Uiirty years. This sentence, however, was
annulled by subsequent events. Before many months
had passed, an amnesty was proclaimed in favour of
some of the condemned ; CoUot d'Herbois' eloquence
in December 1791 released the remainder. The
month of April 1792 saw the insurrectionists of Nancy

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THE INSURRECTION AT NANCY

transformed into popular heroes. On the 9th of that
month the FiU dassasdns^ as the royalist Dupont
de Nemours termed it, took place. The soldiers
of Chateau- Vieux were led in triumph by Collot
d'Herbois to the Assembtie legislative and publicly
complimented on their behaviour, and on the 15th
a magnificent banquet was given to the patriots, when
Marie Joseph Ch^nier's Hymne (t la Liberti was
sung.

Mme Campan seems to think that there was some
mystery about this insurrection. " There was another
cause/' says she, •* which I might have discovered if
the state of anxiety in which I found myself at that
time had not deprived me of my understanding.
I will endeavour to explain what I mean. One day
in the beginning of September the queen, on retiring
to rest, commanded me to dismiss her ladies and to
remain with her; when we were alone, she said
to me : —

" * The king will be here at midnight. You know
that he has always trusted you ; he shows his confi-
dence in you by choosing you to write at his dictation
an account of the affair at Nancy. He wants several
copies.'

" The king entered the queen's room at midnight
and said to me with a smile : —

" * You did not expect to act as my secretary, and
certainly not at night-time.'

" I followed the king ; he took me into the SaUe
du Conseil] here I found a quire of paper, an inkstand
and some pens all ready prepared. He sat down
beside me and dictated to me the marquis de Bouill6's»
report, at the same time making a copy with his own

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

hand My hand trembled, I could scarcely write ; so
many thoughts surged through my brain, that I could
scarcely listen to the king. The big table, the velvet
carpet, the chairs which were only used by the
sovereign's councillors, the knowledge of what this
place had been, what it was then when the king was
employing a woman for a service which lay so entirely
out of the usual sphere of her duties ; the misfortunes
which had forced him to have recourse to her services ;
the evils which my affection and my anxiety for my
sovereign caused me to foresee, — all these thoughts
made such an impression upon me that, on returning
to the queen's apartments, I could neither close my
eyes for the rest of the night, nor remember a word of
what I had just written."

Many people, seeing how confidentially Mme
Campan was treated, endeavoured to make use of
her for their own ends. Her salon was besieged by
politicians. One evening in the month of November
she found on her return from the Tuileries no less an
important personage than the prince de Poix waiting
to see her.

** He told me," says she, " that he had come to
beg me to help him regain his peace of mind ; that
in the early days of the Assemble natianale he had
allowed himself to be led astray by the hope of seeing
certain matters mended ; that he now blushed for his
folly and detested those schemes which had already
had such fatal results; that he was now going to
break off for ever with these innovators ; that he had
just handed in his resignation as deputy to the
Assemble nationale, and that he wished the queen to
be informed of his conduct before she retired to rest.

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MARIE'S DISLIKE OF LAFAYETTE

I accepted his commission and fulfilled it to the best
of my ability, but without success. The prince de
Poix continued to remain at Court, where he had to
endure much unpleasantness ; however, he served the
king on many subsequent and perilous occasions with
all the zeal for which his family had always been dis-
tinguished."

Mme Campan shared Marie Antoinette's dislike
of Lafayette. On one occasion a member of the
queen's household called him a ''rebel" and a
''brigand," and expressed a hope that her mistress
would not trust him. Mme Campan says : —

" The queen remarked that he certainly deserved
the first appellation, but that history usually gave the
title of leader to any man commanding forty thousand
troops who was practically master of the capital ; that
kings had often found it expedient to treat with such
leaders ; and that if it pleased our queen to do so, we
could only keep silent and respect her wishes. On the
morrow the queen, in a sad but extremely kind tone,
asked me what I had said on the previous evening
concerning M. de Lafayette, adding that she had been
assured that I had imposed silence upon her ladies
with whom he was not popular, and that I had taken
his part I repeated to the queen word for word all
that had passed between us. She was so gracious as
to say that I had been perfectly right ..."

Mme Campan*s desire to serve her mistress forced
her to be very particular whom she received in her
own house. Nevertheless her "enemies," as she
calls them, informed the queen in the autumn of 1790
that her waiting-woman was on intimate terms with
M. de Beaumetz, reported to be a noted supporter of

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the new opinions. Now as it happened, Mme Campan
had intimated to that politician, after Balthasar's Feast,
that he had better discontinue his visits to her ; so she
was much surprised one day on receiving the following
note from the queen who was then at Saint-Cloud : —

^* Come to Saint-Cloud immediately ; I have some-
thing to tell you which concerns you,"

On entering the queen's boudoir, Marie Antoinette
told Mme Campan that she was about to ask her to
make a sacrifice for her sake; the waiting- woman
immediately replied that her mistress need only speak
and her wishes should be obeyed. Marie Antoinette
then begged her to give up her friendship with M.
de Beaumetz ; she said that she knew it would be a
painful sacrifice, but it was necessary not only for her
own sake but for her waiting- woman's sake; for
although she might on occasion turn the services of
Mme Campan's witty friend to good account, she, as
queen, was obliged to consider her waiting-woman's
reputation. When Mme Campan inquired the name
of the busy-body who had mentioned M. de Beaumetz
to her queen, the latter told her that on the previous
evening her ladies had informed her that M, de
Beaumetz passed all his spare time in Mme Campan's
salon. Stifling her indignation, Mme Campan replied
with a sarcastic smile that the sacrifice which her
Majesty demanded was unnecessary ; that the gentle-
man in question was scarcely like to make himself
unpopular with his new friends by frequenting the
receptions of the queen's chief waiting-woman ; and
that he, at her request, had not set foot in her drawing-
room since October 1789. She added that since that
date she had only had passing glimpses of him at the

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AN ILL-CHOSEN GIFT

theatre or in the public parks, when he had purposely
avoided her, thus showing that he wished to forget
his old friends — for which she confessed she was
thankful. Whereupon the queen interrupted genuinely
with : —

** How right you are ! how perfectly right ! Your
enemies were mistaken in thus trying to injure you
in my opinion ; but be most careful of what you say
or do. You see how the king and I trust you. You
have powerful enemies."

During the winter of 1790-91, notwithstanding
the ever-present dread of the future which stalked
like a ghost through the palace of the Tuileries, the
Court was fairly gay, and the queen attended many
of the receptions given by the princesse de Lamballe.
It was on the occasion of one of these receptions that
an English milord, while seated at the card-table from
which the Revolution had hitherto been unable to drive
Marie Antoinette, displayed with remarkable lack of
tact and much ostentation a huge ring adorned with a
medallion in which was a lock of Oliver Cromwell's hair.

On New Year's Day the conquerors of the Bastille,
with an equal lack of tact and even more ostentation,
presented the little Dauphin ^ with a set of dominoes
fashioned from the stones of the Bastille, and enclosed
in a box bearing the following inscription : —

"The stones from those walls within which
so many innocent victims of arbitrary power were
imprisoned, have been transformed into this toy
which we now present to you, Monseigneur, as
a proof of your people's love ^nd power.''

^ Born March 27, 1785, became Dauphin on the death of his elder
brother.

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

This uncommon plaything Marie Antoinette gave
to Mme Campan, telling her to keep it safely as it
would be a valuable souvenir of the Revolution some
day.

Early in January 1791 a rumour was circulated
that Mesdames, the king's aunts, were plotting to
smuggle the Dauphin out of France ; it was said that
the child was to be hidden in a secret compartment
in the ladies* carriage, and another child of the same
size as the Dauphin was to take . his place at the
Tuileries — a strange anticipation of the rumours which
later hovered around the poor child's death; two
thousand gentleman had been chosen to escort the
fugitives to the frontier. This rumour had doubtless
been started by somebody who had heard Mesdames
express a wish to visit Rome. The Assetnblde was
informed of what people were saying, whereupon it
tried to force the king to order his aunts to remain
quietly in France. But Louis xvi still had some
courage left ; he replied : —

'' Your request is unconstitutional ; show me a
decree from the Assemble forbidding people to travel
and I will forbid my aunts to go ; until you can do
that, they are as free to leave the kingdom as any
other citizens."

Marie Antoinette's friends from the markets now
paid a visit to Bellevue. On that terrible October 6,
Mesdames had accompanied the king as far as Sevres,
where they had contrived to slip away from his escort
and return to their own abode, which was soon after
visited by some Parisians and the windows smashed.
So Mesdames^ having been warned of the projected
visit of the Dames de la Halle, wisely went up to

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MESDAMES LEAVE FRANCE

Paris and spent the night at the Tuileries, This
incident probably made Mesdames desire to leave
France without further delay. The date of their
departure was fixed for February i8.

Although Mme Campan was no longer in the
service of Mesdames^ she still kept a very warm place
in her heart for her first mistresses, who certainly had
been the kindest of mentors to the inexperienced little
Uctrice.

" I went to say good-bye to Madame Victoire,"
says she. *' I did not think that I should never
again behold this august and virtuous protectress of
my youth ; she received me alone in her study, and
assured me that she hoped and wished soon to return
to France, that it would really be too terrible for the
French nation if the excesses of the Revolution forced
her to prolong her absence. Certain persons thought
that their journey to Rome would be attributed to
their piety; however, it would have been a difficult
matter to deceive the AssembUe concerning the
behaviour of the royal family, and from that moment
all that was said and done at the Tuileries was more
remarked than ever. . . . Madame Victcrfre then
added that they were only going away in order to
leave the king free to act, which he would be better
able to do when separated from his family, and she
hoped that the public would understand that their
determination to leave France was solely caused by
their indignation at the civil constitution of the
clergy. ..."

The comtesse de Boigne was present at Mesdames'
departure, which took place February i8, at eleven
oclock at night; with less cause than Mme Cam-

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

pan to regret the old ladies, she wrote in her
memoirs : —

''I think I can still see Madame Ad^aide with
her tall, angular figure, her violet dress with its
voluminous pleats, her butterfly cap, and her two long
teeth — her very last ! "

The ladies travelled as Mesdames de Joigny and
de Rambouillet ; the mysterious Louis de Narbonne,
Mmes de Narbonne and de Castellux, were among
their suite. All went well with the fugitives until they
reached Moret, near Fontainebleau ; here they were
told to show their passports. Now the travellers had
taken the precaution to obtain not only passports
signed by the king and countersigned by Montmorin,
the Foreign Minister, authorizing them to go to Rome,
but also a declaration from the Paris municipality
stating that that body was powerless to prevent these
citoyennes travelling in whatever part of the kingdom
they preferred. While the authorities at Moret were
thinking how they could detain the old ladies and
their suite, some soldiers belonging to the regiment
of Haguenau came to their aid, opened the gates of
the town and enabled them to continue their journey.

At Amay-le-Duc, in the dipartement of the Cdte
d'Or, Mesdames experienced another alarm; their
carriages were stopped by the municipality and they
were required to alight amid a crowd of inquisitive busy-
bodies who were so impressed by the old ladies'
stately airs and graces that they all took off their hats.
One member of the municipality, however, kept his
hat on his head, on noticing which Madame Victoire,
realizing that the time for arrogance had passed,
bestowed one of her sweetest smiles upon the offender,

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i.\i^yrt^hf h\-

Madamk Victoirk.

From a pninlinij hy Gninrrl.

^^-.^l ■::;.:

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, i' • '••

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MESDAMES ARE DETAINED

and, as she prepared to enter the humble inn where
she was to be kept prisoner for eleven days, said to
him in a tone of supplication : —

" I pray you, Monsieur, give me your hand to help
me up this dark staircase ! "

The provinces had still to learn the Parisians' easy
nonchalance towards royalty ; the man took off his
hat and obeyed Madame Victoire as if he had been
accustomed to do so all his life. Mesdames immedi-
ately wrote off a protest to the AssembUe, which was
duly read and discussed for four hours, the witty
Abb6 Maury, among others, taking the fugitives'
part After a member, whose name has not been
handed down to posterity, had protested: "You
pretend that no law exists to prevent aristocrats
leaving the country, and I maintain that one
exists — the Salvation of the people," Menou,
formerly deputy for the nobility of Touraine
at the &tats Gindraux in 1789, endeavoured by
ridicule and sarcasm to obtain Mesdames' release,
when he said : " Europe will doubtless be much
astonished when she learns that the Assemblie
nationale spent four whole hours discussing the
departure of Mesdames, who prefer to hear Mass
in Rome rather than in Paris." Much hilarity was
caused in Paris by the appearance of a song composed
by Marchand, in which Gorsas, a contributor to the
newspaper, Le Caurrier des 83 dipartcTnents, who,
on Mesdames' departure from Bellevue, had apostro-
phized them in his paper: "Nothing you possess,
from your ch&teau of Bellevue to your laces and
your chemises, belongs to you," was supposed to say
to Mesdames : —

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

** Donnez-nous Its chemises
A Gorsas,
Donnez-nous les chemises,"

and Madame Victoire to reply in her thick voice : —

''Avail-il des zemises,
Gorsas,
Avail-il des zemises?"

The Parisians love sarcasm : another song
immediately followed entitled, *'Les Chemises de
Marat ^ ou lArrestation de Mesdames, Tantes du Roi,
h Amay-U'Duc^' a skit upon the blind faith of
certain provincials who on reading in Marat's paper,
VAmi du peuple^ that everything which Mesdames
possessed belonged to him, and that MesdameJ
baggage had been overhauled, really believed that
the old ladies had gone off with some of his shirts.
Marat was furious at this skit — which his lack of
funds had prevented him suppressing; had he not
lately been forced to sell the sheets off his bed in order
to obtain a few francs with which to pay his bills ?

Mesdames spent the eleven days of their captivity
in playing backgammon with the cur^ of Amay.
However on March 3 they were allowed, thanks to
the largesse which Louis de Narbonne distributed
right and left, to continue their journey.

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CHAPTER VII

The queen makes further preparations for flight— M. Campan fikre is
recommended to take a cure~Mme Campan bids farewell to her
mistress— She hears of the fiasco of Varennes— Marie Antoinette
sends for her waiting-woman— She returns to Paris and again
receives proofs of her mistress's confidence— She suffers for her
brother's opinions— An echo of an old affair- Mme Campan accepts
some delicate missions.

During this same month of March (i 791) the king
expressed a wish to go to Saint-Cloud. History
records how he was forced | to give up that project
and return to his stately prison. On this occasion
M. Campan /^^, who had never recovered his health
since the events of October 5, 1789, received some
rough treatment at the hands of the populace, who,
rightly or wrongly, looked upon this expedition as an
attempt at escape.

Notwithstanding her disappointment, Marie
Antoinette spent the whole month of March in
making preparations for another journey. Of course,
Mme Campan helped her. Marie Antoinette's
passion for luxury was a great anxiety to her waiting-
woman, for the queen insisted upon purchasing a
quantity of new clothes so that when she reached
Brussels, which was to be the bourne of their journey,
she and her children might want for nothing. In
vain did her waiting- woman remind her that Brussels
was a civilized town and that, if by chance people

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

learnt that the queen was sending trunks to Brussels,
she might be prevented following them. But Marie
Antoinette's inborn obstinacy forbade her listening
to her humble friend's advice. Mme Campan, to
whom the duty of obtaining all these clothes had been
entrusted, used all her intelligence in order to carry
out the mission with secrecy. Dressed in sober attire
and unaccompained, she went from shop to shop
buying six chemises here, a dress and a cloak there,
bonnets, shoes, and gloves elsewhere. Her sister,
Mme Augui^, whose fate, as we shall see, was so
connected with that of the queen, ordered a complete
outfit for Madame Royale, who was about the same
age as her own eldest daughter, while Mme Campan
had a suit of clothes nominally made for her son
Henri, but intended for the little Dauphin. When
these clothes were packed in a big trunk Mme
Campan, at the queen's command, sent them to one
of the latter's former waiting- women, the widow of an
officer, who was then living at Arras, warning her
that she must be ready to start for Brussels or else-
where at any moment, which, as the lady owned
property in Austrian Flanders and often left home on
business, she could easily do.

Mme Campan was much exercised as to whether
she would be chosen to accompany her mistress on her
flight from France. Marie Antoinette realized that
the fewer the fugitives the easier their escape would
be, and so she had informed her waiting- woman that,
supposing the latter were not on duty at the time of
the royal family's departure, she, the queen would
send for her faithful Campan at the earliest oppor-
tunity. The queen had already given her waiting-

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M. CAMPAN PEBE TAKES A CURE

woman many proofs of her confidence, and now, on
the eve of that disastrous flight to Varennes, she
charged her with several important messages to
different supporters of the royal cause.

As the month of June approached, Marie
Antoinette, dreading the persecutions and ill-treatment
to which M. Campan and his daughter-in-law would
surely be subjected at the hands of the revolutionists
when the escape of the royal prisoners was known,
determined to get them out of the capital before she
herself left it So she told her physician, M. Vicq
d'Azyr, to order the old gentleman to drink the
waters at Mont Dore. On taking leave of her faith-
ful servitors Marie Antoinette assured her waiting-
woman that she deeply regretted the fact that she
would not enjoy her services during the journey from
France, and gave her the sum of 500 /outs to pay for
her travelling expenses to Mont Dore, and enable
her to live quietly until her mistress could send for
her. This sum, as Mme Campan already had plenty
of money, she refused to accept The fact that Mme
Campan was not chosen to accompany her royal
mistress on her journey has been quoted by some
historians as a proof that Marie Antoinette placed
less trust in her waiting- woman than the latter would
have us believe. Be this as it may, M. Campan pire
and his daughter-in-law started for Auvergne during
the night of May 31-June 1, and arrived at Mont
Dore on June 6.

It had been settled that M. Campan's cure was to

last until he received news that the royal family had

crossed the frontier. As day after day went by and

no news came, the old gendeman and his daughter-

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

in-law became more and more anxious. However,
about four o'clock in the afternoon of June 25, the
beating of a drum was heard in the peaceful streets
of Mont Dore, after which a barber from the neigh-
bouring village of Besse triumphantly informed the
inhabitants in patois that '' the king and queen have
tried to escape from France and thereby ruin us, but
I have come to tell you that they have been arrested
and are now guarded by one hundred thousand
armed men."

While M. Campan was still hoping that the news
was not true, the man added : *' The queen, when
arrested, lifted her veil and said with her well-known
arrogance to the citizens who were upbraiding the
king : ' Well, then, as you have recognized your king,
treat hini respectfully,'" — which expression, Mme
Campan says in her memoirs, could not have been
invented by the Jacobins of Clermont, and forced her
to believe the news which was confirmed in the
evening by another messenger. Two days later
Mme Campan received an unsigned letter written
after the queen's return to Paris by one of her
gentlemen-ushers at her dictation; it contained
these words : —

" I am writing to you from my bath, where I am
trying to recover my strength. I can say nothing
concerning my state of mind ; we are still alive, but
that is all. Do not return here until you receive a
letter from me : this is very important"

On hearing that the royal family had been arrested
and would soon be back in Paris, Mme Campan's
sister, Mme Augui^, together with four or five of the
queen's waiting-women, determined to be the first to

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MME AUGUlfi MAKES A FRIEND

sympathize with the recaptured fugitive. However,
when they endeavoured to obtain admission to the
Tuileries, the ladies were rudely repulsed ; it was only
at the gate of the Feuillants that diey found a sentry
who seemed at all willing to let them enter. While
they were still arguing with him, they were attacked
by a mob of fishwives, who covered them with abuse
and even seized Mme Auguii by the arm, calling her
"the Austrian woman's slave." Whereupon Mme
Augui^ shook herself free, crying in a loud voice so
that all the women could hear her : —

'* Listen I I have been in the queen's service since
the age of fifteen ; she gave me a dowry and found a
husband for me. I served her while she was happy and
powerful ; she is now unhappy : ought I to desert her } "

With that sudden revulsion of feeling to which
the French are prone in periods of revolution, the fish*
wives bawled out : —

''She is quite right, she ought not to desert her
mistress ; we'll get her in ! "

So saying they joined hands, jostled the sentry on
one side, pushed Mme Augui^ and her companions
through the gate of the Feuillants, and almost carried
them on to the terrace. One of the fishwives had
taken quite a fancy to Mme Augui^, for, on bidding
her farewell, she gave her this valuable piece of
advice : —

" My dear friend, be sure to take off your green
waistband ; 'tis the colour of that d'Artois, whom we
shall never forgive."

In order to be near Paris whenever the queen
required her services, Mme Campan and her father-
in-law left Mont Dore, and went to Clermont, where

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

they were on the point of being arrested by order of
the Assemble constituante^ who had guessed the
reason of Mme Campan's sudden departure from
Paris. At Clermont, however, the travellers found
an advocate in the person of the Abb^ Louis, himself
a member of the Assemblie canstituante, and with his
help they were able to prove that M. Campan/^r^ was
in poor health when he left the capital, as, indeed, he
remained until his death, which occurred in the
following month of September.

MmeCampan received the expected summons in the
beginning of August, for Marie Antoinette still believed
that brighter days would dawn, and did not realize the
risk her faithful servitors ran in returning to Paris.

Mme Campan reached the capital towards the
end of August; she found Paris much quieter than
she had expected On September i she saw her
mistress for the first time since the return from
Varennes. At first the waiting-woman noticed but
little change in her queen's appearance. Marie
Antoinette had just left her bed; after saying a
few words of greeting to her faithful friend, the queen
took off her night-cap, when Mme Campan saw that
her mistress's hair had turned snow-white during that
terrible night spent in the house of the grocer. Sauce,
at Varennes. Mme Campan burst into tears at the
sight. The queen, touched by her servitor's grief,
showed her a ring made of her hair which she
intended to give to the princesse de Lamballe with
this inscription : *' Blanchis par le malheurt " Marie
Antoinette then told her waiting-woman that she
would have need of her services in order to com-
municate with MM. Bamave and Lameth, whom

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A LITTLE VICTIM

she considered might in future be of use to her. Mme
Campan was gready astonished to hear the queen
speak of Barnave as if she really liked him. On
expressing her surprise, and b^ging the queen to be
careful how she trusted the eloquent orator, Marie
Antoinette assured her that Barnave was worthy of
her confidence, and that his behaviour during the
journey from Varennes to Paris had been most
chivalrous, and a perfect contrast to that of Potion,
who had not only insisted upon sharing the berlin of
the royal family, but their meals also, when he had
behaved in a most unseemly manner, throwing
chicken-bones out of the carriage-window at the risk
of hitting the king in the face, and never thanking
Mme Elisabeth when she filled his glass with wine,
but only tipping it up to show that he had had
enough. And then the little Dauphin, who had
suffered much from the heat during the previous day,
and was sick and tired out, had to endure Potion's
well-meant attentions; for the virtuous patriot, who,
like all Frenchmen, was fond of children, had taken
the Dauphin on his knees that he might stroke the
child's soft curls while conversing with the royal
parents. Unfortunately Potion forgot in the heat of
his political discussions that he was holding a litde
child, the future victim of those politics, on his knees ;
and while curling the golden locks between his fingers,
all unconsciously pulled too hard, causing the litde
Louis to cry out with pain, whereupon Marie
Antoinette said : —

** Give me my son — he is accustomed to be treated
with respect, not with familiarity.*'

A few days after Louis xvi accepted the Constitu-

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

tion, Mme Campan received a letter from the comte
de Montmorin begging her to grant him an interview
in the queen's study, as he did not wish to compromise
the faithful waiting-woman by coming to her own
house.

During the interview, M. de Montmorin, having
thanked Mme Campan for all she had done for the
unfortunate queen, told her that the king was in great
danger; that plots to assassinate him were of daily
occurrence ; that his only chance of salvation lay in
keeping the sacred oath he had just taken. To Mme
Campan, bom and bred within the shadow of
Versailles, who still believed in the divine right of the
Sovereign, the Constitution appeared as a sign of the
end of the world ; she remarked to M. de Montmorin
that the king, should he adhere to the Constitution,
would compromise himself in the eyes of those
royalists who considered moderation a crime, and
that she herself would be called a constitutionnelU^
because she held that the nation's fame, happiness,
and welfare lay in the king's hands, an opinion which
she had formed in early youth, and which she could
not bear to think that people should imagine her
capable of changing.

"Do you think," questioned the count, "that I
could ever wish for any other government } Do you
doubt my devotion to the king and my desire to see
his rights maintained } "

" Of course not ! " replied Mme Campan, " but you
must be aware that people say that you have adopted
revolutionary opinions."

"Well, madame," retorted M. de Montmorin,
"show your courage by concealing your thoughts;

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DEATH OF M. CAMPAN PERE

never has dissimulation been more necessary. We
are endeavouring to frustrate the revolutionists' plots
as much as possible, and we must not allow them
to get the better of us by continuing to spread the
reports of what the king and queen say and do, with
which Paris is now inundated."

Mme Campan applauded all M. de Montmorin
said, and told him that she had been obliged to im-
pose silence upon the queen's servants — now, alas!
becoming fewer and fewer — ^when their indignation
at the treatment to which their mistress was being
subjected burst forth into angry cries, for which
service she had only reaped sullen looks and muttered
protests.

" I know it," remarked the count greatly to her
surprise, '' the queen has told me all about the matter,
and that is why I have come to beg you to do your
very best to be prudent and to impress prudence upon
others."

A few days later Mme Campan experienced a
great loss by the death of her father-in-law, her best
friend, whose wise counsels and affectionate care had
helped her to avoid those quicksands which beset the
path of a misunderstood wife, surrounded by would-be
consolers. The scenes of horror enacted at Versailles
which had occasioned the queen's departure from that
glorious abode, had left a lasting impression upon his
brain; he grew weaker and weaker, until he finally
died at La Briche.

After the good old man's decease, his executors
gave into Mme Campan's charge the two packets
which Marie Antoinette had placed in her secretary's
hand shortly before her flight from Versailles in

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

October 1789. Mme Campan immediately carried
them to her mistress, and asked her what she was to
do with them. The queen kept the largest packet and
confided the smaller parcel to her waiting-woman with
this injunction : —

" Keep this for me as your father-in-law did"
The queen's dread of poison was redoubled when,
in the end of 1791, the intendant of the Civil List,
M. de La Porte, received information from the police
that a well-known Jacobin pastry-cook living in the
Palais- Royal, who was about to take the place of the
king's late cook, had been heard to say that anybody
who shortisned the king's life would do France a great
service. As the royal family dared not cancel the
pastry-cook's appointment, it was arranged that the
king and queen were to refrain from eating any pastry.
Now as Louis xvi had a very sweet tooth, and like
all his race was unable to curb his appetite, Mme
Campan ordered cakes and pastry in her own name,
first at this pastry-cook's shop, and then at that. Not
content with these precautions, Mme Campan kept
the bread and wine used by her master and mistress
under lock and key in the king's study; when the
royal family were seated at table, Mme Campan would
bring in bread, cake, and wine — which the king alone
drank, the queen and the princess only taking water —
being careful not to do so until the footmen had re-
tired. The king having drunk of this wine, would
then half fill his glass from the decanter placed on the
table by the footmen, and crumble the pastry supplied
by the Jacobin pastry-cook. The meal ended, Mme
Campan removed what remained of her supplies. So
carefully was this daily manoeuvre carried out, that no-

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LETTERS IN CIPHER

body guessed the fears which a talkative below-stairs
politician had aroused, nor was the reason of the king's
sudden indiifference towards charlottes, beignets, and
marchpane cakes ever discovered.

The queen spent the long hours of night, when
anxiety banishes sleep from the weary watcher, in read-
ing ; tiie days were occupied in writing letters in cipher
to her relatives and friends. Mme Campan was em-
ployed to copy some of these missives, which, unless
one possessed the key, were impossible to understand ;
sometimes the queen chose a line on a page of a certain
edition of Paul and Virginia as the key to the cipher.
It was Mme Campan's duty to find trusty messengers
to carry these letters; so skilfully did she arrange
matters, that none of the missives entrusted to her
care were ever intercepted or failed to reach their
destination. Marie Antoinette, deserted by so many
of her erstwhile friends, and unable to trust some
of those who still remained, continued to place the
greatest confidence in her "faithful Campan"; this
trust made her waiting-woman odious, not only to her
fellow-servitors, but also to both political parties. One
revolutionist in especial, Prudhomme, denounced her
in his Gazette r&uolutiannaire as a dangerous person,
capable of making an aristocrate of the mother of
the Gracchi ; while the royalist Gauthier called her
manarckienne and constitutionnelle, and said that she
did more harm to the queen's cause than if she were a
Jacobin.

Mme Campan not only suffered for her own
fidelity to the royal cause, but the letters written to
her about this time by her brother, Edmond Charles
Genest, who was still in Russia, and whom she

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

strongly suspected of sympathy for the popular party,
came near to deprive her of her mistress's favour. At
the age of eighteen, Edmond Genest, thanks to M. de
Vergennes* promise to the youth's father to protect
him as long as he lived, had been given the post of
attach^ at the French Embassy in Vienna. Two
years later he was sent to England as chief secretary
to the legation, when, soon after his arrival, he sub-
mitted to M. de Vergennes a report concerning the
danger incurred by France through the treaty of
commerce, which, partly owing to M. de Calonne's
influence, had just been concluded with England ; this
report gave great offence to M. de Rayneval, chief
clerk at the Foreign OfiSce. On the death of his
protector in 1787, M. Genest found himself almost
without friends, and thwarted on every occasion by
his enemy, M. de Rayneval. However, the comte de
S^gur, France s representative at the Russian Court,
having obtained for M. Genest the post of charg^
d'affaires to the French legation at Saint Petersburg.
Mme Campan's brother started for that town, swear-
ing vengeance on his enemy, and foretelling disaster
to France if her rulers did not treat the nation with
confidence.

His letters to his sister were full of bitter re-
criminations and warnings as to what was coming.
On one occasion Marie Antoinette surprised her
waiting-woman in tears ; having asked to be allowed
to see the letter in Mme Campan's hand, the queen
read it and handed it back to her with this re-
mark : —

'' This letter is written by a young man who has
been led astray by ambition and discontent ; I know

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MME CAMPAN RECEIVES GOOD ADVICE

that you do not share his opinions — do not fear to
lose my confidence and that of the king."

Notwithstanding her mistress's consoling words, the
faithful Campan told the queen that she should in future
neither write to her brother nor reply to his letters.
This measure, however, the queen said was un-
necessary, and might be dangerous. Mme Campan
then begged her mistress to allow her to show her all
her brother's letters and her own replies, to which
request the queen acceded. In her next letter, Mme
Campan blamed her brother so sharply for his out-
spoken remarks concerning matters in France, that
he, in his answer, stated that he should in future for-
bear to mention French politics, and should confine
himself to describing the wind and the weather ; he
also warned her that he should take no notice of
any of her letters containing questions concerning
politics in Russia, and ended with this very sensible
injunction : —

•'Serve your august mistress with the boundless
devotion which you owe her, and let us each do our
duty. I will only observe that the huge capital is
often hidden from the gaze of the inhabitants of the
Pavilion de Flore* on account of thick fogs rising
from the Seine ; in fact I believe that I, in far-away
Saint Petersburg, can see it more clearly than you do
in Paris itself."

On reading this letter Marie Antoinette thought
for a minute and then said : —

'• Perhaps he is right after all. . . . Who can
realize in what a disastrous condition we now find
ourselves ? '*

^ The Pavilion de Flore forms part of the palace of the Louvre.

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

But Mme Campan was not the only person who,
willingly or unwillingly, had to show her letters to a
second person ; for Bamave, who had obtained con-
siderable influence over Marie Antoinette since the
fiasco of Varennes, dreading her imprudence and mis-
trusting her sincerity, had insisted upon being allowed
to read his queen's correspondence. Mme Campan
frequently read to her mistress letters from Bamave
urging her to trust to the constitutionalists, warning
her not to believe the protestations of the European
kings and princes, mere puppets in the hands of their
statesmen, and blaming the mad behaviour of the
imigris. If protestations of sympathy and friendship
could have kept the crown of France on the head of
the luckless Louis xvi, then surely he would never
have lost both crown and head. Did not even Pitt,
who hated France so well, go the length of saying to
an unknown messenger — perhaps the famous Craufurd
— sent to England by the despairing queen, that " he
would not allow the French monarchy to perish, and
that it would be a great mistake, and most fatal to
the peace of Europe, if the revolutionists were per-
mitted to establish a Republic in France"? Vain
words ! empty promises !

But when time passed, and nothing was done,
Marie Antoinette cried bitterly to her faithful
Campan : —

" I cannot utter the name of Pitt without shudder-
ing. That man is France's mortal enemy; he is
taking a cruel revenge for the impolitic support given
to the American rebels by the Cabinet of Versailles.
He wishes by our destruction to secure his country's
supremacy on the seaboard, perfect his king's plans

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AN ECHO OF AN OLD AFFAIR

to improve his navy, and profit by the happy results
of the last war. • . . Pitt has -served the revolution
from the very commencement I "

'^Wben sorrows come, they come not single spies»
But in battalions!"

In the beginning of the fatal year, 1792, an echo
was heard in the stately rooms of the palace of the
Tuileries of that terrible scandal which had crept
through the CEil de Bceuf and along the polished
parquet and marble halls of Versailles, stalking like
a pestilential wraith up and down secret staircases
and corridors, slinking like a serpent along the box-
trimmed garden-walks of the queen's Eden, and
blighting more than one year of Marie Antoinette's
married life.

One day Mme Campan received a visit from a
venerable priest, who informed her that it had come
to his knowledge that certain persons lately arrived
from England were contemplating publishing a libel
freshly concocted by the hands of the queen's enemy,
Mme de Lamotte, now living in a London slum. As
these persons had expressed their willingness to part
with the manuscript to anybody who would give them
their price — one thousand lauis — ^the priest proposed
to Mme Campan that he should buy the libel,
supposing the queen would provide him with the
wherewithal. Rightly or wrongly, Marie Antoinette
refused to have anything to do with the matter, giving
as her reason that, if she were to be so foolish as to
buy the libel, the Jacobins would hear of it — besides
which she was convinced that it would be published
whether she paid hush-money or not However, she
was fated to hear more of the matter.

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

Soon after this episode, another visitor, in the
person of M- d'Aubier, one of the king's gentlemen,
came to see Mme Campan, whom he startled by the
following piece of news : —

"The AssembUe'' said he, "has been much
exercised by a denunciation recently made by some
workmen in the china manufactory at Sivres. These
men brought a bundle of papers and placed it on the
president's desk, declaring that it contained a Life of
Marie Antoinette. The director of the manufactory
having been ordered to appear in court, he said that
he had received commands to bum the papers in the
ovens used for baking the china"

Mme Campan, trembling lest the supposed Life
of Marie Antoinette should prove to be the libel for
which the queen had lately refused to pay hush-
money, hurried off to her mistress and told her of the
discovery. While she and the queen were wondering
how the papers came to be in such a strange place,
Mme Campan noticed that the king, who was
listening, became scarlet in the face and sank his head
on his breast The queen likewise remarked his
attitude, and turned to him saying : —

"Monsieur, do you know anjrthing about the
matter ? "

The king made no reply. Even when Mme
Elisabeth, his favourite, asked him to explain the
affair, he said nothing.

Mme Campan, seeing that her presence only dis-
tressed the royal family, retired to her own room. A
few minutes later Marie Antoinette appeared and
gave her the following explanation of the enigma :
The king, out of affection for his wife, had purchased

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SUFFERS FOR HER BROTHER

without her knowledge or consent the entire edition of
the libel which, as the queen had refused to buy it,
had been printed and was about to be published.
With characteristic imprudence the good-hearted king,
instead of burning the papers with his own hands, had
given them to M. de La Porte, the intendant of the Civil
List, who could think of nothing better than to send
them to the china manufactory at Sevres, there to be
burnt by workmen at least half of whom were probably
Jacobins, and some of whom had carefully saved seversd
copies of the libel, and brought them to the AssembUe.

Mme Campan was placed about this time in a very
uncomfortable position owing to her brother's well-
known political opinions. In consequence of a denun-
ciation, the AssembUe had summoned Mme Campan's
former friend, M. de Montmorin, to appear and
explain his negligence in having left unopened forty
dispatches sent to him by M. Genest, France's charge
d'affaires in Russia. In his defence, M. de Montmorin
said that he had done so because he knew that M.
Genest was a constitutionalist, and he considered his
communications of small value. The king had re-
quested Mme Campan to assist at M. de Montmorin's
examination, and bring him back a report of all she
had heard. It was a painful duty ; nevertheless she
attended the meeting, and brought back to the king a
faithful account of the proceedings, taking care, how-
ever, not to name her brother, but to call him : " Your
Majesty's charg^ d'affaires at Saint Petersburg."

"The king," says she in her memoirs, "was so
gracious as to observe that my account showed great
discernment"

On March i, 1792, Marie Antoinette lost her

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

beloved brother, Leopold ii, Emperor of Germany ; it
was Mme Campan who read the letter containing the
news of his death to his sister, whereupon the latter,
bursting into tears, cried out that he had been
poisoned; and when her waiting- woman asked her
why she thought so, replied that when he joined the
coadition at Pillnitz people had said that ''a pasty
would settle the business i "

Marie Antoinette's first thought was to write a
letter of condolence to her nephew ^ on the loss of his
father. She had so much to say, but she knew that
her letter would have to pass through the hands of
MM, Bamave and Lameth« In her perplexity she
said to the faithful Campan : —

" Sit down at this table and write me a rough copy
of what I ought to say. Be sure to insist upon
the fact that I expect my nephew to walk in his
father's footsteps. If your letter is better than what I
myself thought of writing, you shall dictate it to me."

** I wrote what I considered suitable," says Mme
Campan ; '' she read the letter and said to me : —

" ' That is the very thing ! The matter lay too
near my heart for me to write as coolly and as
sensibly as you have done.' "

The queen felt very keenly the position of semi-
imprisonment in which she and her family were now
living. The departure of her own father-confessor,
the cur^ of Saint-Eustache, had deprived her of
spiritual consolation. The faithful Campan accom-
panied her mistress to all the Lenten services, which
were celebrated in the private chapel of the Tuileries.
On Easter Sunday, 1792, Mme Campan, at the

^ Fnuads u. Emperor of Germany.
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DUMOURIEZS CAREER OF DUPLICITY

queen's request, persuaded one of her relatives to say
Mass at five o'clock in the morning.

*• I was the only person who accompanied her,"
wrote the queen's waiting-woman ; *^ it was still dark.
She took my arm while I lighted the way with a
candle. I left her alone at the chapel door. She did
not return to her apartments until day was beginning
to dawn."

It was but natural that the queen, in the midst of
this general dibdcle of worldly and spiritual friends,
should turn towards any one who showed sympathy
for her. Mme Campan relates in her memoirs an
extraordinary offer which her mistress received about
this time from Dumouriez — Napoleon gauged his
character, when he called him '' nothing but a vulgar
intriguer."

** I found the queen much agitated," wrote she ;
'* she told me that she really did not know what she
was about ; that the chiefs of the Jacobins had offered
their services through Dumouriez, or that Dumouriez,
deserting the Jacobins, had come to offer his own
services to her ; that she had granted him an audience ;
that, as soon as he had found himself alone with her,
he had flung himself at her feet and informed her
that, although he had placed the red cap on his head,
he was not and never could be a Jacobin ; that the
revolution was now in the hands of a mob of dis-
organizers who only cared for pillage, who were
capable of committing any crime, who could provide
the AsumbUe with a formidable army, and were
ready to undermine the last supports of a throne
which was already tottering. While speaking with
extraordinary warmth, Dumouriez seized the queen's
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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

hand and kissed it passionately, crying : ' Let yourself
be saved!'"

Dumouriez's subsequent disloyalty to all interests
except his own justified Majrie Antoinette's refusal to
have anything to do with him or his plans.

In the month of June 1792, the waves of the
Revolution again laved the steps of a royal palace,
and the royal family were again exposed to the fury
of that ever- restless ocean, the populace.

Two days before the invasion of the Tuileries, the
king, anxious to assure himself that those who re-
mained of his wife's retinue were faithful, said to the
princesse de Lamballe: "Send for Mme Campan,
then we shall be sure to obtain impartial informa-
tion."

Mme Campan, on reading the list of the queen's
few remaining ladies, noticed the name of a certain
high-born dame, as faithful a servitor as herself, but
who had caused the more humbly bom Campan
many an uncomfortable hour on account of her
jealousy. On returning the list to the princesse de
Lamballe, Mme Campan remarked that this particular
lady was absolutely devoted to the queen's interests,
and then added :

"Will your Highness kindly note that this lady
is my particular enemy ? "

" I will not write that down," replied the princess,
but I will never forget it, and I dare her to do you
any harm henceforth."

Even in those days, when Death was knocking at
the gilded gates of the Tuileries, Jealousy was all-
powerful, and crept through key-holes and crevices
where sympathy and pity were afraid to venture.

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A STRANGE HIDING-PLACE

We have already seen that Mme Campan had been
made to suffer for her brother^s political opinions.

"Shortly before the invasion of the Tuileries,"
she says, ''the queen granted audiences to several
ladies and persons about the Court who had come on
purpose to tell her that my brother was a constitu-
tionalist and an avowed revolutionist. The queen
replied to them : • I know it — Mme Campan told me
so herself.' Certain persons jealous of my position
and of my exalted tide, humiliated me, and made my
life so painful that I asked the queen to allow me to
retire into private life. She exclaimed at such an
idea, showed me how it would endanger my own
reputation, and was so gracious as to add that neither
for her own sake nor for mine would she ever give
her consent After this interview, during which I
knelt at her feet, bathing her hands with my tears, I
retired to my own. apartment. A few minutes later
a footman brought me a note containing these words :
* I have never ceased to give you proofs of my
affection ; I wish to tell you in writing that I believe
in your honour, and in your fidelity, as much as in
your other good qualities; I shall continue to rely
upon the zeal and the intelligence with which you
have always served me.' "

While Mme Campan was still perusing her
mistress's letter, a gentleman belonging to the king's
household, M. de La Chapelle by name, came to beg
-her to give him the missive that he might hide it in a
safe place. Mme Campan regretfully entrusted the
precious token of royal gratitude to the care of M. de
La Chapelle, who then concealed it behind a picture
in his private study in the Tuileries palace, where it

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

remained undiscovered. On August lo, M. de La
Chapelle was arrested and thrown into the prison of
the Abbaye, whereupon the Convention* immedi-
ately took possession of his study and used it as a
meeting-place ; during one of its s^anc€S^ M. de La
Chapelle was denounced by his footman, who swore
that several incriminating documents were concealed
beneath a loose band in his master's bat This asser-
tion having been proved, M. de La Chapelle was
sentenced to death, a sentence which he managed to
escape by a miracle, as well as the September massacres,
which opened the doors of so many prisons in Paris
and in the provinces. When the Convention migrated
to the king s private apartments, M. de La Chapelle
was permitted to go to his study and remove some of
his belongings. On finding himself alone for a
moment, he hastily turned a certain picture with its
face to the wall, removed the queen's letter which
had remained undiscovered since his departure, and
flung it into the fire which was blazing on the hearth.

But we must go back a few months.

Mme Campan was about to hasten to the queen's
boudoir in order to thank her for her graciousness,
when she heard somebody knocking at her door ; she
opened it, and, to her astonishment, beheld the king.

''I am afraid I frightened you," he said in his
kind, slightly drawling voice ; " but I have come to
reassure you. The queen has told me how the cruel
treatment received from the hands of so many persons
has wounded you. But how can you complain of

^ Mme Campan says it was the Comity de Salut public which took
possession of M. de La Chapelle's study ; that body, however, was not
formed until March 25, 1793.

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A FAITHFUL SERVANT

injustice and calumny when you see that even we are
not spared ? • . . We are in a most unfortunate posi-
tion ; we have experienced so much ingratitude and
treachery that the fears of those who love us are
pardonable. I might reassure them by telling them
of the secret services which you daily render us ; but
I do not want to do so. Should they, out of kind-
ness to you, repeat what I said, you would be ruined
in the opinion of the Assemblie. It is much better
for you and for us that people should believe you to
be a constitutionalist People have already informed
me of the fact twenty times; I have never contra-
dicted the report, but I have come to give you my
word that, if we are so lucky as to see the end of this
business, I shall publicly acknowledge in the presence
of the queen and my brother, the important services
which you have rendered to us, and I shall reward
you and your son/'

Although Mme Campan was frequendy exposed
to great risks while executing the queen's commands,
she never hesitated to obey. On one occasion Marie
Antoinette was anxious to see Bamave, the discovery
of whose correspondence with the king was to lead to
his death. Mme Campan was told to go and wait
for Bamave at a little door leading to the royal apart-
ments. For one long weary hour she stood with
beating heart, expecting the arrival of the then
powerful politician, her agitation being not a little in-
creased by sudden and unexpected flying visits from
the king who was in a scarcely less agitated condition
owing to the strange behaviour of one of his footmen,
a patriot of the name of Decret The king was in
terror lest this man should discover the two trembling

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

watchers, or surprise Barnave in a secret interview
with the queen, "for," whispered he to the faithful
Campan, "such a discovery would of a surety be
productive of many grave denunciations, and the
unfortunate victims would be ruined."

And he was not reassured when she reminded
him that she was not the only person in the secret,
and added that she sometimes feared lest one of
her colleagues should be tempted to boast of their
powerful friend

The king left her with a heavy heart ; he returned a
few minutes later with the queen, who, after endeavour-
ing to reassure her waiting-woman, released her from
her post, saying : —

"You need not remain any longer; I will now
take my turn to wait for him. You have convinced
the king we must not let more people into the secret of
Bamave's communications with us than we can help/'
However, Barnave proved to be but a broken
reed. Mme Campan says : —

" Hope had fled. The queen wrote imploring
letters to her relations and to the king's brothers;
her letters probably became more pressing, and she
complained of their tardy conduct Her Majesty read
me a letter from the archduchess Marie Christine, wife
of the Governor of the Netherlands ; she blamed her
for some of her expressions, and told her that people
outside France were quite as alarmed as herself con-
cerning the safety of the French royal family, but
that their salvation or their perdition depended upon
the manner in which they were rescued, and that the
coalition, being charged with such precious interests,
must exercise prudence. ..."

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The queen was at that time in correspondence
with a very unpopular personage, namely, the marquis
Bertrand Antoine de MoUeville, who in the previous
month of January had been convicted of telling lies
in the presence of the AssembUe Ugislatiue. M. de
Marsilly, formerly a lieutenant in the regiment of the
Cent-Suisses, was employed to carry the queen's
letters to M. de MoUeville. When M. de Marsilly
accepted this trust, the queen wrote to him: "Ad-
dress yourself to Mme Campan in full confidence r
her brother's conduct in Russia has had no effect
upon her feelings ; she is devoted body and soul to
us ; and if, in the future, you should have messages
to communicate by word of mouth, you can perfectly
rely upon her discretion and her devotion."

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CHAPTER VIII

Marie Antoinette changes her bedroom — Mme Campan provides die
king with some strange garments — Attempt upon the queen's life —
The king's imprudence— A false alarm — Potion pays a visit to the
Tuileries — ^The palace is l)esieged — Mme Campan has a narrow
escape— She is allowed to see the royal prisoners at the Feuillants.

It is curious to think how to the very last the queen
hoped and believed that she and her family would
be rescued by her talkative but slow-paced friends
and relatives across the eastern frontier of France.
Meanwhile her friends at home were less sanguine,
and entertained serious fears lest she and her husband
should be assassinated before those other friends
could rescue her.

In the beginning of the month of July, Marie
Antoinette, with some difficulty, was persuaded to
change her bedroom to a room on the first floor,
situated between the bedrooms of the king and the
Dauphin.

In order that she might feel less lonely during
those long, sleepless nights of anxiety, the queen
ordered her shutters to be left open. Once when
Mme Campan crept into her mistress's room in the
middle of the night and found the queen lying in bed
wide awake with the moonbeams streaming through
the windows, filling every nook and crevice with
strange, unearthly shadows, and making her pale face

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THE KING FEARS AN ATTACK

look even paler, Marie Antoinette beckoned her to
her bedside and, pointing to the moon, whispered : —

'^ Before another month has elapsed the king and
I shall have shaken off our chains, and we shall be
free. They will soon rescue us. But our friends
disagree in a terrible manner; some declare that
our plans will be crowned with success, while others
say that there are insurmountable difficulties to be
faced I have in my possession the itinerary which
the princes and the king of Prussia intend to follow.
I know the date of their entry into Verdun, and
when they move to such and such a place. ..."

The queen then added that she dreaded what
might happen meanwhile in Paris, and lamented the
king^s lack of energy, to which, indeed, we may
attribute all his misfortunes.

It was believed by the friends of the royal family
that the third anniversary of the taking of the Bastille
would be marked by an attempt to murder the king
and queen. So completely did Mme Campan share
this belief, that she never once undressed and went to
bed during the month of July. The king was urged
by everybody to wear some sort of protection beneath
his coat; at last, in order to please the queen, he
gave Mme Campan permission to order a waistcoat
and a belt sufficiently thick to protect the vital organs.
These garments were made of fifteen folds of the
thickest Italian silk, and were so efficacious that not
only could no stiletto pierce them, but the bullets of
those days were flattened by impact. The garments
finished, Mme Campan, not knowing where to hide
them while waiting for an opportunity to get the king
to try them on, hung them by a string round her own

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

person, and for three days went about with them under
her skirts where they impeded her every movement
and made her quake with anxiety lest they should
become unfastened, or trip her up, and thus reveal
their presence.

At last a favourable opportunity presented itself
while the king was in his wife's room. M. Gentil,
the head valet, helped Mme Campan to button his
Majesty into this new-fashioned armour which the
good-natured king, at his wife's request, subsequently
wore on the famous anniversary. While these strange
garments were being tried on, the king plucked at
Mme Campan's skirt, and made a sign to her to leave
the queen's bedside — for Marie Antoinette had not
risen yet — when he whispered in her ear : —

" I only consented to this importunity in order
to please the queen. They will not assassinate me,
they have changed their mind — they will get rid of
me in some other way."

The queen noticed the king whispering to the
faithful Campan, and when he left the room, she called
her waiting-woman to her bedside, and asked what he
had said.

"I hesitated before replying," wrote Mme
Campan in her memoirs ; '' she insisted, however, and
told me that I must conceal nothing, because she was
resigned to bear everything. When she heard what
the king had said, she told me that she had guessed
everything, that he had often told her that the events
which were then being enacted in France were an
imitation of the revolution in England under Charles i,
and that he was never tired of reading the history
of that unfortunate monarch, so that he might avoid

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THE QUEEN REFUSES PRECAUTIONS

the faults which that sovereign had committed during
a similar crisis.

«< < I was beginning to fear that they would bring
a lawsuit against the king/ added the queen ; 'as for
me, I am a foreigner — they will assassinate me. . . .
What will become of our poor children ? *

" She burst into tears. I wanted to give her an
antispasmodic potion ; but she refused it, saying that
only happy women suffered from hysterics, that
nothing could mend the cruel position in which she
now found herself. In fact, the health of the queen,
who, during her happy days, had often suffered from
hysterics, became perfect now that her mind was
needed to sustain her body. ..."

Mme Campan, although well aware that her
mistress could be very obstinate on occasion, had a
pair of stays made of the same material as the king's
waistcoat and belt, in die hope that her Majesty would
consent to wear them ; but when she came with them
in her hand and begged her mistress on her bended
knees and with tears in her eyes to wear them for the
sake of her humble servant if not for her husband's
sake, the queen replied : —

''It will be a good thing for me if the rebels do
murder me, they will free me from a very painful
existence."

The expected attack upon the queen's life came
soon after. During one of those short summer nights
which seemed so long to the pale-faced watchers,
Mme Campan, while seated beside her mistress's bed,
heard footsteps in the passage outside. It required
some courage to open the door and summon the
sleepy footman, but Mme Campan neither in mental nor

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

physical crises lacked courage ; abe unlocked the door
and called loudly for " her Majesty's footman/' She
had hardly spoken when she heard a noise as if two
men were fighting; quickly relocking the door, she
hastened back to the queen's bedside. Marie
Antoinette, trembling with terror, flung her arms
round her faithful Campan's neck and cried : —

" Oh I what a position I am in i exposed to insults
by day, and to assassins by night ! "

A few seconds later the queen's footman came to
the door and called out : —

*' Madame, I've caught the scoundrel, I've got
him tight!"

" Let him go," replied the queen, " open the door
for him. He came to murder me ; had he succeeded,
the Jacobins would have borne him in triumph.'*

On opening the door, Mme Campan beheld the
queen's footman, who was a very strong fellow,
holding by the wrists one of the king's footmen who,
doubtless with the intention of murdering the queen,
had extracted the key of her Majesty's bedroom out
of the king's coat-pocket after the latter had gone
to bed.

The would-be murderer released, the queen
thanked her footman for exposing his life, to which
he replied that ''he was afraid of nothing, and that
he always wore two pistols on his person in order to
defend her Majesty."

On the morrow all the locks of the doors to the
royal apartments were changed.

The king fully realized that Mme Campan's duties
exposed her to many risks, and he endeavoured to
recompense her for her devotion. Some days after

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THE IRON CUPBOARD

the above incident he met Mme Campan in a narrow
staircase ; when she drew on one side in order to let
her master pass, he seized her arm and, as she bent
forward to kiss his hand, saluted her on both cheeks
without uttering a single word. So overcome was
the faithful Campan with this proof of her master's
gratitude, and with grief for what that master was
suffering, that she scarcely realized what had happened,
and asked herself whether she had been dreaming.

A propos of locks and keys, the king's hobby was
only another link in that chain of fatality which he
forged with his own hands during those ten years
when he worked side by side with Gamin — Soulavie
called him "that infamous Gamin'* — to the detri-
ment of other and far more pressing affairs.

It must ever be a source of astonishment to
students of the history of the French Revolution that
the actors in that poignant drama should, at the risk
of imperilling their own lives and the lives of their
dependants, have deliberately kept compromising
documents in such insecure places as iron cupboards
wherein inquisitive people would be sure to pry when-
ever they got a chance. M. de La Chapelle was far
wiser when he chose the back of a picture as a safe
hiding-place — as Mme Campan also found when gover-
ness to the Bonapartes. For her part Mme Campan,
dreading another invasion of the palace, prudendy
burnt nearly all the papers confided to her charge.
Marie Antoinette had laid aside the sum of 140,000
francs (;^56oo) in gold, in readiness for the escape
which she still believed possible. This sum she was
very anxious to confide to Mme Campan's keeping,
but the latter persuaded her to keep 40,000 francs, so

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that, if the hour of delivery ever struck, she might
have the wherewithal to purchase silence and
obedience.

At the advice of Marie Antoinette, who had
always mistrusted Gamin, the king placed some of his
most important papers in a fortfolio, which he then
gave to Mme Campan. She says in her memoirs : —

'* The queen advised the king in my presence to
leave nothing in the cupboard ; whereupon the king,
anxious to reassure her, replied that he had left nothing
in it I wanted to take the portfolio to my room ;
but it was too heavy for me to lift The king told
me that he would carry it himself ; I walked before
him in order to open the doors. Having placed the
portfolio in my private study, he merely said to me :
* The queen will tell you what it contains/ On re-
turning to the queen I asked her what it contained, as
I judged by what the king had said that I ought to
know all about it

** • It contains,' replied the queen, • papers which
would do the king's cause the greatest harm if they
ever went the length of bringing a lawsuit against
him. But the king probably meant me to tell you
that this same portfolio contains the verbal process of
a council of State when the king recommended the
government not to go to war. It was signed by all
the Ministers ; and in case such a lawsuit were brought
against him, he thinks this document would be very
useful'

'* I asked the queen to whom I ought to confide
the portfolio.

"•To whomsoever you like,' she replied, 'you
alone are responsible for it ; do not leave the palace

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A FALSE ALARM

even when you are not on duty. An occasion may
arise when we might be very glad to be able to lay
our hand on it at a moment's notice/ ..."

Did that portfolio contain duplicates of those letters
from Mirabeau to his royal master, which, when dis-
covered in the cupboard, were to prove that to neither
royal nor plebeian master had the great statesman —
who might have been so much greater^been faithful ?

On July 30, Mme Campan was warned at four
o'clock in the morning that the faubourg Saint- Antoine,
whose inhabitants are always foremost in any popular
manifestation, was marching towards the Tuileries
with the evident intention of repeating the scenes
enacted in the previous month. Mme Campan im*
mediately sent two trusty messengers to find out
whether the royal family were really in danger, after
which she had all the servants awakened, so that they
might be ready to defend their mistress.

" I then crept very quietly into the queen's room,"
writes her waiting- woman ; '* I did not awaken her.
The king and Mme Elisabeth had both risen ; Mme
Elisabeth was sitting in the queen's room. That
morning her Majesty, overwhelmed by all her troubles,
slept, strange to say, until nine o'clock. The king
came to see if she was awake. I told him what I had
done, and that I had taken care not to disturb hen
He thanked me, and said : —

** ' I was awake, as was the whole palace ; she ran
no risks. It is pleasant to see her resting. Oh ! her
sorrows increase mine ! ' he added as he left me.

•' What was my grief when the queen, on awaken-
ing, was informed of what had happened, and began
to weep bitterly because she had not been called, and

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

blamed me, upon whose friendship she had hoped to
count, for having served her so ill on such an occasion !
... It was vain for me to repeat that it had only
been a false alarm, and that she greatly needed to rest
her tired nerves.

" * They are not tired ! * said she, • misfortunes arc
very good for the nerves. Elisabeth was by the
king's side, but I was asleep ! — I who long to die by
his side ! I am his wife ; I do not wish him to be
exposed to the slightest danger without me.' "

Meanwhile the inhabitants of the Tuileries were
preparing for what everybody felt was bound to come»
sooner or later; guns and ammunition were stored
in the lower rooms, while from all sides royalists
rallied round the king with protestations of fidelity.
The king received many offers of money about this
time ; these offers, as the king did not wish to im-
poverish his subjects, he refused.

M. Augui^ Mme Campan's brother-in-law, sent
his wife to the king with a pocket-book containing
100,000 ^cus, which she begged the king on her knees
to accept The queen, who was present at this
interview, strove to console her servant for the king's
refusal by telling her that she valued the thought even
more than the deed.

In the beginning of August, Mme Campan received
a visit from M. de La Fert^ the king's steward, who
brought with him the sum of 1000 livres^ which he
besought her to give to the queen. However, the
latter refused this offer like all the others she received
about this time.

A few days later, Mme Campan was surprised to
hear the queen remark that she had decided to accept

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C<3/tyr/^A/|^l

[Uraun &^ Co.

Madame Elisabeth.

From a painting by Le Brun.

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THE MAYOR OF PARIS

part of M. de La Perth's offer, as Mme Elisabeth had
discovered a man who had undertaken to purchase
Potion's goodwill ; in fact, the matter was already so
far advanced that the price had been fixed — 124,000
francs — and the mayor of Paris had promised to let the
king know by signs if his plans succeeded Mme
Campan was instructed to accept 24,000 francs from
M. de La Fert^, and to add to this sum the 100,000
francs which the queen had entrusted to her care in the
previous month ; the money was then to be changed
into assignais in order to increase the value — those
much-blamed assignats which, according to M. Ernest
Hamel, '* saved Prance from bankruptQV, helped her
to triumph over the whole of Europe, and only fell
into disgrace when the Revolution began to be
threatened by the reaction/'

It was arranged that the king was to meet Potion.
Mme Campan does not give the date of the interview,
but it probably took place at nine o'clock of the night
of August 9, in the palace of the Tuileries. It was
said that Potion was not a little nervous as to his own
safety.

When the queen, in the presence of Mme Campan,
asked the king whether the mayor of Paris had seemed
in a good humour, Louis xvi replied : —

*' Neither more nor less than usual. He did not
make the promised sign, and I fear I have been
deceived."

The queen then turned to her waiting- woman, and
explained that it had been arranged that Potion was
to hold his finger under his right eye for two seconds.

"But," interrupted the king, ''he did not even
touch his chin with his hand ; he has cheated us out
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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

of the money ; however, the thief will not dare to
boast of ity and so the matter will never be known.
Let us talk of something else."

After this interview the virtuous Potion retired
to the gardens of the Tuileries, where he spent two
or three hours walking up and down the gravel
walks in dose conversation with Roederer and some
of the members of the Commune.

Mme Campan, although not on duty during the
month of August, had, in obedience to the queen's
request, remained at the Tuileries with two of her
sisters and a niece during the night of August 9-10.
Soon after Potion's departure, while the king was giving
some orders for the morrow, a loud noise was heard
outside the door of the king's apartments. On going
to ascertain the reason, Mme Campan beheld two
sentinels trying to strangle each other — why ? because
one of them had said that the king would defend the
Constitution to the last day of his life, whereas the other
had asserted that the king was only putting obstacles
in the way of the Constitution, which was necessary
to a free nation. Mme Campan was still rather upset
when she returned to the royal family. The king
having inquired the reason of her agitation, she
reluctandy related the incident, whereupon Marie
Antoinette remarked that she, for her part, was not
at all surprised, as more than half of the king's body-
guard were Jacobins at heart.

The hour of midnight was heralded by the ghastly
tocsin, which continued like a giant banshee to wail
over Paris until dawn broke. The walls of the palace
were guarded by the Suisses, who themselves formed
a second wall of flesh and blood. Mme Campan's

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ROYAL PALACE PREPARES FOR SIEGE

family was also represented outside the palace, for
her brother-in-law, M. Rousseau, fought in the section
of the Filles-Saint-Thomas.

One historian states that ''the palace looked so
formidable closed in with bayonets, that the populace
would probably have been completely worsted if all
the troops which filled the courtyards, gardens, and
apartments had resolutely determined to defend the
royal dwelling." More than one of the officers had
serious doubts as to the issue of the event; one
military friend said to Mme Campan : —

" Fill your pockets with your money and your
jewels ; we must look danger in the face. The means
taken to protect the palace are useless ; nothing can
be done unless the king acts with energy — and that
is the only virtue he lacks ! "

An hour later the queen and Mme Elisabeth said
they would go and rest in a boudoir looking into
the courtyard of the palace. No sooner did Marie
Antoinette find herself alone with her sister-in-law and
her waiting-woman, than she burst into lamentations
because the king had refused to wear the famous
waistcoat, a duplicate of which had lately been made,
giving as his reason that he had consented to wear
it on July 14, because he then had cause to fear
the assassin's knife, whereas he now considered it
cowardice on his part to protect himself when his
friends were exposing their lives for his sake. While
the queen was lamenting her husband's obstinacy,
Mme Elisabeth removed some of her clothes and lay
down on a sofa. Before taking off her fichu, Marie
Antoinette showed Mme Campan a cornelian pin
ornamented with a lily, around which were engraved

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

these words: "Forget offences, forgive injuries/'
adding : —

'' I much fear that our enemies hold this maxim in
very poor esteem, but we should not value it any the
less."

The queen then told her waiting-woman to sit
beside her. Fears for the safety of her dear ones
banished sleep. The ladies were talking over their
plans, when a pistol-shot was heard in the courtyard,
whereupon they started up in terror, exclaiming : —

'' The first shot has been fired ; it will not be the
last, unhappily. Let us go to the king."

So saying, the two princesses hastened out of the
room, followed by Mme Campan and several of the
queen's ladies. At four o'clock on the morning of
August ID, the queen came out of the king's room
and informed Mme Campan that M. Mandat, a
fervent royalist, had been assassinated, and that his
head stuck on a pike was being marched up and
down the streets of the capital Mme Campan gives
the hour as four o'clock, whereas history places the
time three hours later.

Only a few hours before this event, this M.
Mandat had been the subject of a conversation
between the king and Mme Campan, for the king had
said to her : —

" Your father was an intimate friend of M. Mandat,
who is now at the head of the National Guard Tell
me what sort of a man he is; what can I expect
of him?"

To which Mme Campan had replied that M.
Mandat was one of the king's most loyal subjects,
but that he was equally devoted to the Constitution,

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MURDER OF MANDAT

which he had sworn to defend and to fight anybody
who dared to usurp the royal authority.

During the fatal night of August 9-10 the
commissaries, assembled at the H6tel de Ville, had
summoned Mandat to appear before them and answer
a charge of having on his own responsibility caused
the palace of the Tuileries to be fortified. M. Mandat
replied that he had acted in obedience to Potion's
commands. While he was still defending himself, a
letter was produced bearing his signature, in which
he charged the mayor of Paris to repulse any popular
attack against the Tuileries with shot and steel.
Mandat was immediately arrested. While he was
being conducted down the steps of the Hdtel de Ville
preparatory to being marched off to the prison of the
Abbaye, he was shot by some person in the crowd.

"The <iay broke/' writes Mme Campan; "the
king, the queen, Mme Elisabeth, Madame, and the
Dauphin descended in order to review the National
Guard; some uttered cries of * Vive le roH* I was
standing at a window looking over the garden ; I saw
some gunners leave their post, go up to the king and
shake their fists in his face, calling him the most
insulting names. MM. Sal vert and de Briges roughly
pushed them back. The king was pale as death.
The royal family then re-entered the palace. The
queen told me that all was at an end, that the king had
shown no energy whatever, and that this sort of review
had done more harm than good I was with my
companions in the billiard-room ; we sat down on some
high seats. I then saw M. d'Hervilly, with his naked
sword in his hand, order the gentleman-usher to open
to the French nobility. Two hundred persons now

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entered the room next to that in which the royal family
were seated ; the other persons drew up into two rows
along the corridor. Among the latter I saw many
courtiers, several unknown faces, and a few persons
who would have cut but a poor figure among the
nobility, but whose devotion ennobled them for the
moment They were all poorly armed ; their weapons,
even in this anything but ludicrous situation, aroused
our inextinguishable French wit, and many were the
jokes made at their expense. M. de Saint-Souplet, the
king's equerry, and a page each carried over their
shoulder, instead of a gun, the half of a pair of tongs
taken from the king's antechamber, which they had
broken in two. Another page held in his hand a
pocket-pistol, the muzzle of which he had rested on
the back of the person just in front of him, with a
request that he would be so kind as to hold it
for him. . . ."

At eight o'clock in the morning the narrow streets
leading to the palace of the Tuileries were filled with
excited volunteers representing all the different sections
of the capital, and including the Marseillais and the
federates from Brest The king was then recom-
mended by Rcederer, to whom the French clergy
largely owed the fact that they were now forbidden
to take vows, to shelter with his family in the Club
des Feuillants, once an old convent, close to the
Tuileries, where the AssembUe was in the habit of
holding its meetings.

" There and there only will you and yours be in
safety," added Rcederer, in order to clench the matter.

While the king was still hesitating whether he
ought thus to prove that he had ceased to be king

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THE ROYAL FAMILY ENTER PRISON

even in name, Mme Elisabeth asked Roederer with
tears in her eyes : —

" Will you be responsible for the king's life ? "

Whereupon Roederer replied : —

" Yes, I will answer for his life as for my own."

At first the queen opposed this step ; it was only
when she was told that if her husband refused to leave
the Tuileries she and her children would be massacred
that she consented to go to the Club des Feuillants.
On leaving the king's study after having given her
consent, Marie Antoinette said to her faithful waiting-
woman : —

"Wait for me in my apartment; I will either join you
or send for you to come to me, I know not where. ..."

Mme Campan's heart was full Jto overflowing as
she watched the royal family leave the Tuileries
between two rows of those brave Swiss soldiers, eight
hundred of whom were to perish a few hours later, and
two battalions of the sections of the Petits-Pires
and the Filles - Saint - Thomas, among whom was
M. Rousseau, Mme Campan's brother-in-law. The
spectacle of the royal family going on foot to the
AssemdUe was so novel that crowds flocked to see
the wonder. During the short walk the queen was
hustled and jostled by the sight-seers. Much of her
anguish during the previous night had been caused
by fears for her son's safety ; these fears were] re-
doubled when she beheld a huge man, a familiar
figure at all the recent popular insurrections, stride
up to the little Dauphin, whom she was holding
by the hand, tear him away from his mother's grasp
and pick him up in his arms ; whereupon the unhappy
queen uttered a piercing shriek and appeared upon

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

the point of swooning. But the giant said not un-
kindly : " Don't be afraid — I don't want to hurt him."
And indeed he carried the child most carefully
and restored him to his mother's arms as soon as the
refugees had entered the hall of the AssembUe. When
Marie Antoinette had recovered from her fright, and
again clasped her precious child in her arms, she
discovered that somebody in the crowd had profited by
her terror, and had relieved her of her watch and purse.
Louis xvi's first words on entering the hall of the
AssembUe were : —

** I have come in order to prevent a great crime ! "
to which remark Vergniaud replied : —

" You can count, Sire, upon the firm conduct of
the AssembUe natiowUe ; its members have sworn to
die for the rights of the people, and to maintain the
authority of the Constitution."

No sooner had the royal family left the Tuileries
than the siege began. Nobody knew who first opened
fire. For two hours the Swiss Guards, numbering
one thousand, repulsed the assailants, who were un-
aware of the king's departure for the AssembUe. The
Swiss were holding their own when Louis xvi sent
word that they were to cease firing. They obeyed,
though by so doing they signed their own death-
warrant. A horrible man-hunt now began along the
corridors of the palace. The brave Swiss, together
with many members of the French nobility, were cut
to pieces, their bodies thrown out of the windows,
and their heads placed on pikes and paraded before
the AssembUe. One heroic fellow. Diet by name, was
found on guard outside the queen's bedroom; he
bared his breast to the assassins' knives, crying : —

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"SPARE THE WOMEN 1"

" I do not wish to live any longer This is my
post, and it is my duty to die here, at the door of the
queen's bedroom ! "

Mme Campan gives a graphic description of her
own experiences in her memoirs : —

"Luckily the princesse de Tarente had caused
the door of the queen's private apartments to be
opened ; had she not done this, the horrible band, on
seeing several women huddled together in the queen's
sahn, would have thought that she was still there,
and would have immediately massacred us if their fury
had been increased by resistance. Nevertheless, we
were all on the point of perishing when a man with a
long beard entered crying out that Potion had given
the following orders : * Spare the women ! do not
dishonour the nation!' One particular incident
exposed me to more danger than my companions.
In my anguish and grief I imagined, just before the
assailants entered the queen's room, that my sister
had left the little group of women, so I hurried up-
stairs to an entresol, where I supposed she had taken
refuge, meaning to persuade her to come down, as
I fancied that we should be safer if we all kept to-
gether. I did not find her there, however; I only
saw our two serving-maids and one of the queen's
heidugues, a very tall, soldierly-looking man. He was
seated oh the edge of the bed, and was very pale. I
cried to him : 'Save yourself! the footmen and our
own people have already done so I ' He replied : ' I
cannot — I am literally dying of fear.' While he was
still speaking, I heard a band of men hurrying up the
stairs ; they flung themselves upon liim — I saw them
murder him. ... I rushed towards the staircase.

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followed by the serving-maids. The assassins left the
heiduque in order to run after me. The women flung
themselves at their feet and clasped their swords^ The
staircase was so narrow that the assassins were much
impeded in their movements ; however, I already felt a
horrible hand on my back, clutching at my clothes,
when somebody at the foot of the stairs called out : —

" * What are you doing up there } '

** The horrible Marseillais, who was just on the
point of murdering me, replied with a hein which I
shall never forget as long as I live. The other voice
then remarked : —

" ' We do not kill women ! '

** I had fallen on my knees ; my tormentor let me
go, saymg :—

** * Get up, you hussy ! the nation pardons you.'

•* This coarse remark did not prevent me suddenly
experiencing an inexpressible feeling, almost akin to
ecstasy, at the thought that I should see my son and
all my dear ones again. Only a second before, I had
been less concerned at the thought of death than at
the pain which the weapon suspended above my head
would doubtless have caused me. One seldom sees
death so near without enduring it. I can testify that
the organs of sight and hearing, when one does not
swoon, are keenly sensitive, and that I heard every
word uttered by the assassins as clearly as if I had
been quite calm.

" Five or six men seized me and the women, and,
having made us get upon some benches placed beneath
the windows, ordered us to cry : * Long live the nation ! '

" I stepped over several dead bodies. I recog-
nised the corpse of the old vicomte de Broves, to whom

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A TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE

the queen, earlier in the previous night, had sent me
to command him, as well as another old gentleman,
to return to their homes. These brave fellows had
begged me to tell her Majesty that they had always
obeyed the king's commands in circumstances when
they had had to risk their lives in order to protect him,
but that this time they could not obey, and would only
remember the queen's kindness.

" When we were near the gate by the riverside,
the men who were leading me asked we where I
wanted to go ; one of them, a Marseillais, giving me
a push with the butt end of his musket, inquired
whether I still had any doubts as to the people's power ?
I replied : ' No ! ' and then told him the number of my
brother-in-law's house. I saw my sister ascending
the steps of the bridge, surrounded by National Guards.
I called to her ; she turned round.

" • Do you want her to come to you .^' asked my
guardians.

** I told them that I should like her to do so. They
hailed the men who were conducting my sister to
prison ; she came to me. Our walk from the palace
to my sister's house was most terrible. We saw
several Swiss, who were fleeing, killed in cold blood ;
we heard pistol-shots on all sides. We passed under
the walls of the gallery of the Louvre ; people stand-
ing on the parapet shot at the windows of the gallery,
endeavouring to kill the chevaliers du poignard^ as
the people called the king's faithful subjects who had
assembled at the Tuileries in order to protect his person.

^ On February 28, 1791, Lafayette had hunted from the palace of the
Tuileries 300 gentlemen who had flocked thither, armed with daggersi
in order to protect their king, hence their name chevaliers dupaignartL

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The brigands had smashed the drinking- vessels in the
queen's first anteroom ; the hems of our white dresses
were stained with the blood-tinged water. The fish-
wives called out after us in the streets that we belonged
to the Autrickienne's household Our guardians then
showed us more consideration, and made us enter a
courtyard so that we might take off our skirts ; how-
ever, our petticoats were so short that we looked as if
we had tried to disguise ourselves; and then some
other fishwives began to cry out that we were young
Swiss Guards dressed in women's clothes. We beheld
a swarm of cannibals carrying poor Mandates head
coming up the street Our guards made us hastily
enter a little tavern, asked for wine, and told us to
drink with them. They assured the hostess that we
were the sisters of good patriots. Luckily the Mar-
seillais had left us in order to return to the Tuileries.
One of the men who had remained with us, said to me
under his breath : —

" ' I am a gauze-manufacturer in x!ti<t faubourg \ I
was forced to join these men. I do not belong to
them. I have murdered nobody, but I have saved
your life. You were in great danger when we met
those frenzied women carrying Mandat's head. Yester-
day at midnight those horrible harpies declared on the
Place de la Bastille that they would have their revenge
for the scenes enacted at Versailles on October 6 ; and
they swore to kill the queen and all her faithful women
with their own hands.' "

Mme Campan was then allowed to go to the house
of her sister, Mme Augui^, whose husband was in
despair because he firmly believed that his wife and
sister-in-law had shared the fate of the unhappy Swiss

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A FRIEND IN NEED IS A FRIEND INDEED

Guards ; however, here Mme Campan could not stay,
for a crowd of revolutionists had already assembled
in the street outside the house, and were crying that
Marie Antoinette's confidential waiting-woman was in
there and they would have her head While crossing
the Carrousel, Mme Campan had seen her own house
in flames; she was now told that everything she
possessed had either been burnt or stolen, so she was
absolutely without any clothes except what she had
on her back. Mme Augui^ lent her some of her
own maid's clothes^ and thus attired the unfortunate
waiting-woman slipped out of the house, and went to
the abode of M. Morel, the administrator of the public
lotteries, where she spent the night On the morrow
a royalist deputy brought her a message from the queen,
begging her to come to the Feuillants, where the royal
family were still prisoners.

Mme Campan, Mme Augui^, and a friend, Mme
Thibaut, having disguised themselves, set off for the
Feuillants, where they arrived at the same time as the
king's chief footman, Thierry. Before being ushered
into the queen's presence, the visitors were made to
write their names and addresses in a register, after
which they were given cards of admittance to the
rooms belonging to Camus, where the king and his
family were tasting the bread of sorrow.

On entering the first room, Mme Campan was
greeted by this flattering remark uttered by an un-
known person : —

" Ah ! you are a good woman ; but where is
that fellow Thierry, whose master loaded him with
benefits ? "

To which question, Mme Campan replied : —

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

" Here he is ; he is just behind me ! I perceive
that even the spectre of death is powerless to banish
jealousy from this place ! "

So saying, she hurried down a passage leading to
the king's prison, before reaching which she had to
pass in front of several grenadiers, two or three of
whom called her by her name. One said : —

"Ah! well — so the poor king's done for! The
comte d'Artois wouldn't have let himself be caught so
easily ! "

" No, that he wouldn't I " another replied.

The meeting between the king and his wife's faith-
ful servants was most painful. The royal prisoner
was having his hair cut ; he took two locks and gave
one to Mme Campan, and the other to Mme Auguid ;
when the latter endeavoured to kiss his hand, he cried
** No ! no ! " and folded first one and then the other
faithful creature in his arms, and kissed them without
being able to utter another word.

Mme Campan and her sister then went into the
adjoining cell, the walls of which were covered with
a hideous green paper. Here they found the queen,
sick from grief and anxiety, lying in bed, with a rough
but good-natured-looking female in attendance. The
queen, on seeing the two weeping visitors standing in
in the doorway, held out her arms towards them,
crying : —

** Come ! come ! oh ! unhappy women, come in and
see a woman who is even more to be pitied than you,
because it is her fault that you are all so unhappy!
We are lost ; three years of the most detestable out-
rages have brought us here. We shall succumb to
this horrible revolution ; many others will perish after

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TWO INNOCENT VICTIMS

us. Everybody has had a hand in our ruin — ^both
innovators and lunatics, ambitious persons anxious to
make their fortunes — for the most rabid Jacobins only
wanted gold and preferment The populace is wait-
ing to pillage. There is not a single patriot in the
whole infamous horde ; the imigris had their cabals
and plots! The foreigners wanted to profit by
France's dissensions ; everybody has helped to bring
about our misfortunes ! "

While the queen was still lamenting her fate, Mme
de Tourzel entered the room with those most innocent
victims, the little Dauphin and Madame Royale,
whereupon the queen burst forth into renewed
lamentations.

** Poor children ! " cried she, " how cruel it is not
to be able to leave them this fair heritage, and to be
obliged to say : ' All this finishes with us M . . ."

The queen displayed much concern on learning
of the dangers to which her faithful friend had been
exposed on her account, and lamented the fact that
that friend was now without a roof over her head ; to
which Mme Campan replied that such a trifling
accident was unworthy of her Majesty's attention.
Marie Antoinette also expressed deep interest in the
fate of those of her ladies whom she had left at the
Tuileries, and especially for the princessle de Tarente,
Mme de La Roche Aymon, that princess's daughter,
and the duchesse de Luynes, of whom she said : *' She
was one of the first women to be seized with enthusiasm
for this wretched new-fangled philosophy ; but her kind
heart soon got the better of her head, and latterly I
found in her the friend of old days."

These words in those last weeks of the Reign of

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

Terror, when the humbly bom Mme Campan and the
aristocratic duchesse de Luynes were both in hiding
at Coubertin, proved of much consolation to the latter ;
while mingling her tears with the faithful Campan,
she would often exclaim : " I frequently feel the need
of hearing you repeat the queen's words/'

When Mme Campan asked Marie Antoinette
whether the foreign ambassadors were doing anything
to help her, the queen replied that their hands were
tied, but that the wife ^ of the English ambassador had
been so good as to send some clothes belonging to her
own son for the use of the-little Dauphin, who was
about the same age and height During this conversa-
tion Mme Campan bethoughtherself of some important
papers bearing the queen's signature which, while her
house was burning, had been thrown into the gutter
where any unscrupulous person might find them and
use them against her mistress. On imparting her fears
to the queen, the latter became quite as anxious as her
friend, and told her to go to the Comity de sHrtU
giniraU and make a declaration.

Mme Campan hurried off to the Comiii, where she
was received by a deputy whose name she did not
know, who, after listening to her story, dismissed her
with this remark : —

" I cannot receive your declaration. Marie
Antoinette is nothing but a woman, like all other
French women ; if anything happens to any of the
papers bearing her signature, she can protest"

The rebuff made the queen bitterly regret that she
had exposed herself to fresh attacks from her enemies ;
she burst into tears, exclaiming : —

^ This kind-hearted woman was the Duchess of Sutherland*
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THE QUEEN REQUESTS A LOAN

" It is all over with us ; it is in their power to ruin
usi"

Years after, Mme Campan told her friends that
she had never foi^otten the day when she saw the
queen, lying in bed in the mean room at the Feuil-
lants, with its hideous green wall-paper, and shabby
furniture, shed tears for the last time.

The queen, as already stated, had been relieved of
her watch and purse while walking to the Feuillants,
so she begged Mme Auguid to lend her twenty-five
louts, which that lady did, and thereby signed her
own death-warrant, and placed the life of her sister
in jeopardy; for the queen, on being questioned
during her trial concerning the money found on her
person, confessed that it was a loan from Mme
Auguid

Before bidding farewell to Mme Campan, Marie
Antoinette made her promise to follow her wherever
she went or was sent, and added that she was going
to ask Potion to let them be together.

As night was falling, Mme Campan, leaving her
sister with the queen, went back to the house of her
brother-in-law, M. Augui^ who himself was later
thrown into prison, in order to make arrangements
for her son's safety, and to prepare to be ready to
obey the queen's summons. But when on the follow-
ing morning she presented herself at the Feuillants
with M. Valadon, for whom she had once been instru-
mental in obtaining a post, and begged to be allowed
to see her Majesty, she was denied entrance, as Marie
Antoinette ''already had enough women-folk about
her."

On August 13, Mme Campan learnt that the
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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

royal family had been removed to their second prison,
the Temple,

Mme Augui^ was not allowed to accompany her
mistress, but was detained at the Feuillants for another
twenty-four hours.

Mme Campan's only thought now was to share
her mistress's captivity; she therefore went, still
accompanied by M. Valadon, to see the then all-
powerful Potion. M. Valadon was first ushered into
the presence of the mayor of Paris. When, after
having represented that Mme Campan only asked to
be allowed to share her mistress's captivity, M. Vala-
don remarked that she ought not to be suspected of
evil designs, and that nobody could possibly blame
her for her devotion, Potion, who later voted for the
execution of his royal prisoner, Louis xvi, said : —

" Let her console herself for not being allowed to
go to the Temple with the knowledge that those who
are on duty there do not remain very long."

Thinking that she could succeed where her deputy
had failed, Mme Campan forced her way into Potion's
study, whereupon the latter, exasperated by her
importunity, repeated what he had alrealy said to M.
Valadon, adding that if she worried him any more he
should send her to the prison of La Force. Two or
three days later the princesse de Lamballe, Mme de
Tourzel and her litde daughter Pauline, MM. de
Chamilly and Hue, were removed from the Temple
in the middle of the night and transferred to that
prison. In future Mme Campan could only obtain
information of her mistress from newspapers or from
the National Guards, some of whom were more
loquacious than their companions.

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CHAPTER IX

Doubts are expressed concerning the decease of M. Campan /^rv— A
dangerous trust—Mme Campan goes to Versailles— The king's
female armourer threatens to turn informant — ^Trial and execution
of Louis XVI — Marie Antoinette follows her husband — ^An order
is issued for the arrest of Mme Campan and her sister — Mme
Augui^ commits suicide — Mme Campan takes her motherless
nieces to live with her.

Mme Campan's devotion to the royal prisoners in the
Temple was too well known for her to escape
suspicion. The Tuileries had been carefully searched
after the departure of their owners and many import-
ant documents, including a letter from the comte
d'Artois to the king, evidently only one of many, had
been discovered in the fatad iron cupboard. Now
Robespierre was aware of the fact that Mme Campan's
late father-in-law had enjoyed the king's entire con-
fidence. What was more natural than to suppose that
the unfortunate sovereign had entrusted other import-
ant papers to his old servitor on the approach of the
storm? But Robespierre was much mistaken when
he took it into his head to imagine that M. Campan
fire was not really dead, but was in hiding some-
where in order to escape being obliged to answer any
inconvenient questions concerning the said papers.
So convinced was the Incorruptible that, on meeting
the former tutor of Mme Campan's son in the street,
he requested that gendeman to tell him on his honour

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

if his late pupil's grandfather was really dead or
not, to which the tutor replied that he was quite
certain that M. Campsmpire had died in the previous
year at La Briche because he had been a mourner at
his funeral, which had taken place in the cemetry of
Epinay. Still unconvinced, Robespierre said : —

" Well, then, bring me the certificate of his death
to-morrow morning — it is most important"

The tutor then hastened to Mme Campan and
told her of the meeting ; like a prudent woman she
took care to send the necessary certificate to the
Incorruptible before the hour mentioned. But she
felt that the danger was growing nearer, and she
realized that the discovery of the portfolio confided to
her care by the king in the previous month of July,
would lead to her own imprisonment So with many
misgivings she gave the precious trust into the hands
of M. Gougenot, the king's steward, and at that time
as anxious to serve his unfortunate master as herself.

On Augrust 29 her brother-in-law's servants in-
formed her that his house, like those of his neighbours,
was about to be searched by fifty armed men; and
indeed during the following night domiciliary visits
took place all over Paris by order of the AssentbUe,
when two thousand guns were seized and nearly three
thousand persons arrested — most of the latter, how-
ever, were released on the morrow.

Mme Campan had scarcely time to congratulate
herself upon the fact that the searchers would find
nothing worth taking in her brother-in-law's house,
when M. Gougenot rushed into the room where she
was sitting, divested himself of the heavy coat which
he was wearing, although it was oppressively hot

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A DOMICILIARY VISIT

weather, and flung a voluminous packet at her feet
with these words : —

*' Here is the portfolio ; as I did not receive it
from the king's hands, I shall only be doing my duty
if I give it back to you," having said which he
hastened towards the door.

Mme Campan, nearly speechless with terror,
managed to articulate a prayer that, even if he would
not or could not keep the precious object, he would
help her to find a safe hiding-place.

But the erstwhile royalist seemed to have lost his
head with terror ; he swore that he could do nothing
in the matter, and would not so much as listen to
Mme Campan's proposals.

"I told him," she writes, "that the house was
about to be searched; I confided to him what the
queen had told me concerning the contents of the
portfolio, to all of which he only said : —

" * Come, make up your mind, I won't have any-
thing to do with the matter ! *

" I then paused for a few seconds deep in thought,
after which I began to stride up and down the room,
repeating my thoughts aloud, although I was unaware
of the fact. The unfortunate Gougenot seemed as if
turned to stone.

"•Yes,* said I, 'when one can no longer com-
municate with one's king and receive his commands,
no matter how loyal one may be, one can only serve
him by using one's own judgment The queen told
me : " This portfolio may fall into the hands of the
revolutionists." She also mentioned that it contained
a document which might be useful should a lawsuit be
brought against the king. It is my duty to interpret

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

her words for myself, and to consider them as a com-
mand. Her meaning was thus : ** You are to save a
certain paper and destroy the others if there is any
danger of the portfolio being taken from you/* That
was enough ; she did not need to furnish me with any
details concerning the contents of the portfolio, the
order to keep it carefully sufficed. It probably still
contains letters from the imigris ; all plans and
arrangements are now useless, and the events of
August lo and the king's imprisonment have severed
the chain of political scruples. This house is about
to be searched. I cannot hide such a voluminous
package; by imprudently keeping it, I might cause
the king's ruin. Let us open the portfolio; let us
save the most important document and destroy all the
others.'

" So saying I seized a knife and cut open the sides
of the portfolio, when I beheld a number of envelopes
addressed in the king's own handwriting. M.
Gougenot likewise found the king's private seals,
such as they were before the AssembUe forced him to
change the inscription. Just at that minute we heard
a loud noise. M. Gougenot now consented to fasten
the portfolio, to hide it under his greatcoat and go to
whatever place I considered safe. He made me swear
by all I held most sacred that I would maintain on
every occasion that I had acted of my own free will,
and that, no matter what happened, I would assume
the responsibility, be it praise or blame. I held up
my hand and took the oath required of me, whereupon
he left the room. Half an hour later the house was
invaded by several armed men ; sentries were placed
at all the doors, all writing-tables and cupboards of

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INCRIMINATING PAPERS

which the keys were missing were forced open ; the
vases and flower-boxes in the garden were examined ;
the cellars were searched. The ring-leader cried
repeatedly : —

" * Look very carefully for any papers ! '
" M. Gougenot returned during the following after-
noon ; he still had the seals concealed on his person.
He brought me an account of all the papers he had
burnt. The portfolio had contained letters from
Monsieur^ the comte d'Artois, Madame Addaide,
Madame Victoire, the comte de Lameth, M. de
Malesherbes, M. de Montmorin, and very many from
Mirabeau; a verbal process bearing the Ministers'
signatures, which the king considered very valuable
because it proved that war had been declared against
his wishes ; the copy of a letter written by the king to
his brothers asking them to return to France ; a list
of the diamonds sent by the queen to Brussels (the
two last documents were in my own handwriting) ; and
a receipt for 400,000 francs signed by a well-known
banker, representing part of the sum of 800,000 francs
which the queen had saved during her reign out of
her yearly allowance of 300,000 francs, and the present
of 100,000 ^cus received by her on the birth of the
Dauphin. . . ."

After some discussion Mme Campan and her
visitor decided that the verbal process and the receipt
had better be kept, as the first could do the royal
cause no harm; the second was perhaps more
dangerous, as people would be sure to blame the
ex-queen for saving money for her own use at a time
when famine was stalking through the land of France.
The seals, about which the queen had been very

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

anxious, probably because she still hoped that the
king woi:dd recover his lost authority, were thrown
by M. Gougenot into the Seine, one from the Pont-
Neuf and the other from the Pont- Royal. One
wonders whether by some strange accident the river
will ever give up those relics of a dead monarchy.

As is often the case when one has been obliged to
act on one's own responsibility, poor Mme Campan
had no sooner got rid of the compromising portfolio
than she was tormented with fear lest she should have
acted contrary to her royal master's wishes.

Realizing that there was but little chance of being
able to serve her king or queen, Mme Campan now
left Paris and went to Versailles. To add to her
troubles she began to have daily visits from a poor
seamstress who had been employed to make the
famous waistcoat and belt worn by the king on the
anniversary of the taking of the Bastille, and who,
although really attached to the royal cause, had got
an idea into her head that she, her husband, and her
children would be surely murdered if she did not go to
the Assemble and confess her crime of high treason
against the nation. For a whole fortnight the poor
demented creature appeared punctually every morning
while Mme Campan was still in bed, and renewed her
assertions that, as she did not wish to be beggared, she
was •' going off to Paris this very minute " to denounce
herself. It required the greatest tact on Mme
Campan's part to convince the woman that she *• had
only acted on the orders of somebody else, that nobody
would ever know anything about the matter unless
she herself mentioned it, and in that case the unhappy
king would be the first person to suffer because the

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M. GOUGENOT RECOVERS FROM ALARM

waistcoat had been made at his command, then it
would be Mme Campan's turn to suffer because she
had superintended the work, while the seamstress
would be excused as having only obeyed orders."

The seamstress, appeased for a few hours, would
then go away, but she never failed to reappear on the
morrow with some new tale of having seen the Virgin
Mary in her dreaftis, and of having been told by her
celestial visitor that nobody had the right to sacrifice
their husband and their children for any human being
whatsoever. Luckily these visions ceased at the end of
a fortnight, whereupon the poor creature became calmer
and no longer paid Mme Campan any surprise visits.

The month of December 1792 saw the much-
talked-of trial of Louis xvi. Mme Campan, from her
refuge at Versailles, read the newspapers with anguish
in her heart She sent a trusty messenger to M.
Gougenot, who was still in Paris, begging him to come
and see her at Versailles, as she was most anxious for
the king to hear what she had done with the precious
portfolio. This request M. Gougenot, having re-
covered from his fright, consented to grant ; together
they agreed that M. Gougenot was to have an inter-
view with M. de Malesherbes, chosen by the king
from among a number of people, including one woman,
Olympe de Gouges, who had offered to defend him.

During this interview, which took place in M. de
Malesherbes' own house, M. Gougenot informed the
worthy Minister what Mme Campan had done with
the contents of the portfolio, and gave him the verbal
process which she rightly judged to be the most
valuable paper, hoping that it would serve to prove
the king's innocence of any crime of treason against

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

the nation. When Louis xvi heard what the faithful
Campan had done, he said to M. de Malesherbes : —

" Tell Mme Campan that she has acted exactly as
I had ordered her to act, and I thank her for having
done so. She is among those persons whose fidelity
and whose services I regret I cannot reward."

The story of the trial of Louis xvi is too well
known to need repetition here. With the exception
of an untruth, the denial of any knowledge of the
existence of the iron cupboard, the king behaved
throughout with much dignity; even his adversaries
were constrained to confess that he conducted himself
during those days of anguish with "becoming
humility."

When, on the morrow of his execution, Mme
Campan learnt that her kind master had gone to
be judged by that other Judge who will surely be
more merciful than his Ministers on earth, she
wrote : —

'' I think I should have died of despair if I had
not found some consolation in the recollection of all
his kindness to me. ..."

Two days after the king's execution, Mme Campan's
brother, M. Genest, who had been appointed by the
Girondins to represent France in the United States,
and who, on the fall of that party after the September
massacres, had been recalled to his native land to g^ve
an account of his deeds and words — and probably lose
his head — ^left France, never again to return, and went
back to America, which in those days was indeed " the
land of the free." A few days after his departure,*

^ On reaching America, M. Genest received a warm welcome from
an old friend, Mr. Clinton, the then Governor of New York, and later

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Frnni a paintin.^ by l-(* Hnin.

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SDMOND GENEST GOES TO AMERICA

tite Assemble nationale took it into its head that
NI. Genest had returned to his native land and was in
liiding in Brest Now it happened that Mme Campan
vi^^as spending the day in Paris with her companion,
Mme Voisin, when she heard two newsvendors
bawling out: "The arrival in Brest of M. Genest,
Minister of the Republic to the United States ; this
Minister will immediately make the perilous ascent of
the guillotine I " This news was a great shock to
Mme Campan, who believed — and with reason — that
her brother was on his way to America ; she fainted.
Mme Voisin, with the help of two or three compas-
sionate bystanders, carried her into a shop, where
restoratives were applied and she soon recovered
consciousness.

In the spring of 1793, Mme Campan first paid a
brief visit to Beauplan, and then moved to the Ch&teau
of Coubertin, a mile distant, which she and the
Auguid family hired ; it was while she was here that
she heard that Marie Antoinette had been deprived
of her son, a far more cruel punishment than the
sentence of death passed upon the Niobe of the French
Revolution in the following October.

''Marie Antoinette showed much firmness and
dignity/' writes M. Ernest Hamel, who cannot be
accused of excessive sympathy with the royal cause.
** She listened to her sentence with perfect calmness,"
says another historian.

vice-president of the United States, who sheltered him in his home and
finally accepted him as his son-in-law. M. Genest became an American
citizen and settled in the State of New York, where he devoted himself
to fanning. After the death of his first wife, he married a daughter of
Samuel Osgood, postmaster-general under Washington. Mr. Genet, as
h6 now called himself, died at Greenbush in 1834.

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

Who, remembering the arrogant, extravagant
Marie Antoinette, so careless of her good name in the
days of the Petit Trianon, would have believed her
capable of bearing her burden of grief with such
fortitude ? Alas, poor human nature I it would seem
as if some great trial or sorrow were often required to
bring out our good qualities — the little worries, tempta-
tionSy and disappointments of daily life are too much
for most of us.

When questioned during her trial as to the sum of
twenty-five lauis found on her person, Marie Antoinette
imprudently said that Mme Auguid had lent it to her
after her purse and watch had been stolen during that
calvaire from the Tuileries to the Feuillants, and
begged that the money might be repaid to her faithful
" lioness," as she had called Mme Auguid ever since
the terrible events of October 6, 1789, when Mme
Campan's sister had saved her mistress's life by her
courage and promptitude.

An order for the arrest of that lady was immedi-
ately signed.

Now, Mme Augui^ more lucky than most of
the victims of the Reign of Terror, had a friend in the
person of the secretary to the revolutionary tribunal ;
this gendeman wisely destroyed the document and, in
order to ensure Mme Augui^'s safety, inscribed a
fictitious name, that of Augal, on the list of captives
in the Paris prisons.

For several months Mme Campan and the Auguid
family, consisting of M. and Mme Augui^ and their three
daughters, continued to live unmolested at Coubertin.
The news of Marie Antoinette's execution, although
expected, completely crushed her faithful waiting-

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MME CAMPAN IS ARRESTED

women for a time. But their grief and despair was
changed to anxiety for their own safety when, nine
months after their mistress's death, ''an atrocious man
of quality," as Mme Campan quaindy puts it, wishing
to be held in consideration by Robespierre, wrote to
the Comity de Salut public : —

'' I have been through all the prisons in Paris ; I
am astonished not to find the name of Mme Augrui^
designated erroneously during Marie Antoinette's
trial as Mme Augal ; she and her sister ought to have
been thrown into prison long ago."

It frequendy happened that the victims of the
Terrorists were able to slip through the fingers of
their would-be executioners ; but it seldom happened
that they were able to free themselves a second time
from the meshes of that far-reaching system of denunci-
ation which was the keystone of the Reign of Terror.

Four soldiers were immediately despatched to
Coubertin.

Mme Campan and her brother-in-law offered no
resistance, but it was otherwise with Mme Augui^ ; it
is probable that like many another horrified spectator
of the Revolution she, on learning that she was about
to be arrested, became insane; mad with terror, she
jumped upon an ass and fled across the fields till she
reached Paris, where she hid herself in a small furnished
room. But even here she did not feel in safety.
Having written the following despairing message to
her family : —

" If I perish on the scaffold, my husband, already
a prisoner, will also die ; our property will be confis-
cated. . . . My daughters, what will become of you ?
If I can escape death on the scaffold, perhaps I can

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

save my own property for you/' she rushed to the
window and flung herself down into the street below,
crying as she did so : —

" Never shall the executioners lay a finger on me,"
Had the poor creature waited a few days she
would have seen her husband and sister released from
prison by the execution of Robespierre. Her eldest
daughter Antoinette nearly died of grief on learning
of her mother's suicide ; after her father's return to
Coubertin, it was decided that she was to reside in
Paris with him, while her two sisters, Eg\6 and Adile,
were to go to Saint-Germain ^ with their aunt, Mme
Campan, who in future was to act the mother to them
as well as to many other motherless little ones.

^ Georgette Ducrest in her memoirs asserts that Mme Campan went
immediately after Robespierre's death to stay at Poissy, where she was
the guest of a Creole, Mme Hortense Lamothe, who was sheltering at the
same time Mme de Beauhamais, a Creole like herself, and the future
Empress Josephine, and Claire de Vergennes, the daughter of Louis
xvi's late Minister. However, Mme Campan does not mention this visit
in her own memoirs.

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SECOND PART
THE GOVERNESS OF THE BONAPARTES

CHAPTER X

Mme Caropan realizes her vocation and opens a school-^She is perse-
cuted by the Directoire — Maman Campan earns her title and the
affection of her pupils — The Seminary at Montagne de Bon-Air has
many imitators — Hortense and Emilie de Beauhamais, Pauline and
Caroline Bonaparte, join the school — Pauline marries General
Lederc— Napoleon the match-maker.

Mme Campan, deprived of the greater part of her
fortune, with a sick husband burdened by 30,000 francs
of debts, a mother who had reached the allotted span
of human life, a son still too young to go out into the
world to fight for himself, three motherless nieces and
several other affectionate but penniless relatives, was
now face to face with a huge problem — how was she
to support all these helpless creatures ? Her first care
was to pay off her husband's debts ; this done, she
found herself possessed of exactly one asstgnat, worth
500 iv^xics,pour tautpotage. But there is a fund of
energy in Frenchwomen which forbids them, when in
trouble, to sit down, seek comfort in tears, and wait for
somebody to help them. No, Mme Campan had
looked death in the face ; she was now ready to face
poverty, and was determined not to be worsted without
a severe struggle.

During those anxious months in hiding at

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

Coubertin she had tried her hand at teaching her son
and her nieces, and the result had been so successful
that she had resolved to adopt the profession of school-
mistress should she ever be forced to earn her daily
bread Exactly one month after the death of Robes-
pierre, she, having taken the old Hdtel de Rohan at
Saint-Germain, a huge place with a beautiful garden
situated in the rue de Poissy on the edge of the forest,
which place she chose on account of its fine air, wrote
in her best hand (as she was too poor to pay any
printer's bills) one hundred prospectuses, which she
then sent to those of her friends who had been kicky
enough to pass unscathed through the fires of the
Revolution. She would have preferred Versailles as
her future home ; but she could not face the ghosts of
the happy past which even to-day haunt that pleasant
town. In order to convince her friends that she still
belonged to the old school and respected the rules of
religion and good society, she, on opening her
seminary, engaged a nun belonging to the sisterhood
of the Enfant Jisus, and waited for the pupils who
soon came, few in number at first, it is true, but ever
more numerous as the weeks passed.

M. Fr61^ric Masson says rather unkindly: ''It
was a singularly happy thought on Mme Cajnpan's
part when she set up a boarding-school at the
Montagne de Bon-Air, ci^devani Saint-Germain-en-
Laye, and summoned her nieces, the demoiselles
Augui^, to make a show and play the part of the
boarders who failed to put in an appearance."

In the following year MmeCampan found that her
pupils had increased to sixty. The fact that she had
been waiting-woman to Marie Antoinette had much

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MAMAN CAMPAN

to do with her success ; but» whereas many mothers
were proud to send their daughters to learn from her
who was in future to be known as Maman Campan
the courtly manners which had once reigned at
Versailles, the mistress of the young ladies' boarding-
school at Montagne de Bon-Air found herself the
object of much suspicion to those wise persons who
did not wish to see the frivolous doings at Trianon
imitated in the drawing-rooms of the new France.
The studies at her establishment were subjected to
rigorous supervision by the Government; she was
not allowed to teach French history to her little pupils,
Greek and Roman history being considered quite
sufficient for the future mothers of good citoyens.

Mme Campan was the first woman who dared to
have a chapel in the grounds of her establishment ; in
the following year the Directoire learnt of the fact, and
sent word that it must be closed at once ; of course she
had to obey.

It is true that Maman Campan taught the Bible
during certain days of the week, but not a day passed
that she did not expect to see the Holy Book confis-
cated. Her fears were realized one day when she
was surprised with the Book in her hand by several
officials, who immediately ordered her to cease teaching
her pupils ''fables and superstitions." When Mme
Campan, nothing daunted, asked her visitors what she
was to teach " her children " in place of religion, they
replied : —

" Citoyenne^ your arguments are quite out of date.
Don't make remarks: when the nation speaks it
expects obedience, not wit"

Familiarity with danger is apt to breed contempt
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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

Mme Campan, wishing to keep the memory of her
beloved mistress fresh in the minds of the younger
generation, invented an ingenious picture-frame, one
side of which displayed the Rights of Man, while from
the other the fair, proud face of the dead queen gazed
down on the busy children. Marie Antoinette usually
occupied the post of honour; however, whenever
strangers rang at the gate of the seminary, she was
turned with her face to the wall and the Rights of
Man displayed to the appreciative gaze of the little
citoyennes. On one occasion a zealous patriot paid a
surprise visit to the boarding-school, and Mme Campan
only just had time to turn the queen's portrait to
the wall when her visitor entered the class-room
unannounced. After asking the litde maids various
awkward and unexpected questions — why is it that
examiners always choose subjects with which their
victims are unfamiliar ? — he went up to the Ten Com-
mandments of the Revolution and ordered one of the
trembling infants to recite them. Whereupon a plucky
little Spanish girl, Flavie by name, stood up and,
notwithstanding the fact that she was inwardly quaking
for herself and her comrades, ratded them off as pertly
as a parrot, newly arrived from the West Indies, raps
out his latest repertoire of oaths.

Mme Campan's sisters, Mmes Rousseau and
Pannelier, now came to help her teach the litde girls
who were beginning to flock to Montague de Bon-
Air. With her increasing success, Mme Campan
bought several pieces of furniture which had been
stolen from her house in Paris, precious relics of
happier days ; having paid off all her debts, she was
able to look calmly into the future.

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HORTENSE DE BEAUHARNAIS

In the autumn of 1795 Mme Campan had one
hundred pupils, although her school was considered
very expensive in those days. During one of those
pleasant afternoons in October, when siunmer seems
fain to linger a little longer before giving place to
golden autumn, Mme Campan received a visit from
Mme de Beauhamais, to whom a literary friend had
recommended the establishment at Montagne de Bon-
Air; the future empress had just placed her son
Eugene at Father McDermott's College des Idandais
in the same town where Mme Campan's own son
Henri was also studying, and she was anxious for the
late queen's faithful waiting-woman to educate her
little daughter Hortense, then aged twelve, and her
niece Emilie de Beauhamais. This trust Maman
Campan accepted, promising to mother the little girls ;
and well did she keep her promise to Hortense, for
Maman Campan, until her death in 1822, loved the
unhappy Hortense as dearly as if she had been her
own flesh and blood.

Hortense and her cousin Emilie shared a room
with EgM and Adile Auguii and Mme Pannelier's
little daughter, and enjoyed many favours.

Some months after their arrival, the two little
Miles de Beauharnais were called into Maman
Campan's sanctum in order to be inspected by a
visitor, General Bonaparte by name, who was not a
stranger to little Hortense, as she had already seen
him at a party given by Barras, on which occasion he
had taken no notice of her; now, however, he ex-
amined his future stepdaughter so closely that she
blushed to the roots of her hair, lost her head and her
tongue, and dashed out of the room like a little savage

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

when she was told she might return to learn her
book.

In the beginning of the month of March 1796,
Maman Campan again called Hortense into her
sanctum and informed her that her mother was going
to marry again. When Hortense heard that "the
Ogre/' as she secretly called the mysterious visitor,
was to be her stepfather, she burst into tears which
neither Maman Campan's kisses nor her capacious
banbonnikre could check. With her eyes still red,
Hortense returned to her companions, who gathered
round their " Petite Bonne," as they always called her
— for Hortense, from her earliest years, was an
engaging little creature — and asked whether Maman
Campan had been scolding her. At this she burst
into a still louder fit of crying, and sobbed out that
*' she was very unhappy because her Mama was going
to marry the Ogre who frightened her, and she was
afraid that he would be dreadfully strict with her and
poor Eugene."

When General Bonaparte, the day after his
marriage to the graceful Creole widow, took his bride
and his sisters, Pauline and Caroline, to see his step-
children at Montagne de Bon-Air, he found Hortense
still as shy as ever. The Ogre insisted upon going to
see the children at their lessons and worrying them
with questions to which the poor little dears made but
lame replies — when indeed they were able to make
any at all — for the General's piercing gaze and abrupt
manner had the effect of depriving the more timid
pupils of their voices. However, as the future
Emperor of the French was feeling particularly happy
that day, he determined that Mme Campan should

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Hortensp: de Beauharnais.

From the portrait by Fran9<)is Gerard at the Miisee Cahd, Avignon.
By kind perniibsion of the Director.

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PAULINE AND CAROLINE BONAPARTE

feel equally so ; therefore he praised both the quaking
infants and their scarcely less timid governess, and,
presenting his sisters Pauline and Caroline to their
future schoolmistress, said : —

*' I am going to confide my sisters to your charge,
Mme Campan ; I ought to warn you, however, that
Caroline is a sad dunce. Yry to make her as learned
as dear Hortense."

So saying he pinched "dear Hortenses " ear very
gently, whereupon she turned the colour of a peony.

Pauline's stay under Mme Campan's charge was
not a lengthy one. But before Mile Caroline had
been many hours at Montague de Bon-Air she had
made quite a number of enemies owing to her bad
manners — which her schoolmistress was never able to
cure — and to her vulgar pride in the handsome jewels
which her generous brother had given her, and which
excited the envy of one of her fellow-pupils, Mile
Permon, the future duchesse d'Abrantfes.

However, Caroline had two great friends, namely,
L^ontine de Noailles, whose parents had both been
guillotined, and who later married her cousin, Alfred
de Noailles; and Pauline Raymond, the granddaughter
of M. de Nrfrac

Caroline, the most headstrong of the Bonapartes,
and the particular pet of her famous brother, who called
her '' the Cinderella of the family," had been baptized
Maria Annunziata, a name which he, for some reason,
did not like, so he changed it to Caroline, a name
equally distasteful to Madame Mire^ until time and
associations had endeared it to her.

When Mme Bonaparte, after a great deal of
persuasion, consented to join her husband in Italy in

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

June 1796, she left Hortense with Maman Campan,
under whose care the child made such progress that
her stepfather, on his return, loudly expressed his
satisfaction.

While General Bonaparte and his wife were away
in Italy, Eugene de Beauhamais and J6rdme Bona-
parte (who was also at the College des Irlandais) were
allowed, together with Hortense and Emilie de
Beauhamais, to go up to Paris on two or three
occasions, when as a great treat they would go to the
play, where, as pocket-money was none too plentiful,
they had to sit '' in Paradise," or among the gods.

Caroline was especially lucky, for on such occasions
her uncle, Joseph Fesch, always invited her to stay
with him in the rue du Rocher. Among Maman
Campan's pupils at that time was a little girl named
Lavinie Rolier (who later became the wife of General
Lefebvre-Desnouettes), the daughter of a lady who
had once been engaged to the uncle of Caroline, the
future Cardinal Fesch ; this child and Caroline were
great friends.

Eugene de Beauharnais and J^dme Bonaparte
were sometimes invited to spend the afternoon with
their sisters, for Maman Campan, herself an exemplary
sister, was always anxious to instil into the hearts of
her pupils the value of family affection. J^rdme was
a very ugly boy ; but he must have been good-natured,
for when one day one of the little girls pointed her
finger at him, crying: "Oh! how ugly you are,
Jdrdme!" he only smiled. Sometimes Eugine and
J^rdme came, accompanied by a mysterious boy of
about twelve years of age whom the gammers of
Montague de Bon-Air declared was the Dauphin,

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A MYSTERIOUS SCHOOLFELLOW

saved from the Temple by Mme Bonaparte. How-
ever, Naundorff, the Baron von Trenck of French
history, would have us believe that certain persons, who
had tried to effect the rescue of Simon's poor little
victim, had made a mistake and rescued the wrong
child ; he declares that when Mme Bonaparte per-
ceived the mistake, she cried to the child's liberator : —

" Unhappy wretch ! what have you done ? You
have committed a fatal error — ^you have delivered the
son of Louis xvi into the hands of his father's
murderers ! '*

** The unhappy child," concludes Naundorff, " had
therefore been saved instead of me; / was still
languishing in the Temple."

Be this as it may, reports to the effect that the
Dauphin had been rescued from the Temple by the
future Empress of the French were very frequent
about this time.

The opening of Mme Campan's seminary at
Montagne de Bon-Air was almost immediately fol-
lowed by the appearance of several similar establish-
ments in and outside the capital ; but as none of their
owners could boast of having lived at the Court of
Versailles and of having risked their lives for the late
queen, they were less successful than Mme Campan,
whereupon they found fault with her system of educa-
tion, declaring that too much time was devoted to the
acquirement of accomplishments to the detriment of
more serious subjects. Mme Campan's system was
inspired by Fdnelon's Education des Filles, which book,
published in 1688, was the result of a very delicate
mission, that of preaching the Catholic faith during the
space of ten years to a number of young female converts

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

from Protestantism residing in an establishment called
La Maison des Nawvelles Catholiques, and obtained
for its author the valuable post of tutor to the due de
Bourgogne, whose affection he soon won.

The following extracts from F6nelon's work show
him to have been more than worthy of being placed
side by side with his friend, that odier noble church-
man, Bossuet: —

" Nothing has been so neglected as the education of
females. Do not women either ruin or prove a blessing
to their homes, who have the mans^ement of the house-
hold, and who therefore have to decide the most im-
portant affairs in human life ? The world is but one
huge family. Virtue belongs to women as much as to
men ; without speaking of the good or evil which they
Ittay do to the world in general, half the human race is
formed of women ; they were bought by the Blood of
Jesus Christ and are endowed with eternal life."

F^nelon's advice to a lady of quality who had
asked whether she ought to send her only daughter
to a convent or educate her at home is excellent:
"If you had several daughters, you might find your-
self unable to do your duty to all of them, in which
case you might choose a good convent where the
pupils' education is properly attended to ; but as you
only have one daughter to bring up, and as God has
given you the strength to take care of her yourself,
I think that you can give her a better education than
can be found in any convent whatsoever. A wise,
tender, Christian mother perceives what others cannot
see. When convent-bred girls leave their convents,
they are like people who have been kept in an under-
ground cave and have been suddenly brought into the

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A PEARL WITHOUT PRICE

light of day. I hold the education received at good
convents in high esteem, but I value still more the
education given by a virtuous mother when she is free
to attend to it herself. ..."

F^nelon said : '' I should like to make young girls
observe the simplicity which appears in statues and
other representations of Greek and Roman women ;
they would then see how hair loosely knotted at the
back of the head and simple, flowing draperies
become the wearer. It would even be a good thing
if they could hear painters and other persons who
appreciate the exquisite taste of yore discourse upon
art"

What would F^nelon and Mme Campan say to
the ignorant, loud-voiced, big-footed, heavy-handed,
corsetless, sexless girl of to-day, who smokes, plays
hockey, talks of her "liberty," and generally apes the
ways of the mere man whom she affects to despise ?

" Girls," says Fdnelon, " should only speak when
they are obliged to do so, and then they should speak
with a hesitating, deferential air. . . . Teach a girl to
read and write correcdy. It is shameful but common
to see well-mannered and witty women unable to
pronounce what they read, or else they stammer or
drone in a singsong tone; instead of which they
ought to pronounce in a simple and natural but
steady, even voice. They are still more behindhand
as to spelling and writing. They should also know
the rudiments of arithmetic. It would be a good
thing if they knew something concerning the principles
of law — for instance, the difference between a will and
a dotation."

Mme Campan was evidently influenced in her

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

method of education by the above work ; however, we
notice the following remark, of which she certainly did
not approve : —

" I do not recommend music and painting/' says
the Archbishop of Cambrai, ''because they excite
the passions. That is why the magistrates of Sparta
destroyed all musical instruments, the tones of which
were over-sweet, and why Plato severely rejected all
the delicious chords and harmonies with which Asiatic
melodies abound"

And then the good man ends with the following
beautiful precept : —

" Let us all realize that we here below are like
travellers at a wayside inn or resting under a tent,
that the body must die and that we can only postpone
the last hour of dissolution for a brief space of time,
but that the soul shall soar to its celestial habitation,
where it shall live for ever in the Life of God."

Maman Campan composed for her pupils a sort of
rhyming Ten Commandments, which one and all had
to learn by heart ; this composition was called : —

" DU BON TON DANS LB RANG tiXrk COUMB DANS LA

soci£t£ PRivis.

"De la dignitd sans hauteur;
De la politesse sans fadeur ;
De la confiance sans hardiesse ;
Du maintien sans raideur;
Des gr&ces sans affectation ;
De la reserve sans pruderie;
De la gaiet^ sans bruyants Eclats ;
De I'instruction sans p^danterie;
Des talents sans pretention ;
De I'envie de plaire sans coquetterie."

It is true that a great deal of attention was paid to

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CITOYENNE HORTENSE BEAUHARNAIS

the art of conversation. Mme Campan instituted
causeries in her own private room, to which the bigger
girls were invited and in which they were expected to
take part. Sometimes the subject chosen was a fire,
a shipwreck, a picnic spoiled by bad weather, or the
breaking-ofF of an engagement. The pupils were
informed that on no account should such subjects as
domestics or household matters be discussed in a
refined lady's drawing-room, though every mistress
ought to know how to rule her household and avoid
waste. Politeness was highly commended because it
concealed a quantity of faults.

The following document, one of the reports which
it was Maman Campan's custom to send with her
pupils when they returned home for their holidays,
is not without interest, for it concerns her who was to
become the mother of Napoleon in : —

"The National Institution op Saint-Germain-kn-Laye
(under the direction of the citayetme Campan).

Saint-Gsrmain-en-Laye, 8 ventSse^ an vi.

Mme Campan has the honour to send the citoyenne Bonaparte the
following extract dated i germinal^ an y/, from the Institution of Saint-
Germain-en-Laye.

The citoyenne Hortense Eugenie Beauhamais, 4th division, 8th
section (blue riband), composed of twenty-two pupils.

Number of marks.
Order, cleanliness, punctuality 3
Reading and writing . . 9
Memory not sufficiently cultivated
Arithmetic .... 9
Dictation
History .
Geography
Composition
Needlework
Dancing .

. 14
. 14
. 6
faulty

• 3
1st on two occasions

Number

of marks.

Application and obedience

satisfactory

Botany .

satisfactory

Flower-drawing

•

. 4

Figure and landscape

Elocution .

Singing •

good

Harmony

good

Piano

good

Harp

. . 6

Health .

. delicate

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

The ciiqytnne Beauharnais is endowed with the most precious
qualities ; she is kind-hearted, sensible, and always ready to oblige her
companions; she seldom loses her temper; she could do anything if
she were only a little less heedless. She spent four days in the
infirmary on account of a whitlow on the thumb of her left hand.
However, she is less greedy and continues to love her relations with all
the affection and admiration of which they are so thoroughly worthy.
Ciiqyimm Campan, fUe Gbnsst (directress).

Note. — As the lessons do not recommence before the end of
messidor^ no account of the studies and compositions of next bruma£r$
will be rendered."

It will be observed in the above report that,
although the Montagne de Bon-Air has given place
to the original Saint-Germain-en- Laye, so odious to
the terrorists as an echo of former "superstitions," the
de is still omitted before the name of de Beauharnais,
while Mme Campan, her pupil, and that pupil's
mother, are still styled citoyennes. But many of the
old institutions and titles, like the imigris^ were
beginning to turn up again.

When, the clergy were once more allowed to
officiate in public, Mme Campan was one of the first
teachers to beg a priest^ to come and care for the
young souls in her charge; she later presented the
parish church of Saint-Germain with vestments and
ornaments to replace those stolen during the Reign
of Terror, on which occasion there was a grand con-
firmation and many of her pupils made their First
Communion.

Mme Campan wisely engaged the best teachers
money could obtain : Grasset taught the violin ;
Isabey, painting ; LangM, singing ; whereas there

^ The name of her chaplain was M. Bertrand ; he later became tutor
to Hortense's sons.

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MARRIAGE OP PAULINE BONAPARTE

were two masters, L^ger and Thi^non, to give
instruction in drawing, there was only one to teach
geography, which fact gave rise to the report that
Mme Campan paid far too much attention to
accomplishments.

In the summer of 1797, Caroline Bonaparte left
the seminary at Saint-Germain in order to be present
at the marriage of her sister Pauline with General
Leclerc, which was celebrated at Montebello, in Italy,
where General Bonaparte was resting after that
brilliantly successful Italian campaign. On this
occasion the dashing Murat, who was always trying
to " better himself," formed a plan for marrying his
general's favourite sister, at that time a lively, pretty
girl, less handsome than Pauline, perhaps, but very
fascinating. Mme Bonaparte noticed that Murat had
seemed much taken by the Cinderella of the family ;
as for the latter, before many months had passed, she
had quite lost her heart to the stalwart Southerner.

Caroline's beauty had already attracted Moreau,
Augereau, and Lannes ; however, as the latter had
just been obliged to divorce his wife, he did not count,
for the Napoleon of those days considered divorce a
very unnecessary evil Lannes had a lucky escape.

As time went on and Murat said nothing, Mme
Bonaparte was kind enough to hint that an offer of
marriage in a certain quarter would be favourably
received But Murat was a cautious man and so he
preferred to wait a little.

During Mme Bonaparte's absence in Italy,
Hortense paid a visit to her paternal grandfather,
the vice-admiral marquis de Beauhamais, formerly
Governor of the Windward Islands, on which occasion

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

Mme Campan thought it necessary to send the
following letter of advice : —

**2i Jrimasrtf an r/ (December ii, 1797).

" I do not know, my dear Hortense, if your Mama
has returned, and if you have already been able to
clasp in your arms that beloved mother and Eug&ne,
whom you love so dearly. If I had thought that I
could have possibly met the general (Bonaparte),
I would have journeyed up to Paris in order to see
the hero of France ; but it was very difficult for me to
get away.

" Be sure to have a piano and Mozin,^ I beg of
you, and to draw diligendy. Do not forget, my dear
Hortense, that you have lost time and that you have
only two or three years left to devote to the most
interesting thing in your life — ^your education. M.
Bertrand is now giving his geography lesson; he
greatly regrets his dear Hortense, who was making so
much progress ; it is the same with all the professors.
The ball was extremely melancholy. Adfele* is like a
shepherd who has lost his shepherdess and will no
longer dance with the other village-maidens.

" Give my respects to your grandparents. Aim^e
Leclerc* has an angelic disposition; she makes
progress every day ; I am really vasdy pleased with
her. . . . The piano, my dear friend, the piano and
M. Mozin, or you will have nothing to play when your
Mama returns. Write to me, my dear Hortense, and
love me as I love you, for I am yours for ever."

The allusion to a ball is explained by the fact that

^ A teacher of the pianoforte. * AdMe Augui^, Mme Campan's niece.
* A fellow-pupil of Hortense and later the wife of Marshal Davoitt

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EMILIE D£ BEAUHARNAIS

Mme Campan prized the art of dancing so highly that
she paid a dancing-master to come down from Paris
every Sunday and teach the young ladies the stately
minuet which she had seen danced in her youth at the
Court of Marie Antoinette.

Hortense and her cousin, Emilie de Beauharnais,
were both very pretty girls ; Hortense with her blue
eyes, graceful shape, and her golden hair, which she
then wore in two great plaits hanging down her back,
began to win hearts at a very early age. Unfortu-
nately she, like her mother, had rather long and
prominent teeth which soon decayed.

Josephine - Emilie - Louise de Beauharnais, her
cousin, was born under an unlucky star, notwith-
standing her beauty, which was uncommon, and caused
Louis Bonaparte, who paid frequent visits to his sister
Caroline on Emilie's account, to say of her when both
had left their youth behind them : —

" She was the most beautiful creature I ever saw ! "

Emilie first beheld the light of day in 1780; her
mother, the daughter of the poetess, Mme Fanny de
Beauharnais, never cared for her and in fact treated
the little thing with extreme severity, often punishing
her most cruelly for some childish fault During the
Reign of Terror, Mme de Beauharnais was arrested
at Champy, and imprisoned at Sainte-Pdlagie, when
she obtained a divorce from her emigrant husband in
order to save her head and her fortune, a step not
infrequently taken by husbands and wives anxious to
cut the marriage-bond. While Mme de Beauharnais
was in prison, her litde daughter wrote petition after
petition to the Convention and the Comiti de Saint
public begging them to liberate the mother whom she

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

loved so passionately, but who cared absolutely nothing
for her. When released, Mme de Beauhamais re-
turned to her former house in the Chauss^ d'Antin,
which had been confiscated by the nation, and where
she, a Lazarus where she had once been Dives, was
now permitted to inhabit a small dwelling, the upper
floors being occupied by a very rich and generous
Spanish banker with his three little daughters, one of
whom, Flavie by name, we have already met Now
Emilie de Beauhamais had a very strict governess,
Mile Coquille, whose rule was no less severe than that
of the child's mother ; this woman forced Emilie to eat
food which she hated, and, when she revolted, made
her live upon dry bread. Emilie, although watched
so carefully, contrived to make friends with the three
little Spaniards, who baptized the termagant ''Mile
Coquine," and hated her as much as her pupil did.

The banker, loath to send his little daughters to
a big school, begged Mme Campan to allow them to
stay with her at Coubertin. So well and happy were
they with her that, when the late queen's waiting-
woman opened her seminary at Montagne de Bon-Air,
he not only entrusted his three daughters to her charge,
but he also persuaded the mothers of Hortense and
Emilie to send their daughters thither. Now the
sister-in-law of the future Mme Bonaparte was
thinking of marrying again, and so, as she found litde
Emilie in the way, she gladly gave her to Mme
Campan to be educated when she heard the banker
speak thus of his children's governess : —

"You wish your daughter to be well educated;
send her and your niece to Mme Campan. Even if
you wanted them to become princesses^ you could not

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Emilie dk Bkauharnaks,

COMIKSSE 1)E LaVALKTTK.

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EMILIE D£ BEAUHARNAIS

do better. Who, better than Mme Campan, could
accomplish such a feat ? "

It was a sad little Emilie who left home to nestle
under the wing of kind Maman Campan ; there was
not much love lost between Hortense and Emilie, but
Mme Campan tried hard to make the litde Emilie's
life brighter, and well did she succeed There was
a strange facial resemblance between Eugine de
Beauhamais and his cousin, Emilie, which often
aroused Hortense's hilarity; history shows that this
resemblance extended to their characters.

General Bonaparte was already making ambitious
plans for his relatives.

M. Joseph Turquan righdy remarks : " There was
not one of his relatives or connections by marriage,
both on his own side and on his wife's side, who did
not have cause to be grateful to him ; and it is only
just to observe that he did not wait to help them until
he was asked to do so."

At the age of seventeen. Mile Emilie had many
admirers, but no prospect of finding a husband — did
not General Bonaparte say of her : —

" As the daughter of an imigri, nobody wants her ;
my wife cannot take her into society. The poor
child is worthy of a better fate " ?

And the kind-hearted fellow set about finding a
husband for the girl whom nobody had wanted when
she was a child. Emilie had developed into a very
pretty girl; she had a sweet disposition, and Mme
Campan had given her a good education.

General Bonaparte soon found somebody who
he thought would make a good husband for Emilie.
Before starting for Egypt, he paid a visit to Mme
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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

Campan's establishment Mile Emilie was summoned
to the latter's sanctum ; with a beating heart she
listened to General Bonaparte.

" I have come," said he, unfolding his plan, " to
offer you a gallant fellow, a brave man belonging to
my army, Lavalette by name."

Emilie's consternation on hearing that she was
expected to marry a man whom she had only seen
twice and whose appearance was the reverse of
romantic, deprived her of the power of protesting.
The rosy daydreams faded away into the ugly grey
light of reality. How could she promise to love and
be faithful to a man who was still almost a stranger ?
Surely General Bonaparte's experience must have
taught him that love cannot be bought and sold in
this manner ?

In after years, before Emilie's mind had sunk
under its burden of anguish, she said concerning her
own child : —

" If I can still influence my daughter's fate, never,
never shall she know what it means to marry some-
body when one has already bestowed one's affections
upon another person. As for me, I was enabled to
master my feelings, and I learnt to suffer long ago ;
but this would be my child's first sorrow — would she
be as courageous as I was ? "

Grief and astonishment prevented Emilie telling
the general the truth; but, indeed, how could she
have confessed to the brother of Louis Bonaparte
that, during the latter's visits to Caroline, she had
formed an attachment for the future king of Holland
which she had every reason to believe was returned ?
General Bonaparte, taking Emilie's silence for consent,

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GENERAL LAVALETTE

left Saint-Germain convinced that he was acting as
the girl's guardian angel. Perhaps he was less certain
of success with " the gallant fellow."

Mme Junot paints the following portrait of
Lavalette in her memoirs* —

" As for Lavalette, he was extremely ugly, bdti en
Bacchus, short-legged, stumpy ; he had a comical face
with small eyes and a nose hardly bigger than a pea,
but he was very witty and a charming talker."

On the morrow General Bonaparte took Lavalette
to the Treasury, where he had to give orders that
certain sums of money should be sent to Toulon in
preparation for his departure for Egypt ; this done,
he told the coachman to drive along the boulevards as
he wanted to talk to Lavalette at his leisure.

General Bonaparte lost no time beating about the
bush, but opened fire at once : —

** I cannot make you commander of a squadron, so
I must find you a wife. I want you to marry Emilie
de Beauhamais; she is very beautiful, and well
educated."

Lavalette, no less taken aback at this news than
Emilie had been, and not a litde annoyed — for rumour
said that he was engaged in a liaison about that time
— ^protested :

" But, General, I have only seen her twice in my
life. I am penniless, And we are soon going to Egypt,
where it is quite possible that I may be killed, and
then what would become of my poor widow? . . .
Besides, I have no wish to marry."

Now other people's wishes were always a secondary
consideration with Napoleon.

" Tut ! tut ! " quoth he, " people must marry to

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

have children ; that is the great aim in life. If you are
killed — which is possible — she will be the widow of
one of my aides-de-camp, of a defender of the father-
land ; she will have a pension and be able to establish
herself advantageously. Now as the daughter of an
SmigrS Tiohody wants her. . . . The matter must be
prompdy settled Go and talk to Mme Bonaparte
this evening; her mother has already given her
consent The marriage shall take place in a week's
time, and I will give you a fortnight in which to be
happy. You shall join me at Toulon on the 29th."

Lavalette was not surprised to hear that Mme
Bonaparte took a personal interest in Emilie's future ;
he knew that Hortense's mother did not wish Louis
Bonaparte to marry the pretty Emilie ; but he could
not help laughing while his general was laying down
the law in this rather disconcerting fashion.

** Oh ! well," said he, "I will do as you wish — but
will the young lady accept me? I doi^'t want to
force her to marry me."

To which remark, General Bonaparte replied : —

"She is still scarcely more than a child; she
begins to find school dull, but she would be miserable
in her mother's house. During your absence, she
shall go to her grandfather at Fontainebleau. You
will not be killed, and you will come back to her in
two years' time. There 1 the whole affair is setded ! "

The meeting between Lavalette and Emilie de
Beauharnais, the child whom nobody wanted, must
have been painful to both parties. Lavalette after-
wards confided to Mme Campan that Emilie was the
prettiest girl of the forty pupils present ; she received
her fiance's attentions with docility, and gave her

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A MARRIAGE UNDER THE DIRECTOIBE

consent to the marriage in a sweet, low voice, though
Mantan Campan saw tears glimmering beneath the
long lashes of the eyes which had wept so often when
she first came to shelter under her second mother's
wing. There is little cause to believe the assertion
contained in the Mimoires dune Incannue to the
effect that Emilie declared she would never live with
her husband. At her request the wedding, which took
place a week later at the mairie of the ist arrondisse-
ment of Paris, 3 flarial, an vi, was attended only by
near relatives and her kind schoolmistress. Shortly
before the wedding she had come up to stay with her
mother at no. 70, rue des Mathurins, from whose house
on the morrow the young couple proceeded to the
convent of the Conception, in the rue Saint- Honor^,
where an outlawed priest blessed the marriage.
Lavalette had given his consent to this ceremony
because the good creature was anxious to please his
young wife.

" How grateful I felt for this consolation," wrote
Emilie, long afterwards, ''and how fervendy I prayed
Heaven to grant me the strengfth to conquer myself,
and not to make him unhappy."

At the end of a fortnight Emilie discovered that
she had actually fallen in love with her plain husband ;
as for him, he was, or ought to have been, the happiest
husband in France.

When Lavalette started to join his general at
Toulon, Emilie went, notwithstanding the prayers of
her different relations, who, now that she was some-
body, discovered they were very fond of her, to re-
side with her grandfather at Fontainebleau, as General
Bonaparte had promised her husband she should do.

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THE CELEBRATEEf MADAME CAMPAN

The Annie dEgypte had scarcely reached Malut
when Lavalette learnt that his bride had fallen
ill of small-pox« Vaccination not being included in
Mme Campan's terms, poor Emilie*s complexion
suffered somewhat In later years Mme Campan was
blamed for many of her pupils' faults, and even for the
fact that she had not turned ugly misses into belles,
or enabled the latter to keep their good looks.
" But," says she in self-defence, " I never announced
in my prospectuses that my system of education could
prevent pretty faces being spoiled by the ravages of
time."

However, Mme d'Abrantis assures us that
" Emilie was still far too pretty to suit some people.
The illness had not injured her fine teeth or her
splendid figure ; indeed, she recovered nearly all her
good looks after a time."

When she was well again, Mme Lavalette had
her miniature painted for her husband; Lavalette
never received it, however, for it was intercepted by
the English.

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CHAPTER XI

A prize-giving at Mme Campan's establishment— The First Consul
assisu at a performance of jE>/A«r— The prince of Orange creates
a sensation by his behaviour — Marriage of Caroline Bonaparte to
Murat — Hortense goes to dwell at the Tuileries— Mme Campan
nearly incurs the First Consul's displeasure — Charlotte Bonaparte
comes to Saint-Germain.

In a letter written by Mme Campan to Hortense,
who was staying at Plombiires for the benefit of
Mme Bonaparte's health, we find an amusing account
of a prize-giving at Saint-Germain : —

^'jufy 24, 1798.
"It was the most brilliant day in the history of my
establishment, my dear Hortense. How you were
missed! But when Isabey publicly announced that
you had won the first prize for drawing, the applause
and delight of your fellow-pupils were the most
sincere praise my amiable Hortense could have ob-
tained Your dear grandmamma vastly enjoyed the
spectacle ; the prize was confided to her care. The
assembly was one of the largest ever seen at Saint-
Germain; the illuminated courtyard, the tent, etc.,
etc., made it look exactly like Tivoli ; and the belles
who flock in such numbers to that place of amuse-
ment, were so gracious as to adorn the entertainment
with their charms ; for the magnificent Mme R^camier,
Mme Pauligni, and Mme Lavalette, the latter charm-
ing and attired like an angel, were seen strolling up

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

and down the lawn ; finally, as many as thirty equi-
pages were counted in my street. But what was
better than all, was the general satisfaction expressed
at the education of my young people. Ad^le (Augui^)
was charming; she unfortunately became rather
frightened while playing her sonata, and the eyes of
Mme Guefire (the pianoforte professor) only made
matters worse. ... In short, my dear friend, I fully
enjoyed the fruits of my labours, for all Paris praised
my establishment"

We can imagine the stem Mme Gueffre — ^for any-
body with such a name must have been so — glaring
at poor Adfele from the end of the pianoforte, and
making her play wrong notes at every turn.

The year 1799 saw Mme Campan's establishment
literally besieged by would-be pupils, coming from all
quarters of the globe, even from Martinique and
Calcuta^ as she calls it Years afterwards, Maman
Campan used to say with pride : —

" I found mjrself governess to a nestful of princesses,
though I was unaware of the fact I confess that it
was a very good thing for all parties that we did not
know it. Perhaps if they had been educated as
princesses, flattery would have ruined their characters ;
whereas they, being brought up with all the other
boarders, were given a refined education which fitted
them to become good wives and mothers. • . ."

Her success was partly due to the fact that the
First Consul openly favoured her, and frequently in-
vited her to La Malmaison after his return from Egypt

On one occasion when Mme Campan was dining
there, the First Consul admired a handsome snuff-box

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MADAME CAMPAN AS FIRST CONSUL

which the late queen's waiting«woman always carried
in her pocket, and asked to be allowed to examine it.
On finding that it was ornamented with a portrait of
Marie Antoinette, the First Consul was silent for a
minute, and then returned it to its owner with this
remark : —

*' You are quite right to keep this portrait I do
not like ungrateful people. It is perfectly natural
that you should wish to keep the picture of that
charming woman. They wanted to compass her ruin
in 1793; whom would they not have ruined? Her
birth and titles exasperated them; their hatred was
akin to a mania. You would have died for her, I am
sure, as you will die with her portrait by your side ! "

Again, he gave her the highest praise he could
give her when he said that if he was ever tempted to
form a Republic of females, he would appoint her
First Consul !

But the First Consul's favour caused many of the
returned imigris to look upon Mme Campan with
disfavour. Luckily she had some valuable partisans
in the marquise de Tourzel, the duchesse de Luynes,
the mar^chale de Beauvau, the princesses de Poix
and d'H^nin, the due de Choiseul, the marquis de
Lally, and her first mistresses, Mesdames^ who always
said they were sure Mme Campan would bring up
her pupils to love and revere the late king and queen.

On two occasions the First Consul visited the
seminary at Saint-Germain, and was so good-natured
as to sit through some of those terrible inflictions,
amateur theatricals, when Mme Campan's pupils per-
formed the time-honoured tragedy of Esther^ the
tide-rdle being played by the future queen of Holland,

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

and that of Elise being taken by her great friend,
Adele Auguid. The hall was full of the First Consul's
suite, Ministers, captains, and other imposing persons.
There was also present no less a personage than the
prince of Orange,* who had come to France in order
to interest the First Consul in his cause; but the
latter was still too good a Republican to forgive the
prince for his conduct during the wars of that
Republic. So, although he was well aware that the
young man was in the hall, the First Consul purposely
ignored his presence, until an unforeseen incident
brought forth one of those crushing remarks with
which Napoleon was wont to silence importunate
persons.

Mme Campan's young ladies had just begun the
famous chorus, in which the Israelitish maidens voice
their rapture at returning to their native land, and
with which the third act of Esther closes : —

Je reverrai ces cainpagnes si chores,
J'irai pleurer au tombeau de mes p^res."

Suddenly the music was interrupted by the sound

^ William Frederick^ prince of Orange and Nassau (1772-1843), later
king of the Netherlands. After studying at Leyden and travelling for a
few years, he entered upon a military career in which he cUstinguished
himself by his courageous but unsuccessful opposition against the
French (1793-94). Napoleon deprived him of his possessions in
Germany for having refused to join the Confederation of the Rhine in
1806. He fought most bravely at Wagram and Jena. On returning to
his native land in 181 3 he took the title of sovereign-prince, and in 181 5
the allies gave him the title of king of the Netherlands, when he became
ruler over Belgium as well as Holland. He was unable to prevent
Belgium being wrested from his grasp by the French Revolution of
1830. His marriage to a Belgian lady, the comtesse d'Oultremont,
belonging to the Catholic faith, and other unpopular actions forced him
to abdicate in 1840, when he went to reside in Berlin, where he died
three years later.

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AMATEUR THEATRICALS

of loud sobbing at the back of the hall. The First
Consul, who was seated in a red velvet arm-chair in
the place of honour in the front row, turned round to
Mme Campan, who was immediately behind him, and
asked what was the matter. That lady, thinking to
further the exile's cause, replied : —

**The prince of Orange is present; the verses
which have just been sung reminded him very pain-
fully of his own case and his own griefs, and he was
unable to restrain his tears."

To which piece of information the First Consul,
comfortably settling himself again in his arm-chair,
remarked in a cool tone : —

'' Oh I is that all ? I really need not have turned
round in my chair for such a small matter.''

Mme Campan was very fond of writing plays for
her pupils to act ; on such occasions Hortense always
shone by her singing and dancing. Among the pieces
in which the future queen of Holland appeared were :
La Famtlle Dawenport^ La nouvelle Lucile, La VieilU
de la Cabane ; one of her governess's most success-
ful plays was CicUia^ ou la Pension de Londres. Mme
Campan showed her esteem for English people by
giving many of her characters English names, such as :
Milady Dawen, la mire Dawson, Mistress Teachum,
Lady Hamilton, Lady Arabella Richard, Mrs. Whit-
field, Lady Goldenall, Lady Lindsey, Mrs. Morton,
Peggy, Betty, Sally, etc etc

The young ladies of Saint-Germain had other
pleasures besides private theatricals; in the winter
there were dances, and in summer picnics in the beauti-
ful forest, and visits to the poor of the neighbourhood,
when any pupil who had been particularly industrious

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

during the week was allowed to go and distribute alms.
It was the pupils' custom to collect a purse of money
and present it to Maman Campan on her birthday ; this
money she always gave to the clergy for the poor of
Saint-Germain ; during her years of success, the sum
frequently amounted to more than a thousand francs.

We have already mentioned the fact that Murat
was a cautious man. General Bonaparte's recent
successes had shown many people, including Murat,
that he was the coming ruler of France. Towards the
end of 1799, Murat, remembering Mme Bonaparte's
hint, went to see M. Collot, and told him that he had
formed an attachment for the First Consul's youngest
sister, and that he had reason to believe that he was
not indifferent to her. M. Collot recommended Murat
to go straight to the First Consul and make a formal
proposal for Caroline's hand.

Did Napoleon read Murat's character aright when
he at first refused to give his favourite to his aide-de-
camp ? But Josephine was determined to have her own
way ; she persuaded the First Consul to hold a family
council one evening after dinner at the Petit Luxem-
bourg, the result of which was that Napoleon was
driven into a comer, and obliged to give in to his
wife's wishes. To hide the fact that he had allowed
himself to be influenced by a woman, he said : —

"All things considered, Murat suits my sister;
no one will be able to say that I am proud, or that I
am anxious to marry my family to grand folk. If I
had given my sister in marriage to a noble, all your
Jacobins would have screamed that I was a counter-
revolutionist. And then I am very glad that my wife
has taken such an interest in the marriage. . . ."

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CAROLINE MARRIES MURAT

When all was settled, the First Consul paid a visit
to Caroline's former governess ; after informing her of
his sister's approaching marriage, he remarked : —

" I don't approve of marriages between children
who don't know their own mind ; their excitable little
brains are influenced by their volcanic imaginations.
I had other plans for Caroline — who knows what a
gnand alliance I might have arranged for her ? She is
a giddy-brained creature, and does not understand my
position. Perhaps a time might have come when
sovereigns would have fought for her hand ? She is
marrying a brave fellow ; but that is not sufficient for
me in my present position. However, we must let
Fate lead us where she will."

Caroline was eighteen and Murat thirty-three at
the time of their marriage, which took place on
January 20, 1800, at Plailly, near Morfontaine.

After the excesses of the Revolution, as after the
Franco-Prussian War, many marriages were celebrated
in France, 3315 being performed during the year viii
of the Republic, while 3842 were celebrated in the
following year, and — what was far more important
to the home life of the nations — divorces became
fewer.

The First Consul gave his little sister a dowry of
30,000 francs, a diamond necklace belonging to his wife
— a mean gift — and a magnificent trousseau provided
by the well-known Demoiselles LoHve, enclosed in
a basket lined with yellow corded silk embroidered in
black chenille and heavily scented with that delicious
perfume, Peau dEspagne. Among the garments, all
of which were enveloped in muslin wrappers tied up
with pink favours, were twelve dozen chemises made

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME GAMPAN

of the finest cambric trimmed with cobweb lace, twelve
dozen embroidered handkerchiefs edged with Valen-
ciennes and Malines lace, numberless shoes, stockings,
petticoats— everything she could wish for and much
more than was necessary for the wife of a soldier, be
he ever so brave.

It must be confessed that Cinderella's subsequent
career did not do much credit to her governess. ** Her
manners," said her cousin, Mme Junot, very bitterly,
•• left much to be desired." When driving out with the
future duchesse d'Abrantis, Mme Murat would con-
sume quantities of cakes and grapes without thinking
of offering any to her cousin until they were nearly all
eaten. People laid the blame of her ill-breeding upon
Mme Campan, who, they said, was in the habit of
letting her well-connected pupils do exactly as they
liked in order that she might be popular with the
young misses.

A week after her marriage, Caroline paid a visit
to her former schoolfellows. Maman Campan wrote :
"Her carriage was filled with sweetmeats ; this fact,
however, had nothing to do with the warm welcome
which she received; the sweetmeats, nevertheless,
were highly appreciated. ..."

On February 19, 1800, the First Consul took up
his abode at the Tuileries. Hortense now left the
pleasant home at Saint-Germain, where she had known
nothing but happiness. She was about to enter upon
a new career, for " Petite Bonne " would now have to
play the part of dutiful stepdaughter to the greatest
man in Europe. Years afterwards Maman Campan
would remind her favourite of the feeling of terror
with which the once light-hearted Hortense had

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••PETITE BONNE" AT THE TUILERIES

entered upon her career as a fashionable demoiselle d
fnarier: —

•* I love to think of your first and well-founded
alarm at the sudden turn in your fortune. . • • Do you
remember, Madame, how sad you looked when you
said to poor Adde ( Augui^) and to me : * My step-
father is a comet of which we form the tail ; we must
follow him in blind ignorance as to his destination.
Will it be for our happiness } Will it be for our mis-
fortune? . . •' And the impatience of your amiable
and tender mother when you did not come down to
dinner punctually at La Malmaison, and the First
Consul having already entered the dining-room, she
went up to your room where you were drawing that
fine portrait of the Mameluke Roustan, in order to
scold you, and ask whether you expected to earn your
living as an artist that you worked so hard? And
your wonderfully philosophical reply considering your
age : ' Madame, who can tell in these days of un-
expected changes whether we shall not have to do so
some day ? ' • . /'

Mme Campan was not without some misgivings as
to how her beloved "Petite Bonne" would behave,
now that she was living in a palace : —

"So, my good Hortense," wrote she, "you are
now inhabiting a very pretty room. Be careful to
regulate your daily life; allow me to give you my
affectionate advice during your future career. The
most important thii^g is never to show yourself at the
windows ; have muslin curtains in your room during
the winter, and canvas blinds during the summer
months : never did the person who formerly lived there
allow any young females, in whom she took an interest,

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

to show themselves at the window. The most im-
pudent dandies would come and strut about under
your windows, just because they had seen you at a
few dances. • . • Do not go often to balls ; do not let
the public see you too frequently ; avoid fast women.
. . . Dieu ! how proud am I ! and how my pride
awakens prayers, wishes, fears for you ! . . . You must
also have lessons from Bonesi ; ^ the busier you are, the
happier you will be ! We will speak of books another
time. Adieu, my angel."

On February 24, 1800, Mme Campan gave a
grand masked ball at which Zo^ Talon, the future
Mme du Cayla, dressed as an old cake- woman, created
quite a furore with her lively repartees. The two
little Talon girls had been brought to Mme Campan
soon after she opened her establishment by the comte
de Sc^peaux, at that time an officer in La Vendue, beg-
ging her to take care of the children, whose father was
imprisoned in the Temple and their mother in hiding.

A letter from Mme Campan dated March 7 of this
same year gives us a peep into those days of stiff
ceremony and company manners, when any attempt to
show the natural feelings in company was considered
du plus mauvais ton : —

" Embrace my dear Caroline (Murat) very tenderly
for me," she writes to Hortense ; " tell her that, as her
former governess, I beg of her not to give visible
tokens of affection to her dear husband when she
goes to the play with him ; she is severely criticized
on this point, nay, more! she is blamed. We owe
great respect to the public; by acting thus she
offends public morality ; for if a young wife does not

^ A fashionable professor of singing
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Caroline Bonaparte,
with her daughter marie.

From ;i painiiiig by Le Brim,

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MAMAN CAMPAN GIVES GOOD ADVICE

behave with reserve towards her husband, another
woman may take liberties with her lover — and then
what would become of the theatre and other public
assemblies? Moreover, all eyes are fixed upon the
Bonaparte family, and you are ever before the public.
Would you believe that people blame me when my
pupils are guilty of small faults? Be sure to tell
Caroline that I only give her this advice because I
take an interest in her ; I shall always look upon you
and her as my daughters. . . .*'

Mme Campan, knowing that Hortense could
neither ask for, nor receive, good advice from her
mother — for Josephine was one of those women whose
chief object in life is to get on in the world and to be
amused — wrote the following letter to her beloved
pupil, hoping thereby to save her from imitating her
mother's example : —

" To Mile Eug^nie^ de Beauhamais at the Tutleries.

" 8 germinai^ an A//.

"You are now, my dear Hortense, in a social
whirlpool, which obliges you to lunch seven days in
the dicade in town and ddcadi^ and primidi at La
Malmaison ; if this continues you will no longer have
time to attend to your studies. You will have to bid
farewell to all serious occupations, and be content to
hear all Paris say that you have been drawn into the
social whirlpool, unless you are brave and strong
enough to resist this dangerous whirlpool towards
which even your Mama, in her very natural pleasure

^ Hortense de Beaohamais was baptized Eugdnie-Hortense and for
the first years of her life was called Eug^ie.

* Dicadi and /nVrnVfirss tenth and first days of the decade m the
calendar of the first French Republic
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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

at having you with her, is drawing you. But take
care, my Hortense; those who invite you are not
doing so for your good but for their own, because you
are the most popular person of the day — a terrifying
fact when we think of it, for it means that that favour
is only temporary. So say to )rourself bravely: *!
will devote my mornings to study, / will, 1 rvill'
This is how I think you ought to employ your time :
You must retire so as to be in bed by midnight ; you
must rise at 9 o'clock in the morning. You must take
a lesson from half-past nine until lunch, or else draw
by yourself: this is most important After lunch
another lesson.

**Duodi. — Hyacinthe Jadin ; a drawing lesson on
the same day.

" Tridi. — Bonesi at the same hour, then draw by
yourself if you wish.

" Quartidi. — Hyacinthe Jadin, and your drawing-
master.

" Quintidi. — Bonesi, and draw by yourself.

''Sestidi. — Hyacinthe Jadin, and your drawing-
master.

" Septidi. — Grasset, and your ordinary studies.

" Octidi. — Hyacinthe Jadin, and the drawing-
master.

'' Nanidi, dicadi, and primidi will be holidays on
account of being in the country.

" By paying your professors punctually every first
day of the month you, with your mother's consent,
will have the satisfaction of paying regularly, and
enjoying the esteem which always belongs to persons
who are punctual in their payments. ..."

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ARREST OF MME CAMPAN'S FRIENDS

In the month of April, Mme Campan found her-
self in a very disagreeable position, owing to the fact
that two of her most intimate friends at Saint-Germain,
an old lady of nearly eighty years of age, Mme de
rHdpital by name, and Dr. Dubreuil, physician to her
establishment, were accused of being concerned in a
plot against the Government; the doctor was also
accused of visiting an ex-prisoner of the Temple, M.
Talon, the father of Zo^ one of Mme Campan's
cleverest pupils. The First Consul was never a partisan
of half-measures; he promptly gave orders for the
arrest of Mme Campan's friends. But before being
dragged off to prison in Paris, Dr. Dubreuil had time
to scribble off a little note to Mme Campan in which he
besought her to use her influence with the First Consul.

Mme Campan immediately hurried up to Paris and
requested the new proprietor of the Tuileries to grant
her an interview.

His first words were far from reassuring.

'' So you have come to plead for the inhabitants of
Saint-Germain," he remarked curtly; "your Mme
de THdpital is an intriguer."

" Excuse me, General," replied his visitor, "people
may ihave reproached her for having been a litde
flighty in her youth, but at seventy-eight years of age
that is all past and gone. She never was an intriguer,
no 1 coquetry was more natural to her. But she is now
blind. She entertains a few friends every evening."

Josephine's presence during this interview perhaps
softened the First Consul, for he now said : —

" A blind woman of seventy-eight years of age
can never be anything but innocent of political crimes.
The Minister has been guilty of gross barbarity^

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

unworthy of a Government such as mine ! If Fouchd
had been in league with my enemies, he could not
have done better! He must have been crazy to
commit such a blunder I I will not allow my authority
to be employed for such acts. I desire my authority
to be used with reason ; a Government should have
wide views and generous impulses ; what has just
happened is worthy of the mistress of a sovereign
when she is in a passion. I do not intend matters to
be conducted in this manner ; a Minister should never
display passionate behaviour, because people may be
led to think that the chief of the State is governed by
his temper. History should never forget anything ;
what would history say of such a deed ? What has
the doctor done ? "

** He prescribed for M. Talon's child, General, and
he has for long been in the habit of visiting his former
companion in misfortune — ^for he and M. Talon were
at one time imprisoned together in the Temple."

" It is incredible I A doctor has the right to feel
the pulse of my enemy as well as that of my friend
without a Minister daring to complain. Abuses com-
promise authority, and make it unpopular. I am
going to have an explanation with the Minister and
liberate his victims.''

So saying, General Bonaparte rushed to the bell,
tugged at it violently, and ordered his servant to fetch
Fouch6 immediately. That astute gentleman got **a
good blowing-up," as Mme Campan puts it, with
many apologies for using such an unladylike expres-
sion. Nevertheless Fouch6 managed, by bungling
and dilatoriness, to keep the so-called conspirators in
prison for another twenty-four hours.

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CARRIAGEFOLK

Great was Mme de riidpital's delight when she
was told that Mme Bonaparte had sent one of her
own carriages to take Fouchi's victims back to Saint*
Germain ; she almost forgot the indignity to which
she had been subjected, and cried in her joy at the
idea of being seen driving through the streets of
Saint-Germain in one of the First Consul's car-
riages: —

''Has Mme Bonaparte sent her beautiful white
equipage ? "

••Eh! Madame/' snapped out Dr. Dubreuil;
•• what does it matter whether it be white or black so
long as it takes us away from* here ? "

Such is the ingratitude of mankind that Mme
Talon, instead of thanking her daughter's governess
for obtaining the release of her husband's friend,
accused her of trying to backbite her.

Mme Campan's letters to Hortense contain much
good advice : —

••Write your letters very carefully," says she ; ••a
letter written by a woman of quality to her milliner
may fall into the hands of persons who can guess by
its style whether the writer is well-bred or not."

Mme Campan probably had Caroline in her mind
when she wrote :— •

•• A woman who only wishes to please her husband
is adorned by her virtues and not by fine clothes ; she
cares naught for the offensive admiration of strangers.
Prudence and modesty become her far more than gold
and emeralds; her charming visage is tinged with
modesty ; her thrift, her desire to please her husband,
her affection, her meekness — these are the jewels
which enhance her beauty. A virtuous woman con-

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

siders her husband's wishes as a sacred law ; she brings
him a valuable dowry, prudence and obedience ; for a
beautiful soul is preferable to Fortune's deceitful and
ephemeral gifts, and to bodily charms which will soon
fade* Beauty is ruined by illness, but the beauty of
the soul endures as long as life. • . •"

During the spring of 1800 another little Bonaparte
came to nestle under Mme Campan's wings. This
child was the eldest living daughter of Lucien
Bonaparte, who in the previous year had lost his wife,
the tenderly loved Christine Boyer, on which occasion
Josephine had dared to assert that Lucien had
poisoned his wife, whereas she had really died of con-
sumption. At the time of her marriage, Christine
had neither been able to read nor write ; but so deter-
mined was she not to disgrace her husband by her
ignorance, that she set to work to educate herself, and
succeeded so well that at the end of a few months she
could write quite a good hand. Her letters are better
than if they had been written by a clever woman — ^for
they show her to have been a charming and affectionate
wife and mother.

Napoleon had never forgiven Lucien for marry-
ing without his consent; however, on hearing of
Christine's death» the First Consul wrote to the
widower : •• You have lost an excellent wife. A good
wife has a good influence over her husband. I hope I
may never need the courage which you now require
in order to be able to bear such a misfortune."

Christine, who was two years older than her
husband, had borne him four children, only two of
whom had lived any time, Christine Charlotte, bom
1795, and Christine Egypta, born 1798.

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DEATH OF LUCIEN'S FIRST WIFE

Lucien buried his dear Christine in the grounds
of his property at Plessis-Chamant, with the following
inscription on her tomb : —

*• Lover,^ wife, and mother without reproach."

On hearing of her daughter-in-law's death,
Madame Mire hastened down to Plessis-Chamant,
where Elisa (Mme Baciocchi), of whom Joseph
Bonaparte said that " she, of all the Bonapartes, most
resembled Napoleon in all respects,'' had helped to
smooth the dying woman's pillow. Lucien wrote
years after this event: "I was alone with my two
little daughters. My sister Elisa acted the part of a
mother to them at the time of the catastrophe. It was
therefore my two litde daughters and this dearly-loved
sister who first consoled me in my cruel loss. We
wept together over the tomb which I erected to
Christine's memory in a lonely, sheltered corner of my
park. Elisa loved tending the little garden round
the grave of the woman whom I had cherished so
fondly, and who so thoroughly deserved my affection,
almost as much as I did. When Christine lay dying
in my arms and those of our sister Elisa, she ex-
pressed a hope that her two litde daughters, Charlotte
and Egypta, would not want for a mother's care ;
whereupon Elisa promised to tend them, which sacred
promise she kept for four years."

Mme Bonaparte at first had the eldest child,
Charlotte, or Lolotte, as the motherless lamb called
herself, to stay with her at the Tuileries ; but after a
few months had elapsed, Josephine took her niece to
Mme Campan, and begged her to attend to Lolotte's

^ The word lover {atHanU) was afterwards erased and friend {amU)
inserted in its place.

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

much-neglected education. Now Maman Campan
was always extremely successful with very young
children; she explains her secret in her work, De
I Education : —

'' While I was at Saint-Germain a little maid of
five years of age was brought to me ; she seemed
languid and morose. I immediately took her on my
lap, laid her head on my breast, and kissed her,
whereupon she smiled up into my face and began to
shed tears of joy ; she soon became quite happy and
sweet-tempered. I had another little pupil of ten
years of age who had had an attack of paralysis in
one of her arms. I went to see her every day in the
infirmary, when she would stare at me out of her big
black eyes. A remark from the nurse gave me to
understand that she thought the child was merely
feigning illness; it is commonly believed that this
malady only attacks elderly people. I took the poor
child into my room and put her into my own bed. I
was not mistaken ; the little creature, who was very
intelligent, had been accused by the nurses of feigning
indisposition, this injustice had so chagrined her that
the doctors' drugs had had no effect upon her. That
child is now the comtesse de Nicolai. ..."

Before Lolotte had been many weeks with Maman
Campan, that lady wrote to Mme Bonaparte : —

'' Lolotte is already quite a different child; she
speaks more quietly, is more attentive to her book.
I make her lessons very short, for it is a difficult
matter to fix a litde child's attention for ten minutes
at a time. I prefer to give her two lessons a day. I
do the same for the piano. . . ."

Poor babyl we can imagine how the child

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AUNT JOSEPHINE PROVES STRICT

must have hated those black and white notes, which
to her litde ears and eyes must have sounded and
looked so provokingly alike.

But Maman Campan was patient and the pupil
obedient, and soon they were able to play little duets
together. In another letter, written just before the
holidays, Matnan Campan wrote : —

" Lolotte changes for the better every day ; I am
correcting all her litde faults. She is a pretty child
and has good qualities. Let me hear if the First
Consul has noticed any improvement in her."

Great must have been Mme Campan's dismay
when Lolotte, on returning to Saint-Germain after
the holidays, handed her the following letter written
by the wife of the First Consul : —

'' To Madame Campan, at Saint-Germain.

** In sending back my niece, my dear Mme
Campan, I beg you to allow me both to thank and to
blame you. I thank you for your kind care of her,
for the brilliant education which you are giving to
this child. But I blame you for the faults which you
in your sagacity have noticed in her, but which you
in your indulgence have tolerated. This little girl is
gentle but unaffectionate ; she is clever for her years
but disdainful ; witty but tacdess ; nobody loves her,
but she does not care. She thinks that her uncle's
reputation and her father's valour are everything.
Be very severe, very strict with her ; let her see that
such things are worthless. We live at a time when
everybody has to work out his or her own fate ; it is
only the most amiable and the most useful members
of society who can hope to be chosen by the State to

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

serve it and enjoy a few favours and advantages*
Thus and thus only can the fortunate hope to silence
the envious. That, my dear Mme Campan, is what
you ought to have taught my niece, and that is what
you should never cease to repeat to her in my name.
I wish her to treat as her equals all her schoolfellows,
most of whom are better or as good as herself, and
who do not lack for parents more clever and more
lucky than her own."

This last remark is very unkind; but then
Josephine hated Lucien with all the force of her
Creole nature. She forgot that she was writing of
a little motherless child, still scarcely more than a
baby. She had detested Lolotte's mother even more.
On the rare and painful occasions when Mme
Bonaparte had visited her sister-in-law, she had
treated Christine as her inferior, almost as a menial,
making her hostess follow her about in her own
house 'Mike a dog trotting after its master," as Mme
d'Abrantis puts it, "and taking the seat of honour."

During the summer of 1800 the monotony of
school-life at Saint-Germain was again pleasantly
varied by a courtship, in this case more romantic than
that of Emilie de Beauharnais by Lavalette. One of
Mme Campan's pupils, Cl^entine de Manherbes, the
daughter of a returned imigri^ received while still at
school a proposal of marriage from a M. de Vdrigni,
who, with Maman Campan's consent, became her
accepted fiancd and was allowed to pay her periodical
visits, when the young couple sat on two chairs in the
governess's sanctum and made love under the watch-
ful eye of that lady. In an amusing letter to Hortense,

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UNSEEMLY BEHAVIOUR

Mme Campan depicts the behaviour suitable to pro-
spective brides : —

" One can see that little Clementine is deeply in
love with her fiancd ; but she is so ashamed of the
fact, that she positively looks like a criminal. When
people congratulate her upon her marriage, which
takes place next cUcadi, she covers her face with her
hands and sinks her head on her breast I disap-
prove of such extreme timidity; such a ridiculous
shame of the consequences of marriage is almost un-
seemly. In this case a calm, decent, dignified deport-
ment appears to me to be much more suitable. . . •"

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CHAPTER XII

A Cuhionable boarding-school in the beginning of the nineteenth century
— ^Anglomania and the anges gardUns — Mme Campan gives
Hortense de Beauhamais good advice concerning the choice of a
husband — ^Two more members of the de Beauhamais family come
to Saint-Germain— One of Mme Campan's former pupils incurs the
First Consul's displeasure — The young ladies fite the signing of the
Treaty of Lun^ville — Peace is concluded with England — Hortense
is betrothed to Louis Bonaparte — General Bonaparte finds a wife
for General Davout— F^licit^ Fodoas becomes Mme Savary.

One of Mme Campan's favourite sayings was that
''a good education is a fortune in itself/' and she
prided herself upon giving her pupils the very best
education which money could obtain. She was
particular as to the food given to the young ladies,
whose meals she always shared ; one consequence of
this habit was an increase in the expenses of the
establishment In her work, De t Education, she
gives a deplorable picture of the privations endured
by children at public-schools a century ago.

" The schools where children are well fed are all
too few ; they sometimes do not get enough to eat
It is shameful to hear complaints about such an
extremely important matter. We frequently hear of
pupils bursting into complaints at the sight of the
revolting food placed before them, rebelling in their
refectories and becoming riotous for a reason con-
sidered of no importance by their masters. ..."

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LES ANGES GABDIENS

She condemns the practice of children paying the
servants to buy them food outside the school : —

'* The servants, whose sole desire is to cheat the
pupils, always choose unsuitable food; these clan-
destine feasts consumed out of meal-time only ruin
the children's health. . . ."

Mme Campan's establishment was considered
expensive in those days, when day-schools were
almost unknown in France. In the above-mentioned
work she gives her compatriots some interesting de-
tails concerning the numerous boarding-schools which
then existed in England and America.

"There are many schools in England," says she,
"where the scholars pay from one hundred to one
hundred and fifty guineas a year. The holidays last
six weeks, and at the beginning of every new school-
year the parents pay an extra sum of six guineas for
the servants* wages."

Afaman Campan could speak with authority upon
that vexed question, the merits and demerits of les
anges gardiens. Although she disapproved of English
nurses she recognized the necessity of engaging
English governesses to teach their own language to
her pupils. But it is somewhat surprising to learn
that already at the end of the eighteenth century
many snobettes in Paris had adopted the fashion of
having English nurses for their children. " I allow,"
says she, " that the pronunciation and the idioms of
the two languages can be learnt more easily in child-
hood. . . . However, an English nurse may also
inculcate many false ideas into her charge's mind.
If the mother does not understand the language the
nurse, unless constantly watched, will as freely in-

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dulge in faults and go her own way as obstinately as
any French servant; and, like the latter, she will
put your little ones to sleep by telling them stories of
ghosts and hobgoblins, will not fail to make them
afraid of mice and spiders, and will instil into their
litde minds those ideas which are so tenacious and
always prevent the development of the reasoning
powers. ..."

She had a very high opinion of Maria Edge-
worth's works, and said "everything by her which
has been translated is good" She recommended
many English customs; however, there was one
fashion which scandalized her and which she says she
shall take good care not to imitate. " As dancing is
forbidden on Sunday by the Anglican Church, the
directors of the London boys' schools, in order to
finish the week well, send their pupils to spend
Saturday afternoon at the girls' schools ; but the great
bays (in English) and the young misses in England (in
English) remain children three or four years longer
than the children of our country owing to the climate
and the habits of the people ; we in France could not
run the risk of allowing such assemblies ! "

We doubt very much whether Mme Campan
approved of Rousseau's advice to mothers to bathe
their children daily in ice-cold water in winter. But
she certainly did approve of his protest against the
custom of winding babes up in nine yards of linen
and flannel so that they looked like mummies. " This
custom," says she, "enables the nurse to get rid of
her charge by hanging it up to a hook. The best
way to accustom an infant to use its limbs is to lay it
on a rug or on a lawn ; it will immediately try to turn

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LOVE OF LITTLE CHILDREN

itself over on its stomach and then it will begin to
crawl on all fours like a little quadruped ; later it will
learn to raise itself on its feet, balance itself against
some object, and then make a few steps without any
other support than its mother's hands."

She tells us that at one time it was the fashion to
dress little girls like little boys — a fashion still seen at
some French bathing-places — and she recommends
both sexes being allowed to play and learn together
until the age of seven years.

"Young or old,'* wrote she in one of her most
touching chapters, "we women can never behold
an infant in swaddling-clothes without experiencing a
feeling which no man can quite understand. . . . The
intelligence of a one-year old child develops so rapidly
that, although it is condemned to silence, it passes a
great part of its time in noticing people and things.
Look at the little creature, how, at six months, it
recognizes its mother and its nurse, and spon after
points to its father. When it cries, it is fed; it
smiles, it kicks its litde feet about in the air with
delight. At other times when it cries, it is taken
out of doors ; it breathes the fresh air of the garden ;
and the smile which takes the place of the tears tells
you : * That is just what I wanted ! ' "

Maman Campan could be very strict on occasion
in consequence of having seen a little girl of five years
of age, the only child of her parents, die because she
had refused to drink the physic which might have
saved her life : " Prayers, promises, bribes were all
tried in vain : she always pushed the cup away.
Since then I have ever accustomed my pupils to drink
bitter physic from time to time." She made a special

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

point of teaching kindness to animals, and never ceased
to protest against children being allowed to see
domestic creatures killed for eating.

All her pupils were taught to put their toys away
when they had done playing with them. " The child
who has drawn the same coach up and down his
mother's garden a whole winter long is as happy as
he whose cupboards are bursting with toys ; by
making him put his little coach in its stable every night
he will learn to be tidy. . . . Dolls are as necessary
to little girls as tin soldiers to their brothers. As
soon as a little girl can toddle, if she has no doll of
her own she will nurse a bundle of rags. By the
effect of an admirable instinct, a veritable blessing of
Providence, you will see her river le nam de mire en
berfant sapoupie'^

Of foreign governesses in general Mme Campan
speaks not unkindly. ''Foreigners are at first dis-
agreeable and hard to please ; I know this, because I
had several in my house. But we must forgive
them, for they feel strange and as if they had been
uprooted. I think they are usually less docile
than French women. At Saint-Germain I always
imagined they looked like full-fledged birds which had
been imprisoned in an aviary; so I let them hop
about as they pleased, only requiring them to conform
to the rules of the establishment I treated them so
gently and so kindly that they soon became tame.
One and all remained friends with me."

With all these luxuries and modern innovations,
Mme Campan was obliged to limit her own expenses,
and in her letters to Hortense she frequendy expresses
a wish that she could afford to buy herself a carriage

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HORTENSE LOSES HER HEART

in which to drive up to Paris. At last in the autumn
of 1800 she was able to scrape together the necessary
sum, whereupon she wrote in great glee : —

*' I am going to try to find a demi-fortune ^ which,
by hiring one horse, will carry me wherever I want to

go."

She used this carriage when she paid those visits
to La Malmaison which gave so much pleasure to
both governess and pupil. On one of these visits
Hortense took Maman Campan into her own boudoir
and confided to her kind old friend that her mother
and stepfather were anxious to find her a husband.
She had already had two or three proposals. Mme
Bonaparte, after trying to make up a match between
her daughter and Jdr6me Bonaparte, who was still
scarcely more than a schoolboy, had thought of her
enemy Lucien as a possible husband, so little did she
really care for her daughter; however, Lucien had
other plans. M. Rewbell, the son of the president of
the Directoire, and the comte de Mun, an elderly and
wealthy returned imigri, had then offered themselves ;
one and all had met with no success, either because
the First Consul or the young lady herself did not
look with favour upon the suitor. The fact of the
matter was that poor little Hortense had lost her
heart to Duroc, and the affair had got so far that they
were on writing terms with one another — which means
a great deal in France.

On returning to Saint-Germain, Mme Campan
wrote the following letter of advice, that advice of
which poor Hortense all her life craved but never
followed : —

^ A demi-fortune is a four-wheeled, one-horse carriage.
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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

'* To Mile de Beaukamais at La Malmaison,

^^ 2^ firucHdor^ an viii {September ii, 1800).

'' My thoughts have been constandy with you
since my last visit to La Malmaison, my dear, good
Hortense; this you can easily believe when you
remember the affection which I have sworn to
bestow upon you as long as you live. You are in
an embarrassing position. It is the duty of every
sensible girl to avoid choosing a husband for herself
and to reserve to herself the sole right of refusing
the suitor supposing the person chosen by her
parents does not please her, or she feels she cannot
love him. You have exercised this right in a similar
circumstance, although my opinion was favourable

to M. ^^ on account of his wit, his rank, his

fortune, and his affection for you ; I respected your
refusal and ceased to endeavour to persuade you to
change your mind. It is so important for you, for
your Mama's happiness, that you should follow the
First Consul's advice; so obey his wishes, for you
would surely be blamed if the public ever learnt that
you had not complied with his wishes. You had
nothing to do with the strange Fate which, after
having brought about the union of your Mama with
General Bonaparte, has now placed you, with a
rapidity which only belongs to periods of revolution,
in the front ranks of the State. Be on your guard
against the passion which you have inspired ; try not
to return it; if you feel disposed to accord any
preference to the young man of whom you spoke,
remember that perhaps it would be better for him if
^ Evidently M. de Mun.
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THE BETTER PART

you did not share his passion. Do not read novels ;
and, above all things, do not imagine that you have
inspired a romantic affection : genuine happiness lies
very far away from such catastrophes. General
Bonaparte spoke very sensibly the other day when he
said: 'AH these young heads fancy they are in
love ! ' . . . The First Consul loves you as if you
were his own child. Think how kind he has been to
you ; remember his rights as a stepfather ; realize his
present position. Would you like some advice from
the person who loves you best on earth ? Be brave
and speak to him. Tell him that your heart is free
and that you desire to comply with his wishes for
your establishment . . . Do not go and ruin your
life. The misfortunes which we bring upon ourselves
are the only unbearable ones ; because when we begin
to reason with ourselves, we see how mistaken we
were, because passion makes us weak, whereas reason
supports us. . . . Adieu, my good Hortense, I pray
God that you may make a good choice. Unfortu-
nately we are taught in our youth to draw and sing,
but experience alone can teach us how to perceive,
appreciate, and choose the better part. . . ."

As if she felt that she had not said enough to her
beloved " Petite Bonne," Mme Campan writes soon
afterwards : —

•* The illusion of love soon passes, but the chain
remains. The gentleman appears in his true colours
— it is not his fault ; Ae has not changed ; we blame
him unjustly, whereas we should blame ourselves for
our own blindness, our own foolish imagination. ..."

Mme Campan found that Mile Hortense de

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

Beauharnais was a good advertisement for her school ;
demands for admission flowed in at the beginning of
every new term. That she did not accept all the
pupils who wanted to share the studies of the young
Bonapartes, de Beauharnais, and many young
aristocrates^ we learn from the following extract: —

" If I see Madame la ci-devant marquise de

giggling in a corner with her lover, I consider her no
better than the Belle Clotilde^ whose child I would
not admit among my pupils, whereas I consented to
receive the daughter of an honest farmer."

For this so-called act of arrogance Mme Campan
was much blamed.

She now had under her care several pupils whose
relatives had already won, or were about to win, fame
for themselves ; among these were : Anna Leblond,
who later married a brother of poor General Duphot ;
Sophie de Marbois (later duchesse de Plaisance),
General Clarke's little girl ; and Eliza de Lally (later
Mme d'Aux), a granddaughter of the unhappy Thomas
Arthur, count of Lally and baron of Tollendal, and
daughter of the author of Strafford, for whose literary
talents Mme Campan expressed the greatest admira-
tion, even going so far as to call his style perfect. Of
Eliza's grandfather she said : —

"M. de Lally's father was decapitated for his
despotism while Governor of Pondicherry, but was
rehabilitated after his death — which is very satis-
factory for the children but does not replace the
father's head on his shoulders."

Towards the end of 1800 another motherless
child, Stephanie, the daughter of Claude 11 de
^ A fashionable dancer of the time.
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NAPOLEON, THE LOVER OF CHILDREN

Beauharnais, and granddaughter of Fanny de
Beauharnais, the poetaster, came to be educated
at Mme Campan's Seminary. Stephanie's mother,
tide Mile de Lezay-Mamdsia, had died after giving
birth to this little daughter, August 28, 1789, and her
father soon married again. However, the little girl
was so terribly neglected by her stepmother that an
English lady took pity upon her and persuaded M.
de Beauharnais to let her pla^pe Stephanie at a convent-
school in Montauban, where she soon won all hearts.
Shortly after the battle of Marengo Mme Bonaparte
was showing her husband some stilted verses written
in his honour by Mme Fanny de Beauharnais,
when she happened to mention the little motherless
Stephanie. When Napoleon, who loved little children,
asked where she was, Josephine replied : —

** Her father has neglected her shamefully. Her
grandmother is far too occupied writing poetry to
waste her time over her little granddaughter.
However, an English lady has taken pity upon her
and sent her to a convent-school."

On hearing this, General Bonaparte loudly re-
proached his wife for not having told him before.

" How could you allow such a thing ? " cried he ;
" how could you permit a member of your own family
to be supported by a foreigner, an Englishwoman,
and therefore our enemy at present? Are you not
afraid that your memory will suffer for this negligence
some day ? "

The First Consul immediately dispatched a
messenger to the convent with orders that the little
girl was to be sent to him. However, as General
Bonaparte had omitted to ask the father's consent,

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

the good nuns, delighted to have an excuse for
keeping the child away from such a godless place as
Republican Paris, refused to let her go. General
Bonaparte then obtained M. de Beauharnais' per-
mission to take away his child, and dispatched another
messenger in the person of M. de Lezay-Mam^ia,
Stephanie s uncle. To that gentleman's astonishment,
when he told the child that he had come to take her
to her cousin, who lived in a very beautiful palace and
would buy up all the toyshops in Paris if she asked
her to do so, Stephanie burst into tears and refused
to leave her kind friends, the nuns. But a little girl's
wishes count for naught . . .

The First Consul immediately lost his heart to the
delicate, fair-haired, blue-eyed Stephanie, so unlike die
bouncing, rather coarse Bonapartes ; he welcomed her
to the Tuileries, taking the motherless child in his
arms and kissing her on both cheeks ; before
St^hanie had been many hours in the palace, she
had forgotten her kind friends at Montauban as
completely as if they had never existed.

As for Cousin Josephine, she ransacked all the
toyshops in the capital, spent fabulous sums on dolls,
pretty clothes, and jewels for the little girl whose
delicate features and refined manners had captivated
her ; but at the same time she ordered a school outfit
— ^for Mme Bonaparte neither had the time nor the
inclination to turn schoolma'am. So when the outfit
was ready, Stephanie was told that she was quite
rested from the fatigues of the journey, that no more
time must be lost, and then she was packed off to
Maman Campan, who had brought up Cousin Hortense
so successfully.

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Stkphanik de Beauharnais.

From a pninting by G<^rard.

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STfiPHANIE DE BEAUHARNAIS

One of Mme Campari's first tasks was to undo the
harm caused by the First Consul's scandalous habit of
spoiling children. She found the child thoughtless,
vain, and passionately fond of pretty clothes and jewels.
But Mme Campan herself was very partial to pretty
things, for she wrote to Hortense, December 29,
1800: —

"Old Mile Bertin to-day showed me a most
original apron with a fichu attached which quite turned
my head as well as the heads of all the young ladies ;
although it is trimmed all round with Valenciennes
lace, the price is only five louis ; it is the first of its
sort. Ask to see it and explain that you will return
it if it does not suit yoa She will not sell it until
you have inspected it. ..."

About this time another Stephanie, Mile Stephanie
Tascher de La Pagerie, Josephine's cousin and god-
daughter, was entrusted to the care of Maman
Campan ; as this little Stephanie was in very delicate
health, the directress of Saint-Germain had to act the
part of mother and nurse rather than that of governess.

Mme Campan's pupils were mostly tractable and
good-natured little creatures; she tdb us, however,
<A one young miss, aged fifteen, whose airs and graces
threatened to ruin her prospects in life ; to her she
addressed the following lecture : —

** You are handsome, Mademoiselle, I will even say
that you are very handsome, and I wish to be the first
person to pay you this agreeable compliment, because
I desire to add that your beauty will soon be a thing
of the past. For human life is so brief that beauty
fades as quiqkly as the rose which we see withered at
night and wish we had gathered in the morning.

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You are handsome, I repeat, but I can say with equal
truth that you are silly, vain, rough, ignorant, and
rather heartless; so that all these faults, far from
passing away with time like the fresh colour in your
pretty face, will only increase and make you and those
who live with you unhappy when not a single pleasing
feature is to be found in your physiognomy."

Some of Mme Campan's pupils were already out
in the world where the returned imigris were about
to bestow upon them the title of Us cuisintires de
Bonaparte. It must be confessed that Mme Moreau,
who, as Eugenie Hulot, had enjoyed the immense
advantage of having Marie Antoinette's virtues held
up to her for admiration, did not reflect much credit
upon her former governess. Mme Moreau's mother,
Mme Hulot, was a particularly unpleasant specimen
of a French matron : narrow-minded, proud, jealous,
fond of gossip and scandal, and a bully into the
bargain, as her son-in-law found to his cost before he
had been married many months. At first Moreau
tried to resist her iron rule, but Mme Hulot well knew
that constant dropping will wear away the hardest
stone, and by repeated doses of nagging she reduced
her son-in-law to limp submission. Napoleon called
her a martinet, and said that she and her daughter
were Moreau's bad angels, that they encouraged him to
do wrong, and that they were responsible for his faults.

When Mme Moreau heard in December 1800 of
the victory of Hohenlinden which France owed to her
husband, she hurried off to the Tuileries and requested
an audience of Mme Bonaparte. However, neither
on this occasion nor on a subsequent visit was that
lady visible. Mme Moreau called yet a third time,

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MOREAU'S BAD ANGELS

taking care to bring her mama with her. But the
two termagants had no more success than the one had
had. After waiting some time in a cold anteroom,
the ladies gathered up their skirts and departed,
Mme Hulot taking care to remark in a loud voice as
she left the palace that **the wife of the victor of
Hohenlinden ought not to have been kept waiting
like that — the Directors would have treated her more
politely."

Now General Bonaparte hated nothing more than
to hear people regret the "good old days" of the
ancien rigime^ the Revolution or the Directoire, as
the case might be. On Mme Hulot's remark being
repeated to him, he could not restrain his wrath.

"What.?" cried he, "does Mme Hulot regret the
good old days of the Directoire just because the head
of the State has no time to spare from his important
task to gossip with old women } "

Mme Campan's birthday in 1801 reminded her
that her favourite Hortense was no longer under her
wing. On that occasion she wrote : —

" I could not help thinking of how my Hortense
and her good Eugfene once brought me an orange-tree
on my birthday. Your fate was very different then to
what it is now, but I loved you dearly and you would
have found me the tenderest of mothers had you ever
lacked one. Those children who cannot pay for their
schooling are just as dear to me as their fellow-pupils ;
I do hot forbid them to collect a little present for me
on my birthday, because I do not wish to wound their
feelings and because I do not wish the rich pupils to
humiliate their poorer companions."

In February 1801 Mme Campan learnt that the

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

Treaty of Lun^ville had been signed by the French
Republic and Austria^ whereby the Rhine was made
France's natural boundary, Austria received the
Venetian States, and the German ecclesiastical States
were secularized and g^ven to various German princes
in order to indemnify them for their losses. To
celebrate this great event Maman Campan gave her
pupils a whole holiday and bespoke twelve dozen
tartlets for dinner — which shows that such delicacies
were not as common in young ladies' schools as they
are nowadays. Upon hearing this good news,
** Lolotte Bonaparte jumped for joy for a whole
quarter of an hour." The holiday concluded with a
little play in which '* Lolotte had a small part which
she acted vastly well ; but neither she nor the little
Isabey ^ could ever remember their cue. In order to
prevent any mishap, I made two big girls hold them
by the hand and told them to pinch the little fingers
of Lolotte and the little Isabey whenever it was their
turn to speak, and so everything passed off very well
I really think I should have made a first-rate dancing-
mistress for little dogs. . . ."

In this same year Mme Campan's only child,
Henri, stepped out into the great world to earn his
living. From the time she set up her establishment
at Montagne de Bon-Air, she never mentions her
husband in her writings or letters. She hinted that
her marriage had not been a success ; however, the
only child of that union was never anything but a
source of the greatest happiness to her. Her letters to
him are very simple, very beautiful ; one, written soon
after the fledgling had left the nest, is worth quoting: —
^ The daughter of Isabey, the celebrated miniaiurisU.
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A MOTHER'S HOPES

" i/^fructidor^ an rx,

'^ Ami chirii why am I not a man now that my
only child is obliged to step forth on that road along
which every member of his sex has to travel ? Why
cannot I follow him, guide him, walk by his side,
encourage him by my lessons — and above all by my
example, teach him to love work ? To do this would
be to enjoy life for a second time; but alas! when
once the baby-clothes are folded and laid away, when
once the toddling feet have learnt to walk alone, your
mother, like all other mothers, must be content to
advise. May my counsel prove useful to you, my
Henri ! May I, like my sister, hear myself praised
for my son's behaviour ! Oh ! what a happy day it
will be for me when this general chorus of applause
strikes upon my ear ! Then and then only shall I be
able to cry from the bottom of my heart : * I have
lived long enough!' I shall then begin a new
existence enjoying your success and your happiness.
Everything depends upon wishing to do well: that
and that alone will lead you anywhere. ... I stand
on the bank of a rapid river and watch my dear
pilgrim set sail, and I cry to him: 'Furl thy sails,
grasp thine oars ! * "

Henri's first post was in a business house in
Marseilles ; here he began by being very unhappy
and inclined to shirk his work ; however, he soon grew
accustomed to the routine, and eventually took pride
and interest in his profession.

With Mme Campan's ever-increasing popularity —
would-be pupils had frequently to wait several months
before a vacancy permitted them to enter the much-

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praised Seminary — ^all sorts of rumours concerning
her extravagance began to be circulated in Paris.
General Boubers had been trying for two months to
get his little daughter admitted, when he was informed
by a gentleman of the name of Georges that he had
been obliged to remove his two daughters from Mme
Campan's establishment because he found that they
were expected to spend one thousand ^cus (;^i2o) a
year on their toilet General Boubers having repeated
this piece of information to the lady in question, she
indignandy retorted that she had never had any pupils
of the name of Georges under her care, and that the
whole story was a vile invention fabricated by some
jealous Parisian schoolmistresses who were afraid
that, now that the Peace with England was about to
be signed,^ "the English milords would take their
daughters to learn of the confidante of the unfortunate
French queen."

All France hailed the news that the Peace with
England was about to be signed with delight To
many of Maman Campan's children this event meant
a joyful meeting with some long-absent relative, a
beloved father or brother.

Mme Campan describes the scene enacted at Saint*
Germain when the news was received : —

'* What an event ! and how it crowns Bonaparte's
exploits ! Nothing is more beautiful, nothing can be
grander, than the spectacle of a warrior who has
vanquished nearly the whole of the universe laying
down his arms to grasp the olive branch. ... How
children realize the grandeur of such a deed, although
the childish lips can scarcely express their sensations,
^ The preliminary articles of that Peace were signed October i, 1801.

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AN ENCHANTING SIGHT

and although the lack of words or timidity prevents
them voicing their feelings ! One of my pupils cried,
with tears streaming down her cheeks : * My brother
is coming home!' Another exclaimed: 'My father
will not be obliged to join the army now ! ' F61icit6
Fodoas said : ' My mother will no longer feel the
pinch of poverty/ . . . We women can neither be
politicians nor warriors. Woe to empires when
women interfere with the affairs of the State! . . .
You know how I love to see my pupils patriotic. The
day after receiving the news of the Peace, the entire
garden was illuminated ; there was a ball in the big
rotunda, charming fireworks and creams and tartlets
for supper. In order that the pupils might be
perfectly at their ease, and that the door should be
shut on calumny, I invited nobody — not even my old
friends. The girls were all dressed in white; the
brightly lighted garden was full of the happy little
souls. It was really an enchanting sight. ..."

In consequence of various reports furnished by
visitors to La Malmaison and the Tuileries, Mme
Campan wrote the following letter to " Petite Bonne,"
who, alas I was about to commit the greatest mistake
of her life, and marry a man totally unfitted for her : —

" I can no longer keep silent, my dear Hortense.
Owing to certain hints dropped by your Mama, and
also to my own observations, I fancy you are about
to form a connection of which all Europe will approve.
... I saw that there was a coolness between you and
the citoyen Louis, which had made me renounce a
long-cherished desire. I had noticed that you both
possessed certain tastes which, when shared in
common, assure a happy married life to their owners ;

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you suit each other, and you would not be dull
together in the quietest retreat if your tastes or
necessity forced you to retire from the world. You
will be the link between two families which should
form but one, and which are both dear to France. I
therefore predict that you will love each other very
dearly and for ever, because the sentiment which
springs from conviction is the only lasting one. . . .
You know that I have always liked M. Louis. You
blamed him once for being a woman-hater ; the First
Consul, who knows how to find remedies for all the
evils under the sun, has in his wisdom chosen the only
woman who can cure his brother of this failing. You
will be a happy wife, my dear angel ; one does not
need to be a witch to predict this, but I tell it to you
as your dearest friend, who, for more than three years,
has had but one wish. Three years ago Colonel
Louis said a very strange thing to me one day while
you were eating your modest school-fare by my side,
and it made me think that he shared my wish. I
have not seen the citoyen Louis very often, but I
know him quite well enough to see that it would be a
very difficult matter to find him a suitable wife. You
are the wife I would order for him if such articles
could be bespoken. . . ."

"Louis Bonaparte^" says Bourrienne in his
Memoirs^ "allowed other people to choose a wife for
him. Hortense had hitherto avoided him on every
occasion; her indifference towards him was no less
marked than his towards her. These feelings of
indifference endured until the end of the chapter."

Joseph and Lucien Bonaparte, however, affirm
that their brother Louis was, deeply in love with

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A LIGHTNING MARRIAGE

Josephine's pretty daughter. Louis was always a shy,
nervous man, afraid or ashamed of showing his feel-
ings, so perhaps they were right. Be this as it may,
Napoleon, having chosen a wife for his brother,
clenched the matter by hurrying up the marriage. It
was in this same month of October 1801 that the
First Consul determined to send his brother-in-law,
General Leclerc, for whose miserably unhappy
marriage he was partly responsible, on an expedition
to San Domingo.

Mile Ducrest gives, in the following words, an
amusing account of how Napoleon brought about
another of those lightning marriages which frequently
ended in disaster : —

" Bonaparte wished to confide the command of the
troops to his brother-in-law. General Leclerc, who had
married Pauline Bonaparte. He sent for him to come
to his study, and told him his intentions. General
Leclerc said : —

" * I should be happy to serve France again ; but.
General, a sacred duty keeps me here.'

" * Your love for Pauletta ? She shall accompany
you, it will do her good. The air of Paris is bad for
her ; it is impregnated with coquetry of which she has
no need, so she shall go with you. That matter is
settled.'

" * I should be very sorry to have to leave /her, but
that is not sufficient reason for me to refuse an honour-
able post. My wife, should she remain here, would
be with her affectionate relations. So I should have
no anxiety on her account ; but it is for my good
sister's sake that I am obliged to decline what would
give me the greatest pleasure on any other occasion.

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

She is young and pretty ; her education is not yet
completed. I have no dowry to give her. Ought I
to leave her without any support, when my absence
may be prolonged, unending? My brothers are
absent, so I must remain here. I refer the matter to
you, you who love your family so dearly — General,
can I act otherwise ? '

" * No, certainly not We must find a husband
for her without more ado — to-morrow, for instance,
and then you can start immediately.'

•' ' But I repeat, I have no fortune and '

'* ' Well ? am I not here ? Go and make your
preparations, man cher. Your sister shall be married
to-morrow — I don't yet know to whom, but that
doesn't matter ; she shall be married, and well married,
too.'

•' « But '

'"I think I have spoken clearly, so don't make
any remarks.'

*' General Leclerc, accustomed like all the other
generals to consider as his master him who, but a
short time before, had been his equal, left the room
without another word.

"A few minutes later. General Davout entered
the First Consul's study, and told him that he had
come to inform him of the fact that he was about to
be married.

"*To Mile Leclerc.^ I think it a very suitable
match.'

** • No, General, to Mme '

** ' To Mile Leclerc,* Napoleon interrupted, laying
stress upon the name. 'Not only is the marriage
suitable, but I wish it to take place immediately.'

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Pauline Bonaparte.

From a painting by Le Fevrt*.

{liraun A-' Co.

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THE STORY OP DAVOUTS COURTSHIP

" * I have long loved Mme ; she is now free,

and nothing shall make me give her up/

*** Nothing except my will/ retorted the First
Consul, fixing his eagle eye upon his visitor. * You
will now go straight to Mme Campan's at Saint-
Germain, and you will ask to see your future wife.
You will be introduced to her by her brother, General
Leclerc, who is now talking to my wife. He will go
with you. Mile Aim^ will come up to Paris this
evening. You will order the wedding-presents, which
must be handsome, as I am going to act father to the
young lady. I will see about the dowry and the
trousseau, and the marriage shall be celebrated as
soon as the necessary formalities have been fulfilled.
I shall take care that they are simplified. You have
heard what I have just said ; you must obey.'

" Having finished this long speech, which he uttered
very fast in his own particular tone of voice. Napoleon
rang the bell and gave orders that Leclerc should
be sent for.

" No sooner did he see him than he cried out : —

•••Well! wasn't I right .^ Here is your sister's
husband. Go down to Saint-Germain together, and
don't let me see you again until everything has been
settled. I hate discussions over money matters.'

**The two generals, equally astonished, left the
room in obedience to his command. Notwithstanding
his very unamiable and brusque character. General
Davout obeyed humbly. On arriving at Mme
Campan's he was introduced to Mile Leclerc, who,
probably because she had been flung at his head and
because he could not get out of marrying her, he
thought very insipid The interview, as we can
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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

imagine, was very solemn, but at last everything was
arranged The marriage took place a few days later."
The bride, Aim^ Leclerc, and her younger sister,
who afterwards married General Friant, were prot^6es
of Mme Bonaparte. Louise Aim^ Julie Leclerc was
as pretty as an angel, and her simplicity and modesty
remained unchanged through good and evil fortune.
Just before her marriage, Aim^, who had gone up
to Paris to buy her trousseau, wrote a heart-broken
letter to Maman Campan, in which she probably
hinted that the future looked very black. Maman
Campan replies : —

" My dear Aim£b, — I now perceive how dearly I
love you, for I cried most bitterly when I got your
letter in which you apprised me of the fact that the
date of your marriage had been fixed. People speak
very highly of General Davout Providence probably
destined you for each other. You will do well to
leave Paris where men have only too much reason to
fear for the reputations of their wives and daughters,
and to go and live in an atmosphere where you will
cherish work s^nd learn to study your own faults ; for
you know, my dear Aim^e, how anxious I am for you
to become acquainted with the human heart and our
duties. So I am assured of your success, my good
friend ; you are one of those who will realize what
people are pleased to call my ideal, that is to say:
you will endeavour to please everybody while making
one man perfectly happy; you will use all seemly
means to please, but only in order to ^ve your hus-
band the satisfaction of possessing an amiable wife.
Common sense united to a kind heart are necessary

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THE ROAD TO HAPPINESS

to ensure fidelity in love. Do you think a husband
can ever be unfaithful to a wife whose manners are
graceful and retiring, who dresses tastefully but
modesdy and economically; whose mornings are
occupied in attending to household duties and to
necessary cleanliness, and who in the evening accords
a polite and friendly reception to her friends; who
cultivates her mind by reading useful books and
divides her leisure between her work-box and her
palette; who has no whims and recognizes man's
superiority, and only reserves to herself the modest and
amiable right to do the honours of her home ? . .
To live absolutely for the husband of one's choice,
to appreciate exterior qualities and charms in order
to be more desirable in his opinion, never to display
them to the world without thinking of him, that is the
road to happiness and a pleasant one along which
to travel ! . • . " (Oh I Maman Campan I Maman
CampanI how your old heart must have ached as
you wrote those lines !) " The general will love you
more dearly every day ; he knows the world, he has
had his own troubles ; he will find in you fresh
consolation and new pleasures. ..."

It was said that General Davout did not care for
his wife at first and that he made no attempt to do so.
However, if it is true that he was contemplating
marriage with another lady when General Bonaparte
ordered him to espouse Aim6e Leclerc, it is a wonder
that the lightning marriage did not end in a lightning
divorce.

Davout was really a brave, good-natured, kind-
hearted fellow — did not Stendhal say of him:

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

*' Marshal Davout was a great man to whom justice
has never yet been rendered/' and was it not Napoleon
who, in a moment of peril, cried: "Ah! if only Davout
had been there " ? and he probably realized that his
young bride was not to blame in the unfortunate
affair, for the year after his marriage he wrote her
the most charming letters in which he styles himself
ton petit Louis, calls her ma petite Aimie and swears
he is jealous — ^which was a fact and a proof that he
loved her.

While on service abroad, he would send her
presents of bulbs for her garden, to which she was
devoted, muslins, China, etc., and in his letters urged
her to purchase jewels and to go out into society more
frequently in order to prevent people saying that she
lived a life of retirement at his command.

One of Mme Davout's first purchases after her
marriage was for her old governess ; it consisted of a
magnificent China dinner-service. I n gratitude for this
kindness, Mme Campan had a lock of her own hair
set in a ring, which she begged her chire AinUe to
keep in memory of those peaceful years at Saint-
Germain. Davout was fond of saying of himself that
he had the brain of a general and the heart of a
common citoyen ; for he hated war both in his own
home and abroad, was a most affectionate son-in-law,
and always treated his wife's relations as if they were
his own.

It is recorded of Mme Davout that she was rather
an indolent woman ; she had one habit in especial which
was most distasteful to her soldier husband : she was
never punctual and was always late for meals. After
waiting until the soup was cold, General Davout used

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CUPID VISITS SAINT-GERMAIN

to send one of his children to tell their Mama that
the dinner-hour was past, while he would pace up
and down the dining-room looking at his watch and
wondering why she could never manage to be punctual.
But this was the most he ever did As soon as his
wife appeared, he would give her his arm with an
indulgent smile and hand her to her place. Husbands
in France are long-suffering creatures.

In November Mme Campan assisted at the
marriage of another of her pupils, Fdicit^ Fodoas
marrying the citoyen Savary ; this time it was a love
match, for Maman Campan wrote to tell Hortense that
"the pair were very much in love with one another."

Fdicit^ Fodoas- Barbazan was a distant relative
of Mme Bonaparte, who probably had something to
do with the girl going to Mme Campan's school.
F^licit^ was a handsome brunette with a fine figure,
jet black hair and a generous disposition, which she
showed when she refused to neglect Josephine after
the latter's divorce. Unfortunately Fdicit^ soon
after her marriage, took it into her head that she
should like to become a blonde and so she became
one, but with such disastrous results that, when
dressed up to appear at the imperial Court, every-
body noticed a strong resemblance to Aunt Sally of
joyous memory.

In the following month of November, Mme
Campan gave a little party in honour of the two
brides, Mmes Davout and Savary, when all the pupils
drank tea with their former schoolfellows and ate
unlimited tartlets and creams. The only men present
were the two bridegrooms, J^rdme Bonaparte, Eugene
de Beauhamais and Henri Campan.

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

General Davout's first child was a daughter ; he
must have been somewhat disappointed, but the only
occasion on which he voiced his regret was once
when dandling the little child on his knees he kissed
her on the forehead saying: ''Why were you not
a boy?" However, he reprimanded his cousin,
d'Avout de Montjalin, when the latter told him
that his wife had unfortunately just given birth to
a daughter, with the remark that a father should .be
as fond of his daughters as of his sons. When
another little daughter was bom in 1802, Davout
was the only member of the family who did not call
her Mademoiselle de trap.

When at last a son was born to the brave Davout,
of course he was baptized Louis Napoleon ; but he
went by the name of Monsieur Non, from a baby-
habit he had of shaking his curls and crying NonI
noni Alas! little Monsieur Non died while still a
babe, as did the two eldest daughters. However,
another son, Paul, soon came to fill the empty cradle.
In a dear letter to his wife, Davout says : " Kiss
Paul's tiny hands and feet. I charge him to embrace
his litde Mama with all his heart, and to beg her to
keep up her courage during the absence of her best
friend."

In 181 1 the third son, called le tout petit Louis^ or
Louis Bouton-de-Rose (Rosebud), was born.

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CHAPTER XIII

Idme Campan is able to pat aside ''a crust of bread " for her old age-
Eliza Monroe—The young ladies of Saint-Gemoain embroider a
map of the French Republic — Hortense de Beauhamais marries
Louis Bonaparte — ^The Peace of Amiens is signed — Mme Moreau
again arouses the First Consul's wrath— Mme Bonaparte finds
a husband for one of Mme Campan's nieces— Birth of Hortense's
first child— The happy days of Mme Campan— Another of her
nieces marries — The Emperor asks Mme Campan to help him form
his Court— The Emperor and the Orphans of Austerlitz— Stephanie
de Beauhamais is married to the hereditary prince of Baden.

In November 1801, Mme Campan wrote to her
favourite Hortense the following letter, the first part
of whidi is written in English, and is a very credit-
able performance, considering the fact that the writer
never set foot on the white cliffs of la perfide
Albion \ —

'' I send you, my dear Hortense, a book translated
from the french of M. Saint- Lambert into english.
The translator is one of M. Thompson, who was
formerly master of the english language in my
school. Saint- Lambert's maxims have been injustly
and severely judged by those who disaprove moral
principles separated from religious principles, and in
his work there is not a word about religion. The
man whose heart full with these maxims is knowing
perfectly all his duties as a father, as a son, husband,
and citizen, is easily convinced of the necessity of
being a good Christian. You may then read this

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

work as being one of the best of this age, and your
english master will tell you if he thinks it has been
translated with exactness and a sufficient eloquence.^
— I write English fluently, my dear Hortense. Let
your master tell you what he thinks of my English,
my spelling, and my grammar, I should be very glad
to hear his opinion. . . . This morning I had a visit
from Lady Care * {sic). She seems to think that her
little girl is too young to come to my school
Reassure her as to this matter, my dear Hortense-
I and Mile Vaucher will devote ourselves to the child.
I will undo all the spoiling, and send her home a
charming little girl in three or four months ; I give
you my word. Between ourselves (for I speak to
you as if you were my dear niece) it is very important
for me that the English, and in fact all foreigners,
should learn the way to Saint-Germain, and you will
be doing me a great service if you can persuade them
to do so. The Parisian schools are always intriguing
and are for ever trying to prevent the fact being known
that my establishment is the most perfect of its kind ;
so that I need to be well supported and praised by
my faithful pupils, and nobody is better able to do
that than my dear Hortense."

The winter of 1801-02 was a terribly severe one.
Bread became fabulously dear, "which event," says
Mme Campan, '' means that my baker's bill will be

* The rest of the letter is written in French.

' Mme Campan probably means Lady Cahir, later Countess of
Glengall, who was in Paris about this time and whom Miss Mary Berry
frequently mentions. Mme Campan displays the same indifference
towards the spelling of foreign names as all her contemporaries. The
name Kinnaird, frequently mentioned in her letters, is spelt in six
different ways: Kynaird, Kinair, Kinnaird, Kinaird, Kennaird, and
Kinaid.

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SOME OF MME CAMPAN'S PUPILS

2CXX) livres more a year; however, the Peace of
Amiens will set matters right"

Notwithstanding this fact Mme Campan was able
during the next three years to put aside from 8000 to
10,000 livres, "a crust of bread," she calls it, "which
has surely been well earned."

In December 1801, General Victor brought his
little daughter Victorine to study with Mme Campan.
Among her fellow-pupils were Nelly Bourjolie (later
maid-of-honour to Stephanie de Beauhamais when the
latter became grand-duchess of Baden); Antoinette
de Mackau (later Mme Wathier de Saint-Alphonse) ;
Eliza Monroe, the daughter of the originator of the
celebrated Monroe Doctrine,^ a great friend of Miss
Paterson, J^rdme Bonaparte's first wife, and one of
Mme Campan's most grateful pupils ; Mile Hervas de
Menara,* the daughter of a rich banker of that name,
and at that time "the prettiest little creature which
has ever been confided to my care; she is witty,
sensible, and good-natured."

In December 1801 these young ladies embroidered
a map of the French Republic, after which Mile

^ James Monroe (175S-1831) was a volunteer during the War of
Independence ; he fought very bravely at the battle of Brandywine and
was made colonel by Washington. After the war he was appointed
Minister Plenipotentiary to the French Government, but was recalled
from this mission in 1796 by President WashingtoUf who blamed him
esrtremely severely for having submitted too humbly to the overbearing
policy of the Directoire. He was, however, sent to London in the same
capacity. He was instrumental in obtaining Louisiana for the United
States, and in 1 817 he was made President of the United States, being
re-elected in 1821. He negotiated the purchase of Florida and
endeavoured to put an end to slavery.

* Mile Hervas de Menara eventually married Duroc, Hortense's
furst love, and perhaps the only man for whom Hortense ever
really cared.

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMFAN

C^l^nie Dupuis, the daughter of one of the richest
linen-manufacturers of Saint-Quentin, wrote the
names of the workers in her best copy-book hand-
writing behind the map, which was then presented to
the First Consul as a token of affection and esteem*

Mme Campan used in her old age to tell an
anecdote of how, while walking in the beautiful forest
of Saint-Germain with Mr. Monroe and his litde
daughter Eliza, in those days when France seemed
drifting hither and thither at the mercy of any stray
adventurer with a gift for despotism, the future
President of the United States remarked : —

" Fortune lies in the gutter ; anybody who takes
the trouble to bend down can pick it up ! "

He then went on to say what a much finer country
America was than France, whereupon litde Eliza
burst in with : —

" Yes, papa, but we haven't any roads like this " —
pointing to the fine, smooth road bordered with mag-
nificent trees along which they were then walking.

" That's true," replied Mr. Monroe ; '* our country
may be likened to a new house, we lack many things,
but we possess the most precious of all — liberty ! "

It was on January 4, 1802, that Hortense de
Beauharnais and Louis Bonaparte were married in
the litde h6tel in the rue de la Victoire, Paris, formerly
occupied by General Bonaparte before he moved to
the Petit- Luxembourg; when a religious ceremony
united Caroline and Murat at the same time in the
bonds of holy matrimony, for the marriage of
January 20, 1800, had been merely a civil ceremony.
On this occasion Cardinal Caprera blessed the two
couples. Mme Campan, who was present, noticed,

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SIGNING OF THE PEACE OF AMIENS

with many misgivings for the future, that her " Petite
Bonne's '' eyes were frequently dimmed with tears.

Hortense's marriage made no difference in her
affection for her kind friend. It was she who, two
days after the signing of the Peace of Amiens,^ sent
the joyful news to Saint-Germain, whereupon Mme
Campan wrote thanking her : " You are a little angel
to send me news of the signing of the Peace. Long
live Bonaparte I will always be the cry of every
honest-minded person who loves not only his country,
but also humanity. What a position he has taken
up! He has brought peace to the entire universe.
In the shadow of what a great man you now live!
What a glorious name you bear, my dear child I . . .
I gave the children a holiday to-day in honour of the
Peace. The elder girls had a tea-party with a big
gdteau deplotnb^ {sic\ It was a beautiful f6te! . . ."

On the occasion of the promulgation of the
Concordat in the spring of 1802, a solemn Te Deum
was sung in the cathedral of Notre Dame. Naturally
there was a great demand for seats to view the
ceremony, and, as is usually the case on such
occasions, those who had the smallest claims to the
best places were the most exacting. Mme Campan's
former pupil Mme Moreau and her mother, Mme
Hulot, being unable to obtain what they considered
suitable places, determined to go early so as to take
the pick of the unreserved seats. Now the gallery
had been reserved for Mme Bonaparte and her
numerous suite, so that she would not be obliged to
come to the building until quite near the hour fixed

^ Signed March 25, 1802.
' The good lady probably meant plum-cake.
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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

for the ceremony. Mme Hulot was the first to
remark that the gallery was still empty ; so she told
her daughter to keep dose, and elbowed her way
through the crowd until she arrived panting and per-
spiring at the foot of the stair leading to the delect-
able land. Here, however, stood a soldier, who
refused to allow her to occupy the seats, which he
informed her were reserved for Mme Bonaparte and
her suite. But Mme Hulot had not played the part
of mother-in-law for some years without having learnt
some of the tricks of the trade. Words are wasted
on such occasions. A well-directed dig in the ribs
made the sentry totter for a moment ; before he could
recover his equilibrium the two females pushed by
him, scuttled up the staircase and plumped themselves
down on the red velvet chairs reserved for Mme
Bonaparte and Madame Mere. And here they were
still sitting, deaf alike to prayers and threats — ^the
First Consul had heard the scuffling in the gallery —
when Mme Bonaparte appeared upon the scene ; she
was sensible enough to take no notice of the two ill-
bred creatures and to seat herself at the end of an
empty bench.

Mme Campan made a rule, after the signing of
the Peace of Amiens, to give a gratuitous education
to ten poor girls. In this same year (1802) she was
able to lay aside 20,000 francs, notwithstanding the
fact that she had to have one hundred pupils, each
paying 1200 francs a-year, before she could pay all
her expenses. That Peace, however, was not of long
duration : with the first rumours of war ten English
misses who were at Saint-Germain were fetched home
by their parents, while some others who had only just

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THE BRAVEST OF THE BRAVE

landed at Boulogne and Calais, and were preparing
to start for Saint-Germain, took the next boat back to
England.

Among the handsome women and girls who
adorned the Consular Court was Mile EgW Augui6,
Mme Campan's niece and the daughter of poor Mme
Augui^, who had taken her own life rather than
perish by the guillotine. The First Consul had
given the widower a fairly lucrative post, which
enabled him and his two daughters to live comfort*
ably at the chAteau of Grignon, near Versailles.
Mme Bonaparte took an interest in the girls, and
determined to find husbands for them. She had not
far to seek for Egl^ ; for General Ney, miscalled *' the
Bravest of the Brave,'* fell in love with the girl's
sweet face on their first meeting in January 1802.
An invitation to Grignon in the following month was
easily obtained ; not so the favour of the pretty EgM,
however, for Ney's appearance was against him.
First of all, he was not a carpet-knight, and disdained
the small-talk which was considered suitably for the
ladies of the Consular Court, and then his ploughboy
appearance was further spoilt by bunches of red
whiskers ; these, however, he sacrificed when he dis-
covered that Mile EgM did not share his admiration
for them.

In the month of May, Mme Bonaparte, with Ney's
consent, wrote to M. Augui^ saying that she hoped
he would bestow Mile Egl^'s hand on Ney, who was
well fitted in every way to be her companion through
life. On this occasion, Mile EgM's wishes were as
completely ignored as those of Emilie de Beauhamais
and Aim^ Leclerc had been on similar occasions.

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Nevertheless on July 27 the marriage-settlement
was made and signed. Ney's fortune consisted of
the property of La Petite Malgrange, near Nancy,
valued at 8o»ooo francs, besides 12,000 francs in
money and furniture ; Mile Egl6 possessed a fourth
share in land situated in San Domingo, representing
an income of 5000 francs, a dowry of 60,000 francs,
and a handsome trousseau* When Ney *gave his
fianc^ his first present, always the most valued, he
apologized for its meanness in the following touching
litde speech : —

''I cannot offer you pearls and diamonds, but
here is my sword, which I have always maintained
should be used to win glory and not riches."

On August 6, the chapel belonging to the cAdieau
of Grignon, decorated under the painter Isabe/s
superintendence with draperies, flowers, foliage, and
candles, was filled with a crowd of distinguished
guests assembled to witness the marriage of Eg\6
Augui^ and Michel Ney, the bride being dressed
very simply in white, according to the sensible French
custom, the bridegroom resplendent in full uniform,
and wearing a jewelled sword, a wedding-gift from
that most generous friend. Napoleon. A quaint note
was struck by the presence of two old farm-servants
who were celebrating their golden wedding in new
clothes provided by the bride and bridegroom. It
had been Ney's wish that these honest souls should
share in the festivities, "for," said he, "their fifty
years of happy married life would be a good omen for
his wedding, and they would remind him of his
humble origin."*

^ Tkg Brmmtofthe Brw€, by A. Hilliard Atteridge
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THE HAPPY DAYS OF MME CAMPAN

Of course Maman Campan, as aunt and governess
of the bride» was one of the most honoured guests.
Various entertainments, such as dancing, illuminations,
fireworks, a concert performed by some peasant-girls,
etc., amused the relatives and friends. During a pause
in all this merry-making the happy pair were invited
to enter a rustic hut in which Isabey and Mme
Campan, disguised as gipsies, offered to tell the bride's
fortune, which EgM's aunt prophesied would be as
cloudless as the blue dome of heaven above the
pair.

In the month of October 1802,* Mme Campan
learnt that ''Petite Bonne" had given birth to her
first child. Napoleon Louis. How human is the
following letter written by Maman Campan, whose
heart was not too old to remember how close her
own child — ^alas! the only one — ^had nestled against
her breast : —

"... They tell me that M. Louis displayed the
greatest graciousness and tenderness for the mother
of his dear little one. I was delighted to hear it, as
I am sure she was to be the object of such solicitude.
He is kind-hearted, and was probably deeply moved
— but I know the Mama of the dear Napoleon in the
cradle— did she aHow him to perceive her gratitude ?
*' Adieu, my dear angel, I kiss the little one in his
cradle. Remember me to his dear Papa. ..."

In the above letter we find the first hint that
matters were not going as smoothly with the babe's
parents as they ought to have done ; in another letter
written soon after, Mme Campan says : —

"Kiss the beautiful Napoleon for me. People

^ Napoleon Louis was born October 10, 1802.
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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

already talk a great deal about him ; they say that he
is prodigiously greedy ! "

Poor Hortense was always her own enemy.
Rumours of the little rift within the lute had already
reached the ears of the kind old lady at Saint-
Germain, who was beginning to entertain fears for
the future of her favourite. Mme Campan was well
aware that when once the pupil had spread her wings,
good advice had very little chance of being followed ;
that was why she endeavoured to mould the young
characters while they were still malleable.

During the winter of 1802-03, she told Hortense
how Stephanie de Beauhamais, who ** has much im-
proved, works hard and gives promise of doing
honour to her governess if she continues to persevere,'*
went to see a poor woman who had just given birth
to triplets. " We immediately purchased two sets of
baby-linen and gave them to the mother with some
money. This striking spectacle of extreme poverty
is the best way to make young ladies become ac-
quainted with, and love alms-giving." She concludes
with a request that Hortense will contribute forty-
eight francs and Mme Bonaparte a few louts with
which to furnish the poor mother's little room.

But the young ladies had other pleasures more
natural to their age; picnics have always been a
favourite amusement with the French nation, and
an expedition to the neighbouring forest of Saint-
Germain was looked upon as the most delightful way
of spending a long summer day. On June 29, 1803,
Mme Campan writes to Hortense, urging her to come
and spend the day with her former companions:
••Everything shall be ready for Monday, my dear

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angel; only let M. d'Aneucourt know in good time
as to the summer-house; I have chosen this spot
because there is a kitchen, a shelter, etc., and because
it is the finest part of the forest, and farthest away
from the town. I will bring wine and beer; the
doctor has promised me some excellent cider ; I shall
also have ices, a bcAa, a Savoy cake, a quantity of
cutlets already prepared so that they can be cooked
in the summer-house, new-laid eggs, a chicken,
tartlets, and cherries. Carry the rest, my dear
children! I have only invited some of the bigger
girls whom you knew in the old days and a few little
ones who were recommended to me by you or your
Mama, viz. Victorine Victor, little Clarke, and Nancy
Macdonald,^ which will make about twenty. I have
^guinguette * for the little ones and for the provisions.
The doctor and M. Bernard • will come with us ; I am
bringing M. B^guin with his violin to play us a few
waltzes. It will be a real school-picnic, but I shall
do my best to make it agreeable ; as for me, I could
not pass a happier day than when you are with me.
If only the weather is fine ! Adieu, my dear angel."

We can see the little ones, almost delirious with
delight, jumping in and out of the guinguette until it
is time to start, making voyages of discovery with
inquisitive little fore-fingers among baskets filled with
deUcious things, and wondering whether each par-
ticular sweet tooth will get what she likes best ; the
bigger girls, arm-in-arm, walking on ahead, admiring

^ Daughter of Marshal Macdonald (1765-1840X due de Tarente,
who fought for France during the wars of the Republic and the Empire.
' A guinguetU is a sort of onrnibus.
* The chaplain of Mme Campan's Seminary.

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

Hortense's pretty clothes and secretly taking hints
for their new autumn costumes, asking questions
about the beautiful Napoleon in his cradle and wish-
ing that they, too, were out in the world. And then,
when the guinguette^ drawn by two sleek white
percherons^ unexpectedly sets off at a brisk pace,
throwing the little ones in a heap on to one of the
seats, where they settle themselves after a great deal
of patting of starched muslin flounces and pulHng out
of ringlets from beneath Leghorn bonnets, the green
avenues of the forest re-echo with shrill cries, rippling
laughter, and snatches of sweet melody.

Many of Hortense's particular friends had already
left the nest, but the granddaughters of Mme de
Genlis, the demoiselles de Valence, one of whom
later became Mme de Celles, and the other the wife
of Mar^chal Gerard, were certainly there. Mme
Campan s niece, Agathe Rousseau, later Mme de Saint-
Elme, was still at Saint-Germain, as was probably
Eliza Monroe — also the two Miles de Castellane,
whose mother had died in the greatest poverty,
leaving three daughters penniless ; Mme Bonaparte,
however, had promised the poor mother on her death-
bed to look after her children, and had sent two of the
three to Mme Campan, and paid for their education.
When the Empress was living a divorcee at La
Malmaison, she had pretty Louise de Castellane to
reside with her, and eventually married her to M.
Fritz de Pourtales, formerly an officer on Berthier's
staff, descended from a French Protestant family
which had emigrated to Switzerland after the revoca-

^ Horses from the French province of Le Perche, noted for their
beauty and strength.

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MARRIAGE OF ANTOINETTE AUGUlfi

tion of the Edict of Nantes, gave her a dowry of
100,000 francs, together with jewels, and a trousseau
suitable for a princess.

Unfortunately Hortense did not always content
herself with such innocent amusements, for she imitated
Maman Campan's former mistress in that she was
fond of going about masked, and the Folies-Beaujon,
Frascatiy and the Pavilion d'Hanovre were frequently
visited by Mme Louis Bonaparte and her party of
noisy friends.

It was not long before Mme Ney's sister,
Antoinette Auguii, found a husband in the person of
M. Charles Gamot, about whom little is known, except
that he was a good husband, and, although he accepted
the post of prefect of Yonne from the hand of Louis
XVIII, flew to the Emperor's side when Napoleon
returned from Elba — for which act of gratitude M.
Gamot was told to give up his post when the king
returned from his visit to Ghent Soon after her
marriage, Mme Gamot had a serious illness which
would probably have ended fatally had not the First
Consul's physician, the celebrated Corvisart, been
called in. Her aunt writes : —

" Mme Gamot is very ill ; her life has been in
danger ; her condition even now is not very reassuring.
She has seen Corvisart, whose advice has been of the
greatest benefit When her friends first proposed
that she should consult him, she exclaimed : ' I would
rather die than see that cross-grained wretch.' This
polite speech was repeated to the doctor, who, when
he saw that his patient was getting better, told her
that all the Paris newspapers had reproduced her
speech. The poor woman was so overcome that she

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

covered her head with the bedclothes. In short, the
doctor has been so kind that she no longer calls him a
* cross-grained wretch/ "

In the early spring of 1804 Mme Campan was a
frequent visitor at La Malmaison ; she was in high
favour with the family of the First Consul, Caroline
Murat even going the length of lending her former
governess her cook when Mme Campan wanted an
especially good dinner prepared for her pupils' parents
on prize-giving day.

Mme Campan, seeing how popular she was with
her former pupils, thought that she might obtain a post
for her son Henri, whose talents she considered were
wasted at Marseilles. With this idea in her mind she
wrote to Hortense : —

" I am going to beg the First Consul to be so
kind as to obtain for my son, Henri, a position which
will suit his tastes and make for my happiness ; this
is the first time I have ever dared to ask for anything
for myself ; the post is a humble one, suitable to his
years. . . . Tell your dear Mama what I am going to
do, and ask her to plead for me. I want to get my
son the position of inspector in the new financial
company which is being inaugurated; the place is
suitable for a young man; appointments in the
customs, post-office, etc., are usually given to men of
his age."

When Napoleon in May 1804 made himself
Emperor, Mme Campan took yet another step higher
up the social ladder. Comte Fddor Golowkine
says : —

** Napoleon found he needed a Court, whereupon
he immediately instituted one; this was an easy.

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SUCCESS OF MME CAMPAN

matter, but it was not so easy to make that Court
refined and polished. He sent to ask the advice of
the princesse de Chimay, lady-in-waiting to Marie
Antoinette, who was living in retirement in Paris.
Her reply to Duroc was short but noble : ' Tell your
master that I only remember the queen's kindness
towards me.' As he could get nothing out of the
lady-in-waiting, he had to content himself with Mme
Campan. The latter, only too delighted to push her-
self and her nieces forward, replied very cautiously :
* My position in the queen's household did not allow
me to judge of the manners at Court The only thing
which struck me was that the ladies of quality were
very dignified ; they never raised their voices, and
used very few gestures.' This made such an impres-
sion that, at the coronation, the self-styled princesses
and their maids-of-honour would scarcely move, lest
their elbows should be seen sticking out, and they
hardly dared open their mouths to reply to any
questions. . • ."

One historian sums up the matter thus: "Mme
Campan's establishment at Saint-Germain/' says he,
"was the hyphen, so to speak, between the courdy
Past of Versailles and the brilliant Present of the
Imperial Court"

Napoleon, realizing this fact, turned to Mme
Campan to help him arrange his Court. No wonder
that lady, writing to Hortense, says : —

•• Thanks to my former position, and to the present
kindness of your august family, I have lately received
at least sixty petitions or letters begging me to under-
take the education of various little girls ; I have been
obliged to write polite refusals."

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

Many of Mme Campan's former pupils were now
adorning the Imperial Court with their presence, and
of these Hortense was naturally the most popular.
M. Hector Fleischmann» in his Dessous de Princesses
et Marichales de F Empire, tells an amusing anecdote
of Hortense, whose talent for music and painting were
quite remarkable for a princess. It is true that, a
propos of the first-named art, General Thi^bault very
unkindly remarks : " The Songs of Queen Hortense ;
words by Forbin, melodies by Plantade, accompani-
ments by Carbonnel"; nevertheless Hortense really
loved music for its own sake. It seems that she was
very proud of her long, pink, almond-shaped finger-
nails, and that she spent some time every day polishing
and trimming them. Now when she, as an Imperial
princess, wanted to take lessons on the harp from the
celebrated d'Alvimare, she was horrified to hear him
call them " claws," and beg her to cut them, or she
would never be able to play really well. To which
she replied that she could never find courage to spoil
their shape. However, her love for music got the
better of her, and after a good deal of persuasion she
sent for a pair of scissors, closed her eyes and told
her master to consummate the sacrifice, whereupon
Alvimare set to work and soon cut the " claws " to a
suitable length.

In October 1804 another of Mme Campan's
pupils was married from the Seminary at Saint-
Germain. The bride was Mile Benezech, the
daughter of a former Secretary of State for the Home
Department, while the bridegroom was Colonel Marx,
a Belgian. Great must have been the disappointment
of the little pupils when it was announced that '' as the

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AMBITIOUS PLANS

colonel had invited several generals to witness his
marriage, it was not thought seemly for any of the
young ladies to be visible on that occasion." It would
have been very remarkable, however, if some of the
dozens of inquisitive little Eves who inhabited Maman
Campan's Eden had not managed, by dint of con-
cealing themselves behind curtains, or bribing servants
to leave doors open, to get a first-rate view of the
happy pair and their whiskered, ear-ringed military
guests.

For some time past Mme Campan had been
nourishing a plan by which she hoped to get her
establishment officially recognized as an Imperial
Educational Institution. In January 1805 ^^^ ^^S^
Hortense *' not to forget this project ; remember that
it would give pleasure to the entire army, that it
would shed glory on, and be a source of much interest
to, your dear Mama and your Highness, and it would
make me inexpressibly happy/'

The Emperor seems to have approved of the
plan, for a month later she writes again : —

•* You need only insist upon the fact that the chief
establishment must remain at Saint-Germain. Accord-
ing to his Majesty's scheme, there would be a principal
establishment for the daughters of military men or
functionaries ; they would pay 300 francs per annum,
so that they would not be quite penniless girls ; in the
departments of France there would be four gratuitous
establishments conducted on different lines for penni-
less girls ; the girls in my house who paid 300 francs
a-year would receive the surplus of their pension
from the Government I myself should prefer to
remain at Saint-Germain, where the air is very pure,

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

where I am loved and considered necessary to the
well-being of the place. . . . But my house is not
large enough to serve as an Imperial Educational
Establishment, and it is as much as I can do to lodge
one hundred boarders in my rambling old abode. I
could never find room for two hundred and sixty.
As the Emperor has not used the Lycte of Versailles,
and as the building is superb and all ready for
habitation, people cry: 'Mme Campan is coming!*
The principal walks up and down his vast dormitories
alone ; he is disconsolate, fears that the rumour may
be only too well founded, and will surely do his
best to prevent me obtaining the convent at Ver-
sailles. . . . Perhaps my request will be refused ; how-
ever, it is better for the inhabitants of Saint-Germain
that I should obey the Emperor. If I remained here,
the h6tel d'Harcourt would have to be purchased,
which would cost 100,000 francs, and 200,000 francs
would have to be spent on building; one cannot
accomplish grand things with bad tools."

However, Mme Campan was not to leave Saint-
Germain for some months.

Hortense was a good friend, not only to her
former schoolmistress, but also to her former school-
fellows. Mme Campan's niece, Agathe Rousseau,
now the wife of a tax-collector, M. Bourboulon de
Saint-Elme, had cause to be grateful to Mme Louis
Bonaparte, who obtained for her friend's husband an
important position at Laon.

Some of Hortense's friends, however, expected
her to do too much for them; great was Eliza
Monroe's disappointment when she discovered that
Hortense could not get her an invitation to the balls

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JOSEPHINE MISTRUSTS MME NEY

given by Caroline Murat at her ckdteau at Neuilly,
because her sister-in-law was a great respecter of
etiquette, and, as the sister of an Emperor, could not
be expected to receive the daughter of an honest
Republican.

During the spring of 1805 the reputation of one
of Mme Campan's nieces very nearly suffered owing
to the Empress's stupid jealousy. Josephine had dis-
covered that her husband was engaged in an intrigue
with some lady unknown ; she took it into her head
that the object of his affections was Mme Ney,
although that lady's behaviour had always been above
reproach. Now the person who had attracted the
Emperor^s fancy was Mme Duch&tel, with whom
Caroline Murat had not so long ago fancied, rightly
or wrongly, that her husband was in love. After
slighting Mme Ney on every occasion, and making
herself and everybody else miserable, Josephine
plucked up courage and had an explanation with the
supposed culprit, when Mme Ney was able to con-
vince the Empress that, far from being flattered by
Napoleon's attentions, they had only terrified her, and
made her feel utterly miserable.

Mme Campan, knowing her niece's disposition,
could have had but little fears for her reputation ;
however, there was another young person about
whom she was really anxious, and that was Stephanie
de Beauharnais, who, in April 1805, went to stay
with her cousin Hortense at Saint-Leu, where she
enjoyed herself so much that Mme Campan had to
write "Petite Bonne" the following letter before the
young lady would consent to return to the fold : —

*• I beg your Highness to send Mile de Beauhar-

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

nais back as soon as possible; the Emperor wfll
question her on his return, and, although I am quite
innocent, I shall be blamed for her ignorance. Kindly
remind her of the advantages to be reaped from a
good education, and to listen to me. ... I could
make a charming woman of this young girl, but not
if she remains at Saint-Cloud So, if you can, try
and arrange so that Stephanie is left with me until
she marries ; by so doing, you will be a benefactor,
not only to her, but to me also, for I shall surely
be accused of having spoilt her education by the
Emperor, who, with his penetrating glance, says:
* That's right ! * or ' That's wrong ! ' but has no time
to examine the reason thereof."

Stephanie de Beauharnais' progress was said to
be hindered by that other Stephanie, Mile Tascher
de La Pagerie, whose feeble constitution made her
indolent and prevented her working, and who was
altogether a bad example to her cousin.

In the spring of 1805 another little pupil was
brought to Mme Campan's establishment by a no
less important personage than the Prince of Nassau-
Siegen. This child, named Pholo6, was reported to
be the prince's natural daughter ; but Mme Campan
was given to understand when she took charge of the
little thing that she was the child of an officer of
illustrious birth, belonging to one of the oldest
families in Lacedsemon.

Mme Campan promised the child's self-imposed
princely guardian to bring up little Pholo^ to be a
useful member of society, so that she would avoid the
pitfalls into which the celebrated beauty Aiss^ the
history of whose birth and education was somewhat

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THE ORPHANS OF AUSTERLITZ

similar, had fallen. In one of her letters Maman
Campan prays Heaven that she may be able to
preserve this child, whom she calls "too pretty,"
from all evil.

Mme Campan's friends about this time included
the wily Talleyrand; in this same year he actually
condescended to visit her establishment, and, what
was more important, express his approval of her
method of teaching.

Those were the days of France's glory. An
amusing story is told of one of Mme Campan*s little
pupils who was struggling through the history of
her fatherland ; on hearing of fresh victories, nearly
a daily event, the little maid heaved a deep sigh of
pity for the future students of that history, and re-
marked: "What a lot the poor little things who
come after us will have to learn!"

On the morrow of the battle of Austerlitz
(December 2, 1805) Napoleon definitely accepted
the plan which Mme Campan had cherished for so
many months, by signing a decree by which he
adopted the daughters of the brave fellows who had
won that battle for him, promising to have them
educated and taught to earn their living, if necessary.

At first Mme Campan was anxious that the
chdteau of Saint-Germain should be used as the
educational establishment for the daughters of the
Legion of Honour, with herself as directress, for which
post her experience in matters of education, hygiene,
and economy had qualified her. She writes to
Hortense in January 1806 : —

"... The Emperor will soon be back. Be so
kind as to display the same interest which you have

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

hitherto taken in my fate. How happy I should be
supposing our hero were to consider me capable of
carrying out his design ! If he says to you : * Mme
Campan's proposal does not suit me/ — ^tell him, I b^
you, the truth. • She proposed this in order to please
you, her one idea was to carry out your orders, and
she will obey you no matter what those orders may
be. Accomplishments, or no accomplishments, it is
all the same to her ; she can either give the orphans
the simplest or the most brilliant education/ . . ."

It seems strange to think that Mme Campan,
notwithstanding her credit at Court, should have
continually been in quest of a suitable post for her son,
Henri. In February 1806 she writes to Hortense that
she hopes to obtain " a position as auditor for her son ;
this expectation, which is practically certain to be
realized, will compensate him for the eight nomina-
tions which have lately been made. He is now
twenty-two years of age, and it is very natural that
he should wish to be somebody, and occupy some
honourable position."

In this same month she obtained an interview
with M. Daru, before that gentleman started for Berlin,
where he was to occupy the post of Minister Pleni-
potentiary. At first M. Daru seemed inclined to
think that the education given to the orphans of
Austerlitz by Marie Antoinette's former waiting-
woman would not be sufficiently practical, whereupon
she hastened to reassure him : —

*' Do not imagine," said she, '' that I should teach
the girls to dance gavottes and sing comic opera airs ;
only those whom the Emperor designated would
receive instruction in music and dancing ; the rest of

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MARRIAGE OF STEPHANIE

the education would be practical and religious ; they
would learn dressmaking, needlework, would make the
household linen, embroider furniture for the Imperial
family "

"Well," remarked M. Daru, still unconvinced,
" and then what would they do when their education
was finished ? "

"We would make good and virtuous wives of
them ; with a dowry of 500 or 600 livres we could
marry them to business men, soldiers, etc."

This was a conclusive argument

Two months later Stephanie de Beauharnais left
Mme Campan's kind care in order to marry the
hereditary prince of Baden, whom Napoleon, by the
Treaty of Presburg, had deprived of his fiancee, the
charming princess Augusta- Amelia, giving her to his
adopted son, Eugfene de Beauharnais.

Mme dAbrant^s speaks thus of Stephanie, at
that time seventeen years of age : " I have seen few
women who have seemed to me more pleasing than
Mile Stephanie de Beauharnais was at that time. Not
only did she possess all the advantages necessary to
a woman of the world, but she was also endowed with
everything which pleases : graciousness, good manners,
a charming face, and an elegant figure. She pleased
every one with her pretty features and prepossessing
manner. She was vasdy admired by gentlemen, for
which fault the ladies forgave her because she was
always kind and ever ready to be obliging."

Mme dAbrantfes draws the bridegroom in a very
unfavourable light : " He was the most disagreeable
person I have ever met. He looked like a naughty
boy in disgrace, besides which he was not at all

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

handsome. In short, he was a most disagreeable
prince, and above all, a very disagreeable lover."

The Emperor gave the lovely Stephanie a
magnificent wedding ; when he took her hand to lead
her to the chapel, a murmur of admiration at her
splendid jewels and dress, the gifts of Napoleon and
Josephine, arose from the assembled guests.

M. Fr^ddric Loli^ gives an amusing account of
the bridal procession to the chapel, when Napoleon
hurried the bride along far too quickly to please
Talleyrand, who had to head the cortige, and could
hardly hobble on account of his lameness, to the
great disgust of the Empress, who wished to look her
best, and the guests who formed the tail of the pro-
cession, and wanted to see the effect of their fine
clothes on the crowd. In vain did the chamberlains
urge the head and tail to keep in step with the bride
and the Emperor, who was in a hurry to "get it all
over as soon as possible/' But alas ! Talleyrand and
the guests would not be hurried, so that the procession
was constantly dislocated.

A magnificent wedding-breakfast was afterwards
given at the palace of the Tuileries.

The prince was really very much in love with his
bride. Soon after the weddmg he paid a visit to
Mme Campan. *' He stayed half an hour talking to
me," she tells Hortense ; •' he said such flattering
things concerning my system of education and my
own person that I dare not repeat them, and he
seemed so delighted with his young wife that I feel I
ought to tell your Majesty. 'Every day,' said he,
' I feel more satisfied with the princess, and I wish to
tell you, Madame, that she possesses genuine principles

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THE STORY OF A TRAGEDY

of virtue, piety» modesty, and an immense fund of
wit ; in four years' time she will be a perfect princess.'
He then added : * Her destiny is indeed an astonishing
one, but she is fit to fill the position, as she will prove*'
In short, he sees her with the eyes of a lover ; she
must be very happy."

When Stephanie went to her new home she took
with her, as her ladies-in-waiting, two of her school-
fellows, Miles Nelly Bourjolie and Antoinette de
Mackau.

The prince of Baden at first did his best to please
his wife ; however, he soon discovered that the pretty
Stephanie had only accepted him for his title and
fortune, and that she was a born coquette into the
bargain. Napoleon and Josephine were frequently
called in to make peace between the unhappy
creatures.

Stephanie had five children, three daughters and
two sons, not including the mysterious Kaspar
Hauser,^ if indeed he was her son. Stephanie's two
legitimate sons both died very suddenly ; the death of
the eldest one was particularly painful, owing to the
fact that his mother was not allowed to see him while
he was dying, nor even when he was dead.

'The mysterious boy, Kaspar Hauser, when discovered at
Nuremberg in 1828, could scarcely speak, did not know his name or his
age or from whence he came, and apparently seemed to have lived the
life of a recluse. He held in his hand a letter addressed to an officer at
Nuremberg, in which it was said that he was bom in 1812, and that his
father was in a Bavarian cavalry regiment Kaspar was confided to the
care of a schoolmaster, his board and education being paid by charity.
Lord Stanhope displayed much interest in him. On two or three
occasions mysterious attempts were made to murder him, and in 1833
he was so cruelly wounded by some person unknown that he died.
During his last moments he frequently called out : '* Mother ! mother I
come to me 1 **

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CHAPTER XIV

Extravagance of Napoleon's cutsindhw-^The Emperor depates Mme
de Lavalette to curb Josephine's passion for spending — Hortense
becomes queen of Holland — Mme Campan's plans appear likely to
miscarry— She is appointed directress of the Establishment of the
Legion of Honour at Ecouen — A girls' boarding-school during the
Empire.

Extravagance was a failing from which many of the
beautiful women at the Imperial Court suffered ; two
of Napoleon's cuisinQres, Mmes Savary and Maret,
spent from 50,000 to 60,000 francs a year on their
toilette during their reign of prosperity. Even Mme
Ney, whose husband, the Lion rauge^ had about one
million francs a year, managed to get rid of 4000
francs' worth of underclothing in twelve months, while
Caroline Murat spent 30,000 francs at the shop of M.
Leroy, the self-styled Empereur du bon ton, in the
space of a few months.

In 1806 Napoleon, anxious to curb Josephine's
ever-increasing extravagance, appointed Mme de
Lavalette to act as housekeeper to his wife. After
spending some time in Berlin and Dresden, where
Mme de Lavalette, notwithstanding her rather shy
manners, had won all hearts, M. de Lavalette had
lately returned with his family to France, when he was
given the post of steward. Mme de Lavalette had
one little girl born in 1802, and named Josephine*
^ This little Josephine afterwards became the baronne de Foiget

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NAPOLEON DISLIKES AILING WOMEN

after her successful cousin, who, however, treated the
child and her mother as if they were poor relations.
Emilie de Lavalette had nearly lost her life at the
birth of her little daughter, and in fact she never
really recovered her health, so that the long hours of
standing about in the heated rooms of the Tuileries
soon became a positive torture to her. And it must
be confessed that the Emperor was not always very
sympathetic ; for when Mme de Lavalette was obliged,
on account of a sick headache, to remain absent from
any of those brilliant ceremonies which he liked to see
adorned by Emilie's lovely face, he would say to
Josephine : —

"Is she always going to be ill } . . . Well, well !
send her to get strong at Nice ! "

Now although Mme de Lavalette was an
economical housekeeper, and capable of brewing an
excellent pot-au-feu, she was quite unable to make
any alteration in Josephine's habits, being handicapped
from the very beginning by another of the Empress's
ladies, Mme Hamelin, who encouraged her mistress
to be extravagant on every occasion.

When, in June 1806, Louis Bonaparte was made
king of Holland by his wonderful brother, Mme
Campan wrote volumes of good advice to Hortense.
including a brief history of the country over which her
favourite was about to rule, recommending her not to
believe Anquetil,^ who in his work upon Holland
says : " That land is inhabited by the demon of gold,
crowned with a wreath of tobacco leaves, and seated
on a throne made of cheeses."

^ AnqueHl^ Paul (1723-1806), an author of some note, director of the
College of Rheims and a member of the InsHtut tk Fremc$.
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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

Hortense was certainly a good friend to her old
schoolfellows ; in the midst of her splendour she found
time to procure a lucrative post for the father of
Eliza de Lally-ToUendal. This gentleman, suspecting
that his daughter's schoolmistress had had something^
to do in the matter, wrote to Mme Campan : —

'' I shall no longer go to bed with the thought : If
I die of apoplexy during the night, I shall leave my
child without a sou in the world. **

Hortense, who had had a hand in the marriage of
Egl^ Ney, n^e Augui^, which marriage had turned
out most happily, now endeavoured to find a husband
for EgM's sister, Ad^Ie, who, her good aunt rather
unkindly remarks, '* has no time to lose."

Mar^chal Duroc promised to look about for a
suitable party. After a good deal of '' looking about,"
and various embarrassing ** interviews," Mile Adde
expressed herself willing to marry the marshal de
Broc, Grand-Marshal to the Court of Holland, and
thus she became lady-in-waiting to her friend Hortense.

Hortense was also so kind as to invite little Pholod
to come and visit her in her new home, whereupon
Mile Pholo^ got out her prettiest notepaper and
wrote, in her best copy-book style, to little prince
Napoleon, his first letter, in which she "presents her
respects to the baby prince, and says she hopes to
come to Holland next spring."

In 1806 Mme Campan inherited the sum of
8000 francs from an old friend, M. Chaumauri^ with
which she purchased a little farm in the pretty valley
of Chevreuse, "very close to the Muses, for my
garden gate is just opposite that of M. de BoufHers,
where the Abb^ Delille often goes into retirement in

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MME CAMPAN THINKS OF RETIRING

order to compose his tuneful verses and polish his
sparkling tirades."

During the winter of 1806-7 Mme Campan's son
spent some months in Berlin seeking for the long-
expected position which at one time seemed likely to
await him in Poland ; but in February 1807 he was
back in Paris, where his mother hoped he would
obtain the post of auditor, when she proposed to make
him a yearly allowance of 6000 francs.

In this same month Mme Campan, fearing that
Napoleon was not going to appoint her directress of
the Imperial Educational Establishment which he
was about to create at Ecouen as she had hoped he
would do at one time, had serious thoughts of retiring
into private life, for she wrote to Hortense asking her
to obtain a pension of 2000 francs a year for her, so
that she could cultivate her little farm, and pay visits
to her "Petite Bonne" and princess Stephanie of
Baden ; she adds that she would prefer to devote the
last years of her strength to "the education of one
of the royal princes, or to an Imperial Establish-
ment"

She tells Hortense that, during the twelve years
she has been keeping school, she has only had
eighteen months of real prosperity, owing to the
continual wars, so that she now finds herself in debt
to the amount of 30,000 francs. "If peace were
declared, everything would go well with Saint-
Germain. The effects of this inestimable blessing,
which we should owe to the sublime mind and the
magnanimity of our Emperor, would daily make them-
selves felt As it is to my interest not to allow an
establishment which has caused me so much anxiety

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

and such great expense to fall to pieces, I have had
some more prospectuses printed, which leave no
doubts concerning my teaching of religious subjects
and the simplicity of our pupils' costume. I can
assure your Majesty that I am more than ever
attentive to the educational part of my establishmenL
M. Isabey has brought back his daughters, whom he
had taken away from me because he was chagrined
that they had obtained no prizes. . . "

Among other pupils under Mme Campan's care
about this time were Christine Kosowska, a young
Polish girl, Alix and Josephine d'Audiffr^y (the latter
the Empress's goddaughter), natives of Martinique,
and Elisa de Courtin, later the wife of Casimir
Delavigne.

As the months glided away, poor Mme Campan
became more and more uneasy lest the Emperor
should not appoint her to manage the Imperial
Establishment at Ecouen ; she began to imagine that
she was no longer a persona grata with the Imperial
family, although Caroline Murat frequently invited her
to dinner, and although Josephine was most gracious
to her when she had her to lunch at La Malmaison,
" where " she declares, " I no longer have any friends,
not even among my old pupils. The advantages
enjoyed by my nieces have won me many enemies. . . .
At this time when his Majesty is about to create
the Establishment of the Legion of Honour, interest-
ing himself in female education, when what he has
deigned to say concerning his plans for my future
has been circulated not only in Europe but even in
America, from whence my brother has written to
congratulate me, may I not hope that he in his

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A DUTIFUL NIECE

wisdom and justice will find a way to employ me ?
Do not let your Majesty in your kindness imagine
that I am not competent to accomplish the task; I
should only dread the false opinions of intermediate
agents, but I should find support in the Emperor's
justice and in Marshal Duroc's old friendship for
me. ..."

That Mme Campan had a good opinion of her
own talents is shown by the following letter, dated
April 2, 1807, ^^d written to the queen of Holland: —

" The Establishment of the Legion of Honour is
now being organized ; posts are being given to the
daughters of prefects and generals of division; if I
were condemned to remain here, the establishment
would suffer a genuine loss. ... I was afraid that
your Majesty had chosen an inopportune moment in
which to write to the Emperor, but as he has found
time in the midst of the noise and bustle of camp life
to nominate many little girls for his schools, why
should he think it presuming of your Majesty to
mention the person he chose to bring up the
princesses, then to form an establishment, and who
has had the honour and the happiness of educat*-
ing the queen of Holland and the two grand-
duchesses ? "

Mme Campan had ever been a good friend to her
poor relations, and now that it was in her power to
repay her for some of her many acts of kindness, one
of her nieces, Adile Augui^, the day before her
marriage to the mar^chal de Broc, wrote the following
letter to Queen Hortense, in which she strives to use
her influence with her old schoolfellow and future
mistress : —

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

" Paris, April lo, 1807.

" I send you my aunt's letter, my dear Hortense ;
her joy at my marriage has enabled her to forget her
troubles for a few hours ; but you must realize, I am
sure, her cruel position. Do something for her, my
good Hortense, and you will make me very happy.
I have just received your wedding-present ; I have
never seen anything prettier; I am only grieved to
think what a lot of money it must have cost Adieu,
Hortense ; to-morrow is the great day ; you will
think of me, won't you ? Ad^le Augui6."

When a rumour reached Mme Campan's ears that
Napoleon was about to appoint a lady-abbess as
directress of the Establishment of the Legion of
Honour, she exclaimed : —

" This is what I have always dreaded most of all,
because opinions, or rather religious intrigues, are all-
powerful; for I do not think that enthusiasm over
politics usually goes with great devoutness. Our
Emperor, however, is not easily influenced; and if
such be his desire, we may be sure that he thought
the presence of an abbess would make the establish-
ment more stately, more imposing. Other rumours
mention the name of Mme de Genlis, but these I do
not believe. Why should the Emperor prefer the
governess of the Bourbon branch to her who has had
the honour of educating several members of his
family ? Lastly, many people assert that I shall be
chosen. If I am not chosen, if, after having admitted
me to the First Consul's society, after having been
honoured with four visits from him, chosen by him to
educate his family, I remain where I now am, my

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MME CAMPAN IS REWARDED

health will become undermined by my trials, and I
shall not long survive this unmerited affront. ... If
he nominates any other person than myself to Ecouen,
let him organize 'a similar establishment at Saint-
Germain ; tell him that the opening of an Imperial
Educational Establishment at Ecouen would complete
the ruin of my present house, which has never re-
covered from the effects of these continual wars, and
has forced me to run into debt"

At last, after long months of anxiety, Mme
Campan heard in September 1807 that the Emperor,
in consideration of her past services, had s^pointed
her to be directress of the Imperial Establishment
at Ecouen.

This chdteau, situated on a hill with a jfine view
about four leagues from Paris, in the department of
Seine-et-Oise, was originally built by Anne de
Montmorency, " the second Bayard," during the reign
of Fran9ois 11 ; it afterwards fell into the hands of the
Cond^s, and it was here that Henri 11, in 1559, passed
sentence of death on all his Protestant subjects.

Poor Mme Campan could scarcely believe that
her dream had come true : had the Emperor really
chosen her, the governess of the Bonapartes and the
de Beauharnais, to direct the establishment at Ecouen ?
were her troubles really at an end f In her delight
she wrote to Hortense : —

" Madame, yesterday I went to Ecouen ; I spent
six hours making plans and arranging various matters.
The ckdteau is in good repair, but one can see that it
was not built to serve as an educational establish-
ment ; however, the dormitories are big, the refectories
spacious, the position healthy and situated amid the

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

prettiest scenery around Paris. There are no grated
parlours, and yet nothing is more necessary in order
to show that the pupils are cloistered, and prevent
their relatives seeing them without permission. There
must be three such grated parlours: one for the
servants and the tradespeople, one for the pupils, and one
for the princesses. The grating must open in the middle
on hinges, and be so arranged that the male relatives
of the pupils cannot see the girls without permission :
Messieurs les chambellans and the equerries will not
like this rule, but it is indispensable where the pupils
are cloistered

•* The chapel is magnificent ; it has not yet been
restored ; but this work must be done before we move
in, for it would never do for an army of workmen to
be in the same building with the young ladies. The
architecture of the altar, which was respected by the
revolutionists, is in keeping with the chapel. The
Te Deum and the Domine Salvum shall be sung by
clear voices and pious lips. Your Majesty will come
and hear them. Nothing makes a deeper impression
upon youth than to see great and powerful personages
kneeling in prayer. I will say no more to your
Majesty concerning Ecouen, where I do not desire
to obtain success — the term is too worldly, and
reminds me of the spite and jealousy found in that
world — but one word of praise and then I shall die
content"

But 1808 was to dawn before Mme Campan could
move into her new home. The dormitories, baptized
dorioirs Julie, Zinaide, Charlotte, and Catherine, after
members of the Emperor's family, were soon arranged ;
but the repairs to the chapel necessitated great ex*"

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LOLOTTE BONAPARTE

pense and much time. The architect had made out
an estimate for 20,000 francs, which included bringing
the high altar and the stained-glass windows from the
church of the Petits Augustins in Paris, whither they
had been removed, and where the altar had been used
as a sort of pedestal for the statues of Anne de Mont-
morency and his wife, the authorities refusing to give
back the altar and windows without an order from the
Emperor. Napoleon having given the order, the
stone high-constable and his good wife were placed on
another and a more suitable pedestal, " which will not
hurt the dead high-constable," adds Mme Campan.

Charlotte Bonaparte did not accompany her kind
governess to Ecouen. In 1804 her father, having
received the title of prince de Canino from his friend
Pius vii,^ had gone to reside at Viterbo. In 1807
Napoleon tried, while at Mantua, to obtain a recon-
ciliation with his brother ; but Lucien had never for-
given his powerful brother's attempts to make him
divorce his second wife, had taken Lolotte away from
Mme Campan, brought her home rejoicing to Italy,
and resisted all Napoleon's efforts to make friends,
although the Emperor had promised to find a princely
husband for Lolotte in the person of the prince of the
Asturias, whose father, he declared, " had craved her
hand for his son." Napoleon was apt to forget such
unimportant matters as the ages of his victims when-
ever he had any fresh plans for lightning matches;
but it was somewhat of a surprise to him when Lucien
wrote rather scornfully that " Lolotte was only twelve
years of age."

^ Pius VII was Pope from 1800 to 1833 ; he signed the Concordat, and
crowned Napoleon Emperor of the French.

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

•' Dear me ! " remarked Napoleon, ** I thought she
was older than that ! "

Lucien did not attempt to hide his disgust from
M. de Girardin : " Why does he want to make
friends after all those years? He came twice to
Rome without seeing either me or my children, and
yet they are his nephews and nieces."

In December 1807, Napoleon made one more
attempt He wrote to Lucien telling him either to
bring Lolotte himself to Paris or else to send her with
a governess, as he wished her to share the benefits
which he was showering upon all his other relatives
— and alas! so often only reaping ingratitude in
return.

Lucien took no notice of this invitation.

When the repairs at Ecouen were nearing com-
pletion, Mme Campan, always anxious to be up to
date, went to the Emperor and begged him to let her
have some firemen to protect the building from fire.
Napoleon remarked : —

" Your supervision ought to be sufficient"

"Yes, Sire," replied Mme Campan, flattered by
the compliment, ''it might do so, but can I prevent
fire falling from the skies ? "

" You are right," concluded the Emperor, and he
immediately ordered that Mme Campan should be
given three firemen to protect the house from fire.

What were Ma?nan Campan's feelings when she
said good-bye to the old H6tel de Rohan, where she
had spent ten busy years teaching, educating litde
girls, many of whom were to become celebrated
women } She was no longer young, being over fifty
years of age. In future she would be the directress

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NAPOLEON AS A GOOD CATHOLIC

of a huge establishment — which meant that she
would see less of her pupils, that she would cease to
mother the little ones. Hitherto she had always
taken her meals with her pupils, but now this would
be impossible. The class of pupils was also about to
change, for the princesses could not be expected to
send their daughters to a public school for three
hundred girls of all ages, from the litde one learning
its alphabet to the marriageable young miss of
eighteen, '' whose father can easily find her a husband
if he is an honest man, or if she is possessed of a con-
siderable fortune."

Mme Campan had the entire management of the
establishment of Ecouen ; she was aided in her task
by the comte de Lac^pide, at that time chancellor
of the Legion of Honour. Napoleon insisted upon
all the plans being submitted to him for approval;
nothing was too insignificant; such commonplace
subjects as furniture, dress, and food were examined
carefully by this wonderful man. Saint-Germain was
to serve as a model for Ecouen — but a slightly altered
model, however, for Napoleon did not approve of
•' showing off the young belles/' and accomplishments
were to be limited.

In one of her reports Mme Campan suggested
that if Mass were said in the chapel belonging to the
school twice a week, on Sundays and Thursdays, it
would be quite sufficient; Napoleon returned the
report with this remark scribbled in his own hand-
writing : " // must be said every day.''

And yet the clergy did not look with favour upon
Ecouen, and for many months did everything they
could to prevent the faithful sending their daughters

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

to live under Mme Campan's roof. The cause is not
far to seek; it lay in Napoleon's determination to
think for himself and to keep free from the trammels
with which both Catholic and Protestant clergy would
gladly have bound him. Napoleon respected all
religions. Did not Harry Heine's father always
remember with gratitude how» on one occasion, when
the Emperor was in Germany, that most wonderful
man spoke most kindly to "the poor Jew boy"?
The clergy showed their animosity on every occasion.
When the Bishop of Metz, after many pressing in-
vitations, consented at the command of Napoleon's
uncle, Cardinal Fesch, to go to Ecouen and confirm
some of the orphans of Austerlitz, he was obliged to
express surprise at *^ the universal and simple piety dis-
played by the pupils of a secular establishment'' Of
her own religious convictions, Mme Campan said:
" I dearly love the simplicity of my own faith ; I
revere it, but I hate anything approaching fanaticism."
She was religious in the very best sense of the term.
A woman who had no religion would never have
said as she did : —

*' As soon as a little child can speak clearly, teach
it to pray to God. Let it learn to love Him and
thank Him for His kindness ; later, when you teach
it Bible History, you can teach it how to fear
Him."

Mme Campan's work, Lettres dedeuxjeunes amies,
describes the daily existence of the children of the
Legion of Honour. The would-be pupils and their
relatives, on being ushered into Mme Campan's
parlour, were expected to produce their papers of
identification, after which a young lady carrying a

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A DAY AT ECOUEN

huge bunch of keys, appeared and took the pupils to
be introduced to their future companions.

"As I had caught cold in Paris," relates the
heroine of the above-mentioned work, " my mother, on
reaching Ecouen, had requested that I might be put
to bed in the infirmary. I am now quite well again,
and I sleep in a dormitory close to the bell which
gives the signal for lessons to begin. At six o'clock
this morning I heard a prodigious noise ; I was vastly
alarmed ; however, I thrust my head under the
blankets and quickly fell asleep again. But I soon
heard somebody calling me by my name ; I put my head
out and beheld the lady-superintendent, fully dressed,
standmg at the foot of my bed. My companions were
already up and ready to go into school. So there
was nothing for it but to dress myself, which I
did with one eye open and the other shut; in my
haste I put on my pinbefore inside out, for which act
I had the satisfaction of seeing my comrades burst out
a-laughing at me. A second ringing of bells gave
the signal for prayers, whereupon we are made to
walk sedately two by two to our classroom. I was so
bold as to ask the lady-superintendent why she made
us walk in such a ridiculous procession ; she replied
that, without this precaution, the children would knock
themselves against the doors and might even hurt
themselves. After prayers, the bell rang again, this
time for Mass. All my comrades went to a cupboard
to fetch their prayer books, after which we were again
made to fall into line. Mass finished, the bell rang
for breakfast ; but what a breakfast I With the ex-
ception of those in delicate health, to whom the nurses
carried chocolate, we were given milk ; another day

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

we shall have either jam or fruit Would it not be
much nicer if each one could have what she prefers,
either coffee, chocolate, or jam? But we are even
deprived of the satisfaction of having money in our
possession, for we cannot buy what we like.

" To-morrow I shall have to get one of my
comrades to wake me, for I have been told that I
shall have to wash and dress Victorine (her litde
sister). I have had to mark all my linen ; I was sent
to the matron's room to make my own frocks,
pinbefores, velvet bonnet and cap. I did not expect
to become a dressmaker, and it seems to me that the
parents' wishes as to their daughters' education are
not consulted. That cruel bell has just rung again ;
it never ceases to ring for some lesson or the other ;
I could forgive it for its vile noise if it would only ring
a litde oftener for recreation. It rings ten minutes
before dinner, so that we, like common serving-
wenches, may fulfil the agreeable task of dusting our
desks and sweeping out the classrooms ; then it
rings for dinner, supper, and bedtime ; but the most
horrible of all its ringings is when it wakes us in the
morning. Everything here goes by clockwork. Oh !
how I regret my little room at Valence, so quiet, so
removed from all street-sounds. How silly I was
to grumble at the poor cock which, it is true, awoke
me most mornings, but at least allowed me to turn
over and go to sleep again! Here three hundred
persons have to behave like one, and to obey one
command given by one person.

"There are other revolting and fidgety rules.
Would you believe it ? If we want to go anywhere
and we are not walking in procession, we have to

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AN EXCELLENT RULE

hold in our hand a little label on which is written the
word : matron's room, linen-closet, music-room, or
wherever else we want to go. If a governess meets
a child without this passport, she can seize it by the
hand and take it off to Madame la directrice ; you
can imagine that a visit, under such circumstances, is
not attended with much pleasure."

In her book, De I Education^ Mme Campan ex-
plains her reason for making her pupils walk two by
two. At first the children at Saint-Germain were
allowed to go in and out of the classrooms as they
liked, but one day after dinner a showman with some
performing dogs asked permission to enter the
courtyard of the H6tel de Rohan, whereupon all the
little ones rushed to the door in order to look at the
four-footed actors. One of the babies stumbled and
fell to the ground without her schoolfellows noticing
what had happened; several others pressed forward
so eagerly that they stepped on the prostrate little one,
hurting it very severely. In future the children had
to walk two and two.

There was one rule at Ecouen which was cal-
culated to develop the maternal instincts: each big
girl had to take care of a little one, and, as the
children were sent as young as possible to the
establishment, it frequently happened that the child
was scarcely more than a baby, which the big girl
had to get up in the morning, wash, dress, and tell
what it had to do during the day ; then in the evening
the big girl had to ask the little one how it had
behaved, blame or praise it, as the case might be — in
fact, act the part of a mother. For Napoleon's
intention, in founding the Imperial Educational

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

Establishment at Ecouen, was not merely to give the
orphans of his brave servants a comfortable home,
but to provide wives for his future heroes. Was not
dear Madame Mhre married at fourteen years of age
and the mother of four spirited children before she
was twenty — and very proud of the fact? Mme
Campan held that a wife should know how to
manage her household: ''The cares of the home
concern women ; a good housewife should take pride
in providing her husband with excellent food A
man who works all day cannot attend to such matters ;
and if the wife neglects them, she will ruin her
home, and will force her husband to pass his time in
wine-shops." The pupils at Ecouen had to learn to
cook, to sweep out their classrooms, make their own
clothes, wait at table, give out the clean linen, etc.

The costume — it is practically unchanged to-
day at the sister-establishment of Saint-Denis —
consisted of a black stuff frock with a white collar ;
each class wore a distinctive sash: the older girls
wore red and white ; those who had not yet mastered
their grammar wore blue, while the tiny ones (and
they must have been specially dear to Maman
Campan's heart) wore green sashes until they had
learnt the difference between M and N.

The children's relations were permitted to visit
them on Sundays and Thursdays, when Mme
Campan proudly writes: "There are sometimes as
many as fifty visitors in the parlours!" So strict
was the watch kept over the pupils that they were
not allowed to write to their girl-friends without
permission, and such luxuries so dear to the hearts of
little girls as rose-coloured note-paper adorned with

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THE LOST BOWER

cupids or perhaps a portrait of the Great Napoleon,
were at once confiscated.

When a child had given special satisfaction to her
teachers, she was allowed to go in state with her
comrades to the park, where she solemnly planted a
young tree which in future was to bear her name
and to be tended by her hands alone. Long years
afterwards, when the master-mind which had con-
ceived this institution had been extinguished, some of
Maman Campan's former nestlings, now wives and
mothers themselves, paid a visit to the old school
at Ecouen and tried to evoke the past ; they found
the gravel walks down which they had bowled their
hoops, played hide-and-seek, and chased the many-
coloured butterflies, covered with moss ; the park was
full of dead branches, untidy undergrowth, and ugly
weeds, while the trees which had borne the pupils'
names had either disappeared or were hidden under
shrouds of ivy. Gone was the happy playground,
the lost bower of childhood : —

"I affirm that smce I lost it,

Never bower has seemed so fair-
Never garden-creeper crossed it,

With so deft and brave an air —
Never bird sung in the summer
As I saw and heard them there."

The rule at Ecouen was : " Be quicker to praise
than to blame." Punishments were not to be over-
frequent. Mme Campan had a wholesome dread of
severity where little girls were concerned; **Cold
water thrown in the face of a naughty child," said
she, " is a sure but dangerous cure for a fit of temper.
I knew a gentleman who did this to one of his
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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

daughters, whereupon she was instantly seized with
an attack of hoarseness from which she suffered for
the rest of her life."

Mme Campan was fond pf relating the following
anecdote : —

**A little girl of nine years having gone with
her parents to spend the fftte of Corpus Christi in a
country house near Paris, was tempted to steal a watch
belonging to one of her litde friends ; she yielded to the
criminal desire. The watch was sought for every-
where ; it was found, and the thief discovered. The
poor parents, overwhelmed with grief and shame, con-
demned the little culprit to walk in the procession of
Corpus Christi carrying a board on which these words
were written : / stole a watch. The terrified culprit
submitted to this fearful punishment She returned
home with her parents without having uttered a single
word or shed one tear. Having crossed a poultry-yard
where she found a serving-wench to whom she said :
'Adieu, Marianne, I am disgraced,' she entered a
thicket in which there was a pond, flung herself into
it and was instantly drowned."

Another and a less tragic anecdote, evoking the
charming but frivolous Court of Versailles, was often
related by Mme Campan to those of her friends who
could remember the ancien rigime. The mar^chale
de Beauvau, the daughter of the due de Rohan-
Chabot, had been educated at the convent of Port-
Royal, whither the most illustrious families in France
sent their daughters. A little girl of six years of age
having been so wicked as to steal an icu worth six
francs, the nuns had a grand confabulation in order to
punish the culprit so that she would never forget.

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A TERRIBLE PUNISHMENT

The litde girl was sentenced to be hung, that is to
say, she was placed in a wicker basket, which was
then suspended from the ceiling of the classroom.
While she was thus imprisoned, her governesses
and schoolfellows entered the room and walked
to and fro under the basket chanting the De
Profundis. When it was litde Mile de Rohan-
Chabot's turn to approach the impromptu prison, she
turned up her face and called out : " Are you dead ? "
whereupon the unrepentant sinner replied through the
twigs of the basket : " Not yet ! "

And when in after years the mar^chale de Beauvau
met the litde heroine of this incident in the gilded
salons of Versailles, she never failed to greet the
pendue with this question : " Are you dead ? " that she
might hear the cheery reply : ** Not yet ! "

Mme Campan found that as a rule it was quite
sufficient punishment to make the pupils eat their
meals alone on a little wooden table without any table-
cloth, with a label above to show what fault had caused
this humiliation. On such occasions the offender was
served at the same time as her companions, but tears
usually took away her appetite. Such a punishment
was meted out to any pupil who had been given
twelve bad marks during the course of two or three
days. Temporary confiscation of the coloured sash
was found efficient in the case of more trifling faults.
But the worst punishment of all, truly a horrible one,
was only once employed during Mme Campan's reign
at Ecouen.

Napoleon had decreed that any pupil convicted of
a very serious fault should be deprived of her coloured
sash in the presence of all her fellow-pupils and

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

teachers, and never allowed to wear it again. On the
one and awful occasion when this punishment was
inflicted, the three hundred pupils, fifty governesses,
and all the servants having formed into a square in
the courtyard of the building, the culprit was brought
and made to stand, pale and trembling, on the black
marble cross on the pavement, representing the cross
of the Legion of Honour, when Mme Campan ap-
peared and gravely unfastened the child's sash to show
that she had ceased to be worthy of the Emperor's
protection — whereupon the unhappy little creature fell
to the ground in a swoon.

In order to cure untidy habits, Mme Campan
recommended surprise visits to the pupils' chests of
drawers and wardrobes. At first she planned to teach
the girls how to make preserves and wash and iron
their own linen ; however, she soon found that more
fruit went down the children's throats than into the
jam-pots, and that when muslin pinafores and caps
come in contact with over-heated irons the results are
apt to be disastrous.

It is to be feared that the good dame's ideas con*
cerning personal cleanliness would be considered quite
prehistoric by a modern schoolmistress.

"For a dormitory containing thirty beds," says
she, " six foot-tubs should be provided, so that every
morning six children can wash their feet; in this
manner each child takes a foot-bath once in five days.
The hands and teeth should be cleaned in the morning,
the face and the neck before going to bed. The face
should never be washed in the morning, as exposure
to the outer air after applying water is apt to crack
the skin." (Apparently it was considered unnecessary

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OLD-FASHIONED IDEAS OF HYGIENE

to wash the " altogether " in Mme Campan's establish-
ment) "The hair should not be allowed to grow
long until after the age of twelve. Schoolmistresses
sometimes experience difficulty in persuading mothers
to sacrifice a fine head of hair which has been care-
fully brushed and combed from the cradle ; but when
the reason has been explained to the parents, they
usually give their consent."

"A proper dormitory," she says, "ought not to
contain more than thirty beds. The bed of the super-
intendent of each dormitory ought to be raised several
feet on a sort of platform, and so placed that she can
see all the pupils' beds at a glance ; she will give a
bad mark to any pupil who, seized with some stupid
fear, is found in a schoolfellow's bed, . . • Children
of three and four years of age, gifted with a lively
imagination, are often troubled with visions before
falling asleep. They must 'not be scolded for being
frightened ; they see, or think they see, strange and
awful-looking creatures pass before their gaze. In
this case we must not punish them unjustly, but try to
reason with them ; they must not be left alone in the
dark. . . . From April i to October i, the hour of
rising is fixed at 6 a.m. ; from October i to April i,
the hour is 7 a.m. . . ."

After rising, prayers had to be said and the epistle
and gospel read aloud. Every week a pupil was
chosen to teach the little ones their alphabet. Before
each meal a pupil had to climb up into a sort of pulpit
and recite the Lord's Prayer, after which a rap on the
table gave the signal for the pupils to sit down and
eat their soup ; another prayer closed the performance.
Sunday, a delightful day, began with Mass;
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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

Vespers and Benediction were said in the afternoon,
and then the pupils were free to work in the garden
and play games. During the long dark winter
evenings some of the pupils took turns to play the
pianoforte — an instrument which Mme Campan re-
commended should be learnt early — while the litde
ones danced. The elder girls always spent Sunday
evening in Mme Campan 's parlour, where they read
aloud or listened to the conversation of the directress
and her friends. The smaller girls were at times
allowed as a reward to take a dish of tea with the
directress, which must have been a great honour ; or
else they were admitted to her own little garden, where
she regaled them with fruit and whipped cream.

The pupils were always in bed before ten.

A sort of brief examination was held every quarter,
when, each girl having produced a drawing and a
composition, prizes were awarded ; at the end of the
year they underwent a severer examination, when they
were expected to give a good account of what they
had learnt during that time. The highest award was
the medal, which M. de Lac^pide pinned on the
breast of the lucky winner.

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CHAPTER XV

The queen of Holland pays a visit to Ecouen— Stephanie Tascher de
La Pagerie marries the prince d'Arenberg-— The Emperor's birthday
is kept by the Orphans of Austerlitz— Napoleon comes to inspect
his prot^g^es^The queen of Holland is made patroness of Ecouen
— Napoleon's divorce — Lolotte Bonaparte returns to France — Mme
Campan meets with a serious accident— Napoleon and Marie
Louise visit Ecouen — France is invaded.

One of the first visitors to Ecouen was Mme Campari's
favourite pupil, the queen of Holland. She was
received with great ceremony at the door of the chapel
by the directress, the governesses, and the chaplains ;
after having heard Mass, when the pupils sang the
Domine Salvum, she lunched in Mme Campan's
private sitting-room, had a long chat over old times,
and presented the governess who had helped Mme
Campan to do the honours of the establishment with
a ring. When lunch was over, she asked to witness
the distribution of bread and meat to twenty-four poor
women belonging to the village of Ecouen, which
took place four times a week and was paid for by the
pupils. Hortense was so touched by the spectacle of
two pupils, their black dresses covered by white aprons,
ministering to the poor, that she, on saying good-bye,
left 600 francs to be spent in a similar manner.

The month of March 1808 saw the last of
Napoleon's lightning marriages, the marriage of
another of Mme Campan's former pupils — but not to

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

M, de Chaumont-Quitry, to whom Stephanie Tascher
de La Pagerie, Josephine's cousin and god-daughter,
had been engaged for two years. That honest fellow,
Rapp, had asked for her hand during the Consulate
and been refused by Mme Bonaparte, who had not
considered him a sufficiently good parti. Mile
Tascher had to thank Napoleon for a very bitter
experience, for, as in the case of her cousins Hortense
and Stephanie de Beauhamais, her marriage was to
prove an utter failure. The prince d'Arenberg, at
that time a colonel in the French army, was rather a
favourite with Napoleon. The latter one day sent for
the prince and, having assured him of his friendship,
delivered himself of this astounding piece of news : —

" You shall marry to-morrow ! "

" Sire," replied his astonished visitor, " I regret to
say that I am not free to marry, for my affianced bride
expects me to keep my word : we are pledged to one
another for life."

But this excuse was as useless and empty as when
employed by Davout on a previous and similar
occasion.

" Well, get disengaged ! " remarked Napoleon. " I
expect you to marry to-morrow. If you refuse, we
shall send you to the fortress of Vincennes."

As the prince had no desire to become familiar
with the topography of that depressing place, he
obeyed.

Napoleon did his duty to the bride when he gave
her a trousseau valued at 40,000 francs. The bill of
the then fashionable dressmaker, Mme Lenormand,
included such items as 25,000 francs worth of under-
clothing, 627 francs for gloves and hosiery, and

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ANOTHER PUPIL MARRIES

several dresses embroidered in gold and silver, each
costing from 5000 to 6000 francs.

The marriage took place, according to Napoleon s
orders, on the morrow at midnight in the Luynes-
d'Arenberg mansion,^ the festivities concluding with a
ball at which the whole Court assisted, when it was
remarked that, although Napoleon opened the ball
and danced several times with the bride, he never
once invited the Empress to dance.

An unexpected and unrehearsed scene caused
consternation among the guests when the bride,
having bowed stiffly to her bridegroom, retired and
locked herself into her own apartment

The prince d'Arenberg's respect for, or rather
dread of, his wife's relatives did not prevent him later
murmuring at the way in which she had treated him,
a married man with no rights or power over his wife.
However, when Napoleon, too, was deprived of his
rights and power, the princess d'Arenberg got her
marriage annulled by Rome, and married her former
fianc4 the comte de Chaumont-Quitry.

The routine at Ecouen was varied by several ffetes.
Carnival was kept according to tradition. For many
days previous to Shrove Tuesday, the young ladies
spent every spare moment in cutting out and gluing
costumes in multi-coloured paper. On the great day,
the pupils, dressed as wild Indians and Esquimaux,
were given an excellent dinner of fat capons, — which
had likewise been preparing for Carnival, — ^tardets
and creams in the Salle Hortense, specially illuminated
and decorated for the occasion, after which the girls

^ Some authors assert that the marriage was celebrated in Louis
Bonaparte's MUl in the rue Cerutti, Paris.

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

marched round the hall and then danced quadriUes
until midnight

Corpus Christi was another feast ; this ftte, which
takes place in June at a time when all Nature is
singing the praises of the Creator, is the most charm-
ing in the Church year. An altar was always erected
at one end of the garden. The procession was headed
by the servants, dressed in neat black dresses, carrying
the crucifix; then came the banner of the Virgin
Mary, borne by girls chosen for their good conduct,
wearing blue sashes : the canopy was carried by girls
in crimson and white sashes, while fifty of the youngest
pupils, wearing white muslin veils and wreaths of
cornflowers on their heads, scattered Maman Campan's
sweetest blossoms before the Holy Sacrament Mme
Campan and the chancellor, M. de Lac^pide, followed,
together with the governesses and the other pupils,
singing hymns.

The birthday of the Emperor, to whom the little
pupils owed this pleasant home, was celebrated on
August 1 5 by a grand Mass, at which the bishop of
Troyes, the Emperor's own chaplain, and the six
chaplains belonging to the establishment, officiated.
A magnificent dinner — including the inevitable tardets
and creams — was then given to the pupils, attired in
their best clothes, Mme Campan inviting fifty ladies
to dine with her, when the Emperor's health was
drunk with enthusiasm. The chdteau was illuminated
in the evening, and the pupils and some of the younger
governesses danced to the sound of a piano and a violin.

It was a sad anniversary that of the batde of
Austerlitz, when so many of the pupils had been
orphaned, which was kept on December 2 by order

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THE EMPEROR VISITS ECOUEN

of the lord-chancellor, M. de Lac^p^de. After hearing
Mass, the whole establishment walked in procession
to the park, where the head of the senior class and
the head of the junior class solemnly planted two
young trees ornamented with the colours] of the Legion
of Honour.

In February 1809 an epidemic of measles broke
out among the pupils at Ecouen ; as more than one
hundred children were ill at one time, several dormitories
had to be turned into hospital wards. So carefully
were the children nursed by Maman Campan and her
assistants, that only three died. One of these be-
longed to the classe violette — that is to say, she wore a
violet sash. When the dead girVs little sister heard
that her big sister was no more, she was heart-broken,
and gathered up several articles which had belonged
to the dear dead one, wept over them, and refused to
be parted from them.

Ever since the establishment had been opened,
Mme Campan had been hoping that the Emperor
would come and see for himself how she had acquitted
herself of the task confided to her motherly heart
Another extract from Les Lettres de deux amies
describes a surprise visit which was made, March
4, 1809:—

'' Madame la directrice was walking in the garden
when she saw a page and several grooms wearing
Napoleon's livery approach the house ; somebody ran
to summon her, whereupon she hastene^l to the
wicket-gate. The page informed her that the Emperor
was coming to Ecouen, and that he would arrive in
a few minutes; upon hearing which all the ladies
flocked round Mme Campan, asking what they were

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

to do. Were they to dress the children ? Where
were they to stand ? What were they to do ? There
was no time to make the children put on their best
clothes. * To the classrooms, and every lady to her
post!' was the word of command. The chancellor,
whom Napoleon had only informed at eleven o'clock
that morning that he was going to Ecouen, luckily
arrived a few minutes before his master.

"At half-past twelve the Emperor's carriage

entered the courtyard ; he was accompanied by the

prince de Neufch4tel/ the other members of his suite

occupying a second carriage. His Excellence the

chancellor and Madame la directrice received the

founder of Ecouen under the great porch. He first

walked through the refectories and the classrooms on

the ground floor ; he put some very easy questions to

several of the litde ones, to which they replied very

nicely, displaying scarcely any timidity. Napoleon

examined the stockings which the little pupils were

knitting, opened them, slipped his hand into them

and turned them inside out, just as if he were a good

housewife. While Napoleon was inspecting the

dormitories, the studio, the infirmary, and the

dispensary, we were made to take our places in the

chapel ; the clergy then walked in procession, carrying

the crucifix, to meet him outside the porch, and make

a speech. The head chaplain's discourse was simple

and deeply touching. Napoleon then went and knelt

in the place reserved for him ; he rose from his knees

when we began to sing a hymn which he had never

before heard sung by so many fresh young voices,

and which seemed to give him pleasure.

^ Berthier.

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NAPOLEON REVIEWS THE PUPILS

" On leaving the chapel, our benefactor went to look
at the north terrace. We were then made to stand
in two long rows, reaching from the chdteau to the
park.

" * I do not often assist at such reviews,' remarked
Napoleon; 'these young people all look in good
health;

" When somebody replied with reason that it was
due to the pure air. Napoleon added : —

*' * And to good care I '

"This remark was repeated by the ladies, who
felt much flattered. When he to whom we owe so
much reached the end of the path, Madame la
directrice asked him if he would allow some of the
pupils to dance in his presence, as we were accustomed
to do on ffete-days.

*• Certainly ! ' replied he ; * let them dance, by all
means.'

'' The pupils immediately began to dance all along

the path. Mile Caroline de R sang a solo, which

the pupils then repeated in chorus.

"Napoleon listened attentively to the following
verses : —

''^Cette plume qui donna
D&s lors k I'Europe eati^re,
Dans un r&glement tra^a^
Nos devoirs, notre pri&re,
Quand de son nom belliqueux
II fait retentir la terre,
Id nos plus simples jeux
L'intdressent comme un p&re.'

^ In xeference to a fourteen-page memorandum concerning his
plans for the education of the daughters of his brave soldiers, which
Napoleon, one evening after winning a battle in Poland, had dictated
to one of his aides-de-camp.

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

" The word father^ uttered by a multitude of
children who owed to Napoleon that inestimable benefit,
a good education, and this assembly of young girls,
the fathers of many of whom had already terminated
their career or who still served under the flag, seemed
to make a deep impression upon him; his face
betrayed his emotion.

** The dance over, Napoleon ordered Madame la
directrice to give him the names of the four most
obedient and most industrious pupils. She was
visibly embarrassed; such a matter is both difficult
and pleasing ; however, we all applauded her choice.

" * I give each of these young ladies,' said he, ' a
pension of 400 francs as a proof of my pleasure.*

*'The pupils then went to dinner. Napoleon
entered the refectory and went and stood beneath the
pulpit, when the pupil who had to read that day finished
the Lord's Prayer with a special prayer for him.
He looked up at her, and was so kind as to bow to
her. He then asked several questions concerning
our meals ; he asked what treats we were given on
f^te-days. Madame la directrice replied that we were
allowed either tartlets or creams.

" * Well, then,' replied he, * next Sunday you must
celebrate my visit by giving them both tartlets and
creams ! *

" Just as Napoleon was about to get into his car-
riage, he deigned to inform his Excellence the chan-
cellor that he was going to attend to the organiza-
tion of other educational establishments for the
daughters of knights of the Legion of Honour, and
that our house was only a temporary institution. This
remark must have delighted his Excellence, who, for

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the last two years, has been working with zeal and
perseverance at a very different task to that which
usually occupies his time. ... I have just been inter-
rupted by loud cries and the clapping of many pairs
of hands ; on going to ascertain what was happening,
I saw all the girls assembled in the courtyard ; they
were gazing in rapture at a number of baskets con-
taining at least twenty different kinds of jams and
sugar-plums sent by Napoleon to Madame la directrice
for Sunday's feast. . . . The little ones are really
vastly entertaining : one of them, on seeing the first
basket of sugar-plums unpacked, cried : ' Oh I what a
fine thing it must be to be a conqueror ! he must be
able to eat as many sugar-plums as he likes ! ' . . ."

Napoleon had put a very poignant question to
Mme Campan on taking leave of her and her children.

" Why," asked he, ** did the old system of educat-
ing girls in France prove a failure } "

**It was because they lacked good mothers!"
quoth Maman Campan.

" Well said," exclaimed Napoleon, himself the son
of a good mother ; " let our Frenchmen owe to you the
education of the future mothers of their children ! "

Before many weeks had elapsed, Napoleon had
decreed the formation of five other educational establish-
ments for girls, viz. : Saint-Denis and Mont Val6rien,
both outside Paris ; Les Loges, at Saint-Germain ;
Les Barbeaux, near Melun ; and Pont-k-Mousson, in
the department of Meurthe-et-Moselle.

As at Saint-Germain, Mme Campan gathered
round her all the best teachers of the day ; from London
she summoned a well-known pianist and harpist, a
certain Frenchwoman of the name of Laval, who,

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

although able to earn ;^I200 a year, was always in
debt ; when inviting this lady to return to her native
land, Mme Campan said that she could not afford to
pay her a very high salary, but that she hoped, as living^
was less expensive in France, Mme Laval would accept
her offer. Let us hope that Mme Laval turned over
a new leaf, and was not like some of Mme Campan's
teachers, who had to be dismissed lest their bad
example should corrupt the little girls' morals.

In April, Napoleon appointed Mme Campan's former
pupil, the queen of Holland, as the patroness of Ecouen.

Mme Campan, with a salary of 15,000 francs, was
now on the topmost wave of prosperity. The establish-
ment at Ecouen became one of the ** sights " of the
day and was visited by people from many lands, in-
cluding the king of Bavaria, the viceroy of Italy
(Hortense's brother Eugene), and Caroline Murat,
now queen of Naples, who, on returning to their own
countries, founded similar institutions.

The number of girls* schools in and around Paris
had grown enormously during the last few years ;
many of these were day-schools. Mme Campan held
that boarding-schools for young ladies ought to be
situated outside the city, and not, as was frequendy the
case in those days, in the upper floors of a big build-
ing inhabited on the entrance floor by a notary
employing several clerks, with possible and very
probable consequences — flirtations between romantic
misses and underfed quill-drivers, in the throes of
calf-love and with a taste for poetry.

Mme Campan proposed that the number of girls'
schools should be limited : —

*• The two sexes would then no longer study to-

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LUCIEN REFUSES TO MAKE FRIENDS

gether, and girls would only be taken as day-boarders
until they had made their First Communion. Little
girls ought not to be allowed to run about the streets
of a capital which offers such dangers to morality.
Day-schools exist in Philadelphia and New York, but
boarding-schools are unknown. Schools for all classes
of society ought to be opened. The poorer classes
would pay four francs a month ; the richer would pay
twelve francs or twenty-four francs ; for the latter class,
drawing, writing, and dancing masters would be
provided."

Many of these smaller schools had failed on account
of the deamess of such necessities as bread and
vegetables ; in some cases the pupils' clothes and
trinkets had been seized to pay the debts contracted
by the schoolmistresses, and Mme Campan herself
rescued a friendless girl of fifteen from a school while
the sale of furniture, etc., was actually taking place.
It was for this reason that she said that thirty boarding-
schools kept by nuns or private persons ought to
suffice for Paris and the suburbs, and sixty day-schools
for the capital only.

Mme Campan's prosperity was hi no wise injured
by the divorce of the woman to whom she owed so
much of that prosperity.

Napoleon, immediately after his divorce, which
took place in December 1 809, again wrote to his brother
Lucien, begging him to reconsider his decision, and
send Lolotte to Paris, where he could easily find a
suitable husband for her, having now two eligible
partis^ the prince of the Asturias and the grand-duke
of Wiirzburg, on hand. At last in February, Lucien,
unwilling to spoil his daughter's prospects, sent Lolotte
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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

with her cousin, Mme Gasson, to Paris, where she was
to lodge with her grandmother.

On March 8, Madame Mire wrote to her son
Lucien : —

'' Lolotte has arrived in good health. As soon as
her wardrobe is in order, I shall take her to see the
Emperor, and I am convinced that she will be received
very kindly ; I will tell you all about it on the morrow.
Please Heaven I may be enabled to announce to you
the only thing which I now need to make me perfecdy
happy — namely, your reconciliation.

"VOSTRA liADRE."

Madanu Mire was mistaken. Contrary to his
usual habit, Napoleon treated Mme Campan's former
pupil rather sternly ; it must be allowed that she, alas !
did nothing to earn his affection : she laughed at her
suitors, and made very outspoken remarks concerning
her uncle's Court

It was with difficulty that Lucien had been able
to force himself to send this child — Lolotte was only
just fifteen — up to Paris. He considered the two
marriages proposed by his powerful brother unsuit-
able. Before Lolotte had been many days in Paris,
her father, dreading lest Napoleon should conclude
another of his disastrous lightning marriages, wrote to
the match-maker : '' Send her back to me, or I will
set your commands at defiance and come and look
for her in the saUms of the Tuileries."

Napoleon took no notice of this threat

Imprudent in her behaviour and conversation, poor
homcrsick Lolotte was likewise imprudent on paper.
Unfortunately for her, Napoleon, like Queen Marie

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LOLOTTE BONAPARTE IN DISGRACE

Caroline of Naples, was fond of opening other people's
letters ; so when he came upon this effusion from Mile
Lolotte: "Oh! my little papa, how wise you were
not to come here I America would be a thousand
times nicer, I am sure " — he cried, in anger that his
kindness had met with such ingratitude : —

'' She shall go I I never want to hear her name
mentioned again! She must leave Paris within
twenty-four hours."

No sooner said than done. Mile Lolotte's pretty
new clothes were flung anyhow into her trunk, and
before another twenty-four hours had elapsed she had
shaken the dust of Paris off her feet

On clasping the wanderer to his heart, Lucien
cried : —

*' My child, I have made a great mistake ; but I
have got you back again, so the harm is repaired"

In the autumn of 1810 the young ladies of Ecouen
embroidered a magnificent Court costume and train
for the new Empress, who had already shown an
interest in the establishment by begging Mme Campan
to admit as a pupil a member of a very old French
family. Mile de Mailld de Bt6z6 (later Mme de
Monthiers).

It was about this time that Mme Campan met with
an accident ; while driving with her son on the road
to Saint^Germain, the horse ran away and the occupants
of the carriage were flung into a ditch. Mme Campan
escaped with a few bruises, but her son was so badly
hurt that he did not recover from the accident for
three years.

Mme Campan's ambition was perilously akin to that
of the Emperor when she now suggested that all

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the girls' boarding-schools in Paris and in the depart-
ment of the Seine should be abolished by January i,
1 818, and the pupils sent to Ecouen and the other
Napoleonic educational establishments. Alas! before
that date the founder of those establishments had been
*' abolished,'' and directresses and pupils driven from
their magnificent abodes. However, Napoleon wisely
took no notice of her suggestion.

Mme Campan was much exercised about this time
concerning the fate of one of her pupils, a penniless
Mile Bemelle, who nevertheless could boast that nine
members of her family had obtained the coveted cross
of the Legion of Honour ; this young lady had been
^^gsig^ for several months to a Captain Guerdin of
the Imperial Guard Now Napoleon had lately
given commands that no officer in this regiment was
to marry any lady who had not at least one hundred
/outs income. Mme Campan interceded for the
lovers, and, after many rebuffs, at last obtained the
Emperor's consent to their marriage. She was less
successful when she endeavoured to find a position
for her son Henri, who, should she die suddenly,
would be penniless ; and yet he was not wanting for
friends : did not Savary say of him : " There is not
a public functionary more esteemed and beloved than
he"?

Mme Campan had another anxiety in the person
of the "all too pretty" Pholoi, whose protector was
now dead, and whom Maman Campan for the last
two years had fed, clothed, and educated at her own
expense. Talleyrand had promised the prince de
Nassau-Siegen to look after the child's interests.
This promise, like many others, he promptly forgot,

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MARIE LOUISE VISITS ECOUEN

and did not even take the trouble to see that the
legacy of 20,000 florins bequeathed to Pholod by her
guardian was paid to hen Realizing that her son
Henri and the poor little orphan would be almost
friendless at her death, Mme Campan begged
Hortense, who had displayed much interest in
Pholod, to act as the child's guardian, and to continue
to pay to Henri, after his mother's death, the salary
which she had lately been in the habit of receiving.

On July I, 181 1, Napoleon and Marie Louise
paid a visit to Ecouen. This time the Emperor came
with a numerous retinue, consisting of Mmes de
Montebello, de Montmorency, and Talhouet, the
prince de NeufchAtel, the dues de Frioul and de
Vicence, mar^chal Mortier, and the comtes de
Beauharnais, de Nicolai, and de La Briffe.

Mme Campan, having been warned of the visit,
had had time to prepare herself and her pupils. The
latter, attired in stiffly starched muslin aprons and
caps, walked in procession through the Salle de
[Empereur to the entrance to the chapel, where
Mile Momet spoke an address to the founder of the
imperial establishment, who afterwards accorded her
a pension of 600 francs.

''This was the only address," says Mme Campan.
'' I was afraid that he would think me presuming if
any of my own verses were recited."

The performance of the Domine Salvum, sung by
all the pupils, so pleased the Emperor that he had the
singing-teacher summoned to his presence, when he
praised her so that she nearly fainted with emotion.
He then made a speech beginning with these words :
'' Daughters of my brave soldiers, I salute you ! " after

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

which he asked Mme Campan several quefsrions con-
cerning the funds in hand.

M. Fontaine, the celebrated architect, happened
to be among the Emperor's suite. This gentleman,
having remarked that Mme Campan's apartment was
small and dark. Napoleon gave orders that another
wing should be constructed with a suitable lod^ng
for the directress, where she could receive her friends,
upon hearing which that lady made bold to ask the
Emperor to order a new pump for the FoutatMe
Hartense, which he immediately did.

The Emperor then asked her to name her four
best pupils. At first Mme Campan managed to
evade a reply; but Napoleon, after the pupils had
repeated the dances which had pleased him so much
on the occasion of his first visit, returned to the
subject, and this time she was obliged to name not
four but eight of her best pupils, one of whom, Mile
Hortode, was in great distress at that time, as her
father had been taken prisoner at Guadaloup, and
was now in an English fortress.

The Emperor was in high spirits. He praised
everything and everybody. How did the successor
to the Creole, who always knew what to say, behave.^
Mme Campan says : —

" Her Majesty the Empress made no speeches.
Although she is a great princess, she seems shy, as
I could see for myself. I made bold to speak to her
quite simply as if I had already had the honour of
meeting her ; she replied graciously. I told her that
I had prepared milk, fruit, and brown bread for her,
knowing that her Majesty liked such things; to
which she replied : —

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A VISIT TO LA MALMAISON

" ' Another time I will come and partake of some
refreshment, but not to-day, for I have a headache ;
I thank you for the kind thought/

'' She then told me that she was pleased with the
six ladies whom I had sent to her from Ecouen.^ . . .
The children were crazy with delight They kept
putting their little feet on the steps and on the stones
over which the Emperor had walked Even those
who cannot sing in tune, and whose voices are never
heard in chapel, wanted to join in the Domine
Sa/vum; I really thought that the roof would have
come off! "

Although Mme Campan for once does not
mention the inevitable tartlets and creams, we may
be sure that both these delicacies were included in the
pupils' menu on that glorious day, when the children
welcomed " their Father," as they called him, to the
pleasant home provided by his bounty.

Mme Campan was naturally flattered by the new
Empress's visit to Ecouen, but she did not forget her
old friends.

Hortense, about this time, had a road made from
her estate at Saint- Leu to Ecouen, so that she might
see her "second mother" with greater ease. Mme
Campan was also invited by the ex-Empress to
La Malmaison, where she found Josephine sur-
rounded by her faithful friends and enjoying the
companionship of her two eldest grandsons.
Napoleon,* who was afterwards massacred during
a riot at Forii, and Louis,* to be known to history as
Napoleon iii.

^ Six of Mme Catnpan's ex-pupils were in the new Empress's suite.
' Napoleon-Louis, 1804-1831. ' Charles-Louis-Napoleon, 1808-1873.

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

'' The Empress was most kind and quite charmed
me," wrote Mme Campan to the boys' mother, '* I
must confess that I never imagined that such grace
and sensibility could be united to so much common
sense. She lives surrounded by a Court which is as
devoted to her as it can be ; if she no longer shines
like the sun, at least she resembles the sweet, calm
star which follows it I found the princes at La
Malmaison. Prince Napoleon recited a scene from
Racine for me; he took the part of Achille; the
exactness of his intonation reminded me of your
Majesty when you were a child; his memory is
prodigious and his manner of speaking is a sure proof
of his intelligence. As for prince Louis, who had
lately been told the story of Puss-^in-Boots^ he had
thrust one of his little legs into a cardboard boot and,
whip in hand, was bent upon imitating the hero of
that romance ; so excited was he, that he ran through
all the rooms, and would listen to nobody. He is
really charming with his vivacity, his fresh colour, and
his resemblance to your Majesty."

This letter concludes wiUi a request for loo francs
that she may buy a layette for the child of a poor
English lady, nie Cameron, married to a needy
imigri, and already the mother of three children :
" This lady is very virtuous, is an excellent mother,
is still pretty, and one can see that she is accustomed
to good society. Some relatives of mine knew her in
London nearly twenty years ago."

The year 1 8 1 2 was uneventful for Maman Campan
and her children, except for a visit from Hortense,
when the latter distributed as a reward to some of the
best pupils several handsome medals, enamelled with

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HOKTENSE 1)E BEAUHARNAIS.

From a painting by Rdgranct.

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• *.. • ' - '••

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THE HAPPY DAYS OF HORTENSE

a portrait of the beloved Emperor. These visits
were the source of as much pleasure to Hortense as
to the pupils. So warm was the welcome, so truly
did the children's wishes come from the heart, that
Hortense, speaking in 1831 of those visits, said:
** That is the only royalty I ever regretted.*'

At last, in June 18 13, Mme Campan seemed
about to obtain for her son Henri the long-desired
position. The Emperor, in fact, had actually nomin-
ated Henri prefect of Amiens, when M. de la
Tour-du-Pin Gouvemet, backed by some influential
persons at Court, was given that post in order to
compensate him for another appointment which he
had been promised, but had not obtained. And so
poor Henri, the son of **the celebrated Mistress
Campan," as she was called in the London and New
York newspapers of the day, found himself no nearer
obtaining a suitable position than he had been five
years ago.

On June 10, 18 13, Mme Campan's niece, Mme
de Broc, nie Adile Augui^, was drowned owing to
her own imprudence while on an excursion with
Hortense and several other ladies to the cascade of
Gr6sy, in the valley of Sierroz, near Aix-les- Bains.
Mme de Broc had been warned not to go too near
the river, as the bank was steep and slippery; but
brushing aside the guide's proferred hand, she
bounded down the bank; suddenly her foot slipped
and, before her companions could save her, she fell
into the torrent and was swept away. Hortense
wept bitterly for her beautiful young friend; when
the body, after much difficulty, was recovered from
the mountain-torrent, Hortense had a little monument

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

(which can still be seen) erected to her memory over
the spot where poor Mme de Broc lost her life, with
the following inscription : —

ICI
MADAME LA BARONNE DE BROC

Ag6e de vingt-cinq ans, a p4ri,
le id juin, 1813.

O VOUS

qui visitez ces lieux,

n'avancez qu'avec

prudence sur ces

abImes !

SONGEZ k CEUX QUI
VOUS

aiment !

Mme Campan, who had acted as mother for so
many years to the poor young woman, wrote a sad
letter to Mile Cochelet, Hortense's lectrice : —

*' My dear Louise, nothing can describe the despair
of her family. Reason, strength of mind, and resigna*
tion can alone alleviate the pain ; but the wound will
never close as long as we live. I am writing to the
queen (Hortense) to-day to beg her to resign herself
to the severe decrees of Providence. May her health,
her precious health, suffer no harm, is now my prayer.
That angel who devoted herself to her while on earth,
now prays for her in Paradise. Ah ! my dear friend,
strength fails me to write any more, — Your
affectionate friend, Genest Campan."

The year 181 3 brought Mme Campan other
sorrows, which she pours out to Hortense thus : —

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FRANCE IS INVADED

**The Emperor imagines me to be rich, and
fancies that I have lied to him. • . . My first earnings
at Saint-Germain enabled me to buy some furniture,
for my house had been burnt and pillaged. I paid
my husband's debts to the amount of 30,000 francs.
War was the ruin of my establishment, and during the
last five years there I lost 1 2,000 francs every year.
When I went to Ecouen I had 60,000 francs of debts.
Thanks to the kindness of your Majesty and the
princesses, I have been able to pay off 25,000 francs
during the last three years, but I still owe 35,000
francs. I have certain bills which must be paid before
January i, 1814. I am going to beg your Majesty
to anticipate your usual New Year present of 6000
francs and to give it to me now, so that I may pay
off some of that debt"

The winter of 181 3-14 was a terrible one for the
founder of Ecouen and its directress. The Batde of
the Nations had driven the Emperor back to France ;
but although forced to resist the allied armies of
Europe, his genius and the furia francese still
sustained him. On January 27, 18 14, he beat the
invaders at Saint- Dizier.

The sub-prefect of Pontoise having invited all
good patriots to make lint for Napoleon's soldiers, the
mayor of Ecouen paid a visit to Mme Campan and
enlisted her help and sympathy ; the usual school tasks
were laid aside. Mme Campan and her ''little bees,"
as M. M^jan so prettily terms them, worked so hard
that they soon had a huge store of lint, to which
Hortense, the patroness, was begged to contribute by
sending all her old linen to Ecouen, so that the girls
might convert it into bandages and dressings.

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

On February ii, Napoleon won a brilliant victory
over the Allies at Montmirail ; Mme Campan depicts
her delight in the following letter to Hortense : —

"ECOUEN, February 13, 1814.

*' Notwithstanding all my precautions, alarming
news was brought to our secluded abode by the
pupils, but it in no wise troubled our calm existence.
The lessons went on with the greatest regularity ; not
a single governess left the institution ; we might have
been miles and miles away from Paris. I had laid in
a store of vegetables, flour, eggs, and prunes sufficient
to last two months in case of any emergency. The
whole country-side for two leagues round was quite
convinced that the enemy would inflict the pain of
death upon anybody daring to trouble the peace of
these shelters for youth. I myself started that
rumour ; I was delighted to hear the peasants repeat
it, for I feared thieves almost as much as I dreaded
the Cossacks. M. de LacdpMe was so kind as to
write his approval of my conduct Our position has
much changed; jay is universal. The Emperor and
his brave fellows have accomplished mirc^les, and I no
longer have any fears for you, Madame, nor for my
beautiful country. By placing our heads near the
ground we could hear the cannons thundering ; I think
we owed this painful privilege to the vicinity of the
hill, but we afterwards heard something much grander,
and that was the guns at the Invalides — a sound
which delighted our hearts. We continue to make
lint for the department ; we have already made more
than eighty pounds, but we must now think of
rejoicings, and I am going to have your Majesty's
kind present of a roundabout put in order. . . ."

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THE FATHERLAND IN DANGER

Alas ! the victory of Montmirail was soon to be
followed by the siege of Paris, and that most cruel
blow, the treachery of so many of those friends who
had sworn to be faithful to their Emperor — and per-
haps had meant it — in the days of prosperity ! During
those horrible months when France was smarting with
humiliation for her children's treachery, Hortense
composed a patriotic song with a refrain : —

''Entends le cri de tous les coeurs :
n &at d^endre la Patrie I "^

This song became a great favourite with the
populace, the Emperor's most faithful friends. Mme
Campan's son was instrumental in introducing it to
the town of Toulouse, where he had been given a
small post He taught it to some young girls, who
sang it with such success in one of the chief theatres
that the prima-donna, to whom he had refused to act
as singing-master because she was fifty years of age
and her voice ** two or three lustres older than that,"
as Mme Campan quaintly puts it, threatened to put
poison in his coffee if he ever dared to show himself
at the ca/(f which she kept, and where she was always
to be found when not at the theatre endeavouring to
reach C in alt

Mme Campan did her best to be cheerful during
those weeks of anxiety ; but the presence of marauders
armed with the dead soldiers' weapons, who hid by
day in the woods around Ecouen and came out to
help themselves to what they could find at night, did
not reassure her. The peasants formed themselves
into patrols ; but, as Mme Campan remarked :
'' A picket of mounted soldiers would have been far
more efficacious than our peasants armed with pikes

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

and sticks. It is the chancellor's duty to protect our
establishment, and it is mine to warn him when pro-
tection is necessary, to remain at my post and to care
for my pupils."

It would seem as if Mme Campan was fated to
suffer with France. During the Revolution she had
seen her house burnt and everything in it stolen or
destroyed ; she now heard that her litde farm, " all
the property I had in the wide world," had been the
scene of a horrible battle, and that the dear animals
she loved so well, the agricultural implements, all the
produce — everything had been burnt by the invaders.

'' I must learn to be resigned," she remarks ; then
pushing aside her own troubles, she writes to
Hortense : '' The hospitals are in need of lint ; your
Majesty must send some more old linen to the two
institutions (Ecouen and Saint-Denis). I have sent
sixty pounds of lint to the hospital which is now being
organized at Pontoise. I hear that your Majesty is
also making a quantity."

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CHAPTER XVI

Abdication of Napoleon— The Emperor Alexander pays a visit to Mme
Campan, and makes a strange confession—The queen o[ Holland
as duchesse de Saint-Leu — Mme Campan bids farewell to Ecouen
— She suffers for Napoleon's fovours — She obtains ^an audience
with the duchesse d'Angouldme — Generosity of '* Petite Bonne" —
The Hundred Days' Wonder—The Silver Lilies give place to the
Golden Bees— Napoleon finds time to review his ''little bees"—
Farewell to France — ^The White Terror claims its victims.

On April ii, 1814, Napoleon abdicated at Fontaine-
bleau. The day before the " Father " of the daughters
of the Legion of Honour signed away the power
which he had won by his own prodigious talents,
Mme Campan, unaware of the tragedy which was
about to be enacted, wrote to Hortense, who had gone
to stay with the ex-Empress at La Malmaison : —

"... As for us, Madame, we very nearly received
a visit from the Cossacks who pillaged Sarcelles;
luckily I had dispatched a letter on April i to
General Sacken by the hand of a trusty friend He
sent me three men belonging to the Russian army
and a safeguard written in that language. I had it
copied and affixed to the gates. We did not see a
single Cossack. . • . I saved many terrified ladies, who
are now lodging in the institution. Saint-Denis has
been besieged ; canons were placed on the top of the
garden-walls. Never would the chancellor have been
able to persuade nte to remain with children and

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women-folk in a wretched village with cannons going
off all around us ; he would have been very angry
with me, but I would never have given in to him.
Had any harm come to those children, he would have
been held responsible. Luckily they got off with a
few shells and bombs which fell into their garden, and
they had to learn their book in damp cellars. Here
our litde ones knew nothing of what was happening."

Mme Campan soon felt the consequences of the
Emperor's departure. Before another month had
elapsed she was writing her last letter addressed to
her Majesty Queen Hortense : —

*' I have so little money to spare for other people,
that I don't know which way to turn ; for I have to
wash and feed, dine and sup, three hundred and sixty
persons. As for me, I have not got a sou, and my
son is lying ill at Montpellier."

No sooner had Niapoleon left France than the
capital was invaded by hordes of inquisitive foreigners;
Mme Campan received visits from Anglais et Anglaises
who had heard of the splendid institution at Ecouen ;
she writes to Hortense : —

"They all display interest in your statue and
portrait when I tell them that the latter represents a
person who is as amiable as she is virtuous. One of
them, a commodore or a captain in the navy, whose
name I do not know, said to me in English : * We
know she is a very accomplished lady, and her mother
the best-hearted lady in the universe' {sic), ..."

The Emperor Alexander of Russia paid several
visits to the woman whom people were pleased to call
" Napoleon's victim," the Empress Josephine and her
daughter, now to be known as the duchesse de Saint-

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A STRANGE CONFESSION

Leu. He also went to see Mme Campan at Ecouen,
when she thanked him for having sent three Russian
soldiers to protect the daughters of the Legion of
Honour ; she invited him to stay to lunch, after which
she took him to see the chapel with the old stone pew
in which the Constable de Montmorency and his
wife used to hear Mass, and then they walked up a
hill overlooking the country where she told him she
had stood and watched the Battle of Paris; after
listening to her in silence, the Emperor made the
following confession: —

"Had that batde lasted two hours longer, we
should not have had a single cartridge left ; we were
afraid that we had been misled, for we had been in
too great a hurry to reach Paris — and then we had
not counted upon such stubborn resistance/'

On bidding his hostess farewell, the Emperor of
Russia promised to send the pupils some sugar-plums.
As the days passed by and no sugar-plums appeared,
the children probably drew comparisons between their
Emperor, who had always kept his promises to them,
and the invader.

However, the postmaster of Ecouen had over-
heard that promise, and when, some time after this
visit, Alexander stopped to change horses at Ecouen
on his way to the seacoast, where he was to embark
for England, the honest postmaster came to the
door of the Emperor's travelling - carriage and
said: —

" Sire, the pupils of Ecouen are still waiting for
the sugar-plums which your Majesty promised them."

The Emperor excused himself by saying that he
had ordered Sacken to send them ; however, as the
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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

children never got the promised treat, it is probable
that the Cossacks ate them instead.

In July 1 8 14, Mme Campan wrote the first letter
addressed to the duchesse de Saint- Leu ; it is a sad
one, for it contains the first mention of the rumour
that Ecouen, like its founder, was about to become a
thing of the past : —

"All my poor ladies," says she, "are terribly
anxious until their fate is decided ; and there are
some who, on leaving Ecouen, will literally have to
beg their bread, and others who have not a bed or a
pair of sheets. My heart is breaking. What an end
to come to after all I have endured ! However, I
am well, Madame; I am learning to be resigned.
I realize that these troubles are the outcome of two
revolutions in twenty-five years, and the hot passions
which have raged over our land."

A month later and she is writing her last letter
from Ecouen. Her career of teaching is over ; during
the years of labour unrequited and the months of
success, she had brought up and married her nieces,
two of whom had become mardckales and duchesses
a la mode de NapoUon\ she had educated 1200 litde
girls, some of whom had made grand marriages.
Those glorious days of the Empire were already as
dead and gone as if they had never existed, as if
France had never shone like a beacon in the world
of art and science. And Mme Campan, like many
another, found herself looked upon with suspicion and
dislike because she had faithfully served that marvel-
lous man who had saved her native land from anarchy
and ruin. She was accused of having barbauilU^
^ St bardauilleri to smear oneself with anything.

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NAPOLEON'S MABECHALES

herself with the Bonapartes. So many of those
returned aigrettes who had put their pride in their
pockets and left France in such a hurry when the
old regime first showed signs of falling to pieces, and
had lived as titled sycophants at all the European
Courts, turned up their aristocratic noses at Napoleon's
marichales^ whose husbands had earned their fortunes
and titles on the field of honour, and not on the back-
stairs of a palace, and remarked loud enough to be
heard : —

"We do not know those women — they are only
marichales 1 ''

Mme Campan knew what was in store for her
when she wrote to " Petite Bonne " : —

" Because I served the king and Marie Antoinette
most faithfully, and was loaded with benefits, I
found that I had won many enemies. I am now
ruined. I shall endeavour to lead a quiet but useful
life. You, by your kindness, your fame, of which I
litde dreamt when I received you into my home and
mothered you — you have aroused a whole army of
enemies against my poor person. The envious, who
love neither brilliant talents nor Fortune's favours,
nor victorious courage nor the manifestations of
beauty in art, cannot forgive me for having one niece
a marichaUy another a duchess. . . . Some blame me
for having professed revolutionary opinions, whereas
I have never ceased to regret the excesses of the
Revolution ; others blame me for having brought up
the beautiful women who adorned Napoleon's Court
I shall see the comte de Blacas to-morrow, for all
Paris must know that my sovereign acknowledges me
to be an honourable woman ; he must^ for I deserve

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

it, and kings should be just to their humblest
subjects."

Mme Campan had to care for other people than
herself, for she had to provide for the orphan Pholo4
who was still waiting for the legacy which the prince
of Nassau-Siegen had bequeathed to her. Mme Ney
had been very kind to the girl, inviting her to her
house on many occasions. In the spring of 1814,
Mile Pholo^ made the acquaintance of a Russian
diplomatist, Boutikim by name, which acquaintance,
carefully fostered by Mme Ney, in whose house the
young people had met, ripened after a few months
into love.

A good deed is never wasted ; the seed of kind-
ness which Mme Campan had scattered with such a
generous hand in prosperity, blossomed and brought
forth fruit in the hour of trial. All her friends rallied
round her ; foremost among these were M. de Lally-
Tollendal and Eliza Monroe's father, both of whom
interceded for her to Louis xviii.

While waiting for her fate to be decided, Mme
Campan took rooms in a little house outside the walls
of the Imperial Establishment over which she had
once ruled as queen ; here she stored what remained
of the wreck of her fortunes ; it was not much : a
cracked porcelain cup out of which Marie Antoinette
had often drunk, a rickety writing-table which had
stood in her royal mistress's boudoir at Versailles, a
muslin dress, yellow with age, made from stuff pre-
sented to the ill-fated queen of France by Tippoo
Sahib.^ And here she sat for long hours waiting.

^Tippoo Sahib, Sultan of Mysore in 1782, resisted the English
invader, and perished at the siege of Seringapatam in 1799.

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THE DUCHESSE D'ANGOULftME

Wherever she looked, both within doors and without,
she was surrounded by the Past — by her side the
frail relics of a dead youth ; on the other side of the
garden-wall, Ecouen, with its old chapel and stately
park, the once busy hive where Napoleon's little bees
had learnt their lessons under her motherly eye.

On hearing that the duchesse d'Angoul^me, la
petite Madame, as Mme Campan had often called
that unfortunate princess in her childhood, had
returned to the Tuileries, the old lady, undaunted by
the cool reception accorded by the duchess to Ad^e
de Boigne, one of Hortense's fellow-pupils at Saint-
Germain, rather imprudently begged for an audience.
The duchesse d Angoulfime's first words were gracious
enough : —

"I have never forgotten your devotion to my
mother ; I know that you were faithful until the end,
and that your prayer to be allowed to follow her to
the Temple was rejected ; I have never believed any
of the slander uttered against you."

However, when Mme Campan, after describing
her struggle with poverty at Saint-Germain, went on
to speak of the difficulties she had experienced, and
the losses she had sustained while at Ecouen, the
princess stopped her short with this remark, uttered in
a peculiarly acid tone : —

" You would have done better if you had remained
at Saint-Germain ! "

Whereupon the audience came to an abrupt con-
clusion.

Then the ** Petite Bonne" of the days of
Montagne de Bon- Air came to the rescue, sold some
of her jewels, and, with the proceeds, gave her old

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friend the first instalment of the pension which she
continued to pay until the day of her second mother's
death.

In June 1814 Mme Campan's health necessitated
a course of waters at Aix-les- Bains, after which she
paid a visit to the grandmother of two of her former
pupils» Alix and Josephine d'Audiffr^y.

In the autumn of 18 14 Mile Pholo^ went to
Vienna in order to be present at the Congress ; here
she found Boutikim, who acted as her cicerone, and
presented her to the Emperor of Russia. Before she
left Vienna, Boutikim asked her to marry him, a
proposal which Pholo^ whose fortune consisted of
vague expectations, was delighted to accept; the
marriage was celebrated quite as quickly as if
Napoleon had had the management of the affair.

Boutikim's influence at Court enabled him to
obtain the money due to his wife, who now found
herself possessed of a handsome fortune, some of
which she might have sent to the lady who had acted
as mother to her for so many years; but Boutikim
forbade her to hold any communications with her old
friends in France.

The return to France of Louis U Disiri did not
produce all the wonderful things which the nation
had been promised. Too many of the Emperor's
faithful servants still remained to deplore either
openly or in secret the departure of their chosen
sovereign. Even the little pupils of the Legion of
Honour Establishment at Saint- Denis, which, unlike
the sister institution at Ecouen, had not been
abolished, manifested their love for their absent
Emperor so loudly on the occasion of a visit from the

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duchesse d'Angoul6me, that she vowed she would
never again cross their threshold.

It was the poor and the humble, those who had
suffered most for, and reaped less from, the Empire,
whose joy was most sincere when they learnt that
the people's Emperor, the soldiers' Emperor who
once said : " Each wound adds another quarter to the
escutcheon " — meaning thereby that the titles won by
bravery on the battlefield were the only ones worth
having — was once more on French soil.

'*Bon! bonl

Napoleon

Va reotrer dans ta maison ! "

cried a humble cantiniire on hearing that Napoleon
had escaped from his gaolers. And the vieux
grognards beat time on their knees as if already on
the march as they echoed : —

** Nous allons voir le grand Napoleon
Le vainqueur de toutes les nations I '*

A blue-stocking at Nancy, in a patriotic frenzy,
seized her pen and flourished off an ode ending with
the following apostrophe : —

" Reviens I reviens ! C'est le cii de la France
Pour terminer sa honte et sa souifrance ! "

M. Henri Houssaye, in 1815: Les Cent-Jours,
paints such a vivid picture of the scenes enacted at
the Tuileries when the Emperor returned to his own
again that we can almost see the expressions on the
faces of the actors in that drama. Faith in Napoleon's
star, fear lest they should be punished if they stayed
away, remorse for having accepted favours from his
enemies, had brought many to the palace ; there were

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Davout, Maret, Lebrun, Daru, none of whom had yet
been made peers by the Bourbons; Savary, whose
loquacity later erased the memory of his bravery ;
Gaudin, afterwards made governor of the Bank of
France; Lavalette, the true; Thibaudeau, a former
canventionnel, whose exile in consequence of this act
of fidelity was to last until the Bourbons again left
France ; Decr^, the admiral ; Regnault de Saint-
Jean d'Ang^ly, who served the eagle and the eaglet
with equal devotion; the comte de S^ur, D^jean,
Lef&vre, Exelmans. . . . While these gentlemen were
waiting for their Emperor to appear, the Salle des
Marichaux^ the Galirie de Diane, and the Salle du
TrSne were suddenly invaded by a troop of fair
women (many of whom had been brought up by
Mme Campan) wearing their most beautiful clothes,
jewels, and laces; they included the princesse
d'Eckmiihl (Aim^e Leclerc) — who said to her husband
when, on the return of the Bourbons, he found him-
self hated for his brave defence of Hamburg : " Never
have I been prouder of the fact that I am your wife " ;
the gentle duchesse de Plaisance, n^e Sophie de
Marbois ; the duchesse de Rovigo, the heiress Fdlicit^
Fodoas; the comtesse Regnault de Saint-Jean
d'Ang^ly ; the comtesse de Lavalette, n^e Emilie
de Beauharnais, of whom Napoleon said at St.
Helena : " She, by her conjugal love, has become an
illustrious woman."

On reaching the Salle du TrSne, one of the ladies
remarked that the silver lilies on the carpet seemed
as if they had been appliqudd and not woven into the
design; bending down, she gave a pull at the
Bourbon lily, which came off in her hand revealing

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SILVER LILIES AND GOLDEN BEES

the Napoleonic bee. With cries of delight the ladies
tore off their gloves, knelt down in their silks and
satins, and set to work to restore the carpet to its
former state ; in less than half an hoar not a silver
lily was to be seen, and every golden bee stood out
clearly on the crimson ground. Their task was just
finished when a roar of Vive tEmpereurl was heard
in the distance.

Napoleon's carriage had scarcely entered the
courtyard of the Tuileries when the Emperor was
seized by his arms and legs, torn from his seat,
carried to the door, and borne to the foot of the stair-
case, while the men, who only two minutes ago had
seemed as if they were still under the influence of
some evil dream, cuffed and kicked one another,
fought like tigers in their fierce longing to touch the
Emperor's person or his clothes. Caulaincourt, fear-
ing lest the returned exile should be crushed to death,
shouted in terror to Lavalette, who was a broad-
shouldered, powerful man : —

" For God's sake, stand in front of him ! "

With a few well-directed blows, Lavalette forced
his way through the crowd to the foot of the staircase,
when he turned round with his face to the Emperor,
and began to ascend the staircase backwards, crying
as he did so : '' It is you I it is you 1 it is you ! '^ as if
trying to convince himself that his idol had really
returned, while Napoleon, with closed eyes, a fixed
smile on his pale face, and his arms hanging down as
if he were asleep, was borne up that staircase to live
the Hundred Days' Wonder.

The meeting with his faithful Rapp was touching
in the extreme. The Emperor flung his arms round

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

the neck of the hero of Danzig, held him tightly,
while he kissed him over and over again, and then,
with a final pull at the brave fellow's moustache,
released him with this remark : —

^^ Allons! A brave fellow who had gone through
Egypt and witnessed Austerlitz could not desert me."

And then he added : —

" You and Ney are among the few who are true
as steel."

Alas ! he was mistaken in the case of Ney.

Nobody was forgotten during that brief gleam of
splendour; Mme Campan's old heart was filled to
overflowing when she received a formal promise from
the man who kept his promises that Ecouen should
be restored to its former state with " Petite Bonne "
as the patroness, and all the 375 little girls who
loved their second mama so dearly, and the 40
ladies, their governesses, "who loved her so little,"
as she herself remarked. He even found time to go
down to Saint-Denis, where the '* bees " tumbled over
one another, pushed and jostled each other in a most
unladylike manner in their endeavours to get near
their "Father," and, with little cries of ecstasy,
fingered his coat, stroked his sword, and smoothed
the nap on the legendary hat In fact they became
so riotous that Mme Lozeau had to order them to
display their joy in a more seemly manner. But
Napoleon checked her, saying : —

" Let them alone, don't stop them ; their cries
may make the head ache, but they warm the
heart ..."

The Hundred Days had come and gone. . . .

Louis xviii was swifter to show his rancour than

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ARREST OF LAVALETTE

his gratitude. On July i8, ten days after Napoleon
had left France for the second time, Lavalette, the
bravest of the brave, who had been warned of what
was in store for him, was arrested while dining with
some friends, and placed in solitary confinement at
the Conciergerie. His crimes were unpardonable:
he had refused all favours from the hands of Louis le
Disiri \ on learning that his Emperor had returned
to France, he had gone to the Hdtel des Postes,
ordered the director Ferrand, in the Emperor's name,
to give up his post to him, and had furthermore
offended the director by presenting him with a pass-
port for Orl^ns, whereas Ferrand wanted to join
Louis xviii at Lille. Lavalette's affection for his wife
and child had alone prevented him granting Napoleon's
request when the Emperor, at La Malmaison, asked
him to go into exile with him. Lavalette, in refusing,
had given this reason : —

" I have a wife, and a daughter of thirteen. My
wife is expecting another child; I cannot make up
my mind to leave her. Give me a little time and
then I will come to you wherever you are. I was
faithful to your Majesty in the days of prosperity, so
you can count upon me. Besides, if my wife did not
require my presence, I should do well to leave France,
for I have melancholy presentiments for the future."

Napoleon understood ; far from being offended or
wounded by his friend's refusal, he only seemed to
think more highly of him.

One author asserts that "people demanded the
heads of Ney, La BMoy^re, and Lavalette."

What people ? Certainly not the people^ always
ready to recognize a noble deed. The '' people " in

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

this case were returned ^migr^s, ultra-royalists,
courtiers of the chameleon species.

Ney, arrested soon after Lavalette, occupied a
cell just over that of his rival in the Emperor's aflfec-
tions, which was close to the stone-paved prison in
which Marie Antoinette ate the bread of tears. From
eight o'clock in the morning until seven at night,
Lavalette was deafened by the shrieks and oaths of
women-prisoners in their prison, which was only
separated from his cell by a wall, The gaolers were
frequently obliged to part the viragoes. Sometimes
Lavalette would burst into tears on hearing the strains
of the flute which Ney, who was passionately fond of
music, was allowed to play in his cell. This consolation
was soon taken from him, for Ney's gaolers turned
prudent and confiscated the flute.

Mme Ney, once the light-hearted EgW Auguid,
and her four sons were indeed to be pitied. Mme
Campan, too, was in sore trouble ; her son had fallen
ill at Montpellier ; she herself was driven from Paris,
where food and lodging were too expensive for her
meagre funds, and forced to go to Bercy. But
philosophy came to her aid.

"The noblest and richest, the humblest and
poorest alike, can content themselves with a cottage.
Why should we regret the world ? " she asks herself.
'' One thing alone can make us quail, and that is the
fear of not having enough to buy our daily bread.
But a soft bed, a good fire, a warm room, a plain
meal, good books, and two or three friends to prevent
one finding oneself too often face to face with one's
own thoughts, which are not always very pleasant
companions, with fairly good health, one can say :

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A SOLDIERS END

• There is a thunderstorm somewhere over the horizon,
but I cannot see the lightning, I cannot hear the
thunder, the hail cannot harm me ' — and that is much.
A philosopher once said : ' Let us learn in misfortune
to appreciate small blessings/ ..."

It was well known that the duchesse d'Angoul6me
had great influence over her uncle Louis xviii ; it was
therefore to this strange creature that Mmes Ney,
de la B^doy^re, and Lavalette, heart-broken at the
cruel sentence passed on their husbands, determined
to apply. The case of Lavalette had aroused much
sympathy ; Baron Pasquier had endeavoured to save
him, and had assured the due de Richelieu that the
king would do his own cause more harm than good
by executing him. But the duchess was inexorable.
Lavalette's attitude during his trial had been calm
and manly; on hearing sentence of death passed
upon him, he said to his weeping friends : —

'' Mes amis, this is but a cannon-shot ! *'

But when he found himself back in his horrible
cell, his courage gave way, and he could scarcely find
strength to write to his friend of former days, Marmont,
now in favour and obliged to choose his acquaint-
ances, begging that he might not be guillotined but
shot by soldiers. On December 7 his gaoler informed
him that Ney, his old comrade-in-arms, was to be
shot on the Place de Grive. Again he wrote to
Marmont : —

"We old soldiers think little of death, we have
faced it so often on the field of honour, but on the
Grfeve — oh ! that is too horrible ! In the name of
our old friendship, do not allow one of your old
comrades-in-arms to ascend the scaffold. Let a picket

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

of grenadiers finish me off. At least in the throes of
death, let me imagine that I am about to fall on the
field of honour ! "

His request was refused. In order to accustom
himself to the idea of being guillotined, Lavalette
made his gaolers describe how the victim ascended
the scaffold, how the neck was bared, how the body
was tied to the plank, how long the knife took to do
its work. ... He soon had his nerves under control,
and would say to his wife, who during his trial had
given birth to the child for whose sake he had
remained in France, and which had died almost
immediately : " Why do you weep ? An honest man
may be assassinated, but his conscience supports him
on the scaffold."

Emilie de Lavalette, although at that time so
feeble that she had to be carried in a sedan-chair to
her husband's prison, determined to save him; she
provided him with some of her own clothes, and took
his place in his cell, when he was able to escape to
the house of a friend. When Mr. Bruce,* a generous-
hearted Englishman who had already tried to rescue
Marshal Ney, but had failed, heard of her courage,
he swore that it should not be wasted, and that he
would do his best to smuggle her husband out of
France, which he did, and thus enabled Lavalette to
reach Bavaria, where Eugene de Beauharnais sheltered
him until he was able to return to France, where he
found that his brave wife's brain had given way under
her afflictions.

^ Mr. Michael Bruce was the nephew of the celebrated English
explorer. He was afterwards arrested and condemned to three months'
imprisonment

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"PETITE MADAME" IS JEALOUS

Ney, like Lavalette, had been warned to leave
France ; money had been offered to him, but he had
preferred to remain in his native land He was soon
discovered in hiding in a friend's house, was arrested
and tried, the celebrated Dupin being his counsel
As his comrades-in-arms declared themselves incom-
petent to form a court-martial, his case was taken to
the Chambre des Pairs^ which of course condemned
him. The Duke of Wellington nobly took his part,
protesting that the sentence was contrary to the
amnesty made at the capitulation of Paris. Mme
Ney was even less successful in her efforts to enlist
the duchesse d'AngoulSme's sympathy than her former
schoolfellow had been ; the ** Petite Madame" refused
even to see the ''Petite Augui^," as she had once
called her. It was said in her excuse that she, the
motherless, childless Orphan of the Temple, was
jealous of Mme Ney's four fine children.

Ney met death very bravely. When, at half-past
nine on the morning of December 7, 18 15, the Abb^
de Pierre entered the condemned man's cell with the
comte de Rochechouart and two gendarmes, Ney
greeted him thus : —

'' Ah ! Monsieur le curi^ I understand. ... I am
ready!"

The Marshal looked up at the grey sky as he was
led out to the carriage which was to take him to the
place of execution, a spot close to the garden-gate of
the Observatory of Paris instead of the Place de
Gr^ve as was first arranged, and remarked in a calm
tone : —

*• What a horrible day!"

It was one of those cold, misty winter days in

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

Paris, when the dampness seems to penetrate through
the thickest clothing.

Ney made the good Ahh6 get into the vehicle
first ; " for," said he " I shall presently have to get out
first."

Well protected by soldiers lest the populace
should try to rescue the prisoner at the last moment,
the carriage stopped a few feet from the Observatory
wall, when Ney exclaimed : —

" What ! are we already there ? "

He had been given to understand that he was to
be executed on the plain of Crenelle as La BWoyere
had been.

Two hundred persons had assembled to see the
execution.

Ney having alighted first, the Ahh6 followed
The Marshal then handed the ecclesiastic a gold box
with a request that he would take it to poor EgM
together with some money for the poor of Paris. The
Abb^ wept bitterly as he embraced and blessed the
condemned man, after which he retired some paces
away, flung himself upon the ground, and began to
repeat prayers for the dead. With the greatest calm-
ness Ney asked the adjutant how he was to stand,
and then told the soldiers to aim at his heart. He
only displayed emotion when the adjutant appeared
anxious to bandage his eyes and make him kneel
down to meet Death. Such an indignity was more
than one of Napoleon's braves could stand.

" Do you not know. Monsieur," said he, " that a
soldier should not fear Death, but should meet it
erect .^ " He took off his hat — a broad-brimmed beaver
in J^rdme's picture. The Death of Marshal Ney — and,

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THE DEATH OF NEY

placing his hand over his heart, began in a clear,
distinct voice : —

" Frenchmen I I protest against my condemna-
tion. My honour "

The still air, which had hitherto only been filled
with the drip, drip of falling raindrops, the twittering
of sparrows in the garden of the Observatory, and the
Miserere nos of the Abb6 praying for the soul of the
Marshal, was disturbed by twelve shots. Ney fell
dead in the mud at the foot of the garden wall.

A man stepped out from among the silent crowd
and dipped his handkerchief in the Marshal's blood ;
others followed his example. The corpse lay in the
mud for a quarter of an hour while the Abb6 con-
tinued to pray for the erring soul which had gone to
its Creator. M. Gamot, Ney's brother-in-law, now
appeared, washed the blood from the poor disfigured
face, and had the corpse carried to the neighbouring
hospital of La Maternity. All sorts and conditions of
people, including five hundred Englishmen and many
of Ney's old comrades-in-arms, came to look at the
body lying on a white sheet surrounded by lighted
tapers and watched by Sisters of Charity.

The broken-hearted Eg\6 Ney retired with her
children to her late husband's property of Les
Coudreaux. " Poor Egl^ is horribly altered," wrote
her aunt, Mme Campan, to Mme Ney's former school-
fellow, Hortense ; " her grief surpasses anything you
can imagine."

During the winter of 1 8 15-16 Mme Campan's son

also experienced persecution at the hands of the

Bourbons, being arrested at Montpellier and thrown

into prison, where he languished for three months and

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

suffered such privations that his health was never the
same again. Luckily his poor mother knew nothing
of what had befallen him until he, thanks to M. de
Lally-ToUendal's intervention, had been liberated.

In February 1816 Hortense, who was now at the
chdteau of Arenenberg, invited her old governess to
come and open a girls' school near her, promising to
supply her with funds, and to use all her influence to
make it a success. But Mme Campan, still suffering
from the disappointment of having to sell the land
upon which her pretty farm had once stood in order
to pay her debts, replied : —

" It is too late to begin anything new now that the
end is so near."

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CHAPTER XVII

Mme Campan moves house for the last time — Her son comes to live
with her— Her last pupils— Illness and death of her only child-
She pays a visit to " Petite Bonne " — The finger of Death touches
her — One of Napoleon's draiw^Sht lays down her burden.

In March 1816 Mme Campan took a tiny house at
Mantes, where one of her former pupils, Mile Crouzet,
had married a Dr. Maigne, and where she hoped to
spend her last years working in her garden, tending
her hens and chickens, and comforted by her faithful
(companion, Mme) Voisin.

In the following month Mme Campan had the
consolation of receiving a letter, nominally from the
duchesse de Tourzel, but probably dictated by the
duchesse d*Angouldme, whose heart perhaps had been
touched on hearing of the *' Petite Augui^'s" terrible
grief:—

" I can quite understand, Madame, the pain you
feel whenever doubts are cast upon your attachment
and fidelity to the august princess (Marie Antoinette)
whom you had the honour to serve. It is with great
pleasure that I do justice to you by saying that during
the three years I was with our great and all-too-
unhappy queen I always saw you eager to show your
respect and affection. I witnessed the truth that she

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gave you special proofs of her confidence, and that
you showed discretion and fidelity in divers circum-
stances. You gave her proofs on the occasion of that
unfortunate journey to Varennes, and certain rumours
concerning this event were most unjust I saw you
at the Feuillants on the night of August lo present
to the queen your homage of grief, although you were
not on duty at that time. I am glad to render you
this justice, and I should esteem myself happy if my
letter in some measure could console you for the
anguish with which your heart is filled. — I remain,
Madame, yours, etc.,

" Croy d' Havre, duchesse de Tourzel.**

Soon after setding at Mantes, Mme Campan had
the pleasure of welcoming her son, who, having been
ill ever since his release from prison, came to try to
recover his health in the pure air of that little town.
Like all Frenchmen, his idea of happiness was to
possess a garden, be it no larger than a pocket-
handkerchief ; so, as soon as he felt a little stronger,
he set to work to dig, plant, rake, {H-une, and sow as
if his life depended upon it Indeed, he worked so
hard that he had a relapse, and had to take to his
bed. Mme Campan had her hands full nursing her
son ; her eyes gave her much pain about this time,
but she bore all her troubles bravely, and wrote to
Mile Cochelet : " Why should I complain ? My son,
my friends, the sunshine, the country air which I
breathe, life itself, mental and physical pleasures,
make me forget my pains and anxieties ; and when
the moment comes for me to bid farewell to all, and
to sink into that slumber which we long for in the

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THE EVENING OF LIFE

hour of trial, we shall exclaim like the wood-
cutter : —

*'*Give me back my faggot!'"^

From a message to the Ahh6 Bernard, once her
chaplain at Saint-Germain, now tutor to Hortense's
sons, we learn that Mme Campan is not so fond of
church-going as many of her sex are, but she promises
to go more regularly. One thing she dreads, and that
is gossip, which she expects to find as rampant at
Mantes as in Paris.

In the following letter to her " Petite Bonne " she
draws a graphic description of the evening of her
life:—

'' Mantss, April 28, 1816.

'' We have now been at Mantes for a month ; not
an hour passes that my son does not endeavour to
please me, amuse me, make me forget my sadness.
He reads aloud better than I ever read even in my
best days. We, good Voisin, he and I, finish our
evenings round a little table. My house is small but
pretty, and adorned with the portraits of my dear
pupils, so pleasant to my eyes, because they remind
me of such happy days. I keep my little refuge
scrupulously clean, although I only have one servant ;
luckily my good Voisin helps me keep house. My
garden is in proportion to the house, but fairly pretty,
and I shall have at least sixty pears and eighty peaches
this summer. The town is very pretty ; you used to
pass through it, Madame, on your way to Navarre,
and I love to think that your eyes have gazed upon
this bridge and the banks of the Seine. The

^ An allusion to the well-known fable of Death and the Woodman,
translated into French by La Fontaine, }. B. Rousseau, and Boileau.

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inhabitants of Mantes, that is to say, the poorer
classes, are kind and gentle-mannered. One does not
hear wrangling on the market-place; one does not
see women pulling off each other s caps, no cruel
mother smacking her son on the doorstep and punish-
ing him without telling him the why or the wherefore.
... As for the fashionable folk of Mantes, I have
thought it better not to try to find out if I am to
their taste or not I have only paid official visits.
The cathedral is magnificent William the Conqueror,
during one of his little fits of temper, burnt it down,
but then repented and had it very handsomely rebuilt.
... If I had not to think about the horrible remains
of the debts contracted at Saint-Germain, which my
son's non-advancement has prevented me paying off, I
should no longer have any worries as to my expenses
here ; but I have so litde left, and these illnesses have
cost me so much money that I am very hard up. I
never could have remained in Paris. . . . Alasl for
old affections. Alas! for old acquaintances. The
century in which we live has robbed us of all we loved,
even of the privilege of living near our dear ones, and
of the hope of meeting again. I work, I sew, I write,
I make tapestry. I send you by Elisa some little mats
to preserve mahogany and marble-topped tables from
tea-stains ; they are invented by my sister Rousseau,
who is very particular about such matters. ..."

Mme Campan's old age was brightened by the
friendship of thirty years* duration of the good Mme
Voisin, whose education seems to have been somewhat
neglected, ''for," says her mistress, "she reads aloud
while I sew, and sometimes she says, like the old due

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HER LAST PUPILS

de Laval, Plutarch instead of Petrarch or even
pcUraque^ and that without any wish to ridicule the
author ; but I have got so completely into the habit
of changing the words mangled by my reader that
these little alterations do not put me out in the least,
because the tone of her voice is very pleasant to
hear."

Mme Voisin shared her mistress's worship for
"Petite Bonne," for Mme Campan says: '*Good
Mme Voisin impatiently awaits your portrait ; she
was so touched by your letter that she shed tears, and
she says that she shall immediately have it mounted
as a breast-pin, 'for,' says she, 'her hands are much
too ugly to wear any jewellery ' — but what a kind heart
those ugly paws belong to ! . . . "

In a letter signed La Vieille de la Cabane^ an
echo of the days of Ney's marriage to her niece, when
Hortense had been one of the merriest of the merry
guests, Mme Campan says that she has been obliged
to go up to Paris for medical treatment, where,
"during the space of two months, she has had to
spend eighteen francs every morning in baths,
douches, and medicines before she swallows her
early cup of chocolate ! "

On recovering her health, Mme Campan, with a
view to earning a little money and at the same time
satisfy her passion for educating young people, took
two young English girls, deux charmantes miss [sic],
into her house with the understanding that they were
to remain with her for five months, during which time
she would teach them French.

^ Pairagui it said of a person worn out by illness, also of a worn-
out machine.

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"Oh! happy days!" she writes in July 1817,
** when I used to go into my garden at Saint-Germain
and call : ' Hortense ! Egl^ ! Alexandrine ! Ad^le !
Where are you?* ... I and my son feel quite
lost • • . My heart feels the need of being sur-
rounded by young people. Youth represents hope ;
young people only live, only exist for hope! This
sentiment is the sweetest of all, and experience teaches
us that hope contains the germ of every happiness."

'*Die Hoffinung ftihrt ihn ins Leben cin,

Sie umflattert den frdhlichen Knaben,

Den Jiingling begeistert ihr Zauberschein :

Den beschliesst er im Grabe den miiden Lauf,

Noch am Grabe pilanzt er die Hofihung auf."

Mme Campan now proposed to realize what
remained of her capital in order to pay off" the debt
of 30,000 francs still owing, thereby leaving herself
with a similar sum to invest for her son who, with
his bad health and advancing years, had given up all
hope of obtaining a remunerative position.

Poor Henri Campan was fated to be disappointed ;
in order to help his mother, he took the trouble to
translate Hod Roy into French ; he had just ac-
complished his task when he learnt from a news-
paper article that the book had already been
translated.

When in 181 8 one of her former pupils. Mile
Kastner, opened a boarding-school for little girls,
Maman Campan wrote to her: -'Take a tender
interest in all the poor little things confided to your
care. Look upon the children with a mother's eye.
Say to yourself when tending the very little ones:
' This one has lost her mother I ' or : * That one s

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PRINCE OUI-OUI

mother is depriving herself of necessaries for her
good/ and then add : ' I will act the part of a mother
to her!' . . ."

In this same year Mme Campan heard that her
widowed niece, Mme Ney, was anxious to settle in
Rome with her children ; this plan the aunt did not
approve of, but recommended her to send her children
to a Swiss or German school, where they would learn
German, which would be more useful to them than
Italian.

Mme Campan spent much of her time making
little presents for her beloved Hortense ; many were
the small packets sent from Mantes to Arenenberg :
footstools in the hideous worsted-work of the day,
knitted quilts, pots of home-made preserve, and
recipes for puddings, which she thinks " Prince Oui-
Oui " ^ will find toothsome.

Eliza Monroe, now happily married in America to
a Mr. Hay and the mother of a little daughter
baptized Hortense Eugenie after Eliza's two play-
fellows at Saint-Germain, did not forget her old
governess, and many were the letters which she wrote
to Mantes, although she found that, for some reason
or the other, they frequently miscarried or were
intercepted.

"Tell my dear Hortense and my poor EgH,"
writes she after a request to Mme Campan to send
her a portrait of her old governess, " that my thoughts
have often been with them in their troubles. Tell
the former that nine years ago I gave birth to a little
daughter, who is luckily much prettier than her mama,
for she has my mother's eyes and features. Tell her

^ Hortense's second son, Napoleon- Louis.
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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

that we consider that the greatest honour we can
show a person is to ask them to be sponsor to our
children ; at the time of my child's birth, my father
and mother took upon themselves to act for my
daughter as if they had already obtained the per-
mission of my dear schoolfellow and her estimable
brother. The child bears their two names. We, at
the same time, sent Mr. Morris with dispatches from
our Government to pay our respects, and inform them
of what we had done ; but we received no reply. . . .
My little daughter often talks about her godfather
and godmother. I have ventured to ask them to
send me good copies of their portraits, which shall
belong to my child. Times have changed, not so
my affection ; friendship should remain untouched by
the things of this world, and my daughter will be
honoured for ever on receiving these two portraits,
which will be the most beautiful ornament in her
room* ..."

It was at Eliza Monroe's request that her father
wrote to M. Hyde de Neuville begging him to
interest the due de Richelieu in favour of Mme
Campan's son; but again the past of Marie
Antoinette's former waiting-woman rose up and stood
in the way of advancement.

Although the memory of Ecouen was fatal to
Mme Campan's interest in some quarters, this was
not always the case ; for she found that her former
teachers were in great request, as were her pupils,
many of whom were now forced to earn their
daily bread. "Ah," said she, *'how my heart bled
when I heard that one of the little girls whose
petticoats I once used to mend and whose religious

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DEATH OF HER ONLY CHILD

and moral principles I once carefully guarded, was
covered with a pauper's rags ! "

During the spring of 1820, Mme Campan learnt
that Louis xviii was about to bestow several small
pensions of 2000 francs upon Marie Antoinette's former
chief waiting- women ; her endeavours to persuade the
duchesse de Luynes to speak for her met with no
response. Was not Mme Campan too fond even
now of asserting with pride : *' I educated nearly all
the imperial princesses ! " ?

In August, Henri Campan had a slight stroke
of paralysis which greatly alarmed his mother, and
forced her to acknowledge that, even supposing he
ever obtained the long-expected appointment, he
would probably not be able to accept it. Needless
to say that the efforts of Davout, Macdonald, and
M. de Lally-ToUendal to obtain for him the post of
librarian at one of the three public libraries in Paris
came to naught Thinking to comfort their old
friend, Hortense and Eugene promised to continue to
pay to Henri after her death the pension which she
owed to their generosity. But Fate was to annul
that promise.

Early in January 1821, Henri went up to Paris,
where he caught a bad chill which settled on his
lungs ; enfeebled by his late illness he, at the end of
four or five days, had only just sufficient strength left
to scribble off a few lines to his mother — ^his last
letter, for two days later he was dead.

Dr. Maigne, the husband of Mme Campan's
former pupil, gives an account of the scene enacted
in the little house at Mantes when Maman Campan
learnt that the son who had never given her a day's

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THE CELEBRATED IfADAME CAMPAN

anxiety or caused her to shed a single tear, had gone
to prepare the way.

"I have never beheld," says he, "a more heart-
rending scene than that which I witnessed when the
mar^hale Ney, her niece, and Mme Pannelier, her
sister, came to tell her the terrible news. She was
still in bed when they entered the room. All three
immediately uttered piercing shrieks. Her two visitors
flung themselves on their knees and began to kiss her
hands. They had no time to tell her anything ; she
read in their faces that she no longer had a son.
Her big eyes began to roll, she turned pale, her face
became distorted, her lips white. From her mouth
issued broken phrases, accompanied by piercing cries.
She seemed to lose all control over her limbs and
speech. Every particle of her being was racked with
grief. This unhappy mother seemed on the point of
suffocating. Tears alone were able to calm her agony
and despair. The impression I received that day will
last as long as I live."

In future her one desire was to join her son in
Paradise. Can anything be sadder than this letter
written by her to one of her friends ?

*' You knew the kind, good son for whom I am
now weeping. Alas ! our habits, our lives become
very mechanical. . . . He was often away from home ;
sometimes I fancy he is still in Paris ; then the illusion
suddenly fades and I cry: 'Not absent, but lost!
lost for ever ! ' And then I remember that I shall go
to join him. Oh ! my God ! "

She found consolation in gazing at the portrait of
her lost child. ** Genuine sorrow," said she, "finds
consolation in contemplating the portraits of our dear

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A LONELY OLD AGE

ones. I do not believe in the grief of those who
refuse to do so."

Three days after his death she herself wrote to
tell Hortense, who was then at Augsburg, what had
befallen her : —

<^ yiAxrtKS^ Ja$tua$y 29, 1821.

*' Madame, I am still alive, and yet I have lost
him for whom I lived ! I ceased to be a mother on
the 26th of this month. Behold my sorrow ! but my
broken heart still loves. . . . Alas I I call Henri ; he
no longer hears me, he no longer replies. He sleeps
side by side with the brave fellow (Ney) who has
already been joined by his father-in-law, his brother-in-
law, his cousin. Henri had just spent six months
with me; he was about to return home altered,
crushed, but as intelligent as ever, and having
cultivated his mind beyond anything you can imagine.
What a loss I have sustained in my old age ! He
was the ever-vibrating chord in my heart and soul.
How perfectly we understood one another! How
dearly we loved one another ! Tell the prince
(Eugene) that he has lost a faithful and enlightened
friend. Rank and education do not prevent us
appreciating our true friends — you know that, Madame.
Strength fails me to write more. EgM and Mme
Pannelier are with me. I send you my love and my
respects."

Before many months had passed Mme Campan felt
the first symptoms of the disease— cancer — which was
to re-unite her to her beloved son. She guessed what
was the matter with her, for she wrote to Hortense :
''I still hope that Providence will spare me those

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

dreadful pains which always terminate in a horrible
death."

The doctors recommended a cure at Baden ; the
prospect of combining a visit to ** Petite Bonne"
with that cure kept her occupied until the month of
July.

" I have many little parcels for you, Madame,"
she writes to Hortense, ''and also for priiu:ess
Augusta (Eugene's wife) ; they have been packed very
carefully. I am grieved to keep you waiting. A
pretty umbrella standing in my room makes my heart
ache when the rain begins to patter against the
window-pane, for nothing could be more seasonable.
• . . Mme Lacroix has brought me some more articles ;
all the light ones are already stowed away in a box
which is suspended beneath my chariot ; but I vexed
the poor creature by refusing two dozen chemises.
A very painful operation has been performed on my
leg with a view to dispersing the humours, and my
limb will have to get a litde better before I can think
of starting. You can guess what is the matter with
me. Alas ! they are anxious to keep my old machine
in working order, and I am thankful to think that it
can still carry me as far as Baden."

The physicians had recommended that Mme
Campan's leg should be cauterized in order to reduce
the inflammation in her breast, where cancer had
declared itself. As soon as she was strong enough
to travel she went to Baden in Switzerland, where
the cure was brightened by the presence of Hortense,
who, when the baths were finished, took her old
governess to Arenenberg, and kept the invalid with
her until October. The memory of those happy hours

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JOHN BULL ON HIS TRAVELS

was to brighten Mantan Campan's last moments.
She left Arenenberg in better spirits than she had
been since Henri's death ; from Schaffhausen she
wrote quite cheerily : —

•' I saluted Arenenberg from the opposite side of
the lake. I cried : ' Oh, peaceful spot, I shall look
upon you again some day 1 ' This thought alone
prevented tears from making an unwelcome appear-
ance. . . . ImetMmedeL and her children, who

happened to be changing horses just as I arrived at
the first stage after Constance. They stopped like
me at the Boat Inn, but they went off without dining.
They were quite English in their behaviour and
bawled out : ' Bring us a dinner at forty sous a-head
in our own rooms, or we will go to another inn.'
Whereupon the waiter replied in a calm voice :
*WelI, then, be off with you!' However, they are
an agreeable family. The English travel for three
reasons : firsdy, because they want to economize ;
secondly, because they want to be amused; thirdly,
because they wish to learn; it is quite proper that
they should attach the greatest importance to the
first reason, economy, which in most cases is the

cause of their presence abroad. Mme de L seems

determined to spend the winter at Augsburg ; she and
her children will make very pleasant drawing-room
furniture ! "

In another letter Mme Campan gives an account
of a very strange meeting with the cousin of the
generous Englishman, Bruce, ^ who had helped
Emilie de Lavalette to save her husband: ''I slept
last night at Laufenburg in a very pretty inn. A
* Sec page 35a
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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

few minutes before sitting down to supper, the inn-
keeper's wife came to ask me if I would allow two
Englishmen, whom I had just seen arrive in a very
elegant equipage, to sup at my table. I accepted.
We sat down to table. The oldest asked the
youngest : ** What do you think of that old lady ? ' in
English. I immediately said to them in the same
language: 'Gentlemen, I think I shall be obeying
the rules of good society when I tell you that I have
spoken your language since my childhood' Where-
upon the Englishman began to rattle off his EngUsh
as quickly as we French rattle off our language. I
asked where they were going ; the eldest replied to
Munich or to Florence ; and I saw by his indifference
as to where he went that he was tormented with the
mania for travelling from which those dear English
(sic) suffer. However, all roads lead to Rome, and
they can get there quite well via Saint Petersburg.
The younger Englishman reminded me of Mr. Bruce,
only he was much handsomer. I mentioned that
gentleman's name, whereupon the elder said : * This
gentleman is the cousin and friend of Mr. Bruce.'
I begged him, when he saw Mr. Bruce again, to give
him the best wishes of a Frenchwoman who is deeply
attached to him. Other remarks made me think
that the elder gentleman was tutor or paid guide to
the younger : the latter is Scotch and his name is Mr.
Cuningham; the former is English and is named
Conway."

The return to the litde home at Mantes was very
painful to Mme Campan. Soon after her return she
was advised by the doctors, who still hoped to cure
her, to have her other leg cauterized This treatment

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THE END IN SIGHT

having had no effect, Mme Campan was informed in
November by Dr. Voisin, a celebrated surgeon and a
namesake of her faithful companion, that she would
have to undergo the horrible operation so touchingly
described in Rab and his Friends. It was in the
deepest mental and physical distress that she wrote to
tell her beloved pupil : —

" Madame, before you receive this letter I shall
have undergone an operation which I could not avoid
without running the risk of a cancer in the breast The
gland has hardened and become more painful ; we
must not give it time to form into an abscess, which
would mean certain death. We women-folk can only
show heroism in our homes; we can only hope to
earn praise by being resigned, and by not pushing
ourselves forward. I shall have need of all my
courage ; I will be brave. It will be a hard morning s
task, but Voisin assures me that I shall soon be well
again. He considers that the malady was caused by
the great shock, and that it was not in the blood.
The operation lasts two or three minutes. He thinks
that my health has been much improved by that
charming visit, and indeed he is quite right : the good
which it did to my spirits has influenced my whole
existence. . . ."

She longed yet dreaded to see her tumour, " that
horrible stone in my garden" as she called it, re-
moved. Poor Mme Voisin, the faithful companion
of so many years, was quite broken by her friend's
illness, and could neither sleep nor eat, so that Mme
Campan became seriously concerned for her health.

Poor Mme Campan was trying hard to walk in
the footsteps of those braves who had so often faced
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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

death, ^'her comrade,*' as she called the Last
Messenger, '* whom we will chase away ! *'

The weather becoming suddenly very cold, the
surgeons decided to postpone the operation. During
those days of waiting the invalid received a visit from
the comte Christian de Nicolai, the husband of one
of her former pupils, to whom she, realizing that the
end was near, gave one of her most precious souvenirs
— a lock of the great Emperor's hair. In December
her mental anguish nearly brought on an attack of
brain fever, and again the dreaded operation had to
be postponed But twenty leeches and as many
blisters reduced the fever, so that on the last day of
the old year (182 1) she was able to scribble a few
lines to Hortense : —

" I should like to write to the prince (Eugine),
but I am not strong enough. My illness has been
very severe ; the leeches, the blisters, and especially
the quinquina, pulled me round. They promise me
that I shall recover. I must end now, for the buzzing
in my head has begun again."

The day before undergoing the operation Mme
Campan confessed and received Holy Communion,
after which she wrote to Hortense begging her, ** in
case heaven should dispose of me," to see that Mme
Voisin did not come to want, and ending with a
prayer that her dear pupil would take care of her
health and not strain her eyes.

Up to the last minute she was conversing calmly
with her doctors, MM. Voisin and Maigne.

" Gentlemen," said she, " I much prefer to hear
you talk than to see you at work. The time has
come to give battle ; I think my head is quite clear.

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ONE OF NAPOLEONS BRAVES

I shall see what a strong will can do, and whether
pain will be able to quell my spirit. It was my spirit
which forced me to remain in the Tuileries on
August lO- The blood and the cries terrified me,
but I kept cool, and I could have given some very
good advice during the siege. . . • Come, don't let us
be behindhand; everything is ready. Set to work.
I long to be able to speak of the operation as of
something that is past and over."

Her sister^ Mme Pannelier, her good friend Mme
Voisin, as well as one of her nieces, were with her
during the operation, in the course of which she turned
pale as death and showed slight signs of the cruel
pain she was enduring, but not a cry or groan escaped
her lips. Indeed M. Heym^s, one of Napoleon's
troves and formerly aMe-de-camp to Marshal Ney,
who assisted at the operation, seemed much more
affected than her, and at one time appeared on the
point of fainting.

After the operation, M. Maigne remained with
his patient until nightfall. When her doctors hinted
a few days later that she might have to take some
sulphurous baths to complete her cure, she worried
herself as she lay in bed wondering whether she
would be able to pay for them. On February 17,
1822, she dictated the following letter, her last, to her
'• Petite Bonne " :—

''Madame, dear, good, amiable, adored and
adorable Madame, I cannot yet write to you, but I can
dictate, and that is a great deal I am still on my back
drinking whey and — for a pleasant change — a little
chicken broth. I have just fought a terrible battle on
the borders of life. I had guessed what it would be,

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

and I needed courage. The operation was very
cleverly done, but it was extremely painful. I needed
an example of physical and mental strength, so I got
a colonel in the artillery, M. Heymes, to hold me.
The poor fellow was bathed in perspiration. He said
that he would far rather have assisted at four battles ;
I can quite believe him. . . . They all try to see who
can cosset me the most. I should suffer very little if
the wound had not been attacked by rheumatic pains.
... I fancy I see Arenenberg again, but I also see
you starting for Italy in September while I return
along the road to Mantes. They are scolding me for
dictating such a long letter ; but I still want to say
something more. If you see the prince (Eugene) I
beg you, Madame, to speak of me to him, and tell
him that I am une brave, that I saw my blood flow
without fainting, and that I have submitted to a
regime of lint and bandages just like all those poor
braves who gathered so many laurels under his com-
mands. I know how that dear little ' Prince Oui-
Oui ' has felt for me in my pain and suffering ; I can
see his little eyes full of tears — they have soothed my
wound. Adieu, Madame, they are screaming at me,
they are scolding me ; but I hope in a fortnight to be
able to do what I want, and that will be to adore you
and to tell you so until my last hour.''

The letter is unsigned. Scribbled at the bottom
of the page are these words: ''Mme Campan cannot
sign her name,'*

" TauUs Us keures nous blessent, la demihr nous tue.^

The wound healed, but complications appeared,
and very soon the patient's breathing became

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SHE SETS HER HOUSE IN ORDER

laboured. Knowing that she had not long to live,
she made her will. To two servants, Ch^nier and
Genevieve, who, she said, had become like members
of the family, she left presents of money, while to
Mme Voisin she bequeathed her dearest possession,
a portrait of " Petite Bonne."

Mme Voisin's grief was pitiable to behold. " Be
brave ! " the dying woman whispered to her, ''death
cannot part two such true friends as we have
been!"

On the day of her death she begged for the
window to be opened It was one of those mild days
in March when all Nature seems to rejoice at the ap-
proach of spring. The sky was as blue and the air
as sweet and fresh as it had been at Arenenberg.

" Ah ! " she murmured towards nightfall to Dr.
Maigne, " the air to-day reminds me of Switzerland.
'Tis the evening of a beautiful day, troubled but by
few clouds. How glad I am that I went to Switzer-
land ! I spent two months of perfect happiness there.
Hortense has a beautiful disposition ; we understand
one another so perfectly ! "

Her last message was for " Petite Bonne."

She died the same evening (March i6, 1822).
She was laid to rest in the cemetery of Mantes, a
monument consisting of a white marble column
surmounted by an urn in the style of the period
bearing a simple inscription being erected by members
of her family.

Mme Voisin wrote immediately after her friend's
death to Hortense, telling her that Maman Campan
was no more : —

"She loved you dearly, Madame, and until she

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THE CELEBRATED MADAME CAMPAN

drew her last breath ha* eyes never ceased to gaze at
your portrait which stood at the foot of her bed."

Mme Voisin soon followed her old friend and was
buried in the same grave.

''Death arrives graciously to such as sit in
darkness or lie heavy burthened with grief, ... to
despairful widows, pensive prisoners, and dethroned
kings ; to them whose fortune runs back and whose
spirits mutiny — ^unto such death is a redeemer and the
grave a place for retiredness and rest."

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INDEX

d'Abrant^s, duchesse (Mme Junot),

197, 2iiy 214, 222,285.
Adelaide, Mme de France, lo-ii,

14-23,38,61,81,90^124,183.
d'Agoult, M., 78.
Aiss^, Mile, 282.
Albanesi, M., 14.
Alberoni, Giulio, 3.
Alexander i, Emperor of Russia,

336-337, 342.
d'Alvimare, Martin Pierre, 278.
Anacharsis, 45.
d'Aneucourt, M., 273.
d'Angoultoe, duchesse (Madame

Royalc), 53^54, 64-65, 92-93,

128, 165, 175, 342, 349, 351.

355-356.
Anquetil, Paul, 289.
d'Arenberg, Prosper-Louis, prince,

312-313.
d'Artois, Charles Philippe, comte,

37, 88-89, 92, 131, 179, 183.

— comtesse, 38, 51.

Asturias, prince of the. See

Ferdinand vii of Spain.
d'Aubier, M., 142.
d'Audiffin^dy, Alix, 292, 342.

— Josephine, 292, 342.
Augereau, Pierre Francois Charles,

205.
Augui^, M., 47, 160, 172, 177, iS8-
19a

— Adelaide, 47, 94, 96-97, 128,

130-131, i6oi I71-I74, 177-
178, i88-i90>, 269.

Augui^, AdMe (Mme de Broc), 190-
192, 195, 206, 216, 218, 223,
290, 293-294, 329-330, 360.

— Antoinette (Mme Gamot), 190-

192, 275-276.

— Egl^ (Mme Ney), 190-192, 195,

269-271, 281, 288, 290, 340,

348-349» 351-353, 355, 359-

361, 364-365.
Augusta-Amelia of Bavaria. 285,

366.
d'Aumont, Alexandre, 109.
-r Jacques, 109.
d'Aux, Mme. See Eliza de Lally-

Tollendal.
d'Avout de Montjalin, M., 262.

Baden, Charles Louis Frederic,
grand-duke of, 285-287.

Bailly, Jean Sylvain, 107.

Balivi^re, Abbd de, 92.

Baret, Father, lo-ii.

Bamave, Pierre Joseph Marie, 115,
132-133, 140, 144, 149-150-

Barras, Paul Francois Jean Nicolas,

195.
Barry, Mme du, 31.
Barthe, Nicolas Thomas, 13.
Barth^lemy, comte E. de, note, 21.
Baudeau, Abb^, 38.
Bavaria, Maximilian- Joseph, long

of, 320.
B6am, Jeanne Louise de, 4-8.
Beauhamais, Claude 11 de, 244-

246.

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INDEX

Beauharnais, Emilie de (Mme de
Lavalette), 195, 198, 207-215,
234, 269, 288-289, 344, 347-3501
367.

— • Eugene de, 195-196, 198, 209,
249, 261, 285, 320, 350, 363,
365, 3701 372-

— Fanny de, 207, 245.

— Hortense dc, 32-33, 45j

195-198, 203-209, 215-217,
219, 222-226, 235, 240-243,
246-2471 349, 253-255. 261,
263-264, 266-267, 271-2841
286, 289-296^ 311-312, 320,
327-336, 338-339» 341-342,346,
354, 357-363, 365-367, 369-
374.
-*- Stephanie de, 244-247, 265, 272,
281-282, 285-287, 291, 312.

— Claude, comte de, 325.

— marquis de, 205.

— Mme de, 207-208, 212-213.

— Josephine de. See Josephine.
Beaumetz, M. de, 95, 1 19-12 1.
Beauvau, mar^hale de, 217, 306.
B^guin, M., 273.

Belle-Isle, Charles Louis Auguste

Fouquet, mar^chal de, 8.
Benezech, MUe, 278.
Bernard, Abb^ 273, 357.
Bemelle, MUe, 325.
Berthier, Alexandre, 274, 325.
Bertholet, Pierre, 34.
Berlin, M., 27.

— Rose, 40-41, 51, 247.
Bertrand, M., 206.

Blacas d'Aulps, Casimir, comte de,

339-
Blennerhassett, Lady, 22.
Boehmer, M., 66-77.
Boigne, AdMe de, 123, 341.
Bonaparte, Caroline (Mme Murat),

196-198, 205, 207, 210, 220-

222, 224-225, 229, 266, 276,

281, 288, 292, 320.

Bonaparte, Christine Charlotte,
231-234,250, 297-298, 321-323.

— Christine Egypta, 231.

— Elisa (Mme Baciocchi), 231,

358.

— J^rdme, 198, 241, 261, 265.

— Joseph, 231, 254.

— Louis, 207, 210, 253-255, 266,

271, 289.

— Lucien, 230-231, 234, 241, 254,

297-298, 321-323.

— Madame M^re, 197, 231, 268,

322.

— Napoleon. See Napoleon.

— Pauline (Mme Lederc), 196-197,

205, 255.
Bonesi, M., 224, 226.
Bossuet, Jacques B^nigne, 200.
Boubers, General, 252.
Boufflers, Stanislas, Chevalier de,

290.
Bouill^, Francois Claude, marquis

de, 116-117.
Bourgogne, Louis, due de, 200.

— Marie Adelaide, duchesse, 18-

19,22.
Bouijolie, Nelly, 265, 287.
Bourrienne, Louis Antoine, 254.
Bourset, M. de, 84-85.
Boutikim, M., 340, 342.
Boyer, Christine (Mme Lucien

Bonaparte), 230-232.
Breteuil, Louis Auguste le

Tonnelier, baron de, 73, 75»

78.
Brienne, Etienne Charles Lom^nie

de, 30.
BrifTe, comte de La, 325.
Briges, M. de, 165.
Brinvilliers, marquise de, 113.
Broc, mardchal de, 290^ 293.

— Mme de. See Ad^le Augui6.
Broglie, mar^chal de, 92.
Broves, vicomte de, 170-171.
Bruce, Michael, 350, 367-368.

376

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Google

INDEX

Cahir, Lady, 264.

Calonne, Charles Alexander de,
86-88, 138.

Cameron, Miss, 328.

Campan, VL.pire, 35-37, 39, 43-45,
54-55, 66, 73. 93, 9^, 98, i27,
129-132, 135-136, i79-i8a

— M., 33, 36, 56-57, 92-93, 191.

— Mme, birth and education, 2-

14 ; accepts her first situation,
15-28 ; becomes Uctrice to the
Dauphine, 32 ; marries, 33 ;
becomes waiting • woman to
Marie Antoinette, 36 ; birth of
her only child, 79; goes to
Mont Dore, 129; loses her
father-in-law, 135 ; visits the
royal prisoners at the
Feuillants, 173; is arrested,
189; released from prison,
190; opens a seminary at
Montagne de Bon-Air, 192 ;
receives many pupils, 194 ; is
appointed directress at Ecouen,
295 ; loses her post, 338 ;
death of her son, 363 ; her own
iUness and death, 365-374.

— Henri, 79, 83-84, 128, 179, I95,

250-251, 261, 277, 284, 291,
323-325, 329, 333, 336, 353-
354, 356-357, 360, 362-365,
367.

Camus, Armand Gaston, 173.

Canino, prince de. See Lucien
Bonaparte.

Caprera, J. B., Cardinal, 266.

Carbonnel, M., 278.

Cardon, MUe, 5-8.

Castellane, Louise de, 275-276.

Castellux, Mme de, 124.

Catherine, Empress of Russia, 11 1.

Caulaincourt, Auguste Louis,
marquis de, 345.

Cayla, Mme du. See Z06 Talon.

Celles, Mme de, 274.

Chamant, comte de, 39.
Chamilly, M. de, 178.
Champcenetz, chevalier de, 39, 54.
Charles I, king of England, 154-

155.
Chaumauri^, M., 290.
Chaumont-Quitry, comte de, 312-

313-
Ch^nier, M., 373.

— Marie Joseph, 1 17.
Chimay, princesse de, 277.
Choiseul, Etienne Frangois, due

de, 9, 217.
Civrac, duchesse de, 22.
Clarke, Henri Jacques GuiUaume,

244.
-- MUe, 244, 273-
'' Clotilde, la Belle," 244.
Cochelet, Louise, 330, 356.
CoUot, M., 220.
CoUot d'Herbois, Jean Marie, 116-

117.
Cond^, Louis Joseph, prince de,

92.
Conti, Louis Frangois Joseph,

prince de, 92.
CoquiUe, Mile, 208.
Corvisart-Desmarets, Jean NicoUs,

275-276.
Courtin, Elisa de, 292.
Craufuid, Quentin, 14a
Cromwell, Oliver, 121.

Damiens, Robert Francois, 11-13.
Daru, Pierre Antoine No£l Bruno,

comte, 284, 344.
Davout, Louis Nicolas, 256-262,

312, 344, 363.

— Louis Napoleon, 262.

— Paul, 262.

— Mme, 206, 255-262.
Decr^s, Denis, 344.
Decret, M., 149.
D^jean, M., 344.
Delavigne, Casimir, 292.

377

Digitized by

Google

INDEX

Delillc, Jacques, 290-391.
Desmoulins, Camille, 106.
Diet, M., 16^169.
Dubreuil, Dr., 227-229.
DuchAtel, Mme, 281.
Dudos, Charles Pinot, 14.
Dttcrest, Georgette, 255.
Domouriez, Charles Francois, 145-

146.
Duphot, L^nard, 244.
Dupin, Andr6 Marie Jean Jacques,

351-
Dupont de Nemours, Pierre

Samuel, 117.
Dupuis, C616iie, 266.
Durfort, marquise de, 22.
Duroc, Michd, 241-243, 277, 293.

Edgeworth, Maria, 238.
Elisabeth, Mme de France, 18, 22.

— Mme, 102, no, 133, 159-160^

163-168.
Esterhaiy, comte, 54.
d'Exelmans, Isidore, comte, 344.

Favras, Thomas Mahi, marquis
de, 107-108.

— Mme de, 107-108.

F^elon, Francois de Salignac de

Lamothe, 199-202.
Ferdinand iii, grand-duke of

Tuscany and grand-duke of

Wiirzburg, 321-322.

— VII, king of Spain, and prince of

theAsturias, 297, 321-322.
Ferrand, Antoine Frangois Claude,

347.
Fesch, Joseph, 198, 300.
Fleischmann, Hector, 278.
Fleury, Andr<6 Hercule de, 19.

— comte de, 39.
Fodoas-Barbazan, Fflidt^ (Mme

Savary), 253, 261, 288, 344.
Fontaine, Pierre Francois Leonard,
326.

Forbin, M., 278.

Fouch^ Joseph, 228-229^

Fouquet, Nicolas, 8.

Frands li. Emperor of Germany,

144-
Francois it, kii^ of France, 295.
Friant, Louis, 258.

Gamin, Frangois, 157-158.
Gamot, Charles, 275, 353.

— Mme. See Antoinette Auguid
Gasson, Mme, 322.

Gaudin, Michel Charles, 344.

Gauthier, M., 137.

Genest, Edm^ Jacques, 3-9.

— Edmond Charles, 2, 96^ 137-

I39» 143, 147, 186-187.

— M./Mr, 3-15.
Genevieve, 373.

Genlis, Mme de, 2, 274, 294.

Gentil, M., 154.

Georgel, Abb^ 78.

Georges, M., 252.

Gerard, Etienne Maurice, 274.

Girardin, Stanislas Xavier, comte

de,298.
Goldoni, Carlo, 14.
Golowkine, F^or, comte, 276^
Gorsas, M., 125-126.
Gougenot, M., 180-185.
Gouges, Olympe de, 185.
Grasset, M., 204, 226.
GuefTre, Mme, 2i6w
Guerdin, Captain, 324.
Guistal, princesse de, 28.
Gustavus III, king df Sweden, 62-

63.

d'Haga, comte. See Gustavus iii,

king of Sweden.
Hamel, Ernest, 95, 97, 161, 187.
Hamelin, Mme, 289.
Hardivilliers, Mile, 35.
Hauser, Kaspar, 287.
Hay, Hortense Eugdnie, 361-362.

378

Digitized by

Google

INDEX

Hay, Mr., 361.
Heine, Heinrich, 300.
d'Henin, princesse, 217.
Henri II, king of France, 295.
Henriette, Mme de France, 18.
d'Hervilly, Louis Charles, oomte,

165.
Heym^s, M., 371-372.
THdpital, Mme de, 227-^29.
Hortode, MUe, 326.
Houssaye, Henri, 343.
Hue, Frangois, 178.
Hulot, Mme, 248-249, 267-268.
— Eugenie. See Mme Moreau.

d'Inisdal, cotnte, 109-iia

Isabey, Jean Baptiste, 204, 215, 270-

271, 292.
^ Miles, 250^ 292.

Jadin, Hyacinthe, 226.

J^r6me, M., 352.

Joseph II, Emperor of Germany,
41.

Josephine, Empress of the French,
43, i95-»99i 205-208, 212, 223,
225-227, 232-234, 241-242,
245-247, 253, 258, 261, 267-
269, 273-274, 276, 279, 281,
286, 292, 312-313, 327-328,
335-336.

Junot, Mme. See duchesse
d'Abrant^s.

Kastner, Mile, 360-361.
Kosowska, Christine, 292.

La Bedoy^re, Charles Huchet,
comte de, 347, 349, 352.

— Mme de, 349.

Lac^p^de, Etienne de la Ville,
comte de, 299, 310, 314-316,
318-319, 332, 334-336.

La Chapelle, M. de, 147-148, 157.

Lacroix, Mme, 366.

Lafayette, Marie Joseph Paul,
marquis de, 87, 96-97, 107,
115, 119.

La Fert^, M. de, 160-161.

La Harpe, Frangois de, 60.

Lally-ToUendal, Eliza de, 244, 290.

— Gerard, marquis de, 217, 244,

290^ 340, 354, 363.

— Thomas Arthur, 244.
Lamartine, Alphonse Marie Louis

de, 22.
Lamballe, Marie Th^r^ de, 47,

104, 121, 132, 146, 178.
Lambesc, Charles Eugene de

Lorraine, prince de, 92.
Lameth, Alexandre de, 11 1, 133,

144, 183-
Lamotte-Valois, Mme de, 76-79,

loi, 140.
Langl^, Francois Marie, 204.
Lannes, Jean, 205.
Laporte, Amaud de, 136, 143.
La Roche-Aymon, Mme de, 175.
La Rochefoucauld - Liancourt,

Francois Alexandre Frederic,

due de, 88.
La Tour-du>Pin Gouvemet, M. de,

329.
Laval, due de, 359.

— Mme, 319-320.

Lavalette, Marie Joseph Chamans
de, 210-214, 234, 344-345,
347-351, 367.

— Mme de. See Emilie de

Beauhamais.

— Josephine de, 288-289.
Leblond, Anna, 244.
Lebrun, Charles Frangois, 344.
Leclerc, Victor Emmanuel, 205,

255^57.

— Louise Aim^ Julie (Mme

Davout), 206, 255-262, 269,

344*
Lefebvre • Desnouettes, Charles,
comte de, 198.

379

Digitized by

Google

INDEX

Leftvre, Francois Joseph, 344.

L^ger, M., 205.

Lenormand, Mme, 312.

Leonard, M., 40-41, 58, 103-X05.

Leopold 11, Emperor of Germany,
144.

Leroy, M., 288.

Lezay-Mam^ia, M. de, 246.

— Mile de, 245.

Loli^, Fr^d^ric, 286.

Lolive, Miles, 221.

Louis XV, king of France, 2, 9-13,
16-19, 22, 26-29, 34-35.

Louis XVI, 30-31, 38, 58-62, 66-
68, 75-81, 86-89, 94-98, 102,
108-112, 122-123, 130, 133-
137, 140, I42-I43> 146-150,
152-163, 171, 174, 178-186,

I99f 339-
Louis- Joseph, first Dauphin, 58-62,

65, 82-85.
Louis XVII, second Dauphin, 121-

122, 128, 133, 152, 165, 167-

168, 175-176, 187, 198-199-
Louis XVIII (Monsieur, comte de

Provence) 2, 37, 79, 107, iio^

i«3, 275, 340^ 342, 346-347,

349i 363.
Louis, Abb^, 132.
Louise, Mme de France, 17, 19,

25, 27-29, 64, 8a
Lozeau, Mme, 346.
LuUy, Jean Baptiste, 14.
Luynes, duchesse de, 175-176,

217.

McDermott, Father, 195.
Macdonald, Etienne Jacques

Joseph Alexandre, 363.
Mackau, Antoinette de, 265, 287.
Maigne, Dr., 355, 363, 364, 370,

373.
Maill^ de Br^z^, Mile de, 323.
Malesherbes, Lamoignon de, 183,

185-186.

Malseigne, M., 116.
Mandat, M., 164-165, 172.
Manherbes, Clementine de, 234-

235-
Marat, Jean Paul, 31, 126.
Marbois, Sophie, 244, 344.
Marchand, M., 125.
Maret, Hugues Bernard, 344.
— Mme, 288.
Marie-Antoinette, 2, 29-32, 34-35,

57-77, 79-"5. "7-122, 127-

169, 171-179, 181, 183-184,

187-189, 192, 194, 207-208,

217, 277, 284, 339-340, 348,

355-356, 362-363.
Marie Caroline, queen of Naples,

322-323.
Marie Christine, archduchess, 150.
Marie Leczinska, 15, 31, 35*
Marie Louise, Empress of the

French, 323, 325-327.
Maria Theresa, 31-32, 38, 75, 103.
Marie-Th^r^se-F^licit^ of France,

18.
Marmont, Auguste Frederic Louis

Viesse de, 349.
Marmontel, Jean Francois, 14.
Marsilly, M. de, 151.
Marx, Colonel, 278-279.
Masson, Fr^d^ric, 192.
Maurepas, Jean Fr^^ric Ph^lip-

peaux, comte de, 86.
Maury, Abb^, 125.
M^jan, Jean, 331.
Menara, Hervas de, Mile, 265.
Menou, Jean Francois, 125.
Mercy - Argenteau, Florimond,

comte de, 38.
Mesmer, Franz Anton, 55-58.
Mirabeau, Honor^ Gabriel Riquetti

de, 159, 183.
Misery, Mme de, 39.
MoUeviUe, Bertrand Antoine

marquis de, 151.
Momet, MUe, 325.

380

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Google

INDEX

Monroe, James, 265-266, 281, 340,
362.

— Eliza, 265-266, 274, 280-281,

34o» 361-362.
Montebello, Mme de, 325.
Monthiers, Mme de. See Maill^

de Br^z^.
Montmorency, Anne de, 295, 297,

337-

— Mme de, 325.
Montmorin de Saint-H^rem,

Armand de, 124, I34-I35» I43i
183.
Moreau, Victor, 205, 248-249.

— Mme, 248-249, 267-268.
Morel, M., 173.
Morris, Mr., 362.
Mortier, M., 325.
Mozin, M., 206.
Mun, comte de, 241-242.
Murat, Joachim, 205, 220-222, 266.

— Mme. See Caroline Bonaparte.

Napoleon Bonaparte, 43, 145, 195,
I99j 205-206, 209-213, 216-
223, 227-231, 241-243, 245-
249, 252, 254-257, 259-260,
266-270, 275-277, 279-289,
291-300, 303-305, 311-327,
329, 331-333, 335-336, 339,
341-348, 352, 37a

Napoleon Louis, 271-272, 274,
290, 327-328, 361, 372.

Napoleon iii, 203, 327.

Narbonne, Louis de, 22-23, 124,
126.

— Mme de, 22-23, 124.
Nassau-Siegen, Carl Heinrich,

prince von, 282, 324, 340.
Nattier, Jean Marie, 24.
Naundoiif, 199.
Necker, Jacques, 107.
N^rac, M. de, 197.
Neuville, Jean Guillaume, Hyde

de, 362.

Ney, Michel, 269-271, 288, 346-

353, 359, 365.

— Mme. See Egl^ Augui^.
Nicolai, Christian, comte de, 325,

370.

— comtesse de, 232, 370.
Noailles, Alfred de, 197.

— L^ntine de, 197.

— Mme de, 31, 39-40.
Nord, comte du. See Paul I of

Russia.
Noue, M. de, 11 5-1 16.

Orange, prince of. See William

Frederick.
d'Orl^ans (Louis Philippe II,

Philippe Egalit^) due, 91.

— duchesse, 49.

Pagerie, Stephanie Tascher de La,

247, 282, 312-313.
Pannelier, Mme, 194-195, 364-365,

371-
P&ris-Duvemey, Pierre, 35.
P&ris, Mile, 9-11.
Pasquier, Etienne, 349.
Paterson, Miss, 265.
Paul I, Emperor of Russia (comte

du Nord), 62.
Pauligni, Mme, 215.
Potion, J^rdme, 133, 161-162, 165,

169, 177-178.
Petrarch, 359.
Philip, duke of Parma, In^te of

Spain, 18.
Pholo^, Mile, 282-283, 290^ 324-

325, 340, 342.
Pierre, Abb^ de, 351-353-
Pitt, William, 140-141.
Pius VII, Pope, 297.
Plantade, M., 278.
Plato, 202.
Plutarch, 359.
Poix, Antoine Claude Dominique,

prince de, 54, 1 18-1 19.

381

Digitized by

Google

INDEX

Poix, princesse de, 217.

Polignac, comtesse Diane de, 41,

— due de, 92.

' — duchesse de» 41, 84, 89-901 92-

93-
Pourtal^, Fritz, comte de, 274.
Provence, comte de. S€9 Louis

XVIII.

— comtesse de, 38, 49, iia
Prudhomme, Louis, 137.

Racine, Jean, 13, 328.
Rapp, Jean, 312, 345-346.
RavaiUac, Frangois, 13.
Raymondi, Pauline, 197.
Rayneval, Jean Gerard de, 138.
R^camier, Juliette, 215.
Regnault de Saint-Jean d'Ang^ly,

344.

— Mme de, 344.

Richelieu, Armand Emmanuel du

Plessis, due de, 349, 362.
Robespierre, Maximilien, 115-116,

i79-i8o> 190^ 192.
Rochechouart, comte de, 351.
Rochon de Chabannes, 13.
Roederer, Paul Louis, comte de,

162, 166-167.
Rohan, Louis Ren^ prince de, 71-

72, 74-79-

Chabot, due de, 306.

Mile de, 306-307.

Roller, Lavinie, 198.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques, 14, 238.

— M., 163, 167.

— Mme, 194, 358.

— Agathe, 274, 280.

Sacken, Fabian von der Osten,

prince, 335, 327.
Saint-Alphonse, Mme Wathier de.

See Antoinette de Mackau.
Saint-Elme, Bourboulon de, 28a

— Mmede. 5«r Agathe Rousseau.

Saint-Florentin, Louis Phelypeausc,

comte de, lo-ii.
Saint- Huruge, marquis de, 90^ 91.
Saint-Lambert, Frangois, marquis

de, 263.
Saint-Simon, Louis de Rouvroy,

due de, 104.
Saint-Souplet, M. de, 16&
Salvert, M., 165.
Santerre, Claude, 107-108.
Sauce, M., 132.
Savary, Ren^ 261, 324, 344.
Sc^peaus^ comte de, 224.
S^gur, Louis Philippe, comte de,

138,344-
Serre, MUe de La, 12-13.
Simon, Antoine, 199.
Sophie, Mme de France, 17-19

24-25, 27, 60.
Soulavie, Jean Louis Giraud, 157.
Stanislas, king of Poland, 11$.
Stendhal, 259.
Stryienski, Casimir, 24.
Sutherland, Duchess of, 176.

Talleyrand - P^rigord, Charles
Maurice de, 283, 286, 324-325.
Talon, M., 224, 227-228.

— Mme, 229.

— Z06 (Mme du Cayla), 224, 227,

229.
Talouet, Mme, 325.
Tarente, princesse de, 169, 175.
Thibaudeau, Antoine, 344.
Thibaut, Mme, 173.
Thi^bauk, General, 278.
Thi^non, M., 205.
Thierry, M., 173.
Thomas, Antoine L^nard, 13.
Thompson, Mr., 263.
Tippoo Sahib, 340.
Tourzel, Mme de, 93, 178, 217,

355-356.

— Pauline de, 178.
Turquan, Joseph, 209.

382

Digitized by

Google

INDEX

Valadon, M., 177-178.

Valence^ Miles de, 274.

Vatcl, 63.

Vaucher, Mile, 264.

Vaudreuil, M. de, 41.

Vend6ine, Louis Joseph, due de,

3-
Vergennes, Charles Gravier, comte

de, 86, 138.
Vergniaud, Pierre Victumien, 168.
V^rigni, M. de, 234-235.
Vermond, AbW de, 30-31, 35-37f

41-42, 7S. 92-94.
Vicq d'Azyr, Fdlix, 112-113, 129.
Victoire, Mme de France, lo-ii,

14-20, 123-126) 183.

Victor, General (Victor Perrin), 265.

— Victorine, 265, 273.
Villeumoy, M. de, 107.
Voisin, Dr., 369-371.

— Mme, 187, 355, 357-359i Z^

371, 373-374.
VriUi^re, due de, lo-ii.

Wellington, Duke of, 351.
William the Conqueror, 358.
William Frederick, prince of

Orange, 218-219.
Wordsworth, William, i.
Wiirzburg, grandduke of. See

Ferdinand ill, grand-duke of

Tuscany.

383

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