Empress Josephine: An Historical Sketch of the Days of Napoleon

e lieutenant of artillery, were gathering in heavier and heavier masses

there now it was to weep in silence, to cast away the mask from her face, and under the garb of

the royal farmer's wife had no more the heart to carry the spindle, to gather eggs fro

the burdensome Madame Etiquette, who hitherto had watched over every step of a Queen of France, but in her place Madame

istress from a famishing people, the disordered finances of the state-such was the suite which accompanied Politique before the queen; pamphlets, pasquinades, sarcastic s

she was a queen! The burden of her lofty position pressed upon her always; and, if now and then she

d her. In her innocency and thoughtlessness of heart she imagined that, to a queen as to any other woman, it might be allowed to have about her friends and con

distinctions; they all wanted to rule through the queen; they all wanted through her to impose laws to king and state; they wanted to

ful friends, the Duchesses de Polignac, wept, and her friends, Messieurs V

that it was no more the king but the queen who reigned; that she was the one who precipitated the nation into wretchedness and want; that she gave millions to her friends, whilst the people were perishing with hunger; that she sent millions to her br

the queen's friends, who were ever ready to pass into the camp of her foes as soon as M

ans, who had to revenge himself for the disgust and dislike which Marie Antoinette publicly expressed against this vicious and wild prince; there was the Cardinal Prince de Rohan, whose criminal passion the queen had repelled with contemptuous disgust, and who had paid for this passion one million francs, with imprisonment, shame, and ridicule. For this passion for the queen had blinded the cardin

ch Madame de la Motte brought him; and he could not see that the person who gave him a rendezvous in the gardens

s the one who took this wench for his queen, was the one who, with a rendezvous, a kiss on the hand

s horrible intrigue which had been woven round her person should be investigated and judged publicly before the Parliament; that the Cardinal de Rohan should be punished for the crim

Cardinal de Rohan innocent; all punishments were removed from him, and he was re-established in all his dignities and rights. And the people, who in enormous masses had besieged the Parliament build

at to the queen; it was the first awful testimony,

hameful and premeditated wickedness. No one believed in the queen's innocency in this necklace transaction; and whereas Cardinal de Rohan had been made a martyr, whereas Parliament had declared him innocent, the queen c

reflected not that in calumniating the queen and exposing her to the scorn and ridicule of the world he thereby shook the throne itself, and imperilled the awe and respect which the people should have had for the monarchy. And all the other mighty dignita

st the queen; but now, in the year 1787, all France was to re-echo

icule, and laughter of all France. Every thing which the people hitherto had held sacred, was laughed at in this drama; all the laws of manners, of rank, of morality, were

hed, hundreds of copies were circulated; and, if it could not be represented, its reading was listened to. It soon became fashionable to attend at the readings of "Figaro's Wedding" and to possess a copy of

me de Campan had to read before the king and the queen this renowned "Wedding of Figaro," so that the king might give his decision. The good-natured countenance of the king darkened more and more, and during F

efore the representation of this piece would not appear as a dangerous inconsequence

presented?" asked Marie Antoine

is, "you can be convinced of it; t

unced representation in the theatre of the menus plaisirs. Beaumarchais cried aloud to the murmuring audience, who complained very loudly against this tyranny, against this oppression o

f the king and of his highest officers. The king himself felt it and acknowledged it soon; he shrugged his shoulders compassiona

will see that Beaumarchais' credit is better than that of the great-sea

and queen, and at their head the Count de Provence, banded together to have this piece publicly represented. The king's consent was elicited from him by the assura

"The Wedding of Figaro" was rep

yet more foolhardy than my piece, and that is, its result"-that the renowned actress Sophie Arnold, in allusion to this, that the opponents of

s wanted to see it, so as to hiss the government, the nobility, clergy, morality. There was a rush from the provinces to Paris for the sak

of him as a favor to give up for that evening his trellised box in behalf o

se and not to instruct them, not to procure to tamed wenches (begueules mitigees) the satisfaction of thinking well of the piece in a small trellised box, and then to say all manner of evil against it in public. The pleasure of vice and th

ttend the representation of "Figaro" in the trellised box; for it, was well known that the queen, angry at monsieur for having been present with all his suite at a representation in the b

ed at. She still hoped to overcome her enemies, and to win the public sentiment. She requested an investigation, she insisted that the Duke de Villequier should openly acknowledge

irected neither to a duke nor to a peer, but to one of his friends, whose strange request he had thus answered in the first flush of anger. Bu

th it, was now to assist at the first scene of a drama whose tragical power and force

w sun, of a new era which was to break upon France and bring her happiness, salvation, and strength. A new, an unsuspected power entered with it upon the scene, the Tiers Etat; the third class was, at the opening of the States-General,

r in a two-fold stronger representation at the States-General; it was the queen also who had requested Necker's recall. Unfortunate woman, who bowed both prid

now do to exhibit her candid wishes, her devotedness was not trusted in by the peopl

as no desire to hide from the queen the hatred felt against her, but there was the resolve

e immense square in front of the palace, and the whole street leading to the Church of St. Louis, received the deputies with loud, unbroken shouts, and met the princes and the king with applause. But no sooner was the queen in sight, than the peo

is name at this hour, thrown at her by the people, struck the queen's heart as the blow of a dagger; a deathly pallor overspread her cheeks, and nearly fainting she had

ied: with the opening of the States-General the revolution had begun. Every one felt it; every one knew it; the first man who had the courage to express it was Mirabeau-Mirabeau,

roud lords who, though his equals in rank, were now his inveterate enemies. A proud, disdainful smile fluttered athwart his lips, which ordinarily were pressed together with a sarcastic and contemptuou

and anger which Mirabeau had cast upon the gallery of the aristocrats; he now approached Mirabeau to salute him

hen once injured, it is difficult to effect a reconciliation. You have been unjust toward society,

r with his feet; his hair which, like a lion's mane, mantled his head, seemed to bristle up, his little eyes darted flashes, and his lips were bl

with a reconciling heart into this assembly, where people

o welcome the States-General with a solemn address, Mirabeau's eyes were fixed on him: "B

of the liberal party against the reaction, the struggle of the people against the aris

queen understood that with it came the storm which wa