第 76 节
作者:
雨帆 更新:2022-08-21 16:33 字数:9322
would be printed nevertheless; and would be much more dangerous when they apprised the public of the means she had used to suppress it。
Baron d'Aubier; gentleman…in…ordinary to the King; and my particular friend; had a good memory and a clear way of communicating the substance of the debates and decrees of the National Assembly。 I went daily to the Queen's apartments to repeat all this to the King; who used to say; on seeing me; 〃Ah! here's the Postillon par Calais;〃a newspaper of the time。
M。 d'Aubier one day said to me: 〃The Assembly has been much occupied with an information laid by the workmen of the Sevres manufactory。 They brought to the President's office a bundle of pamphlets which they said were the life of Marie Antoinette。 The director of the manufactory was ordered up to the bar; and declared he had received orders to burn the printed sheets in question in the furnaces used for baking his china。〃
While I was relating this business to the Queen the King coloured and held his head down over his plate。 The Queen said to him; 〃Do you know anything about this; Sire?〃 The King made no answer。 Madame Elisabeth requested him to explain what it meant。 Louis was still silent。 I withdrew hastily。 A few minutes afterwards the Queen came to my room and informed me that the King; out of regard for her; had purchased the whole edition struck off from the manuscript which I had mentioned to her; and that M。 de Laporte had not been able to devise any more secret way of destroying the work than that of having it burnt at Sevres; among two hundred workmen; one hundred and eighty of whom must; in all probability; be Jacobins! She told me she had concealed her vexation from the King; that he was in consternation; and that she could say nothing; since his good intentions and his affection for her had been the cause of the mistake。
'M。 de Laporte had by order of the King bought up the whole edition of the 〃Memoirs 〃 of the notorious Madame de Lamotte against the Queen。 Instead of destroying them immediately; he shut them up in one of the closets in his house; The alarming and rapid growth of the rebellion; the arrogance of the crowd of brigands; who in great measure composed the populace of Paris; and the fresh excesses daily resulting from it; rendered the intendant of the civil list apprehensive that some mob might break into his house; carry off these 〃Memoirs;〃 and spread them among the public。 In order to prevent this he gave orders to have the 〃Memoirs〃 burnt with every necessary precaution; and the clerk who received the order entrusted the execution of it to a man named Riston; a dangerous Intriguer; formerly an advocate of Nancy; who had a twelve…month before escaped the gallows by favour of the new principles and the patriotism of the new tribunals; although convicted of forging the great seal; and fabricating decrees of the council。 This Riston; finding himself entrusted with a commission which concerned her Majesty; and the mystery attending which bespoke something of importance; was less anxious to execute it faithfully than to make a parade of this mark of confidence。 On the 30th of May; at ten in the morning; he had the sheets carried to the porcelain manufactory at Sevres; in a cart which he himself accompanied; and made a large fire of them before all the workmen; who were expressly forbidden to approach it。 All these precautions; and the suspicions to which they gave rise; under such critical circumstances; gave so much publicity to this affair that it was denounced to the Assembly that very night。 Brissot; and the whole Jacobin party; with equal effrontery and vehemence; insisted that the papers thus secretly burnt could be no other than the registers and documents of the correspondence of the Austrian committee。 M。 de Laporte was ordered to the bar; and there gave the most precise account of the circumstances。 Riston was also called up; and confirmed M。 de Laporte's deposition。 But these explanations; however satisfactory; did not calm the violent ferment raised in the Assembly by this affair。〃Memoirs of Bertrand de Molleville。〃
Some time afterwards the Assembly received a denunciation against M。 de Montmorin。 The ex…minister was accused of having neglected forty despatches from M。 Genet; the charge d'affaires from France in Russia; not having even unsealed them; because M。 Genet acted on constitutional principles。 M。 de Montmorin appeared at the bar to answer this accusation。 Whatever distress I might feel in obeying the order I had received from the King to go and give him an account of the sitting; I thought I ought not to fail in doing so。 But instead of giving my brother his family name; I merely said 〃your Majesty's charge d'affaires at St。 Petersburg。〃
The King did me the favour to say that he noticed a reserve in my account; of which he approved。 The Queen condescended to add a few obliging remarks to those of the King。 However; my office of journalist gave me in this instance so much pain that I took an opportunity; when the King was expressing his satisfaction to me at the manner in which I gave him this daily account; to tell him that its merits belonged wholly to M。 d'Aubier; and I ventured to request the King to suffer that excellent man to give him an account of the sittings himself。 I assured the King that if he would permit it; that gentleman might proceed to the Queen's apartments through mine unseen; the King consented to the arrangement。 Thenceforward M。 d'Aubier gave the King repeated proofs of zeal and attachment。
The Cure of St。 Eustache ceased to be the Queen's confessor when he took the constitutional oath。 I do not remember the name of the ecclesiastic who succeeded him; I only know that he was conducted into her apartments with the greatest mystery。 Their Majesties did not perform their Easter devotions in public; because they could neither declare for the constitutional clergy; nor act so as to show that they were against them。
The Queen did perform her Easter devotions in 1792; but she went to the chapel attended only by myself。 She desired me beforehand to request one of my relations; who was her chaplain; to celebrate a mass for her at five o'clock in the morning。 It was still dark; she gave me her arm; and I lighted her with a taper。 I left her alone at the chapel door。 She did not return to her room until the dawn of day。
Dangers increased daily。 The Assembly were strengthened in the eyes of the people by the hostilities of the foreign armies and the army of the Princes。 The communication with the latter party became more active; the Queen wrote almost every day。 M。 de Goguelat possessed her confidence for all correspondence with the foreign parties; and I was obliged to have him in my apartments; the Queen asked for him very frequently; and at times which she could not previously appoint。
All parties were exerting themselves either to ruin or to save the King。 One day I found the Queen extremely agitated; she told me she no longer knew where she was; that the leaders of the Jacobins offered themselves to her through the medium of Dumouriez; or that Dumouriez; abandoning the Jacobins; had come and offered himself to her; that she had granted him an audience; that when alone with her; he had thrown himself at her feet; and told her that he had drawn the 'bonnet rouge' over his head to the very ears; but that he neither was nor could be a Jacobin; that the Revolution had been suffered to extend even to that rabble of destroyers who; thinking of nothing but pillage; were ripe for anything; and might furnish the Assembly with a formidable army; ready to undermine the remains of a throne already but too much shaken。 Whilst speaking with the utmost ardour he seized the Queen's hand and kissed it with transport; exclaiming; 〃Suffer yourself to be saved!〃 The Queen told me that the protestations of a traitor were not to be relied on; that the whole of his conduct was so well known that undoubtedly the wisest course was not to trust to it;
'The sincerity of General Dumouriez cannot be doubted in this instance。 The second volume of his Memoirs shows how unjust the mistrust and reproaches of the Queen were。 By rejecting his services; Marie Antoinette deprived herself of her only remaining support。 He who saved France in the defiles of Argonne would perhaps have saved France before the 20th of June; had he obtained the full confidence of Louis XVI。 and the Queen。NOTE BY THE EDITOR。'
that; moreover; the Princes particularly recommended that no confidence should be placed in any proposition emanating from within the kingdom; that the force without became imposing; and that it was better to rely upon their success; and upon the protection due from Heaven to a sovereign so virtuous as Louis XVI。 and to so just a cause。
The constitutionalists; on their part; saw that there had been nothing more than a pretence of listening to them。 Barnave's last advice was as to the means of continuing; a few weeks longer; the Constitutiona