Pour Monsieur seul.Flicit composed some verses all about flowers and friendship, which were pronounced to be very touching, and which she sang dressed up as a shepherdess, having first presented him with a bouquet. She next appeared in a Spanish costume singing a romance composed by her mother, and finally she played the harp, which seems to come in like a chorus throughout all her eventful life.
ONE:MADAME ROYALEPauline also had something like what would now be called by us a district at Montmartre, not far from the rue Chantereine, where she lived; but she had poor pensioners all over Paris to whom she gave food, firing, clothes, doctors, everything [211] they wanted, and whom she visited constantly. Old and young, good and bad, beggars, prisoners, every sort of distress found a helper in her.
THREE:What the devil of a story are you telling me, Chevalier de ? cried his tormentor. Where did you have supper last night? I believe you have drunk too much.
TWO:When at length she arrived in St. Petersburg she found the city in a frenzy of delight. They danced in the streets, embracing each other, and exclaiming
TWO:Pauline recovered from her illness and returned to Paris during the terrible days of October. Everything [217] was changed, the streets were unsafe to walk in, murders were frequent, bands of ruffians went about threatening and insulting every one whom they suspected or disliked. She fetched her two children back to the rue Chantereine, and resumed her charitable expeditions, though it was dangerous to walk about.
TWO:Overcome with emotion at first they looked at each other in silence; then, in a voice broken with sobs, Pauline asked, Did you see them?Three weeks after her arrival a letter from London brought the news that the Marchal de Mouchy and his wife, uncle and aunt of Mme. de Tess, great-uncle and great-aunt of Pauline, had been guillotined on the 27th of June. For the crime of giving help to some poor priests they were arrested and sent to La Force, whence they were transferred to the Luxembourg where they were the object of universal reverence and sympathy. When, after a time, they were summoned to the Conciergerie, which was the vestibule of the tribunal, and was looked upon as the gate of death, the Marchal begged that no noise might be made as he did not wish Mme. la Marchal to know of his going, for she had been ill.
Indeed, I think we shall go too far; while the Comtesse du Moley and Mme. Le Brun were horror-stricken at the terrible prospects unfolded to them.Poppo.