Pauline received a letter from Rosalie, written on the night of August 10th. They had left the h?tel de Noailles, which was too dangerous, and were living in concealment. My father, wrote Rosalie, only left the King at the threshold of the Assembly, and has returned to us safe and sound ... but I had no news of M. de Grammont till nine oclock in the evening.... I got a note from my husband telling me he was safe (he had hidden in a chimney). Half an hour later he arrived himself.... I hasten to write to you at the close of this terrible day....The order was given for every one to wear powder, but as Mme. Le Brun did not like it in portraits, and was painting that of Prince Bariatinski, she begged him to come without it. One day he arrived in her studio pale and trembling.
ONE:Mme. Tallien is indignant at your ingratitude; she saved your life, and I advise you to go and see her.
TWO:The Duc dAyen, though always retaining a deep affection for his wife, spent a great part of his time away from her. He was one of the most conspicuous and brilliant figures at the court, and besides entering eagerly into all its pleasures, dissipation, and extravagance, was a member of the Academy of Science; and although by no means an atheist or an enemy of religion, associated constantly with the philosophers, whose ideas [164] and opinions he, like many of the French nobles in the years preceding the Revolution, had partly adopted, little imagining the terrible consequences that would result from them.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.
TWO:Mme. de Tess, younger sister of the Duc dAyen, was well known for her opinions. La Fayette, de Noailles, and de Sgur had returned from America, and their ideas were shared by Rosalies husband, de Grammont, and to a certain extent, though with much more moderation, by M. de Montagu. All the remaining daughters of the Duc dAyen except Pauline shared the opinions of their husbands; M. de Thsan and M. de Beaune were opposed to them, as was also the Duchesse dAyen, whose affection for her sons-in-law did not make her share their blind enthusiasm and unfortunate credulity.The Ambassador gave her his arm, told her to be sure to kiss the hand of the Empress, and they walked across the park to the palace, where, through a window on the ground floor, they saw a girl of about seventeen watering a pot of pinks. Slight and delicate, with an oval face, regular features, [125] pale complexion, and fair hair curling round her forehead and neck, she wore a loose white tunic tied with a sash round her waist, and against the background of marble columns and hangings of pink and silver, looked like a fairy.
TWO:Flicit recovered, and went to Spa, and to travel in Belgium. After her return, as she was walking one day in the Palais Royal gardens, she met a young girl with a woman of seven or eight and thirty, who stopped and gazed at her with an earnest look. Suddenly she exclaimed
It is therefore evident that at the time of which Mme. de Genlis is writing, the middle of May, the Duchess of Orlans was in prison. Also that the Marquis de Sillery, her husband, had not been detained in the Abbaye, as from his letter she had supposed, but was only under supervision till the 7th of April.He bowed and turned away; it was Mirabeau.The following lines were circulated by Mme. Le Bruns friends upon the occasion:They went on to Clermont, the capital of the province, where M. de Beaune had a house in the town and a chateau and estate named Le Croc just outside it. They had passed into the hands of strangers, but all the furniture and contents of the chateau had been saved by the faithful concierges, the Monet, who, with the help of their relations and friends, had during the night carried it all away, taking beds to pieces, pulling down curtains and hangings, removing all the wine from the cellars, and hiding safely away the whole of it, which they now restored to its owners.Mme. de Genlis some time afterwards married her niece, Henriette de Sercey, to a rich merchant in Hamburg, after which she went to Berlin, but where she was denounced to the King, accused, without truth, of receiving the Abb de Sieys, then in Berlin, and ordered to leave the Prussian territory.Courage, Monsieur le Marchal!
荣誉榜
THREE:M. de Montagu was now with the troops of the Duc de Bourbon, and hearing he was to pass through Lige, Pauline went there to see him, and waited at an inn to which she knew he would go. Though he was overjoyed at this unexpected meeting, he had to leave the same day, as an engagement was imminent, and he remarked that those who were accused of being the last to join the army must not be last on the battlefield.
THREE:
