THREE:The French Ambassador, Count dEsterhazy, said that he would come at ten and take her to djeuner with his wife, who was just then living at Czarskoiesolo. For the first time during her wandering life from court to court, Lisette felt intimidated, and trembled. This was so different from any of her former experiences. At every other court she had been en pays de connaissance. Austrian society was very like Parisian, Rome was the centre of Christendom, the sovereigns of the lesser Italian states were the near relations of her own King and Queen, their religion was the same.
THREE:Sadly she returned to Aix-la-Chapelle, where the news which she had heard at Lige of the September [233] massacres had already arrived, and where, besides their own horror and grief, the emigrs had to listen to the disgust and contempt everywhere expressed by those of other nations for a country in which such atrocities could be perpetuated without the slightest resistance.In this remote and delightful home they decided to stay for the present, and Pauline as usual spent much of her time looking after and helping the peasants, who followed her with their blessings as she went about.
THREE:A most stupid thing, as I will tell you. It is not to adjudge a house, or a field, or an inheritance, but a rose!
THREE:They both sprang up, declaring it was better to die than to stay with such a monster, and left the room.
THREE:Mme. Le Brun blamed her for having let the gold go, and just as she said, she never got its value again, for although the same number of pieces were [132] returned, instead of the Austrian gold coins they only gave her ducats, worth so much less that she lost 15,000 francs by them. Then she heard that the boy was sentenced to be hanged, and as he was the son of a concierge and his wife belonging to the Prince de Ligne, excellent people who had served her in Vienna with attention and civility, she was in despair, hurried to the governor to obtain his pardon, and with much difficulty succeeded in getting him sent away by sea; for the Empress had heard of it, and was very angry.