The Meuse was frozen and must be crossed on foot. Pauline, who was again enceinte, managed, leaning upon her husbands arm, slipping and stumbling, to get as far as the island in the middle. M. de Montagu insisted on her being carried the rest of the way by a sailor. M. de Beaune was helped by his only servant, Garden, a tiresome German boy of fifteen. They got to Helvoetsluys after dark, crossed next day, and after about a week found a cottage at Margate with a garden going down to the sea, which they took, and with which they were delighted. It stood between the sea and the country, and near them lived the family of M. Le Rebours, President of the Parliament of Paris, faithful Royalists who were happy enough all to have escaped, father, mother, grand-parents, six [235] children, and three old servants. He himself had just then gone to Paris to try to save some of his fortune. They had turned a room into a private chapel where mass was said by an old Abb; all attended daily, and, needless to say, the prayer for the King was made with special fervour.Tu ne me tutoies plus! and of her answer
ONE:They went to Rome, Venice, Naples, and all the little Italian Courts, at which they were received with great honour.
She declared that she would have resigned before had it not been for the calumnies, injustice, and persecution (!) carried on against the Duc dOrlans; she hoped his return would dispel the clouds; she pictured the grief her pupils would feel, &c., &c.The days were as happy as the evenings, for they were spent in her fathers studio, where he allowed her to paint heads in pastel and to draw all day long with his crayons.The anxieties and sorrows of life were already gathering round the girls thrust so early into the burden and heat of the day.She had had great success in the number of important pictures she painted at Naples; and her [107] career at Rome was equally prosperous. She had plenty of money now, and nobody to meddle with it, and if it had not been for the constant anxiety about France she would have been perfectly happy. But French news was difficult to get and bad when it was obtained.