Monsieur le Comte, I promised Madame, your mother, to take you under my guardianship during [59] her absence. Our play is too high for a young man; you will play no more pharaon at Court.
Much older than the unfortunate Queen of France, and possessing neither her beauty nor charm, Mme. Le Brun did not take a fancy to her, although she received her very well. She was a strange person, with masculine manners and habits; her great pleasure apparently was riding. Very pale and thin, wearing deep mourning for her brother, the Emperor Joseph II., even her rooms being hung with black, she gave the impression almost of a spectre or a shadow.Here she finished the portrait of the young Princess von Lichtenstein, as Iris. As she was represented with bare feet, her husband told Mme. Le Brun that when it was hung in his gallery, and the heads of the family came to see it, they were all extremely scandalised, so he had placed a pair of little shoes on the ground under it, and told the grand-parents they had dropped off.Adrienne especially believed implicitly in her husband, who was now the supreme fashion amongst the Liberals, fted, flattered by high and low, and just at this time the idol of the people; a popularity which soon gave place to hatred, and which did no good while it lasted.
ONE:CHAPTER VIIBut just as she was getting ready for the journey her little daughter was taken ill. She recognised with despair the fatal symptoms of her other children. She could not speak English or the doctor French, but Mme. de la Luzerne and her daughter, emigres and friends of the Duchesse dAyen, hastened from London, took up their abode at Richmond, stayed with her until after the death of the child, and then took her to London and looked after her with the greatest kindness and affection until M. de Montagu arrived, too late to see his child, distracted with grief and anxiety for his wife, and sickened and horrified with the Revolution and all the cruelties and horrors he had seen.
The following song, one of the many circulating at the time, is a specimen of the least objectionable of its kind:The BastillePrisons of the RevolutionLes CarmesCazotteThe Terrorists turn upon each otherJosphine de BeauharnaisA musician in the ConciergerieA dog in prisonUnder the guardianship of a dogTallien tries to save TrziaA daggerLa ForceThe last hopeThe TocsinThe 9th Thermidor.There you are exactly! cried her friend; you are just like a boy. Well, I warn you that you will be confined this evening.Run quick and fetch him and take him to his parents. I shall not go to bed till you tell me he is safe at home.