The Shasta courier., 1867-04-20

lunary things to have many points OF SYM
pathy with Marie Antoinette, whose sor-
rows sprung from human passions and affec
tions. Elizabeth looked on this world as a
probation for better one. The very people
who beheaded her called her angelic. and
truly so she was.
Her presence at this terrible crisis of the
Queens fate may have soothed her. When
she could think, perhaps it consoled her
that her young daughter should not be alone ;
but from the hour her son was taken from
her, Marie Antoinette never smiled again.
She was separated shortly after from her
daughter, and from this gentle sister, and
she wept few silent tears for them, but
none for herself. In the cold damp cell of
the Conciergerie, she was now alone forever.
The cell was damp, and often ankle deep in
water her clothing was in tatters; the
coarse covering of her bed insufficient her
food prison fare. Yet she complained not.
Her beauty was gone the fire of her eyes
was quenched the golden hair was gray,
and the form that Burke had said, g ten
thousand swords should have leaped from
scabbards to Defend" was attenuated and
shrunken the voice that had echoed so
merrily through the woods of Trianon, and
SO nobly replied to PROSTATE princes and
ambassadors, was now low and broken.
The lip alone retained the Austrian scorn,
and the spirit within was still unquenched.
Strong must have been the mind that mad
dened not, and the heart that lived on after
all hope had fled.
In this lone cell the Queen, whose days
were heightened by sleepless nights, drew
the worsted from the piece of ragged carpet
on the floor, and with two bits of stick she
knitted long strip, and sent as last token
to her daughter. This was the only relaxa-
ton from the inaction of misery the Queen
ever knew for more than ten months.
But the relief came at last. Unlike her
husband, who had set up a defence at his
trial, Marie Antoinette refused to acknowl-
edge her accuser's power to judge. Once
only was she reused when tired of her re-
fusal to be questioned she was accused of
corrupting the morals of her son. Then
turning to the crowded court, the blood
mounting to her forehead, she exclaimed:
''Tis false. l appeal to all the mothers
here to justify my words"
She was condemned to death, and must
have heard her doom with sigh of relief
All had gone from her; those she loved were
suffering mental and bodily anguish must
she not have felt throb of joy at leaving
such world of horror and agony?
The night before her execution the Queen
fell into a long deep slumber which lasted
many hours. Her earthly trial was over
1t had been arranged through the friends of
Nine. Elizabeth that from the balcony of a
house in Rue St. Honore, the Queen should
receive the last absolution and blessing of
the church as she passed Oh to executien.-
Her conscience was at rest.
Early in the morning the wife and daugh-
ter of the jailcr came to assist her in her last
toilet. Thowing aside the black dress she
had worn as mourning for her husband, she
put on white linen robe as symbol of her
purity and innocence-a white cap rested on
her hair, now permaturely gray, black
ribbon alone recalling her widows mourning.
When, however, the attendents who came to
take her to execution were about to cut off
her hair, Marie Antoinette took the scissors
from them and severed the hair from her
head with her own hands. Unresistingly
she submitted to have her hands bound,
determined to preserve the dignity as
Queen to the last. Still when instead of the
carriage that had conveyed the King to
execution, she found common cart was to
convey her to the scaffold she turned away
and for an instant refused to advance but
neT DelleT JuupcillcHb CdIle u utT dlu, anu
even to this she submitted.
Her features never changed during this
long ordeal, amidst the coarse Jokes and exc
crations of the multitude. Once when she
stood at the foot of the scaffold, she raised
her head and gave long wshful look to
the palace at the Tuleries, gazing, too, on
the wide avenue of the Champs Elysees,
which led to Versailles; but this was her
OF ba JoI +lo
scaffold with a radiant look-a sigh of salts.
faction and RELIEF escaped her as she mount
ell the steps of the ladder.
On the platform she accidentally stepped
on the foot of the executioner: turning to
him with the grace and smile that poets had
sung and Europe admired, Marie Anton
cite said in her gentlest tones g Pdrdonnez
moi, Monsieur" Then kneeling down, she
offered up long and earnest prayer to
Heaven. AT last she arose, and gazing in
the direction of the Temple where all she
loved was hidden, she murmured: '' Fare
well, my children, for once more and for the
last time" Then she committed herself to
the hands of the executioner, her last words
being, as if addressed to her children 81
60 to join your father"
The crowd stood breathless with upturned
laces, anu no uruns were Dlu 10 DeaU 10
drown her last words as they had done the
Kings. But Marie Antoinette disdained to
speak. She gave one calm, cold, proud,
defiant look, and bending her neck to the
executioner, "died and made no sign"
Marie Antoinette was thirty seven when
she suffered death. The record of this tre-
mendous cruelty and crime reads thus in the
register of burials in the church of Made
laine: 81 For the coffin of the widow of Louis
Canat seven frames ~