New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-09-20

that he should do so as often as an at'enip' was
made TO shut it, Not even the seclusion Oh ."ei'
own cells was granted 70 the august prisoners no'
even protection against the ribaldry' obscene VI
tuneratiop and unspeskabe flthiness which the
mon and women "of the people, assailed them
with from daylight TO dark. assembling under
their windows for the purpose
Revolutions are not made with rose-water. True
enough: but must they be made with sewage
There is a beastliness about too many OF tnese
details which destroys all semblance OF dignity
in the events which they befoul. The poor Queen
-" the Austrian. as the slums called her-was
no doubt in her youth foolish and frivolous. ana
had not too much respect for her not very
respectable husband But nobody believes now
tbs ISLANDERS which were scattered broadcast con-
corning her. Nobody believes the RIDICULOUS
stories about her life at the Trianon, for example
about the masquerading as shepherds and shep-
herde6ses about the sham pastoral buhoonery
which half France credited so easily AS she
crew older the nonsense was all taken out Of
her. and after the Versailles episode she was pre-
maturelv aged. Indeed, it is evident enough that
She lived in the shadow Of the scaffold for years.
After the Varcnnes affair she gave up all hope
and looked upon herself as doomed. Ihenceforth
her anxiety was only for her chiidren-and perhaps
be idle to pretend that she ever loved that simple
and forceless gentleman. She indeed was, as
Mirabeau said. the only man in the Court. and
there cannot be doubt that If her advice had
been followed the monarchy, while it might have
gone down in blood, would have persisted. not
incloriously, but fighting to the death Every
thing. however. had been made 70 yield TO the
Kings no-policy Of perpetual concession. NJ de
Saint-Amand says Louis was an optimist, but that
is hardly Just Characterization Of him. lie was
too predetermined to possess convictions OF any
kind. lie could not see that he was surrendenng
everything. that he was with his own hand putting
the petard to his throne. Whatever Humiliation
was thrust upon him he accepted with show OF
cheerfulness, and every such acceptance made his
situation more impossible.
Marie Antoinette was Of different temperament.
She was woman of character and resolution, Dut
Without experience. She might have been
very bad woman, yet not have deserved the long
agony through which she was to pass to her
cruel death. But in truth she was not
bad woman at all. Her modern blograpners'
as for instance NJ de Noilhac, have testified to her
benevolence, TO her tenderness Of heart !"
her dignity to her love and care
of her children. TO the keenheSs oi
her intelligence. and to other good qualities. But
mourning was UllOWtu Ill iUltihdliOh 'Ni
She was guilty of the deadly crime OF being a
foreigner She was not Of the same blood with
those women of the Halls, who howled curses
unon her at Versailles, and who yearned 10 cut
her throat, to tear her to pieces Considering
the attitude of many natve-born FrerrGmen at
the period, this position toward the Queen seems
rather fantastic, too, for NJ. de Saint-Amand him
self observes that I" il must not lie forgotten that
the national idea was not so strongly accentuatcd
then as now" Throughout the entire history Of
France we behold sometimes the kings, and some
times their subjects, invoking without shame the
aid of foreign armies The leaguers called in
foreign troops Henry the Fourth conquered his
realm by the aid of English troops. Under Louis
the Thirteenth the Protestants OF Rochelle were
Fngland's allies. TT the time Of the FrOden the
great Condo fought against France under the
standards of Spain. After the revocation of the
Edict of Nantes the French refugees took
service in the Prussian army. The English in
America had just been asking French assistance
against their mother country. The monarchical
and religious sentiment took precedence
of the national sentiment among the no.
bty at the end of the eighteenth century. The
idea of the throne and tho altar outweighed that
of country. The men of Coblentz did not consider
themselves as compatriots of the JacObins who
were threatening their prosperity, their home,
and their life.
That was perhaps not surprising. but it is not
easily explained how Marie Antoinette's foreign
extraction should have been imputed to her as a
crime by a people themselves little imbued
with national sentiment. The fact however was
there and the Queen had to endure 1t to endure
that and much more. after the residence at the
Tuileries, recounted so graphically in this volume
a.
her long torment was entered upon That stage
we presume the author will describe in another
volume. For the present his narrative pauses at
the return TO the Queen of her devoted and doomed
friend, the Princesse dc Lamballe