The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1919-01-31
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ignorant of the high part her agony was TO pay IN
the upward struggle of Europe, Marie Antoinette
did not Gle in vain. What the French revolution
began the world has finished
There Is corridor in Versailles at which tne
Hun ENJOYS can look with bitterness only
corridor and gorgeous chamber. The chamber
is that In which Bismarck explained to the French
p'enipotentiares Jules Fayre and Louis Theirs,
the crushing and humating terms imposed by
Germany after the defeat of France AZ years ago.
Roles somewhat reversed in this year of grace.
1919. Near the chamber is that sumptuous CORR
dor known the Hall of Mirrors, where once the
French monarchs strolled and chatted with their
courts. 1t is the spot in which William pro
claimed the German empire, and 1t is the spot
where the peace treaty that skaters his empire
will doubtless be signed
Strange. musty memories haunt every corner of
this gorgeous palace outside the Paris walls,
thrown open to the clean. sweet winds of free
dom De- Pompadour Du Barry and the train OF
lesser yey harpies--their intrigues and their
wicked beauty still lend dark CLEAN of romance
to the exquisite tapestries against which in the
yesterday of history their brocades stood out in
glistenng relief. Here Is the mirror that reflected
the cynic appraising smile Of Louis Nv. There Is
the marble balustrade lately touched by the
jeweed fingers of the Duchess dOrleans. In that
corner tamed the scarlet robe of the Cardinal de
Rohan.
But because of her innocence and her dramatic
fate, 1t is Marie Antonette most of all whose pres
perNades the wide, painted rooms. Over these
CLASSY floors her irresponsible feet danced In the
Petit Trianon across the way she played at milk
maid And the gardens still hold u faint sigh Of
her laugh. ringing out carefree n peasant girls
when the whole court Joined in blind mans bun.
Such blind king and court. eyes closed against
the dreadful game impending. They were children.
the two sovereigns-children in years and in out
look during those first holiday seasons when the
court played and Paris starved and the first re-
mote STRINGS came which led by long and bloody
Versailles of he
year 1919.
Marie Antoinette only fourteen years old
when they arranged her betrothal to the fifteen
year-old dauphin. She was married at the age Of
sixteen. AT the age of twenty she queen Of
France. just before her fortieth birthday she
guillotined
For three years the king and queen had been
virtually prisoners r the Tuileries palace whittier
they returned after vain attempt at
fight. At last the revolutionary fury broke. On
the tenth of August in 1892, the steps Of the
Tuileries crimson with the blood of the faith
full Swiss guard Escaping to the national assem-
bly,, the king AID with their two children.
were lodged in the Temple prison fortress
Blow after blow fell thereafter the defense
less heads Of the royal family. The king was
taken away, tried and back Tor an agonizing
scene of farewell Standing rigid statue In
her cell, Marie Antoinette heard the guns boom
forth the tdings of his execution
A little later she separated from her chill.
dren subjected revolving ndignities during a
farcical trial. and ten months after the execution
of her husband was herself condemned to die. The
fortitude which Maria Theresa bequeathed to her
daughter had been shining W th pure and steady
light these many months. Marie Antoinette heard
her death sentence with smile.
On a cold and windy moraing In October they
summoned forth this daughter Of empress On
whom all shame had been heaped. Her brown
hair had turned silver; her body was bent; her
voice had grown low and tremulous. Not for years
h., ms Cha
,enxed court etiquette 1t Versailles. weary wom-