The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1919-02-15

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 war has finished.
There is corridor in Versailles Mt which the
Hun ENJOYS can look with bitterness only
corridor and gorgeous chamber The chamber
Is that In which Bismarck explained to the French
plenipOtentiarteS. Jules Favre and Louis Theirs,
the crushing and humiliating terms imposed by
Germany after the defeat of France Al years ago.
Roles are somewhat reversed In this year Of grace.
1919. Near the chamber is that sumptuous corri-
dor known as the Hall Of Mirrors where once the
French monarchs strolled and chatted with their
courts 1t is the spot in which William l 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 lovely harpies-their intrgues 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
gstening relief Here is the mirror that reflected
the cynic, appraising smile Of Louis XIV. There is
the marble balustrade so lately touched by the
teweled fingers Of the Duchess d'Orleans. In that
corner famed 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
ince pervades the wide painted rooms. Over these
CLASSY floors her irresponsible feet danced. In the
Fett TrianOn across the way she played at milk
Snaid And the gardens still hold faint sigh of
her laugh, ringing out carefree peasant girls
when the whole court joined in blind mans buff
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 tho
court played and Paris starved and the first re.
mote STRINGS came which led by long and bloody
roads to the Versailles peace conference Of the
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 was queen Of
France. Just before her fortieth birthday she was
guilotined
For three years the king and queen had been
virtually prisoners in the Tuileries palace, whittier
they returned after one vain attempt at
flight At last the revolutionary fury broke. On
the tenth of August In 1892, the steps Of the
Tuileries ran crimson with the blood Of the faith
full Swiss guard Escaping to the national assem-
bly, the king and queen, with their two children.
were lodged in the Temple, prison fortress.
Blow after blow fell thereafter on the defense
less heads of the royal family. The king was
taken away, tried. and sent back for agonizns
scene of farewell. Standing rigid as a statue in
her cell. Marie AntOinette heard the guns boom
forth the tidings Of his execution.
little later she was separated from her chill
dren. subjected to revolving indignites during a
"a rcica trial. and ten months after the executions
NJ her husband was herself condemned to die. The
eortitude which Maria Theresa bequeathed to her
daughter had been shining with pure and steady
i,oht these many months Marie Antonette heard
her death sentence with smile.
On a cold and windy morning In October they
vumnoned forth this daughter OF an empress on
-hon, all shame had been heaped. Her brown
~.,- had turned silver; her body was bent; her
-o,ce had grown low and tremulous. Not for years
- any man heard the gay laugh that once chal-
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