Ambition and Desire: The Dangerous Life of Josephine Bonaparte Read Online Free PDF Page B

her head on a pike, her innards on another, and paraded her through Paris. They even took her head to a hairdresser to have her trademark golden locks arranged. They then ushered it to the Tower so the queen could give her lips one last kiss. However, the horrific sight of the princesse’s head on a pike popping up at the windows was too much for even the hardened guards, and they hurried to close the shutters so the queen would not see. The mob paraded the head around throughout the afternoon and later abandoned it, after which it was retrieved by a kindly citizen who asked to give the last remains of the princesse a proper burial.
    No one was safe. The prince of Salm, a friend of both Marie-Josèphe and Alexandre, offered to take Eugène and Hortense to his country estate and then away from France. The children were told they were taking a brief summer holiday. Eugène, who was used to separation, was excited by travel, but nine-year-old Hortense missed her mother intensely. “I am touched by your regrets at being away from your mother; but my dear it is not for long,” Marie-Josèphe wrote. “I hope that the Princess [of Salm] will return in spring, or I will come and collect you.” 6
    The rest of Europe gazed on France in horror. Catherine II of Russia was encouraging active intervention, and Austria, Spain, Prussia, Saxony, and Sweden were in favor. On April 20, France had declared war on Austria. Alexandre, serving with the army in Strasbourg, was furious when he heard that his children had been sent away, for he felt it was their duty to remain in Paris. He demanded the prince of Salm returnthem. Alexandre then sent Eugène to school in Strasbourg and told Marie-Josèphe she could keep Hortense at home.
    On December 26, 1792, the trial of Louis XVI began. On January 15, 1793, he was found guilty of collaboration with counterrevolutionary forces. At two P.M. on Sunday, January 20, thirty-eight-year-old Louis was told that he would die the next day. He begged for three days in order to prepare his soul, but was refused. Marie Antoinette asked that she and the children spend the night with him, but Louis told them he needed peace to ready himself. The children were so hysterical that he could persuade them to leave him only by saying he would see them in the morning. On the morning itself, he crept away silently because he could not bear to say goodbye.
    At around the same time Louis was informed of his fate, a guillotine was set up in the Place de la Révolution (formerly Place Louis XV and now the Place de la Concorde). During the night, flakes of snow fell on the blade. By the morning, there was a great crowd around it, rubbing their ice-cold fingers and buying hot rolls from the sellers who wove through the throng. At ten-fifteen, the king arrived wearing gray breeches, a pink waistcoat, and a brown silk coat, elaborately neat, his hair as perfectly coiffed as if he were in Versailles. Refusing to allow the executioner to tie his hands, he climbed onto the platform, took off his coat and waistcoat, and began to speak: “My people, I die an innocent man,” he said, but his voice was swamped by the noise of the drums. He was compelled to kneel, the blade was brought down, and his head tumbled into the basket. Spectators dipped their handkerchiefs in the blood to keep as souvenirs.
    Marie Antoinette waited in her cell, hoping she might see him one last time, until she heard the crowds below shout out that he was dead. One of the guards brought her a gift from him—his wedding ring engraved with “M.A.A.A., 19 Aprilis 1770,” from the days when she had been Marie Antoinette, Archduchess of Austria.
    “A GREAT NATION had that day soiled its history with a crime for which the future would hold it guilty,” said Madame de Staël. 7
    Starving dogs stalked the city. Left to their own devices after the death or flight of their masters, they drank the blood in the gutters andthreatened anyone who dared venture out.