Confessions of Marie Antoinette Read Online Free PDF

conversation with deputy Mounier, who is still pressing him to sign the “Declaration of the Rights of Man.”
    “I will consent to give the order on one condition,” I tell Axel. “If His Majesty’s life is in danger, you must use it promptly. But if I alone am in peril, you will not use it.” Count von Fersen gives me an inexorable look and tears spring to my eyes. “Those are my orders,” I repeat.
    I had already informed the marquise de Tourzel to convey the dauphin and Madame Royale to the king’s private apartments, should she feel the slightest cause for alarm.
    “But where will you spend the night, dear sister?” Madame Élisabeth’s blue eyes are red-rimmed from crying. Her dame d’honneur , the marquise de Bombelles, seems powerless to comfort her. “Won’t you be safest with the king?”
    I know what these market women want. By now I have read the anonymous note I was passed in the Oeil de Boeuf. YOU WILL BE MURDERED AT SIX IN THE MORNING . But the poissardes and their confederates still trust Louis. I feel my chest constrict within my stays. “I know they have come from Paris to demand my head,” I tell Madame Élisabeth. “But I have learned from my mother not to fear death and I shall await it with firmness. I prefer to expose myself to danger, if there is any, and protect His Majesty and the children of France. I shall sleep alone tonight.”
    Yet sleep remains a long way off. His eyes brimming with tears, Louis reluctantly agrees to sign the “Declaration of the Rights of Man” and deputy Mounier watches each stroke of the pen like a vulture eyeing fresh carrion. I have never seen my husband looking more defeated. I stand behind his chair and wrap my arms abouthis shoulders, pressing my lips to the top of his head. Although his face betrays no perspiration, his scalp is damp, sticky with fear.
    Shortly after the clocks strike the hour of midnight, the mud-spattered marquis de Lafayette arrives at the palace, so exhausted from riding posthaste from Paris that he limps into the Salon de Mars. His face is drawn, drained of its customary ruddiness, and he struggles to remain on his feet. With a dramatic sweep of his arm worthy of the great Clairval he announces to Louis that he has left his men in the Place d’Armes. “Sire, I thought it best to die here at Your Majesty’s feet than to perish pointlessly in the shameful light of the torches at the Place de Grève.”
    “Are you turning your coat yet again, monsieur le général ?” I inquire of the commander of the Garde Nationale. “Have you abandoned your citizens’ militia and come back to offer your assistance to your king?”
    Lafayette shakes his head. “They want to be heard,” he tells Louis. “They want to know that you have listened to their concerns and that action will be taken.”
    My husband splays his hands. “They demanded bread and I have already promised it from our own stores. It seems imprudent to dispense it in the damp dead of night. At daybreak there will be bread aplenty. You may reassure them of this.” He looks imploringly at the general. “I have always been a man of my parole . A man of honor.” He lowers his voice to a whisper that could still be heard on the stage of the Comédie-Française. “But they must promise not to think of harming the queen.”
    “Tell her to set her mind at rest and go to bed,” Lafayette says to the king. He has convinced Louis to entrust him with the security of the palace. The French Guards will resume the posts they deserted a month ago. Is this wise?
    Louis retires for the night as well. I cannot imagine how he will sleep. I do not wish to endanger my women, so at two o’clock I urgethem to leave me. My first waiting woman, Madame Thibaut, and Madame Campan’s sister Madame Auguié are in attendance this night, along with their own maids. But they will not depart even after I insist that they go to the room where my other ladies have gathered. Madame Auguié is