THREE:Ma chre amie, he replied, all that I have been hearing makes me think that the world will very soon be upside down.Weak character of Louis XVI.Quarrels at CourtMme. de TessForebodings of Mme. dAyenLa FayetteSaintly lives of Pauline and her sistersApproach of the RevolutionThe States-GeneralFolly of Louis XVI.Scenes at VersaillesFamily political quarrelsRoyalist and RadicalDeath of Paulines youngest child.
THREE:The first great sorrow was the death of Mme. de la Fayette on Christmas Eve, 1808, at the age of forty-eight. Her health had been completely undermined by the terrible experiences of her imprisonments; and an illness caused by blood-poisoning during her captivity with her husband in Austria, where she was not allowed proper medical attendance, was the climax from which she never really recovered. She died as she had lived, like a saint, at La Grange, surrounded by her broken-hearted husband and family, and by her own request was buried at Picpus, where, chiefly by the exertions of the three sisters, a church had been built close to the now consecrated ground where lay buried their mother, sister, grandmother, with many other victims of the Terror.
THREE:For some time the character of Paul had become more and more gloomy and menacing; his mind was filled with the darkest suspicions, even to the extent of believing that the Empress and his children were conspiring against his life; which was all the more terrible for the Empress Marie, as they had for many years, as long as the Empress Catherine lived, been very happy together, and in spite of everything she still remained deeply attached to him.Perpetually proclaiming her religious principles [xi] and loyalty to the throne, she was suspected of being concerned in the disgraceful libels and attacks upon the Queen, was on terms of friendship with some of the worst of the revolutionists, rejoiced in the earliest outbreaks of the beginning of the Revolution, and while she educated the Orlans children with a pompous parade of virtue and strictness, was generally and probably rightly looked upon as the mistress of their father.
TWO:Mme. Le Brun painted the portrait first of Madame Adla?de, then of Madame Victoire.They stayed a month with Sheridan at Isleworth, and then he saw them off at Dover, and they landed safely in France. Immense crowds assembled to greet Mademoiselle dOrlans, but at Chantilly they were met by a messenger of the Duke, who gave Mme. de Genlis a note saying