Most of the servants were bribed by the Jacobins to spy upon their masters, and knew much better than they what was going on in France. Many of [111] them used to go and meet the courrier who told them much more than was contained in the letters he brought. After having lived two years and a half in Italy, chiefly in Rome, Mme. Le Brun began to think of returning to France.
ONE:The Princess had therefore, as soon as she could get away from Austria, joined her uncles and aunts and married the Duc dAngoulme, concentrating all her affection upon those remaining members of her family, who received her with the deepest joy and tenderness.Well! it is worthy of the days of antiquity. But in these times it is not to a husband but to the nation that a citoyenne should sacrifice herself. If you have done any wrong to the Republic, it is in your power publicly to expiate it. In public affairs women must preach and set the example. If I ask for your liberty it must be on condition that you promise to be the Egeria of the Montagne, as the Roland was of the Gironde.
ONE:The House of NoaillesThe court of Louis XV.The DauphinThe DauphineAn evil omenThe QueenThe Convent of FontevraultDeath of Mme. ThrseThe InfantaMadame Henriette and the Duc dOrlansMesdames Victoire, Sophie, and Louise.
TWO:It has been said that the arrest was made at the end of a fte she had been giving at which Robespierre himself was present, and which he had only just left, with professions of the sincerest friendship.
THREE:THE theatre was a passion with Mme. Le Brun, and all the more interesting to her from her friendships with some of the chief actors and actresses, and her acquaintance with most of them, from the great geniuses such as Talma, Mlle. Mars, and Mlle. Clairon to the dbutantes like Mlle. Rancourt, whose career she watched with sympathetic interest. For Mme. Dugazon, sister of Mme. Vestris and aunt of the famous dancer Vestris, she had an unmixed admiration; she was a gifted artist and a Royalist heart and soul. One evening when Mme. Dugazon was playing a soubrette, in which part came a duet with a valet, who sang:
THREE:Oh! for that matter, said the gipsy, it will have no limit.For La Fayette was neither a genius, nor a great man, nor a born leader; the gift of influencing other people was not his; he had no lasting power over the minds of others, and as to the mob, he led them as long as he went where they wanted to go. When he did not agree with all their excesses they followed him no longer.
