IN the histories of the four women whose lives are here related, I have tried, as far as is possible in the limited space, to give an idea of the various ways in which the Revolutionary tempest at the close of the eighteenth century and the eventful years which preceded and followed it, affected, and were regarded by, persons of the different parties and classes to which they belonged.
The characters of the four heroines form as strong a contrast as their circumstances, principles, and surroundings.
In Mme. Le Brun, the most gifted of all, we see a beauty, a genius, and a woman unusually charming and attractive, thrown, before she was sixteen, into the society of the magnificent, licentious court of Louis XV. Married to a dissipated, bourgeois spendthrift, for whom she had never cared; sought after, flattered, and worshipped in all the great courts of Europe; courted by fascinating, unscrupulous men of the highest rank, without the protection of family connections and an assured position; yet her religious principles, exalted character, and passionate devotion to her art, carried her unscathed and honoured through a life of extraordinary dangers and temptations.
She emigrated early, and far from being, as in most cases, a time of poverty and hardship, her exile was one long, triumphant career of prosperity.
Owing to her brilliant success, to the affection and friendship which surrounded her wherever she went, to her absorbing interest in her art, the delightful places and society in which she spent her time, and also to her own sunny, light-hearted nature, her long life, in spite of certain serious domestic drawbacks and sorrows, was a very happy one. Her wonderful capacity for enjoyment, her appreciation of beauty in nature and art, the great interest she took in matters intellectual and political, her pleasure in the society of her numerous friends, and her ardent devotion to the religious and royalist principles of her youth, continued undiminished through the peaceful old age which terminated her brilliant career.
With the same religious and political principles, the conditions of life which surrounded the Marquise de Montagu were totally different. A contrast indeed to the simple, artistic household, the early grief, poverty, and hard work, the odious step-father, the foolish mother, the worthless husband and daughter, the thousand difficulties and disadvantages which beset Mme. Le Brun, were the state and luxury, the sheltered life, the watchful care, and powerful protection bestowed upon the daughter of the house of Noailles; her mother, the saintly, heroic Duchesse d’Ayen, her husband the gallant, devoted Marquis de Montagu.
She also was thrown very early into society; but she entered it as a member of one of the greatest families in France, surrounded by an immense number of relations of the highest character and position.
Neither a genius nor yet possessed of any great artistic or intellectual talent, without worldly ambition, little attracted by the amusements of society, she was a sort of mixture of a grande dame and a saint.
The lofty asceticism of her theories and practice was perhaps almost too severe for ordinary mortals living in the world, and in some respects better adapted for a monastic than a secular life; her emigration, so long delayed, was no time of success and happiness: long years of terror, danger, poverty, fearful trials, and sorrows endured with heroic fortitude and angelic patience, passed before she was restored to France and to the ancient castle which was the home and refuge of her later life.
In Mme. Tallien we have a woman exactly opposite to the other two in character, principles, and conduct. Differing from both of them in birth and circumstances—for she was the daughter of a Spanish banker of large fortune—with extraordinary beauty, the hot, passionate blood of the south, a nature, habits, and principles undisciplined by authority and unrestrained by religion, she was early imbued with the creed of the revolutionists, and carried their theories of atheism and licence to the logical consequences.
Yet the generosity and kindness of her heart, and the number of victims she saved, outweighed, though without effacing, the disorders of her earlier life, [1] during the latter part of which, as the wife of a Catholic, royalist prince, whose love she returned and to whose opinions she was converted, she deeply regretted the errors of Notre Dame de Thermidor.
In Mme. de Genlis we have a fourth and more complex type, a character in which good and evil were so mingled that it was often hard to say which predominated. With less beauty than the other three but singularly attractive, with extraordinary gifts and talents, with noble blood and scarcely any fortune, she spent a childhood of comparative poverty at her father’s château, where she was only half educated, and at seventeen married the young Comte de Genlis, who had no money but was related to most of the great families of the kingdom.
From this time began her brilliant career. Essentially a woman of the world, delighting in society and amusement, though always praising the pleasures of solitude and retirement, she entered the household of the Duchesse d’Orléans, wife of the infamous Philippe-Égalité, and while constantly declaiming against ambition managed to get all her relations lucrative posts at the Palais Royal, and married one if not both her daughters to rich men of rank with notoriously bad reputations.
Perpetually proclaiming her religious principles 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 Orléans children with a pompous parade of virtue and strictness, was generally and probably rightly looked upon as the mistress of their father.
She was a strange character, full of artificial sentiment, affectation, and self-deception, and, unlike the first three heroines of this book, the mystery and doubts which hung over her have never been cleared up.
Against the saintly Marquise de Montagu no breath of scandal could ever be spoken. Such calumnies as were spread against Mme. Le Brun, the work of the revolutionists, who hated her only for her religion and loyalty, never believed by those whose opinion would be worthy of consideration, soon vanished and were forgotten.
The liaisons of Mme. Tallien had nothing doubtful about them.
But the stories against Mme. de Genlis have never been cleared up. Much that was said about her was undoubtedly false, but there remain serious accusations which can neither be proved nor disproved; and that a long, intimate friendship between a prince of the character of Philippe-Égalité and a young, attractive woman who was governess to his children should have been no more than a platonic one, passes the bounds of credibility.
The history of Mme. de Genlis in the emigration differs from the other two, for having contrived to make herself obnoxious both to royalists and republicans her position was far worse than theirs.
But the deep affection she and her pupils displayed for each other, the devotion and kindness she showed them during their misfortunes, the courage and cheerfulness with which she bore the hardships and dangers of her lot, and the remorse and self-reproach which, in spite of the excellent opinion she usually entertained of herself, do occasionally appear in her memoirs, prove that many good qualities existed amongst so much that was faulty.
As to her writings, then so much in vogue, they were mostly works intended either to explain, assist, or illustrate the system of education which was the hobby of her life and which, if one may judge by “Adèle et Théodore,” one of the most important of her tales, can only be called preposterous.
That the false sentiment, the absurd rules of life, the irksome, unnecessary restrictions, the cramping and stifling of all the natural affections and feelings of youth here inculcated should have been regarded with approval, even by the sourest and most solemn of puritans, seems difficult to believe; but that in the society of Paris at that time they should have been popular and admired is only another example of the inconsistency of human nature. She had a passion for children, but kindness to animals does not seem to have been one of the virtues she taught her pupils. We may hope that the fearful little prigs described as the result of her system never did or could exist.
I have endeavoured to be accurate in all the dates and incidents, and have derived my information from many sources, including the “Mémoires de Louis XVIII., recueillis par le Duc de D——,” Mémoires de la Comtesse d’Adhémar, de Mme. Campan, MM. de Besenval, de Ségur, &c., also the works of the Duchesse d’Abrantès, Comtesse de Bassanville, Mme. de Créquy, Mme. de Genlis, Mme. Le Brun, MM. Arsène Houssaye, de Lamartine, Turquan, Dauban, Bouquet, and various others, besides two stories never yet published, one of which was given me by a member of the family to which it happened; the other was told me in the presence of the old man who was the hero of it.
[1] Tallien, on hearing of her proposed marriage with the Prince de Chimay, remarked, “Elle a beau faire, elle sera toujours Madame Tallien.”
| Page | |
| Preface | vii |
| I | |
| MADAME VIGÉE LE BRUN | |
| CHAPTER I | |
| The ancien régime—Close of the reign of Louis XIV.—The Regent Orléans—The court of Louis XV.—The philosophers—The artists—M. Vigée | 3 |
| CHAPTER II | |
| The childhood of Lisette—Extraordinary talent—The convent—The household of an artist—Death of M. Vigée—Despair of Lisette—Begins her career—Re-marriage of her mother—The Dauphine | 15 |
| CHAPTER III | |
| Brilliant success of Lisette—Love of her art—The Vernet—Life in Paris before the Revolution—Mme. Geoffrin—Marriage of Lisette to M. Le Brun—A terrible prediction | 29 |
| CHAPTER IV | |
| Marie Antoinette—Birth of Mme. Le Brun’s daughter—The Royal Family—Brussels—Antwerp—The charms of French society—The Opera ball—An incident in the terror—A Greek supper—Le jeu de la Reine | 45 |
| CHAPTER V | |
| The theatre—Raincy—Chantilly—Calonne—Attempt to ruin the reputation of Mme. Le Brun—Two deplorable marriages—Fate of Mme. Chalgrin—Under the shadow of death—Mme. Du Barry | 60 |
| CHAPTER VI | |
| End of the ancien régime—Foretaste of the Revolution—Threatened—Resolves to emigrate—Another alarm—Preparations—“You are wrong to go”—A terrible journey—Safe across the frontier | 79 |
| CHAPTER VII | |
| Turin—Parma—The Infanta—Florence—Rome: Delightful life there—Artistic success—Social life—The French refugees—The Polignac—Angelica Kaufmann—An Italian summer—Life at Gensano—The Duchesse de Fleury | 90 |
| CHAPTER VIII | |
| Naples—Lady Hamilton—Marie Caroline, Queen of Naples—Mesdames de France—Their escape—Les chemises de Marat—Rome—Terrible news from France—Venice—Turin—The Comtesse de Provence—The 10th August—The Refugees—Milan—Vienna—Delightful society—Prince von Kaunitz—Life at Vienna | 104 |
| CHAPTER IX | |
| Dresden—St. Petersburg—The Empress Catherine II.—Orloff—Potemkin—Russian hospitality—Magnificence of society at St. Petersburg—Mme. Le Brun is robbed—Slanders against her—The Russian Imperial family—Popularity and success of Mme. Le Brun—Death of the Empress Catherine | 122 |
| CHAPTER X | |
| Paul I.—Terror he inspired—Death of the mother of Mme. Le Brun—Marriage of her daughter—Moscow—The Tsarevitch Alexander—Assassination of Paul I.—“I salute my Emperor”—Mme. Le Brun returns to Paris—Changes—London—Life in England—Paris—Separated from M. Le Brun—Society during the Empire—Caroline Murat—Switzerland—Fall of the Empire—Restoration—Death of M. Le Brun—Of her daughter—Travels in France—Her nieces—Conclusion | 139 |
| II | |
| LA MARQUISE DE MONTAGU | |
| CHAPTER I | |
| The House of Noailles—The court of Louis XV.—The Dauphin—The Dauphine—An evil omen—The Queen—The Convent of Fontevrault—Death of Mme. Thérèse—The Infanta—Madame Henriette and the Duc d’Orléans—Mesdames Victoire, Sophie, and Louise | 161 |
| CHAPTER II | |
| The Greatest Names in France—The Maréchale de Noailles—Strange proceedings—Death of the Dauphin—Of the Dauphine—Of the Queen—The Children of France—Louis XIV. and Louis XV. | 173 |
| CHAPTER III | |
| The Duchesse d’Ayen—Birth and death of her sons—Her five daughters—Their education at home—Saintly life of the Duchess—Marriage of her eldest daughter to the Vicomte de Noailles—Of the second to the Marquis de la Fayette—Of the Dauphin to the Archduchess Marie Antoinette—The Comtesse de Noailles—Marriages of the Comtes de Provence and d’Artois to the Princesses of Sardinia—Death of Louis XV.—Unhappy marriage of the third daughter of the Duc d’Ayen to the Vicomte du Roure—Afterwards to Vicomte de Thésan—Paulette and Rosalie de Noailles—Adrienne de la Fayette—Radical ideas of the Vicomte de Noailles and Marquis de la Fayette—Displeasure of the family and the King—La Fayette and de Noailles join the American insurgents—Grief and heroism of Adrienne—Marriage of Pauline to the Marquis de Montagu | 182 |
| CHAPTER IV | |
| The Marquis de Montagu rejoins his regiment—Life of Pauline at the hôtel de Montagu—Affection of her father-in-law—Brilliant society—Story of M. de Continges—Death of Pauline’s child—Marriage of Rosalie to Marquis de Grammont—Birth of Pauline’s daughters—The court of Louis XVI.—The royal family—Dissensions at court—Madame Sophie and the storm—Extravagance of the Queen and Comte d’Artois—The Comte d’Artois and Mlle. Duthé—Scene with the King—Le petit Trianon—The Palace of Marly—A sinister guest | 194 |
| CHAPTER V | |
| Weak character of Louis XVI.—Quarrels at court—Mme. de Tessé—Forebodings of Mme. d’Ayen—La Fayette—Saintly lives of Pauline and her sisters—Approach of the Revolution—The States-General—Folly of Louis XVI.—Scenes at Versailles—Family political quarrels—Royalist and Radical—Death of Pauline’s youngest child | 206 |
| CHAPTER VI | |
| The Château de Plauzat—Varennes—Increasing danger—Decided to emigrate—Triumphal progress of La Fayette—The farewell of the Duchesse d’Ayen—Paris—Rosalie—A last mass—Escape to England | 219 |
| CHAPTER VII | |
| M. de Montagu returns to Paris—M. de Beaune—Richmond—Death of Noémi—Aix-la-Chapelle—Escape of the Duc d’Ayen and Vicomte de Noailles—La Fayette arrested in Austria—The Hague—Crossing the Meuse—Margate—Richmond—Hardships of poverty—Brussels—Letter from Mme. de Tessé—Joins her in Switzerland—Murder of M. and Mme. de Mouchy—Goes to meet the Duc d’Ayen—He tells her of the murder of her grandmother, Mme. de Noailles, her mother, the Duchesse d’Ayen, and her eldest sister, the Vicomtesse de Noailles—Mme. de la Fayette still in prison | 227 |
| CHAPTER VIII | |
| Illness—Leaves Switzerland with Mme. de Tessé—They settle near Altona—Hears of Rosalie’s safety—Life on the farm—Release of Adrienne—Her visit—Farm of Wittmold—Peaceful life there—Rosalie and Adrienne—Birth of Pauline’s son—He and her other children live—Release of La Fayette—Their visit to Wittmold—Meeting of Adrienne, Pauline, and Rosalie at the Hague | 248 |
| CHAPTER IX | |
| Return to France—The inheritance of the Duchesse d’Ayen—Loss of the Noailles property—Inherits the Castle of Fontenay—Death of Mme. de la Fayette—Prosperous life at Fontenay—Conclusion | 258 |
| III | |
| MADAME TALLIEN | |
| CHAPTER I | |
| Térèzia Cabarrus—Comes to Paris—Married to the Marquis de Fontenay—Revolutionary sympathies—Unpopularity of royal family—The wig of M. de Montyon—The Comte d’Artois and his tutor—The Comte de Provence and Louis XV. | 269 |
| CHAPTER II | |
| The makers of the Revolution—Fête à la Nature—Tallien—Dangerous times—An inharmonious marriage—Colonel la Mothe—A Terrorist—The beginning of the emigration—A sinister prophecy | 281 |
| CHAPTER III | |
| The 10th of August—The September massacres—Tallien—The emigrant ship—Arrest at Bordeaux—In prison—Saved by Tallien | 297 |
| CHAPTER IV | |
| Divorced—M. de Fontenay escapes to Spain—The mistress of Tallien—Her influence and his save many lives—Robespierre—Singular circumstances at the birth of Louis XVII.—The vengeance of the Marquis de —— —Enmity of Robespierre—Arrest of Térèzia—La Force | 308 |
| CHAPTER V | |
| The Bastille—Prisons of the Revolution—Les Carmes—Cazotte—The Terrorists turn upon each other—Joséphine de Beauharnais—A musician in the Conciergerie—A dog in prison—Under the guardianship of a dog—Tallien tries to saves Térèzia—A dagger—La Force—The last hope—The Tocsin—The 9th Thermidor | 323 |
| CHAPTER VI | |
| “Robespierre is dead!”—Notre Dame de Thermidor—End of the Terror—The prisons open—Decline of Tallien’s power—Barras—Napoleon—“Notre Dame de Septembre!”—M. Ouvrard—Separates from Tallien—He goes to Egypt—Consul in Spain—Dies in Paris—Térèzia stays in Paris—Ingratitude of some she had saved—Marries the Prince de Chimay—Conclusion | 335 |
| IV | |
| MADAME DE GENLIS | |
| CHAPTER I | |
| Birth of Félicité Ducrest—Château de Saint-Aubin—Made chanoinesse—Story of her uncle and her mother—Her childhood—Comes to Paris—Goes into society—Evil reputation of the hôtel Tencin | 351 |
| CHAPTER II | |
| M. de la Haie—Death of the Dauphin—M. de Saint-Aubin goes to St. Domingo—Taken prisoner by the English—Returns to France—Imprisoned for debt—His death—Difficulties and poverty—Félicité marries the Comte de Genlis—His family—The Abbesse de Montivilliers and the robbers—Life in the convent—Birth of a daughter | 362 |
| CHAPTER III | |
| Presentation at Versailles—La Rosière—Father and son—Mme. de Montesson—A terrible scene—The Comtesse de Custine—Mme. de Genlis enters the Palais Royal | 375 |
| CHAPTER IV | |
| Society of the Palais Royal—Philippe-Égalité—An apparition—Mlle. Mars—M. Ducrest—Marriage of Mme. de Montesson—Marly—The Prime Minister of France | 386 |
| CHAPTER V | |
| La Muette—Sunrise—Italy—Nocturnal adventure—Governess to the children of Orléans—Scandalous reports—Marriages of her daughters—Death of the elder one—The Comte de Valence | 397 |
| CHAPTER VI | |
| Death of the Duc d’Orléans—M. de Genlis—Sillery—Coming of the Revolution—The Bastille—Anger of the Duchesse d’Orléans—Dissensions | 411 |
| CHAPTER VII | |
| In England—Sheridan—Strange adventure—Raincy—Farewell to Philippe-Égalité—Proscribed—Tournay—Pamela—Deat of the King | 426 |
| CHAPTER VIII | |
| Flight and danger—Mons—Zurich—Zug—The Convent of Bremgarten—Death of M. de Sillery—Of Égalité—Mademoiselle d’Orléans and the Princesse de Conti | 438 |
| CHAPTER IX | |
| A wandering life—“The tyrant is no more”—Marriage of Henriette—Hamburg—Berlin—Antwerp—Brussels—Returns to France—Terrible changes—Shattered fortune—Literary success—The Empire—Napoleon—Mme. de Genlis and her friends—Death of Mme. de Montesson | 449 |
| CHAPTER X | |
| Interesting society—Anecdotes of the past Terror—Casimir—The Restoration—Madame Royale—Louis XVIII.—The coiffeur of Marie Antoinette—The regicide—Return of the Orléans family—An astrologer—A faithful servant—Society of the Restoration—Isabey—Meyerbeer—Conclusion | 466 |
| PAGE | |
| Madame Le Brun. (Painted by herself. Uffizi, Florence) | Frontispiece |
| Louis XV. (Rigaud) | 8 |
| Marie Antoinette, Queen of France. (Mme. Vigée Le Brun) | 45 |
| Antwerp. (E. H. Bearne) | 49 |
| Calonne. (Mme. Vigée Le Brun) | 65 |
| Madame Le Brun et sa Fille. (Painted by herself) | 76 |
| The Ponte Vecchio, Florence. (E. H. Bearne) | 92 |
| Rome. (E. H. Bearne) | 107 |
| Venice. (E. H. Bearne) | 112 |
| Catherine II., Empress of Russia. (Schebanoff) | 125 |
| Paul, Emperor of Russia. (From picture given to Sir Home Popham, Capt. R.N., by the Empress Marie | 139 |
| Comtesse d’Andlau. (Mme. Vigée Le Brun) | 152 |
| Madame Adélaïde. (Nattier) | 170 |
| Comte d’Artois, afterwards Charles X. | 179 |
| Madame Sophie. (Nattier) | 201 |
| Le petit Trianon. (E. H. Bearne) | 203 |
| Marie Antoinette. (Paul Delaroche) | 238 |
| Palais du Luxembourg. (E. H. Bearne) | 245 |
| Marie de Vichy-Chambron, Marquise du Deffand. | 281 |
| François-Marie Arouet de Voltaire. (Tournières) | 284 |
| Maximilien Robespierre. (Guiard) | 321 |
| Georges Danton. ( Greuze) | 330 |
| Napoleon. | 340 |
| La Marquise de Pompadour. (Boucher) | 353 |
| Amsterdam. (E. H. Bearne) | 390 |
| Nice. (E. H. Bearne) | 399 |
| Chillon. (E. H. Bearne) | 448 |
| Madame Royale. (Mme. Vigée Le Brun) | 472 |
| Judith Pasta. (Gérard) | 480 |
| Malibran. | 484 |
