Mary Monica Maxwell-Scott
Published: 2013-09
Total Pages: 82
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1908 edition. Excerpt: ...between the prisoners--he attended to their rooms, made up their accounts, and strove to keep up some communication between them. The position of the prisoners in separate towers rendered the duty of the warders harder, and they were consumed with anxiety lest any efforts to escape should be made. The smallest thing excited suspicion. A poor priest of Fontenay de Vincennes sent some verses to our Princess, addressed to "Madame Elizabeth, at the Temple"; but the paper was seized and sent to the Council of the Commune as a possibly dangerous document. As we have said, no newspapers were permitted to the prisoners, but horrid pamphlets, which vilified the Royal Family, sometimes found access, and were placed designedly on the chimney-piece or elsewhere to attract their attention. One declared that "the two little wolf-whelps," as they called the royal children, must be suffocated, and another heaped insults on Mme Elizabeth, to try and destroy the admiration felt for her by the public generally. About this time a little difference arose between Cle"ry and Tison as to their mutual duties, and the Council took occasion to arrange how the Royal Family's demands were to be presented in future. One of the officers said to Tison, "Be happy, the Ministry is formed; you have the Department of the Women." This decree in fact presaged the more complete separation of the Royal Family. 1 Vie de Mme Elizabeth, de Beauchesne, vol. ii. p. 50-1 On Friday, 26th October, the Queen, Mme Elizabeth, and the children were installed in the big tower. This moment, which had been so ardently desired, was embittered by an act of cruelty towards Marie Antoinette. The Council of the Temple, in a motion suggested by a personal enemy of...