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previous: Coblenz Part 2 This webpage reproduces a portion of Royal Memoirs on the French Revolution as translated by John Wilson Croker and published by John Murray, Albemarle Street, London, 1823 the text of which is in the public domain. This text has been carefully proofread and I believe it to be free of errors. If you find a mistake though, please let me know!

 p118  Before I gave way to my joy, I returned thanks to God for the recovery of my liberty. I then wanted to share my joy with d'Avaray. As we were not yet out of France, he wished  p119 to check my transports, on account of Sayer, who did not yet know who I was; but the latter was sleeping soundly on my shoulder, and d'Avaray himself was too much delighted not to be led away by me. I began by seizing my odious tri-coloured cockade, and applying to it the line from Armide:

I tore it from my hat. (I have requested d'Avaray to keep it carefully, in the same manner as Christopher Columbus preserved his chains). We then deliberated upon the course we should follow at Mons, which we considered as being still a fortified place, and where we expected to find the gates shut. We resolved to seek for a lodging in the  p120 suburbs; and if we should not be able to procure beds there, we agreed that I should write to the commandant, in my own name, to request that the gates might be opened. We anticipated also the case of our finding but one bed; I told d'Avaray that I should give it up to him, and that, as being the strongest, I should pass the night on a chair; he declared that he should not suffer it, and that he would rather lie on a mattress on the ground by the side of my bed: I insisted on his sharing at least the bed which we were not yet sure of getting; and as every thing took the lively turn in my mind, I parodied the lines of Hippolytus and Aricia, which begin, "Sous les drapeaux de Mars",​53 substituting "matelas"​54 for "malheur",​55 which made us laugh much. These projects, these disputes, the recollections of our journey,  p121 a thousand others which assumed the gayest colours in the minds of two of the happiest beings that ever were, brought us to the village of Bossu, •a quarter of a league from Mons. Our postillion, who had never been there, thought he was in the suburb, and we knocked at several doors without procuring admission at any one. At least he told us that he saw the cathedral of Mons; we went in that direction, and found it a pigeon-house. By dint of going on, however, we at last really arrived in the suburb, and a blacksmith, we succeeded in awaking, directed us to an inn; but it had so poor an appearance that we determined to use it only for the purpose of writing to the commandant of Mons. I go out of the carriage the first time for twenty-four hours: we knocked at the door, and a maid came and inquired what we wanted. "To write a letter," I replied, upon which she shut the door in my face. But the postillion, who wanted some refreshment,  p122 knocked so hard, that she opened it again, and we went in. I was much in want of it, for my legs were so stiff they could hardly carry me.

My first care, whilst inquiry was making after the accommodation which might be had there, was to throw myself on my knees in order to return thanks to God in a more suitable posture than I had till then been able to place myself in. Having performed that first duty, I fulfilled another not less sacred or pleasing, by folding my dear d'Avaray in my arms, to whom I could now, for the first time, give, without fear and without indiscretion, the name of my deliverer. We soon learned, however, that there were no means of either sleeping or eating in this abominable inn, and all we could obtain was a little detestable beer. We, therefore, had recourse to a letter to the commandant, which was carried by Peronnet; and in the mean time we began to converse, by the side of a  p123 wretched fire of peat, with our postillion, who freely took a chair next to me. I asked him his name, which he told me was La Jeunesse. It will be easily conceived that my question was not prompted by mere curiosity, and that I was desirous of knowing the name of a man, who had, although unconsciously, done me so great a service. I afterwards asked him whether there were many priests at Avesnes who had taken the oath.​56 "We are not without some," he answered, "but nevertheless the greatest number have been faithful to their duty. They have thought of a new oath for the army, but all that is of no other use than to sow dissensions between the officer and the soldier; indeed, Heaven knows how all those things go on." D'Avaray then inquired after the regiment of Vintimille. "Oh," he answered, it is quiet enough; but formerly they exercised  p124 three times a week, and it was a pleasure to see them; now, it is once in eight days, they go out at seven o'clock, and are in again at eight, and during that time nothing is heard, right or left, the music is playing constantly." I asked him further, whether, if we had wanted to pass the gates at Maubeuge, we should have applied to the commandant or to the municipality. "why," he said, "to the municipality, to be sure: have they not taken every thing upon them? what are these municipals? D–––n'd ragamuffins! Guess, pray, who commands la nation with two epaulettes, if you please, in ––––––––– (a village we came through, but I did not hear the name distinctly);— a vinegar seller." In relating all this, he shrugged up his shoulders; he added to the effect of his words by his tone and gestures: and in short he really made us forget our fatigue and our hunger. However, when Peronnet came and told us  p125 that the gates were open, both revived, and made us receive the news with great pleasure. La Jeunesse told us that he had heard that the best inn at Mons was La Couronne Imperiale, and we told him to take us there.

On entering the town, we were asked our names and rank: d'Avaray, to whom the questions were put, was still hesitating, but I ended the difficulty by saying that we were Monsieur, brother of the King of France, and the Conte d'Avaray; and that we wished to go to the Couronne Imperiale. The serjeant of the guard told us, we were expected at La Femme Sauvage, and that Madame was already arrived there. We could not very well understand how, going by Tournay, she could already be at Mons: nevertheless, rejoicing at this addition to our good fortune, we desired to be taken to La Femme Sauvage. On reaching it would found the host at the door, and he confirmed what we had been told of our being expected; but after ascending a very indifferent staircase, we met a servant  p126 with a light, who, after surveying me from head to foot, told me with some embarrassment that I was not the person expected. The door of the room was open, and a female,​57 in bed, cried out, "It is not he! don't come in." The host having now in his turn surveyed me, said to me, "Are you not the Comte de Fersen?" — "No, indeed," I replied; "but if the lady will not receive us, could you not give us another room?" A dry negative was his only answer: and tolerably dissatisfied, as may well be supposed, with this adventure, which seemed at first so fortunate, we sent down stairs, returned into our carriage, and drove to the Couronne Imperiale, where the host likewise  p127 declared to us that he had no room to give us. This second mis-adventure began in reality to discourage us, when a voice from the house pronounced these words, "Monsieur d'Avaray, is it you?" He did not immediately recognize it, but I knew it to be that of Madame de Balbi. We alighted, and entered the house. Madame de Balbi employed herself in procuring us some supper. That of the inn was good for nothing; but luckily she had a cold chicken and a bottle of claret; and we stopped. She had afterwards the goodness to give me up her bed; d'Avaray took that of her maid; and, the first time for twenty months and a half, I lay down with an assurance of not being awakened by some scene of horror.

I slept about six hours, and I was waked by M. de la Châtre,​58 who was at Mons, and  p128 whose impatience to see me had not allowed him to let me finish my rest. A moment after I had risen the Comte de Fersen arrived, having conducted the King as far as Bondi. Nothing was then wanting to my happiness, as I was persuaded (ignorant as I was of any details of the plan of escape) that once out of Paris, the King would run no further risk. I gave way to my joy, and cordially embraced M. de Fersen. When I was dressed, I received the visits of all the French at Mons, and of the Austrian officers of the garrison of Mons. I was infinitely flattered by the manner in which they received me; but I was anxious to set out again on the road to Namur. I could not, however, depart before two o'clock; for the cartwright, in repairing the famous felly which had cause us so much trouble the day before, had contrived to break its neighbour; so that, in order to proceed, we were obliged to bind it also with a clip of iron; and we set off from Mons in the same condition as we had entered it. I  p129 inquired after La Jeunesse, and I learned that they had given him ten louis; that he had been thunderstruck on first learning whom he had driven; but that the sight of so much gold had pleased him so mightily, that he had set off immediately without making any further inquiries. I have since heard, that he had saved himself by declaring that we had compelled him by force to take us on; and I was much pleased to learn that he had escaped the danger which he had incurred on our account.

The journey from Mons to Namur afforded nothing very interesting; the effusions of two friends, one of whom is elated at having saved the other, whilst the latter on his part enjoys his good fortune the more because he is indebted to his friend for it, are very delightful for themselves, but must be unentertaining to others. We arrived at Namur very late, and dying of hunger; and although I believe our supper at the Hotel de Hollande was not a  p130 very good one, we thought it excellent. We were disposed to be easily satisfied; and finding some tolerable rhenish wine, we drank pretty freely of it. Altogether I never perhaps made a better or more cheerful supper.

On waking the next morning, I received visits from General de Moitelle, and from all the officers of the garrison, much more numerous than that of Mons. They appeared to me to be so pleased that I was amongst them, and so well disposed towards the cause of the King, that I must have been most ungrateful not to have been affected by it; nor was I less so by the attentions which they showed to my dear d'Avaray: one might have supposed that they saw into my heart, and were aware that what they did for him was much more flattering to me than what they did for myself. However, though not yet feeling any uneasiness in regard to the King, I began to think that there was some delay in the arrival of news from Montmedy; and  p131 I did not think it proper to throw myself into Longwy,​59 without knowing whether we were masters of that part of the country. I therefore requested General de Moitelle to send a messenger to the Commandant of Luxembourg, with orders to bring me, wherever he might find me, the intelligence he might obtain concerning the King; and I was well determined, if I did not receive any, to push on to Luxembourg myself.

We had been warned that we should find the roads very bad. During the first stage we thought we had been deceived; but we soon found the information was but too correct. The iron pins which fastened the forewheels of the carriage having given way, we endeavoured to supply their place by cords; but this not being found to answer, we were obliged to stop at a place called Nattoye, to  p132 get some new pins. As the sun shone strongly on the spot where we were, I proposed to d'Avaray to look for some shade; and we went near a house, in front of which there was a bench half burnt, which a little surprised us. A woman came out, and invited us to walk in and refresh ourselves: we declined going in, but we accepted some chairs she offered us outside the door. D'Avaray sent Sayer for his writing-case, and began to set down in ink the notes of our journey, which he had taken with a pencil. While he was doing so, two women came near the bench, one of whom was aged, and the other younger:​60 the youngest sat down on the bench, but the old woman, having placed upon it a load somewhat heavy that she had been  p133 carrying, sank, rather than seated herself, on the ground, and seemed to be taken ill. We asked what was the matter; but the mistress of the inn (for such it was) told us they were two German women from Wurtzbourg, who executed the commissions of the officers of the garrison of Namur. The youngest was looking at the other in a manner extremely affecting; and though we did not hear what she said, the word maman, pronounced in a tone as soft as a flute, struck upon our ear, and still more on our heart. We requested the mistress of the inn to give her something, and she offered her some beer; but she asked for some brandy: the landlady told us she had none, and that the wife of the blacksmith, who was then repairing our carriage, and who might have given some, was at church; but luckily some boys of the village came by, and she sent one of them, who offered his services very willingly, to fetch the brandy. While we were waiting for his return, we expressed to the landlady our surprise  p134 that there should not be a little brandy in her house. "Oh, gentlemen," she said, "you do not know what we have suffered lately; I have been lamed by it, and I will tell you how it has happened. When the troops​61 retreated, the soldiers took every thing they could find; and I was two days without any thing to eat or drink; I was exhausted through weakness, and having the misfortune to fall from the top to the bottom of the stairs, I put out my hip-bone. The patriots arrived the next day; my husband fled, but, weak and hurt as I was, I could not follow him; and, enraged at our having received the troops, they took all our furniture, and threw it into a fire which they lighted in the middle of the room: they wanted to throw me in too, but they changed their mind; they broke my poor crutch, and dragging me about the house, and outside of it, they maimed me as you  p135 perceive." Saying this, she made me feel the upper part of her hip, and I felt that in fact the bone was dislocated in a manner not to be set. The boy now returned with a glass of brandy, and it was given to the old woman, who drank a little, and then gave it to her daughter: the latter wetted her lips, and returned it to her mother. We wanted to pay the boy, but the mistress of the inn told us she had given him twelve sous; we would have given him something more, but he ran off too quickly for us to think of following him. We then gave the landlady a piece of six francs, and she brought the poor woman some bread and butter, and some beer. The old woman having recovered a little strength, rose, and came to kneel before us, kissing our hands. We raised her up immediately, and taking off my hat, I pointed to the sky, and said, Gott, Gott! upon which she took her beads, pressed them to her heart, and began to pray. The landlady, with whom we continued conversing on the subject of her sufferings,  p136 said to us, "Ah, gentlemen, revolutions are cruel things! I suffer as much from the revolution in France as from that in our own country, and I am very uneasy on account of my parents. I was born at Frombaine, near Givet; I do what I can to prevail upon them to leave the town, but I cannot succeed, and it makes me very unhappy. Ah! gentlemen, there is nothing but God, one's king, and one's country." D'Avaray had already been affected to tears by the action of the old woman; I was moved, elevated by the words of the landlady. "Well, my good woman," I said to her, "as you think so, pray to God for the king; his life is perhaps in the greatest danger; he has left Paris." "Oh heavens!" she cried, "what do you tell me?" "Yes," said d'Avaray, "there is his brother, who escaped at the same time as himself." "And there," I added, "is the friend that has saved me." I threw myself into his arms, and our tears were mingled. Sayer, retired into a corner,  p137 was wiping his eyes. The woman, much affected, said to me, "You are the brother of the King! Ah, if I might venture to touch you!" "Do better, my good woman, embrace me."

The carriage was repaired; I gave a louis to the old woman; she wanted again to kiss my hand, but I embraced her, and we set off.

This accident had delayed us too much, to leave us any hope of reaching Bastogne, where we had intended to sleep. We therefore resolved to stop at Marche; and we sent Sayer forward to have supper ready for us at the inn of the poste, which the post-master at Emptines, who seemed to us a connoisseur in good living, had assured us was an excellent one. On our arrival in the town, we were taken to a house of good appearance; and we were rejoicing at finding so good an inn, but we were soon informed that we were at the house of an old officer of the regiment de Ligne, who had desired to receive us, because,  p138 notwithstanding the report of the post-master of Emptines, the inn of the poste was good for nothing. This was a cruel​62 disappointment for me, as I always distrust a family dinner. I cast a sorrowful look upon d'Avaray, whose countenance I found quite as much lengthened as my own. Our regret increased when our host, who had just got out of bed again (at nine o'clock in the evening) told us that he was quite miserable not to have been apprized two hours earlier, for he would have given us some pigeons à la crapaudine; but his pigeons were now in the pigeon-house, and his chickens alive: he had however sent to the poste for a leg of mutton, and we should have with it some salad and some fresh eggs. These commons appeared to us somewhat short; but it was much worse, when, a moment after, his cook returned, enraged against the mistress of the poste, who  p139 positively refused, she said, to lend her the leg of mutton. He offered us, in lieu, some veal cutlets, which we accepted. We were a little uneasy as to his wine, when we discovered by chance a letter,​63 advising him of the arrival of a cask of old wine of Volnay of a superior quality. We were delighted at this discovery, and soon turned the conversation to the subject of what wine he usually drank. He told us vin de Bar; and that as the last vintage in that country had failed, he had thought of sending for some Burgundy, which had arrived about fifteen days ago, but that he had been advised to let it rest a month before he tapped it. We now fancied ourselves in a true Spanish inn;​64 and we were sorrowfully remarking how appropriate was the appellation of Marche en famine; but, to our  p140 great and very agreeable surprise, the supper was tolerably good; and M. Donné (the name of our host), who proved a pleasant companion, had the kindness to tap, although prematurely, his wine of Volnay, which was really very good.

On the following day the Duc de Laval joined us, with his second son, and several young men. M. de Falhouet, a gentleman of Brittany, offered to go forward, in order to bring me quicker news, if he should meet any courier. I accepted this offer, and we set off; but we had scarcely proceeded two leagues when we saw M. de Falhouet returned, bringing the melancholy intelligence of the affair of Varennes.

I might here end my narrative; the task of my dear d'Avaray was fulfilled; and the part which devolved upon me, in consequence of the arrest of the King, falls more within the scope of general history than within that of a private memoir; but I have still some recollections,  p141 which I wish to set down in this place; and those who have felt sufficient interest in the recital I have made of events which concern only myself, to have induced them to read on to the end, will not, perhaps, be sorry to find them here.

My grief may easily be conceived: I regretted the success of my own attempt; and, for a moment, I thought of returning to France, and assuming my own fetters, in order to share those of my unfortunate relatives; but I considered that, without rendering them any service, I should sacrifice not only myself, but which was much dearer to me, my friend and deliverer, whom nothing could have induced to part from me. On his part, as if he had penetrated into my thoughts, he told me immediately, that if I conceived that I ought to return into France, he intreated me not to be withheld from so doing by any consideration that related to him, and that he would follow me every where without uneasiness.

 p142  This new proof of his courageous attachment would have sufficed for my determination, if I had not already taken it. I ordered the driver to take us back to Marche; and on the road we met the Duc de Laval, whom I took into the carriage. My tears, which had not flowed at the first instant, now came to my relief, and I was able to reflect more coolly on what I had to do, in commencing the new career opening to me. On our arrival at Marche, we were joined there by the son of M. de Bouillé,​65 who informed us of the details of the unfortunate event which had destroyed all our hopes. I was well inclined to go, in the first instance, to take some rest at Brussels; but as the road from Marche to Namur, which is the shortest way, runs very near the frontier, and it was  p143 reported that some acts of hostility had been committed, we deliberated for a moment whether we should not proceed by Liege. Having, however, taken a survey of our arms, and finding that we could fire sixteen pistol-shots, which would be more than enough against a party that could not be otherwise than small, we resolved to return to Namur, proceeding like a convoy. I took the precaution merely of sending M. de Betizy,​66 one of the young men I mentioned before, to General de Moitelle, with a request that he would send us an escort of houlans. M. de Betizy made such good speed, the general showed so much good will, and the houlans so much zeal, that they met us three leagues from Namur, and we arrived there without other accident than that of breaking down once more, through the awkwardness of the postillion.

 p144  The pleasure which I derived from finding Madame in this town was embittered by the recollection of the situation of the rest of my family, and the comparisons which I involuntarily made between their fate and ours. Determined on rejoining the Comte d'Artois, I wrote to him that I was going to Brussels to wait for tidings of him, and to learn where we might meet: and, for greater security, I sent two couriers to him, one by Luxembourg, and the other by Aix-la‑Chapelle. In the mean time, as I knew that the Bishop of Namur intended to invite me to reside at his palace, and I was aware that the clergy in the Netherlands had behaved ill in the Revolution, I consulted General de Moitelle, who advised me to accept the invitation; and we accordingly left our inn, and went to the episcopal residence. We found there a very good supper; but we had much difficulty in getting rid of the officious attentions of the bishop, who wanted to make us drink much more than we liked, and especially some  p145 aniseed, a species of liqueur stronger than kirsch-wasser. The following day, before we set off for Brussels, I wrote (taking the chance of its being delivered) a letter for the King, the Queen, or my sister; but this letter never reached its destination.

It had been my intention to go to a hotel at Brussels, but the Archduchess​67 would by no means consent to it, and she assigned for our residence a small house attached to the palace; the palace itself not being fit to receive us, as she had been obliged to strip it of its furniture during the late troubles. All the French in the city applied to see me; but I was too much afflicted for the fate of my unfortunate relatives to be able to see any one. The next day I received a letter from the Comte d'Artois, announcing his approach. I went to meet him, and, in embracing a brother, a friend, from whom our common misfortunes  p146 had separated me for nearly two years, I forgot, for a moment, my past sorrows, my present uneasiness, and my fears for the future. The joy he expressed at seeing me gave me less pleasure, perhaps, than the manner in which he received my dear d'Avaray.

Having learned, however, that King and his family had returned to Paris, and that at least their lives were for the present in safety, we resolved to appear in public; and the Archduchess had the goodness to lend us her state-room, to enable us to receive our countrymen. The pleasure they evinced at seeing me again, and that which I myself felt, soon turned my thoughts towards him who had procured me this affecting scene, and I hastened to fulfil the sacred duties of gratitude, by loudly acknowledging the obligations I was under to my deliverer. I was well repaid for so doing; for, on leaving me, the whole nobility went in a body to pay him a visit. Let me be allowed to say it: of  p147 all the flattering things I have experienced during my life, this afforded me the greatest satisfaction: there was no doubt a grain of self-love mixed up with it; but friendship and gratitude had far the greatest share in it.

The eight days which I spent at Brussels were, perhaps, the busiest of my whole life. Placed suddenly at the head of one of the greatest political machines that have ever existed, I had not only to carry on the current affairs, but also to learn the past, of which I had remained ignorant in my prison, in order to apply it to the present. I do not believe I could have got through the business without the Comte d'Artois, who, far from regretting the arrival of a colleague, by whom, after all the pains he had taken, he might be deprived of a share of the glory, hastened to instruct me, to assist me, to put me forward, and to add to my consequence: in a word, he behaved not merely as a brother, but like a most affectionate son: it was Charles the  p148 Fifth​68 throwing himself into the arms of King John after his captivity. I felt his kindness in a very peculiar and affecting manner, at the audience of leave which we gave to the nobility, before we left Brussels. I shall not attempt to describe the scene; I should never express sufficiently what I felt.

We set off on the 3d July for Liege, and went to the Hotel of the Aigle Noir. As we were very numerous, and the hotel was not large, we had but one room for d'Avaray and me. This circumstance, which reminded me of the time, still so recent, when travelling in nearly the same country, we existed alone for each other on the face of the earth, afforded me lively satisfaction. On the 4th, we arrived at Aix-la‑Chapelle, and found there the King of Sweden,​69 who, better informed than myself  p149 of the plan for the King's escape, had come to this place under the pretext of the waters, but, in reality, in order to be nearer the scene of action, in which his elevated mind desired to take a part. I have forgotten to mention, that as soon as he heard of the arrest of the King, he wrote to me a handsome letter on the subject; and it was a singular circumstance, that this letter was brought to me by the same Baron de Lieven, who, in 1772, had brought to the late King, my grandfather, the news of the revolution which had placed the crown on the head of Gustavus the Third. We remained a day at Aix-la‑Chapelle, to converse more freely with this sovereign, with whom we had so much reason to be satisfied.

I received also another very sincere gratification in this town: the Comte d'Hautefort, a friend of d'Avaray from their earliest youth, had no sooner learned my escape, than leaving all his family at Heidelberg, where he had settled, he hastened to meet us, and we found  p150 him on our arrival at Aix-la‑Chapelle. I was much affected by this mark of attention on the part of a person who was as yet known to me only as an agreeable acquaintance; but I was much more pleased at seeing my deliverer derive another advantage from what he had done for me, in meeting a friend from whom he had been separated nearly two years. His vanity might, on more than one previous occasion, have been flattered, but he now enjoyed a satisfaction of the heart, which it was impossible that mine should not partake; and since I have been better acquainted with the Comte d'Hautefort, my regard has become my own personally.

The 6th we slept at Bonne, at the Elector of Cologne's, with whom we had settled it at Aix-la‑Chapelle; and the 7th we arrived at Coblentz.

The Elector of Treves, my uncle, had had the goodness to lend his chateau of Schonbornslust to the Comte d'Artois before my  p151 escape; and he did the same favour to Madame and myself. I remembered having seen him in France thirty years before, and I had a real pleasure in seeing him again. The reception he gave us was the forerunner of all the kindness he has since shown to us, and to all the French who were collected around us by their zeal in the cause of the altar and the throne.

It is here that, properly speaking, I began my political life; and here I might terminate my narrative; but I should not be content, nor would, I apprehend, my readers, if I said nothing more. Three weeks had elapsed since my escape, and I had yet done nothing for my deliverer. I grieved more than I can tell that the prince should remain ungrateful, whilst the friend so loudly expressed his gratitude. At length I received a letter from the Duc de Levis, who, after some reproaches on the total ignorance in which I had left him, concluded  p152 by giving in his resignation.​70 The moment I received this letter I hastened to d'Avaray, who was almost surprised when I appointed him the successor of the Duc de Levis, and who thanked me as much as if I were not discharging a sacred debt, and as if I did not feel a thousand times more pleasure in discharging than in contracting it.

I know not what may be the fate of my country, or my own; but whatever lot Providence may intend for me, it can never take from me so much as it has given to me, in such a friend as my dear d'Avaray.

---

J. W. Croker's Notes:

52

One does not see the applicability of this quotation to the circumstances, nor can we quite agree that Monsieur's cockade had any analogy to the fetters of Columbus.

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53 Under the standard of Mars.

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54 Mattress.

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55 Misfortune.

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56 This was the test between the loyal and the constitutional clergy.

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57 Madame C., the wife of an Englishman who died a year or two ago in France, and who was well known in the fashionable and literary world. Madame C. had been employed by M. de Fersen in some of the preparations for the King's escape, and she had preceded the royal traveller, and was now at Mons anxiously expecting the appearance of M. de Fersen.

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58 The Comte, now Duc de la Châtre, so well known in England as the friend of Louis XVIII in his exile, and for some time after the restoration ambassador at our court.

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59 Longwy, it will be recollected, is a French town; not King had directed Monsieur to repair thither as soon as he should have effected his escape.

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60 The interest with which Monsieur tells this very ordinary story proves the kind of insulated education which the French princes received. If he had had the slightest knowledge of the world, he would have seen nothing in this incident worth recording.

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61 This relates to the disturbance in Flanders in 1789 and 1790.

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62 We wish we could believe that these vehement lamentations about a bad dinner were ironical.

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63 It seems that the writer and M. d'Avaray did not scruple to amuse themselves with reading the letters which they found on their host's table.

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64 The Spanish inns provide no food for travellers.

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65 Probably the chevalier, the younger son; who is still alive in America, and whose son lately challenged the Duc de Choiseul in Paris for some reflections on his father's conduct in the affair of Varennes.

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66 Probably the Count Charles de Betizy, since celebrated for the exclamation with which he closed one of his speeches in Chamber of Deputies, Vive le roi quand même —

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67 Sister of the Emperor, and governess of Austrian Flanders.

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68 The Dauphin (afterwards Charles V) governed France during the captivity of his father John, made prisoner at Poictiers in 1356.

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69 Gustavus III, who, on the 6th March following, was assassinated at a masked ball at Stockholm.

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70 Of place of captain of Monsieur's guards.

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