Tea at Trianon: The Priest and the Soldier

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Monday, June 1, 2015

The Priest and the Soldier

From Nobility:

The priest immediately recommended himself to the protection of God, and tried to make his escape through the sacristy into the garden behind the church.

There two of the soldiers met him; they tried to seize him, but, leaping over the wall, he ran in great haste towards the river about a mile distant. The two soldiers also ran after him.

When the priest came to the banks of the river he looked round, and saw that his enemies were still pursuing him. Without delay he leapt into the water and swam safely to the other side. One of the soldiers attempted to follow him. The priest, seeing this, again began to run, and was soon out of danger.

But as he stopped to rest a little on the top of a hill, he thought he heard cries for help proceeding from the direction of the river. He looked round, and one glance told him all. The soldier who had plunged into the river in pursuit was unable to swim, and was being carried away by the stream. (Read more.)