Tea at Trianon: Stranded at Machu Picchu

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

Friday, December 30, 2022

Stranded at Machu Picchu

From Artnet:

As political unrest heightens in Peru, some 800 tourists are now stranded in the town of Machu Picchu, below the ruins of the famed 15th-century Inca citadel. Protestors have reportedly blocked the only route in and out of the UNESCO World Heritage site, preventing the train from making the 70-mile rail journey back to Cusco.

“Someone needs to negotiate and get in touch with the army and get us out,” Mark Goodwin, a British tourist, told the London Times.

“We have asked the government to help us and establish helicopter flights in order to evacuate the tourists,” Darwin Baca, mayor of the town, which is also known as Aguas Calientes, told CNN. Peru has been experience political turmoil following the arrest of former President Pedro Castillo. Facing impeachment proceedings, the left-wing leader attempted to dissolve the Peruvian congress on December 7 in what he called an effort to “reestablish the rule of law and democracy.” Castillo’s attempt to put in place an emergency government failed, and congress removed him from office and had him arrested. (Read more.)