Produced by David Widger
Being the Historic Memoirs of Madam Campan,
First Lady in Waiting to the Queen
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Duchesse du Barry
Princesse de Lamballe
The Parisian Bonne
Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette
Beaumarchais
The Reveille
Madame Adelaide as Diana
The Bastille
Opening of The States General
Louis XVI.
Marie Antoinette on the way to the Guillotine
Madame Campan
Louis XVI. possessed an immense crowd of confidants, advisers, and guides;he selected them even from among the factions which attacked him. Never,perhaps, did he make a full disclosure to any one of them, and certainlyhe spoke with sincerity, to but very few. He invariably kept the reins ofall secret intrigues in his own hand; and thence, doubtless, arose thewant of cooperation and the weakness which were so conspicuous in hismeasures. From these causes considerable chasms will be found in thedetailed history of the Revolution.
In order to become thoroughly acquainted with the latter years of thereign of Louis XV., memoirs written by the Duc de Choiseul, the Ducd'Aiguillon, the Marechal de Richelieu,
[I heard Le Marechal de Richelieu desire M. Campan, who was librarian tothe Queen, not to buy the Memoirs which would certainly be attributed tohim after his death, declaring them false by anticipation; and adding thathe was ignorant of orthography, and had never amused himself with writing.Shortly after the death of the Marshal, one Soulavie put forth Memoirs ofthe Marechal de Richelieu.]
and the Duc de La Vauguyon, should be before us. To give us a faithfulportrait of the unfortunate reign of Louis XVI., the Marechal du Muy, M.de Maurepas, M. de Vergennes, M. de Malesherbes, the Duc d'Orleans, M. deLa Fayette, the Abby de Vermond, the Abbe Montesquiou, Mirabeau, theDuchesse de Polignac, and the Duchesse de Luynes should have notedfaithfully in writing all the transactions in which they took decidedparts. The secret political history of a later period has beendisseminated among a much greater number of persons; there are Ministerswho have published memoirs, but only when they had their own measures tojustify, and then they confined themselves to the vindication of their owncharacters, without which powerful motive they probably would have writtennothing. In general, those nearest to the Sovereign, either by birth orby office, have left no memoirs; and in absolute monarchies themainsprings of great events will be found in particulars which the mostexalted persons alone could know. Those who have had but little undertheir charge find no subject in it for a book; and those who have longborne the burden of public business conceive themselves to be forbidden byduty, or by respect for authority, to disclose all they know. Others,again, preserve notes, with the intention of reducing them to order whenthey shall have reached the period of a happy leisure; vain illusion ofthe ambitious, which they cherish, for the most part, but as a veil toconceal from their sight the hateful image of their inevitable downfall!and when it does at length take place, despair or chagrin deprives them offortitude to dwell upon the dazzling period which they never cease toregret.