Produced by David Widger
Being the Historic Memoirs of Madam Campan,
First Lady in Waiting to the Queen
In the beginning of the spring of 1791, the King, tired of remaining atthe Tuileries, wished to return to St. Cloud. His whole household hadalready gone, and his dinner was prepared there. He got into his carriageat one; the guard mutinied, shut the gates, and declared they would notlet him pass. This event certainly proceeded from some suspicion of aplan to escape. Two persons who drew near the King's carriage were veryill treated. My father-in-law was violently laid hold of by the guards,who took his sword from him. The King and his family were obliged toalight and return to their apartments.
They did not much regret this outrage in their hearts; they saw in it ajustification, even in the eyes of the people, of their intention to leaveParis.
So early as the month of March in the same year, the Queen began to busyherself in preparing for her departure. I spent that month with her, andexecuted a great number of secret orders which she gave me respecting theintended event. It was with uneasiness that I saw her occupied with careswhich seemed to me useless, and even dangerous, and I remarked to her thatthe Queen of France would find linen and gowns everywhere. My observationswere made in vain; she determined to have a complete wardrobe with her atBrussels, as well for her children as herself. I went out alone and almostdisguised to purchase the articles necessary and have them made up.
I ordered six chemises at the shop of one seamstress, six at that ofanother, gowns, combing cloths, etc. My sister had a complete set ofclothes made for Madame, by the measure of her eldest daughter, and Iordered clothes for the Dauphin from those of my son. I filled a trunkwith these things, and addressed them, by the Queen's orders, to one ofher women, my aunt, Madame Cardon,—a widow living at Arras, by virtue ofan unlimited leave of absence,—in order that she might be ready to startfor Brussels, or any other place, as soon as she should be directed to doso. This lady had landed property in Austrian Flanders, and could at anytime quit Arras unobserved.
The Queen was to take only her first woman in attendance with her fromParis. She apprised me that if I should not be on duty at the moment ofdeparture, she would make arrangements for my joining her. She determinedalso to take her travelling dressing-case. She consulted me on her ideaof sending it off, under pretence of making a present of it to theArchduchess Christina, Gouvernante of the Netherlands. I ventured tooppose this plan strongly, and observed that, amidst so many people whowatched her slightest actions, there would be found a sufficient numbersharp-sighted enough to discover that it was only a pretext for sendingaway the property in question before her own departure; she persisted inher intention, and all I could arrange was that the dressing-case shouldnot be removed from her apartment, and that M. de charge d'afaires fromthe Court of Vienna during the absence of the Comte de Mercy, should comeand ask her, at her toilet, before all her people, to order one exactlylike her own for Madame the Gouvernante of the Netherlands. The Queen,therefore, commanded me before the charge d'affaires to order the articlein question. This occasioned only an expense of five hundred louis, andappeared calculated to lull suspicion completely.
About the middle of May, 17