STORIES From SUSSEX
A Messenger From Marie Antoinette
Princess de Lamballe
There never came to the quiet village of Catsfield a more tragic figure
than the courageous Princess de Lamballe, friend of Marie Antoinette.
Little dreaming how soon and how terrible was to be her end, the lovely
ill-fated Princess, closest, most faithful friend of the tragic French Queen
and mistress of her household, came to Catsfield on a romantic mission in
1791.
The skies of France were lowering, and while the issue was unforseeable
Marie Antoinette had a foreboding of ill, and entrusted the Princess with
certain treasured mementos which, we are told, she desired to consign to
the trusty hands of friends at Catsfield.
So confused and suspicious was Revolutionary public opinion that the Princess
was declared to have come to England primarily to meet De Calonne, the ex-Comptroller
General, to dissuade him from publishing secret statements damaging to the
Queen. In reality Calonne was in Holland; her main purpose here was to appeal
for help for the imperilled royal family of France.
To mask the true purpose of her mission it was announced that the gifted
Frenchwoman merely intended to visit Bath, then a favourite resort of French
invalids. She did go to Bath, and wrote to Madame de Lage, telling of the
good the waters had done her, and of her coming visits to Blenheim, Oxford,
and many country houses.
She made her will and renewed her service to Marie Antoinette, whose imprisonment
she shared. Refusing to take the oath against the monarchy, she was delivered
over to the mob, which treated her with a frightfulness probably unparalleled
in the history of revolutions.
Peace and safety were assured her in England; she went back to what seemed
her duty at Marie Antoinette's side, prepared for the worst. The sequel
exceeded all conception of horror on the day of her death, less than a year
after her romantic visit to Catsfield.
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