Dauphin, spread from lip to lip, with exclamations of pity and compassion.
The funeral entered the cemetery of Ste. Marguerite, not by the church, as
some accounts assert, but by the old gate of the cemetery. The interment
was made in the corner, on the left, at a distance of eight or nine feet
from the enclosure wall, and at an equal distance from a small house,
which subsequently served as a school. The grave was filled up,--no mound
marked its place, and not even a trace remained of the interment! Not
till then did the commissaries of police and the municipality withdraw,
and enter the house opposite the church to draw up the declaration of
interment. It was nearly nine o'clock, and still daylight.
Release of Madame Royale.--Her Marriage to the Duc d'Angouleme.
--Return to France.--Death.
The last person to hear of the sad events in the Temple was the one for
whom they had the deepest and most painful interest. After her brother's
death the captivity of Madame Royale was much lightened. She was allowed
to walk in the Temple gardens, and to receive visits from some ladies of
the old Court, and from Madame de Chantereine, who at last, after several
times evading her questions, ventured cautiously to tell her of the deaths
of her mother, aunt, and brother. Madame Royale wept bitterly, but had
much difficulty in expressing her feelings. "She spoke so confusedly,"
says Madame de la Ramiere in a letter to Madame de Verneuil, "that it was
difficult to understand her. It took her more than a month's reading
aloud, with careful study of pronunciation, to make herself
intelligible,--so much had she lost the power of expression." She was
dressed with plainness amounting to poverty, and her hands were disfigured
by exposure to cold and by the menial work she had been so long accustomed
to do for herself, and which it was difficult to persuade her to leave
off. When urged to accept the services of an attendant, she replied, with
a sad prevision of the vicissitudes of her future life, that she did not
like to form a habit which she might have again to abandon. She suffered
herself, however, to be persuaded gradually to modify her recluse and
ascetic habits. It was well she did so, as a preparation for the great
changes about to follow.
Nine days after the death of her brother, the city of Orleans interceded
for the daughter of Louis XVI., and sent deputies to the Convention to
pray for her deliverance and
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