THE PRINCESSE DE LAMBALLE.*
THE most serious fault that one can find with Sir Francis Montefiore's contribution to the history of the French Revolution is that it contains singularly little matter in comparison with its ponderous outward form. But even in this respect Sir Francis rather disarms our criticism by modestly describing his heavy volume, with all its wealth of illustrations and wide margins, as a sketch, and, though we may think the sketch rather over-framed, it would be unreasonable to grumble because it is not more than it purports to be. Indeed, we are not sure that the author does not deserve some commendation upon this score. It would have been easy, tempting even, to pad out his volume with dissertations upon the course of the French Revolution, and Sir Francis has manfully resisted the temptation, and stuck to his text, following only the fortunes of his heroine. Save for the fact that she was one of its victims, the Princesse de Lamballe had little enough to do with the Revolution and the feeble efforts made by the Royalists to stem its tide. Her head was one of the first to fall, and had it not been for her tragic death the part that she played upon that bloodstained stage might well have been forgotten. As it is,few historians of that period have done more than record her fate, and Sir Francis Montefiore, in giving the history of her life, supplies a decided want. The story is interesting, affording as it does an illustration of the almost passionate devotion inspired in some of her friends by the unfortunate Queen, Marie Antoinette, and of the splendid heroism which so frequently lighted up the sombre annals of that time.
In Sir Francis Montefiore's pages the Princesse de Lamballe figures almost as a saint as well as a martyr. This at least is abundantly clear from the evidence of all contemporary witnesses, that she was s thoroughly good woman as well as a very amiable one, a combination which was not very common in the Court of Louis XVI. Briefly sketched, her history was this. By birth a Princess of the house of Savoie- Carignan, and therefore a Princess of the Blood, she was married while yet very young to the Prince de Lamballe, son of the Due de Penthievre. Her marriage, after a few months of happiness, proved unfortunate; her youthful husband deserted her for other pleasures, and only returned to her to die a victim of his excesses. The Princess found a refuge with the Dac de Penthii:vre, whose affection for his daughter-in-law was very great. In her retirement at Ram- • The Princesse de Lamballe: a Bketch. By Sir Francis Mont:Aare, Bart. London : Bentley and Son.
bonillet she became well known for her works of charity, earning a character for benevolence which she maintained throughout her life. Circumstances necessitated her return to Court, and brought her into near relations with the Dauphine. The death of Louis XV. gave the latter, as Queen, further opportunities for advancing a friend towards whom she had already conceived a romantic attachment, and an the retirement of Madame de Noailles, Marie Antoinette Obtained the appointment of the Princesse de Lamballe as Superintendent of the Royal Household. The post was not an easy one to fill, and the Princess, whose birth made her in one sense a cousin of the King's, hardly seems to have employed much tact in disarming the jealousy of the ladies of the Court. She chose to present herself as a Princess of Savoy, and they would only regard her as the Superintendent of the Household, and resented the semi-Royal character of her conduct in office. From the unpleasantness which ensued the Queen herself was the chief sufferer, and it was not difficult for the Princess's enemies to estrange her from her Royal mistress. A new favourite, Madame de Polignac, gradually usurped her place in the Queen's affections ; and after some scenes in which the Princesse de Lamballe displayed a very human jealousy, the latter retired from the Court, leaving the field to her rival. The author here is rather disposed to make the most of Madame de Polignac's intrigues and subsequent ingrati- tude, while he magnifies the patient dignity of the Princesse de Lamballe. To our mind the angry jealousy of the Princess is not =pleasing, manifesting as it does a very natural and amiable weakness in an otherwise strong and upright character. No doubt she was also human enough to find some satisfac- tion in the thought that affairs in the Royal Household did not improve in her absence. If she did feel such pardonable satisfaction it was not for long, for the embarrassments of the Royal Family were rapidly reaching their climax, and the Queen soon turned again to a friend whose single-hearted devotion was not to be shaken by adversity. Others were faithful too, but no one of them gave evidence of an attach- ment to a falling house so unselfish and so heroic as that shown by the Princesse de Lamballe. As Lamartine says in his history of the Girondins, " Plus la reine tombait, plus la princesse s'attachait a sa chute. Elle mettait sa volupte dans la partage des revers." Her devotion seems the more noble, because it is evident that she was more clear-sighted than her Royal mistress, and guessed only too well into what depths they were falling. Lamartine uses the word " volupte " truly enough ; she found even a delight in drinking the same cup of sorrow as the Queen, though the bitterness of death lay at the bottom of it.
The author relates the story of her life and of the tragedy that ended it with no little skill and sympathy. With regard to her actual end he differs rather widely from other historians. In his opinion her Judges sentenced her to death in giving an ironical order for her release, and the brutal murder which took place outside the prison of La Force was intentional and premeditated. That is not the view which others have taken. Lamartine puts the words, " Jurez tont ; si vous ne jurez pas, vons etes morte," into the month of one of her Judges, and not into that of a friendly bystander. When she still refused to swear hatred to Kings and Queens, they bade her go free and cry " Vive la Nation !" to the crowd of butchers outside. The same author represents the two gaolers who conducted her out as anxious to pass her through the scene of carnage in safety. Had she only uttered the prescribed cry, he thinks, they would have attained their object. Unfortunately, instead, she cried out in horror of the sight which met her eyes, and, though they stopped her mouth and tried to hurry her over the heap of corpses that blocked the way, it was too late, and a random blow from the infamous Chariot gave the signal for yet another outbreak of bloodthirsty ferocity. Of course there can be little or no trustworthy evidence as to the actual occurrences in such a scene, and Sir Francis Montefiore may feel himself quite justified in refusing to accept the palliating version put forward by Lamartine. On the other hand, to acknowledge the murder as unintentional on the part of her Judges would be also to exonerate the Duc d'Orleans from the charge of complicity which our author brings against him. It has been sufficiently proved by the latter's apologists that he had nothing to gain by the death of his sister-in-law. But Sir Francis is evidently deeply prejudiced against the Duc, and not only does he press this charge against him, but he accepts the worst version of the story as to the Due's behaviour when the head of the murdered Princess was paraded before the windows of the Palais-Royal. According to the generally received story, both the Due d'Orleans and his mistress, Madame de Buffon, were filled with consternation and pity, the former exclaim- ing, " Poor woman ! if she had but believed me, her head would not be there." According to Sir Francis, he merely remarked, " Oh, it is Lamballe's head ! I know it by the long hair," and then comfortably continued his dinner. There are more reasons than one for rejecting this heartless story as purely apocryphal. And why does the author, while repeating and apparently believing the hideous rumour as to the ultimate fate of the heart, which was said to have been torn from the dead body, say nothing of the much more probable story of the restoration to the Due de Penthievre of the decapitated head ?
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