Life of Madame Laftiyelte. By Madame de Lasteyrie. (Barthes and
Lowell.)—This volume contains the biography of the Duchess d'Ayen, written by Madame Lafayette, her daughter, as well as that of Madame Lafayette herself. The Duchess d'Ayen was one of those good women whose purity and piety shine out with such singular lustre in the midst of the corruption of the old regime. The picture of her life which we owe to the filial piety of her daughter has a great charm, but its in- terest centres in the last scene. The duchess, along with her mother- in-law and one of her daughters, perished by the guillotine, on the 4th Thermidor, 1791, but six days before the Reign of Terror came to an end. A very graphic account of this scene has been included in the volume, the work of one M. Carrichon, priest of the Oratory. The priest had promised to be with them at the last, a service which, had his presence been discovered, would of course have proved fatal to him. Nothing in this account is more interesting than the candid confession which the priest makes of the struggle which he had with himself about keep- ing his promise. He had almost given up his purpose, when a sudden storm cleared the street of the crowd ; the way seemed open, and by a sudden impulse he went forward, and followed the cart which was taking the victims to the scaffold. They were looking out for him, and recog- nized him with the greatest joy. As they approached the place of execution he gave them absolution. One of the bystanders exclaimed, luckily for the priest not knowing the cause of what he saw, "Oh! that young woman, how happy she seems,—how she looks up to heaven, how she is praying! But what is the use of it all ?" and then, on second thoughts, "Oh! the rascals, the bigots!" Few of the many stories that we have read of the Reign of Terror have impressed as so much as this. The life of Madame Lafayette was more full of incident. Married at the age of fourteen, she had soon to endure separation from her husband, who was fighting in the American War of Independence. It was not long before she was involved in the troubles of the Revolu- tion. In a great measure she sympathized with her husband. But she
was a woman of strong religious sentiment, and she took up an attitude of decided opposition to the " Constitutional " clergy. She refused, for instance, to be present when the Bishop of Paris, after his instalment, came to dine with M. Lafayette. In 1791 her husband was appointed to the command of one of the Revolutionary armies. In June, 1792, he protested, in a letter addressed to the Legislative Assembly, against the proceedings of the Jacobins. In August of the same year he left France. The next month Madame Lafayette was arrested. She was still in prison when her mother and her sister perished. The fall of Robespierre saved her life. She left France, and was per- mitted to join her husband, who was a prisoner in the Austrian
fortress of Olmiitz. The conduct of the Austrian authorities was anything but humane. M. Lafayette had the misfortune of being thought too moderate at home and too much of a Revolutionist to get any favour abroad. In 1797, in consequence of the successes of Bona- parte, the prisoners of Olmiltz were set free. M. Lafayette and his wife took up their abode in Holstein. In 1799 they returned to France. Nine years afterwards Madame Lafayette died. A very touching letter from her husband describes the event. The book altogether is an interesting episode of a time full of events. It has been "translated from the French," we can hardly say "translated into English," by a member of the family.
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