BOOKS.
COUNT DE FERSEN.* [FIRST NOTICE.] THE French Revolution, like an inexhaustible mine, still continues to yield an unceasing stream of literary material, and in these two volumes, the latest outcome from the apparently unfathom- able store, we have presented to us matter of sterling import- ance. It is no exaggeration to say that their contents are such as, even after the valuable publications from the Vienna archives by Herr von Arneth and others, shed new light on the transac- tions that led up to the execution of the Royal Family, and notably on the part played by Marie Antoinette. Every one knows that on the occasion of the abortive flight to Varennes, it was a Swedish nobleman, Count Fersen, who had a chief band in contriving the escape out of Paris, and who himself drove the Royal Family the first stage on the road, as far as Bondy. That this foreigner had long stood high in the Queen's favour, and had enjoyed her confidence in a marked degree, has been matter of general notoriety. But what hitherto has been shrouded in much obscurity are the details of this confidential intercourse, the facts in regard to the particular influence exercised on the minds of the King and Queen of France by this foreign nobleman who had no recognised official character. The mystery surrounding the action of this hidden agency is at last to a great extent dissipated in the two volumes before us. The grand-nephew of Count Fersen has here given to the public a selection from the voluminous papers of his uncle, which comprises much that is of the deepest interest. We have here the intimate correspondence with Marie Antoinette, besides letters to other important political per- sonages relating to pending combinations, and copious extracts from diaries. Count Fersen is now shown as the man who stood behind the innermost scenes, as regards the councils of the Queen, and the designs on foot for rescuing French Royalty by an action from without, which Gustavus III. of Sweden sedu- lously strove to effect. What gives its superior value to this publication is that it presents to us what it is else hardly possible to recover in history, the little hasty scrawls of confi- dential communication, exchanged through underground channels, between parties in moments of extreme peril, and which, as a rule, are destroyed as soon as they have been received. Count Fersen, however, was a man who exceptionally preserved, it would seem, almost every bit of paper, and to judge from several things in these volumes, who was pedantically methodical about docketting his documents. His descendant appears not to have in- herited this quality. It cannot be said that the editorial care he has
expended in his task is at all adequate. Apart from gross a/oven- liness in the correction of the press, such as glaringly impossible dates, and as manifestly impossible directions to letters, Baron Klinckowstrom has shown want of critical judgment in the gaps he has made in the diaries as they are here printed. He
s Le Comte de Fortes et La Cour de France. Par Le Baron de lilinekowetrUni. I 2 Tole. Perin: Firmin-Didot. 1878.
I has neither given himself the trouble to explain incidental allu- sions, nor, what is more to the point, has he made it certain that in Count Fersen's voluminous papers there is not matter kept back that would throw light on passages which, as they now stand, are obscure. From casual indications, it would seem not improbable that this is the case. Fersen was avowedly in intimate communication with all who were admitted to real con- fidence by the Queen. One was an Englishman, Quintin Craw- ford, another was the Bishop of Pamiers. Both are repeatedly referred to in the present correspondence, and both were em- ployed for purposes which only the most trusty hands could be charged with. Can it be the case that when Fersen preserved such dangerously compromising papers from the principal person concerned as are here printed, he kept none from these two important correspondents, though it appears conclusively, from an occasional note by the editor, that there are in existence letters of an interesting nature to other political personages? We will, however, not dwell any longer on these editorial short- comings, but proceed to give the reader some notion of what is to be found in these volumes.
Count Axel Fersen was son to the Swedish Field-Marshal, who was distinguished for his great wealth, and the prominent part he took in the political revolutions of his country in the beginning of Gustavus M.'s reign. At fifteen he was sent on a "grand tour," which lasted four years. In the course of it he visited the- principal Courts and the chief military schools of Europe. The notices in a diary which he kept at this time evince a precocious talent for observation. In Paris, where he made a lengthened stay, he quickly became intimate in the choicest circles. Entries in his journal prove that already at this time he was an object of special distinction from the then Dauphiness, and the fact is con- firmed by contemporary testimony which is unexceptionable. The favour of the Crown was shown by the grant of an honorary com- mission in the French army to the young Swede, when he left to return home. Three years later, in 1778, Fersen went again to Paris, this time residing there till the spring of 1780, when, at his own request, be sailed with the French expedition to America, as the aide-dc-camp of General Rochambeau. During this stay in the capital, the attention that Fersen received at Court furnished subject for gossip. There is certainly no ground for considering that any vain affectation on his part tended to foment scandal. On the contrary, ample testimony exists to Fersen's constitu- tional reserve and discretion. The Swedish Envoy, deeming it. incumbent to inform Gustavus III. how his subject had become the topic of town-talk, praises the admirable modesty of his con- duct. Again, the Due de Levis, in his memoirs, dwells on Fersen's singular circumspection. The letters to his father in this book, written during the American campaign, exhibit all the qualities of a mind not given to flighty impressions. The passages throughout the correspondence are frequent reflecting on what Fersen stigmatises as the fatal indiscretion of the French character. He was eminently a man of uncommon nerve, who resolutely and in his own breast could mature a daring purpose, and then had the requisite courage to carry it out under trying circumstances. Personal attachment to the Royal Family of France made him throw himself with vehemence into the designs for effecting a wholesale reaction through the intervention of an armed Coalition ; personal ties made him likewise a devoted friend of Gustavus III.; yet it results from his correspondence that political passion never blinded him to the defects in the latter's character, and that his shrewd observation remained thoroughly on its guard against that Monarch's impulsive and flighty judgment. At the termination of the American expedition, Fersen, in reward of his services, received a pension, and the proprietary colonelcy of the Regiment Royal Suedois, in the French service. This charge obliged him to visit. France periodically, though he did not disconnect himself from his country, and served with Gustavus in the disastrous Finnish campaign of 1788. When the first rumble of the Revolutionary thunder was heard, he, however, proceeded to France, where he continued to reside until after that unsuccessful attempt at flight by the Royal Family in which he was so greatly implicated. Such is a general outline of the hitherto rather mysterious figure who, though justly credited by rumour with great influence, con- trived to be active without leaving behind him traces whereby the fact could be readily brought home.
The papers now made public are of several categories. Count. Fersen, we are told, kept a daily autograph journal down to his death in 1810. The portion covering the period from 1780 to June, 1791, is lost, however. We are informed in a laconic note that it was destroyed by the individual to whom it had been con-
fided when the Count left Paris. He kept besides a diary with cursory notes, and this is printed here, though it is not clear whether the editor has not seen fit to make occasional omissions. At least some gaps occur that are perplexing. Why Fersen should, from motives of caution, have made no entries on particular days,
when he did not refrain from dotting down most compromising notes before and after, is difficult to imagine. The editor has not
vouchsafed to throw light on a matter which is certainly of im- portance, for at least one of the gaps is to be found at a very important point of the narrative. The remainder of the volume consists of correspondence with various persons. There are letters to his father, with much which is of general interest ; there are also his reports to Gustavus III., and to the latter's confidential counsellor, Baron Taube ; but what constitutes the capital value of this publication are the letters exchanged between Fersen and Marie Antoinette,—letters of the most confidential nature,—of which most were composed in cipher, and transmitted by various devices. These begin immediately on Fersen hearing of the arrest at Varennes, and continue down to the spring of 1793, when the means for direct communication with the imprisoned Queen were forcibly put a stop to. During this eventful period, Count Fersen's mind was unceasingly engaged in seeking to effect a rescue, while he alone was the depositary of all Marie .Antoinette's secrets, of all her thoughts, and feelings, and hopes, and plans. When we say that he alone was the depositary, we bear in mind the circumstance, incidentally indicated in the course of the correspondence, that at least some of it was not intended to come under the knowledge of Louis XVI.
When the Revolution commenced, the regiment which Fersen commanded (he resigned his commission in 1791) was stationed at Valenciennes, but he appears himself to have been much in the capital and at Court. It is a matter for regret that from this period Baron Klinckowstrom has given us but few selections from his letters to his father,—and these picked out from the mass, as it would seem, on no discernible plan. Desultory as these ex- tracts are, they contain much that is interesting, for Fersen was a keen observer, with excellent opportunities for the exercise of his faculties. One bit of information is here preserved which has interest in reference to a story which, when first given in Lord Holland's Reminiscences, on the alleged authority of Madame Campan, was pronounced by many critics as a piece of gossip without the shadow of foundation. From a letter of Fersen's, it is established that he was in the Palace at Versailles when it was invaded by the mob on the night of October 5th. He returned to Paris on the following day, in a carriage belonging to the Court. As events thickened, Fersen more and more became convinced that if the French monarchy was to escape shipwreck, it would require active assistance from outside forces. The romantic mind of Gustavus III, was fired with the desire to be the avenger of outraged royalty. That prince eagerly put himself forward as the mover in a political combination to this end, and Fersen was selected as the channel for confidential communications. The latter's cautious temperament, however, distrusted his Sovereign's glibness of tongue, and reserved the greatest secrets for his bosom friend, Baron Taube. It is in a ciphered letter to him, of March 7th, that occurs the first intimation of the project to effect the escape of the Royal Family :—" All I have told the King as if an idea of mine, about the going away of the King and Queen of France, the method of effecting here a change, and the necessity for foreign help, is an actual project, which is being worked out ; all the world is ignorant of it, only four Frenchmen being in the secret, of whom three are out of the country. The one in it is a safe man, and not in Paris. I have told the King nothing of this, as I somewhat fear his want of discretion, and this demands the
greatest secrecy Distrust above everything all French- men, even the best-intentioned The Comte d'Artois
and Prince de Conde have absolutely nothing to do with the plan." The entries in the diary from June 11th to the day of flight, though short, fill up the picture of the preparations. We can trace Fersen, as by himself he completed the arrangements with extraordinary daring. Unfortunately, the larger journal con- taining this period was destroyed. The principal incidents of the flight on the night of June 20th are briefly mentioned in the preserved diary. As Fersen waited for the Royal Family, Lafayette passed by him twice. At Bondy he took leave of the Royal Family, having brought them safely out of Paris, and made his way into Belgium, where, on the 23rd, he learnt their arrest. The first letter to Marie Antoinette is of the 27th; it is in cipher, as is a hasty note from her written a day later. The tone of intimate familiarity, the absence of all trace of ceremony, an these two letters, prove that the correspondence was one of long
standing. There are, however, no earlier letters to or from the Queen in this collection. In leaving Paris, Marie Antoinette con- fided a portfolio with papers to Fersen. That he brouglIt these safely away, and that some at least are still preserved, appears to be beyond doubt from this publication. Here, again, however, the editor provokingly fails to tell us how he identifies a particular paper as coming from this portfolio, and what may have become of the remainder. It is from this date that begins the series of letters which makes this publication one of capital importance, and to these we shall return on another occasion.
Previous page
