She brought, of course, many letters of introduction, of which the first she availed herself was to the Countess von Thoum, at whose soires she met all the most important personages in Vienna, and also many French emigrs amongst whom, to her great joy, was her old friend the Comte de Vaudreuil.
At the time of the expedition to St. Domingo he desired to send Leclerc, the husband of his second sister, Pauline. Leclerc hesitated, then said he should be glad to go, but he had a tie which bound him to France.
ONE:Weak character of Louis XVI.Quarrels at CourtMme. de TessForebodings of Mme. dAyenLa FayetteSaintly lives of Pauline and her sistersApproach of the RevolutionThe States-GeneralFolly of Louis XVI.Scenes at VersaillesFamily political quarrelsRoyalist and RadicalDeath of Paulines youngest child.
TWO:The 10th of AugustThe September massacresTallienThe emigrant shipArrest at BordeauxIn prisonSaved by Tallien.
TWO:She was as happy at Vienna as she could be [121] anywhere under the circumstances. During the winter she had the most brilliant society in Europe, and for the summer she had taken a little house at Sch?nbrunn, near the Polignac, in a lovely situation, to which she always retired when Vienna became too hot, and where she took long solitary walks by the Danube, or sat and sketched under the trees.
TWO:In former years, before the marriage of the Queen, [113] Mme. Le Brun had seen her, as a very young girl, at the court of her grandfather, Louis XV., when she was so fat that she was called le gros Madame. She was now pale and thin, whether from the austerities of devotion she now practised, or from her grief at the misfortunes of her family and anxiety for her sister, Madame Elizabeth, and her eldest brother, the King of France.The same remarks apply equally to La Fayette, whom, by the bye, Napoleon could not bear, and would have nothing to do with.
THREE:Before parting, after a month spent together, the three sisters composed a beautiful litany to be said by them in remembrance of their mother, sister, and grandmother. It opened with that sublime passage of scripture beginning with the words, The souls of the righteous are in the hands of God; there shall no torment touch them.
