The name “Charpantier” appears in 1786 amongst the “ouvriers terrassiers,” who clear up sticks and leaves, plant flowers, and rake.[[25]]
In 1783, “Mariamne” received wages for picking up leaves in the Trianon grounds;[[26]] this is quite possible, as children are said to have been used for that work, and the absence of surname suggests that she was the daughter of one of the gardeners.
The marriage certificate of Alexandre Charpentier, in 1823, gives his father’s name as Louis Toussaint Charpentier, and his mother’s name as Marie Anne Lemaignan. The marriage certificate of these persons (from which we should have learnt their age) is said to have been destroyed.[[27]]
In the wages book the names of two “Lemonguin” (elder and younger) appear; also “Magny,” but not, so far as has been discovered, Lemaignan.[[28]] If this Marie Anne Charpentier was 21 years old at her son’s birth (November, 1796), she would have been eight years old in 1783, and 14 in 1789. This would suit the “Mariamne” of the Archives, Madame Lavergne’s story, and the girl seen by Miss Lamont.
Two more points show the faithfulness of “Marion’s” account of that scene. Madame Lavergne (quoting her) says that “pale rays of autumn sunshine lighted up the faded flowers.” It must, therefore, have been fairly fine; and in the wages book it appears that on October 5th, 1789, all the gardeners were at work in the grounds, and it is stated that on wet days they worked under cover, sometimes clearing out the passages of the house.[[29]] Secondly, she says that the Queen sat at the entrance of her grotto, where fallen leaves choked the course of the “ruisseau.” From entries of payment it appears that the streams were cleared of dead leaves on October 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, 1789, but not on the 4th or 5th, or ever again.[[30]] It is exactly a point which Marion would have noticed.
Madame Lavergne lived at Versailles from 1838 till her marriage in 1844, at which time Marion would have been 69; and as we believe that Alexandre Charpentier was head gardener at the Petit Trianon for over fifty years, his mother would have been easily accessible to Madame Lavergne during her repeated visits to Trianon, even after her marriage. Her father, M. Georges Ozanneaux, was a personal friend of Louis Philippe, and was constantly about in the royal palaces.[[31]]
It is necessary to speak of the grotto; for Madame Campan says that the Queen “était assise dans sa grotte ... lorsqu’elle reçut un mot d’écrit ... qui la suppliait de rentrer à Versailles.”[[32]] Madame Lavergne says “Marion se dirigea vers le parterre des rosiers, et la Reine alla s’asseoir à l’entrée de sa grotte favorite, auprès de la petite source. Les feuilles jaunies tombées des arbres couvraient la terre et obstruaient le cours du ruisseau.... Le murmure de la petite cascade qui arrose l’intérieur de la grotte, retentissait seul dans le bosquet.... Effrayée d’être seule, elle appela Marion; mais, au lieu de la jeune fille, un garçon de la Chambre ... parut, une lettre à la main.”[[33]] The Queen cannot, therefore, have been many steps away from the grotto, at one end or the other, when the messenger came to her.
In 1908 we asked to be shown this grotto, and we were taken to one on the further side of the Belvédère, near the hill called l’Escargot, which was formed in 1781. We felt sure that this could not have been either of the two grottos spoken of in the archives.
In 1777 the end of one grotto is mentioned as being near the porte d’entrée, “à la cloison de la porte d’entrée du jardin au bout du grotte trois pottereaux et deux traverses.”[[34]]
In 1777 there was a “projet d’un pont et chutte en rocher, avec parapet.” This was probably a bridge (the Vergelay bridge?) over the principal river where it issued from the larger lake. The river was made at this time.[[35]]