[12] The most recent French historian, M.H. Martin, sees in this trial a proof of the general demoralization of the whole French nation. "L'impression qui en résulte pour nous est l'impossibilité que la reine ait été coupable. Mais plus les imputations dirigées contre elle étaient vraisemblables, plus la créance accordée à ces imputations était caractéristique, et attestait la ruine morale de la monarchie. C'était l'ombre du Parc aux Cerfs qui couvrait toujours Versailles."—Histoire de France, xvi., p. 559, ed. 1860.
[13] Feuillet de Conches, i., p. 161.
[14] Feuillet de Conches, i., p. 162. Some of the critics of M.F. de Conches's collection have questioned without sufficient reason the probability of there having been any correspondence between the queen and her elder sister. But the genuineness of this letter is strongly corroborated by a mistake into which no forger would have fallen. The queen speaks as if the cardinal had alleged that he had given her a rose; while his statement really was that Oliva, personating the queen, had dropped a rose at his feet. A forger would have made the letter Correspond with the evidence and the fact. The queen, in her agitation, might easily make a mistake.
[15] "Il se retira dans son évêché de l'autre côté du Rhin. Là sa noble conduite fit oublier les torts de sa vie passée," etc.—Campardon, p. 156.
[16] Campardon, p. 156.
[17] It was from Ettenheim that the Duke d'Enghien was carried off in March, 1804. The cardinal died in February, 1803.
CHAPTER XXI.
[1] "Le duc déclarait de son côté à Mr. Elliott que … si la reine l'eût mieux traité il eut peut-être mieux fait."—Chambrier, i., p.519
[2] Sophie Hélène Béatrix, born July 9th, 1786, died June 9th, 1787, F. de Conches, i. p. 195.
[3] See her letter to her brother, February, 1788, Arneth, p. 112.