No. 20.
Noailles, upon whom the sword of the law
has rendered justice.
Different Letters and Notes from my
Sister-in-Law, written from the Prison
of the Luxembourg.
To Monsieur Grelet, her children's tutor, who
was like a father to them:
I confide to the keeping of Monsieur Grelet my three children,—my two boys, and my girl. I declare that it is my most positive and express desire, in case I should come to want, that he should have charge of them. I give over to him all my rights and authority over them. I implore him to be a mother to them, and under no circumstances to allow any one to separate them from him. I authorize him to remove them from one place to another as may seem best to him,—in short, to treat my children as if they were his own. I am sure that all who care for me will most sacredly regard this my desire.
Written in the prison of the Luxembourg, this 24th Messidor, year II. of the French Republic, one and indivisible.