Contrasting with this schoolboy rhyme is the sad farewell to her children, written by Marie Antoinette in her prayer-book only a few hours before she went to the scaffold:
“Ce 16 Octobre, à 4 h. ½ du matin. Mon Dieu! ayez pitié de moi! mes yeux n’ont plus de larmes pour prier pour vous, mes pauvres enfants. Adieu, adieu!
“Marie Antoinette.”
Scarcely does the world contain a more pathetic document.
