DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61284#0335
176
VIGEE-LEBRUN
Joseph, my servant, who was a Swiss, and spoke German, came into my
room, followed by three soldiers of horrible appearance, who, sword in
hand, came up to my bed. Joseph shrieked to them that I was Swiss and
ill; but, without answering him, they began by taking my gold snuff-box,
which was on a table near my pillow. Then they felt to ascertain if I had
not hidden any money under my blanket, from which one of them coolly
cut a piece with his sword. Another of them, who seemed to be French, or
at any rate who spoke our language perfectly, said to him, 1 Give her back
her box,’ but, far from obeying that invitation, they went to my writing-
table, took everything they could find there, and pillaged my wardrobes
also. At last, after having made me pass four hours in the most frightful
terror, these dreadful people left my house.”
She herself also left it next morning, and went to lodge in one of the
houses just above the Seine, where she found that some other ladies had
already sought a refuge. The place was a mere cottage. The lodgers
dined together, and lay at night six in a room, where sleep was almost
impossible.
However, all must have been forgiven to the pillaging Prussians when,
on April 12, she had the immense pleasure of seeing the Comte d’Artois
enter Paris, the precursor of his brother Louis XVIII. “ It is impossible,”
she says, “ for me to describe the delightful sensations that I experienced
on that day; I wept tears of joy, of happiness.”
Life in Paris was also made happier for Madame Lebrun now by the
return of the Comte de Vaudreuil, who had followed the Comte d’Artois
from England. He had lost nearly all his property, but the Bourbons
did not leave him without means of subsistence, and gave him rooms in
the Louvre, where he entertained his friends. The Comtesse Potocka, in
describing a party she had attended at Vigee-Lebrun’s house in those days,
says : “ Every one is amused to see M. de Vaudreuil doing the honours
as if we were back twenty-five years ago. They appear to be very happy
together, in spite of the lapse of time ; they have found each other again
like the handsome Cleon and the beautiful Javotte.”
The happiness was soon to be broken, when, just a year later, the
Bourbons went off again at the beginning of the Hundred Days. July
1815 came, and with it the Bourbons once more, and all the returned
emigrants, many of them old friends and acquaintances of Madame Lebrun,
resumed, as far as their finances allowed, the social pleasures that they had
first left behind them at the Revolution.
VIGEE-LEBRUN
Joseph, my servant, who was a Swiss, and spoke German, came into my
room, followed by three soldiers of horrible appearance, who, sword in
hand, came up to my bed. Joseph shrieked to them that I was Swiss and
ill; but, without answering him, they began by taking my gold snuff-box,
which was on a table near my pillow. Then they felt to ascertain if I had
not hidden any money under my blanket, from which one of them coolly
cut a piece with his sword. Another of them, who seemed to be French, or
at any rate who spoke our language perfectly, said to him, 1 Give her back
her box,’ but, far from obeying that invitation, they went to my writing-
table, took everything they could find there, and pillaged my wardrobes
also. At last, after having made me pass four hours in the most frightful
terror, these dreadful people left my house.”
She herself also left it next morning, and went to lodge in one of the
houses just above the Seine, where she found that some other ladies had
already sought a refuge. The place was a mere cottage. The lodgers
dined together, and lay at night six in a room, where sleep was almost
impossible.
However, all must have been forgiven to the pillaging Prussians when,
on April 12, she had the immense pleasure of seeing the Comte d’Artois
enter Paris, the precursor of his brother Louis XVIII. “ It is impossible,”
she says, “ for me to describe the delightful sensations that I experienced
on that day; I wept tears of joy, of happiness.”
Life in Paris was also made happier for Madame Lebrun now by the
return of the Comte de Vaudreuil, who had followed the Comte d’Artois
from England. He had lost nearly all his property, but the Bourbons
did not leave him without means of subsistence, and gave him rooms in
the Louvre, where he entertained his friends. The Comtesse Potocka, in
describing a party she had attended at Vigee-Lebrun’s house in those days,
says : “ Every one is amused to see M. de Vaudreuil doing the honours
as if we were back twenty-five years ago. They appear to be very happy
together, in spite of the lapse of time ; they have found each other again
like the handsome Cleon and the beautiful Javotte.”
The happiness was soon to be broken, when, just a year later, the
Bourbons went off again at the beginning of the Hundred Days. July
1815 came, and with it the Bourbons once more, and all the returned
emigrants, many of them old friends and acquaintances of Madame Lebrun,
resumed, as far as their finances allowed, the social pleasures that they had
first left behind them at the Revolution.