Here is an interesting account from 1793 regarding the wedding of Marie Antoinette and Louis Auguste, in an effort to make out the dauphine's character...
"She [Marie Antoinette] was married to her royal consort, then dauphin, May 16, 1770. The celebration of her nuptials was attended with a dreadful accident. Magnificent fireworks being exhibited on the occasion, in the square of Louis XV, the immense crowds of people who thronged to see them were blocked up on all sides, except one narrow street, through which they must all pass in order to disperse.
Some obstruction happening in the street, and the people not knowing the cause, took fright, and everyone pressing forward to get away, the confusion increased so fast, that one trampled over another, till the people lay one upon another in heaps: it was even said that those that were undermost, stabbed those who lay above them, in order to disengage themselves. The carnage was inconceivable, and the accounts of the time make the dead amount to one thousand, and the wounded to two thousand.
The dauphin, in the first emotion of his grief, gave all the money alotted for his month's expenses, towards the relief of the sufferers, and in this act of generosity, he was followed by the dauphiness, who was so deeply affected at the account she received of the fatal accident, that it was with difficulty she could be kept from fainting."
"CHARACTER and ANECDOTES of the QUEEN of FRANCE." The Lady's Magazine; or, Entertaining Companion for the Fair Sex Appropriated Solely to their Use and Amusement 24 (1793): 97-98.
No comments:
Post a Comment