Ambition and Desire: The Dangerous Life of Josephine Bonaparte by Kate Williams Read Free Book Online Page A

brought against me by several aristocrats, so-called patriots.” He felt keenly the injustice of being judged a “bad citizen.” Before leaving the prison, he sent Marie-Josèphe a lock of his hair to keep for the children and wrote her a touching letter, aware as he scratched out every word that his own death made hers inevitable.
I have no hope of seeing you again, my friend, nor of embracing my dear children. I shall not tell you of my regrets: my tender affection for them and the brotherly attachment that binds me to you can leave you in no doubt as to the feelings with which I take leave of life … Farewell, my friend, comfort yourself with my children, console them by enlightening them, and above all teaching them that it is on account of virtue and civic duty thatthey must efface the memory of my execution and recall my services to the nation and my claims to its gratitude. Farewell, you know those whom I love, be their comforter and by your care make me live longer in their breasts. Farewell, for the last time in my life, I press you and my dear children to my breast. 17
    Alexandre appeared in front of the Revolutionary Tribunal on July 23, with forty-eight others. All but two were declared guilty. The next day, he was taken to the guillotine, along with the prince of Salm. Alexandre’s head rolled into the basket as the crowds around the Place de la Nation cheered. Marie-Josèphe was a widow.
    She collapsed when she heard the news and retired to her cell. Marie-Josèphe knew she would be next. “My children, your father died on the scaffold and your mother will die there too,” she wrote. She recalled life on Martinique and then launched into praise of Alexandre, who, “having made me the happiest wife, was to make me the most glorious and unfortunate mother. Oh my dear Alexandre! How brief and beautiful those moments we were together and how the days which drag on since death destroyed them seem heavy and long.” 18
    Her time was running out.
    S IX DAYS AFTER Alexandre’s execution, the guard came in for Marie-Josèphe’s trestle bed. One of her cell mates, the Duchesse d’Aiguillon, demanded to know if she would receive a better bed. “No, no, she will not need one,” he replied with a terrible smile, “because they are going to come to take her to the Conciergerie, and from there to the guillotine.” 19
    The women burst into tears. Marie-Josèphe calmly, as the duchesse recalled, “told them that their pain was entirely irrational, that not only would I not die, but that I would be Queen of France .” The duchesse thought she had gone mad but humored her by asking if she had appointed her household. “ ‘Ah! It is true, I was not thinking about that. Well my dear, I shall appoint you lady of honor, I promise you.’ ” The women wept even harder.
    That afternoon, when Marie-Josèphe took the duchesse to the window to console her, they saw a peasant woman making gestures at them,clearly desperate for them to understand. Marie-Josèphe gazed at her without comprehension as the woman repeatedly picked up her skirts. “I called out to her: Robe! She made a sign to show that I was right; then she picked up a stone and put it in her skirts, which she showed us again, lifting up the stone with the other hand: Pierre! I called out to her again.” At this the woman made a movement as if cutting her throat and then began to dance. 20 Marie-Josèphe stared: Robe? Pierre. Then she understood. Robespierre was dead. “You see,” she said to her cellmates, “I will be the Queen of France. ” She was given back her bed and spent “the best night in the world.” 21
    O N J ULY 26, Thérésa Cabarrus had sent Jean-Lambert Tallien a dagger and a letter condemning him for failing to rescue her. “I die in despair at having belonged to a coward like you,” she wrote. Whether due to the letter or to the fear that he would soon follow his mistress to prison, Tallien decided on action. The next day,