Dancing to the Precipice Read online

  Dancing to the Precipice

  The Life of Lucie de la Tour du Pin, Eyewitness to an Era

  Caroline Moorehead

  To John and Boo

  Contents

  Characters in the Book

  Foreword

  1 This Magnificent Age

  2 A Talent for Deception

  3 A Sparkling Picture

  4 The Colour of Hope

  5 The Dismantling of Paris

  6 Deep and Dark Shades

  7 Standing on a Vast Volcano

  8 Heads Falling like Tiles

  9 Mrs Latour from the Old Country

  10 Incroyables and Merveilleuses

  11 Hordes of Vagabond French

  12 Toothless Dogs and Clawless Cats

  13 Not a Court, but a Power

  14 Oh Unhappy France!

  15 Embarking on a Career of Grief

  16 A Pocket Tyranny

  17 A Warm Heart

  18 The Rhapsodies of Life

  Afterword

  Acknowledgements

  Bibliography

  Source Notes

  Time Line

  Searchable Terms

  About the Author

  Books By Caroline Moorehead

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  Characters in the Book

  Lucie’s family and friends

  Arthur, Comte Dillon (1750–94) (father). Colonel-proprietor of the Dillon regiment serving under Louis XVI. At 18 married his cousin Thérèse-Lucy de Rothe, and after her death Comtesse de la Touche, first cousin of the Empress Josephine. Arthur fought in the American Revolution, was promoted General and made governor of Tobago. He returned to Paris to represent Martinique at the Estates General, then fought on the side of the republican army. Having tried to save the King’s life, he was himself arrested and guillotined on 13 April 1794.

  Lucy de Rothe (?–1804) (grandmother). After the death of her only daughter, Lucie’s mother, Mme de Rothe brought up her granddaughter with great severity. Assumed to be the mistress of her uncle, Archbishop Dillon, she presided over his household until the revolution, when they fled to Germany, and then to England.

  Thérèse-Lucy de Rothe (1751–82) (mother). Married at 17 to her cousin Arthur whom she thought of as a brother, she had two children: Georges, who died before his second birthday, and Lucie. She became lady-in-waiting to Marie Antoinette, but died of tuberculosis at the age of 31.

  Richard-Arthur Dillon, Archbishop of Narbonne (1721–1806) (great-uncle). A worldly administrator rather than a pious prelate, the Archbishop kept a famed hunt at Hautefontaine north of Paris. Lucie accompanied him on several occasions to his see, Montpellier, where he lived in great splendour. Forced to flee France after the attack on the clergy, he spent his last years in exile in London. He was the life-long companion and lover of Lucie’s grandmother, Mme de Rothe.

  Frédéric-Séraphim, Comte de Gouvernet and later Marquis de la Tour du Pin Gouvernet (1759–1837) (husband). A soldier by profession, Frédéric served with Lafayette in the American Revolution. Briefly a diplomat, he was forced into hiding by the revolution and fled with Lucie to America. Later he was chosen by Napoleon as Prefect of Brussels and then Amiens. He represented France at the Congress of Vienna and was appointed Ambassador to Turin.

  Jean-Frédéric de la Tour du Pin Gouvernet (1727–1794) (father-in-law). A prominent soldier and Minister for War under Louis XVI, he was arrested during the Terror and sent to the guillotine.

  Adelaïde-Félicité-Henriette d’Hénin (1750–1820?) (Frédéric’s aunt). Married at 15 to the Prince d’Hénin, from whom she lived separated, she became the centre of a group of clever, influential women in Paris. By nature irascible and impetuous, but also generous and devoted, she played an important part in Lucie’s life. The Princesse d’Hénin was lady-in-waiting to Marie Antoinette and spent much of her life–after her husband went to the guillotine–as companion to Trophime-Gérard, Marquis de Lally-Tollendal, deputy to the Estates General in 1789 and later member of the Académie Française.

  Félicie de Duras, Comtesse de la Rochejacquelein (1798–1883) (goddaughter). Daughter of Lucie’s friend Claire de Duras, Félicie became Lucie’s main correspondent for the last 30 years of her life. Boyish and impetuous, she embroiled Lucie’s son, Aymar, in a disastrous escapade.

  Lady Jerningham (1748–1825) (aunt). When Lucie and Frédéric fled to London in 1798, they found a home with Lady Jerningham and her family at Cossey Hall in Norfolk. Lucie was very attached to her English aunt.

  Fanny Dillon (1785–1836) (half-sister). The only surviving daughter of Arthur and his second wife, Fanny married General Bertrand, faithful follower of Napoleon, and had four childen. They accompanied the deposed Emperor to St Helena.

  Lucie’s six children:

  Humbert (1790–1816) Sous-Préfet under Napoleon and lieutenant in the Black Musketeers; Humbert was killed in a duel.

  Séraphine (1793–5).

  Alix, known as Charlotte (1796–1822) who died of tuberculosis.

  Edward (1798) who died aged a few months.

  Cécile (1800–17) who died of tuberculosis soon after her 17th birthday.

  Aymar (1806–67) who was the only one of her children to survive her.

  Lucie had two grandchildren to whom she was close:

  Cécile (1818–93), daughter of Charlotte and brought up by Lucie.

  Hadelin (1816–90), son of Charlotte who rose to prominence in the political and social world of Brussels.

  Characters in France

  Angoulême, Marie-Thérèse d’, (1778–1851). The only surviving daughter of Louis XVI, she accompanied her uncle, later Louis XVIII, into exile in England and married her cousin, the Duc d’Angoulême. During the Bourbon restoration she presided over a starchy court, but remained unpopular.

  Beauharnais, Hortense de (1783–1837). The only daughter of the Empress Josephine by her first marriage, she was later married to Napoleon’s brother, Louis, and became Queen of Holland. Her son became Napoleon III.

  Berri, Marie Caroline de Bourbon-Sicile, Duchesse de (1798–1870). Married to the Duc de Berri, she followed Charles X into exile and tried to inspire the royalist insurrection in which Aymar and Félicie de la Rochejacquelein took part.

  Cambacérès, Jean-Jacques, Duc de Parme (1753–1824). A lawyer and judge, who became Second Consul and worked on the Napoleonic Code.

  Charles X, King of France (1757–1836). Younger son of Louis XVI’s brother. While still the Comte d’Artois, he was one of the first to flee the revolution. On his return, he became head of the ultra-royalist party, and succeeded his brother Louis XVIII as King in 1824. His fall marked the end of the Bourbon reign in France.

  Chateaubriand, François-René (1768–1848). Poet and writer, he spent the first years of the revolution in England, returning to France to have a troubled relationship with Napoleon. He inspired great devotion in women.

  Danton, Georges (1759–94). The first president of the Committee of Public Safety in the French Revolution, he was considered a moderating influence on the Jacobins. Accused of leniency towards the enemies of the revolution, he was sent to the guillotine.

  Desmoulins, Camille (1760–94). A political journalist and lawyer, Desmoulins played an important part in the revolution through his writings. He was a friend of Lucie’s father Arthur, and refused to condemn him before the Tribunal. Falling out with Robespierre, he was tried with other moderates. His wife Lucile followed him to the guillotine, going to the scaffold on the same day as Arthur and leaving two small children.

  Fouché, Joseph, Duc d’Otrante (1759–1820). One of the most efficient organisers of the Terror, his political skills contributed to the
fall of Robespierre. Later, as Minister for Police under Napoleon, he created a formidable network of spies.

  Josephine de Beauharnais, Empress, first wife of Napoleon (1763–1814). Imprisoned under the Terror, in which her husband was guillotined, she married Napoleon in 1796, but was unable to give him a child. He divorced her, and she lived at Malmaison until her death.

  Louis XVI, King of France (1754–93). Married to Marie Antoinette at 15 and King at 20, Louis XVI was serious-minded and vacillating. Unable to respond to the challenges of the liberals and democrats, and arrested after the failure of his plans to escape, Louis was accused of secret dealings with foreigners. Brought to trial for treason, he was executed on 21 January 1793.

  Louis XVIII, King of France (1755–1824). Brother to Louis XVI, and known by the title Monsieur, he fled France on the revolution and tried to put together an army of émigrés to challenge the French republican forces. After the death of his nephew in June 1795, he took the title of King and remained in England until returning to Paris in 1814. He had to flee once more during Napoleon’s Hundred Days. Immensely fat and suffering from gout, he found it increasingly hard to oppose the ultra-conservative members of his court.

  Louis Philippe, Duc d’Orléans (1747–93). Cousin to Louis XVI, he lived in the Palais-Royal where he was thought to be plotting against Versailles. In the revolution, adopting the name Philippe-Égalité, he sided with the Third Estate. He voted for the death of the King, but was himself guillotined soon after.

  Louis-Philippe, Duc d’Orléans, King of the French (1773–1850). After fighting for the revolutionary army, Louis-Philippe lived in America. During the reign of Charles X, Louis-Philippe became the centre of the liberal opposition and was proclaimed King of the French after Charles X was deposed. He reigned for 18 years and was ousted by the revolutionary movement which swept through Europe in 1848.

  Marat, Jean-Paul (1743–93). A Swiss-born philosopher and political theorist whose journalism was central to the revolution. Briefly one of the most important men in revolutionary France, together with Danton and Robespierre, he was stabbed to death in his bath by Charlotte Corday.

  Marie-Antoinette, Archduchess of Austria, Queen of France (1755–93). The pretty, frivolous 14-year-old bride of Louis XVI remained childless for eight years and became unpopular with the conservative court at Versailles and with the people of France. When the revolution broke out, she was perceived as a reactionary influence. Accused of secret dealings with the Austrians, she was imprisoned with her family in August 1792 and guillotined in October 1793.

  Marie-Louise, Empress of the French (1791–1847). Born Archduchess Maria Louisa of Austria, she was the great-niece of Marie Antoinette. She was Napoleon’s second wife, and mother of Napoleon II, King of Rome. After Napoleon’s abdication, she fled to Vienna, becoming Duchess of Parma. Later she remarried and had three more children.

  Napoleon, Emperor of France (1769–1821). A general with the revolutionary army, he organised the coup of 18 brumaire and set up a new government, the Consulate. He was First Consul from 1799 to 1804, then Emperor until 1814. Sent into exile in Elba, he returned for a Hundred Days in 1815 before being defeated at Waterloo. He died in exile in St Helena.

  Robespierre, Maximilien (1758–94). A disciple of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and one of the main architects of the Terror, when he was known as the ‘Incorruptible’. With his execution in 1794, one phase of the French Revolution came to an end.

  Staël, Germaine de (1766–1817). A woman of letters who wrote novels, plays and political essays and whose salon flourished after the Terror. Banished from Paris by Napoleon who found her hostile and outspoken, she spent many years in Coppet in Switzerland.

  Talleyrand-Périgord, Charles-Maurice de, Prince de Benevento (1754–1838). A statesman and diplomat renowned for his political intrigues and his capacity for survival. He held office during the French Revolution–spending the two years of the Terror in the United States–and under Napoleon, Louis XVIII, Charles X and Louis-Philippe.

  Tallien, Jean-Lambert (1767–1820). An active popular leader in the storming of the Tuileries in August 1792, he was also a direct participant in the September massacres, before being sent to Bordeaux to enforce revolutionary Terror on the provinces. Influential in Robespierre’s downfall, Tallien later accompanied Napoleon to Egypt. He died of leprosy, in great poverty.

  Tallien, Thérésia (1773–1835). A famous beauty who fled revolutionary Paris for Bordeaux where she acted as a moderating influence on Tallien, whom she later married. She became one of the leaders of Parisian social life and set the fashion for the Directory. She married three times and had 11 children, several of them by other liaisons.

  Foreword

  On 1 January 1820, shortly before her 50th birthday, Lucie Dillon, Marquise de la Tour du Pin, decided that the moment had come to write her memoirs. Until that day, she had never written anything but letters ‘to those I love’. ‘Let me take advantage,’ she wrote, ‘of the warmth that is still in me to tell something of a troubled and restless life, in which the unhappinesses were caused less, perhaps, by the events known to all the world, than by secret griefs known only to God.’

  So saying, Lucie sat down and began writing what would be one of the finest memoirs of the age, full of humour and shrewdness and affection. She wrote boldly and dispassionately, for there was nothing retiring or falsely modest in her character and she had much to say. It was, she had decided, to be a diary, for her son and grandchildren, for she had no plans for publication, either before or after her death. And it was as a diary that she wrote it, simply and without artifice, describing precisely what she saw and heard, not only of her own extraordinary life, but the exceptionally turbulent period of French history that she lived through. She wrote about domestic matters and affairs of state, about personal tragedies and public mayhem, with optimism and robustness–despite the secret griefs–and a mixture of innocence and knowingness, which makes her voice very much her own.

  When her memoir was finally published, 50 years after her death, it was immediately recognised as a faithful testimony to a lost age. Never out of print since then, it has provided countless scholars with detailed, vivid information, made all the more remarkable by the fact that, for most of her very long life, she happened to be precisely where the transforming events of her time were taking place. But her many letters–which have never been published, and which cover the 40 years of her life that followed the events described in the memoirs–are just as remarkable. In some ways, they are even more so, for they show a woman without guile or malice yet possessed of considerable shrewdness about the workings of the world.

  Born in Paris in 1770 in the dying days of the ancien régime, into a family of liberal aristocrats with many links to Versailles and the court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, she survived the French Revolution, which saw many of her family and friends die or lose all they possessed. Escaping to America, she and her husband bought a farm and became increasingly concerned about the injustices of slavery. Later she lived through the eras of Napoleon and the restoration of the French kings, Louis XVIII, Charles X and Louis-Philippe. At the time of her death in 1853 Napoleon III had just ascended the throne. Almost nothing of the world into which she was born remained, neither the grandeur, nor the idea of absolute monarchy, nor the privileges; but she herself was singularly unchanged.

  Because of her parents, she grew up at the court of Marie Antoinette, but it was a court riven by corruption, vendettas and profligacy. Because of who she became, her friends included Talleyrand, Wellington, Mme de Staël, Lafayette and Josephine Bonaparte–many of whom left descriptions of her. Because of who she married–Frédéric de la Tour du Pin was a soldier, administrator and diplomat–she saw the Terror unfold in Paris and Bordeaux, attended on Napoleon and Josephine, was in Brussels during the Battle of Waterloo and observed the early days of Italy’s unification. Along with a taste for hard work, she possessed a natural curiosity, an enormous need to underst
and and to remember, not only the grandeur and the politics, but the ordinary everyday events, the food, the clothes, the expressions on people’s faces. It made her a formidable witness.

  Unremittingly tough on herself, she was extremely demanding of others; but she had a shrewd and self-mocking sense of humour and she possessed a generous and loving heart. When one personal tragedy followed another–the ‘secret griefs’ of her life–she did not complain. On the contrary, they made her more determined than ever to show fortitude. The memoirs are a portrait in resilience, the way that great pain can be endured and overcome. Lucie was not merely courageous: she was resourceful and imaginative.

  Because Lucie’s own life and character were so remarkable, her story offers a fascinating portrait of an 18th-century woman. But it is more than that. The times she lived through were indeed exceptional, and it is in that context that she has to be seen, against a constantly changing, frightening and troubled background, broken by periods of domestic happiness and public prosperity, with her life running like a thread through her times. It is impossible to understand why she was so admirable without understanding the world that she looked out on; and which she survived.