We are peaceful now. The riot was beginning to be violent but the troops calmed them. The Prince de Beauvau asked them why they had come to Versailles and they replied that they had no bread. I have decided not to go out today, not through fear but so that all may be calm and settle down. Monsieur de Beauvau tells me that a foolish compromise was made which was to let them have bread at two sous.
There was no other thing to do, he says, but let them have it at this or its present price. The bargain is made now but precautions should be made to prevent their believing they can make laws. Give me your advice on this Turgot returned at once to Versailles.
“Our consciences are clear,” he told the King; ‘but the current price of bread must be restored or there will be disaster. ” In spite of Turgot’s precautions there were riots in Paris;
the Chief of Police Lenoir was dilatory; it may have been that’ he did not wish to show himself against the rioters.
This was all very alarming—Lenoir refusing to do his duty, and more bread being found which had been turned mouldy by a special process.
Turgot acted promptly and dismissed Lenoir, replacing him by a man named Albert who was a supporter of his and immediately went into action. Arrests were made and order was restored; the entire Parlement was summoned to Versailles, where the King received them.
“I must stop this dangerous brigandage,” he said.
“It could quickly become rebellion. I am determined that neither my good town of Paris nor my kingdom shall suffer. I rely on your fidelity and submission when I am determined to take measures which ensure that during my reign I shall not have to take them again.”
He was determined, as he had told me, before receiving the Parlement, that order should be brought back to his kingdom, and that the real culprits of this rising should be discovered and dealt with.
But the riots in Paris continued; and once again those who were arrested proved to be not poor people in need of bread but men and women with money in their pockets.
Louis was very distressed.
“This is a plot,” he told me, a plot against us. That is what disturbs me so. “
“But you are behaving like a true King, Louis. I have heard it said again and again. They tell me that the manner in which you spoke to the Parlement has won everyone’s admiration.”
“I always find it easier to talk to fifty men than to one,” he said with his shy smile.
I cried: “You will discover who made this plot, and then all will be well. I think the French are happy to understand that they have a strong King whom they can trust.”
He was delighted and murmured: “You jump to conclusions. It is not all over yet.”
Nor was it. As he and I passed out of his room we saw a nonce pinned on the door. I read it and gasped. It said:
“If the price of bread does not go down and the Ministry is not changed, we will set fire to the four corners of the Chateau of Versailles.”
I stared at it in horror. I looked at my husband, who had turned pale.
“Louis,” I whispered, it is as though they hate us. “
It is not the people! ” he cried.
“I will not believe it is the people !’ But he was shaken. And so was I. It was like a cold wind blowing through the palace.
Albert reported that he had made many arrests. A wig maker and a gauze-maker had been caught stealing and it was decided to make an example of them. They were hanged on two gallows eighteen feet high so that they could be an example to the rioters.
Louis was distressed.
“I wish they could find the ringleaders,” he said again and again. I do not wish the people who have only been led away to be punished. ” If he could he would have pardoned those two men, but Turgot insisted that there must be an example, and certainly the hanging of these two men sobered the people. The rioting died down; the insurrection ” La Guerre des Farines’ was over.
It was clear that some organisation, some secret band of men, was using the grain shortage to build a revolution. Fortunately the resolution of the King and the prompt action of Turgot, the replacement of Lenoir by Albert and the solidarity of the Parlement, had avoided that.
Everyone was speculating as to who could have been behind it. Some said it was the Prince de Conti, whom Max had so offended when he had visited us. It was whispered that he hated me and my family so much that he wished to bring down the Monarchy.
It seemed ridiculous, but it was true that the riots had started in Pontoise, and he had a house there.
There were all sorts of whispers; I listened for a while. I even heard that Conti was a member of a secret organisation suspected of all kinds of subversive activities.
We ought to have been thankful for a grim warning; we should not have rested until we found out the truth of these rumours. Surely it could not have been difficult had we really tried.
But we were all too thankful that the guerre des farines was over, to wish to resurrect causes. We wanted to forget it.
Coronation
It is very surprising and so comforting to be so well received after the revolt and in spite of the price of bread, which is still dear.
But it is characteristic of the French to be carried away by evil suggestions and then return immediately to good sense. When we hear the people’s acclamations and see these proofs of their affection, we are all the more committed to work for their good.
I am sorry that you could not share the satisfaction I have felt here.
It is my duty to work for a people who give me so much happiness. I shall give myself up to this absolutely.
A month had elapsed since the last of the bread riots and everyone was talking about the coronation. Coronations were rare events with such long-lived Kings as Louis XIV and Louis XV, both of whom had reigned for so many years. Louis XVI was dreading it, of course, for it was the sort of occasion he preferred to avoid. He would be extremely clumsy at the most significant moments; and he hated dressing up.
Moreover the ceremony would be archaic, the same that had been carried out since the earliest days of the French monarchy. Louis would have given a great deal to escape it.
Mercy and my mother were hoping that I would be crowned too, and to tell the truth I did not share my husband’s horror of the ceremony. I should have been in my element, a glittering figure, receiving the homage of my subjects, and was secretly disappointed when it was decided that there was to be no coronation for me.
“It would mean even more expense,” said Louis, ‘at a time when there is urgent need for economy everywhere. There will be Clothilde’s wedding and the lying-in of Artois’s wife . “
He looked sheepish; the delicate subject was being raised again. I felt unhappy too. Artois was the first of the brothers to be a father.
How I envied my sister-in-law ! I had thrown myself wildly into making changes at Le Trianon, hoping to forget my envy. Lucky, lucky woman!
What did it matter if she were small and ugly and squinted and had a long thin nose? She was to be a mother!
“So,” said Louis, ‘you will not be crowned with me. I know you do not wish it. And how I wish that I could avoid the fuss. “
But it was decided that there must be a coronation, so on the 5th of June I with my brothers-and sisters-in-law left Rheims. It was midnight when we saw the city in moonlight. The people leaned out of their windows—those who were not lining the streets—and they cheered us wildly; they were almost as enthusiastic as the people of Paris had been when I had first officially entered their city.