You know that
I need very little for my support, and that this little is amply
provided for. What else should I strive for? To avenge myself? My
friend, I am at an age when the blood flows slower through the
veins, and when one finds an inexpressible charm in forgiving. What,
then, do I wish? What could I have? Why do I incessantly strive?
This is the reason, my friend: I should like, before my death, to
convince all who have disinterestedly believed in me, that it is not
a political adventurer, but the royal 'orphan of the Temple,' who
owes them his friendship, and gives them his gratitude."
And this last goal of his life was within his reach. The friends and
legitimists who surrounded him believed in him, and when he died his
dependants and servants mourned for him as for a departed king. They
bore him with solemn pomp to his grave, at the dead of night.
Some fifty persons followed his coffin, and a priest went before it.
He was buried in the churchyard of Villefranche, and his tombstone
bears the following inscription:
Here rests Louis Charles of France Born at Versailles, March 27,
1785. Died in the Chateau of Vaux-Renaud, August 10, 1858.
End of Project Gutenberg Etext Marie Antoinette And Her Son, by Muhlbach
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