Malediction on the man who imagined this decree; malediction on the
assembly that approved it; and cursed be the hand which shall first
touch a stone of that tomb! Oh I believe me, I am not among those who
regret the times of royal prerogatives, and who believe that everything
would have gone well, in the most peaceful country in the world, if
Louis XVII had only succeeded to the throne after his father, Louis
XVI. The author of the revolution of 1798 knew what he was about in
multiplying such terrible catastrophes. The name of that author was
Infallible Necessity. Indeed I am quite ready to confess that the
indolent husband of Marie Antoinette had none of those qualities which
make a great king, and I will even add, if you wish it absolutely, that
the solitary fact of being a king is a crime worthy a thousand deaths.
As to Marie Antoinette herself—“the Austrian,” _Père Duchesne_ would
call her—I allow that in history she is not quite so amiable as she
appears in the novels of Alexandra Dumas, and that her near
relationship to the queen Caroline-Marie, whose little suppers at
Naples, in company with Lady Hamilton, one is well acquainted with,
gives some excuse for the calumnies of which she has been the object.
Have I said enough to prevent myself being the recipient, in the event
of a Bourbon restoration, of the most modest pension that ever came out
of a royal treasury? Well, in spite of what I have said, and in spite
of what I think, I repeat, “Do not touch that tomb!” Like the Column
Vendôme, which is the symbol of an heroic and terrible epoch in
history, the Chapelle Expiatoire[79] is a souvenir of the old
monarchical reign, an age which was neither devoid of sorrow, nor of
honour for France. Can you not be republican without suppressing
history, which was royalist? The last remains of monarchy repose in
peace beneath that gloomy monument; may it be respected, as we respect
the ashes of those who respected it; and you, breakers of images,
profaners of past glory, do you not fear, in executing your decree, to
produce an effect diametrically opposed to that which you desire? By
persecuting kings even in their last resting-place, are you not afraid
to excite the pity, the regret perhaps, of those whose consciences
still hesitate? In the interest of the Republic, I say, take care! The
memory of the dead stalks forth from open sepulchres!