The Peasant and the Prince, by Harriet Martineau.
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This short novel describes in great detail the last months of the French
Royal family. The book starts with four chapters describing the
apalling lives that some of the French nobility were forcing their
peasantry to live. Every last bit of value was extorted from these
noblemen's estates, to finance their extravagant life styles, and the
poor people suffered greatly as a result.
There then follow fifteen chapters of harrowing detail, as the Royal
Family were treated with contempt and rudeness, interspersed with
episodes of great kindness. There had been a revolution, and the cry
was for the nobility to be hanged or guillotined, but for the Royals the
process was a long drawn out period of torture and torment.
Particularly sad was the story of the last few months of the boy Louis,
the Prince of the title, who at one stage was left on his own for months
on end with no friendly face to comfort him, while he lay in a dirty and
unmade bed. A kind tutor was ordered for him, and he was cleaned up and
comforted a little, but soon after died, having not been allowed to see
his relatives for years.
You can't help feeling that the French nobility had it coming, that
their fate was one of their own making. Their behaviour during the
eighteenth century made the Revolution inevitable.
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THE PEASANT AND THE PRINCE, BY HARRIET MARTINEAU.