The latter, in her prison, derived some consolation from the society of several distinguished female fellow prisoners, who evinced for her the sincerest sympathy. с 4
32ANECDOTES OF PRISON LIFE.
Among others were Mademoiselle Picot, and Mes-dames de Lameth, d'Aiguillon, and de Beauharnais, aftenvards the Empress Josephine. This last named lady was placed in the same room with my mother, and they mutually performed for each other the offices of afemine de chamhre.
With the exception of Madame de Beauharnais, these young and beautiful women took a pride in maintaining a high decree of courage and fortitude. The former exhibited all the thoughtlessness of the ereole, and often betrayed a pusillanimity and peevish restlessness that made her companions in misfortune blush. But though she had no magnanimity of character, she was naturally graceful; and gracefulness can dispense with every other rpialification. Her mien, her manner, and, above all, her way of speaking, possessed a peculiar charm.
Many curious details connected with the prison life of this period have been written. Had my mother left any memoirs, they would have revealed to the public traits and occurrences still unknown. In the ancient Carmelite convent, among other female prisoners, was an English woman, very old, deaf, and almost blind. She had never been able to learn the reason of her imprisonment; to ascertain which she constantly addressed every one with whom she had an opportunity of speaking. The executioner was the last person who replied to her inquiry.
In the same chamber with this last was the wife of a man who exhibited a puppet-show. They had been arrested, they said, because their puppets were too aristocratic. The woman had a profound respect for the fallen great; and, thanks to this feeling ! the
ANECDOTES OF PRISON LIFE.33
prisoners of noble birth received from her a homage greater than they had ever met with in their own houses.
The plebeian voluntarily waited upon them, and was continually performing little obliging offices, actuated by the pure pleasure of the service: she never approached their persons without testifying marks of the most profound respect; and in finally bidding farewell to these illustrious companions, to proceed with her husband to the place of execution, the poor woman did not for a moment forget to use all those antiquated forms of obeisance with which she was accustomed to address them at other times.
The prisoners, both male and female, used to meet at certain hours in a kind of garden, where the men played at prisoners' bars. It was usually during these moments of recreation that the revolutionary tribunal sent to summon its victims. If the one singled out was in the midst of a game, he bade a simple adieu to his friends, after which the party continued their play! I Tin's prison was a world in miniature, of which Robespierre was the god. What could so much resemble hell, as this caricature of providence ?
After having been five months in prison, my mother saw M. de Beauharnais depart for the scaffold. In passing her, he presented her with an arabesque talisman set in a ring. She always kept it, and it is now worn by me.
Time was then no longer reckoned by weeks, but
by periods of ten days; the tenth was termed décadi,
and answered to our Sunday, as they neither worked
nor guillotined on that day. Its arrival, therefore, as-
C 5
34THE HUNCH-BACKED SHOEMAKER
sured to the prisoners an existence of twenty-four hours; this appeared an age in prospect, and the day was always viewed as a fete in the prison.
Such was the life of my mother after the death of her husband. It continued during the last six months of the reign of terror. Considering her connections, her celebrity, and the circumstances of her arrest, it was wonderful that she had escaped the scaffold so long. On three different occasions she was taken from prison to her own house, where her inquisitors examined before her, and questioned her upon every insignificant paper which they could find in the drawers and secretaries; searching every corner of the apartment, and omitting only to examine the sofa, which it was the will of God should be overlooked. It may be readily imagined that my mother's heart would irrepressibly beat every time they approached this spot. She has often told me that she did not dare, in one single instance, to look towards the fatal sofa, and yet that she equally feared her eyes might have the appearance of being too consciously averted.
This was not the only token of protection which God vouchsafed her in her misfortunes. The sentiments of the men on whom her fate depended were softened by an invisible power.
Twelve members of the section superintended the searches. They invariably concluded by subjecting the prisoner to a long and scrutinising inquiry. The first time she was thus questioned, the president of this species of revolutionary jury was a little hunch backed shoemaker, who was as malicious as he was ugly. This man had found in a corner, a shoe, which he pretended wTas made of English leather.
INTEEROGATES MADAME DE CUSTINE.35
The accusation was serious. My mother at first maintained that the leather was not English, hut the shoe-making president insisted on the fact.
" It is possible that it may be," my mother at length conceded; " you ought to know better than I. All that I can say is, that I have never procured any thing from England."
They tried it on her foot: it fitted her. " Who is your shoemaker?" demanded the president. She named him. He had been the fashionable shoemaker at the commencement of the revolution.
" A bad patriot," observed the jealous hump-back.
" A good shoemaker!" remarked my mother.
" We would imprison him," replied the president, " but the aristocrat has concealed himself. Do you know where he is ? "
My mother answered in the negative, and intimated that if she did she would not tell.
Her courageous answers, which contrasted strangely with her timid mien; the species of involuntary irony to which these scenes, alike burlesque and tragic in their character, excited her; the exquisite beauty of her person; her youth; her widow's dress; the expression of her face, at once wayward and resigned ; her air, lofty in spite of herself; her perfectly easy and elegant manners ; her celebrity, already national; the dignity of misfortune; the unequalled accent of her silver voice; and, finally, the instinct of the woman, that constant desire to please, which always succeeds when it is innate and consequently natural, — all contributed to win the hearts of her judges, hard and cruel as they were; in short, all felt favourably disposed towards her except the little hunchback. с 6
36MEANS ADOPTED BY JEROME
My mother had a remarkable talent for drawing, especially for taking likenesses. In the intervals of her examination she amused herself by taking those of the persons who surrounded her, and in a few minutes had made an excellent sketch of the terrible picture in which she was the chief figure.
A master mason, of the name of Jerome, one of the most ardent jacobins of the day, was present on this occasion. He took the sketch from my mother and passed it to the others; each recognised himself, and all amused themselves at the expense of the president. The rage of the latter might have been fatal to my mother; nevertheless, it was the imprudence she on this occasion committed which saved her life.
The drawing was attached to the other documents connected with her case. Jerome, the mason, who affected the most violent hostility to her, and who never addressed her without some horrible oath, Jerome, ferocious though he might be, was young ; and, struck with admiration of her many charms, he conceived the idea of saving her from the guillotine.