Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 February 1912 — SECRETS ARE TOLD [ARTICLE]

SECRETS ARE TOLD

English Translation of Records Kept by a Physician. Light on Historic Events—Marie Antoinette on Her Way to the Guillotine—Glimpses of the Great Bonaparte. New York.—There was a celebrated Parisian doctor named Poumies de la Slboutie, who died In 1863 after being the professional attendant of most of the great men of his day hnd an active participant In most of the great events that happened between the French revolution and the second empire. He was an energetic diarist and dearly loved a good story. Toward the end of his life he began whipping his diaries and memoranda into a book of recollections. He died before the work was completed, but his daughters wove the unfinished book and the remaining diaries together, and the result is now published in an English translation made by Lady Theodora Davidson and just now issued in America. The title is “Recollections of a Parisian Under Six Sovereigns, Two Revolutions and a Republic, 1789-1863.” At first it seema rather surprising that the doctor should be able to give reminiscences of 1789, for he was born in that year. But there is no about it In early life he made the acquaintance of the surviving figures in the great events that were enacted during his babyhood, attended some of them professionally and heard from their lips -the I** 1 ** yaiwiy—of thaflfl. eventi. - -- One of the persons wljose acquaintance he made was a spectator of the execution of Marie Antoinette, and gave him this account of It*. “The queen sat quite alone In a market cart between Sanson (the executioner) ! and his assistant Her hands were tied behind her back. She wore a white camisole, and a cap on her head, which had been tied on crooked. “She was as white as a sheet and trembled so that she had to be helped out of the cart She was lifted rather

than assisted on to the scaffold. Sanson tore off her cap and In a moment all was over.” Of Napoleon he says; “He had apleasant face with refined features and a kindly, benevolent expression. None of the many portraits known to me, even by the greatest of artistß, give more than a faint idea of his noble countenance.” M. Dunod, who was three years gentleman usher of the bedchamber, told the doctor that Napoleon “was very fussy; the least thing set him grumbling and complaining. Throughout his whole military career he was not once wounded, though be never spared himself. The wound at Ratlsbon, of which so much has been made, was a mere bruise from the blow of a spent ball. The doctor was one of those who took part In the general assembly of electors on Napoleon’s return from Eba. Napoleon, he says, was very late In coming. When at last he appeared the vast throng rose, shouting, •Vive la France! Vive la nation!’ The few feeble cries of ‘Vive l’empereurl’ could barely be distinguished. “He threw a scowling glance around him. Everybody remarked the alteration in his appearance. He had grown stouter, and bis fat face was pale and weary, though still impressive." To those who think of France as devoted to Napoleon, and who have been unable to account for his Budden downfall, this picture of 1814 1b illuminating—all the more because the doctor was a strong Bonapartist: “There was hardly a family anywhere that had not to weep for one or more OMts members. ‘As long as Napoleon is at the 'head' grumbled, *we shall never have anything but war; no peace is possible while his insatiable ambition survives.’ “Herein lies the true explanation of our lack of patriotism at the crucial moment” > f