Note 61 — APPENDIX F ON THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE QUEEN’S LAST LETTER

The woman Bault, who was wardress of the Conciergerie, says that her husband told her of such a letter, but her evidence is given after Louis XVIII. had published it, and for all those twenty-two years she had said nothing about it. Moreover she talked of its discovery with the usual clap-trap phrases of “The Omnipotence of Heaven showing its ineffable goodness by restoring us this monument in its most admirable way, &c.” And the only contemporary account, while it does mention the lock of hair which the Queen desired given to a friend, says nothing of the letter.