Note 15 — Chapter III · In the Temple

The Princess de Lamballe was the daughter of the Prince de Carignan of the house of Savoy-Carignan, and an intimate friend of Marie Antoinette, and shared the latter’s imprisonment in the Temple. She married the Prince de Lamballe, a great-grandson of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan. She was put to death in 1792, because she refused to take the oath against the monarchy. Carlyle, in his “French Revolution,” says of her murder: “The brave are not spared, nor the beautiful, nor the weak. Princess de Lamballe has lain down on bed. ‘Madame, you are to be removed to the Abbaye’ (the military prison at St. Germain-des-Prés). ‘I do not wish to remove; I am well enough here.’ There is a need-be for removing. She will arrange her dress a little, then. Rude voices answer: ‘You have not far to go!’” The sad story of her fate is told in the last outcry from the mob. Although innocent of any offence, unless sympathy with the royal family or friendship with Marie Antoinette were an offence, she was executed. She went calmly to the guillotine and bravely gave up her life.