The Knight of Maison-Rouge_ A Novel of Marie Antoinette - Alexandre Dumas [194]
8. Madame Royale: the title given to the princess Marie Thérèse (see note 1 above).
9. Agrippina: Vipsania Agrippina (c. 14 B.C.–A.D. 33), the legendarily cruel and manipulative mother of Nero (see also ch. 38, note 1, p. 413).
10. “I appeal to any mother … ”: Dumas here echoes Marie Antoinette’s appeal to the spectators at her trial when she denied the most outrageous charges of sexual abuse leveled at her: “I appeal to any mother who may be present.”
11. “two poor mothers”: i.e., the children’s aunt considered herself a second mother.
7. A GAMBLER’S OATH
1. Committee of Public Safety: the twelve-member commission that came to control the entire Convention, while Robespierre eventually became the dominant member of the Committee. See also Glossary, p. 418.
2. emigrés: the aristocrats who fled France due to the Revolution; they were considered traitorous criminals and their property was confiscated. Emigrés who attempted to return to France were arrested, tried, and usually executed as traitors and/or spies.
3. Osselin: Charles-Nicolas Osselin (1752–94), a leading member of the Convention who sponsored most of the anti-emigré laws. See also Glossary, p. 421.
4. the Terror: the name given to the reign of the Jacobins and the Committee of Public Safety when thousands of people were executed, mostly by guillotine. See also Glossary, p. 423.
5. eighteen centuries of monarchy: The French Royal family dated their family’s reign back to Hugues Capet [or Clovis?].
6. Simon: a failed cobbler who established a reputation for political fervor and was appointed guardian of the former Dauphin Louis-Charles de Bourbon. He was instructed by the Convention to “toughen up” the boy. See also Glossary, p. 422.
7. the Mountain: name given to the most radical members of the Convention, the Montagnards derived from the high seats they occupied. (See note 12, p. 400.)
8. place de la Révolution: the former place Louis XV, where the guillotine was set up for public executions, including those of the King and Queen; today the place de la Concorde.
8. GENEVIÈVE
1. “two hundred percent”: Dixmer’s gray-market traffic; the harsh economic laws imposed by the Convention drove many people into the sort of gray-market transactions that Dixmer describes here.
9. SUPPER
1. Robespierre: Maximilien de Robespierre (1758–94), the fanatic leader of the Terror. He was in fact known to his allies and supporters as “l’Incorruptible.” See also Glossary, p. 422.
2. the Vendée: a region in western France that gave its name to the popular Royalist uprisings that were centered there and in Brittany.
10. SIMON THE COBBLER
1. Madame Veto: “Monsieur and Madame Veto” were epithets used against Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette; the Constitution of 1791 gave the King veto power over legislative action. Louis’s attempts to use the veto were enormously unpopular and provoked riots in Paris, including the storming of the Tuileries on June 20, 1792.
11. THE NOTE
1. Lorient: a port on the southern coast of Brittany.
12. LOVE
1. de: The so-called nobiliary particle, de and its variants—d’, de l’, de la, des, du—usually but not always indicated noble birth, e.g., the Marquis de Lafayette. Du was fairly common among bourgeois, hence Geneviève’s reassurance to the good patriot Maurice.
2. Blois: small city on the Loire, known for its Renaissance palace.
3. Auteuil: Auteuil to the west and Rambouillet to the south of Paris were country villages at the time. Auteuil is now part of the city of Paris.
4. Tarquin: Tarquin the Proud, last king of the ancient kingdom of Rome, was known for his cruelty and despotism.
5. the Invalides: The golden-domed Hôtel des Invalides was established as a military hospital and home for wounded veterans by Louis XIV.
6. the thirty-first of May: the civil unrest fomented by the Montagnards began on May 31, 1793, and led to the June 2 arrest—and subsequent execution—of many leaders of the more moderate Girondin party.
7. Brunswick’s threatening