ONE:They left Rome late in April, 1792, and travelled slowly along by Perugia, Florence, Siena, Parma, and Mantova to Venice, where they arrived the eve of the Ascension, and saw the splendid ceremony of the marriage of the Doge and the Adriatic. There was a magnificent fte in the evening, the battle of the gondoliers and illumination of the Piazza di San Marco; where a fair as well as the illumination went on for a fortnight.Ah! cried he. I have just met the Emperor as I came to you. I had only time to rush under a portico and am dreadfully afraid he recognized me.
ONE:In the evening Catherine II. died and Paul arrived. Lisette hardly dared leave the Princess Dolgoroukis, to go home, as every one was saying there would be a revolution against Paul. The streets were filled with people, but there was no [138] disorder. The crowds reassembled next day before the palace of Catherine, calling her their mother, with cries and tears.The castles and estates of their family had all passed into the hands of strangers, the Chateau de Bouzolz was in ruins, so was Plauzat, where all the town came out to meet and welcome them with the greatest affection, and where they succeeded in buying back a good deal of land, but the chateau [261] in which they had spent such happy days was uninhabitable.
ONE:The cold of the long winters she found, as every one says, much more supportable than in other countries whilst indoors, the heating of the houses being so perfect. And sledging parties were added to the other amusements of her life.Their aunt, the Marchale de Mouchy, called then the Comtesse de Noailles, was about this time appointed first lady of honour to the Archduchess Marie Antoinette of Austria, whose approaching marriage with the Dauphin was the great event of the day; and was sent with the other distinguished persons selected to meet her at the frontier. This alliance was very unpopular with the royal family and court, who disliked Austria and declared that country to be the enemy of France, to whom her interests were always opposed. Madame Adla?de especially, made no secret of her displeasure, and when M. Campan came to take her orders before setting off for the frontier with the household of the Dauphin, she said that she disapproved of the marriage of her nephew with the Archduchess, and if she had any order to give it would not be to fetch an Austrian.
