By Honor Bound (42 page)

He was there, her beloved. He held her. It was not a dream.

“Philippe? How did you … ? How … ?”

He pressed a finger to her lips. Tenderly, he kissed her.

“I came because I knew you would go to her if you were able. I knew you would go to her out of love, and for your honor. And it is exactly the same for me. I, too, came here … for love of Honneure.”

She tried to smile, but it hurt too much. Nevertheless, Philippe knew. He smiled back.

“Hold on to me. Just hold tight. I’m taking you home.”

Honneure laid her head against her husband’s chest as he urged Snow Queen into a slow, gentle jog. Her bruised arms crept about his waist.

She was already home.

Epilogue

Axel de Fersen lived to become an important political figure in Sweden. Rumored to have been in love with Marie Antoinette, he never married but lived quietly with his sister. In 1810, the heir to the Swedish throne suffered a seizure, fell from his horse, and died. Political enemies of Fersen accused him of having poisoned the popular prince, and while attending his funeral, Fersen was pulled from his carriage by a mob. He was stoned and beaten to death.

Princess Marie Therese Lamballe was incarcerated in the La Force prison. Shortly before her king went to the guillotine, she was dragged from her cell, raped, and beheaded. Her head was impaled on a spike and paraded before the prison where the king and queen were held.

Gabrielle de Polignac contracted a sudden illness in December of 1793 and within twelve hours was dead.

Madame du Barry followed Marie Antoinette to the guillotine.

In 1815 Louis’s clever brother Monsieur, Comte de Provence, became King Louis the XVIII on the basis of the principles his older brother had proclaimed. His reign is generally accounted as a success.

Louis’s youngest brother, Comte d’Artois, followed Monsieur and reigned as Charles X until 1830.

Aunt Adelaide and Aunt Victoire lived to a ripe age in Italy.

The king’s youngest sister, Elisabeth, remained in prison following her brother’s execution. In May of 1794, she was indicted before the Revolutionary Tribunal and, without witnesses or documentation, was found guilty on several counts of treason. Her headless, naked body was flung into a grave at Monceaux along with twenty-four others. Her clothes had been removed because they were considered a perquisite of the state.

Marie Therese Charlotte remained in prison throughout the Terror. In December of 1795, she was driven to the frontier and exchanged for a prisoner of the Austrians. She eventually married the eldest son of the Comte d’Artois and returned to live in the Tuileries.

Louis Charles, now Louis XVII, eight when his mother was executed, was locked in solitary confinement. For six months his food was pushed under the door. His window was never opened, and his clothing and bed linens were never changed. His excrement was never removed. No one spoke to him. Suffering from the family’s hereditary disease, tuberculosis of the bones, he developed a painful case and his wrists, elbows, and knees swelled. His legs and arms grew disproportionately long and his shoulders rounded. He died in prison on June 8, 1795, and was buried, without prayers, in a common grave in the cemetery of Sainte-Marguerite.

Madame Dupin saved both herself and her beloved Chenonceau by opening her home to the people. The chateau’s chapel became a store from which wood was sold.

The Reign of Terror came to an end on July 28, 1794, when Robespierre was finally executed. More than three thousand heads had been lost.

Following the royal family’s departure from Versailles, it was never lived in again.