Madame Tussaud: A Novel of the French Revolution

Chapter 46

JULY

25–A

UGUST

14, 1792

Can you watch, without shuddering in horror

As crime unfurls its banners

Of Carnage and Terror?

—EXCERPT FROM THE SONG “THE ALARM OF THE PEOPLE”

AT FIRST, IT IS HARD TO HEAR WHAT THE NEWSBOYS ARE screaming. Then Yachin dashes inside and tells us, “The Duke of Brunswick has issued an ultimatum! Either the monarchy is reinstated or the Austro-Prussian armies are going to march on Paris and treat its citizens with unforgettable vengeance.”

“Unforgettable vengeance?” I stand behind the desk. “That’s what he said?”

“Those were his exact words.”

“I want you to go home. When the rest of the city hears about this, there will be mobs looting the Palais-Royal, breaking into every shop that carries weapons. And you are an Austrian Jew.”

“Our family is made up of patriots,” he argues.

“The Salon will be closed for the rest of the week. Go home,” I tell him.

As I predicted, thousands of sans-culottes tear through the Palais searching for gunpowder and muskets. The next morning, the Assembly issues every citizen in Paris his own ten-foot pike. When the Austrians come, we are to defend ourselves by every means necessary. Cannon, sabers, pistols, knives, even fire and oil if that is all we have.

It is a grim time. There is talk of shutting down the ports, and no one is allowed out of the city without a passport and proof that they are not fleeing to join the émigrés.

Over a Sunday dinner to which the entire family except Edmund has come, Johann confides that Lafayette has drawn up a plan to rescue the royal family. “But the queen refuses to put her life in Lafayette’s hands a second time. She does not wish to be indebted to him any more than she is.”

“That kind of pride will be the end of her,” my mother warns.

“What about the king?” Henri asks.

“Lafayette’s plan calls for four companies of Swiss Guards to take them out of Paris, whatever the cost to the Guard and to the people.”

“There are no better soldiers in France,” Wolfgang says. “Perhaps in all of Europe. A few companies could ride them to safety in two days.”

But the king is concerned about the welfare of his people, and the queen is concerned about how it would all appear. So no action is taken.

ON THE EIGHTH of August, Robespierre nearly convinces the Legislative Assembly to arrest Lafayette as a traitor to France. The vote is taken and only narrowly defeated, and when word reaches the American war hero on the front, he flees to Liège.

On the tenth, Henri and I sit together on his steps, watching the stars at two in the morning. I never knew that the city could be so quiet. Perhaps in the Palais-Royal there are cafés open and coffee being served, but with the theaters shut down, the Boulevard du Temple is silent. A rat scurries along the cobblestones, sniffing for garbage left behind by the fish sellers, but the street has already been picked clean by hungry children.

“Lafayette was a rallying point for the soldiers. If he is fleeing to Liège, what will stop the rest of our army from following?” I ask.

“The Assembly hasn’t thought of this. They are listening to Robespierre and taking advice from Camille and Danton. Danton,” he repeats, and I think of the model in our most popular tableau featuring the heavy-browed assemblyman. “What do these lawyers know about war? They’re simply going after anyone who believes in a monarchy now.”

I am about to reply when the sound of a church bell drowns out my voice. The two o’clock hour has already been rung. Why are there bells? “My God,” I say, as I realize what’s happening. “They are sounding the tocsin!” Have the foreign armies arrived? Are we to be invaded?

We open the door to Henri’s house, and Jacques is hurrying down the stairs. By the time we enter our Salon, my mother and Curtius are already downstairs. Curtius is half-dressed in his captain’s uniform, and the four of us stand in fearful silence as he slips on his boots and calls for his belt. “If I don’t return, I want you to keep this door locked and the curtains closed. Find our muskets and take out every weapon.”

My mother embraces him once, and then he is gone. We lock the door, and outside the only sound is the constant ringing of the bells. Jacques and Henri have found and loaded our muskets. We stand frozen for at least twenty minutes. Then there is a pounding at the door. Henri takes up a musket and shouts, “Who is it?”

“Curtius!”

My mother opens the door, and my uncle hurries back inside. He has brought Wolfgang, Michael, and Abrielle. Their faces are pale. Whatever it is, it cannot be good news. “They have stormed the Tuileries,” Curtius says gravely, “and the monarchy has fallen.”

Jacques, who is surprised by very little, asks, “And the Imperial army—”

“Is not here. This is chaos of a different kind,” my uncle replies. “Members of the Jacobin Club gave the signal this morning at the Hôtel de Ville, and thousands answered the call. The mobs marched on the Tuileries, and the palace has fallen.”

Wolfgang presses his lips together, as if he’s afraid of what he is about to say. Then he tells my mother, “The Swiss Guards are waging battle as we speak.”

I hurry to my mother’s side and help her into the nearest chair. The ringing of the bells has not stopped, and Wolfgang’s son begins to cry. His ears must be traumatized by the sound, and Abrielle bounces him on her hip. “Shhh,” she coos into Michael’s ear. We hear a heavy pounding on the door. This time, it is Curtius who answers it.

“Are you Captain Philippe Curtius?” a man’s voice asks.

Next to me, Abrielle sucks in her breath. “Papa.”

The baron sees her and steps inside. “Abrielle!” He looks down at the child in her arms, and the emotion is too much for him. He blinks rapidly. “Is this … is this my grandson?” he asks. His voice breaks with emotion, and Abrielle begins to cry.

“Yes. This is Michael Louis.”

The baron holds out his arms to him, but Michael only cries louder in fear.

“He is afraid,” Abrielle says. “The ringing of the bells—”

“Of course.” The words remind the baron of why he’s come. He looks around at the eight of us in the dimly lit room, and when he finds Wolfgang’s face in the candlelight, he says, “You must come with me.”

My mother stands. “Wolfgang is not going anywhere!”

“Madame, the mobs are massacring every Swiss Guard they find.” My mother covers her mouth in shock. “Inside the palace or outside. I am offering him a chance at escape. To London. Your entire family may come.” He looks to his daughter and grandson. “You are my heir,” he says. “And someday, Michael Louis will be a baron as well.”

“They have banished all titles,” Abrielle says. Her cheeks are wet with tears.

“Not in England. There is a boat waiting for us. Those of you who wish to come will have to leave everything behind.”

“I cannot leave,” Curtius says. “My life is here. But Wolfgang, you must go—”

“I am a National Guardsman!”

“But you were once a Swiss Guard,” the baron warns.

“What about Johann and Edmund?” Wolfgang asks.

The baron shakes his head. “I don’t know. The royal family has taken shelter with the Assembly in the Manège. The king left no orders, so the Guards are defending the walls of the palace. But there are twenty thousand armed men.”

Abrielle whispers, “How did you escape?”

“I was in the Manège drafting a petition.” He closes his eyes briefly, and I can see how much this pains him. These are his men, and tonight he has had to choose between family and duty. “If any of our brothers make it out alive, it will be because they have dressed like sans-culottes and fled.”

No one in the Salon says a word. Surely God will watch over Edmund and Johann. They are good men. He will not take them from us now.

“When does the boat leave?” Wolfgang asks.

“In an hour. The queen’s dressmaker is to sail with us—”

“Rose Bertin?” I confirm.

The baron nods. “She has left the keys to her shop with an assistant. Many of the Jews are fleeing as well. The mobs are burning their houses.”

“Yachin.” My mother clutches the rosary around her neck and whispers a prayer. There will be a great deal of praying tonight.

“I thought they closed the ports,” Henri says.

“We are on a ship carrying arms supposedly bound for Le Havre,” the baron explains.

My uncle looks at me. “Marie, go.”

“And leave you?” I panic. “And leave Maman?”

“You and Henri can begin a new life.”

“And when all of this is over,” Henri says, “we can return.”

But who knows when all of this will end? I think of the Salon. Of all of our hard work. And then I think of Maman left alone with only wax figures for company. “No … I … I cannot.”

“Marie—”

“Henri, I cannot! Not without my family.”

“Not without your family, or not without your models?” he asks cruelly. “Wolfgang is leaving—”

“And don’t you think that is enough for one family? If you want to go …”

Everyone is weeping. Who knows if any of us shall ever see Wolfgang or Abrielle again? My mother is caressing Michael’s hair, and I know that she is memorizing his feel, his smell. What will he look like when he is five? Seven? Even ten years old. I should have taken the time to sculpt him, I realize. I should have made a mask on one of those Sundays when he came to visit. Except I was too busy sculpting foolish men like Marat and Camille.

I cannot bear to say farewell to my brother. Of all my siblings, we have always been the closest. He takes my hand and squeezes it forcefully. “We have to,” he says.

I am crying. “I know.” They will come for him.

Abrielle embraces me good-bye; then the four of them slip into the darkness. When the door closes, my mother bends double with grief and cries.

THE ARTIST JACQUES-LOUIS David is the one who brings us the news. He is ashen-faced and has come to find out whether the Boulevard will now be closed, like the Opéra Royal and the theaters. We have been up all night. None of us have had any sleep. Then Jacques asks if my mother would like to leave the room. She is strong, she promises. There isn’t anything she can’t hear. But when we learn that nearly every member of the Swiss Guard has been killed, she faints. Curtius springs from his chair, and Jacques rushes to find alcohol. She is taken upstairs and laid on the couch, but I do not move. I cannot move. I stare at Jacques-Louis and am sure I heard wrong.

“It was the king’s fault,” he says, desperate to explain. “He fled the palace without leaving any orders for the Swiss. So when the mobs came, they defended the Tuileries.”

“What?” Henri demands. “Without anyone inside? Without the royal family?”

“They had no other orders,” Jacques-Louis says. “And they were nine hundred against twenty thousand. They tried to surrender, but the mobs wanted blood.”

“Just tell us how many are dead!” I shout.

Jacques-Louis averts his eyes. “Seven hundred Swiss, and at least three hundred commoners. I am sorry, Marie.”

I will not faint. I will not fall into a swoon. “Where are their bodies?” I demand.

“Marie,” Jacques-Louis begins. “You do not want to—”

“Yes, I do! Where are the bodies?”

The painter looks at Henri, as if it is for him to decide.

“We must find them,” Henri affirms.

“They are in the courtyard of the Tuileries. But I warn you … they have been mutilated. And no one who can be recognized as family must touch them. If you send Curtius, they will murder him where he stands.”

I close my eyes. “Then I will go.”

Henri takes his pistol from the caissier’s desk. “I will come with you.”

Like a pair of butchers, we take a wheelbarrow and blankets. We travel through the back alleys to avoid being seen, but there is no one in the streets and the city is silent. It is the longest journey I have ever made. Henri takes the wheelbarrow from me, and I press my hand against my stomach and inhale. Breathe. All I must do is breathe. It is only midmorning, but the air is so humid that even in the shadows of the buildings I am perspiring. Perhaps we will find my brothers alive. Perhaps Jacques-Louis is exaggerating.

But when we reach the courtyard of the Tuileries, Henri puts a steadying hand on my elbow. “God have mercy,” he whispers.

It is a scene from a battlefield. Corpses litter the ground from the gates to the palace, naked, mutilated, in some cases hacked into multiple pieces. Not a single body has been left with its clothes. These men, the finest soldiers in France, have been given worse deaths than any criminal in our Cavern of Great Thieves. I stop at the gates and hold on to the posts.

“Let me go,” Henri says. His shoulders are squared and pulled back. He is ready to do battle, but I cannot burden him with the task of picking through the corpses alone.

“No.” I must simply catch my breath. “Wait.” In a moment I will be well. But the stench of the rotting bodies overwhelms me, and I bend low. Henri rushes to hold back my hair. I am sick three times, and when there is nothing left to heave, I gasp at the air.

“There is no reason you should have to come with me.”

“I can do this.” I stand. “I have to do this.”

“Why are you so stubborn?”

“Because they are my brothers!” And even if I must walk among these corpses like the Grim Reaper harvesting death, I will do it.

This time, Henri does not argue with me. We enter the courtyard, and I cover my mouth and nose with my fichu. Dozens of bodies have been piled, one on top of the other, and set ablaze. The scent of burning flesh is suffocating. But the soldiers whose corpses have escaped the flames are worse to see. There are men whose genitals have been removed, and bodies that have been eviscerated with the organs left to rot in the blazing sun. There is nowhere you can turn without seeing blood. It has seeped into the ground like water, staining the cobblestones and attracting flies, which have gathered like black clouds over the corpses. Henri rolls the wheelbarrow through this field of death. There are others among us with wagons and carts. But no one speaks. The only sound in the courtyard is the screaming of the birds. We are denying them their meals, and once we are gone, they will set to work.

I am not the one who finds Johann. It is Henri. But before I can see what they have done to him, he covers my brother’s body with a blanket, and he pushes my hand away when I move to pull it back. “It is nothing you want to see.”

“I have to know.”

“There are some things you must simply trust!” he says forcefully.

The other mourners in the courtyard turn to stare at us, and I nod. I am too numb to fight. Too numb to cry. We move through the Tuileries Gardens, where children used to giggle beside the marble fountains. The towering statues are splattered with blood where soldiers clambered to escape, only to be struck down with halberds and pikes. And on the pretty gravel roads, even chambermaids and cooks have been slaughtered by the mobs. I wonder if I will remember their faces when I close my eyes. Brown-eyed maids, square-jawed ushers, heavily jowled cooks …

It takes hours to view all the unburned corpses. One young soldier has not been stripped. He has been left to lie in his shredded Swiss uniform, a pool of blood like a halo around his head. The sun reflects from his gilded epaulets, and this is the image I carry with me when we return my brother’s body to the Boulevard du Temple. Although I am conscious of my uncle’s sorrow, of my mother’s hysteria, and of Henri’s announcement that Edmund could not be found, it all passes as if it were a dream.

THERE IS A funeral the next morning. Johann is buried quietly in the Madeleine Cemetery, and our neighbors are told that Wolfgang and Abrielle have perished with him. A cross is provided for Edmund, but since there is no body, no services can be held. Curtius tells me that Marat and the giant Danton were behind this. That if not for their influence, the massacre of the Swiss Guards would never have happened.

I storm through the Salon and rip their figures to pieces in a rage. I would burn them in the courtyard if I thought it would not attract the attention of the Assembly. At night, Henri is strong for us both. I sleep in his chamber, where there are no images to haunt me, and in the morning, I return to the Salon to comfort my mother in her weeping. Then, as though our family has not suffered enough, Curtius tells me about Yachin.

I am sitting in the workshop when my uncle appears and closes the door. He sits on a stool across from me, and my grip tightens around my cup of coffee. In the two days since the massacre, there has been no word from Yachin or his family. “Marie,” he begins, and I shake my head. His eyes are filled with tears, and I will him not to say it.

“No,” I whisper.

Curtius reaches out to take my hand. “I am sorry.”

“No!” I cry. It is too much to bear. “How—”

He tells me how the mobs sought out foreigners, looting their homes and then burning them down. “They tried to board a ship,” he tells me, “possibly the same ship that Wolfgang took. They were caught at the port and killed.”

“But his siblings,” I protest. “They would not have killed children.”

Curtius’s face is grim. “They have been buried at Petit Vances.” A Jewish burial ground.

So this is anarchy. This is life without order or laws, the way our ancestors lived it before chieftains and kings. It is impossible to believe that everyone—Johann, Edmund, Yachin and his entire innocent family—is gone. Paris has become a city of ghosts, and everything I see reminds me of them. I sit at the window of the Salon and remember the France of only three years ago. Philip Astley’s circus was entertaining the king, and Rose Bertin’s shop sold powdered poufs to women draped in diamonds and ermine cloaks. I can hear Yachin telling passersby that they must come to see the queen, that there is not a better likeness anywhere in France.

I will never hear his voice again.

Three days after Johann’s funeral, his widow and their seven-year-old son, Paschal, come to live with us. They will stay in the room that Wolfgang and Abrielle once occupied. When I tell this to Henri, my voice breaks. “Will you take me to your laboratory?” I ask him. “I want to be in a place where everything makes sense.” Where there are rules, and it is impossible for life to defy them.

He shows me what he is working on. A great planisphere clock with five circular plates.

“What do they all do?” I ask him.

“Guess,” he challenges me.

I study the four smaller plates first. “This one is for the days of the week.” That is easy. “And this one is for the phases of the moon.” But the other two …

“A tidal calendar for our northern ports,” Henri says. “And the phases of Jupiter’s Io.”

“You can’t possibly know the phases of another planet’s moon.”

“They’re right here. But the largest plate is the most interesting.”

I look at the golden disk in the center of the clock. There are so many rings and dials. “The outer ring tells the time,” I say, “and the smaller ring indicates the months and the signs of the zodiac. But that is all I can make out.”

He points to various abbreviations. “For telling time in cities all across the world.”

There is London, Rome, Boston, and a place I have never heard of named La Californie. It is unbelievable. “You should be teaching at the Académie,” I tell him.

He smiles. “I prefer the laboratory.”

So while the sans-culottes are tearing down a kingdom, Henri is studying a distant moon.