Page:Englishmen in the French Revolution.djvu/166

146 Very few of these prisoners have left any account of their experiences. There appeared, indeed, in 1859 a small book entitled, "Journal of my Life during the French Revolution," by Grace Dalrymple Elliott, daughter of Hew Dalrymple, a barrister engaged in the Douglas case, divorced wife of Dr. (afterwards Sir) John Elliott, successively the mistress of Lord Valentia, the Prince of Wales, and the Duke of Orleans. Had the work been trustworthy it would have been the best narrative of a British eye-witness of the Revolution. Unfortunately, though accepted by Sainte Beuve, who wrote a preface to the French translation, it has been shown by Vatel, Madame Dubarry's biographer, and other critics, to be a mixture in unknown quantities of reality and fiction. Mrs. Elliott professes to have been in four Paris prisons, but her name is not in the list of any. She describes a heartrending parting at the Carmelite monastery between Custine and his wife, whereas Custine was never at the Carmelites', and his wife was not arrested till two months after his execution. She describes the embarrassing meeting of Josephine and her husband as fellow-prisoners after years of separation, whereas the reconciliation had taken place long previously, and Josephine for weeks visited him in prison till herself arrested. She speaks of Harrop, eventually guillotined, as eighteen years of age and as a student at the Irish College, whereas he was twenty- two and in business.