Tumbril Talk – Part Two

Posts here are often frivolous. This one is both serious and sad, so get a hanky out. It has been written by my cousin, Francis Plowden.

Christopher Bellew and I are descended from George Bryan MP who was imprisoned in Nancy during the French Revolution. Also in goal were the Count du Rutant and his daughter, Charlotte, who was accused of sedition and of writing a letter in invisible ink to an émigré. While Bryan and the Count were released – and Bryan subsequently married Augustine, the other du Rutant daughter – Charlotte’s fate is described in letters to her father after she had been transferred to the Conciergerie in Paris for trial.

Charlotte wrote immediately after her transfer to Paris:
Sept 13 1793 Paris “We arrived yesterday all safely and in good health… (They) think it not impossible that you will soon be set at liberty. …I am resolved while in prison to see as few people as possible. “

24th September. Augustine wrote” The report (i.e. the case against Charlotte) has not been made as there has been a little holiday. As to the theatre I have been pressed to go there, but nothing will make me enjoy these things until my sister is in a state to accompany me”.

25th September. Charlotte wrote “They encourage me to hope that soon I shall enjoy the happiness of embracing you… My stay in this town has greatly increased my liking for the country and even for solitude… “

29th September. Experts reported that the handwriting in the suspect letter was Charlotte’s and as a result she was charged with treason by the notorious prosecutor, Fouquier Tinville.

Charlotte wrote:
2nd October. “ I have received my act of accusation this morning. Very soon I shall be judged and the knowledge I have of these judges, the examples I have before my eyes every day do not leave me much reason to hope. .. I expect the worst.”

3rd October “ I have seen my counsel this morning, my dear father, he thinks your daughter will be spared. I dare not adopt this idea, it is too consoling, but whatever the fate in store for me, if I could but see you again …it would be more than joy.”

4th October. “(Afternoon) Tomorrow, without fail, my fate will be decided… and as I require all my courage to stand and face a crowd of people mostly more disposed to severity than mercy, I will not write to you tomorrow morning…Adieu, Adieu for ever, Adieu. I have so much trust in God that I am quite calm and quite resigned.”

This letter is annotated in another hand “the last letter of my dear Charlotte” and is tear stained.

October 5th .The trial was brief. Fouquier Tinville produced the letter and stated “ It appears that this letter was addressed by the said Charlotte Rutant to one of her exiled relations and that they plotted together for means to destroy the Republic”. The jury was asked if Charlotte was guilty and she was condemned to death.

The guillotine was not used on Sundays so she had a day to consider her fate. She copied or wrote a poem which concludes:

“ Pour qui connait le miseres humaines
Mourir n’est pas le plus grand des malheurs!”

She wrote a final letter to her brother André, “Courage dearest. Be all consoled but do not forget me… except when the recollection will be too painful”.

She was executed on Monday the 6th October, number 96 on the list of those executed in Paris and the fifth woman. A few days later, at number 102, the sixth woman, Marie Antoinette, was guillotined.

There is a plaque on the wall of the Conciergerie which records the names of those executed; it says “ Ruttan, Jeanne- Charlotte noble”, between the names of Russin, couturière, and Sabatery, fermier. She was only 22.

Francis Plowden, November 2016