This compelling book begins on the 2nd of August 1793, the day Marie Antoinette was torn from her family's arms and escorted from the Temple to the Conciergerie, a thick-walled fortress turned prison. It was also known as the "waiting room for the guillotine" because prisoners only spent a day or two here before their conviction and subsequent execution. The ex-queen surely knew her days were numbered, but she could never have known that two and a half months would pass before she would finally stand trial and be convicted of the most ungodly charges. Will Bashor traces the final days of the prisoner registered only as Widow Capet, No. 280, a time that was a cruel mixture of grandeur, humiliation, and terror. Marie Antoinette's reign amidst the splendors of the court of Versailles is a familiar story, but her final imprisonment in a fetid, dank dungeon is a little-known coda to a once-charmed life. Her seventy-six days in this terrifying prison can only be described as the darkest and most horrific of the fallen queen's life, vividly recaptured in this richly researched history.
AUTHOR'S NOTE PROLOGUE CHRONOLOGY INTRODUCTION PART ONE: THE CONCIERGERIE Chapter 1: Transfer from the Temple Prison A Savoir: "The Queen of France at the Conciergerie" Chapter 2: The Queen's Dungeon Cell A Savoir: The Queen's Final Portrait Chapter 3: The Horrors of the Conciergerie A Savoir: The Game "Guillotine" Chapter 4: Kindhearted Souls A Savoir: Rosalie Lamorliere PART TWO: RESCUE THE QUEEN! Chapter 5: Royalist Supporters A Savoir: The Queen's Expenses in the Conciergerie Chapter 6: The Carnation Plot A Savoir: "Le Chevalier de la Maison Rouge" Chapter 7: The Queen's New Cell A Savoir: The Controversy Chapter 8: Tightened Security A Savoir: Count Fersen Meets Rougeville PART THREE: THE QUEEN'S ARRAIGNMENT Chapter 9: Prosecutor Fouquier-Tinville A Savoir: Jacques-Louis David Chapter 10: The Indictment, the Jury, and the Witnesses A Savoir: Le Tribunal Revolutionnaire Chapter 11: The Revolutionary Tribunal - Day One A Savoir: Meteorologists Report Chapter 12: The Revolutionary Tribunal - Day Two A Savoir: Meteorologists Report PART FOUR: OCTOBER 16, 1793 - COLD & CLOUDY Chapter 13: The Queen's Last Rites A Savoir: The Queen's Dog Chapter 14: The Route of the Fatal Tumbril A Savoir: Sanson Obituary Chapter 15: The "National Razor" A Savoir: Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin PART FIVE: THE ABSURDITY Chapter 16: The Unfortunates and the Sole Survivors A Savoir: Madame Elisabeth of France Chapter 17: La Cimetiere de la Madeleine A Savoir: Basilica of Saint-Denis EPILOGUE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS & CREDITS SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY ENDNOTES
