Madame Élisabeth de France
1764-1794 18th century
Calm consent to what was never chosen.
Who was Madame Élisabeth de France?
The younger sister of Louis XVI, orphaned early, she lived at Montreuil, where she nursed the village children. When the royal family tried to flee, she went with them; when she was offered the chance to emigrate, she refused. Shut up in the Temple for twenty months, she kept the household, the children's lessons and the hour of prayer. Taken to the scaffold at thirty with twenty-four others condemned, she was executed last, after embracing every one of them.
In their own words
What will happen to me today, O my God? I do not know. All I know is that nothing will happen to me that you have not foreseen, settled and ordained from all eternity, and that is enough for me.
I adore your eternal purposes, I submit to them with my whole heart, I want them all, I accept them all.
In the name of decency, sir, cover me.