Chapters 30 and 31 Summary and Analysis

The king was not to return to his prison cell. Tried and convicted for treason, he was taken immediately to be publicly beheaded by the newly adopted device called the guillotine. Back at the Temple, Antoinette continued on, caring for her children with the help of her oldest daughter and monitoring the progress of the war with Austria and Prussia in hopes that she might be rescued. She was given the opportunity to escape by sympathetic helpers, but refused to leave her children behind. Eventually, her children were taken from her, to be raised under the new democratic principles of the nation. Antoinette was moved to another prison, where she was kept alone in near darkness, where her health deteriorated. She was not yet forty years old but appeared much older.

The day finally came when Antoinette was called...