Pauline de Tourzel

Pauline de Tourzel (1771-1839), was a French noble, courtier and memoir writer.

She was the Daughter of the Marquise de Tourzel, Louise-Félicité-Joséphine de Croŷ d'Havré, the last governess of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette's children, who later, as Comtesse de Bearn, became a lady-in-waiting to the only survivor of the immediate royal family, Madame Royal, Marie Thérèse. Pauline was present during the final traumatic months of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, observer to the French Revolution and survived to see their daughter return twice during the Bourbon Restorations.

Following her mother's appointment as governess to the children of France, Pauline lived intimately with the royal family at the Tuileries Palace. She is said to have giggled at the humour of the Comtesse de Provence, dined with the royal family, and was taught billiards by King Louis XVI himself despite not being formally presented at court, much to the horror of Mesdames Tantes Madame Victoire and Madame Sophie.

During the 10 August (French Revolution), the royal family, Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, their two children, the king's sister, Madame Elizabeth, the Queen's close friend the Princesse de Lamballe, and Pauline’s mother, the children's governess, fled to safety, seeking refugee with the deputies of the National Assembly moments before the storming of the Tuileries by a Parisian mob. The Princess de Tarante offered to look after Pauline, who was to stay behind with the other women that still served, whilst her mother went with the royal family to Hôtel de Ville, seeking refuge with the National Assembly. Pauline de Tourzel herself suggested that the ladies-in-waiting, who gathered in one of the queen's chambers, should shut the windows and illuminate the room. When the mob entered the chamber where the ladies-in-waiting were gathered, the Princesse de Tarente, according to Pauline de Tourzel, approached one of the revolutionaries and asked for his protection. He agreed, and escorted her and Pauline de Tourzel from the palace. Following this example, the rest of the ladies-in-waiting departed the palace in about the same way. The princesse de Tarente and Pauline de Tourzel was escorted from the palace by the rebel, who left them on the street; they were there discovered by a mob who brought them to prison, but the prison director let them free, and de Tarente brought de Tourzel with her to her grandmother, from which she could later be united with her mother.

...
Wikipedia