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Jean-Luc Benoziglio Louis Capet, suite et fin. Paris. Seuil. 2005. 184 pages. euro15. ISBN 2-02-079472-1
HISTORY MANUALS HAVE IT ALL WRONG: Louis XVI, renamed Louis Capet by his Jacobin enemies, was not guillotined on January 21, 1793. Instead, after negotiations with various countries, the French revolutionary government was able to send him ("Loué soit l'Être Suprême!") into exile to Saint-Saphorien, a tiny, isolated village in French-speaking Switzerland. There, the banished king, obese and rheumatic, spent his time under the ever-watchful eye of Bern authorities, drinking at the local café, recounting stories of Versailles to Aline, his "gracieuse" part-time housekeeper, walking for hours on the balcony of his dilapidated home, or writing all kinds of scholarly notes (often misspelled) about his new environment.
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