'Let Them Eat Cake'

Marie-Therese: daughter to the infamous Queen of France. I somehow managed to survive the merciless slaughter of my father, through no fault of my own. The Revolutionaries have successfully concluded the monarchy and established a Reign of Terror under the rule of the People. I cannot imagine that they have spared me from the fate of nobility; it is only a matter of time before I am shown the guillotine for their ruthless entertainment. They stole my family, my freedom, my whole life and left me standing or, more appropriately, cowering in solitary confinement. All for the sake of Lady Liberty.

Every day I see my father's people in the tower with murder in their hearts and blood on their hands; it seems they have acquired a taste for such things. I have been reduced to a blindfolded prisoner trapped in the centre of an endless revolt, I understand little of my surroundings but still it appears to me that the People hold Liberty firmly in sight and yet it remains far from reality. Freedom is relative and the war against the throne has cost them their humanity.

I pray to my father in Heaven for my mother's safety, I have not received word of her whereabouts. Each night I pray with all my being but I fear that my efforts are futile. I dream that I will soon be reunited with my Queen, then I wake from my fantasy and am reminded of my impending doom. I have asked a thousand times for news of my mother but I am denied and such privileges. I pray for her life, though her years have not been kind to her.

I have been separated from my family and from the life I am accustomed to, I am confined to a private room inside the Tower by my father's executioners with certain death looming over my head, and I feel as though I am the loneliest person in all of France. The royal blood coursing through me carries a death sentence. I am branded with my own identity, Marie-Therese: the first born child of a foreign Queen who lacked morals and an understanding of the French condition. But these Revolutionaries can only see what they desire; an Austrian adultress on the throne who spent the nation's fortune with the spineless King by her side.

I have no way of knowing when I will be released from my cell, only that I will be led to the dreaded guillotine before an angry crowd come to watch my death for sport. I have decided to write a message to myself in the hopes that I can find some company in words written outside of my mind. I etch the letters into the wall of my room, a mark of my indefinite imprisonment. Marie-Therese Charlotte is the most unhappy person in the world. Oh, God forgive those who have made my parents suffer.