Little journeys in old New England . many years the name of theMarie Antoinette house. One room wa3even called the Marie Antoinette room,and the bedstead of this apartment, which 163 OLD NEW EJSTGLAND EOOETREES is to-day in the possession of the descend-ants of Colonel Swan, is still known as theMarie Antoinette bedstead. Whether theunhappy queen ever really rested on thisbed cannot, of course, be said, but traditionhas it that it was designed for her use inAmerica because she had found it com-fortable in Erance. Colonel Swan, having paid all his debts,returned in 1795 to the United States,acc
Little journeys in old New England . many years the name of theMarie Antoinette house. One room wa3even called the Marie Antoinette room,and the bedstead of this apartment, which 163 OLD NEW EJSTGLAND EOOETREES is to-day in the possession of the descend-ants of Colonel Swan, is still known as theMarie Antoinette bedstead. Whether theunhappy queen ever really rested on thisbed cannot, of course, be said, but traditionhas it that it was designed for her use inAmerica because she had found it com-fortable in Erance. Colonel Swan, having paid all his debts,returned in 1795 to the United States,accompanied by the beautiful and eccentricgentlewoman who was his wife, and whohad been with her husband in Paris duringthe Terror. They brought with them onthis occasion a very large collection of fineFrench furniture, decorations, and paint-ings. The colonel had become verywealthy indeed through his commercialenterprises, and was now able to spend agreat deal of money upon his fine Dorches-ter mansion, which he finished about the164. OLD NEW EJSTGLAND KOOFTREES year 1796. A prominent figure of thehouse was the circular dining-hall, thirty-two feet in diameter, crowned at the heightof perhaps twenty-five feet by a dome,and having three mirror windows. Asoriginally built, it contained no fireplacesor heating conveniences of any kind. Mrs. Swan accompanied her husbandon several subsequent trips to Paris, andit was on one of these occasions that thecolonel came to great grief. He had con-tracted, it is said, a debt claimed in Franceto be two million francs. This indebted-ness he denied, and in spite of the per-suasion of his friends he would make noconcession in the matter. As a matter ofprinciple he would not pay a debt which,he insisted, he did not owe. He seemsto have believed the claim of his creditorto be a plot, and he at once resolved to bea martyr. He was thereupon arrested, and 165 OLD NEW ENGLAND KOOFTKEES confined in St. Pelagie^ a debtors prison,from 1808 to 1830, a peri
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Keywords: ., bookauthorcrawford, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookyear1906
