Marie Antoinette's last letter was to her sister-in-law Madame Elisabeth. The letter was written in Temple Prison, where she was kept before gullotine, on October 16, 1793 at 4.30am.
The last letter had never reached its destination. It was handed to the Public Prosecutor. He retained it...
It is you, my sister, that I am writing for the last time. I have been sentenced to death but not a death that is shameful, for it is only shameful for criminals, but to be reunited with your brother. Like him, innocent, I hope to display the same firmness as he did in his last moments. I am as calm as one is when one's conscience holds no reproach. I deeply regret having to leave behind my poor children. You know that I lived only for them and for you, my dear good sister. In what a situation I leave you, who out of your affection has sacrificed everything to be with us!...All that is left is for me to confide in you my last thoughts. I should have liked to have written them down before the start of the trial but quite apart from the fact that I was not allowed to write, events took place so rapidly that I really did not have the time.
I die in the Catholic, Apostolic and Roman faith, that of my fathers, in which I was brought up and which I have always acknowledged. Having no hope of spiritual consolation and not even knowing if there are still any priests of my faith here and if so, whether the place at which I am would endanger them too much, I simply ask God for forgiveness for all my trespasses. I hope that He in His love will hear my prayers kindly and will receive my soul mercifully.
I ask all those whom I know, especially you, my sister, to forgive me for any unhappiness I may unwittingly have caused them. I forgive all my enemies the wrongs they have done to me. I now say farewell to my aunts, brothers and sisters. I used to have friends; the thought of being separated from them for ever, and their unhappiness, will pain me even in my death; let them know at least that I thought of them until the last moment.
Adieu, my dear and good sister. I hope this letter will reach you. Think of me always. I embrace you from the bottom of my heart and also my dear poor children. My God, it breaks my heart having to leave them for ever. Goodbye, goodbye. Now I must devot myself only to my spiritual duties. Since I am not able to act freely they will prehaps send me a constitutional priest; however, I declare here and now that I shall have nothing to say to him and shall treat him as a complete stranger.
In the last line, she states that she will have nothing to do with a priest who supported the Revolution.
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I'm not going to buy my kids an encyclopedia. Let them walk to school like I did.
Yogi Berra
Marie Antoinette's Last Letter
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