Monsieur Andre...I believe she meant or was asking if Marie Antoinette had been bleeding at the time she was taken to her execution...meaning was she still bleeding when she was taken up to the guillotine.

Forgive me if im wrong.

It is a very interesting question, dear... on more than one regard !

From Rosalie's testimony we learn that, yes, Marie Antoinette was bleeding this very last morning. "Elle perdait tout son sang", she said (sha was loosing all her blood).

Then, one point is : should she have been acquitted, would she survive on this terrible illness ?

Second, there is a fascinating parallel that can be done with all this blood. Marie Antoinette was supposed to loose her blood by the chopping off of her head, they were all waiting for this. And, while this mob was attending her execution, she was already bleeding...

Somehow, Marie Antoinette is symbolically connected to blood, so strongly that some writings of the time describe her with "red hair". All this red...

Oh, I get it, I thougt she meant if she died from the bleeding!

Wow..that is very strange..like an omen or something

Yes, but an omen wanted by the mob. The mob wanted to see her blood spread out...

Thanxs pimpermelle you always know what to say.

Baron's right about that... first thing we guys would look at. But since Baron has jumped in, i'll add the little i know to a subject on which i would generally be clueless...

In her last moments in the Conceigerie, Marie Antoinette lost a lot of blood and tried to hide the bloodied garments or duche or whatever it was that absorbed the blood. She tucked into a crevice in the wall. Perhaps others are familiar with this last free act of the former Queen in captivity... perhaps it can shed some light into what she used to stem her flows of blood.

I am afraid it wouldn't help, dear Axel... That scene is reported by Rosalie Lamorlière. Marie Antoinette had to undress and dress up in front of a gard. She tried to hide herself behind her bed, getting on her knees. Rosalie helped her the best she could.

Then, the queen stood up, looking worried. She had her chemise (shirt) in her sleeve like in a sheath, the servant wrote. She saw a crevice in the wall indeed, and hid it here.

Rosalie clearly talks about a shirt... However, earlier in her testimony, she says that she cut pieces of her won shirts to give them to the queen for absorbing her hemorrages.

Grass.

I believe that, in some country areas at least, peasant women used grass and moss. They would twist the grass into some sort of cradle affair and fill it with moss, which could just be thrown away once soiled. Cheap and eco-friendly!!

That is very interesting..I never knew about that

Ew. Glad I'm male.

Oui Monsieur..be very happy ...its not very easy to be female, but we learn to live with it and enjoy life even so.

vrai

I've always wondered how women dealt with this "problem" in the past... underwear was introduced by Empress Marie Louise (Napoleon's wife) at the beginning of 19th century: she had to visit a vessel making part of French navy, and she was afraid to show her legs while climbing on the rope ladder
I think that before this period women just used linen stripes and fixed them to the clothes... Maria Theresia and Marie Antoinette also gave a nickname to menstruation... Generalin Krottendorf!!

That's right ! Marie Antoinette often writes to her mother about her "générale".