His faithful record of the drama played out in the grim Prison of the Temple reveals the small human tragedies of a devoted family beneath the lengthening shadow of the guillotine. The most moving of all documents to survive the French Revolution, it reveals a new reality behind the stereotypes of school history: Marie Antoinette, courageous in suffering: the children, bewildered and afraid: and the kindly Louis, a dignified yet despairing figure as the last trappings of kingship are stripped from him and he prepares for death.