Editing Frances Burney (section)

==Life in France: revolution and mastectomy==
In 1801 d'Arblay was offered service with the government of [[Napoleon]] Bonaparte in France, and in 1802 Burney and her son followed him to Paris, where they expected to remain for a year. The outbreak of war between France and England overtook their visit and they remained there in exile for ten years. Although isolated from her family while in France, Burney was supportive of her husband's decision to move to [[Passy]], outside Paris.

In August 1810 Burney developed pains in her breast, which her husband suspected could be due to [[breast cancer]]. Through her royal network, she was eventually treated by several leading physicians, and a year later, on 30 September 1811, underwent a [[mastectomy]] performed by "7 men in black, [[Dominique Jean Larrey|Dr. Larrey]], M. Dubois, Dr. Moreau, Dr. Aumont, Dr. Ribe, & a pupil of Dr. Larrey, & another of M. Dubois". The operation was performed like a battlefield operation under the command of M. Dubois, then ''[[Midwife|accoucheur]]'' (midwife or obstetrician) to the Empress [[Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma|Marie Louise]] and considered the best doctor in France. Burney later described the operation in detail, since she was conscious through most of it, as it took place before the development of [[Anesthetic|anaesthetics]].

{{blockquote|I mounted, therefore, unbidden, the Bed stead – & M. Dubois placed me upon the Mattress, & spread a cambric handkerchief upon my face. It was transparent, however, & I saw, through it, that the Bed stead was instantly surrounded by the 7 men & my nurse. I refused to be held; but when, Bright through the cambric, I saw the glitter of polished Steel – I closed my Eyes. I would not trust to convulsive fear the sight of the terrible incision. Yet – when the dreadful steel was plunged into the breast – cutting through veins – arteries – flesh – nerves – I needed no injunctions not to restrain my cries. I began a scream that lasted unintermittingly during the whole time of the incision – & I almost marvel that it rings not in my Ears still? so excruciating was the agony. When the wound was made, & the instrument was withdrawn, the pain seemed undiminished, for the air that suddenly rushed into those delicate parts felt like a mass of minute but sharp & forked poniards, that were tearing the edges of the wound. I concluded the operation was over – Oh no! presently the terrible cutting was renewed – & worse than ever, to separate the bottom, the foundation of this dreadful gland from the parts to which it adhered – Again all description would be baffled – yet again all was not over, – Dr. Larry rested but his own hand, & – Oh heaven! – I then felt the knife (rack)ling against the breast bone – scraping it!}}

Burney sent her account of this experience months later to her sister Esther without rereading it.{{cn|date=December 2024}} It is impossible to know today whether the breast removed was indeed cancerous.<ref name="Batt">{{Cite book |last1=Batt |first1=Sharon |title=Patient no more: the politics of breast cancer |date=2003 |publisher=Gynergy |isbn=978-0921881308 |pages=58–67 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GZY809r0PlUC&pg=PA58 |access-date=14 February 2019}}</ref> She survived, and returned to England with her son in 1812 to visit her ailing father and to avoid her son's [[conscription]] into the French army. Charles Burney died in 1814, and she returned to France later that year after the [[Treaty of Paris (1814)|Treaty of Paris]] had been concluded, to be with her husband.

In 1815 [[Napoleon]] escaped from [[Elba]], and [[Hundred Days|returned to power in France]]. D'Arblay, who was serving with the King's Guard, remained loyal to King [[Louis XVIII]] and became involved in the military actions that followed. Burney fled to Belgium. When her husband was wounded she joined him at [[Trier|Trèves (Trier)]] and together they returned to Bath in England, to live at 23 Great Stanhope Street. Burney wrote an account of this experience and of her Paris years in her [[Waterloo, Belgium|Waterloo]] Journal of 1818–1832. D'Arblay was promoted to lieutenant-general, but died shortly afterwards of cancer, in 1818.<ref>Peter Sabor and Lars E. Troide, ''Chronology'' from ''Frances Burney: Journals and Letters''. Penguin Classics, 2001.</ref>