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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10555 ***
+
+[Illustration: Marie Antoinette]
+
+THE LIFE OF MARIE ANTOINETTE, QUEEN OF FRANCE.
+
+BY CHARLES DUKE YONGE
+
+
+1876
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+The principal authorities for the following work are the four volumes of
+Correspondence published by M. Arneth, and the six volumes published by M.
+Feuillet de Conches. M. Arneth's two collections[1] contain not only a
+number of letters which passed between the queen, her mother the Empress-
+queen (Maria Teresa), and her brothers Joseph and Leopold, who
+successively became emperors after the death of their father; but also a
+regular series of letters from the imperial embassador at Paris, the Count
+Mercy d'Argenteau, which may almost be said to form a complete history of
+the court of France, especially in all the transactions in which Marie
+Antoinette, whether as dauphiness or queen, was concerned, till the death
+of Maria Teresa, at Christmas, 1780. The correspondence with her two
+brothers, the emperors Joseph and Leopold, only ceases with the death of
+the latter in March, 1792.
+
+The collection published by M. Feuillet de Conches[2] has been vehemently
+attacked, as containing a series of clever forgeries rather than of
+genuine letters. And there does seem reason to believe that in a few
+instances, chiefly in the earlier portion of the correspondence, the
+critical acuteness of the editor was imposed upon, and that some of the
+letters inserted were not written by the persons alleged to be the
+authors. But of the majority of the letters there seems no solid ground
+for questioning the authenticity. Indeed, in the later and more important
+portion of the correspondence, that which belongs to the period after the
+death of the Empress-queen, the genuineness of the Queen's letters is
+continually supported by the collection of M. Arneth, who has himself
+published many of them, having found them in the archives at Vienna, where
+M.F. de Conches had previously copied them,[3] and who refers to others,
+the publication of which did not come within his own plan. M. Feuillet de
+Conches' work also contains narratives of some of the most important
+transactions after the commencement of the Revolution, which are of great
+value, as having been compiled from authentic sources.
+
+Besides these collections, the author has consulted the lives of Marie
+Antoinette by Montjoye, Lafont d'Aussonne, Chambrier, and the MM.
+Goncourt; "La Vraie Marie Antoinette" of M. Lescure; the Memoirs of Mme.
+Campan, Cléry, Hue, the Duchesse d'Angoulême, Bertrand de Moleville
+("Mémoires Particuliers"), the Comte de Tilly, the Baron de Besenval, the
+Marquis de la Fayette, the Marquise de Créquy, the Princess Lamballe; the
+"Souvenirs de Quarante Ans," by Mlle. de Tourzel; the "Diary" of M. de
+Viel Castel; the correspondence of Mme. du Deffand; the account of the
+affair of the necklace by M. de Campardon; the very valuable
+correspondence between the Count de la Marck and Mirabeau, which also
+contains a narrative by the Count de la Marck of many very important
+incidents; Dumont's "Souvenirs sur Mirabeau;" "Beaumarchais et son Temps,"
+by M. de Loménie; "Gustavus III. et la Cour de Paris," by M. Geoffroy;
+the first seven volumes of the Histoire de la Terreur, by M. Mortimer
+Ternaux; Dr. Moore's journal of his visit to France, and view of the
+French Revolution; and a great number of other works in which there is
+cursory mention of different incidents, especially in the earlier part of
+the Revolution; such as the journals of Arthur Young, Madame de Staël's
+elaborate treatise on the Revolution; several articles in the last series
+of the "Causeries de Lundi," by Sainte-Beuve, and others in the _Revue des
+Deux Mondes_, etc., etc., and to those may of course be added the regular
+histories of Lacretelle, Sismondi, Martin, and Lamartine's "History of the
+Girondins."
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+Importance of Marie Antoinette in the Revolution.--Value of her
+Correspondence as a Means of estimating her Character.--Her Birth,
+November 2d, 1755.--Epigram of Metastasio.--Habits of the Imperial
+Family.--Schönbrunn.--Death of the Emperor.--Projects for the Marriage of
+the Archduchess.--Her Education.--The Abbé de Vermond.--Metastasio.--
+Gluck.
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+Proposal for the Marriage of Marie Antoinette to the Dauphin.--Early
+Education of the Dauphin.--The Archduchess leaves Vienna in April, 1770.--
+Her Reception at Strasburg.--She meets the King at Compiègne.--The
+Marriage takes place May 16th, 1770.
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+Feelings in Germany and France on the Subject of the Marriage.--Letter of
+Maria Teresa to the Dauphin.--Characters of the Different Members of the
+Royal Family.--Difficulties which beset Marie Antoinette.--Maria Teresa's
+Letter of Advice.--The Comte de Mercy is sent as Embassador to France
+to act as the Adviser of the Dauphiness.--The Princesse de Lorraine at
+the State Ball.--A Great Disaster takes place at the Fire-works in Paris.
+--The Peasant at Fontainebleau.--Marie Antoinette pleases the King.--
+Description of her Personal Appearance.--Mercy's Report of the Impression
+she made on her First Arrival.
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+Marie Antoinette gives her Mother her First Impressions of the Court and
+of her own Position and Prospects.--Court Life at Versailles.--Marie
+Antoinette shows her Dislike of Etiquette.--Character of the Duc
+d'Aiguillon.--Cabals against the Dauphiness.--Jealousy of Mme. du Barri.--
+The Aunts, too, are Jealous of Her.--She becomes more and more Popular.--
+Parties for Donkey-riding.--Scantiness of the Dauphiness's Income.--Her
+Influence over the King.--The Duc de Choiseul is dismissed.--She begins
+to have Great Influence over the Dauphin.
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+Mercy's Correspondence with the Empress.--Distress and Discontent pervade
+France.--Goldsmith predicts a Revolution.--Apathy of the King.--The
+Aunts mislead Marie Antoinette.--Maria Teresa hears that the Dauphiness
+neglects her German Visitors.--Marriage of the Count de Provence.--Growing
+Preference of Louis XV. for the Dauphiness.--The Dauphiness applies
+herself to Study.--Marie Antoinette becomes a Horsewoman.--Her Kindness
+to all beneath her.--Cabals of the Adherents of the Mistress.--The
+Royal Family become united.--Concerts in the Apartments of the Dauphiness.
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+Marie Antoinette wishes to see Paris.--Intrigues of Madame Adelaide.--
+Characters of the Dauphin and the Count de Provence.--Grand Review at
+Fontainebleau.--Marie Antoinette in the Hunting Field.--Letter from her to
+the Empress. Mischievous Influence of the Dauphin's Aunts on her
+Character.--Letter of Marie Antoinette to the Empress.--Her Affection for
+her Old Home.--The Princes are recalled from Exile.--Lord Stormont.--Great
+Fire at the Hôtel-Dieu.--Liberality of Charity of Marie Antoinette.--She
+goes to the Bal d'Opéra.--Her Feelings about the Partition of Poland.--The
+King discusses Politics with her, and thinks highly of her Ability.
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+Marie Antoinette is anxious for the Maintenance of the Alliance between
+France and Austria.--She, with the Dauphin, makes a State Entry into
+Paris.--The "Dames de la Halle."--She praises the Courtesy of the
+Dauphin.--Her Delight at the Enthusiasm of the Citizens.--She, with the
+Dauphin, goes to the Theatre, and to the Fair of St. Ovide, and to St.
+Cloud.--Is enthusiastically received everywhere.--She learns to drive.
+--She makes some Relaxations in Etiquette.--Marriage of the Comte
+d'Artois.--The King's Health grows Bad.--Visit of Marshal Lacy to
+Versailles.--The King catches the Small-pox.--Madame du Barri quits
+Versailles.--The King dies.
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+The Court leaves Versailles for La Muette.--Feelings of the New
+Sovereigns.--Madame du Barri is sent to a Convent.--Marie Antoinette
+writes to Maria Teresa.--The Good Intentions of the New Sovereigns.--
+Madame Adelaide has the Small-pox.--Anxieties of Maria Teresa.--
+Mischievous Influence of the Aunts.--Position and Influence of the Count
+de Mercy.--Louis consults the Queen on Matters of Policy.--Her Prudence.--
+She begins to Purify the Court, and to relax the Rules of Etiquette.--Her
+Care of her Pages.--The King and she renounce the Gifts of Le Joyeux
+Avénement, and La Ceinture de la Reine.--She procures the Pardon of the
+Duc de Choiseul.
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+The Comte de Provence intrigues against the Queen.--The King gives her the
+Little Trianon.--She lays out an English Garden.--Maria Teresa cautions
+her against Expense.--The King and Queen abolish some of the Old Forms.--
+The Queen endeavors to establish Friendships with some of her Younger
+Ladies.--They abuse her Favor.--Her Eagerness for Amusement.--Louis
+enters into her Views.--Etiquette is abridged.--Private Parties at
+Choisy.--Supper Parties.--Opposition of the Princesses.--Some of the
+Courtiers are dissatisfied at the Relaxation of Etiquette.--Marie
+Antoinette is accused of Austrian Preferences.
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+Settlement of the Queen's Allowance.--Character and Views of Turgot.--She
+induces Gluck to visit Paris.--Performance of his Opera of "Iphigénie
+en Aulide."--The First Encore.--Marie Antoinette advocates the
+Re-establishment of the Parliaments, and receives an Address from them.--
+English Visitors at the Court.--The King is compared to Louis XII. and
+Henri IV.--The Archduke Maximilian visits his Sister.--Factious Conduct of
+the Princes of the Blood.--Anti-Austrian Feeling in Paris.--The War of
+Grains.--The King is crowned at Rheims.--Feelings of Marie Antoinette.--
+Her Improvements at the Trianon.--Her Garden Parties there.--Description
+of her Beauty by Burke, and by Horace Walpole.
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+Tea is introduced.--Horse-racing of Count d'Artois.--Marie Antoinette goes
+to see it.--The Queen's Submissiveness to the Reproofs of the Empress.--
+Birth of the Duc d'Angoulême.--She at times speaks lightly of the King.--
+The Emperor remonstrates with her.--Character of some of the Queen's
+Friends.--The Princess de Lamballe.--The Countess Jules de Polignac.--They
+set the Queen against Turgot.--She procures his Dismissal.--She
+gratifies Madame Polignac's Friends.--Her Regard for the French People.--
+Water Parties on the Seine.--Her Health is Delicate.--Gambling at
+the Palace.
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+Marie Antoinette finds herself in Debt.--Forgeries of her Name are
+committed.--The Queen devotes herself too much to Madame de Polignac and
+others.--Versailles is less frequented.--Remonstrances of the Empress.--
+Volatile Character of the Queen.--She goes to the Bals d'Opéra at Paris.--
+She receives the Duke of Dorset and other English Nobles with Favor.--
+Grand Entertainment given her by the Count de Provence.--Character of
+the Emperor Joseph.--He visits Paris and Versailles.--His Feelings toward
+and Conversations with the King and Queen.--He goes to the Opera.--His
+Opinion of the Queen's Friends.--Marie Antoinette's Letter to the
+Empress on his Departure.--The Emperor leaves her a Letter of Advice.
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+Impressions made on the Queen by the Emperor's Visit.--Mutual Jealousies
+of her Favorites.--The Story of the Chevalier d'Assas.--The Terrace
+Concerts at Versailles.--More Inroads on Etiquette.--Insolence and
+Unpopularity of the Count d'Artois.--Marie Antoinette takes Interest in
+Politics.--France concludes an Alliance with the United States.--Affairs
+of Bavaria.--Character of the Queen's Letters on Politics.--The Queen
+expects to become a Mother.--Voltaire returns to Paris.--The Queen
+declines to receive him.--Misconduct of the Duke of Orléans in the Action
+off Ushant.--The Queen uses her Influence in his Favor.
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+Birth of Madame Royale.--Festivities of Thanksgiving.--The Dames de la
+Halle at the Theatre.--Thanksgiving at Notre Dame.--The King goes to a Bal
+d'Opéra.--The Queen's Carriage breaks down.--Marie Antoinette has the
+Measles.--Her Anxiety about the War.--Retrenchments of Expense.
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+Anglomania in Paris.--The Winter at Versailles.--Hunting.--Private
+Theatricals.--Death of Prince Charles of Lorraine.--Successes of the
+English in America.--Education of the Duc d'Angoulême.--Libelous Attacks
+on the Queen.--Death of the Empress.--Favor shown some of the Swedish
+Nobles.--The Count de Fersen.--Necker retires from Office.--His Character.
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+The Queen expects to be confined again.--Increasing Unpopularity of the
+King's Brothers.--Birth of the Dauphin.--Festivities.--Deputations from
+the Different Trades.--Songs of the Dames de la Halle.--Ball given by the
+Body-guard,--Unwavering Fidelity of the Regiment.--The Queen offers up
+her Thanksgiving at Notre Dame.--Banquet at the Hôtel de Ville.--
+Rejoicings in Paris.
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+Madame de Guimenée resigns the Office of Governess of the Royal
+Children.--Madame de Polignac succeeds her.--Marie Antoinette's Views of
+Education.--Character of Madame Royale.--The Grand Duke Paul and his Grand
+Duchess visit the French Court.--Their Characters.--Entertainments given
+in their Honor.--Insolence of the Cardinal de Rohan.--His Character and
+previous Life.--Grand Festivities at Chantilly.--Events of the War.--
+Rodney defeats De Grasse.--The Siege of Gibraltar fails.--M. de Suffrein
+fights five Drawn Battles with Sir E. Hughes in the Indian Seas.--The
+Queen receives him with Great Honor on his Return.
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+Peace is re-established.--Embarrassments of the Ministry.--Distress of the
+Kingdom.--M. de Calonne becomes Finance Minister.--The Winter of
+1783-'84 is very Severe.--The Queen devotes Large Sums to Charity.--Her
+Political Influence increases.--Correspondence between the Emperor and
+her on European Politics.--The State of France.--The Baron de Breteuil.--
+Her Description of the Character of the King.
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+"The Marriage of Figaro."--Previous History and Character of
+Beaumarchais.--The Performance of the Play is forbidden.--It is said to be
+a little altered.--It is licensed.--Displeasure of the Queen.--Visit of
+Gustavus III. of Sweden.--Fête at the Trianon.--Balloon Ascent.
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+St. Cloud is purchased for the Queen.--Libelous Attacks on her.--Birth of
+the Duc de Normandie.--Joseph presses her to make France support his
+Views in the Low Countries.--The Affair of the Necklace.--Share which the
+Cardinal de Rohan had in it.--The Queen's Indignation at his Acquittal.—
+Subsequent Career of the Cardinal.
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+The King visits Cherbourg.--Rarity of Royal Journeys.--The Princess
+Christine visits the Queen.--Hostility of the Duc d'Orléans to the Queen.
+--Libels on her.--She is called Madame Deficit.--She has a Second
+Daughter, who dies.--Ill Health of the Dauphin.--Unskillfulness and
+Extravagance of Calonne's System of Finance.--Distress of the Kingdom.--He
+assembles the Notables.--They oppose his Plans.--Letters of Marie
+Antoinette on the Subject.--Her Ideas of the English Parliament.--
+Dismissal of Calonne.--Character of Archbishop Loménie de Brienne.--
+Obstinacy of Necker.--The Archbishop is appointed Minister.--The Distress
+increases.--The Notables are dissolved.--Violent Opposition of the
+Parliament.--Resemblance of the French Revolution to the English Rebellion
+of 1642.--Arrest of D'Esprémesnil and Montsabert.
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+Formidable Riots take place in some Provinces.--The Archbishop invites
+Necker to join his Ministry.--Letter of Marie Antoinette describing her
+Interview with the Archbishop, and her Views.--Necker refuses.--The
+Queen sends Messages to Necker.--The Archbishop resigns, and Necker
+becomes Minister.--The Queen's View of his Character.--General Rejoicing.
+--Defects in Necker's Character.--He recalls the Parliament.--Riots in
+Paris.--Severe Winter.--General Distress.--Charities of the King and
+Queen.--Gratitude of the Citizens.--The Princes are concerned in the
+Libels published against the Queen.--Preparations for the Meeting of the
+States-general.--Long Disuse of that Assembly.--Need of Reform.--Vices
+of the Old Feudal System.--Necker's Blunders in the Arrangements for the
+Meeting of the States.--An Edict of the King concedes the Chief Demands
+of the Commons.--Views of the Queen.
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+The Réveillon Riot.--Opening of the States-general.--The Queen is insulted
+by the Partisans of the Duc d'Orléans.--Discussions as to the Number of
+Chambers.--Career and Character of Mirabeau.--Necker rejects his Support.
+--He determines to revenge himself.--Death of the Dauphin.
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+Troops are brought up from the Frontier.--The Assembly petitions the King
+to withdraw them.--He refuses.--Ho dismisses Necker.--The Baron de
+Breteuil is appointed Prime Minister.--Terrible Riots in Paris.--The
+Tricolor Flag is adopted.--Storming of the Bastile and Murder of the
+Governor.--The Count d'Artois and other Princes fly from the Kingdom.--The
+King recalls Necker.--Withdraws the Soldiers and visits Paris.--Formation
+of the National Guard.--Insolence of La Fayette and Bailly.--Madame
+de Tourzel becomes Governess of the Royal Children.--Letters of Marie
+Antoinette on their Character, and on her own Views of Education.
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+Necker resumes Office.--Outrages in the Provinces.--Pusillanimity of the
+Body of the Nation.--Parties in the Assembly.--Views of the
+Constitutionalists or "Plain."--Barnave makes Overtures to the Court.--The
+Queen rejects them.--The Assembly abolishes all Privileges, August
+4th.--Debates on the Veto.--An Attack on Versailles is threatened.--Great
+Scarcity in Paris.--The King sends his Plate to be melted down.--The
+Regiment of Flanders is brought up to Versailles.--A Military Banquet
+is held in the Opera-house.--October 5th, a Mob from Paris marches
+on Versailles.--Blunders of La Fayette.--Ferocity of the Mob on the 5th.
+--Attack on the Palace on the 6th.--Danger and Heroism of the Queen.--The
+Royal Family remove to Paris.--Their Reception at the Barrier and
+at the Hôtel de Ville.--Shabbiness of the Tuileries.--The King fixes his
+Residence there.
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+Feelings of Marie Antoinette on coming to the Tuileries.--Her Tact in
+winning the Hearts of the Common People.--Mirabeau changes his Views.--
+Quarrel between La Fayette and the Duc d'Orléans.--Mirabeau desires to
+offer his Services to the Queen.--Riots in Paris.--Murder of François.--
+The Assembly pass a Vote prohibiting any Member from taking Office.--The
+Emigration.--Death of the Emperor Joseph II.--Investigation into
+the Riots of October.--The Queen refuses to give Evidence.--Violent
+Proceedings in the Assembly.--Execution of the Marquis de Favras.
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+The King accepts the Constitution so far as it has been settled.--The
+Queen makes a Speech to the Deputies.--She is well received at the
+Theatre.--Negotiations with Mirabeau.--The Queen's Views of the Position
+of Affairs.--The Jacobin Club denounces Mirabeau.--Deputation of
+Anacharsis Clootz.--Demolition of the Statue of Louis XIV.--Abolition of
+Titles of Honor.--The Queen admits Mirabeau to an Audience.--His
+Admiration of her Courage and Talents.--Anniversary of the Capture of the
+Bastile.--Fête of the Champ de Mars.--Presence of Mind of the Queen.
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+Great Tumults in the Provinces.--Mutiny in the Marquis de Bouillé's Army.
+--Disorder of the Assembly.--Difficulty of managing Mirabeau.--Mercy is
+removed to The Hague.--Marie Antoinette sees constant Changes in the
+Aspect of Affairs.--Marat denounces Her.--Attempts are made to assassinate
+Her.--Resignation of Mirabeau.--Misconduct of the Emigrant Princes.
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+Louis and Marie Antoinette contemplate Foreign Intervention.--The Assembly
+passes Laws to subordinate the Church to the Civil Power.--Insolence
+of La Fayette.--Marie Antoinette refuses to quit France by Herself.--The
+Jacobins and La Fayette try to revive the Story of the Necklace.--Marie
+Antoinette with her Family.--Flight from Paris is decided on.--The Queen's
+Preparations and Views.--An Oath to observe the new Ecclesiastical
+Constitution is imposed on the Clergy.--The King's Aunts leave France.
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+The Mob attacks the Castle at Vincennes.--La Fayette saves it.--He insults
+the Nobles who come to protect the King.--Perverseness of the Count
+d'Artois and the Emigrants.--Mirabeau dies.--General Sorrow for his
+Death.--He would probably not have been able to arrest the Revolution.--
+The Mob prevent the King from visiting St. Cloud.--The Assembly passes a
+Vote to forbid him to go more than twenty Leagues from Paris.
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+Plans for the Escape of the Royal Family.--Dangers of Discovery.--
+Resolution of the Queen.--The Royal Family leave the Palace.--They are
+recognized at Ste. Menehould.--Are arrested at Varennes.--Tumult in the
+City, and in the Assembly.--The King and Queen are brought back to Paris.
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+Marie Antoinette's Feelings on her Return.--She sees Hopes of
+Improvement.--The 17th of July.--The Assembly inquire into the King's
+Conduct on leaving Paris.--They resolve that there is no Reason for taking
+Proceedings.--Excitement in Foreign Countries.--The Assembly proceeds to
+complete the Constitution.--It declares all the Members Incapable of
+Election to the New Assembly.--Letters of Marie Antoinette to the Emperor
+and to Mercy.--The Declaration of Pilnitz.--The King accepts the
+Constitution.--Insults offered to him at the Festival of the Champ de
+Mars.--And to the Queen at the Theatre.--The First or Constituent Assembly
+is dissolved.
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+Composition of the New Assembly.--Rise of the Girondins.--Their Corruption
+and Eventual Fate.--Vergniaud's Motions against the King.--Favorable
+Reception of the King at the Assembly, and at the Opera.--Changes
+in the Ministry.--The King's and Queen's Language to M. Bertrand de
+Moleville.--The Count de Narbonne.--Pétion is elected Mayor of Paris.--
+Scarcity of Money, and Great Hardships of the Royal  Family.--Presents
+arrive from Tippoo Sahib.--The Dauphin.--The Assembly passes Decrees
+against the Priests and the Emigrants.--Misconduct of the Emigrants.--
+Louis refuses his Assent to the Decrees.--He issues a Circular condemning
+Emigration.
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+Death of Leopold.--Murder of Gustavus of Sweden--Violence of Vergniaud.--
+The Ministers resign.--A Girondin Ministry is appointed.--Character of
+Dumouriez.--Origin of the Name Sans-culottes.--Union of Different Parties
+against the Queen.--War is declared against the Empire.--Operations in
+the Netherlands.--Unskillfulness of La Fayette.--The King falls into a
+State of Torpor.--Fresh Libels on the Queen.--Barnave's Advice.--Dumouriez
+has an Audience of the Queen.--Dissolution of the Constitutional
+Guard.--Formation of a Camp near Paris.--Louis adheres to his Refusal
+to assent to the Decree against the Priests.--Dumouriez resigns his
+Office, and takes command of the Army.
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+The Insurrection of June 20th.
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+Feelings of Marie Antoinette.--Different Plans are formed for her Escape.
+--She hopes for Aid from Austria and Prussia.--La Fayette comes to Paris.
+--His Mismanagement--An Attempt is made to assassinate the Queen.--The
+Motion of Bishop Lamourette.--The Feast of the Federation.--La Fayette
+proposes a Plan for the King's Escape.--Bertrand proposes Another.--Both
+are rejected by the Queen.
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+Preparation for a New Insurrection.--Barbaroux brings up a Gang from
+Marseilles.--The King's last Levee.--The Assembly rejects a Motion for the
+Impeachment of La Fayette.--It removes some Regiments from Paris.--
+Preparations of the Court for Defense.--The 10th of August.--The City
+is in Insurrection.--Murder of Mandat.--Louis reviews the Guards.--He
+takes Refuge with the Assembly.--Massacre of the Swiss Guards.--Sack
+of the Tuileries.--Discussions in the Assembly.--The Royal Authority is
+suspended.
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+Indignities to which the Royal Family are subjected.--They are removed to
+the Temple.--Divisions in the Assembly.--Flight of La Fayette.--Advance
+of the Prussians.--Lady Sutherland supplies the Dauphin with Clothes.--
+Mode of Life in the Temple.--The Massacres of September.--The Death of
+the Princess de Lamballe.--Insults are heaped on the King and Queen.--The
+Trial of the King.--His Last Interview with his Family.--His Death.
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+The Queen is refused Leave to see Cléry.--Madame Royale is taken Ill.--
+Plans are formed for the Queen's Escape by MM. Jarjayes, Toulan, and by
+the Baron de Batz.--Marie Antoinette refuses to leave her Son.--Illness
+of the young King.--Overthrow of the Girondins.--Insanity of the Woman
+Tison.--Kindness of the Queen to her.--Her Son is taken from her, and
+intrusted to Simon.--His Ill-treatment.--The Queen is removed to the
+Conciergerie.--She is tried before the Revolutionary Tribunal.--She is
+condemned.--Her last Letter to the Princess Elizabeth.--Her Death and
+Character.
+
+INDEX
+
+
+
+
+LIFE OF MARIE ANTOINETTE.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+Importance of Marie Antoinette in the Revolution.--Value of her
+Correspondence as a Means of estimating her Character.--Her Birth,
+November 2d, 1755.--Epigram of Metastasio.--Habits of the Imperial
+Family.--Schönbrunn.--Death of the Emperor.--Projects for the Marriage of
+the Archduchess.--Her Education.--The Abbé de Vermond.--Metastasio.--
+Gluck.
+
+
+The most striking event in the annals of modern Europe is unquestionably
+the French Revolution of 1789--a Revolution which, in one sense, may be
+said to be still in progress, but which, is a more limited view, may be
+regarded as having been, consummated by the deposition and murder of the
+sovereign of the country. It is equally undeniable that, during its first
+period, the person who most attracts and rivets attention is the queen.
+One of the moat brilliant of modern French writers[1] has recently
+remarked that, in spite of the number of years which have elapsed since
+the grave closed over the sorrows of Marie Antoinette, and of the almost
+unbroken series of exciting events which have marked the annals of France
+in the interval, the interest excited by her story is as fresh and
+engrossing as ever; that such as Hecuba and Andromache were to the
+ancients, objects never named to inattentive ears, never contemplated
+without lively sympathy, such still is their hapless queen to all honest
+and intelligent Frenchmen. It may even be said that that interest has
+increased of late years. The respectful and remorseful pity which her fate
+could not fail to awaken has been quickened by the publication of her
+correspondence with her family and intimate friends, which has laid bare,
+without disguise, all her inmost thoughts and feelings, her errors as well
+as her good deeds, her weaknesses equally with her virtues. Few, indeed,
+even of those whom the world regards with its highest favor and esteem,
+could endure such an ordeal without some diminution of their fame. Yet it
+is but recording the general verdict of all whose judgment is of value, to
+affirm that Marie Antoinette has triumphantly surmounted it; and that the
+result of a scrutiny as minute and severe as any to which a human being
+has ever been subjected, has been greatly to raise her reputation.
+
+Not that she was one of those paragons whom painters of model heroines
+have delighted to imagine to themselves; one who from childhood gave
+manifest indications of excellence and greatness, and whose whole life was
+but a steady progressive development of its early promise. She was rather
+one in whom adversity brought forth great qualities, her possession of
+which, had her life been one of that unbroken sunshine which is regarded
+by many as the natural and inseparable attendant of royalty, might never
+have been even suspected. We meet with her first, at an age scarcely
+advanced beyond childhood, transported from her school-room to a foreign
+court, as wife to the heir of one of the noblest kingdoms of Europe. And
+in that situation we see her for a while a light-hearted, merry girl,
+annoyed rather than elated by her new magnificence; thoughtless, if not
+frivolous, in her pursuits; fond of dress; eager in her appetite for
+amusement, tempered only by an innate purity of feeling which never
+deserted her; the brightest features of her character being apparently a
+frank affability, and a genuine and active kindness and humanity which
+were displayed to all classes and on all occasions. We see her presently
+as queen, hardly yet arrived at womanhood, little changed in disposition
+or in outward demeanor, though profiting to the utmost by the
+opportunities which her increased power afforded her of proving the
+genuine tenderness of her heart, by munificent and judicious works of
+charity and benevolence; and exerting her authority, if possible, still
+more beneficially by protecting virtue, discountenancing vice, and
+purifying a court whose shameless profligacy had for many generations been
+the scandal of Christendom. It is probable, indeed, that much of her early
+levity was prompted by a desire to drive from her mind disappointments and
+mortifications of which few suspected the existence, but which were only
+the more keenly felt because she was compelled to keep them to herself;
+but it is certain that during the first eight or ten years of her
+residence in France there was little in her habits and conduct, however
+amiable and attractive, which could have led her warmest friends to
+discern in her the high qualities which she was destined to exhibit before
+its close.
+
+Presently, however, she becomes a mother; and in this new relation we
+begin to perceive glimpses of a loftier nature. From the moment of the
+birth of her first child, she performed those new duties which, perhaps
+more than any others, call forth all the best and most peculiar virtues of
+the female heart in such a manner as to add esteem and respect to the
+good-will which her affability and courtesy had already inspired;
+recognizing to the full the claims which the nation had upon her, that
+she should, in person, superintend the education of her children, and
+especially of her son as its future ruler; and discharging that sacred
+duty, not only with the most affectionate solicitude, but also with the
+most admirable judgment.
+
+But years so spent were years of happiness; and, though such may suffice
+to display the amiable virtues, it is by adversity that the grander
+qualities of the head and heart are more strikingly drawn forth. To the
+trials of that stern inquisitress, Marie Antoinette was fully exposed in
+her later years; and not only did she rise above them, but the more
+terrible and unexampled they were, the more conspicuous was the
+superiority of her mind to fortune. It is no exaggeration to say that the
+history of the whole world has preserved no record of greater heroism, in
+either sex, than was shown by Marie Antoinette during the closing years of
+her life. No courage was ever put to the proof by such a variety and such
+an accumulation of dangers and miseries; and no one ever came out of an
+encounter with even far inferior calamities with greater glory. Her moral
+courage and her physical courage were equally tried. It was not only that
+her own life, and lives far dearer to her than her own, were exposed to
+daily and hourly peril, or that to this danger were added repeated
+vexations of hopes baffled and trusts betrayed; but these griefs were
+largely aggravated by the character and conduct of those nearest to her.
+Instead of meeting with counsel and support from her husband and his
+brothers, she had to guide and support Louis himself, and even to find him
+so incurably weak as to be incapable of being kept in the path of wisdom
+by her sagacity, or of deriving vigor from her fortitude; while the
+princes were acting in selfish and disloyal opposition to him, and so, in
+a great degree, sacrificing him and her to their perverse conceit, if we
+may not say to their faithless ambition. She had to think for all, to act
+for all, to struggle for all; and to beat up against the conviction that
+her thoughts, and actions, and struggles were being balked of their effect
+by the very persona for whom she was exerting herself; that she was but
+laboring to save those who would not be saved. Yet, throughout that
+protracted agony of more than four years she bore herself with an
+unswerving righteousness of purpose and an unfaltering fearlessness of
+resolution which could not have been exceeded had she been encouraged by
+the most constant success. And in the last terrible hours, when the
+monsters who had already murdered her husband were preparing the same fate
+for herself, she met their hatred and ferocity with a loftiness of spirit
+which even hopelessness could not subdue. Long before, she had declared
+that she had learned, from the example of her mother, not to fear death;
+and she showed that this was no empty boast when she rose in the last
+scenes of her life as much even above her earlier displays of courage and
+magnanimity as she also rose above the utmost malice of her vile enemies.
+
+    *    *    *    *    *
+
+Marie Antoinette Josèphe Jeanne was the youngest daughter of Francis,
+originally Duke of Lorraine, afterward Grand Duke of Tuscany, and
+eventually Emperor of Germany, and of Maria Teresa, Archduchess of
+Austria, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, more generally known, after the
+attainment of the imperial dignity by her husband in 1745, as the Empress-
+queen. Of her brothers, two, Joseph and Leopold, succeeded in turn to the
+imperial dignity; and one of her sisters, Caroline, became the wife of the
+King of Naples. She was born on the 2d of November, 1755, a day which,
+when her later years were darkened by misfortune, was often referred to as
+having foreshadowed it by its evil omens, since it was that on which the
+terrible earthquake which laid Lisbon in ruins reached its height. But, at
+the time, the Viennese rejoiced too sincerely at every event which could
+contribute to their sovereign's happiness to pay any regard to the
+calamities of another capital, and the courtly poet was but giving
+utterance to the unanimous feeling of her subjects when he spoke of the
+princess's birth as calculated to diffuse universal joy. Daughters had
+been by far the larger part of Maria Teresa's family, so that she was,
+consequently, anxious for another son; and, knowing her wishes, the Duke
+of Tarouka, one of the nobles whom she admitted to her intimacy, laid her
+a small wager that they would be realized by the sex of the expected
+infant. He lost his bet, but felt some embarrassment, in devising a
+graceful mode of paying it. In his perplexity, he sought the advice of the
+celebrated Metastasio, who had been for some time established at Vienna as
+the favorite poet of the court, and the Italian, with the ready wit of his
+country, at once supplied him with a quatrain, which, in her
+disappointment itself, could mid ground for compliment:
+
+  "Io perdei; l' augusta figlia
+  A pagar m' ha condannato;
+  Ma s'è ver che a voi somiglia,
+  Tutto il mondo ha guadagnato."
+
+The customs of the imperial court had undergone a great change since the
+death of Charles VI. It had been pre-eminent for pompous ceremony, which
+was thought to become the dignity of the sovereign who boasted of being
+the representative of the Roman Caesars. But the Lorraine princes had been
+bred up in a simpler fashion; and Francis had an innate dislike to all
+ostentation, while Maria Teresa had her attention too constantly fixed on
+matters of solid importance to have much leisure to spare for the
+consideration of trifles. Both husband and wife greatly preferred to their
+gorgeous palace at Vienna a smaller house which they possessed in the
+neighborhood, called Schönbrunn, where they could lay aside their state,
+and enjoy the unpretending pleasures of domestic and rural life,
+cultivating their garden, and, as far as the imperious calls of public
+affairs would allow them time, watching over the education of their
+children, to whom the example of their own tastes and habits was
+imperceptibly affording the best of all lessons, a preference for simple
+and innocent pleasures.
+
+In this tranquil retreat, the childhood of Marie Antoinette was happily
+passed; her bright looks, which already gave promise of future loveliness,
+her quick intelligence, and her affectionate disposition combining to make
+her the special favorite of her parents. It was she whom Francis, when
+quitting his family in the summer of 1764 for that journey to Innspruck
+which proved his last, specially ordered to be brought to him, saying, as
+if he felt some foreboding of his approaching illness, that he must
+embrace her once more before he departed; and his death, which took place
+before she was nine years old, was the first sorrow which ever brought a
+tear into her eyes.
+
+The superintendence of her vast empire occupied a greater share of Maria
+Teresa's attention than the management of her family. But as Marie
+Antoinette grew up, the Empress-queen's ambition, ever on the watch to
+maintain and augment the prosperity of her country, perceived in her
+child's increasing attractions a prospect of cementing more closely an
+alliance which she had contracted some years before, and on which she
+prided herself the more because it had terminated an enmity of two
+centuries and a half. From the day on which Charles V, prevailed over
+Francis I. in the competition for the imperial crown, the attitude of the
+Emperor of Germany and of the King of France to each other had been one of
+mutual hostility, which, with but rare exceptions, had been greatly in
+favor of the latter country. The very first years of Maria Teresa's own
+reign had been imbittered by the union of France with Prussia in a war
+which had deprived her of an extensive province; and she regarded it as
+one of the great triumphs of Austrian diplomacy to have subsequently won
+over the French ministry to exchange the friendship of Frederick of
+Prussia for her own, and to engage as her ally in a war which had for its
+object the recovery of the lost Silesia. Silesia was not recovered. But
+she still clung to the French alliance as fondly as if the objects which
+she had originally hoped to gain by it had been fully accomplished; and,
+as the heir to the French monarchy was very nearly of the same age as the
+young archduchess, she began to entertain hopes of uniting the two royal
+families by a marriage which should render the union between the two
+nations indissoluble. She mentioned the project to some of the French
+visitors at her court, whom she thought likely to repeat her conversation
+on their return to their own country. She took care that reports of her
+daughter's beauty should from time to time reach the ears of Louis XV. She
+had her picture painted by French artists. She made a proficiency in the
+French language the principal object of her education; bringing over some
+French actors to Vienna to instruct her in the graces of elocution, and
+subsequently establishing as her chief tutor a French ecclesiastic, the
+Abbé de Vermond, a man of extensive learning, of excellent judgment, and
+of most conscientious integrity. The appointment would have been in every
+respect a most fortunate one, had it not been suggested by Loménie de
+Brienne, Archbishop of Toulouse, who thus laid the abbé under an
+obligation which was requited, to the great injury of France, nearly
+twenty years afterward, when M. de Vermond, who still remained about the
+person of his royal mistress, had an opportunity of exerting his influence
+to make the archbishop prime minister.
+
+Not that her studies were confined to French. Metastasio taught her
+Italian; Gluck, whose recently published opera of "Orfeo" had, established
+for him a reputation as one of the greatest musicians of the age, gave her
+lessons on the harpsichord. But we fear it can not be said that she
+obtained any high degree of excellence in these or in any other
+accomplishments. She was not inclined to study; and, with the exception of
+the abbé, her masters and mistresses were too courtly to be peremptory
+with an archduchess. Their favorable reports to the Empress-queen were
+indeed neutralized by the frankness with which their pupil herself
+confessed her idleness and failure to improve. But Maria Teresa was too
+much absorbed in politics to give much heed to the confession, or to
+insist on greater diligence; though at a later day Marie Antoinette
+herself repented of her neglect, and did her best to repair it, taking
+lessons in more than one accomplishment with great perseverance during the
+first years of her residence at Versailles, because, as she expressed
+herself, the dauphiness was bound to take care of the character of the
+archduchess.
+
+There are, however, lessons of greater importance to a child than any
+which are given by even the most accomplished masters--those which flow
+from the example of a virtuous and sensible mother; and those the young
+archduchess showed a greater aptitude for learning. Maria Teresa had set
+an example not only to her own family, but to all sovereigns, among whom
+principles and practices such as hers had hitherto been little recognized,
+of regarding an attention to the personal welfare of all her subjects,
+even of those of the lowest class, as among the most imperative of her
+duties. She had been accessible to all. She had accustomed the peasantry
+to accost her in her walks; she had visited their cottages to inquire into
+and relieve their wants. And the little Antoinette, who, more than any
+other of her children, seems to have taken her for an especial model, had
+thus, from her very earliest childhood, learned to feel a friendly
+interest in the well-doing of the people in general; to think no one too
+lowly for her notice, to sympathize with sorrow, to be indignant at
+injustice and ingratitude, to succor misfortune and distress. And these
+were habits which, as being implanted in her heart, she was not likely to
+forget; but which might be expected rather to gain strength by indulgence,
+and to make her both welcome and useful to any people among whom her lot
+might be cast.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+Proposal for the Marriage of Marie Antoinette to the Dauphin.--Early
+Education of the Dauphin.--The Archduchess leaves Vienna in April, 1770.--
+Her Reception at Strasburg.--She meets the King at Compiègne.--The
+Marriage takes place May 16th, 1770.
+
+
+Royal marriages had been so constantly regarded as affairs of state, to be
+arranged for political reasons, that it had become usual on the Continent
+to betroth princes and princesses to each other at a very early age; and
+it was therefore not considered as denoting any premature impatience on
+the part of either the Empress-queen or the King of France, Louis XV.,
+when, at the beginning of 1769, when Marie Antoinette had but just
+completed her thirteenth year, the Duc de Choiseul, the French Minister
+for Foreign Affairs, who was himself a native of Lorraine, instructed the
+Marquis de Durfort, the French embassador at Vienna, to negotiate with the
+celebrated Austrian prime minister, the Prince de Kaunitz, for her
+marriage to the heir of the French throne, who was not quite fifteen
+months older. Louis XV. had had several daughters, but only one son. That
+son, born in 1729, had been married at the age of fifteen to a Spanish
+infanta, who, within a year of her marriage, died in her confinement, and
+whom he replaced in a few months by a daughter of Augustus III., King of
+Saxony. His second wife bore him four sons and two daughters. The eldest
+son, the Duc de Bourgogne, who was born in 1750, and was generally
+regarded as a child of great promise, died in his eleventh year; and when
+he himself died in 1765, his second son, previously known as the Duc de
+Berri, succeeded him in his title of dauphin. This prince, now the suitor
+of the archduchess, had been born on the 23d of August, 1754, and was
+therefore not quite fifteen. As yet but little was known of him. Very
+little pains had been taken with his education; his governor, the Duc de
+la Vauguyon, was a man who had been appointed to that most important post
+by the cabals of the infamous mistress and parasites who formed the court
+of Louis XV., without one qualification for the discharge of its duties. A
+servile, intriguing spirit had alone recommended him to his patrons, while
+his frivolous indolence was in harmony with the inclinations of the king
+himself, who, worn out with a long course of profligacy, had no longer
+sufficient energy even for vice. Under such a governor, the young prince
+had but little chance of receiving a wholesome education, even if there
+was not a settled design to enfeeble his mind by neglect.
+
+His father had been a man of a character very different from that of the
+king. By a sort of natural reaction or silent protest against the infamies
+which he saw around him, he had cherished a serious and devout
+disposition, and had observed a conduct of the most rigorous virtue. He
+was even suspected of regarding the Jesuits with especial favor, and was
+believed to have formed plans for the reformation of morals, and perhaps
+of the State. It was not strange that, on the first news of the illness
+which proved fatal to him, the people flocked to the churches with prayers
+for his recovery, and that his death was regarded by all the right-
+thinking portion of the community as a national calamity. But the
+courtiers, who had regarded his approaching reign with not unnatural
+alarm, hailed his removal with joy, and were, above all things, anxious to
+prevent his son, who had now become the heir to the crown, from following
+such a path as the father had marked out for himself. The negligence of
+some, thus combining with the deliberate malice of others, and aided by
+peculiarities in the constitution and disposition of the young prince
+himself, which became more and more marked as he grew up, exercised a
+pernicious influence on his boyhood. Not only was his education in the
+ordinary branches of youthful knowledge neglected, but no care was even
+taken to cultivate his taste or to polish his manners, though a certain
+delicacy of taste and refinement of manners were regarded by the
+courtiers, and by Louis XV. himself, as the pre-eminent distinction of his
+reign. He was kept studiously in the background, discountenanced and
+depressed, till he contracted an awkward timidity and reserve which
+throughout his life he could never shake off; while a still more
+unfortunate defect, which was another result of this system, was an
+inability to think or decide for himself, or even to act steadily on the
+advice of others after he had professed to adopt it.
+
+But these deficiencies in his character had as yet hardly had time to
+display themselves; and, had they been ever so notorious, they were not of
+a nature to divert Maria Teresa from her purpose. For her political
+objects, it would not, perhaps, have seemed to her altogether undesirable
+that the future sovereign of France should be likely to rely on the
+judgment and to submit to the influence of another, so long as the person
+who should have the best opportunity of influencing him was her own
+daughter. A negotiation for the success of which both parties were equally
+anxious did not require a long time for its conclusion; and by the
+beginning of July, 1769, all the preliminaries were arranged; the French
+newspapers were authorized to allude to the marriage, and to speak of the
+diligence with which preparations for it were being made in both
+countries; those in which the French king took the greatest interest being
+the building of some carriages of extraordinary magnificence, to receive
+the archduchess as soon as she should have arrived on French ground; while
+those which were being made in Germany indicated a more elementary state
+of civilization, as the first requisite appeared to be to put the roads
+between Vienna and the frontier in a state of repair, to prevent the
+journey from being too fatiguing.
+
+By the spring of the next year all the necessary preparations had been
+completed; and on the evening of the 10th of April, 1770, a grand court
+was held in the Palace of Vienna. Through a double row of guards of the
+palace, of body-guards, and of a still more select guard, composed wholly
+of nobles, M. de Durfort was conducted into the presence of the Emperor
+Joseph II., and of his widowed mother, the Empress-queen, still, though
+only dowager-empress, the independent sovereign of her own hereditary
+dominions; and to both he proffered, on the part of the King of France, a
+formal request for the hand of the Archduchess Marie Antoinette for the
+dauphin. When the Emperor and Empress had given their gracious consent to
+the demand, the archduchess herself was summoned to the hall and informed
+of the proposal which had been made, and of the approval which her mother
+and her brother had announced; while, to incline her also to regard it
+with equal favor, the embassador presented her with a letter from her
+intended husband, and with his miniature, which she at once hung round her
+neck. After which, the whole party adjourned to the private theatre of the
+palace to witness the performance of a French play, "The Confident Mother"
+of Marivaux, the title of which, so emblematic of the feelings of Maria
+Teresa, may probably have procured it the honor of selection.
+
+The next day the young princess executed a formal renunciation of all
+right of succession to any part of her mother's dominions which might at
+any time devolve on her; though the number of her brothers and elder
+sisters rendered any such occurrence in the highest degree improbable, and
+though one conspicuous precedent in the history of both countries had,
+within the memory of persons still living, proved the worthlessness of
+such renunciations.[1] A few days were then devoted to appropriate
+festivities. That which is most especially mentioned by the chroniclers of
+the court being, in accordance with the prevailing taste of the time, a
+grand masked ball,[2] for which a saloon four hundred feet long had been
+expressly constructed. And on the 26th of April the young bride quit her
+home, the mother from whom she had never been separated, and the friends
+and playmates among whom her whole life had been hitherto passed, for a
+country which was wholly strange to her, and in which she had not as yet a
+single acquaintance. Her very husband, to whom she was to be confided, she
+had never seen.
+
+Though both mother and daughter felt the most entire confidence that the
+new position, on which she was about to enter, would be full of nothing
+but glory and happiness, it was inevitable that they should be, as they
+were, deeply agitated at so complete a separation. And, if we may believe
+the testimony of witnesses who were at Vienna at the time,[3] the grief of
+the mother, who was never to see her child again, was shared not only by
+the members of the imperial household, whom constant intercourse had
+enabled to know and appreciate her amiable qualities, but by the
+population of the capital and the surrounding districts, all of whom had
+heard of her numerous acts of kindness and benevolence, which, young as
+she was, many of them had also experienced, and who thronged the streets
+along which she passed on her departure, mingling tears of genuine sorrow
+with their acclamations, and following her carriage to the outermost gate
+of the city that they might gaze their last on the darling of many hearts.
+
+Kehl was the last German town through which she was to pass, Strasburg was
+the first French city which was to receive her, and, as the islands which
+dot the Rhine at that portion of the noble boundary river were regarded as
+a kind of neutral ground, the French monarch had selected the principal
+one to be occupied by a pavilion built for the purpose and decorated with
+great magnificence, that it might serve for another stage of the wedding
+ceremony. In this pavilion she was to cease to be German, and was to
+become French; she was to bid farewell to her Austrian attendants, and to
+receive into her service the French officers of her household, male and
+female, who were to replace them. She was even to divest herself of every
+article of her German attire, and to apparel herself anew in garments of
+French manufacture sent from Paris. The pavilion was divided into two
+compartments. In the chief apartment of the German division, the Austrian
+officials who had escorted her so far formally resigned their charge, and
+surrendered her to the Comte de Noailles, who had been appointed
+embassador extraordinary to receive her; and, when all the deeds necessary
+to release from their responsibly the German nobles whose duties were now
+terminated had been duly signed, the doors were thrown open, and Marie
+Antoinette passed into the French division, as a French princess, to
+receive the homage of a splendid train of French courtiers, who were
+waiting in loyal eagerness to offer their first salutations to their new
+mistress. Yet, as if at every period of her life she was to be beset with
+omens, the celebrated German writer, Goethe, who was at that time pursuing
+his studies at Strasburg, perceived one which he regarded as of most
+inauspicious significance in the tapestry which decorated the walls of the
+chief saloon. It represented the history of Jason and Medea. On one side
+was portrayed the king's bride in the agonies of death; on the other, the
+royal father was bewailing his murdered children. Above them both, Medea
+was fleeing away in a car drawn by fire-breathing dragons, and driven by
+the Furies; and the youthful poet could not avoid reflecting that a record
+of the most miserable union that even the ancient mythology had recorded
+was a singularly inappropriate and ill-omened ornament for nuptial
+festivities.[4]
+
+A bridge reached from the island to the left bank of the river; and, on
+quitting the pavilion, the archduchess found the carriages, which had been
+built for her in Paris, ready to receive her, that she might make her
+state entry into Strasburg. They were marvels of the coach-maker's art.
+The prime minister himself had furnished the designs, and they had
+attracted the curiosity of the fashionable world in Paris throughout the
+winter. One was covered with crimson velvet, having pictures, emblematical
+of the four seasons, embroidered in gold on the principal panels; on the
+other the velvet was blue, and the elements took the place of the seasons;
+while the roof of each was surmounted by nosegays of flowers, carved in
+gold, enameled in appropriate colors, and wrought with such exquisite
+delicacy that every movement of the carriage, or even the lightest breeze,
+caused them to wave as if they were the natural produce of the garden.[5]
+
+In this superb conveyance Marie Antoinette passed on under a succession of
+triumphal arches to the gates of Strasburg, which, on this auspicious
+occasion, seemed as if it desired to put itself forward as the
+representative of the joy of the whole nation by the splendid cordiality
+of its welcome. Whole regiments of cavalry, drawn up in line of battle,
+received her with a grand salute as she advanced. Battery after battery
+pealed forth along the whole extent of the vast ramparts; the bells of
+every church rang out a festive peal; fountains ran with wine in the Grand
+Square. She proceeded to the episcopal palace, where the archbishop, the
+Cardinal de Rohan, with his coadjutor, the Prince Louis de Rohan (a man
+afterward rendered unhappily notorious by his complicity in a vile
+conspiracy against her) received her at the head of the most august
+chapter that the whole land could produce, the counts of the cathedral, as
+they were styled; the Prince of Lorraine being the grand dean, the
+Archbishop of Bordeaux the grand provost, and not one post in the chapter
+being filled by any one below the rank of count. She held a court for the
+reception of all the female nobility of the province. She dined publicly
+in state; a procession of the municipal magistrates presented her a sample
+of the wines of the district; and, as she tasted the luscious offering,
+the coopers celebrated what they called a feast of Bacchus, waving their
+hoops as they danced round the room in grotesque figures.
+
+It was a busy day for her, that first day of her arrival on French soil.
+From the dinner-table she went to the theatre; on quitting the theatre,
+she was driven through the streets to see the illuminations, which made
+every part of the city as bright as at midday, the great square in front
+of the episcopal palace being converted into a complete garden of
+fire-works; and at midnight she attended a ball which the governor of the
+province, the Maréchal de Contades, gave in her honor to all the principal
+inhabitants of the city and district. Quitting Strasburg the next day,
+after a grand reception of the clergy, the nobles, and the magistrates of
+the province, she proceeded by easy stages through Nancy, Châlons, Rheims,
+and Soissons, the whole population of every town through which she passed
+collecting on the road to gaze on her beauty, the renown of which had
+readied the least curious ears; and to receive marks of her affability,
+reports of which were at least as widely spread, in the cheerful eagerness
+with which she threw down the windows of her carriage, and the frank,
+smiling recognition and genuine pleasure with which she replied to their
+enthusiastic acclamations. It was long remembered that, when the students
+of the college at Soissons presented her with a Latin address, she replied
+to them in a sentence or two in the same language.
+
+Soissons was her last resting-place before she was introduced to her new
+family. On the afternoon of Monday, the 14th of May, she quit it for
+Compiègne, which the king and all the court had reached in the course of
+the morning. As she approached the town she was met by the minister, the
+Duc de Choiseul, and he was the precursor of Louis himself, who,
+accompanied by the dauphin and his daughters, and escorted by his gorgeous
+company of the guards of the household,[6] had driven out to receive her.
+She and all her train dismounted from their carriages. Her master of the
+horse and her "knight of honor[7]" took her by the hand and conducted her
+to the royal coach. She sunk on her knee in the performance of her
+respectful homage; but Louis promptly raised her up, and, having embraced
+her with a tenderness which gracefully combined royal dignity with
+paternal affection, and having addressed her in a brief speech,[8] which
+was specially acceptable to her, as containing a well-timed compliment to
+her mother, introduced her to the dauphin; and, when they reached the
+palace, he also presented to her his more distant relatives, the princes
+and princesses of the blood,[9] the Duc d'Orléans and his son, the Duc de
+Chartres, destined hereafter to prove one of the foulest and most
+mischievous of her enemies; the Duc de Bourbon, the Princes of Condé and
+Conti, and one lady whose connection with royalty was Italian rather than
+French, but to whom the acquaintance, commenced on this day, proved the
+cause of a miserable and horrible death, the beautiful Princesse de
+Lamballe.
+
+Compiègne, however, was not to be honored by the marriage ceremony. The
+next morning the whole party started for Versailles, turning out of the
+road, at the express request of the archduchess herself, to pay a brief
+visit to the king's youngest daughter, the Princess Louise, who had taken
+on herself the Carmelite vows, and resided in the Convent of St. Denis.
+The request had been suggested by Choiseul, who was well aware that the
+princess shared the dislike entertained by her more worldly sisters to the
+house of Austria; but it was accepted as a personal compliment by the king
+himself, who was already fascinated by her charms, which, as he affirmed,
+surpassed those of her portrait, and was predisposed to view all her words
+and actions in the most favorable light. Avoiding Paris, which Louis, ever
+since the riots of 1750, had constantly refused to enter, they reached the
+hunting-lodge of La Muette, in the Bois de Boulogne, for supper. Here she
+made the acquaintance of the brothers and sisters of her future husband,
+the Counts of Provence and Artois, both destined, in their turn, to
+succeed him on the throne; of the Princess Clotilde, who may be regarded
+as the most fortunate of her race, in being saved by a foreign marriage
+and an early death from witnessing the worst calamities of her family and
+her native land; of the Princess Elizabeth, who was fated to share them in
+all their bitterness and horror; and (a strangely incongruous sequel to
+the morning visit to the Carmelite convent), the Countess du Barri also
+came into her presence, and was admitted to sup at the royal table; as if,
+even at the very moment when he might have been expected to conduct
+himself with some degree of respectful decency to the pure-minded young
+girl whom he was receiving into his family, Louis XV. was bent on
+exhibiting to the whole world his incurable shamelessness in its most
+offensive form.
+
+At midnight he, with the dauphin, proceeded to Versailles, whither, the
+next morning, the archduchess followed them. And at one o'clock on the
+16th, in the chapel of the palace, the Primate of France, the Archbishop
+of Rheims, performed the marriage ceremony. A canopy of cloth of silver
+was held over the heads of the youthful pair by the bishops of Senlis and
+Chartres. The dauphin, after he had placed the wedding-ring on his bride's
+finger, added, as a token that he endowed her with his worldly wealth, a
+gift of thirteen pieces of gold, which, as well as the ring, had received
+the episcopal benediction, and Marie Antoinette was dauphiness of France.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+Feelings in Germany and France on the Subject of the Marriage.--Letter of
+Maria Teresa to the Dauphin--Characters of the Different Members of the
+Royal Family.--Difficulties which beset Marie Antoinette.--Maria Teresa's
+Letter of Advice.--The Comte de Mercy is sent as Embassador to France
+to act as the Adviser of the Dauphiness.--The Princesse de Lorraine at
+the State Ball.--A Great Disaster takes place at the Fire-works in Paris.
+--The Peasant at Fontainebleau.--Marie Antoinette pleases the King.--
+Description of her Personal Appearance.--Mercy's Report of the Impression
+she made on her First Arrival.
+
+
+The marriage which was thus accomplished was regarded with unmodified
+pleasure by the family of the bride, and with almost equal satisfaction by
+the French king. In spite of the public rejoicings in both countries with
+which it was accompanied, it can not be said to have been equally
+acceptable to the majority of the people of either nation. There was still
+a strong anti-French party at Vienna,[1] and (a circumstance of far
+greater influence on the fortunes of the young couple) there was a strong
+anti-Austrian party in France, which was not without its supporters even
+in the king's palace. That the marriage should have been so earnestly
+desired at the imperial court is a strange instance of the extent to which
+political motives overpowered every other consideration in the mind of the
+great Empress-queen, for she was not ignorant of the real character of the
+French court, of the degree in which it was divided by factions, of the
+base and unworthy intrigues which were its sole business, and of the
+sagacity and address which were requisite for any one who would steer his
+way with safety and honor through its complicated mazes.
+
+Judgment and prudence were not the qualities most naturally to be expected
+in a young princess not yet fifteen years old. The best prospect which
+Marie Antoinette had of surmounting the numerous and varied difficulties
+which beset her lay in the affection which she speedily conceived for her
+husband, and in the sincerity, we can hardly say warmth, with which he
+returned her love. Maria Teresa had bespoken his tenderness for her in a
+letter which she wrote to him on the day on which her daughter left
+Vienna, and which has often been quoted as a composition worthy of her
+alike as a mother and as a Christian sovereign; and as admirably
+calculated to impress the heart of her new son-in-law by claiming his
+attachment for his bride, on the ground of the pains which she had taken
+to make her worthy of her fortune.
+
+"Your bride, my dear dauphin, has just left me. I do hope that she will
+cause your happiness. I have brought her up with the design that she
+should do so, because I have for some time forseen that she would share
+your destiny.
+
+"I have inspired her with an eager desire to do her duty to you, with a
+tender attachment to your person, with a resolution to be attentive to
+think and do every thing which may please you. I have also been most
+careful to enjoin her a tender devotion toward the Master of all
+Sovereigns, being thoroughly persuaded that we are but badly providing for
+the welfare of the nations which are intrusted to us when we fail in our
+duty to Him who breaks sceptres and overthrows thrones according to his
+pleasure.
+
+"I say, then, to you, my dear dauphin, as I say to my daughter: 'Cultivate
+your duties toward God. Seek to cause the happiness of the people over
+whom you will reign (it will be too soon, come when it may). Love the
+king, your grandfather; be humane like him; be always accessible to the
+unfortunate. If you behave in this manner, it is impossible that happiness
+can fail to be your lot.' My daughter will love you, I am certain, because
+I know her. But the more that I answer to you for her affection, and for
+her anxiety to please you, the more earnestly do I entreat you to vow to
+her the most sincere attachment.
+
+"Farewell, my dear dauphin. May you be happy. I am bathed in tears.[2]"
+
+The dauphin did not falsify the hopes thus expressed by the Empress-queen.
+But his was not the character to afford his wife either the advice or
+support which she needed, while, strange to say, he was the only member of
+the royal family to whom she could look for either. The king was not only
+utterly worthless and shameless, but weak and irresolute in the most
+ordinary matters. Even when in the flower and vigor of his age, he had
+never been able to summon courage to give verbal orders or reproofs to his
+own children,[3] but had intimated his pleasure or displeasure by letters.
+He had been gradually falling lower and lower, both in his own vices and
+in the estimation of the world; and was now, still more than when Lord
+Chesterfield first drew his picture,[4] both hated and despised. The
+dauphin's brothers, for such mere boys, were singularly selfish and
+unamiable; and the only female relations of her husband, his aunts, to
+whom, as such, it would have been natural that a young foreigner should
+look for friendship and advice, were not only narrow-minded, intriguing,
+and malicious, but were predisposed to regard her with jealousy as likely
+to interfere with the influence which they had hoped to exert over their
+nephew when he should become their sovereign.
+
+Marie Antoinette had, therefore, difficulties and enemies to contend with
+from the very first commencement of her residence in France. And many even
+of her own virtues were unfavorable to her chances of happiness,
+calculated as they were to lay her at the mercy of her ill-wishers, and to
+deprive her of some of the defenses which might have been found in a
+different temperament. Full of health and spirits, she was naturally eager
+in the pursuit of enjoyment, and anxious to please every one, from feeling
+nothing but kindness toward every one; she was frank, open, and sincere;
+and, being perfectly guileless herself, she was, as through her whole life
+she continued to be, entirely unsuspicious of unfriendliness, much more of
+treachery in others. Her affability and condescension combined with this
+trustful disposition to make her too often the tool of designing and
+grasping courtiers, who sought to gain their own ends at her expense, and
+who presumed on her good-nature and inexperience to make requests which,
+as they well knew, should never have been made, but which they also
+reckoned that she would be unwilling to refuse.
+
+But lest this general amiability and desire to give pleasure to those
+around her might seem to impart a prevailing tinge of weakness to her
+character, it is fair to add that she united to these softer feelings,
+robuster virtues calculated to deserve and to win universal admiration;
+though some of them, never having yet been called forth by circumstances,
+were for a long time unsuspected by the world at large. She had pride--
+pride of birth, pride of rank--though never did that feeling show itself
+more nobly or more beneficially. It never led her to think herself above
+the very meanest of her subjects. It never made her indifferent to the
+interests, to the joys or sorrows, of a single individual. The idea with
+which it inspired her was, that a princess of her race was never to commit
+an unworthy act, was never to fail in purity of virtue, in truth, in
+courage; that she was to be careful to set an example of these virtues to
+those who would naturally look up to her; and that she herself was to keep
+constantly in her mind the example of her illustrious mother, and never,
+by act, or word, or thought, to discredit her mother's name. And as she
+thus regarded courage as her birthright, so she possessed it in abundance
+and in variety. She had courage to plan, and courage to act; courage to
+resolve, and courage to adhere to the resolution once deliberately formed;
+and, above all, courage to endure and to suffer, and, in the very
+extremity of misery, to animate and support others less royally endowed.
+
+Such, then, as she was, with both her manifest and her latent
+excellencies, as well as with those more mixed qualities which had some
+defects mingled with their sweetness, Marie Antoinette, at the age of
+fourteen years and a half, was thrown into a world wholly new to her, to
+guide herself so far by her own discretion that there was no one who had
+both judgment and authority to control her in her line of conduct or in
+any single action. She had, indeed, an adviser whom her mother had
+provided for her, though without allowing her to suspect the nature or
+full extent of the duties which she had imposed upon him. Maria Teresa had
+been in some respects a strict mother, one whom her children in general
+feared almost as much as they loved her; and the rigorous superintendence
+on some points of conduct which she had exercised over Marie Antoinette
+while at home, she was not inclined wholly to resign, even after she had
+made her apparently independent. At the moment of her departure from
+Vienna, she gave her a letter of advice which she entreated her to read
+over every month, and in which the most affectionate and judicious counsel
+is more than once couched in a tone of very authoritative command; the
+whole letter showing not only the most experienced wisdom and the most
+affectionate interest in her daughter's happiness, but likewise a thorough
+insight into her character, so precisely are some of the errors against
+which the letter most emphatically warns her those into which she most
+frequently fell. And she appointed a statesman in whom she deservedly
+placed great confidence, the Count de Mercy-Argenteau, her embassador to
+the court at Versailles, with the express design that he should always be
+at hand to afford the dauphiness his advice in all the difficulties which
+she could not avoid foreseeing for her; and who should also keep the
+Empress-queen herself fully informed of every particular of her conduct,
+and of every transaction by which she was in any way affected. This part
+of his commission was wholly unsuspected by the young princess; but the
+count discharged such portions of the delicate duty thus imposed upon him
+with rare discretion, contriving in its performance to combine the
+strictest fidelity to his imperial mistress with the most entire devotion
+to the interests of his pupil, and to preserve the unqualified regard and
+esteem of both mother and daughter to the end of their lives. Toward the
+latter, as dauphiness, and even as queen, he stood for some years in a
+position very similar to that which Baron Stockmar fills in the history of
+the late Prince Consort of England, being, however, more frequent in his
+admonitions, and occasionally more severe in his reproofs, as the youth
+and inexperience of Marie Antoinette not unnaturally led her into greater
+mistakes than the scrupulous conscientiousness and almost premature
+prudence of the prince consort ever suffered him to commit; and his
+diligent reports to the Empress-queen, amounting at times to a diary of
+the proceedings of the French court, have a lasting and inestimable value,
+since they furnish us with so trustworthy a record of the whole life of
+Marie Antoinette for the first ten years of her residence in France,[5] of
+her actions, her language, and her very thoughts (for she ever scorned to
+give a reason or to make an excuse which was not absolutely and strictly
+true), that there is perhaps no person of historical importance whose
+conduct in every transaction of gravity or interest is more minutely
+known, or whose character there are fuller materials for appreciating.
+
+The very day of her marriage did not pass without her receiving a strange
+specimen of the factious spirit which prevailed at the court, and of the
+hollowness of the welcome with which the chief nobles had greeted her
+arrival. A state ball was given at the palace to celebrate the wedding,
+and as the Princess of Lorraine, a cousin of the Emperor Francis, was the
+only blood-relation of Marie Antoinette who was at Versailles at the time,
+the king assigned her a place in the first quadrille, giving her
+precedence for that occasion, next to the princes of the blood. It did not
+seem a great stretch of courtesy to show to a foreigner, even had she not
+been related to the princess in whose honor the ball was given; but the
+dukes and peers fired up at the arrangement, as if an insult had been
+offered them. They held a meeting at which they resolved that no member of
+their families should attend, and carried out their resolution so
+obstinately that at five o'clock, when the dancing was to commence, except
+the royal princesses there were only three ladies in the room. The king,
+who, following the example of Louis XIV., acted on these occasions as his
+own master of ceremonies, was forced to send special and personal orders
+to some of those who had absented themselves to attend without delay. And
+so by seven o'clock twelve or fourteen couples were collected[6] (the
+number of persons admitted to such entertainments was always extremely
+small), and the rude disloyalty of the protest was to outward appearance
+effaced by the submission of the recusants.
+
+But all the troubles which arose out of the wedding festivities were not
+so easily terminated. Little as was the good-will which subsisted between
+Louis XV. and the Parisians, the civic authorities thought their own
+credit at stake in doing appropriate honor to an occasion so important as
+the marriage of the heir of the monarchy, and on the 30th of May they
+closed a succession of balls and banquets by a display of fire-works, in
+which the ingenuity of the most celebrated artists had been exhausted to
+outshine all previous displays of the sort. Three sides of the Place Louis
+XV. were filled up with pyramids and colonnades. Here dolphins darted out
+many-colored flames from their ever-open mouths. There, rivers of fire
+poured forth cascades spangled with all the variegated brilliancy with
+which the chemist's art can embellish the work of the pyrotechnist. The
+centre was occupied with a gorgeous Temple of Hymen, which seemed to lean
+for support on the well-known statue of the king, in front of which it was
+constructed; and which was, as it were, to be carried up to the skies by
+above three thousand rockets and fire-balls into which it was intended to
+dissolve. The whole square was packed with spectators, the pedestrians in
+front, the carriages in the rear, when one of the explosions set fire to a
+portion of the platforms on which the different figures had been
+constructed. At first the increase of the blaze was regarded only as an
+ingenious surprise on the part of the artist. But soon it became clear
+that the conflagration was undesigned and real; panic-succeeded to
+delight, and the terror-stricken crowd, seeing themselves surrounded with
+flames, began to make frantic efforts to escape from the danger; but there
+was only one side of the square uninclosed, and that was blocked up by
+carriages. The uproar and the glare made the horses unmanageable, and in a
+few moments the whole mass, human beings and animals, was mingled in
+helpless confusion, making flight impossible by their very eagerness to
+fly, and trampling one another underfoot in bewildered misery. Of those
+who did succeed in extricating themselves from the square, half made their
+way to the road which runs along the bank of the river, and found that
+they had only exchanged one danger for another, which, though of an
+opposite character, was equally destructive. Still overwhelmed with
+terror, though the first peril was over, the fugitives pushed one another
+into the stream, in which great numbers were drowned. The number of the
+killed could never be accurately ascertained: but no calculation estimated
+the number of those who perished at less than six hundred, while those who
+were grievously injured were at least as many more.
+
+The dauphin and dauphiness were deeply shocked by a disaster so painfully
+at variance with their own happiness, which, in one sense, had caused it.
+Their first thought was, as far as they might be able, to mitigate it.
+Most of the victims were of the poorer class, the grief of whose surviving
+relatives was, in many instances, aggravated by the loss of the means of
+livelihood which the labors of those who had been cut off had hitherto
+supplied; and, to give temporary succor to this distress, the dauphin and
+dauphiness at once drew out from the royal treasury the sums allowed to
+them for their private expenses for the month, and sent the money to the
+municipal authorities to be applied to the relief of the sufferers. But
+Marie Antoinette did more. She felt that to give money only was but cold
+benevolence; and she made personal visits to many of those families which
+had been most grievously afflicted, showing the sincerity of her sympathy
+by the touching kindness of her language, and by the tears which she
+mingled with those of the widow and the orphan.[7] Such unmerited kindness
+made a deep impression on the citizens. Since the time of Henry IV. no
+prince had ever shown the slightest interest in the happiness or misery of
+the lower classes; and the feeling of affectionate gratitude which this
+unprecedented recognition of their claims to be sympathized with as
+fellow-creatures awakened was fixed still more deeply in their hearts a
+short time afterward, when, at one of the hunting-parties which took place
+at Fontainebleau, the stag charged a crowd of the spectators and severely
+wounded a peasant with his horns. Marie Antoinette sprung to the ground at
+the sight, helped to bind up the wound, and had the man driven in her own
+carriage to his cabin, whither she followed him herself to see that every
+proper attention was paid to him.[8] And the affection which she thus
+inspired among the poor was fully shared by the chief personage in the
+kingdom, the sovereign himself. A life of profligacy had not rendered
+Louis wholly insensible to the superior attractions of innocence and
+virtue. Perhaps a secret sense of shame at the slavery in which his vices
+held him, and which, as he well knew, excited the contempt of even his
+most dissolute courtiers, though he had not sufficient energy to shake it
+off, may have for a moment quickened his better feelings; and the fresh
+beauty of the young princess, who, from the first moment of her arrival at
+the court, treated him with the most affectionate and caressing respect,
+awakened in him a genuine admiration and good-will. He praised her beauty
+and her grace to all his nobles with a warmth that excited the jealousy of
+his infamous mistress, the Countess du Barri. He made allowance for some
+childishness of manner as natural at her age,[9] showed an anxiety for
+every thing which could amuse or gratify her, which afforded a marked
+contrast to his ordinary apathy. And, though in so young a girl it was
+rather the promise of future beauty than its developed perfection that her
+feat-* as yet presented, they already exhibited sufficient charms to
+exempt those who extolled them from the suspicion of flattery. A clear and
+open forehead, a delicately cut nose, a complexion of dazzling brilliancy,
+with bright blue eyes, whose ever-varying lustre seemed equally calculated
+to show every feeling which could move her heart; which could, at times
+seem almost fierce with anger, indignation, or contempt, but whose
+prevailing expression was that of kindly benevolence or light-hearted
+mirth were united with a figure of exquisite proportions, sufficiently
+tall for dignity, though as yet, of course, slight and unformed, and every
+movement of which was directed by a grace that could neither be taught nor
+imitated. If any defect could be discovered in her face, it consisted in a
+somewhat undue thickness of the lips, especially of the lower lip, which
+had for some generations been the prevailing characteristic of her family.
+
+Accordingly, a month after her marriage, Mercy could report to Maria
+Teresa that she had had complete success, and was a universal favorite;
+that, besides the king, who openly expressed his satisfaction, she had won
+the heart of the dauphin, who had been very unqualified in the language in
+which he had praised both her beauty and her agreeable qualities to his
+aunts; and that even those princesses were "enchanted" with her. The whole
+court, and the people in general, extolled her affability, and the
+graciousness with which she said kind things to all who approached her.
+Though the well-informed embassador had already discovered signs of the
+cabals which the mistress and her partisans were forming against her, and
+had been rendered a little uneasy by the handle which she had more than
+once afforded to her secret enemies, when, "in gayety of heart and without
+the slightest ill-will," she had allowed herself to jest on some persons
+and circumstances which struck her as ridiculous, her jests being seasoned
+with a wit and piquancy which rendered them keener to those who were their
+objects, and more so mischievous to herself. He especially praised the
+unaffected dignity with which she had received the mistress who had
+attended in her apartments to pay her court, though in no respect deceived
+as to the lady's disposition, her penetration into the characters of all
+with whom she had been brought into contact, denoting, as it struck him,
+"a sagacity" which, at her age, was "truly astonishing.[10]"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+Marie Antoinette gives her Mother her First Impressions of the Court and
+of her own Position and Prospects.--Court Life at Versailles.--Marie
+Antoinette shows her Dislike of Etiquette.--Character of the Duc
+d'Aiguillon.--Cabals against the Dauphiness.--Jealousy of Mme. du Barri.--
+The Aunts, too, are Jealous of Her.--She becomes more and more Popular.--
+Parties for Donkey-riding.--Scantiness of the Dauphiness's Income.--Her
+Influence over the King.--The Duc de Choiseul is dismissed.--She begins
+to have Great Influence over the Dauphin.
+
+
+Marie Antoinette herself was inclined to be delighted with all that befell
+her, and to make light of what she could hardly regard as pleasant or
+becoming; and two of her first letters to her mother, written in the early
+part of July,[1] give us an insight into the feelings with which she
+regarded her new family and her own position, as well as a picture of her
+daily occupations and of the singular customs of the French court,
+strangely inconsistent in what it permitted and in what it disallowed,
+and, in the publicity in which its princes lived, curiously incompatible
+with ordinary ideas of comfort and even delicacy.
+
+"The king," she says, "is full of kindnesses toward me, and I love him
+tenderly. But it is pitiable to see his weakness for Madame du Barri, who
+is the silliest and most impertinent creature that it is possible to
+conceive. She has played with us every evening at Marly,[2] and she has
+twice been seated next to me; but she has not spoken to me, and I have not
+attempted to engage in conversation with her; but, when it was necessary,
+I have said a word or two to her.
+
+"As for my dear husband, he is greatly changed, and in a most advantageous
+manner. He shows a great deal of affection for me, and is even beginning
+to treat me with great confidence. He certainly does not like M. de la,
+Vauguyon; but he is afraid of him. A curious thing happened about the duke
+the other day. I was alone with my husband, when M. de la Vauguyon stole
+hurriedly up to the doors to listen. A servant, who was either a fool or a
+very honest man, opened the door, and there stood his grace the duke
+planted like a sentinel, without being able to retreat. I pointed out to
+my husband the inconvenience that there was in having people listening at
+the doors, and he took my remark very well."
+
+She did not tell the empress the whole of this occurrence; she had been
+too indignant at the duke's meanness to suppress her feelings, and she
+reproved the duke himself with a severity which can hardly be said to have
+been misplaced.
+
+"Duke de la Vauguyon," she said, "my lord the dauphin is now of an age to
+dispense with a governor; and I have no need of a spy. I beg you not to
+appear again in my presence.[3]"
+
+Between the writing of her first and second letters she had heard from
+Maria Teresa; and she "can not describe how the affection her mother
+expresses for her has gone to her heart. Every letter which she has
+received has filled her eyes with tears of regret at being separated from
+so tender and loving a mother, and, happy as she is in France, she would
+give the world to see her family again, if it were but for a moment. As
+her mother wishes to know how the days are passed; she gets up between
+nine and ten, and, having dressed herself and said her morning prayers,
+she breakfasts, and then she goes to the apartments of her aunts, whose
+she usually finds the king. That lasts till half-past ten; then at eleven
+she has her hair dressed.
+
+"At twelve," she proceeds to say, "what is called the Chamber is held, and
+there every one who does not belong to the common people may enter. I put
+on my rouge and wash my hands before all the world; the men go out, and
+the women remain; and then I dress myself in their presence. Then comes
+mass. If the king is at Versailles, I go to mass with him, my husband, and
+my aunts; if he is not there, I go alone with the dauphin, but always at
+the same hour. After mass we two dine by ourselves in the presence of all
+the world; but dinner is over by half-past one, as we both eat very fast.
+From the dinner-table I go to the dauphin's apartments, and if he has
+business, I return to my own rooms, where I read, write, or work; for I am
+making a waistcoat for the king, which gets on but slowly, though, I
+trust, with God's grace, it will be finished before many years are over.
+At three o'clock I go again to visit my aunts, and the king comes to them
+at the same hour. At four the abbé[4] comes to me, and at five I have
+every day either my harpsichord-master or my singing-master till six. At
+half-past six I go almost every day to my aunts, except when I go out
+walking. And you must understand that when I go to visit my aunts, my
+husband almost always goes with me. At seven we play cards till nine
+o'clock; but when the weather is fine I go out walking, and then there is
+no play in my apartments, but it is held at my aunts'. At nine we sup; and
+when the king is not there, my aunts come to sup with us; but when the
+king is there, we go after supper to their rooms, waiting there for the
+king, who usually comes about a quarter to eleven; and I lie down on a
+grand sofa and go to sleep till he comes. But when he is not there, we go
+to bed at eleven o'clock."
+
+The play-table which is alluded to in these letters was one of the most
+curious and mischievous institutions of the court. Gambling had been one
+of its established vices ever since the time of Henry IV., whose enormous
+losses at play had formed the subject of Sully's most incessant
+remonstrances. And from the beginning of the reign of Louis XIV., a
+gaming-table had formed a regular part of the evening's amusement. It was
+the one thing which was allowed to break down the barrier of etiquette. On
+all other occasions, the rules which regulated who might and who might not
+be admitted to the royal presence were as precise and strict as in many
+cases they were unreasonable and unintelligible. But at the gaming-table
+every one who could make the slightest pretensions to gentle birth was
+allowed to present himself and stake his money; [5] and the leveling
+influence of play was almost as fully exemplified in the king's palace as
+in the ordinary gaming-houses, since, though the presence of royalty so
+far acted as a restraint on the gamblers as to prevent any open explosion,
+accusations of foul play and dishonest tricks were as rife as in the most
+vulgar company.
+
+Marie Antoinette was winning many hearts by her loveliness and affability;
+but she could not scatter her kind speeches and friendly smiles among all
+with whom she came into contact without running counter to the prejudices
+of some of the old courtiers who had been formed on a different system; to
+whom the maintenance of a rigid etiquette was as the very breath of their
+nostrils, and in whose eyes its very first rule and principle was that
+princes should keep all the world at a distance. Foremost among these
+sticklers for old ideas was the Countess de Noailles, her principal "lady
+of honor," whose uneasiness on the subject speedily became so notorious as
+to give rise to numerous court squibs and satirical odes, the authors of
+which seemed glad to compliment the dauphin and to vex her ladyship at the
+same time, but who could not be deterred by these effusions from lecturing
+Marie Antoinette on her disregard of her rank, and on the danger of making
+herself too familiar, till she provoked the young princess into giving her
+the nickname of Madame Etiquette; and, no doubt, in her childish
+playfulness, to utter many a speech and do many an act whose principle
+object was to excite the astonishment or provoke the frowns of the too
+prim lady of honor.
+
+There can be no doubt that, though she often pushed her strictness too
+far, Madame de Noailles to some extent had reason on her side; and that a
+certain degree of ceremony and stately reserve is indispensable in court
+life. It is a penalty which those born in the purple must pay for their
+dignity, that they can have no friend on a perfect equality with
+themselves; and those who in different ages and countries have tried to
+emancipate themselves from this law of their rank have not generally won
+even the respect of those to whom they have condescended, and still less
+the approbation of the outer world, whose members have perhaps a secret
+dislike to see those whom they regard as their own equals lifted above
+them by the familiarity of princes.
+
+This, however, was a matter of comparatively slight importance. An excess
+of condescension is at the worst a venial and an amiable error; but even
+at the early period plots were being contrived against the young princess,
+which, if successful, would have been wholly destructive of her happiness,
+and which, though she was fully aware of them, she had not means by
+herself to disconcert or defeat. They were the more formidable because
+they were partly political, embracing a scheme for the removal of a
+minister, and consequently conciliated more supporters and insured greater
+perseverance than if they had merely aimed at securing a preponderance of
+court favor for the plotters. Like all the other mistresses who had
+successfully reigned in the French courts, Madame du Barri had a party of
+adherents who hoped to rise by her patronage. The Duc de Choiseul himself
+had owed his promotion to her predecessor, Madame de Pompadour, and those
+who hoped to supplant him saw in a similar influence the best prospect of
+attaining their end. One of the least respectable of the French nobles was
+the Duc d'Aiguillon. As Governor of Brittany, he had behaved with
+notorious cowardice in the Seven Years' War. He had since been, if
+possible, still more dishonored by charges of oppression, peculation, and
+subornation, on which the authorities of the province had prosecuted him,
+and which the Parisian Parliament had pronounced to be established. But no
+kind of infamy was a barrier to the favor of Louis XV. He cancelled the
+resolution of the Parliament, and showed such countenance to the culprit
+that d'Aiguillon, who was both ambitious and covetous, conceived the idea
+of supplanting Choiseul in the Government. As one of Choiseul's principal
+measures had been the negotiation of the dauphin's marriage, Marie
+Antoinette was known to regard him with a good-will which was founded on
+gratitude. But, unfortunately, her feelings on this point were not shared
+by her husband; for Choiseul had had notorious differences with his
+father, the late dauphin, and, though it was perfectly certain that that
+prince had died of natural disease, people had been found to whisper in
+his son's ear suspicions that he had been poisoned, and that the minister
+to whom he was unfriendly had been concerned in his death.
+
+The two plots, therefore, to overthrow the minister and to weaken the
+influence of the dauphiness, went hand-in-hand, and, as might have been
+expected from the character of the patroness of both, no means were too
+vile or wicked for the intriguers who had set them on foot. Madame du
+Barri was, indeed, seriously alarmed for the maintenance of her own
+ascendency. The king took such undisguised pleasure in his new
+granddaughter's company, that some of the most experienced courtiers began
+to anticipate that she would soon gain entire influence over him[6]. The
+mistress began, therefore, to disparage her personal charms, never
+speaking of her to Louis ("France," as she generally called him), except
+as "the little blowsy,[7]" while her ally, De la Vauguyon, endeavored to
+further her views by exerting the influence which he mistakenly flattered
+himself that he still retained over the dauphin, to surround her with his
+own creatures. He tried to procure the dismissal of the Abbé de Vermond,
+who, having been, as we have seen, the tutor of Marie Antoinette at
+Vienna, still remained attached to her person as her reader; and whose
+complete knowledge of all the ways of the court, joined to a thorough
+honesty and devoted fidelity to her best interests, rendered his services
+most valuable to his mistress in her new sphere. He sought to recommend a
+creature of his own as her confessor; to obtain for his own daughter the
+appointment of one of her chief ladies; and, with a wickedness peculiar to
+the French court, he even endeavored to imitate the vile arts by which the
+Duc de Richelieu had deprived Marie Leczinska of the affections of the
+king, to alienate the dauphin from his young wife, and to induce him to
+commit himself to the guidance of Madame du Barri. But this part of the
+scheme failed. The dauphin was strangely insensible to the personal charms
+of Marie Antoinette herself, and was wholly inaccessible to any inferior
+temptations; and, as far as the arrangements of the court were concerned,
+the success of the mistress's cabal was limited to procuring the dismissal
+of the mistress of the robes, the Countess de Grammont, for refusing to
+cede to Madame du Barri and some of her friends the place which belonged
+to her office at some private theatricals which were held in the palace.
+
+Louis XIV. had taught his nobles the pernicious notion that an order to
+withdraw from the court was a penal banishment, and his successor now
+banished Madame de Grammont fourteen leagues from Versailles, and for some
+time refused to recall his sentence, though Marie Antoinette herself wrote
+to him to complain of one of her servants being so treated for such a
+cause. She had not, as she reported to her mother, been very willing to
+write, knowing that Madame du Barri read all the king's letters; but Mercy
+had urged her to take the step, thinking it very important that she should
+establish the practice of communicating directly with Louis on all matters
+relating to her own household, and that she should avoid the blunder of
+his daughters, her aunts, whose conduct toward their father had, in his
+opinion, been mischievously timid, and to follow whose example would be
+prejudicial both to her dignity and to her comfort.
+
+The aunts too, and especially the eldest, Madame Adelaide, had schemes of
+their own, which, they also sought to carry out by underhand methods. The
+more conscious they were that they themselves had no influence over their
+father, the less could they endure the chance of their niece acquiring
+any, though it could not have been said to have been established at their
+expense. On the other hand, they had before his marriage had considerable
+power with the dauphin, which they had now but little hope of retaining.
+They saw also that Marie Antoinette had in a few weeks gained a general
+popularity such as they had never won in their whole lives, and on all
+these accounts they were painfully jealous of her. They put ideas and
+plans into her head which they expected to grate upon their father's taste
+or indolence, and then contrived to have them represented or
+misrepresented to him, though he disappointed their malice by regarding
+such things as childish ebullitions natural to a girl of her age, and was
+far more inclined to humor than to reprove her. With the same object, they
+tried to induce her to interfere in appointments in which she had no
+concern; but she remembered her mother's advice, and on this point kept
+steadily in the path which that affectionate adviser had marked out for
+her. They even ventured to make disparaging observations on her manners,
+as inexperienced and unformed, to the dauphin himself, till he silenced
+them by the warmth of his praises alike of her beauty and of her
+disposition; and they were so afraid of any addition to her popularity
+with the nation at large, that, when the city of Paris and the states of
+Languedoc presented her with an address, they recommended her to make no
+reply, assuring her that on similar occasions they themselves had never
+given any answers. Luckily, she had a better adviser, who on this occasion
+was the Abbé de Vermond. He told her truly that in this matter the conduct
+which the older princesses had pursued was a warning, not a pattern: that
+they had made all France discontented; and at his suggestion Marie
+Antoinette gave to each address "an answer full of graciousness, with
+which the public was enchanted."
+
+Thus in the first year of her marriage, by her kindness of heart, guided
+by the advice of Mercy and the abbé, to which she listened with the
+greatest docility, she had won general affection, and had made no enemies
+but those whose enmity was an honor. She was, as she wrote to her mother,
+perfectly happy, though, had she not wished to make the best of matters,
+she was not, in fact, wholly free from disappointments and vexations, some
+of which continued for years to cause her uneasiness and anxiety, though
+others were comparatively trivial or temporary, while one was of an almost
+comical nature.
+
+She had conceived a great desire to learn to ride. Her mother had been a
+great horsewoman; and, as the dauphin, like the king, was passionately
+addicted to hunting, which hitherto she had only witnessed from a
+carriage, Marie Antoinette not unnaturally desired to be mistress of an
+accomplishment which would enable her to give him more of her
+companionship. Unluckily Mercy disapproved of the idea. It is impossible
+to read his correspondence with the empress, and in subsequent years with
+Marie Antoinette herself, without being forcibly impressed with respect
+for his consummate prudence, his sound judgment in matters of public
+policy, and his unswerving fidelity to the interests of both mother and
+daughter. But at the same time it is difficult to avoid seeing that he was
+too little inclined to make allowance for the youthful eagerness for
+amusements which was natural to her age, and that at times he carried his
+supervision into matters on which his statesman-like experience and
+sagacity had hardly qualified him to form an opinion. He was proud of his
+princess's beauty; and, considering himself in charge of her figure as
+well as of her conduct, he had made himself very uneasy by the fancied
+discovery that she was becoming crooked. He was sure that one shoulder was
+growing higher than the other; he earnestly recommended stays, and was
+very much displeased with her aunts for setting her against them, because
+they were not fashionable in Paris. And when the horse exercise was
+proposed, he set his face against it; he wrote to Maria Teresa, who agreed
+with him in thinking it ruinous to the complexion, injurious to the shape,
+and not to be safely indulged in under thirty years of age[8]; and, lest
+distance should weaken the authority of the empress, he enlisted Madame de
+Noailles and Choiseul on his side, and Choiseul persuaded the king that it
+was a very objectionable pastime for a young bride.
+
+There was not as yet the slightest prospect of the dauphiness becoming a
+mother (a circumstance which was, in fact, the most serious of her
+vexations, and that which lasted longest): but the king on this point
+agreed with his minister, and after some discussion a compromise was hit
+upon, and it was decided that she might ride a donkey. The whole country
+was immediately ransacked for a stud of quiet donkeys.[9] In September the
+court moved to Compiègne, and day after day, while the king and the
+dauphin were shooting in one part of the woods, on the other side a
+cavalcade of donkey-riders, the aunts and the king's brothers all swelling
+Marie Antoinette's train, trotted up and down the glades, and sought out
+shady spots for rural luncheons out-of-doors; and, though even this
+pastime was occasionally found liable to as much danger as an expedition
+on nobler steeds, the merry dauphiness contrived to extract amusement for
+herself and her followers from her very disasters. It was long a standing
+joke that on one occasion, when her donkey and herself came down in a soft
+place, her royal highness, before she would allow her attendants to
+extricate her from the mud, bid them go to Madame de Noailles, and ask her
+what the rules of etiquette prescribed when a dauphiness of France failed
+to keep her seat upon a donkey.
+
+She had also another annoyance which was even of a less royal character
+than being doomed to ride on a donkey. She had absolutely no pocket-money.
+For many generations the princes of the country had been accustomed to dip
+their hands so unrestrainedly into the national treasury, that their
+legitimate appointments had been fixed on a very moderate, if not scanty,
+scale; so that any one who, like the dauphin and dauphiness, might be
+scrupulous not to exceed their income (though that scruple had probably
+affected no one before) could not fail to be greatly straitened. The
+allowance of Marie Antoinette was fixed at no higher amount than six
+thousand francs a month; and of this small sum, according to a report
+which, in the course of the autumn, Mercy made to the empress, not a
+single crown really reached the princess for her private use.[10] Nearly
+half of the money was stopped to pay some pensions granted Marie
+Leczinska, with which the dauphiness could by no possibility have the
+slightest concern. Almost as much more was intrusted to the gentlemen of
+her chamber for the expenses of the play table, at which she was expected
+to preside, since there was no queen to discharge that duty; and whether
+her royal highness's cards won or lost, the money equally disappeared,[11]
+and the remainder was distributed in presents to her ladies, at the
+discretion of Madame de Noailles. Had not Maria Teresa, when she first
+quit Vienna, intrusted Mercy with a thousand pounds for her use, and had
+she not herself been singularly economical in her ideas, she would have
+been in the humiliating position of being unable to provide for her own
+most ordinary wants, and, a matter about which she was even more anxious,
+for her constant charities. Yet so inveterate was the mismanagement in
+both the court and the government, that it was some time before Mercy
+could succeed, by the strongest remonstrances supported by clear proofs of
+the real situation of her royal highness, in getting her affairs and her
+resources placed upon a proper footing.
+
+In spite of all the efforts of the cabal, the king's regard for her
+increased daily. He had not for many years been used to being treated with
+respect, and she, not from any artfulness, but from her native propriety
+of feeling, which forbade her ever to forget that he was her husband's
+grandfather and her king, united a tone of the most loyal respect with her
+filial caresses. She called him papa, and even paid him the tacit
+compliment of grounding occasional requests on considerations of humanity
+and justice, little as such motives had ever influenced Louis, and rarely
+as their names had of late been heard in the precincts of the palace. She
+even induced him to pardon Madame de Grammont; insisting on such a
+concession as due to herself, when she demanded it for one of her own
+retinue, till he laughed, and replied, "Madame, your orders shall be
+executed." And the steadiness she thus showed in protecting her own
+servants won her many hearts among the courtiers, at the same time that it
+filled her aunts with astonishment, who, while commending her firmness,
+could not avoid adding that "it was easy to see that she did not belong to
+their race.[12]" And how strong as well as how general was of respect and
+good-will which she had thus diffused was seen in a remarkable manner at
+some of the private theatricals, which were a frequent diversion of the
+king, when the actor, at the end of one of his songs, introduced some
+verses which he had composed in her honor, and the whole body of courtiers
+who were present showed their approbation by a vehement clapping of their
+hands, in defiance of a standing order of the court, which prohibited any
+such demonstrations being made in the sovereign's presence.[13]
+
+It, however, more than counterbalanced these triumphs that, before the end
+of the year, the cabal of the mistress succeeded in procuring the
+dismissal of the Choiseul, and the appointment of the Duc d'Aiguillon as
+minister. For Choiseul had been not only a faithful, but a most judicious,
+friend to her. If others showed too often that they regarded her as a
+foreigner, he only remembered it as a reason for giving her hints as to
+the feelings of the nation or of individuals which a native would not have
+required. And she thankfully acknowledged that his suggestions had always
+been both kind and useful, and expressed her sense of her obligations to
+him, and her concern at his dismissal to her mother, who fully shared her
+feelings on the subject.
+
+And, encouraged by this victory over her most powerful adherent, the cabal
+began to venture to attack Marie Antoinette herself. They surrounded her
+with spies; they even spread a report that Louis had begun to see through
+and to distrust her, in the hope that, when it should reach the king's own
+ears, it might perhaps lay the foundation of the alienation which it
+pretended to assert; and they grew the bolder because the king's next
+brother was about to be married to a Savoyard princess, of whose favor De
+la Vauguyon flattered himself that he was already assured. Under these
+circumstances Marie Antoinette behaved with consummate prudence, as far at
+least as her enemies were concerned. She despised the efforts made to
+lower her in the general estimation so completely that she seemed wholly
+unconscious of them. She did not even allow herself to be provoked into
+treating the authors of the calumnies with additional coldness; but gave
+no handle to any of them to complain of her, so that the critical and
+anxious eyes of Mercy himself found nothing to wish altered in her conduct
+toward them.[14] And throughout the winter she pursued the even tenor of
+her way, making herself chiefly remarkable by almost countless acts of
+charity, which she dispensed with such judgment as showed that they
+proceeded, not from a heedless disregard of money, but from a thoughtful
+and vigilant kindness, which did not think the feelings any more than the
+necessities of the poor beneath her notice.
+
+Circumstances to which she contributed only indirectly enhanced her
+popularity and weakened the effects of the mistress's hostility.
+Versailles had not been so gay for many winters, and the votaries of mere
+amusement, always a strong party at every court, rejoiced at the addition
+to the royal family to whom the gayety was owing. Louis roused himself to
+gratify the young princess, who enlivened his place with the first
+respectable pleasures which it or he had known for years. When he saw that
+she liked dramatic performances, he opened the private theatre of the
+palace twice a week. Because she was fond of dancing, he encouraged her to
+have a weekly ball in her own apartments, at which she herself was the
+principal attraction, not solely by the elegance of her every movement,
+but still more by the graciousness with which she received and treated her
+guests, having a kind smile and an affable word for all, apparently
+forgetting her rank in the frankness of her condescension, yet at the same
+time bearing herself with an innate dignity which prevented the most
+forward from presuming on her kindness or venturing on any undue
+familiarity.[15]
+
+The winter of 1770 was one of unusual severity; and she found resources
+for a further enlivenment of the court in the frost itself. Sledging on
+the snow was an habitual pastime at Vienna, where the cold is more severe
+than at Paris; nor in former years had sledges been wholly unknown in the
+Bois de Boulogne. And now Marie Antoinette, whose hardy habits made
+exercise in the fresh air almost a necessity for her, had sledges built
+for herself and her attendants; and the inhabitants of Versailles and the
+neighborhood, as fond of novelty as all their countrymen, were delighted
+at the merry sledging-parties which, as long as the snow lasted, explored
+the surrounding country, while the woods rang with the horses' bells, and,
+almost as loudly and still more cheerfully, with the laughter of the
+company.
+
+Her liveliness had, as it were, given a new tone to the whole court; and
+though the dauphin held out longer against the genial influence of his
+wife's disposition than most people, it at last in some degree thawed even
+his frigidity. She ascribed his apathy and apparent dislike to female
+society rather to the neglect or malice of his early tutors than to any
+natural defect of capacity or perversity of disposition; and often
+lectured him on his deficiencies, and even on some of his favorite
+pursuits, which she looked upon as contributing to strengthen his shyness
+with ladies. She was not unacquainted with English literature, in which
+the rusticity and coarseness of the fox-hunting squires formed a piquant
+subject for the mirth of dramatists and novelists; and if Squire Western
+had been the type of sportsmen in all countries, she could not have
+inveighed more vigorously than she did against her husband's addiction to
+hunting. One evening, when he did not return from the field till the play
+in the theatre was half over, she not only frowned upon him all the rest
+of the entertainment, but when, after the company had retired, he began to
+enter into an explanation of the cause of his delay, a scene ensued which
+it will be best to give in the very words of Mercy's report to the
+empress.
+
+"The dauphiness made him a short but very energetic sermon, in which she
+represented to him with vivacity all the evils of the uncivilized kind of
+life he was leading. She showed him that no one of his attendants could
+stand that kind of life, and that they would like it the less that his own
+air and rude manners made no amends to those who were attached to his
+train; and that, by following this plan of life, he would end by ruining
+his health and making himself detested. The dauphin received this lecture
+with gentleness and submission, confessed that he was wrong, promised to
+amend, and formally begged her pardon. This circumstance is certainly very
+remarkable, and the more so because the next day people observed that he
+paid the dauphiness much more attention, and behaved toward her with a
+much more lively affection than usual.[16]"
+
+We do not, however, find in reality that the severity of her admonitions
+produced any permanent diminution of his fondness for hunting and
+shooting; but the gentleness of her general manners, and the delight which
+he saw that all around her took in her graciousness, so far excited his
+admiration that he began to follow her example. He said that "she had such
+native grace that every thing which she did succeeded to perfection; that
+it must be admitted that she was charming." And before the end of the
+winter he had come to take an active part both in her Monday balls, and in
+those which her ladies occasionally gave in her honor; "dancing himself
+the whole of the evening, and conversing with all the company with an air
+of cheerfulness and good-nature of which no one before had ever thought
+him capable.[17]" The happy change in his demeanor was universally
+attributed to the dauphiness; and, as the character of their future king
+was naturally watched with anxiety as a matter of the highest importance,
+it greatly increased the attachment of all who had the welfare of the
+nation at heart to the princess, whose general example had produced so
+beneficial an effect.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+Mercy's Correspondence with Empress.--Distress and Discontent pervade
+France.--Goldsmith predicts a Revolution.--Apathy of the King.--The
+Aunts mislead Marie Antoinette.--Maria Teresa hears that the Dauphiness
+neglects her German Visitors.--Marriage of the Count de Provence.--Growing
+Preference of Louis XV. for the Dauphiness.--The Dauphiness applies
+herself to Study.--Marie Antoinette becomes a Horsewoman.--Her Kindness
+to all beneath her.--Cabals of the Adherents of the Mistress.--The
+Royal Family become united.--Concerts in the Apartments of the Dauphiness.
+
+
+Marie Antoinette was not a very zealous or copious letter-writer. Her only
+correspondent In her earlier years was her mother, and even to her her
+letters are less effusive and less full of details than might have been
+expected, one reason for their brevity arising out of the intrigues of the
+court, since she had cause to believe herself so watched and spied upon
+that her very desk was not safe; and, consequently, she never ventured to
+begin a letter to the empress before the morning on which it was to be
+sent, lest it should be read by those for whose eyes it was not intended.
+For our knowledge, therefore, of her acts and feelings at this period of
+her life, we still have to rely principally on Mercy's correspondence,
+which is, however, a sufficiently trustworthy guide, so accurate was his
+information, and so entire the frankness with which she opened herself to
+him on all occasions and on all subjects.
+
+The spring of 1771 opened very unfavorably for the new administration;
+omens of impending dangers were to be seen on all sides. Ten or twelve
+years before, Goldsmith, whose occasional silliness of manner prevented
+him from always obtaining the attention to which his sagacity entitled
+him, had named the growing audacity of the French parliaments as not only
+an indication of the approach of great changes in that country, but as
+likely also to be their moving cause.[1] And they had recently shown such
+determined resistance to the royal authority, that, though in the most
+conspicuous instance of it, their assertion of their right to pronounce an
+independent judgment on the charges brought against the Duc d'Aiguillon,
+they were unquestionably in the right; and though their pretensions were
+supported by almost the whole body of the princes of the blood, some of
+whom were immediately banished for their contumacy, Louis had been
+persuaded to abolish them altogether. And Marie Antoinette, though she
+carefully avoided mixing herself up with politics, was, as she reported to
+her mother,[2] astonished beyond measure at their conduct, which she
+looked upon as arising out of the grossest disloyalty, and which certainly
+indicated the existence of a feeling very dangerous to the maintenance of
+the royal authority on the part of those very men who were most bound to
+uphold it. There was also great and general distress. For a moment in the
+autumn it had been relieved by a fall in the price of bread, which the
+unreasoning gratitude of the populace had attributed to the benevolence of
+the dauphiness; but the severity of the winter had brought it back with
+aggravated intensity till it reached even to the palace, and compelled a
+curtailment of some of the festivities with which it had been intended to
+celebrate the marriage of the Count de Provence, which was fixed for the
+approaching May.
+
+Distress is the sure parent of discontent, unless the people have a very
+complete confidence in their government. And this was so far from being
+the case in France at this time, that the distrust of and contempt for
+those in the highest places increased daily more and more. The influence
+which Madame du Barri exerted over the king became more rooted as he
+became more used to submit to it, and more notorious as he grew more
+shameless in his avowal of it. She felt her power, and her intrigues
+became in the same proportion more busy and more diversified in their
+objects. In the vigorous description of Mercy, Versailles was wholly
+occupied by treachery, hatred, and vengeance; not one feeling of honesty
+or decency remained; while the people, ever quick-witted to perceive the
+vices of their rulers, especially when they are indulged at their expense,
+revenged themselves by bitter and seditious language, and by satires and
+pasquinades in which neither respect nor mercy was shown even to the
+sacred person of the sovereign himself. He was callous to all marks of
+contempt displayed for himself; but was, or was induced to profess
+himself, deeply annoyed at the conduct of the dauphin, who showed a fixed
+aversion for the mistress, which, however, his grandfather did not regard
+as dictated by his own feelings. Louis rather believed that it was
+fostered by Marie Antoinette, and that she, in encouraging her husband,
+was but following the advice of her aunts; and he threatened to
+remonstrate with the dauphiness on the subject, though, as Mercy correctly
+divined, he could not nerve himself to the necessary resolution.
+
+It was true that Marie Antoinette did often allow herself to be far too
+much influenced by those princesses. She confessed to Mercy that she was
+afraid to displease or thwart them; a feeling which he regarded as the
+more unfortunate because, when she was not actuated by that consideration,
+her own judgment and her own impulses would always guide her aright; and
+because, too, the elder princesses were the most unsafe of all advisers.
+They were notoriously jealous of one another, and each at times tried to
+inspire her niece with her feelings toward the other two; and they often,
+without meaning it, played into the hands of the mistress's cabal,
+intriguing for selfish objects of their own with as much malice and
+meanness as could be practiced by Madame du Barri herself.
+
+Still, in spite of these drawbacks, it was almost inevitable that they
+should have great influence over their niece. Their experience might well
+be presumed by her to have given them a correct insight into the ways of
+the court, and the best mode of behaving to their own father; and she, a
+foreigner and almost a child, was not only in need of counsel and
+guidance, but had no one else of her own sex to whom she could so
+naturally look for information or advice. They were, as she explained to
+Mercy, her only society; and, though she was too clear-sighted not to see
+their faults, and not at times to be aware that she was suffering from
+their perverseness, she, like other people, was often compelled to
+tolerate what she could not mend, and to shut her eyes to disagreeable
+qualities when forced to live on terms of intimacy with the possessors.
+
+On this point Maria Teresa was, perhaps, hardly inclined to make
+sufficient allowance for her difficulties, and insisted over and over
+again on the mischief which would arise to her from the habit of
+surrendering her judgment to these princesses. She told her that, though
+far from being devoid of virtues and real merit, "they had never succeeded
+in making themselves loved or esteemed by either their father or the
+public;[3]" and she added other admonitions which, as they were avowedly
+suggested by reports that had reached her, may be taken as indicating some
+errors into which her daughter's lightness of heart had occasionally
+betrayed her. She entreated her not to show an exclusive preference for
+the more youthful portion of her society, to the neglect of those who were
+older, and commonly of higher consideration; never to laugh at people or
+turn them into ridicule--no habit could be more injurious to herself, and
+indulgence in it would give reason to doubt her good-nature; it might gain
+her the applause of a few young people, but it would alienate a much
+greater number, and those the people of the most real weight and
+respectability. "This is not," said the experienced and wise empress, "a
+trivial matter in a princess. We live on the stage of the great world, and
+it is above all things essential that people should entertain a high idea
+of us. If you will only not allow others to lead you astray, you are sure
+of success; a kind Providence has endowed you so liberally with beauty,
+and with so many charms, that all hearts are yours if you are but
+prudent.[4]"
+
+The empress would have had her exhibit this prudence in her conduct also
+to Madame du Barri. She pressed upon her that she was justified in
+appearing ignorant of that lady's real position and character; that she
+need only be aware that she was received at court, and that respect for
+the king should prevent her from suspecting him of countenancing
+undeserving people.
+
+One other detail in the accounts of Marie Antoinette's conduct, which from
+time to time reached Vienna, had also vexed the empress, and it should be
+kept in mind by any one who would fairly estimate the truth of the charge
+brought against her, and urged with such rancor after she had become
+queen--of postponing the interests of France to those of her native land,
+of being Austrian at heart. Maria Teresa had heard, on the contrary, that
+she had given those Austrians who had presented themselves at Versailles
+but a cold reception, and she did not attempt to conceal her discontent.
+With a natural and becoming pride in and jealousy for her own loyal and
+devoted subjects, she entreated her daughter never to feel ashamed of
+them, or ashamed of being German herself, even if, comparatively speaking,
+the name should imply some deficiency in polish. "The French themselves
+would esteem her more if they saw in her something of German solidity and
+frankness.[5]"
+
+The daughter answered the mother with some adroitness. She took no notice
+of the advice about her behavior to Madame du Barri. It was the one topic
+on which her own feelings of propriety, as well as those of the dauphin,
+coincided with the suggestions of the aunts, and she did not desire to vex
+or provoke the empress by a prolonged discussion of the question; but the
+charge of coldness to her own countrymen she denied earnestly. "She should
+always glory in being a German. Some of those nobles whom the empress had
+expressly named she had treated with careful distinction, and had even
+danced with them, though they were not men of the very highest character.
+She well knew that the Germans had many good qualities which she could
+wish that the French shared with them;" and she promised that, whenever
+any of her mother's subjects of such standing and merit as to be worthy of
+her attention came to the court, they should have no cause to complain of
+her reception of them. Her language on the subject is so measured and
+careful as to lead us almost inevitably to the inference that the reports
+which had excited such dissatisfaction at Vienna were not without
+foundation, but that the French gayety, even if often descending to
+frivolity, was more to her taste than the German solidity which her mother
+so highly esteemed, and that she had been at no great pains to hide a
+preference which must naturally he acceptable to those among whom her
+future life was to be spent.
+
+In the middle of May, the Count de Provence was married to the Princess
+Joséphine Louise of Savoy, and the court went to Fontainebleau to receive
+the bride. The necessity for leaving Madame du Barri behind threw the king
+more into the company of the dauphiness than he had been on any previous
+occasion, and her unaffected graces seemed for the moment to have made a
+complete conquest of him. He came in his dressing-gown to her apartments
+for breakfast, and spent a great portion of the day there. The courtiers
+again began to speculate on her breaking down the ascendency of the
+favorite, remarking that, though Louis was careful to pay his new relative
+the honors which, were her due as a stranger and a bride, he returned as
+speedily as he could with decency to the dauphiness as if for relief; and
+that, though she herself took care to put her new sister-in-law forward on
+all occasions, and treated her with the most marked cordiality and
+affection, every one else made the dauphiness the principal object of
+homage even in the festivities which were celebrated in honor of the
+countess. Indeed, it was evident from the very first that any attempt of
+the mistress's cabal to establish a rivalry between the two princesses
+must be out of the question. The Countess de Provence had no beauty, nor
+accomplishments, nor graciousness. Horace Walpole, who was meditating a
+visit to Paris, where he had some diligent correspondents, was told that
+he would lose his senses when he saw the dauphiness, but would be
+disenchanted by her sister; and the saying, though that of a blind old
+lady, expressed the opinion of all Frenchmen who could see.[6]
+
+Indeed, so obvious was the king's partiality for her that even Madame du
+Barri more than once sought to propitiate her by speaking in praise of her
+to Mercy, and professing an eager desire to aid in procuring the
+gratification of any of her wishes. But he was too shrewd and too
+well-informed to place the least confidence in her sincerity, though he
+did not fear half as much harm to his pupil from her enmity as from the
+pretended affection of the aunts, who, from a mixture of folly and
+treachery, were unwearied in their attempts to keep her at a distance
+from the king, by inspiring her with a fear of him, for which his
+disposition, which had as much good-nature in it as was compatible with
+weakness, gave no ground whatever. Indeed, the mischief they did was not
+confined to their influence over her, if Mercy was correct in his belief
+that it was their disagreeable tempers and manners which at this time,
+and for the remainder of the reign, prevented Louis from associating
+more with his family, which, had all been like the dauphiness, he would
+have preferred to do.
+
+It would probably have been in vain that Mercy remonstrated against her
+submitting as she did to the aunts, had he not been at all times able to
+secure the co-operation of the empress, who placed the most implicit
+confidence in his judgment in all matters relating to the French court,
+and remonstrated with her daughter energetically on the want of proper
+self-respect which was implied in her surrendering her own judgment to
+that of the aunts, as if she were a slave or a child. And Marie
+Antoinette replied to her mother in a tone of such mingled submissiveness
+and affection as showed how sincere was her desire to remove every shade
+of annoyance from the empress's mind; and which may, perhaps, lead to a
+suspicion that even her subservience to the aunts proceeded in a great
+degree from her anxiety to win the good-will of every one, and from the
+kindness which could not endure to thwart those with whom she was much
+associated; though at the same time she complained to the ambassador that
+her mother wrote without sufficient knowledge of the difficulties with
+which she was surrounded. But she had too deep an affection and reverence
+for her mother to allow her words to fall to the ground; and gradually
+Mercy began to see a difference in her conduct, and a greater inclination
+to assert her own independence, which was the feeling that above all
+others he thought most desirable to foster in her.
+
+Another topic which we find constantly urged in the empress's letters
+would seem strangely inconsistent with Marie Antoinette's position, if we
+did not remember how very young she still was. For her mother writes to
+her in many respects as if she were still at school, and continually
+inculcates on her the necessity of profiting by De Vermond's instructions,
+and applying herself to a course of solid reading in theology and history.
+And here, though her natural appetite for amusement interfered with her
+studies somewhat more than the empress, prompted by Mercy, was willing to
+make allowance for, she profited much more willingly by her mother's
+advice, having indeed a natural inclination for the works of history and
+biography, and a decided distaste for novels and romances. She could not
+have had a better guide in such matters than De Vermond, who was a man of
+extensive information and of a very correct taste; and under his guidance
+and with his assistance she studied Sully's memoirs, Madame de Sévigné's
+letters, and any other books which he recommended to her, and which gave
+her an idea of the past history of the country as well as the masterpieces
+of the great French dramatists.[7]
+
+The latter part of the year 1771 was marked by no very striking
+occurrences. Marie Antoinette had carried her point, and had begun to ride
+on horseback without either her figure or her complexion suffering from
+the exercise. On the contrary, she was admitted to have improved in
+beauty. She sent her measure to Vienna, to show Maria Teresa how much she
+had grown, adding that her husband had grown as much, and had become
+stronger and more healthy-looking, and that she had made use of her
+saddle-horses to accompany him in his hunting and shooting excursions.
+Like a true wife, she boasted to her mother of his skill as a shot: the
+very day that she wrote he had killed forty head of game. (She did not
+mention that a French sportsman's bag was not confined to the larger game,
+but that thrushes, blackbirds, and even, red-breasts, were admitted to
+swell the list.) And the increased facilities for companionship with him
+that her riding afforded increased his tenderness for her, so that she was
+happier than ever. Except that as yet she saw no prospect of presenting
+the empress with a grandchild, she had hardly a wish ungratified.
+
+Her taste for open-air exercise of this kind added also to the attachment
+felt for her by the lower classes, from the opportunities which arose out
+of it for showing her unvarying and considerate kindness. The contrast
+which her conduct afforded to that of previous princes, and indeed to that
+of all the present race except her husband, caused her actions of this
+sort to be estimated rather above their real importance. But how great was
+the impression which they did make on those who witnessed them may be seen
+in the unanimity with which the chroniclers of the time record her
+forbidding her postilions to drive over a field of corn which lay between
+her and the stag, because she would rather miss the sight of the chase
+than injure the farmer; and relate how, on one occasion, she gave up
+riding for a week or two, and sent her horses back from Compiègne to
+Versailles, because the wife of her head-groom was on the point of her
+confinement, and she wished her to have her husband near her at such a
+moment; and on another, when the horse of one of her attendants kicked
+her, and inflicted a severe bruise on her foot, she abstained from
+mentioning the hurt, lest it should bring the rider into disgrace by being
+attributed to his awkward management.
+
+Not that the intrigues of the mistress and her adherents were at all
+diminished. They were even more active than ever since the marriage of the
+Count de Provence, who, in an underhanded way, instigated his wife to show
+countenance to Madame du Barri, and who allowed, if he did not encourage,
+the mistress and her friends to speak slightingly of the dauphiness in his
+presence. But, as Marie Antoinette felt firmer in her own position, she
+could afford to disregard the malice of these caballers more than she had
+felt that she could do at first, and even to defy them. On one occasion
+that the Count de Provence was imprudent enough to discuss some of his
+schemes with the door open while she was in the next room, she told him
+frankly that she had heard all that he said, and reproached him for his
+duplicity; and the dauphin coming in at the moment, she flew to him,
+throwing her arms round his neck, and telling him how she appreciated his
+honesty and candor, and how the more she compared him with the others, the
+more she saw his superiority. Indeed, she soon began to find that the
+Countess de Provence was as little to be trusted as her husband; and the
+only member of the family whom she really liked, or of whom she had at all
+a favorable opinion, was the Count d'Artois, who, though not yet out of
+the school-room, "showed," as she told her mother, "sentiments of honesty
+which he could never have learned of his governor.[8]"
+
+Her indefatigable guardian, Mercy, reported to the empress that she
+improved every day. He had learned to conceive a very high idea of her
+abilities; and he dilated with especial satisfaction on the powers of
+conversation which she was developing; on her wit and readiness in
+repartee; on her originality, as well as facility of expression; and on
+her perfect possession of the royal art of speaking to a whole company
+with such notice of each member of it, that each thought himself the
+person to whom her remarks were principally addressed. She possessed
+another accomplishment, also, of great value to princes--a tenacious
+recollection of faces and names. And she had made herself acquainted with
+the history of all the chief nobles, so as to be able to make graceful
+allusions to facts in their family annals of which they were proud, and,
+what was perhaps even more important, to avoid unpleasant or dangerous
+topics. The king himself was not insensible to the increase of attraction
+which her charms, both of person and manner, conferred on the royal
+palace. He was perfectly satisfied with the civility of her behavior to
+Madame du Barri, who admitted that she had nothing to complain of. And
+the only point in which even Mercy, the most critical of judges, saw any
+room for alteration in her conduct was a certain remissness in bestowing
+her notice on men of real eminence, and on foreign visitors if they were
+not of the very highest rank; the remark as to the latter class being
+perhaps dictated by a somewhat excessive natural susceptibility, and by a
+laudable desire that any Germans who returned from France to their own
+country should sing her praises in her native land.
+
+Perhaps one of the strongest proofs of the regard in which, at this time,
+she was held by all parties in the court is found in the circumstance that
+the Count de Provence himself very soon found it impossible to continue
+his countenance to the intrigues against her which he had previously
+favored. He preferred ingratiating himself and the countess with her.
+Marie Antoinette was always placable, and from the first had been eager,
+as the head of the family, to place her sister-in-law at her ease; so that
+when the count evinced his desire to stand on a friendly footing with her,
+she showed every disposition to meet his wishes, and the spring and summer
+of 1772 exhibited to the courtiers, who were little accustomed to such
+scenes, a happy example of an intimate family union. Marie Antoinette had
+always been fond of music, and, as we have seen before, ever since her
+arrival in France, had devoted fixed hours to her music-master. And now,
+on almost every evening which was not otherwise preoccupied, she gave
+little concerts in her apartments to the royal family, their principal
+attendants, and a few of the chief nobles of the court; being herself
+occasionally one of the performers, and maintaining her character as a
+hostess by a combined affability and dignity which made all her guests
+pleased with themselves as with her, and set all imitation and all
+detraction alike at defiance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+Marie Antoinette wishes to see Paris.--Intrigues of Madame Adelaide.--
+Characters of the Dauphin and the Count de Provence.--Grand Review at
+Fontainebleau.--Marie Antoinette ill the Hunting Field.--Letter from her
+to the Empress.--Mischievous Influence of the Dauphin's Aunts on her
+Character.--Letter of Marie Antoinette to the Empress.--Her Affection for
+her Old House.--The Princes are recalled from Exile.--Lord Stormont.--
+Great Fire at the Hôtel-Dieu.--Liberality and Charity of Marie
+Antoinette.--She goes to the Bal d'Opéra.---Her Feelings about the
+Partition of Poland.--The King discusses Politics with her, and thinks
+highly of her Ability.
+
+
+It was a curious proof of the mischievousness as well as of the extent of
+the influence which Madame Adelaide and her sister were able to exert over
+the indolence and apathy of their father, that when Marie Antoinette had
+for more than two years been married and living within twelve miles of
+Paris, she had never yet seen it by daylight, although the universal and
+natural expectation of the citizens had been that the royal pair would pay
+the city a state visit immediately after their marriage. Her own wishes
+had not been consulted in the matter; for she was naturally anxious to see
+the beautiful city of which she had heard so much; and the delay which had
+taken place was equally at variance with Madame de Noailles' notions of
+propriety. But when the countess suggested a plan for visiting the capital
+_incognito_, proposing that the dauphiness should drive as far as the
+entrance to the suburbs, and then, having sent on her saddle-horses,
+should ride along the boulevards, Madame Adelaide, professing a desire to
+join the party, raised so many difficulties on the subject of the retinue
+which was to follow, and was so successful in creating jealousies between
+her own ladies and those in attendance on Marie Antoinette, that Madame de
+Noailles was forced to recommend the abandonment of the project. Mercy was
+far more annoyed than his young mistress; he saw that the secret object of
+Madame Adelaide was to throw as many hindrance as possible in the way of
+the dauphiness winning popularity by appearing in public, while he also
+correctly judged hat it would be consistent both with propriety and with
+her interest, as the future queen of the country, rather to seek and even
+make opportunities for enabling the people to become acquainted with her.
+But to Marie Antoinette any disappointment of that kind was a very
+trifling matter. She had vexations which, as she told the embassador, she
+could not explain even to him; and they kept alive in her a feeling of
+homesickness which, in all persons of amiable and affectionate
+disposition, must require some, time to subdue. Even when her brother, the
+Archduke Ferdinand, had quit Vienna in the preceding autumn to enter on
+the honorable post of Governor of Lombardy, she had not congratulated, but
+condoled with him, "feeling by her own experience how much it costs to be
+separated from one's family." And what she had found in her own home did
+not as yet make up to her for all she had left behind. Even her husband,
+though uniformly kind in language and behavior, was of a singularly cold
+and undemonstrative disposition; and it almost seemed as if the gayety
+which he exhibited at her balls were an effort so foreign to his nature
+that he indemnified himself by unpardonable boorishness on other
+occasions. The Count de Provence had but little more polish, and a far
+worse temper. Squabbles often took place between the two brothers. Though
+both married men, they were still in age only boys; and on more than one
+occasion they proceeded to acts of personal violence to each other in her
+presence. Luckily no one else was by, and she was able to pacify and
+reconcile them; but she could hardly avoid feeling ashamed of having been
+called on to exert herself in such a cause, or contrasting the undignified
+boisterousness (to give it no worse name) of such scenes with the decorous
+self-respect which, with all their simplicity of character, had always
+governed the conduct of her own relations.
+
+Not but that, in the opinion of Mercy,[1] the dauphin was endowed by
+nature with a more than ordinary share of good qualities. His faults were
+only such as proceeded from an excessively bad education. He had many most
+essential virtues. He was a young man of perfect integrity and
+straightforwardness; he was desirous to hear the truth; and it was never
+necessary to beat about the bush, or to have recourse to roundabout ways
+of bringing it before him. On the contrary, to speak to him with perfect
+frankness was the surest way both to win his esteem and to convince his
+reason. On one or two occasions in which he had consulted the embassador,
+Mercy had expressed his opinions without the least reserve, and had
+perceived that the young prince had liked him better for his candor.
+
+The king still kept up the habit of spending the greater part of the
+autumn at Compiègne and Fontainebleau, visits which Marie Antoinette
+welcomed as a holiday from the etiquette of Versailles. She wrote word to
+her mother that she was growing very fast, and taking asses' milk to keep
+up her strength; that that regimen, with constant exercise, was doing her
+great good; and that she had gained great praise for the excellence of her
+riding. On one occasion, when they were at Fontainebleau, she especially
+delighted the officers of her husband's regiment of cuirassiers, when the
+king reviewed it in person. The dauphin himself took the command of his
+men, and put them through their evolutions while she rode by his side; he
+then presented each of the officers to her separately, and she distributed
+cockades to the whole body. The first she gave to the dauphin himself,[2]
+who placed it in his hat. Each officer, as he received his, did the same.
+And after the king had taken his departure, she, with her husband,
+remained on the field for an hour, conversing freely with the soldiers,
+and showing the greatest interest in all that concerned the regiment.
+Throughout the day the young prince had exhibited a knowledge of the
+profession, and a readiness as well as an ease of manner, which had
+surprised all the spectators, and Mercy had the satisfaction of hearing
+every one attribute the admirable appearance which he had made on so
+important an occasion (for it was the first time of his appearing in such
+a position) to the example and hints of the dauphiness.
+
+It was scarcely less of a public appearance, while it was one in which the
+king himself probably took more interest, when, a few days afterward, on
+the occasion of a grand stag-hunt in the forest, she joined in the chase
+in a hunting uniform of her own devising. The king was so delighted that
+he scarcely left her side, and extolled her taste in dress, as well as her
+skill in horsemanship, to all whom he honored with his conversation. But
+the empress was not quite so well pleased. Her disapproval of horse
+exercise for young married women was as strong as ever. She had also
+interpreted some of her daughter's submissive replies to her admonitions
+on the subject as a promise that she would not ride, and she scolded her
+severely (no weaker word can express the asperity of her language) for
+neglect of her engagement, as well as for the risk of accidents which are
+incurred by those who follow the hounds, and some of which, as she heard,
+had befallen the dauphiness herself. Her daughter's explanation was as
+frank as it deserved to be accounted sufficient, while her letter is
+interesting also, as showing her constant eagerness to exculpate herself
+from the charge of indifference to her German countrymen, an eagerness
+which proves how firmly she believed the notion to be fixed in the
+empress's mind.
+
+"I expect, my dear mamma, that people must have told you more about my
+rides than there really was to be told. I will tell you the exact truth.
+The king and the dauphin both like to see me on horseback. I only say this
+because all the world perceives it, and especially while we were absent
+from Versailles they were delighted to see me in my riding-habit. But,
+though I own it was no great effort for me to conform myself to their
+desires, I can assure you that I never once let myself he carried away by
+too much eagerness to keep close to the hounds; and I hope that, in spite
+of all my giddiness, I shall always allow myself to be restrained by the
+experienced hunters who constantly accompany me, and I shall never thrust
+myself into the crowd. I should never have supposed any one could have
+reported to you as an accident what happened to me in Fontainebleau. Every
+now and then one finds in the forest large stepping stones; and as we were
+going on very gently my horse stumbled on one covered with sand, which he
+did not see; but I easily held him up, and we went on.... Esterhazy was at
+our ball yesterday. Every one was greatly pleased with his dignified
+manner and with his style of dancing. I ought to have spoken to him when
+he was presented to me, and my silence only proceeded from embarrassment,
+as I did not know him. It would be doing me great injustice to think that
+I have any feeling of indifference to my country; I have more reason than
+any one to feel, every day of my life, the value of the blood which flows
+in my veins, and it is only from prudence that at times I abstain from
+showing how proud I am of it.... I never neglect any mode of paying
+attention to the king, and of anticipating his wishes as far as I can. I
+hope that he is pleased with me. It is my duty to please him, my duty and
+also my glory, if by such means I can contribute to maintain the alliance
+of the two houses....[3]"
+
+The empress was but half pacified about the riding and hunting. She owned
+that, if both the king and the dauphin approved of it, she had nothing
+more to say, though she still blamed the dauphiness for forgetting a
+promise which she understood to have been made to herself. At the same
+time, no language could be kinder than that in which she asked "whether
+her daughter could believe that she would wish to deprive her of so
+innocent a pleasure, she who would give her very life to procure her one,
+if she were not apprehensive of mischievous consequences;" her
+apprehensions being solely dictated by her anxiety to see her daughter
+bear an heir to the throne. But she would by no means admit her excuses
+for giving the Hungarian prince a cold reception. "How," she said, "could
+she forget that her little Antoinette, when not above twelve or thirteen
+years old, knew how to receive people publicly, and say something polite
+and gracious to every one, and how could she suppose that the same
+daughter, now that she was dauphiness, could feel embarrassment?
+Embarrassment was a mere chimera."
+
+But the truth was that it was not a mere chimera. Mercy had more than once
+deplored, as one among the mischievous effects of Madame Adelaide's
+constant interference and domineering influence, that it had bred in Marie
+Antoinette a timidity which was wholly foreign to her nature. And indeed
+it was hardly possible for one still so young to be aware that she was
+surrounded by unfriendly intriguers and spies, and to preserve that
+uniform presence of mind which her rank and position made so desirable for
+her, and which was in truth so natural to her that she at once recovered
+it the moment that her circumstances changed.
+
+And a probability of an early change was already apparent. During the last
+months of 1772 there was a general idea that the king's health and mental
+faculties were both giving away; and all the different parties about
+Versailles began to show their sense of her approaching authority. It was
+remarked that both the ministers and the mistress had become very guarded
+in their language, and in their behavior to her and her husband. The Count
+de Provence took a curious way of showing his expectation of a change, by
+delivering her a long paper of counsels for her guidance, the chief object
+of which was to warn her against holding such frequent conversations with
+Mercy. She apparently thought that the writer's desire was to remove the
+embassador from her confidence that he himself might occupy the vacant
+place, and she showed her opinion of the value of the advice by reading it
+to Mercy and then putting it into the fire.
+
+Some extracts from the first letter which she wrote to her mother in 1773
+will serve to give us a fair idea of her feelings at this time, both from
+what it does and from what it does not mention. The intelligence which has
+reached her about her sister recalls to her mind her own anxiety to become
+a mother, her disappointment in this matter being, indeed, one of the most
+constant topics of lamentation in the letters of both daughter and mother,
+till it was removed by the birth of the princess royal. But that is her
+only vexation. In every other respect she seems perfectly contented with
+the course which affairs are taking; while we see how thoroughly unspoiled
+she is both in the warmth of the affection with which she speaks of her
+family and greets the little memorials of home which have been sent her;
+and still more in the continuance of her acts of charity, and in her
+design that her benevolence should be unknown.
+
+"I hear that the queen[4] is expecting to be confined. I hope her child
+will be a son. When shall I be able to say the same of myself? They tell
+me, too, that the grand duke[5] and his wife are going into Spain. I
+greatly wish that they would conceive a dread of the sea-voyage, and take
+this place in their way. The journey would be a little longer; but they
+would be well received here, for my brother is very highly thought of;
+and, besides, I am somewhat jealous at being the only one of my family
+unacquainted with my sister-in-law.
+
+"The pictures of my little brothers which you have sent me have given me
+great pleasure. I have had them set in a ring, and wear it every day.
+Those who have seen my brothers at Vienna pronounce the pictures very
+like, and every one thinks them very good-looking. New-year's-day here is
+a day of a great crowd and grand ceremony. There was nothing either to
+blame or to praise in the degree in which I adopted my dear mamma's
+advice. The Favorite came to pay her respects to me at a moment when my
+apartment was very full It was impossible for me to address myself to
+every one separately, so I spoke to the whole company in a body; and I
+have reason to believe that both the Favorite and her sister, who is her
+principal adviser, were pleased; though I have also reason to believe
+that, two days afterward, M. d'Aiguillon tried to persuade them that they
+had been ill-treated. As for the minister himself, he has never complained
+of me, and, indeed, I have always been careful to treat him equally well
+with the rest of his colleagues.
+
+"You will have learned, my dear mamma, that the Duc d'Orléans and the Duc
+de Chartres are returned from banishment. I am glad of it for the sake of
+peace, and for that of the tranquillity and comfort of the king. But, if
+she had been in the king's place, I do not think my dear mamma would have
+accepted the letter which they have dared to write, and which they have
+got printed in foreign newspapers.[6]
+
+"I was glad to see M. de Stormont.[7] I asked him all the news about my
+dear family, and it was a pleasure to him to inform me. He seems to me to
+have overcome his prejudices, and every one here thinks him a man of
+thorough high-breeding. I have desired M. de Mercy to invite him to one of
+my Monday balls. We are going to have one at, Madame de Noailles'. They
+will last till Ash-Wednesday. They will begin an hour or two later than
+they used to, that we may not be so tired as we were last year when we
+came to Lent In spite of the amusements of the carnival, I am always
+faithful to my poor harp, and they say that I make great progress with it.
+I sing, too, every week at the concert given by my sister of Provence.
+Although there are very few people there, they are very well amused; and
+my singing gives great pleasure to my two sisters.[8] I also find time to
+read a little. I have begun the 'History of England' by Mr. Hume. It seems
+to me very interesting, though it is necessary to recollect that it is a
+Protestant who has written it.
+
+"All the newspapers have spoken of the terrible fire at the Hotel-Dieu.[9]
+They were obliged to remove the patients into the cathedral and the
+archbishop's palace. There are generally from five to six thousand
+patients in the hospital. In spite of all the exertions that were made, it
+was impossible to prevent the destruction of a great part of the building;
+and, though it is now a fortnight since the accident happened, the tire is
+still smoldering in the cellars. The archbishop has enjoined a collection
+to be made for the sufferers, and I have sent him a thousand crowns. I
+said nothing of my having done so to any one, and the compliments which
+they have paid me on it have been embarrassing to me; but they have said
+it was right to let it be known that I had sent this money, for the sake
+of the example."
+
+She was on this, as on many other occasions, one of those who
+
+  "Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame."
+
+One of her sayings, with which she more than once repressed the panegyrics
+of those who, as it seemed to her, extolled her benevolence too loudly,
+was that it was not worth while to say a great deal about giving a little
+assistance; and, on this occasion, so secret had she intended to keep her
+benevolence that she had not mentioned it to De Vermond, or even to Mercy.
+But she judged rightly that the empress would enter into the feelings
+which had prompted both the act and also the silence; and she was amply
+rewarded by her mother's praise.
+
+"I have been enchanted," the empress wrote, in instant reply, "with the
+thousand crowns that you have sent to the Hôtel-Dieu, and you speak very
+properly in saying that you have been vexed at people speaking to you
+about it. Such actions ought to be known to God alone, and I am certain
+that you acted in that spirit. Still, those who published your act had
+good reasons for what they did, as you say yourself, thinking of the
+influence of your example. My dear little girl, we owe this example to the
+world, and to set such is one of the most essential and most delicate
+duties of our condition. The more frequently you can perform acts of
+benevolence and generosity without crippling your means too much, the
+better; and what would be ostentation and prodigality in another is
+becoming and necessary for those of our rank. We have no other resources
+but those of conferring benefits and showing kindness; and this is even
+more the case with a dauphiness or a queen consort, which I myself have
+not been."
+
+There could hardly be a better specimen of the principles on which the
+empress herself had governed her extensive dominions, or of the value of
+her example and instructions to her daughter, than that which is contained
+in these few lines; but it is not always that such lessons are so closely
+followed as they were by the virtuous and beneficent dauphiness. The
+winter passed on cheerfully; the ordinary amusements of the palace being
+varied by her going with the dauphin and the Count and Countess of
+Provence to one of the public masked balls of the opera-house, a diversion
+which, considering the unavoidably mixed character of the company, it is
+hard to avoid thinking somewhat unsuited to so august a party, but one
+which had been too frequently countenanced by different members of the
+royal family for several years for such a visit to cause remarks, though
+the masks of the princes and princesses could not long preserve their
+secret Another favorite amusement of the court at this time was the
+representation of proverbs, in which Marie Antoinette acted with the
+little Elizabeth; and we have a special account of one such performance,
+which was given in her honor by one of her ladies, having been originally
+devised for the Day of Saint Anthony, as her saint's day,[10] though it
+was postponed on account of her being confined to her room with a cold.
+The proverb was, "Better late than never;" and, as the most acceptable
+compliment to the dauphiness, the managers introduced a number of
+characters attired in a diversity of costumes, intended to represent the
+natives of all the countries ruled over by the Empress-queen, each of whom
+made a speech, in which the praises of Maria Teresa and Marie Antoinette
+were happily combined.
+
+The king got better, and intrigues of all kinds were revived; but, aided
+by Mercy's counsels, and supported by the dauphin's unalterable affection,
+Marie Antoinette disconcerted all that were aimed at her by the uniform
+prudence of her conduct. Happily for her, with all his defects, her
+husband was still one in whom she could feel perfect confidence. As she
+told Mercy, under any conceivable circumstances she was sure of his views
+and intentions being always right; the only difficulty was to engage him
+in a sufficiently decided course of action, which his timid and sluggish
+disposition rendered almost painful to him. And just at this moment she
+was more anxious than usual to inspire him with her own feelings and
+spirit, because she could not avoid fearing that the discontent with which
+the few people in France who deserved the name of statesmen regarded the
+recent partition of Poland might create a coolness between France and
+Austria, calculated to endanger the alliance, the continuance of which was
+so indispensable to her happiness, and, as she was firmly convinced, to
+the welfare of both countries. She conversed more than once with Mercy on
+the subject, and her reflections, both on the partition, and on the degree
+in which the mutual interest of the two nations was concerned in their
+remaining united, gave him a very good idea of her political capacity. He
+also reported to his imperial mistress that he had found out that King
+Louis had conceived the same opinion of her, and had begun to discuss
+affairs of importance with her. He trusted that his majesty would get a
+habit of doing so; since, if his life should be spared, she would thus in
+time become able to exert a very useful influence over him; and as, at all
+events, "it was absolutely certain that some day or other she would govern
+the kingdom, it was of the very greatest consequence to the success of the
+great and brilliant career which she had before her that she should
+previously accustom herself to regard affairs with such principles and
+views as were suitable to the position which she must occupy."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+Marie Antoinette is anxious for the Maintenance of the Alliance between
+France and Austria.--She, with the Dauphin, makes a State Entry into
+Paris.--The "Dames de la Halle."--She praises the Courtesy of the
+Dauphin.--Her Delight at the Enthusiasm of the Citizens.--She, with the
+Dauphin, goes to the Theatre, and to the Fair of St. Ovide, and to St.
+Cloud.--Is enthusiastically received everywhere.--She learns to drive.--
+She makes some Relaxations in Etiquette.--Marriage of the Comte d'Artois.
+--The King's Health grows Bad.--Visit of Marshal Lacy to Versailles.--The
+King catches the Small-pox.--Madame du Barri quits Versailles.--The King
+dies.
+
+
+Politics were, indeed, taking such a hold over Marie Antoinette that they
+begin to furnish some topics for her letters to her mother, one of which
+shows that she had already formed that opinion of French fickleness which
+she had afterward too abundant cause to maintain. "I do hope," she says,
+"that the good intelligence between our two nations will last. One good
+thing in this country is, that if ill-natured feelings are quick to arise,
+they disappear with equal rapidity. The King of Prussia is innately a bad
+neighbor, but the English will also always be bad neighbors to France, and
+the sea has never prevented them from doing her great mischief." We might,
+firstly, demur to any actions of our statesmen being classed with the
+treacherous aggressions of Frederick of Prussia, nor did many years of her
+husband's reign pass over before the greatest of English ministers
+proposed and concluded a treaty between the two countries, which he fondly
+and wisely hoped would lay the foundations of a better understanding, if
+not of a lasting peace, between the two countries. But even before that
+treaty was framed, and before Pitt's voice had become predominant in the
+State, Marie Antoinette's complaint that the sea had never disarmed us of
+power to injure France had received the strongest exemplification that as
+yet the history of the two nations afforded in Rodney's great victory.
+However, she soon turns to more agreeable subject, and proceeds to speak
+of a pleasure to which she was looking forward, and which, as we have
+already seen, had been unaccountably deferred till this time, in defiance
+of all propriety and of all precedent. "I hope that the dauphin and I
+shall make our entry into Paris next month, which will be a great delight
+to me. I do not venture to speak of it yet, though I have the king's
+promise: it would not be the first time that they had made him change his
+mind."
+
+The most elaborate exposure of the cabals and intrigues which ever since
+her marriage had been persistently directed against Marie Antoinette could
+not paint them so forcibly as the simple fact that three years had now
+elapsed since her marriage; and that, though the state entrance of the
+heir of the crown and his bride into the metropolis of the kingdom ought
+to have been a prominent part of the marriage festivities, it had never
+yet taken place. Nor, though Louis had at last given his formal promise
+that it should be no longer delayed, did the young pair even yet feel sure
+that an influence superior to theirs might not induce him to recall it.
+However, at last the intrigues were baffled, and, on the 8th of June, the
+visit, which had been expected by the Parisians with an eagerness
+exceeding that of the dauphiness herself, was made. It was in every
+respect successful; and it is due to Marie Antoinette to let the outline
+of the proceeding be described by herself.
+
+"Versailles, June 14th.
+
+"MY DEAREST MOTHER,--I absolutely blush for your kindness to me. The day
+before yesterday Mercy sent me your precious letter, and yesterday I
+received a second. That is indeed passing one's fête day happily. On
+Tuesday I had a fête which I shall never forget all my life. We made our
+entrance into Paris. As for honors, we received all that we could possibly
+imagine; but they, though very well in their way, were not what touched me
+most. What was really affecting was the tenderness and earnestness of the
+poor people, who, in spite of the taxes with which they are overwhelmed,
+were transported with joy at seeing us. When we went to walk in the
+Tuileries, there was so vast a crowd that we were three-quarters of an
+hour without being able to move either forward or backward. The dauphin
+and I gave repeated orders to the Guards not to beat any one, which had a
+very good effect. Such excellent order was kept the whole day that, in
+spite of the enormous crowd which followed us everywhere, not a person was
+hurt. When we returned from our walk we went up to an open terrace, and
+staid there half an hour. I can not describe to you, my dear mamma, the
+transports of joy and affection which every one exhibited toward us.
+Before we withdrew we kissed our hands to the people, which gave them
+great pleasure. What a happy, thing it is for persons in our rank to gain
+the love of a whole nation so cheaply! Yet there is nothing so precious; I
+felt it thoroughly, and shall never forget it.
+
+"Another circumstance which gave great pleasure on that glorious day was
+the behavior of the dauphin. He made admirable replies to every address,
+and remarked every thing that was done in his honor, and especially the
+earnestness and delight of the people, to whom he showed great kindness.
+Of all the copies of verses which were given me on this occasion, these
+are the prettiest which I inclose to you.[1] Tomorrow we are going to
+Paris to the opera, There is great anxiety for us to do so; and I believe
+that we shall go on two other days also to visit the French and the
+Italian comedy. I feel more and more, every day of my life, how much my
+dear mamma has done for my establishment. I was the youngest of all her
+daughters, and she has treated me as if I were the eldest; so that my
+whole soul is filled with the most tender gratitude.
+
+"The king has had the kindness to procure the release of three hundred and
+twenty prisoners, for debts due to nurses who have brought up their
+children. Their release took place two days after our entrance. I wished
+to attend Divine service on my fête day; but the evening before, my
+sister, the Countess of Provence, had a party for me, a proverb with songs
+and fire-works, and this distraction forced me to put off going to church
+till the next day.
+
+"I am very glad to hear that you have such good hope of the continuance of
+peace. While the intriguers of this country are devouring one another,
+they will not harass their neighbors nor their allies."
+
+She does not enter into details; the pomp and ceremony of their reception
+by nobles and magistrates had been in her eyes as nothing in comparison
+with the cordial welcome given to them by the poorer citizens. While they,
+on their part, must have been equally gratified at perceiving the sincere
+pleasure with which she and the dauphin accepted their salutations; a
+feeling how different from that which had animated any of their princes
+for many years, we may judge from the order given to the guards to forbear
+beating the crowd which gathered round them, as no doubt, without such an
+order, the soldiers would have thought it usual and natural to do.
+
+Not that the proceedings of the day had not been magnificent and imposing
+enough to attract the admiration of any who thought less of the hearts of
+the citizens than of pomp and splendor. The royal train, conveyed from
+Versailles in six state carriages, was received at the city gate by the
+governor, the Marshal Duc de Brissac, accompanied by the head of the
+police, the provost of the merchants, and all the other municipal
+authorities. The marshal himself was the heir of the Comte de Brissac who,
+nearly two centuries before, being also Governor of Paris, had tendered to
+the victorious Henry IV. the submission of the city. But Henry was as yet
+only the chief of a party, not the accepted sovereign of the whole nation;
+and the enthusiasm with which half the citizens rained their shouts of
+exultation in his honor had its drawback in the sullen silence of the
+other half, who regarded the great Bourbon as their conqueror rather than
+their king, and his triumphant entrance as their defeat and humiliation.
+
+To-day all the citizens were but one party. As but one voice was heard, so
+but one heart gave utterance to it. The joy was as unanimous as it was
+loud. From the city gates the royal party passed on to the great national
+cathedral of Notre Dame, and from thence to the church dedicated by
+Clovis, the first Christian king, to St. Geneviève, whose recent
+restoration was the most creditable work of the present reign, and which
+subsequently, under the new name of the Pantheon, was destined to become
+the resting-place of many of the worthies whose memory the nation
+cherishes with enduring pride. At last they reached the Tuileries, their
+progress having been arrested at different points by deputations of all
+kinds with loyal and congratulatory addresses; at the Hôtel-Dieu by the
+prioress with a company of nuns; on the Quai Conti by the Provost of the
+Mint with his officers; before the college bearing the name of its
+founder, Louis le Grand, the Rector of the University, at the head of his
+students, greeted them in a Latin speech, at the close of which he secured
+the re-doubling of the acclamations of the pupils by promising them a
+holiday. Not that the cheers required any increase. The citizens in their
+ecstasy did not even think their voices sufficient. As the royal couple
+moved slowly through the gardens of the Tuileries arm-in-arm, every hand
+was employed in clapping, hats were thrown up, and every token of joy
+which enthusiasm ever devised was displayed to the equally delighted
+visitors. "Good heavens, what a crowd!" said Marie Antoinette to De
+Brissac, who had some difficulty in keeping his place at her side.
+"Madame," said the old warrior, as courtly as he was valiant, "if I may
+say so without offending my lord the dauphin, they are all so many
+lovers." When they had made the circuit of the garden and returned to the
+palace, the most curious part of the day's ceremonies awaited them. A
+banqueting-table was arranged for six hundred guests, and those guests
+were not the nobles of the nation, nor the clergy, nor the must renowned
+warriors, nor the municipal officers, but the fish-women of the city
+market. A custom so old that its origin can not be traced had established
+the right of these dames to bear an especial part in such festivities. In
+the course of the morning they had made their future queen free of their
+market, with an offering of fruits and flowers. And now, as, according to
+a singular usage of the court, no male subject was ever allowed to sit at
+table with a queen or dauphiness of France, the dinner party over which
+the youthful pair, sitting side by side, presided, consisted wholly of
+these dames whose profession is not generally considered as imparting any
+great refinement to the manners, and who, before the close of the
+entertainment, showed, in more cases than one, that they had imported some
+of the notions and fashions of their more ordinary places of resort into
+the royal palace.
+
+It was characteristic of Marie Antoinette that, in her description of the
+day to her mother, she had dwelt with special emphasis on the gracious
+deportment of her husband. It was equally natural for Mercy to assure the
+empress[2] that it had been the grace and elegance of the dauphiness
+herself which had attracted general admiration, and that it was to her
+example and instruction that every one attributed the courteous demeanor
+which, as he did not deny, the young prince had unquestionably exhibited.
+It was she whom the king, as he affirmed, had complimented on the result
+of the day; a success which she had gracefully attributed to himself,
+saying that he must be greatly beloved by the Parisians to induce them to
+give his children so splendid a reception[3]. To whomsoever it was owing,
+the embassador certainly did not exaggerate the opinion of the world
+around him when he affirmed that, in the memory of man, no one recollected
+any ceremony which had made so great a sensation, and had been attended by
+so complete a success.
+
+And it was followed up, as she expected, by several visits to the
+different Parisian theatres, which, in compliance with the king's express
+direction, were made in all the state which would have been observed had
+he himself been present. Salutes were fired from the Bastile and the Hotel
+des Invalides; companies of Royal Guards lined the vestibule and the
+passage of the theatre; sentinels stood even on the stage; but, fond as
+the French are of martial finery and parade, the spectators paid little
+attention to the soldiers, or even to the actors. All eyes were fixed on
+the dauphiness alone. At Mercy's suggestion, the dauphin and she had
+previously obtained the king's permission to allow the violation of the
+rule which forbade any clapping of hands in the presence of royalty. This
+relaxation of etiquette was hailed as a great condescension by the
+play-goers, and throughout the evening of their appearance at the Italian
+comedy the spectators had already made abundant use of their new
+privilege, when the enthusiasm was brought to a height by a chorus which
+ended with the loyal burden of "Vive le roi!" Clerval, the performer of
+the principal part, added, "Et ses chers enfants;" and the compliment was
+re-echoed from every part of the house with continued clapping and
+cheering, till it reminded Marie Antoinette of a somewhat similar scene
+which, as a child, she had witnessed in the theatre of Vienna,[4] when the
+empress, from her box, had announced to the audience that a son (the heir
+to the empire) had just been born to the Archduke Leopold.
+
+The ice being, thus, as it were, once broken, the dauphin and dauphiness
+took many opportunities of appearing in public during the following
+months, visiting the great Paris fair of St. Ovide, as it was called,
+walking up and down the alleys, and making purchases at the stalls the
+whole Place Louis XV., to which the fair had recently been removed, being
+illuminated, and the crowd greeting them with repeated and enthusiastic
+cheers. They also went in state to the exhibition of pictures at the
+Louvre, and drove to St. Cloud to walk about the park attached to that
+palace, which was one of the most favorite places of resort for the
+Parisians on the fine summer evenings; so that, while the court was at
+Versailles, scarcely a week elapsed without her giving them an opportunity
+of seeing her, in which it was evident that she fully shared their
+pleasure. To be loved was with her a necessity of her very nature; and, as
+she was constantly referring with pride to the attachment felt by the
+Austrians for her mother, she fixed her own chief wishes on inspiring with
+a similar feeling those who were to become her and her husband's subjects.
+She was, at least for the time, rewarded as she desired. This is, indeed,
+said they, the best of innovations, the best of revolutions,[5] to see the
+princes mingling with the people, and interesting themselves in their
+amusements. This was really to unite all classes; to attach the country to
+the palace and the palace to the country; and it was to the dauphiness
+that the credit of this new state of things was universally attributed.
+
+She was looking forward to a greater pleasure in a visit from her.
+brother, the emperor, which the empress hoped might be attended with
+consequences more important than those of passing pleasure; since she
+trusted to his influence, and, if opportunity should occur, to his
+remonstrances, to induce the dauphin to break through the unaccountable
+coldness with which, in some respects, he still treated his beautiful
+wife. But Joseph was forced to postpone his visit, and the fulfillment of
+the empress's anticipations was also postponed for some years.
+
+However, Marie Antoinette never allowed disappointments to dwell in her
+mind longer than she could help. She rather strove to dispel the
+recollection of them by such amusements as were within her reach. She
+learned to drive, and found great diversion in being her own charioteer
+through the glades of the forest. She began to make further inroads in the
+court etiquette, giving balls in which she broke through the custom which
+prescribed that special places should be marked out for the royal family,
+and directed that the princes and princesses should sit with the rest of
+the company during the intervals between the dances; an arrangement which
+enabled her to talk to every one, and which gained her general good-will
+from the graciousness of her manner. She did not greatly trouble herself
+at the jealousy of her popularity openly displayed by her aunts and her
+sister-in-law, who could not bear to hear her called "La bellissima.[6]"
+Nor was her influence weakened when, in November, a fresh princess, the
+sister of Madame de Provence, arrived from Italy, to be married to the
+Comte d'Artois, for the bride was even less attractive than her sister.
+According to Mercy, she was pale and thin, had a long nose and a wide
+mouth, danced badly, and was very awkward in manner. So that Louis
+himself, though usually very punctilious in his courtesies to those in her
+position, could not forbear showing how little he admired her.
+
+An incident occurred on the evening of the marriage which is worth
+remarking, from the change which subsequently took place in the taste of
+the dauphiness, who a few years afterward provoked unfavorable comments by
+the ardor with which she surrendered herself to the excitement of the
+gaming-table. As a matter of course, a grand party was invited to the
+palace to celebrate the event of the morning; and, as an invariable part
+of such entertainments, a table was set out for the then fashionable game
+of lansquenet, at which the king himself played, with the royal family and
+all the principal persons of the court. In the course of the evening Marie
+Antoinette won more than seven hundred pounds; but she was rather
+embarrassed than gratified by her good fortune. She had tried to lose the
+money back; but, as she had been unable to succeed, the next morning she
+sent the greater part of it to the curates of Versailles to be distributed
+among the poor, and gave the rest to some of her own attendants who seemed
+to her to need it, being determined, as she said, to keep none of it for
+herself.
+
+The winter revived the apprehensions concerning the king's health; he was
+manifestly sinking into the grave, while
+
+  "That which should accompany old age,
+  As love, obedience, honor, troops of friends,
+  He might not look to have."
+
+His very mistress began with great zeal than ever, though with no better
+taste, to seek to conciliate the dauphiness. She tried to purchase her
+good-will by a bribe. She was aware that the princess greatly admired
+diamonds, and, learning that a jeweler of Paris had a pair of ear-rings of
+a size and brilliancy so extraordinary that the price which he asked for
+them was 700,000 francs, she persuaded the Comte de Noailles to carry them
+to Marie Antoinette to show them, with a message from herself that if the
+dauphiness liked to keep them, she would induce the king to make her a
+present of them.[7] Whether Marie Antoinette admired them or not, she had
+far too proper a sense of dignity to allow herself to be entrapped into
+the acceptance of an obligation by one whom she so deservedly despised.
+She replied coldly that she had jewels enough, and did not desire to
+increase the number. But the overture thus made by Madame du Barri could
+not be kept secret, and more than one of her partisans followed the hint
+afforded by her example, and showed a desire to make their peace with
+their future queen. The Duc d'Aiguillon himself was among the foremost of
+her courtiers, and entreated the mediation of Mercy in his favor, making
+the ambassador his messenger to assure her that "he should impose it upon
+himself as a law to comply with her wishes in every thing;" and only
+desired that he might be allowed to know which of the requests that she
+might make were dictated by her own judgment, and which merely proceeded
+from her indulgent favor to the importunities of others. For Marie
+Antoinette had of late often broken through the rule which, in compliance
+with her mother's advice, she had at first laid down for herself, to
+abstain from recommending persons for preferment; and had pressed many a
+petition on the minister's notice as to which it was self-evident that she
+could know nothing of their merits, nor feel any personal interest in
+their success.
+
+In the spring of 1774 she had an opportunity of convincing her mother that
+any imputation of neglect of her countrymen when visiting the court was
+unfounded, by the marked honors which she paid to Marshal Lacy, one of the
+most honored veterans of the Seven Years' War. Knowing how highly he was
+esteemed by her mother, she took care to be informed beforehand of the day
+of his arrival. She gave orders that he should find invitations to her
+parties awaiting him. She made arrangements to give him a private audience
+even before he saw the king, where her reception of him showed how deep
+and ineffaceable was her love for her family and her old home, even while
+fairly recognizing the fact that her first duties and her first affections
+now belonged to France. The old warrior avowed that he had been greatly
+moved by the touching affection with which she spoke to him of her love
+and veneration for her mother; and by the tears which he saw in her eyes
+when she said that the one thing wanting to her happiness was the hope of
+being allowed one day to see that dear mother once more. She showed him
+some of the last presents which the empress had sent her, and dwelt with
+fond minuteness of observation on some views of Schönbrunn and other spots
+in the neighborhood of Vienna which were endeared to her by her early
+recollections.
+
+The return of mild weather seemed to be bringing with it same return of
+strength to the king, when, on the 28th of April, he was suddenly seized
+with illness, which was presently pronounced by the physicians to be the
+small-pox. All was consternation at Versailles, for it was soon perceived
+to be a severe if not a malignant attack; and at the same time all was
+perplexity. Thirty years before, when Louis had been supposed to be on his
+deathbed at Metz, bishops, peers, and ministers had found in the loss of
+royal favor reason to repent the precipitation with which they had
+insisted on the withdrawal of Madame de Châteauroux; and now, should he
+again recover, it was likely that Madame du Barri would he equally
+resentful, and that the confessor who should make her removal a necessary
+condition of his administering the sacraments of the Church to the king,
+and the courtiers who should support or act upon their requisition, would
+surely find reason to repent it. Accordingly, for the first few days of
+Louis's illness, she remained at Versailles; but he grew visibly worse.
+His daughters, who, though they had not had the disease themselves, tended
+his sick-bed with the most devoted and fearless affection, consulted the
+physicians, who declared it dangerous to admit of any further delay in the
+ministration of the rites of the Church. He himself gave his sanction to
+the ladies' departure, and then the royal confessor administered the
+sacraments, and drew up a declaration to be published in the royal name,
+that, "though he owed no account of his conduct to any but God alone, he
+nevertheless declared that he repented having given rise to scandal among
+his subjects, and only desired to live for the support of religion and the
+welfare of his people."
+
+Even this avowal the Cardinal de Roche-Aymer promised Madame du Barri to
+suppress; but the royal confessor, the Abbé Mandoux, overruled him, and
+compelled its publication, in spite of the Duc de Richelieu, the chief
+confidant of the mistress, and long the chief minister and promoter of the
+king's debaucheries, who insulted the cardinal with the grossest abuse for
+his breach of promise.[8] It may be doubted whether such a compromise with
+profligacy, and such a profanation of the most solemn rites of the Church
+by its ministers, were not the greatest scandal of all; but it was in too
+complete harmony with their conduct throughout the whole of the reign.
+And, as it was impossible but that religion itself should suffer in the
+estimation of worldly men from such an open disregard of all but its mere
+outward forms, it can hardly be denied that the French cardinals and
+prelates about the court had almost as great a share in bringing about
+that general feeling of contempt for all religion which led to that formal
+disavowal of God himself which was witnessed twenty years later, as the
+scoffers who were now uniting against it, or the professed infidels who
+then, renounced it. Such as it was, the king's act of penitence was not
+performed too soon. At the end of the first week of May all prospect of
+his recovery vanished. Mortification set in, and on the 10th of May he
+died.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+The Court leaves Versailles for La Muette.--Feelings of the New
+Sovereigns.--Madame du Barri is sent to a Convent.--Marie Antoinette
+writes to Maria Teresa.--The Good Intentions of the New Sovereigns.--
+Madame Adelaide has the Small-pox.--Anxieties of Maria Teresa.--
+Mischievous Influence of the Aunts.--Position and Influence of the Count
+de Mercy.--Louis consults the Queen on Matters of Policy.--Her Prudence.--
+She begins to Purify the Court, and to relax the Rules of Etiquette.--Her
+Care of her Pages.--The King and the renounce the Gifts of Le Joyeux
+Avénement and La Ceinture de la Reine.---She procures the Pardon of the
+Due de Choiseul.
+
+
+Throughout the morning of the 10th of May there was great confusion and
+agitation at Versailles. The physicians declared that the king could not
+live out the day; and the dauphin had decided on removing his household to
+the smaller palace of La Muette at Choisy, to spend in that comparative
+retirement the first week or two after his grandfather's death, during
+which it would hardly be decorous for the royal family to be seen in
+public. But, as it was not thought seemly to appear to anticipate the
+event by quitting Versailles while Louis was still alive, a lighted candle
+was placed in the window of the sick-room, which, the moment that the king
+had expired, was to be extinguished, as a signal to the equerries to
+prepare the carriages. The dauphin and dauphiness were in an adjoining
+room awaiting the intelligence, when, at about three o'clock in the
+afternoon, a sudden trampling of feet was heard, and Madame de Noailles
+entered the apartment to entreat them to advance into the saloon to
+receive the homage of the princes and principal officers of the court, who
+were waiting to pay their respects to their new sovereigns. They came
+forward arm-in-arm; and in tears, in which sincere sorrow was mingled with
+not unnatural nervousness, received the salutations of the courtiers, and
+immediately afterward left Versailles with all the family.
+
+Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette had now reached the pinnacle of human
+greatness, as sovereigns of one of the noblest empires in the world. Yet
+the first feelings which their elevation had excited in both, and
+especially in the queen, were rather those of dismay and perplexity than
+of exultation. In the preceding autumn, Mercy[1] had remarked to the
+empress, with surprise and vexation, that, though the dauphiness exhibited
+singular readiness and acuteness in comprehending political questions, she
+was very unwilling, and, as it seemed to him, afraid of dealing with them,
+and that she shrunk from the thought that the day would come when she must
+possess power and authority. And the continuance of this feeling is
+visible in her first letter to her mother, some passages of which show a
+sobriety of mind under such a change of circumstances, which, almost as
+much as the benevolence which the letter also displays, augured well for
+the happiness of the people over whom she was to reign, so far at least as
+that happiness depended on the virtues of the sovereign.
+
+"Choisy, May 14th.
+
+"My Dearest Mother,--Mercy will have informed you of the circumstances of
+our misfortune. Happily his cruel disease left the king in possession of
+his senses till the last moment, and his end was very edifying. The new
+king seems to have the affection of his people. Two days before the death
+of his grandfather, he sent two hundred thousand[2] francs to the poor,
+which has produced a great effect. Since he has been here, he has been
+working unceasingly, answering with his own hand the letters of the
+ministers, whom as yet he can not see, and many others likewise. One thing
+is certain, and that is that he has a taste for economy, and the greatest
+desire possible to make his people happy. In every thing he has as great a
+desire to be rightly instructed as he has need to be. I trust that God
+will bless his good intentions.
+
+"The public expected great changes in a moment. The king has limited
+himself to sending away the creature[3] to a convent, and to driving from
+the court every thing which is connected with that scandal. The king even
+owed this example to the people of Versailles, who, at the very moment of
+his grandfather's death, insulted Madame do Mazarin,[4] one of the
+humblest servants of the favorite. I am earnestly entreated to exhort the
+king to mercy toward a number of corrupt souls who had done much mischief
+for many years; and I am strongly inclined to comply with the request.
+
+    *    *    *    *    *
+
+"A messenger has just arrived to forbid my going to see my Aunt Adelaide,
+who has a great deal of fever. They are afraid of the small-pox for her. I
+am horrified, and can not bring myself to think of the consequences. It is
+a terrible thing for her to pay so immediately for the sacrifice which she
+made.
+
+"I am very glad that Marshal Lacy was pleased with me. I confess, my dear
+mamma, that I was greatly affected when he took leave of me, at thinking
+how rarely it happens to me to see any of my countrymen, and especially of
+those who have the happiness to approach you. A little time back I saw
+Madame de Marmier, which was a great pleasure to me, since I know how
+highly you value her.
+
+"The king has allowed me myself to name the ladies who are to have places
+in my household, now that I am queen; and I have had the satisfaction of
+giving the Lorrainers[5] a proof of my regard, in taking for my chief
+almoner the Abbé de Sabran, a man of excellent character, of noble birth,
+and already named for the bishopric about to be established at Nancy.
+
+"Although it pleased God that I should be born in the rank which I this
+day occupy, still I can not forbear admiring the bounty of Providence in
+choosing me, the youngest of your daughters, for the noblest kingdom in
+Europe. I feel more than ever what I owe to the tenderness of my august
+mother, who expended such pains and labor in procuring for me this
+splendid establishment. I have never so greatly longed to throw myself at
+her feet, to embrace her, to lay open my whole soul to her, and to show
+her how entirely it is filled with respect and tenderness and gratitude."
+
+It is impossible to read these glowing words, so full of the joy and hope
+of youth, and breathing a confidence of happiness apparently so
+well-founded, since it was built on a resolution to use the power placed
+in the writer's hands for the welfare of the people over whom it was to
+be exerted, without reflecting how painful a contrast to the hopes now
+expressed is presented by the reality of the destiny in store for her
+and her husband. At the moment he was as little disturbed by forebodings
+of evil as his queen, and willingly yielded to her request to add a few
+lines with his own hand to the empress, that, on so momentous an
+occasion as his accession she might not be left to gather his feelings
+solely from her report of them. The postscript of the letter is
+accordingly their joint performance, he evidently desiring to gratify
+Maria Teresa by praise of her daughter; and she, while pleased at his
+acquiescence, not concealing her amusement at the clumsiness, or, to say
+the least, the rusticity, of some of his expressions.
+
+P.S. in the king's hand: "I am very glad, my dear mamma, to find an
+occasion to prove to you my tenderness and my attachment. I should be very
+glad to have your advice at this time, which is so embarrassing. I should
+be enchanted to be able to please you, and to show by my conduct all my
+attachment and the gratitude which I feel for your kindness in giving me
+your daughter, with whom I am as well satisfied as possible."
+
+P.S. by the queen: "The king would not let my letter go without adding a
+word from himself. I am quite aware that it would not have been too much
+for him to do to write an entire letter. But I must beg my dear mamma to
+excuse him, in consideration of the mass of business with which he is
+occupied, and also a little on account of his timidity and the embarrassed
+manner which is natural to him. You see, my dear mamma, by his compliment
+at the end, that, though he has great affection for me, he does not spoil
+me by insipid flatteries."
+
+It is almost equally remarkable that the empress herself, though thus to
+see her favorite daughter on the throne of France had been her most ardent
+wish, was far from regarding the consummation of her desires with
+unalloyed pleasure. She was so completely a politician above all things,
+that, though she was well aware that Louis XV. had been one of the most
+infamous kings that ever dishonored a throne, she looked upon him solely
+as an ally; described him to her daughter as "that good and tender
+prince;" declared that she should never cease to regret him, and that she
+would wear mourning for him all the rest of her life. At the same time,
+she did not conceal from herself that he had left his kingdom in a most
+deplorable condition. She had, as she declared, herself experienced how
+heavy is the burden of an empire; she reflected how young her daughter
+was; and expressed a sad fear that "her days of happiness were over." "She
+was now in a position in which there was no half-way between complete
+greatness and great misery.[6]" The best hopes for her future the empress
+saw in the character for purity and kindness which Marie Antoinette had
+already established and in the esteem and affection of the people which
+those qualities had won for her; and she entreated her, taking it for
+granted that in advising her she was advising the king also, to be prudent
+and cautious, to avoid making any sudden changes, and above all things to
+maintain the alliance between the two countries, and to listen to the
+experienced and faithful advice of her embassador.
+
+Maria Teresa was mistaken when she thought that her daughter would at all
+times be able to lead her husband. Though slow in action, Louis was not
+deficient in perception. On many subjects he had views of his own, which,
+in some cases, were clear and sound enough, and to which, even when they
+were not so, he adhered with considerable tenacity. At the same time,
+though he had but little affection for his aunts, and still less respect
+for their judgment, he had been so long accustomed to listen to their
+advice while he had no authority, that he could not as yet wholly shake
+off all feeling of deference for it, and their influence was exerted with
+most mischievous effect in the first week of his reign. Indeed, it had
+been exhibited even before the reign began, though the form which it took
+greatly interfered with the personal comfort of the young sovereigns. It
+had been settled that the king and queen should go by themselves to La
+Muette, and that the rest of the royal family should remove to the
+Trianon. But Madame Adelaide had no inclination for a plan which would
+separate her from her nephew at a moment when so many matters of
+importance would come before her for decision. At the last moment she
+prevailed upon him to consent that the whole family should go to Choisy
+together; and the very next day she induced him to dismiss his ministers,
+and to place the Comte de Maurepas at the head of the Government, though
+Louis himself had selected another-statesman for the office, M. Machault,
+who, as finance minister twenty-five years before, had shown both ability
+and integrity, and who had enjoyed the confidence of the king's father,
+and though Maurepas had never been supposed to be either able or honest,
+and might well have been regarded as superannuated, since he had begun his
+official life under Louis XIV.
+
+With the change in the position of Marie Antoinette, Mercy's position had
+also been changed, and likewise his view of the line of conduct which it
+was desirable for her to adopt. Hitherto he had been the counselor of a
+princess who, without wary walking, was liable every moment to be
+overwhelmed by the intrigues with which she was surrounded; and his chief
+object had been to enable his royal pupil to escape the snares and dangers
+which encompassed her. Now, as far as his duties could be determined by
+the wish of the empress, in which her daughter fully acquiesced, he was
+elevated to the post of confidential adviser to a great queen, who, in his
+opinion, was inevitably destined to be the real ruler of the kingdom. It
+was a strange position for so experienced a politician as the empress to
+desire for him, and for so prudent a statesman to accept. Yet, anomalous
+as it was, and dangerous as it would usually be for a foreign embassador
+to interfere in the internal politics of the kingdom to which he is sent,
+his correspondence bears ample testimony to both his sagacity and his
+disinterestedness. And it would have been well for both his royal pupil
+and her adopted country had his advice more frequently and more steadily
+guided the course of both.
+
+On one point of primary importance his advice to the queen differed from
+that which he had been wont to give to the dauphiness. While dauphiness,
+he had urged her to abstain from any interference in public affairs. He
+now, on the contrary, desired to see her take an active part in them,
+explaining to the empress that the reason which actuated him was the
+character of the new king, who, as he regarded him, was never likely to
+exert the authority which belonged to him with independence or steadiness,
+but was certain to be led by some one or other, while it would in the
+highest degree endanger the maintenance of the alliance between France and
+Austria (which, coinciding with the judgment of his imperial mistress, he
+regarded as the most important of all political objects), and be most
+injurious to the welfare of France and to her own personal comfort, if
+that leader should be any one but the queen.[7]
+
+But, as we have seen, he could not prevent Louis from yielding at times to
+other influences. Taking the same view of the situation as the empress, if
+indeed Maria Teresa had not adopted it from him, he had urged Marie
+Antoinette to prevent any change in the ministry being made at first, in
+which it is highly probable that she did not coincide with him, though
+equally likely that Maurepas was not the minister whom she would have
+preferred. Another piece of advice which he gave was, however, taken, and
+with the happiest effect The poorer classes in Paris and its neighborhood
+were suffering from a scarcity which almost amounted to a famine; and,
+before the death of Louis XV., Mercy had recommended that the first
+measure of the new reign should be one which should lower the price of
+bread. That counsel was too entirely in harmony with the active
+benevolence of the new monarch to be neglected. The necessary edicts were
+issued. In twenty-four hours the price of the loaf was reduced by
+two-fifths, and Mercy had the satisfaction of hearing the relief
+generally attributed to the influence of the new queen.
+
+It can not he supposed that the king knew either the opinion which the
+empress and the embassador had formed of his capacity and disposition, or
+the advice which they had consequently given to the queen. But he very
+early began to show that he himself also appreciated his wife's quickness
+of intelligence and correctness of judgment. Maria Teresa, in pressing on
+her daughter her opinion of the general character of the policy which the
+interest of France required, explained her view of her daughter's position
+to be that she was "the friend and confidante of the king.[8]" And June
+had hardly arrived before he began to discuss all his plans and
+difficulties with her; while she spared his pride and won his further
+confidence by avoiding all appearances of pressing for it, as if her
+advice were necessary to him, but at the same time showing with what
+satisfaction she received it. To those who solicited her intervention, her
+language was most carefully guarded. "She did not," she said, "interfere
+in any affair of state; she only coincided in all the wishes and
+intentions of the king."
+
+There were, however, matters which were strictly and exclusively within
+her own province; and in them she at once began to exert her authority
+most beneficially. Her first desire was to purify the court where
+licentiousness in either sex had long been the surest road to royal favor.
+She began by making a regulation, that she would receive no lady who was
+separated from her husband; and she abolished a senseless and inexplicable
+rule of etiquette which had hitherto prohibited the queen and princesses
+from dining or supping in company with their husbands.[9] Such an
+exclusion from the king's table of those who were its most natural and
+becoming ornaments had notoriously facilitated and augmented the disorders
+of the last reign; and it was obvious that its maintenance must at least
+have a tendency to lead to a repetition of the old irregularities.
+Fortunately, the king was as little inclined to approve of it as the
+queen. All his tastes were domestic, and he gladly assented to her
+proposal to abolish the custom. Throughout the reign, at all ordinary
+meals, at his suppers when he came in late from hunting, when he had
+perhaps invited some of his fellow-sportsmen to share his repast, and at
+State banquets, Marie Antoinette took her seat at his side, not only
+adding grace and liveliness to the entertainment, but effectually
+preventing license, and even the suspicion of scandal; and, as she desired
+that her household as well as her family should set an example of
+regularity and propriety to the nation, she exercised a careful
+superintendence over the behavior of those who had hitherto been among the
+least-considered members of the royal establishment. Even the king's
+confessor had thought the morals of the royal pages either beneath his
+notice or beyond his control; but Marie Antoinette took a higher view of
+her duties. She considered her pages[10] as placed under her charge, and
+herself as bound to extend what one of themselves calls a maternal care
+and kindness to them, restraining as far as she could, and when she could
+not restrain, reproving their boyish excesses, softening their hearts and
+winning their affections by the gentle dignity of her admonitions, and by
+the condescending and hopeful indulgence with which she accepted their
+expressions of contrition and their promises of amendment. In one matter,
+too, which, if not exactly political, was at all events of public
+interest, she acted in a manner of which none of her predecessors had set
+an example. By a custom of immemorial antiquity, at the accession of a new
+sovereign, a tax had been levied on the whole kingdom as an offering to
+the king, known as "the gift of the happy accession;[11]" when there was a
+queen, a similar tax was imposed upon the Parisians, to provide what was
+called "the girdle of the queen.[12]" It has already been mentioned that
+the distress which existed in Paris at this time was so severe that, just
+before the death of the late king, Louis and Marie Antoinette had relieved
+it by a munificent gift from their private purse; and to lay additional
+burdens on the people at such a time was not only repugnant to their
+feelings, but seemed especially inconsistent with their recent generosity.
+Accordingly, the very first edict of the new reign announced that neither
+tax would be imposed. The people felt the kindness which dictated such a
+relief more than even the relief itself, and repaid it with expressions of
+gratitude such as no French sovereign had heard for above a century; but
+Marie Antoinette, with the humility natural to her on such subjects, made
+light of her own share in the act of benevolence, turning off the
+compliments which were paid to her with a playful jest, that it was
+impossible for a queen to affix a purse to her girdle, now that girdles
+had gone out of fashion.[13]
+
+On another subject, also, not wholly unconnected with politics, Since the
+nobleman concerned had once been the chief minister, but in which Marie
+Antoinette's interest was personal, she broke through her usual rule of
+not beginning the discussion with the king, and requested the recall from
+banishment of the Due de Choiseul. An unfounded prejudice based upon
+calumnies set on foot by the cabal of Madame du Barri, had envenomed
+Louis's mind against the duke. He bad been led to suspect that his own
+father, the late dauphin, had been poisoned, and that Choiseul had been
+accessory to the crime. There was nothing more certain than that the
+dauphin's death had been natural; but a dislike of the accused duke
+lingered in the king's mind, and he eluded compliance with his wife's
+request till she put it on entirely personal grounds, by declaring it to
+be humiliating to herself that one to whom she was under the deepest
+obligations as the negotiator of her own happy marriage should be under
+the king's displeasure without her being able to procure his pardon. Louis
+felt the force of the appeal thus made to him. "If she used that argument,
+he could deny her nothing," and the duke's sentence was remitted, though
+his royal patroness was unable to procure his re-admission to office. Nor
+did Maria Teresa regret that she failed in that object; since she feared
+his restless character, and felt the alliance between the two countries
+safer in the hands of the new foreign secretary, the Count de Vergennes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+The Comte de Provence intrigues against the Queen.--The King gives her the
+Little Trianon,--She lays out an English Garden.--Maria Teresa cautions
+her against Expense.--The King and Queen abolish some of the Old Forms.--
+The Queen endeavors to establish Friendships with some of her Younger
+Ladies.--They abuse her Favor.--Her Eagerness for Amusement.--Louis enters
+into her Views.--Etiquette is abridged.--Private Parties at Choisy.--
+Supper Parties.--Opposition of the Princesses.--Some of the Courtiers are
+dissatisfied at the Relaxation of Etiquette.--Marie Antoinette is accused
+of Austrian Preferences.
+
+
+Her accession to the throne, however, had not entirely delivered Marie
+Antoinette from intrigues. It had only changed their direction and object,
+and also the persona of the intriguers. Her chief enemy now was the prince
+who ought to have been her best friend, the next brother of her husband,
+the Comte de Provence. Among the papers of Louis XV. the king had found
+proofs, in letters from both count and countess, that they had both been
+actively employed in trying to make mischief, and to poison the mind of
+their grandfather against the dauphiness. They became still more busy now,
+since each day seemed to diminish the probability of Marie Antoinette
+becoming a mother; while, if she should leave no children, the Comte de
+Provence would be heir to the throne. He scarcely made any secret that he
+was already contemplating the probability of his succession; and, as there
+were not wanting courtiers to speculate also on the chance, it soon became
+known that there was no such sure road to the favor of monsieur[1] as that
+of disparaging and vilifying the queen. There might have been some safety
+for her in being put on her guard against her enemy; and the king himself,
+who called his brother Tartuffe, did, in consequence of his discovery, use
+great caution and circumspection in his behavior toward him; but Marie
+Antoinette was of a temper as singularly forgiving as it was open: she
+could not bear to regard with suspicion even those of whose unfriendliness
+and treachery she had had proofs; and after a few days she resumed her old
+familiarity with the pair, as if she had no reason to distrust them,
+slighting on this subject the remonstrances of Mercy, who pointed out to
+her in vain that she was putting weapons into their hands which they would
+be sure to turn against herself.
+
+At this moment she was especially happy with a new pastime. Amidst the
+stately halls of Versailles she had often longed for a villa on a smaller
+scale, which she might call her own; and the wish was now gratified. On
+one side of the park of Versailles, and about a mile from the palace, the
+late king had built an exquisite little pavilion for his mistress, which
+was known as the Little Trianon. There had been a building of one kind or
+another on the same spot for above a century. Louis XIV. had erected there
+a cottage of porcelain for his imperious favorite, Madame de Montespan;
+and it was the more sumptuous palace with which, after her death, he
+replaced it, that gave rise to the strange quarrel between the haughty
+monarch and his equally haughty minister, Louvois, of which St. Simon has
+left us so curious an account.[2] This had been allowed to fall into a
+state of decay; and a few years before his death, Louis XV. had pulled
+down what remained of it, and had built a third on its foundations, which
+had been the most favorite abode of Madame du Barri during his life, but
+which was now rendered vacant by her dismissal. The house was decorated
+with an exquisite delicacy of taste, in which Louis XV. had far surpassed
+his predecessor; but the chief charm of the place was generally accounted
+to be the garden, which had been laid out by Le Notre, an artist, whose
+original genius as a landscape gardener was regarded by many of his
+contemporaries as greatly superior to his more technical skill as an
+architect.[3]
+
+A few hundred yards off was another palace, the Great Trianon; but it was
+the Little Trianon which caught the queen's fancy; and, on her expression
+of a wish to have it for her own, the king at once made it over to her;
+and, pleased with her new toy, Marie Antoinette, still a girl in her
+impulsive eagerness for a fresh pleasure (she was not yet nineteen), began
+to busy herself with remodeling the pleasure-grounds with which it was
+surrounded. Before the time of Le Notre, the finest gardens in the country
+had been laid out on what was called the Italian plan. He was too good a
+patriot to copy the foreigners: he drove out the Italians, and introduced
+a new arrangement, known as the French style, which was, in fact, but an
+imitation of the stiff, formal Dutch mode. But of late the English
+gardeners had established that supremacy in the art which they have ever
+since maintained; and the present aim of every fashionable horticulturist
+in France was to copy the effects produced on the banks of the Thames by
+Wise and Browne.
+
+Marie Antoinette fell in with the prevailing taste. She imported English
+drawings and hired English, gardeners. She visited in person the Count de
+Caraman, and one or two other nobles, who had already done something by
+their example to inoculate the Parisians with the new fashion. And
+presently lawns and shrubberies, widening invariably simple flower-beds,
+supplanted the stately uniformity of terraces, alleys converging on
+central fountains, or on alcoves as solid and stiff as the palace itself,
+and trees cut into all kinds of fantastic shapes, which had previously
+been regarded as the masterpieces of the gardeners' invention. Her
+happiness was at its height when, at the end of a few months, all was
+completed to her liking, and she could invite her husband to an
+entertainment in a retreat which was wholly her own, and the chief
+beauties of which were her own work.
+
+As yet, therefore, all was happiness, and prospect of happiness. Even
+Maria Teresa, whose unceasing anxiety for her daughter often induced her
+to see the worst side of things, was rendered for a moment almost playful
+by the reports which reached Vienna of the universal popularity of "Louis
+XVI. and his little queen!" "She blushed," she said, "to think that in
+thirty-three years of her reign she had not done as much as Louis had done
+in thirty-three days.[4]" But she still warned her daughter that every
+thing depended on keeping up the happy impression already made; that much
+still remained to be done. And the queen's answer showed that her new
+authority had brought with it some cares. "It is true," she writes, "that
+the praises of the king resound everywhere. He deserves it well by the
+uprightness of his heart, and the desire which he has to act rightly; but
+this French enthusiasm disquiets me for the future. The little that I
+understand of business shows me that some matters are full of difficulty
+and embarrassment. All agree that the late king has left his affairs in a
+very bad state. Men's minds are divided; and it will be impossible to
+please all the world in a country where the vivacity of the people wants
+every thing to be done in a moment. My dear mamma is quite right when she
+says we must lay down principles, and not depart from them. The king will
+not have the same weakness as his grandfather. I hope that he will have no
+favorites; but I am afraid that he is too mild and too easy. You may
+depend upon it that I will not draw the king into any great expenses."
+(The empress had expressed a fear lest the Trianon might prove a cause of
+extravagance.) "On the contrary, I, of my own accord, have refused to make
+demands on him for money which some have recommended me to make."
+
+Some relaxations, too, of the formality which had previously been
+maintained between the sovereign and the subordinate members of the royal
+family, and especially an order of the king that his brothers and sisters
+were not in private intercourse to address him as his majesty, had grated
+on the empress's sense of the distance always to be preserved between a
+monarch and the very highest of his subjects. And she had complained that
+reports had reached her that "there was no distinction between the queen
+and the other princesses; and that the familiarity subsisting in the court
+was extreme." But Marie Antoinette replied, in defense of the king and
+herself, that there was "great exaggeration in these reports, as indeed
+there was about every thing that went on at the court; that the
+familiarity spoken of was seen but by very few. It is not for me," she
+said, "to judge; but it seems to me that what exists among us is only the
+air of kindly affection and gayety which is suitable to our age. It is
+true that the Count d'Artois" (who had been the special subject of some of
+the empress's unfavorable comments) "is very lively and very giddy, but I
+can always keep him in order. As for my aunts, no one can any longer say
+that they lead me; and as for monsieur and madame, I am very far from
+placing entire confidence in them.
+
+"I must confess that I am fond of amusement, and am not very greatly
+inclined to grave subjects. I hope, however, to improve by degrees; and,
+without ever mixing myself up in intrigues, to qualify myself gradually to
+be of service to the king when he makes me his confidante, since he treats
+me at all times with the most perfect affection."
+
+Her reflections on the impulsiveness and impatience of the French
+character, and of the difficulties which those qualities placed in the
+path of their rulers, justify the praises which Mercy had lavished on her
+sagacity, for it is evident that to them the chief troubles of her later
+years may be clearly traced. And it is difficult to avoid agreeing with
+her rather than with her mother, and thinking the most entire freedom of
+intercourse between the king and his nearest relations as desirable as it
+was natural. Royalty is, as the empress herself described it, a burden
+sufficiently heavy, without its weight being augmented by observances and
+restrictions which would leave the rulers without a single friend even
+among the members of their own family. And probably the empress herself
+might have seen less reason for her admonitions on the subject, had it not
+been for the circumstance, which was no doubt unfortunate, that the royal
+family at this time contained no member of a graver age and a settled
+respectability of character who might, by his example, have tempered the
+exuberance natural to the extreme youth of the sovereigns and their
+brothers.
+
+Not that Marie Antoinette was content to limit the number of those whom
+she admitted to familiarity to her husband's kinsmen and kinswomen. Still
+fretting in secret over the want of any object on whom to lavish a
+mother's tenderness, she sought for friendship as a substitute, shutting
+her eyes to the fact that persons in her rank, as having no equals, can
+have no friends, in the true sense of the word. Nor, had such a thing been
+possible anywhere, was France the country in which to find it. There
+disinterestedness and integrity had long been banished from her own sex
+almost as completely as from the other; and most of those whom she took
+into favor made it their first object to render that favor profitable to
+themselves. If she professed in their society to forget for a few hours
+that she was queen, they never forgot it; they never lost sight of the
+fact that she could confer places and pensions, and they often discarded
+moderation and decency in the extravagance of their solicitations; while
+she frequently, with an overamiable facility, surrendering her own
+judgment to their importunities, not only granted their requests, but at
+times even adopted their prejudices, and yielded herself as an instrument
+to gratify their antipathies or resentments.
+
+And the same feeling of vacancy in her heart, of which she was ever
+painfully conscious, produced in her also a constant restlessness, and a
+craving for excitement which exhibited itself in an insatiable appetite
+for amusement (as she confessed to her mother), and led her to seek
+distraction even in pastimes for which naturally she had but little
+inclination. In these respects it can not be said that, during the first
+year of her reign, she was as uniformly prudent as she had been while
+dauphiness. The restraint in which she had lived for those four years had
+not been unwholesome for one so young; but it had no doubt been irksome to
+her. And the feeling of complete liberty and independence which had
+succeeded it had, by a sort of natural reaction, sharpened the energy with
+which she now pursued her various diversions. It is possible, too, that
+the zest with which she indulged herself may have derived additional
+keenness from the knowledge that her ill-wishers found in it pretext for
+misconstruction and calumny; and that, being conscious of entire purity in
+thought, word, and deed, she looked on it as due to her own character to
+show that she set all such detraction and detractors at defiance. To all
+cavilers, as also to her mother, whose uneasiness was frequently aroused
+by gossip which reached Vienna from Paris, her invariable reply was that
+her way of life had the king her husband's entire approbation. And while
+he felt a conjugal satisfaction in the contemplation of his queen's
+attractions and graces, the qualities in which, as he was well aware, he
+himself was most deficient, Louis might well also cherish the most
+absolute reliance on her unswerving rectitude, knowing the pride with
+which she was wont to refer to her mother's example, and to boast that the
+lesson which, above all others, she had learned from it was that to
+princes of her birth and rank wickedness and baseness were unpardonable.
+
+Indeed, many of the amusements Louis not only approved, but shared with
+her, while she associated herself with those in which he delighted, as far
+as she could, joining his hunting parties twice a week, either on
+horseback or in her carriage, and at all times exhibiting a pattern of
+domestic union of which the whole previous history of the nation afforded
+no similar example. The citizens of Paris could hardly believe their eyes
+when they saw their king and queen walk arm-in-arm along the boulevards;
+and the courtiers received a lesson, if they had been disposed to profit
+by it, when on each Sunday morning they saw the royal pair repair to the
+parish church for divine service, the day being closed by their public
+supper in the queen's apartment.
+
+And this appearance of domestic felicity was augmented by the introduction
+of what may be called private parties, with which, at the queen's
+instigation, Louis consented to vary the cold formality of the ordinary
+entertainments of the court. In the autumn they followed the example of
+Louis XV. by exchanging for a few weeks the grandeur of Versailles for the
+comparative quiet of some of their smaller palaces; and, while they were
+at Choisy, they issued invitations once or twice a week to several of the
+Parisian ladies to come out and spend the day at the palace, when, as the
+principal officers of the household were not on duty, they themselves did
+the honors to their guests, the queen conversing with every one with her
+habitual graciousness, while the king also threw off his ordinary reserve,
+and seemed to enter into the pleasures of the day with a gayety and
+cordiality which surprised the party, and which, from the contrast that it
+presented to his manner when he was by himself, was very generally
+attributed to the influence of the queen's example.
+
+And these quiet festivities were so much to his taste that afterward, when
+the court moved to Fontainebleau, and when they settled at Versailles for
+the winter, he cheerfully agreed to a proposal of Marie Antoinette to have
+a weekly supper party; adopting also another suggestion of hers which was
+indispensable to render such reunions agreeable, or even, it may be said,
+practicable. At her request he abolished the ridiculous rule which, under
+the last two kings, had forbidden gentlemen to be admitted to sit at table
+with any princess of the royal family. But natural as the idea seemed, it
+was not carried out without opposition on the part of Madame Adelaide and
+her sisters, who remonstrated against it as an infraction of all the old
+observances of the court, till it became a contest for superiority between
+the queen and themselves. Marie Antoinette took counsel with Mercy, and,
+by his advice, pointed out to her husband that to abandon the plan after
+it had been announced, in submission to an opposition which the princesses
+had no right to make, would be to humiliate her in the eyes of the whole
+court. Louis had not yet shaken off all fear of his aunts; but they were
+luckily absent, so he yielded to the influence which was nearest. The
+suppers took place. He and the queen themselves made out the lists of the
+guests to be invited, the men being named by him, and the ladies being
+selected by the queen. They were a great success; and, as the history of
+the affair became known, the court and the Parisians generally rejoiced in
+the queen's triumph, and were grateful to her for this as for every other
+innovation which had a tendency to break down the haughty barrier which,
+during the last two reigns, had been established between the sovereign and
+his subjects. Nor were these pleasant informal parties the only instances
+in which, great inroads were made on the old etiquette. The Comte de
+Mirabeau, a man fatally connected in subsequent years with some of the
+most terrible of the insults which were offered to the royal family, about
+this time described etiquette as a system invented for the express purpose
+of blunting the capacity of the French princes, and fixing them in
+position of complete dependence. And Marie Antoinette seems to have
+regarded it with similar eyes; her dislike of it being quickened by the
+expectations which its partisans and champions entertained that her every
+movement was to be regulated by it. And its requirements were sufficiently
+burdensome to tax a far better-trained patience that was natural to one
+who though a queen, was not yet nineteen. Not only was no guest of the
+male sex, except the king, allowed to sit at table with her, but no
+man-servant, no male officer of her household, might be present when the
+king and she dined together, as indeed usually happened; even his
+presence could not sanction the introduction of any other man. The lady
+of honor, on her knees, though in full dress, presented him the napkin
+to wipe his fingers and filled his glass; ladies in waiting in the same
+grand attire changed the plates of the royal pair; and after dinner, as
+indeed throughout the day, the queen could not quit one room in the
+palace for another, unless some of her ladies were at hand in complete
+court dress to attend upon her.[5] These usages, which were in reality
+so many chains to restrain all freedom, and to render comfort
+impossible, were abolished in the first few months of the new reign;
+but, little as was the foundation which they had in common sense, and
+equally little as was the addition which they made to the royal dignity,
+it is certain that many of the courtiers, besides Madame de Noailles,
+were greatly disconcerted at their extinction. They regarded the queen's
+orders on the subject as a proof of a settled preference for Austrian
+over French fashions. They began to speak of her as "the Austrian," a
+name which, though Madame Adelaide had more than once chosen it to
+describe her during the first year of her marriage, had since that time
+been almost forgotten, but which was now revived, and was continually
+reproduced by a certain party to cast odium on many of her most simple
+tastes and most innocent actions. Her enemies oven affirmed that in
+private she was wont to call the Trianon her "little Vienna,[6]" as if
+the garden, which she was laying out with a taste that long made it the
+admiration of all the visitors to Versailles, were dear to her, not as
+affording a healthful and becoming occupation, nor for the sale of the
+giver, but only because it recalled to her memory the gardens of
+Schönbrunn, to which, as their malice suggested, she never ceased to
+look back with unpatriotic regret.
+
+In one point of view they were unquestionably correct. The queen did
+undoubtedly desire to establish in the French court the customs and the
+feelings which, during her childhood, had prevailed at Vienna; but they
+were wholly wrong in thinking them Austrian usages. They were Lorrainese
+in their origin; they had been imported to Vienna for the first time by
+her own father, the Emperor Francis; when she referred to them, it was as
+"the patriarchal manners of the House of Lorraine[7]" that she spoke of
+them; and her preference for them was founded on the conviction that it
+was to them that her mother and her mother's family were indebted for the
+love and reverence of the people which all the trials and distresses of
+the struggle against Frederic had never been able to impair.
+
+Nor was it only the old stiffness and formality, which had been compatible
+with the grossest license, that was now discountenanced. A wholly new
+spirit was introduced to animate the conversation with which those royal
+entertainments were enlivened. Under Louis XV., and indeed before his
+reign, intrigue and faction had been the real rulers of the court,
+spiteful detraction and scandal had been its sole language. But, to the
+dispositions, as benevolent as they were pure, of the young queen and her
+husband, malice and calumny were almost as hateful as profligacy itself.
+She held, with the great English dramatist, her contemporary, that true
+wit was nearly allied to good-nature;[8] and she showed herself more
+decided in nothing than in discouraging and checking every tendency to
+disparagement of the absent, and diffusing a tone of friendly kindness
+over society. On one occasion, when she heard some of her ladies laughing
+over a spiteful story, she reproved them plainly for their mirth as "bad
+taste." On another she asked some who were thus amusing themselves, "How
+they would like any one to speak thus of themselves in their absence, and
+before her?" and her precept, fortified by example (for no unkind comment
+on any one was ever heard to pass her lips), so effectually extinguished
+the habit of detraction that in a very short time it was remarked that no
+courtier ventured on an ill-natured word in her presence, and that even
+the Comte de Provence, who especially aimed at the reputation of a sayer
+of good things, and affected a character for cynical sharpness, learned at
+last to restrain his sarcastic tongue, and at least to pretend a
+disposition to look at people's characters and actions with as much
+indulgence as herself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+Settlement of the Queen's Allowance.--Character and Views of Turgot.--She
+induces Gluck to visit Paris.--Performance of his Opera of "Iphigénie
+en Aulide."--The First Encore.--Marie Antoinette advocates the
+Re-establishment of the Parliaments, and receives an Address from them.--
+English Visitors at the Court.--The King is compared to Louis XII. and
+Henri IV.--The Archduke Maximilian visits his Sister.--Factious Conduct of
+the Princes of the Blood.--Anti-Austrian Feeling in Paris.--The War of
+Grains.--The King is crowned at Rheims.--Feelings of Marie Antoinette.--
+Her Improvements at the Trianon.--Her Garden Parties there.--Description
+of her Beauty by Burke, and by Horace Walpole.
+
+
+Maria Teresa had warned her daughter against extravagance, a warning which
+would have been regarded as wholly misplaced by any other of the French
+princes, who were accustomed to treat the national treasury as a fund
+intended to supply the means for their utmost profusion, but which
+certainly coincided with the views of Marie Antoinette herself, who, as we
+have seen, vindicated herself from the charge of prodigality, and declared
+that she took great care that her improvements at the Trianon should not
+be beyond her means. Yet it would not have been surprising if they had
+been found to be so, since, even after she became queen, her income
+continued to be far too narrow for her rank. The nominal allowance of all
+former kings and queens had been fixed at an unreasonably low rate, from
+the pernicious custom of drawing on the treasury for all deficiencies; but
+this mode of proceeding was inconsistent with the notions of propriety
+entertained by the new sovereigns, and with those of the new finance
+minister.
+
+Maurepas himself had never been distinguished for ability, but he was
+sufficiently clear-sighted to be aware that the principal difficulties of
+the State arose from the disorder into which the profligacy and
+prodigality of the late reign, ever since the death of the wise Fleury,
+had thrown its finances; and he had made a most happy choice for the
+office of comptroller-general of finance, appointing to it a man named
+Turgot, who, as Intendant of the Limousin, had brought that province into
+a condition of prosperity which had made it a model for the rest of the
+kingdom. In his new and more enlarged sphere of action, Turgot's abilities
+expanded; or, perhaps it should rather be said, had a fairer field for
+their display. He showed himself equally capable in every department of
+his duties; as a financial reformer, as an administrator, and as a
+legislator. No minister in the history of the nation had ever so united
+large-minded genius with disinterested integrity. He had not accepted
+office without a full perception of its difficulties. He saw all that had
+to be done, and applied himself to putting the finances of the nation on a
+healthy footing, as an indispensable preface to other reforms equally
+necessary. He easily secured the co-operation of the king and queen, Louis
+cheerfully adopting the retrenchments which he recommended, though some of
+them, such as the reduction in the hunting establishment, touched his
+personal tastes. But at the same time, as there was no illiberality in his
+economy, or, rather, as he saw that real economy could only be practiced
+if the sovereigns had a fixed income really adequate to the call upon it,
+he placed their allowances on a more satisfactory footing than had ever
+been fixed for them before, the queen's privy purse being settled at a sum
+which Mercy agreed with him would prove sufficient for all her expenses,
+though it was but 200,000 francs a year.
+
+And so it was generally found to be; for, with the exception of an
+occasional fancy for some splendid jewel, Marie Antoinette had no
+expensive tastes. Her economy was even far greater than her attendants
+approved, extending to details which they would have wished her to regard
+as beneath the dignity of a sovereign;[1] and so judiciously did she
+manage her resources that she was able to defray out of her privy purse
+the pensions which she occasionally conferred on men eminent in arts or
+literature, whom she rightly judged it a royal duty to encourage.
+
+One of her first acts of liberality of this kind was exercised in favor of
+a countryman of her own, the celebrated Gluck. Music was one of her most
+favorite accomplishments. She still devoted a portion of almost every day
+in taking lessons on the harp; but the French music was not to her taste;
+while, since the death of Handel, Gluck's superiority to all his other
+musical contemporaries had been generally acknowledged in all countries.
+She now, by the gift of a pension of 6000 francs, induced him to visit
+Paris. It was at the French opera that many of his most celebrated works
+were first given to the world; and an incident which took place at the
+performance of one of them showed that, if the frequenters of Versailles
+were dissatisfied at the inroads lately made on the old etiquette, the
+queen had a compensation in the warm attachment with which she had
+inspired the Parisians. Instead of conveying the performers to Versailles,
+as had been the extravagant practice of the late reign, Louis and Marie
+Antoinette went into Paris when they desired to visit the theatre. The
+citizens, delighted at the contrast which their frequent visits to the
+capital afforded to the marked dislike of it shown by the late king,
+crowded the theatre on every night on which they were expected; and on one
+of these occasions Gluck's "Iphigénie" was the opera selected for
+performance. It contains a chorus in which, according to the design of the
+dramatist, Achilles was directed to turn to his followers with the words
+
+  "Chantez, célébrez votre reine."
+
+But the French opera-singers were a courtly race. The French opera had
+been established a century before as a Royal Academy of Music by Louis
+XIV., who had issued letters patent which declared the profession of an
+opera-singer one that might be followed even by a nobleman; and it seemed,
+therefore, quite consistent with the rank thus conferred on them that they
+should take the lead in paying loyal compliments to their princes.
+Accordingly, when the performer who represented the invincible son of
+Thetis, the popular tenor singer, Le Gros, came to the chorus in question,
+he was found to have prepared a slight change in his part. He did not
+address himself to the myrmidons behind him, but he came forward, and,
+with a bow to the boxes and pit, substituted the following,
+
+  "Chantons, célébrons notre reine,
+  L'hymen, que sous ses lois l'enchaîne,
+  Va nous rendre à jamais heureux."
+
+The audience was taken by surprise, but it was a surprise of delight. The
+whole house rose to its feet, cheering and clapping their hands. For the
+first time in theatrical history, the repetition of a song was demanded.
+The now familiar term of "Encore!" was heard and obeyed. The queen herself
+was affected to tears by the enthusiastic affection displayed toward her,
+nor at such a moment did she suffer her feeling of the evanescent
+character of popularity among so light-minded a people to dwell in her
+mind, or to mar the pleasure which such a reception was well calculated to
+impart.
+
+Popularity at this moment seemed doubly valuable to her, because she was
+not ignorant that the feeling of disappointment at the unproductiveness of
+her marriage had recently been increased by the knowledge that the young
+Countess d'Artois was about to become a mother. And the attachment which
+she inspired was not confined to the play-goers; it was shared by a body
+so little inclined to exhibitions of impulsive loyalty as the Parliament.
+It has been seen that Louis XV. had abolished that body; but one of the
+first proposals made by Maurepas to the new king had had its
+re-establishment for its object. The question had been discussed in the
+king's council, and also in the royal family, with great eagerness. The
+ablest of the ministers protested against the restoration of an assembly
+which had invariably shown itself turbulent and usurping, and the king
+himself was generally understood to share their views. But Marie
+Antoinette, led by the advice of Choiseul, was eager in her support of
+Maurepas, and it was believed that her influence decided Louis. If it was
+so, it was an exertion of her power that she had ample cause to repent at
+a subsequent period; but at the time she thought of nothing but showing
+her sense of the general superiority of Choiseul, and so requiting some of
+the obligations under which she considered that she lay to him for
+arranging her marriage; and she received a deputation from the
+re-established Parliament with marked pleasure, and replied to their
+address with a graciousness which seemed intended to show that she
+sincerely rejoiced at the event which had given cause for it.
+
+It was not till Christmas that the royal family went out of mourning; but,
+as soon as it was left off, the court returned to its accustomed gayety--
+balls, concerts, and private theatricals occupying the evenings; though
+the people remarked with undisguised satisfaction that the expenses of
+former years had been greatly retrenched. It was also noticed that many
+foreigners of distinction, and especially some English ladies of high
+rank, gladly accepted invitations to the balls, which they certainly would
+not have done while their presence was likely to bring them into contact
+with Madame du Barri. Lady Ailesbury is especially mentioned as having
+been received with marked distinction by the queen, and also by the king,
+who was careful to show his approval of her entertainments by the share
+which he took in them; and, as he paraded the saloons arm-in-arm with her,
+to distinguish those whom she noticed, so that, to quote the words of one
+of the most lively chroniclers of the day, their example seemed to be fast
+bringing conjugal love and fidelity into fashion. She even persuaded him
+to depart still further from his usual reserve, so as to appear in costume
+at more than one fancy ball; the dress which he chose being that of the
+only predecessor of his own house whom he could in any point have desired
+to resemble, Henry IV. He had already been indirectly compared to that
+monarch, the first Bourbon king, by the ingenious flattery of a print-
+*seller. In the long list of sovereigns who had reigned over France in the
+five hundred years which had passed by since the warrior-saint of the
+Crusades had laid down his life on the sands of Tunis, there had been but
+two to whom their countrymen could look back with affection or respect--
+Louis XII., to whom his subjects had given the title of The Good, and
+Henry, to whom more than one memorial still preserved the surname of The
+Great. And the courtly picture-dealer, eager to make his market of the
+gratitude with which his fellow-citizens greeted the reforms with which
+the reigning sovereign had already inaugurated his reign, contrived to
+extract a compliment to him even out of the severe prose of the
+multiplication-table; publishing a joint portrait of the three kings,
+Louis XII., Henry IV., and Louis XVI., with an inscription beneath to
+testify that 12 and 4 made 16.
+
+In the spring of 1775, Marie Antoinette received a great pleasure in a
+visit from her younger brother, Maximilian. He was the only member of her
+family whom she had seen in the five years that had elapsed since she left
+Vienna. But, eagerly as she had looked forward to his visit, it did not
+bring her unmixed satisfaction, being marred by the ill-breeding of the
+princes of the blood, and still more by the approval of their conduct
+displayed by the citizens of Paris, which seemed to afford a convincing
+evidence of the small effect which even the queen's virtues and graces had
+produced in softening the old national feeling of enmity to the house of
+Austria. The archduke, who was still but a youth, did not assert his royal
+rank while on his travels, but preserved such an _incognito_ as princes on
+such occasions are wont to assume, and took the title of Count de Burgau.
+The king's brothers, however, like the king himself, paid no regard to his
+disguise, but visited him at the first instant of his arrival; but the
+princes of the blood stood on their dignity, refused to acknowledge a rank
+which was not publicly avowed, or to recollect that the visitor was a
+foreigner and brother to their queen, and insisted on receiving the
+attention of the first visit from him. The excitement which the question
+caused in the palace, and the queen's indignation at the slight thus
+offered, as she conceived, to her brother, were great. High words passed
+between her and the Duc d'Orléans, the chief of the recusants, on the
+subject; and one part of her remonstrance throws a curious additional
+light on the strange distance which, as has been already pointed out, the
+etiquette of the French court had established between the sovereigns and
+the very highest of their subjects, even the nearest of their relations.
+The duke had insisted on the _incognito_ as debarring Maximilian from all
+claim to attention from a prince like himself whose rank was not
+concealed. She urged that the king and his brothers had not regarded it in
+that light. "The duke knew," she said, "that the king had treated
+Maximilian as a brother; that he even invited him to sup in private with
+himself and her, an honor to which no prince of the blood had ever
+pretended." And, finally, warming with her subject, she told him that,
+though her brother would be sorry not to make the acquaintance of the
+princes of the blood, he had many other things in Paris to see, and would
+manage to do without it.[2] Her expostulation was fruitless. The princes
+adhered to their resolution, and she to hers. They were not admitted to
+any of the festivities of the palace during the archduke's stay, and were
+even excluded from all the private entertainments which were given in his
+honor, since she made it known that the king and she would refuse to
+attend any to which they were invited. But, though their conduct was
+surely both discourteous to a foreigner and disrespectful to their
+sovereign, the Parisian populace took their part; and some of them who
+showed themselves ostentatiously in the streets of the city on days on
+which there were parties at Versailles were loudly applauded by a crowd
+which was not entirely drawn from the lower classes. It was noticed that
+the Duc de Chartres, the son of the Duc d'Orléans, was one of the foremost
+in exciting this anti-Austrian feeling, the outbreak of which was
+especially remarkable as the first instance in which the enthusiasm of the
+citizens for Marie Antoinette seemed to have cooled, or at least to have
+been interrupted. And this change in their feelings produced so painful an
+impression on her mind, that, after her brother's departure, she abandoned
+her intention of going to the opera, though Gluck's "Orfeo" was to be
+performed, lest she should meet with a reception less cordial than that to
+which she had hitherto been accustomed.
+
+This ebullition against the house of Austria, however, was at the moment
+dictated rather by discontent with the Home Government than by any settled
+feeling on the subject of foreign politics. Corn had been at a rather high
+price in Paris and its neighborhood throughout the winter; and the
+dearness was taken advantage of by the enemies of Turgot, and employed by
+them as an argument to prove the impolicy of his measures to introduce
+freedom of trade. They even organized[3] formidable riots at Paris and
+Versailles, which, however, Turgot, whose resolution was equal to his
+capacity, prevailed on the king to repress by acts of vigor very unusual
+to him, and very foreign to his disposition. The troops were called out;
+the Parliament was summoned to a Bed of Justice, and enjoined to put the
+law in force against the guilty; two of the most violent revolters were
+executed; order was restored, and the wholly factitious character of the
+outbreak was proved by the tranquillity which ensued, though the price of
+bread remained unaltered till the commencement of the harvest, the
+citizens themselves presently making a jest of their sedition, and
+nicknaming it The War of the Grains.[4]
+
+In France, one excitement soon drives out another, and the whole attention
+of the nation was now fixed on the coronation, which had been appointed to
+take place in June. After some discussion, it had been settled that Louis
+should be crowned alone. There had not been many precedents for the
+coronation of a queen in France; and the last instance, that of Marie de
+Medicis, as having been followed by the assassination of her husband, was
+regarded by many as a bad omen. If Marie Antoinette had herself expressed
+any wish to be her husband's partner in the solemnity, it would certainly
+have been complied with, and their subsequent fate would have been
+regarded as a confirmation of the evil augury. But she was indifferent on
+the subject, and quite contented to behold it as a spectator. It took
+place on Sunday, the 11th of June, in the grand Cathedral at Rheims. The
+progress of the royal family, which had quit Versailles for that city on
+the preceding Monday, had resembled a triumphant procession, so
+enthusiastic had been the acclamations which had greeted the king and
+queen at each town through which they had passed; and all the previous
+displays of joy were outdone by the demonstrations afforded by the
+citizens of Rheims itself. It was midnight, on the 8th of June, when the
+queen reached the gates; but the road outside and the streets inside were
+thronged with a crowd as dense as midday could have produced, which
+followed her to the archbishop's palace, making the whole city resound
+with their loyal cheers; and which, the next morning, awaited her
+coming-forth after holding a grand reception of all the nobles of the
+province, to meet the king when he made his solemn entry in the
+afternoon. The ceremony in the cathedral was one of great magnificence;
+but, in the account of the day which, after her return to Versailles,
+she wrote to her mother, she does not enter into details, as being
+necessarily known to the empress in their general character; confining
+herself rather to a description of the impression which the manifest
+cordiality with which the whole people had entered into the spirit of
+the solemnity had made upon her own mind and heart.[5]
+
+"The coronation was perfect in every respect. It was made plain that every
+one was highly delighted with the king, and so he deserves that all his
+subjects should be. Great and small, all displayed the greatest interest
+in him; and at the moment of placing the crown on his head the ceremonies
+of the church were interrupted by the most touching acclamations. I could
+not restrain myself; my tears flowed in spite of all my efforts, and the
+people were pleased to see them. During the whole time of our journey I
+did my best to correspond to the earnestness of the people; and although
+the heat was great, and the crowd immense, I do not regret my fatigue,
+which, moreover, has not injured my health. It is a very astonishing
+circumstance, but at the same time a very pleasant one, to be so well
+received only two months after the revolt, and in spite of the high price
+of bread, which unhappily still continues. It is a strange peculiarity in
+the French character to allow themselves to be so easily led away by
+mischievous suggestions, and then immediately to return to good behavior.
+It is very certain that when we see people, even in times of distress,
+treating us so well, we are the more bound to labor for their happiness.
+The king seems to me penetrated with this truth. As for me, I feel that
+all my life, even if I were to live a hundred years, I shall never forget
+the coronation day."
+
+But all the tumultuous pomp and exultation only made her return with
+renewed pleasure to her quiet retreat of the Trianon, which, with the
+assistance of the illustrious Buffon, then superintendent of the king's
+gardens, and of Bernard de Jussieu, Director of the Jardin des Plantes,
+and celebrated as one of the first botanists of Europe, she was laying out
+with a delicate taste that long rendered it one of the chief attractions
+to all the inhabitants of the district. For the sentiment which she
+expressed in the letter to the empress, which has just been quoted, was
+not the mere formal utterance of a barren philanthropy, but was dictated
+and carried out by an active benevolence. She felt in her inmost heart the
+duty which she there professed, of exerting herself to promote the
+happiness of the people, and was far too unselfish to desire to keep to
+herself the whole of the delight her gardens were calculated to afford.
+The Trianon was a possession exactly calculated to gratify her taste for
+innocent rural pleasure. As she said herself, at Versailles she was a
+queen; here she was a plain country lady, superintending not only her
+flowers, but her farm-yard and her dairy, taking pride in her stock and
+her produce. She would invite the king and the rest of the royal family to
+garden parties, where, at a table set out under a bower of honeysuckle,
+she would pour out their coffee with her own hands, boasting of the
+thickness of her cream, the freshness of her eggs, the ruddiness and
+flavor of her strawberries, as so many proofs of her skill in managing her
+establishment; and would not fear to shock her aunts by tempting one of
+her sisters-in-law to a game at ball, or battledoor and shuttlecock. But
+she probably enjoyed still more the power of gratifying the inhabitants of
+Versailles and the neighborhood. The moment that her improvements were
+completed, she opened the gardens to the public to walk in, and gave
+out-of-door parties and children's dances, to which all the inhabitants of
+Versailles who presented themselves in decent apparel were admitted. She
+would even open the dance herself with some well-conducted boy, and
+afterward stroll among the crowd, talking affably to all the company, even
+to the governesses and nurses, and delighting the parents with the
+interest which she exhibited in the characters, the growth, and even the
+names of the children.
+
+There were some who, startled at the unwonted sight of a sovereign so
+treating her subjects as fellow-creatures, confessed a fear that such
+familiarity was not without its dangers;[6] but the objects of her
+condescension worshiped her for it; and for a time at least the great
+majority of the nation forgot that she was Austrian. She was now nearly
+twenty years of age. Her form had developed into a rare perfection of
+elegance. Her features had added to the original brilliancy of her girlish
+loveliness something of that higher beauty which judgment and sagacity
+inspire, and which dignity renders only the more imposing; while the same
+benevolence and purity beamed in every look which were remarked as her
+most sterling characteristics on her first arrival in the country. And it
+is not to her French or German admirers alone that we are reduced to trust
+for the impression which at this time she made on all beholders. We have
+seen that English gentlemen and ladies of rank were frequent visitors to
+the French court; and from two of these, men of widely different
+characters, talents, and turns of mind, we have a striking concurrence of
+testimony as to the power of the fascination which she exerted on all who
+came within the sphere of her influence. Burke was the earlier visitor.
+Indeed, it was in the last months of the preceding reign, while she was
+still dauphiness, that she had excited in his enthusiastic imagination
+those emotions which he afterward described in words which will live as
+long as the English language. It was in the spring of 1774 that it seemed
+to him that "surely never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to
+touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon,
+decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she just began to move in--
+glittering like the morning-star, full of life, and splendor, and joy." No
+one could be less like Burke than Horace Walpole, a cynical observer, who
+piqued himself on indifference, and especially on a superiority to the
+vulgar belief in the merits and attractions of kings and princes. Yet his
+report of the charms of Marie Antoinette, as he saw them in the autumn of
+this year, 1775, reveals an admiration of them as vivid as that of the
+warm-hearted and more poetical Irishman. He saw her, as he reports to Lady
+Ossory, first at a state court hall,[7] given on the occasion of the
+marriage of the Princess Clotilde, in the theatre of the palace; and he
+would have desired to give his correspondent some description of the
+beauty of the building; "the bravest in the universe, and yet one in which
+taste predominates over expense;" but he was absorbed by the still more
+powerful attractions of the princess whom he had seen in it: "What I have
+to say I can tell your ladyship in a word, for it was impossible to see
+any thing but the queen. Hebes, and Floras, and Helens, and Graces are
+street-walkers to her. She is a statue and beauty when standing or
+sitting; grace itself when she moves." As he is writing to a lady, he
+proceeds to describe her dress, which to ladies of the present day may
+still have its interest: "She was dressed in silver, scattered over with
+_laurier_ roses; few diamonds; and feathers, much lower than the
+monument." He proceeds to describe the ball itself, and some of the
+company, which was, however, very select; but at every sentence or two he
+comes back to the queen, so deep and so real was the impression which she
+had made on him. "Monsieur is very handsome. The Comte d'Artois is a
+better figure and a better dancer. Their characters approach to those of
+two other royal dukes.[8] There were but eight minuets, and, except the
+queen and princesses, only eight lady dancers; I was not so much struck
+with the dancing as I expected. For beauty I saw none, or the queen
+effaced all the rest. After the minuets were French country-dances, much
+incumbered by the long trains, longer tresses, and hoops. In the intervals
+of dancing, baskets of peaches, china oranges (a little out of season),
+biscuits, ices, and wine-and-water were presented to the royal family and
+dancers. The ball lasted just two hours. The monarch did not dance, but
+for the first two rounds of the minuet even the queen does not turn her
+back to him. Yet her behavior is as easy as divine."
+
+Such was a French court ball on days of most special ceremony, a somewhat
+solemn affair, which required graciousness such as that of Marie
+Antoinette to make admission to every one a very enviable privilege; even
+though its stiffness had been in some degree relieved by a new regulation
+of the queen, that the invitations, which had hitherto been confined to
+matrons, should be extended to unmarried girls. Scarcely any change
+produced greater consternation among the admirers of old customs. The
+dowagers searched all the registers of those who had been admitted to the
+court balls since the beginning of the century to fortify their
+objections. But, to their dismay, some of the early festivities in the
+time of Marie Leczinska proved to have been shared by one or two noble
+maidens. The discovery was of little importance, since Marie Antoinette
+had shown that she was not afraid of making precedents. But still it in
+some degree silenced the grumblers, and for the rest of the reign no one
+contested the queen's right to decide who should, and who should not, be
+admitted to her society.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+Tea is introduced.--Horse-racing of Count d'Artois.--Marie Antoinette goes
+to see it--The Queen's Submissiveness to the Reproofs of the Empress.--
+Birth of the Duc d'Angoulême.--She at times speaks lightly of the King.--
+The Emperor remonstrates with her.--Character of some of the Queen's
+Friends.--The Princess de Lamballe.--The Countess Jules de Polignac.--
+They set the Queen against Turgot.--She procures his Dismissal.--She
+gratifies Madame Polignac's Friends.--Her Regard for the French People.--
+Water Parties on the Seine.--Her Health is Delicate.--Gambling at the
+Palace.
+
+
+Nor were these the only innovations which marked the age. A rage for
+adopting English fashions--_Anglomanie_, as it was called--began to
+prevail; and, among the different modes in which it exhibited itself, it
+is especially noticed that tea[1] was now introduced, and began to share
+with coffee the privileges of affording sober refreshment to those who
+aspired in their different ways to give the tone to French society.
+
+A less innocent novelty was a passion for horse-racing, in which the Comte
+d'Artois and the Duc de Chartres set the example of indulging,
+establishing a race-course in the Bois de Boulogne. The count had but
+little difficulty in persuading the queen to attend it, and she soon
+showed so decided a fancy for the sport, and became so regular a visitor
+of it, that a small stand was built for her, which in subsequent years
+provoked some unfavorable comments, when the princess obtained her leave
+to give luncheon in it to some of their racing friends, who were not in
+all instances of a character deserving to be brought into a royal
+presence.
+
+She pursued this, as she pursued every other amusement which she took up,
+with great keenness for a while, so much so as to provoke earnest
+remonstrances from her mother, whose letters were commonly dictated by
+Mercy's reports and suggestions. Nor, if she felt uneasiness, did Maria
+Teresa spare her daughter, or take any great care to moderate her language
+of reproof. At times her tone is so severe as to excite a feeling of
+wonder at the submissiveness with which her letters were received. No
+express eulogy of her admirers could give so great an idea of Marie
+Antoinette's amiability, good-nature, genuine modesty, and sincere
+affection for her mother, as the ingenuousness with which she admits
+errors, or the temper with which she urges excuses. To that venerated
+parent she is just as patient of admonition, now that she is seated on a
+throne, as she could have been in her schoolroom at Schönbrunn; and, in
+reply to the scoldings (no milder word can do justice to the earnest
+vehemence of the letters which at this time she received from Vienna), she
+pleads not only that an appetite for amusement is natural to her age, but
+that she enters into none of which the king does not fully approve, and
+none which are ever allowed to interfere with her giving him full
+enjoyment of her society whenever he has leisure or inclination for it.
+
+But her replies to her mother hint also at the continuance of the old
+causes for her restlessness, and for her eager pursuit of new diversions
+to distract her thoughts. Her natural desire for children of her own was
+greatly increased when, on the 12th of August, her sister-in-law, the
+Countess d'Artois, presented her husband with a son.[2] She treated the
+young mother with a sisterly kindness suited to the occasion, which
+extorted the unqualified praise of Mercy himself; but she could not
+restrain her feelings on the subject to her mother, and she expressed to
+her frankly the extreme pain "which she suffered at thus seeing an heir to
+the throne who was not her own child." Nor is it strange that at such
+moments she should feel hurt at the coldness with which her husband
+continued to behave toward her, or that she should ran eagerly after any
+excitement which might aid in diverting her mind from a comparison of her
+own position with that of her happier sister-in-law.[3]
+
+It would have been well if she had confined her expressions of
+disappointment to her mother. But since we may not disguise her occasional
+acts of imprudence, it must be confessed that at times her mortification
+led her to speak of her husband to strangers in a tone of disparagement
+which was highly unbecoming. Maximilian had been accompanied by the Count
+de Rosenburg, who had in consequence been admitted to the intimate society
+of the court during the archduke's visit, and who had inspired Marie
+Antoinette with so favorable an opinion of his character and judgment that
+after his return to Vienna she more than once sent him an account of the
+proceedings at the palace since her brother's departure. She describes to
+him a series of concerts, at which she had sung herself with some of her
+ladies. She gives him a list of the guests, remarking, with a
+particularity which seems to show that she expects her words to be
+reported to the empress, that the gentlemen, though amiable and well bred,
+were not young. But she also complains that the king's tastes do not
+resemble hers, that he cares for nothing but hunting and mechanical
+employments; and, indulging in an unwonted bit of sarcasm, she proceeds:
+"You will allow that I should not look well beside a forge. I could never
+become a Vulcan; and the part of Venus would displease him more than my
+real tastes, which he does not disapprove." In another letter she mentions
+him in a tone of contemptuous pity, almost equally unbecoming, speaking of
+him as "the poor man" whom she had made a tool of to further some views of
+her own, though Mercy assured the empress that her assertion of having so
+treated him was a mere fiction of her imagination, to impart a sort of
+lively tone to her letter; that, in spite of occasional outbursts of
+levity, she had in reality the firmest affection and esteem for Louis; and
+that nothing could be more irreproachable than her conduct toward him in
+every respect. He added that the people in general did her full justice on
+this head; that if her popularity with the Parisians had for a moment
+suffered any diminution through the artifices of faction, the cloud had
+been blown away; and that she had been recently received at the different
+theatres with as fervent a loyalty as had greeted even her first
+appearance.
+
+The empress, however, was so uneasy that she induced her son, the Emperor
+Joseph, to add his expostulations to hers; and he, who was a prince of
+considerable shrewdness, as well as of a high idea of the proprieties of
+his rank, wrote her a long letter of remonstrance; imputing with great
+truth the failings, which he pointed out with sufficient plainness, to a
+facility of disposition which made her indulgent to the manoeuvres of
+those whom she admitted to her friendship, but who did not deserve such an
+honor. He even spoke of the society which she had gathered round her, as
+calculated to prevent him from performing his promise of paying her a
+visit; "for what should he do in a court of frivolous intriguers?" And he
+concluded by urging her to prevent these false friends from making a tool
+of her for the gratification of their own selfishness and rapacity; and to
+be solicitous for no friendship or confidence but that of her husband; the
+study of whose wishes was to her not only a state duty, but the only one
+which would make her permanently happy, and secure to her the lasting
+affection of the people.
+
+There was, however, no subject on which Marie Antoinette was so little
+amenable to advice as the choice of her friends, and none on which she
+more required it. Above all the frequenters of the court, two ladies were
+distinguished by her especial favor--the Princess de Lamballe and the
+Countess de Polignac. The princess, a daughter of the Prince de Carignan
+in Savoy, having been married to the son of the Duc de Penthièvre, was
+left a widow before she was twenty years of age. She had been originally
+recommended to Mario Antoinette in the first year of her residence in
+France, partly by her royal birth, and partly by her misfortunes; and the
+attachment which the dauphiness at once conceived for her was cemented by
+the ardor with which it was returned. In many respects the princess well
+deserved the favor with which she was regarded. Her temper was sweet and
+amiable; her character singularly truthful and sincere; and, that she
+might never be separated from her friend, the place of superintendent of
+the queen's household was revived for her. Some cavilers were disposed to
+grumble at the re-establishment of an office which had been suppressed as
+useless and costly; but no one could allege that Madame de Lamballe abused
+the royal favor, and her share in the calamities of later days justified
+the queen's choice by the proof it afforded of the princess's unalterable
+fidelity and devotion.
+
+But the countess was a very different character. She had, indeed, a
+well-bred air of good humor, but that, with her youth (she was but
+twenty years of age), was her only qualification; for her capacity was
+narrow, her disposition selfish and grasping, and she was so inveterate
+a manoeuvrer, that, when she had no intrigues of her own on foot, she
+was always ready to lend herself to the plots of others. What was worse,
+she did not enjoy an untainted character. The name of the Comte de
+Vaudreuil was often coupled with hers in the scandals of the court. And
+the queen, since she could hardly be ignorant of the reports which were
+circulated, incurred, by the marked favor which she showed to the
+countess, the imputation of shutting her eyes to the frailties of her
+friends, and thus showing that dissoluteness was not an insuperable
+barrier to her partiality. It was only the earnest remonstrance of Mercy
+which prevented her from conferring the place of lady of honor on the
+countess; but she allowed her to exert a pernicious influence over her
+in many ways, for the countess was unwearied in soliciting appointments
+and pensions for her relatives; at times making demands in such numbers,
+and of so exorbitant a character, that the queen herself was forced to
+admit the impossibility of granting them all, though she still sought to
+gratify her to far too great an extent, and would not allow the proved
+insatiability of her and her family to open her eyes to her real
+character.
+
+It was, however, a far more mischievous submission to the influence of the
+countess and her coterie, when she permitted them to prejudice her against
+Turgot, whom she had more than once described to her mother as an upright
+statesman, and who had constantly shown, so far as he could make
+compliance consistent with his duty to the State, a sincere desire to
+consult her wishes. But as the Polignac party saw in his prudence,
+integrity, and firmness the most formidable obstacle to their project of
+using the queen's favor to enrich themselves, she now yielded up her
+judgment to their calumnies. Forgetting her former praises of the
+minister's integrity, she began to disparage him as one whose measures
+caused general dissatisfaction, and at last she pushed her hostility to
+him so far that she actually tried to induce Louis not to be content with
+dismissing him from office, but to send him as a prisoner to the
+Bastille.[4] That she could not avoid feeling some shame at the part which
+she had acted may be inferred from the pains which she took to conceal it
+from her mother, whom she assured that, though she was not sorry for his
+dismissal, she had in no degree interfered in the matter; but "her conduct
+and even her intentions were well known, and known to be far removed from
+all manoeuvres and intrigues.[5]"
+
+Unfortunately the ambassador's letters tell a different story. As a
+sincere friend as well as a loyal servant of Marie Antoinette, he
+expresses to the empress his deep feeling that, "as the comptroller-
+general enjoyed a great reputation for integrity, and was beloved by the
+people, it was a melancholy thing that his dismissal should be in part the
+queen's work,[6]" and his fear that her conduct in the affair may
+"hereafter bring upon her the reproaches of the king her husband, and even
+of the entire nation." The foreboding thus uttered was but too sadly
+realized. She had driven from her husband's councils the only man who
+combined with the penetration to perceive the absolute necessity of a
+large reform and the character of the changes required, the genius to
+devise them and the firmness to carry them out.
+
+Thirteen years later, a variety of causes, some of which will be unfolded
+in the course of this narrative, had contributed to irritate the
+impatience of the nation, while the unskillfulness of the existing
+minister had disarmed the royal authority. And the very same reforms which
+would now have been accepted with general thankfulness were then only used
+by demagogues as a pretext for further inflaming the minds of the
+multitude against every thing which bore the slightest appearance of
+authority, even against the very sovereign who had granted them. France
+and all Europe to this day feel the sad effects of Marie Antoinette's
+interference.
+
+She had given fatal proof of the truth of the words wrung from her by
+nervous excitement at the moment of the late king's death, when she
+declared that Louis and she were too young to reign; and the best excuse
+that can be found for her is that she was not yet one-and-twenty. It was
+not, however, wholly from submission to the interested malevolence of
+others that she had shown herself the enemy of the great financier and
+statesman. She had a spontaneous dislike to the retrenchments which
+necessarily formed a great portion of his economical measures; not as
+interfering with the indulgence of any extravagant tastes of her own, but
+as restraining her power of gratifying her friends. For she was entirely
+impressed with the idea that no person or body could have any right to
+call in question the king's disposal of the national revenue; and that
+there was no prerogative of the crown of which the exercise was more
+becoming to the royal dignity than that of granting pensions or creating
+sinecures with no limitations but such as might be imposed by his own will
+or discretion. And on this point her husband fully shared her feelings.
+"What," said he, on one occasion to Turgot, who was urging him to refuse
+an utterly unwarrantable application for a pension. "What are a thousand
+crowns a year?" "Sire," replied the minister, "they are the taxation of a
+village." The king acquiesced for the moment, but probably not without
+some secret wincing at the control to which he seemed to be subjected; and
+we may, perhaps, suppose that even the queen's disapproval of the minister
+would have been less effectual had it not been re-enforced by the king's
+own feelings.
+
+In fact, that the part which she took against the great minister was the
+fruit of mere inconsiderateness and ignorance of the feelings and
+necessities of the nation, and that, if she had known the depth of the
+people's distress, and the degree in which it was caused by the
+viciousness of the whole existing system of government, she would gladly
+have promoted every measure which could tend to their relief, we may find
+abundant proof in a letter which she had written to her mother, a few
+weeks earlier. Maria Teresa had spoken with some harshness of the French
+fickleness. Marie Antoinette replies:[7]
+
+"You are quite right in all you say about French levity, but I am truly
+grieved that on that account you should conceive an aversion for the
+nation. The disposition of the people is very inconsistent, but it is not
+bad. Pens and tongues utter a great many things which are not in their
+heart. The proof that they do not cherish hatred is that on the very
+slightest occasion they speak well of one, and even praise one much more
+than one deserves. I have just this moment myself had experience of this.
+There had been a terrible fire in Paris in the Palace of Justice, and the
+same day I was to have gone to the opera, so I did not go, but sent two
+hundred louis to relieve the most pressing cases of distress;[8] and ever
+since the fire, the very same people who had been circulating libels and
+songs against me[9] have been extolling me to the skies."
+
+These revelations of her inmost thoughts to her mother show how real and
+warm was her affection for the French as a nation, as well as how little
+she claimed any merit for her endeavors to benefit them; though a
+subsequent passage in the same letter also shows that she had been so much
+annoyed by some pasquinades and libels, of which she had been the subject,
+that she had become careful not to furnish fresh opportunities to her
+enemies: "We have had here such a quantity of snow as has not been seen
+for many years, so that people are going about in sledges, as they do at
+Vienna. We were out in them yesterday about this place; and to-day there
+is to be a grand procession of them through Paris. I should greatly have
+liked to be able to go; but, as a queen has never been seen at such
+things, people might have made up stories if I had gone, and I preferred
+giving up the pleasure to being worried by fresh libels."
+
+She was still as eager as ever in the pursuit of amusement, and especially
+of novelties in that way, when not restrained by considerations such as
+those which she here mentions. When at Choisy, she gave water parties on
+the river in boats with awnings, which she called gondolas, rowing down as
+far as the very entrance to the city. It was not quite a prudent diversion
+for her, for at this time her health was not very strong. She easily
+caught cold, and the reports of such attacks often caused great uneasiness
+at Vienna; but the watermen were highly delighted, looking on her act in
+putting herself under their care as a compliment to their craft; and some
+of them, to increase her pleasure, jumped overboard and swam about. Their
+well-meant gallantry, however, was nearly having an unfavorable effect;
+unaware that it was not an accident, she thought that their lives were in
+danger, and the fear for them turned her sick, while Madame de Lamballe
+fainted away. But when she perceived the truth, the qualm passed away, and
+she rewarded them handsomely for their ducking; begging, however, that it
+might not be repeated, and assuring them that she needed no such proof to
+convince her of their dutiful and faithful loyalty.
+
+But the craving for excitement which was bred and nourished by the
+continuance of her unnatural position with respect to her husband in some
+parts of his treatment of her, was threatening to produce a very
+pernicious effect by leading her to become a gambler. Some of those ladies
+whom she admitted to her intimacy were deeply infected with this fatal
+passion; and one of the most mischievous and intriguing of the whole
+company, the Princess de Guimenée, introduced a play-table at some of her
+balls, which she induced Marie Antoinette to attend. At first the queen
+took no share in the play; as she had hitherto borne none, or only a
+formal part, in the gaming which, as we have seen, had long been a
+recognized feature in court entertainments; but gradually the hope of
+banishing vexation, if only by the substitution of a heavier care, got
+dominion over her, and in the autumn of 1776 we find Mercy commenting on
+her losses at lansquenet and faro, at that time the two most fashionable
+round games, the stakes at which often rose to a very considerable amount.
+Though she continued to indulge in this unhealthy pastime for some time,
+in Mercy's opinion she never took any real interest in it. She practiced
+it only because she wished to pass the time, and to drive away thought;
+and because the one accomplishment she wanted was the art of refusing. She
+even carried her complaisance so far as to allow professed gaming-table
+keepers to be brought from Paris to manage a faro-bank in her apartments,
+where the play was often continued long after midnight. It was not the
+least evil of this habit that it unavoidably left the king, who never quit
+his own apartments in the evening, to pass a great deal of time by
+himself; but, as if to make up for his coldness in one way, he was most
+indulgent in every other, and seemed to have made it a rule never to
+discountenance any thing which could amuse her. His behavior to her, in
+Mercy's eyes, seemed to resemble servility; "it was that of the most
+attentive courtier," and was carried so far as to treat with marked
+distinction persons whose character he was known to disapprove, solely
+because she regarded them with favor.[10]
+
+In cases such as these the defects in the king's character contributed
+very injuriously to aggravate those in hers. She required control, and he
+was too young to exercise it. He had too little liveliness to enter into
+her amusements; too little penetration to see that, though many of them--
+it may be said all, except the gaming-table--were innocent if he partook
+of them, indulgence in them, when he did not share them, could hardly fail
+to lead to unfriendly comments and misconstruction; though even his
+presence could hardly have saved his queen's dignity from some humiliation
+when wrangles took place, and accusations of cheating were made in her
+presence. The gaming-table is a notorious leveler of distinctions, and the
+worst-behaved of the guests were too frequently the king's own brothers;
+they were rude, overbearing, and ill-tempered. The Count de Provence on
+one occasion so wholly forgot the respect due to her, that he assaulted a
+gentleman in her presence; and the Count d'Artois, who played for very
+high stakes, invariably lost his temper when he lost his money. Indeed,
+the queen seems to have felt the discredit of such scenes; and it is
+probable that it was their frequent occurrence which led to a temporary
+suspension of the faro-bank; as a violent quarrel on the race-course
+between d'Artois and his cousin, the Duke de Chartres, whom he openly
+accused of cheating him, for a while disgusted her with horse-races, and
+led her to propose a substitution of some of the old exercises of
+chivalry, such as running at the ring; a proposal which had a great
+element of popularity in it, as being calculated to lead to a renewal of
+the old French pastimes, which seemed greatly preferable to the existing
+rage for copying, and copying badly, the fashions and pursuits of England.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+Marie Antoinette finds herself in Debt.--Forgeries of her Name are
+committed.--The Queen devotes herself too much to Madame de Polignac and
+others.--Versailles is less frequented.--Remonstrances of the Empress.--
+Volatile Character of the Queen.--She goes to the Bals d'Opéra at Paris.--
+She receives the Duke of Dorset and other English Nobles with Favor.--
+Grand Entertainment given her by the Count de Provence.--Character of the
+Emperor Joseph.--He visits Paris and Versailles.--His Feelings toward and
+Conversations with the King and Queen.--He goes to the Opera.--His Opinion
+of the Queen's Friends.--Marie Antoinette's Letter to the Empress on his
+Departure.--The Emperor leaves her a Letter of Advice.
+
+
+But this addiction to play, though it was that consequence of the
+influence of the society to which Marie Antoinette was at this time so
+devoted, which would have seemed the most objectionable in the eyes of
+rigid moralists, was not that which excited the greatest dissatisfaction
+in the neighborhood of the court. Excessive gambling had so long been a
+notorious vice of the French princes, that her letting herself down to
+join the gaming-table was not regarded as indicating any peculiar laxity
+of principle; while the stakes which she permitted herself, and the losses
+she incurred, though they seemed heavy to her anxious German friends, were
+as nothing when compared with those of the king's brothers. Even when it
+became known that she was involved in debt, that again was regarded as an
+ordinary occurrence, apparently even by the king himself, who paid the
+amount (about £20,000) without a word of remonstrance, merely remarking
+that he did not wonder at her funds being exhausted since she had such a
+passion for diamonds. For a great portion of the debts had been incurred
+for some diamond ear-rings which the queen herself did not wish for, and
+had only bought to gratify Madame de Polignac, who had promised her custom
+to the jeweler who had them for sale. Marie Antoinette had evidently
+become less careful in regulating her expenses, till she was awakened by
+the discovery of a crime which she herself imputed to her own carelessness
+in such matters. The wife of the king's treasurer had borrowed money in
+her name, and had forged her handwriting to letters of acknowledgment of
+the loans. The fraud was only discovered through Mercy's vigilance, and
+the criminal was at seized and punished, but it proved a wholesome lesson
+to the queen, who never forgot it, though, as we shall see hereafter, if
+others remembered it, the recollection only served to induce them to try
+and enrich themselves by similar knaveries.
+
+And this devotion of the queen to the society of the Polignacs and
+Guimenées, "her society," as she sometimes called it,[1] had also a
+mischievous effect in diminishing her popularity with the great body of
+the nobles. The custom of former sovereigns had been to hold receptions
+several evenings in each week, to which the men and women of the highest
+rank were proud to repair to pay their court. But now the royal apartments
+were generally empty, the king being alone in his private cabinet, while
+the queen was passing her time at some small private party of young
+people, by her presence often seeming to countenance intrigues of which
+she did not in her heart approve, and giddy conversation which was hardly
+consistent with her royal position; though Mercy, in reporting these
+habits to the empress, adds that the queen's own demeanor, even in the
+moments of apparently unrestrained familiarity, was marked by such uniform
+self-possession and dignity, that no one ever ventured to take liberties
+with her, or to approach her without the most entire respect.[2]
+
+It was hardly strange, then, that those who were not members of this
+society should feel offended at finding the court, as it were, closed
+against them, and should cease to frequent the palace when they had no
+certainty of meeting any thing but empty rooms. They even absented
+themselves from the queen's balls, which in consequence were so thinly
+attended that sometimes there were scarcely a dozen dancers of each sex,
+so that it was universally remarked that never within the memory of the
+oldest courtiers had Versailles been so deserted as it was this winter;
+the difference between the scene which the palace presented now from what
+had been witnessed in previous seasons striking the queen herself, and
+inclining her to listen more readily to the remonstrances which, at
+Mercy's instigation, the empress addressed to her. Her mother pointed out
+to her, with all the weight of her own long experience, the
+incompatibility of a private mode of life, such as is suitable for
+subjects, with the state befitting a great sovereign; and urged her to
+recollect that all the king's subjects, so long as their rank and
+characters were such as to entitle them to admission at court, had an
+equal right to her attention; and that the system of exclusiveness which
+she had adopted was a dereliction of her duty, not only to those who were
+thus deprived of the honors of the reception to which they were entitled,
+but also to the king, her husband, who was injured by any line of conduct
+which tended to discourage the nobles of the land from paying their
+respects to him.
+
+In the midst of all her giddiness, Marie Antoinette always listened with
+good humor, it may even be said with docility, to honest advice. No one
+ever in her rank was so unspoiled by authority; and more than one
+conversation which she held with the ambassador on the subject showed that
+these remonstrances, re-enforced as they were by the undeniable fact of
+the thinness of the company at the palace, had made an impression on her
+mind; though such impressions were as yet too apt to be fleeting, and too
+liable to be overborne by fresh temptations; for in volatile impulsiveness
+she resembled the French themselves, and the good resolutions she made one
+day were always liable to be forgotten the next. Nothing as yet was steady
+and unalterable in her character but her kindness of heart and
+graciousness of manner; they never changed; and it was on her genuine
+goodness of disposition and righteousness of intention that her German
+friends relied for producing an amendment as she grew older, far more than
+on any regrets for the past, or intentions of improvement for the future,
+which might be wrung from her by any momentary reflection or vexation.
+
+If Versailles was less lively than usual, Paris, on the other hand, had
+never been so gay as during the carnival of 1777. The queen went to
+several of the masked balls at the opera with one or other of her
+brothers-in-law and their wives; the king expressing his perfect
+willingness that she should so amuse herself, but never being able to
+overcome his own indolence and shyness so far as to accompany her. It
+could not have been a very lively amusement. She did not dance, but sat in
+an arm-chair surveying the dancers, or walked down the saloon attended by
+an officer of the bodyguard and one lady in waiting, both masked like
+herself. Occasionally she would grant to some noble of high rank the honor
+of walking at her side; but it was remarked that those whom she thus
+distinguished were often foreigners; some English noblemen, such as the
+Duke of Dorset and Lord Strathavon being especially favored, for a reason
+which, as given by Mercy, shows that that insular stiffness which, with
+national self-complacency, Britons sometimes confess as a not unbecoming
+characteristic, was not at that time attributed to them by others; since
+the ambassador explains the queen's preference by the self-evident fact
+that the English gentlemen were the best dancers, and made the best figure
+in the ball-room.
+
+But all the other festivities of this winter were thrown into the shade by
+an entertainment of extraordinary magnificence, which was given in the
+queen's honor by the Count de Provence at his villa at Brunoy.[3] The
+count was an admirer of Spenser, and appeared to desire to embody the
+spirit of that poet of the ancient chivalry in the scene which he
+presented to the view of his illustrious guest when she entered his
+grounds. Every one seemed asleep. Groups of cavaliers, armed _cap-a-pie_,
+and surrounded by a splendid retinue of squires and pages, were seen
+slumbering on the ground; their lances lying by their sides, their shields
+hanging on the trees which overshadowed them; their very horses reposing
+idly on the grass on which they cared not to browse. All seemed under the
+influence of a spell as powerful as that under which Merlin had bound the
+pitiless daughter of Arthur; but the moment that Marie Antoinette passed
+within the gates the enchantment was dissolved; the pages sprung to their
+feet, and brought the easily roused steeds to their awakened masters.
+Twenty-five challengers, with scarfs of green, the queen's favorite color,
+on snow-white chargers, overthrew an equal number of antagonists; but no
+deadly wounds were given. The victory of her champions having been
+decided, both parties of combatants mingled as spectators at a play, and
+afterward as dancers at a grand ball which was wound up by a display of
+fire-works and a superb illumination, of which the principal ornament was
+a gorgeous bouquet of flowers, in many-colored fire, lighting up the
+inscription "Vive Louis! Vive Marie Antoinette!"
+
+At last, however, the carnival came to an end. Not too soon for the
+queen's good, since hunts and long rides by day, and balls kept up till a
+late hour by night, had been too much for her strength,[4] so that even
+indifferent observers remarked that she looked ill and had grown thin. But
+even had Lent not interrupted her amusements, she would have ceased for a
+while to regard them, her whole mind being now devoted to preparing for
+the reception of her brother, the Emperor Joseph, whose visit, which had
+been promised in the previous year, was at last fixed for the month of
+April. It was anticipated with anxiety by the Empress and Mercy, as well
+as by Marie Antoinette. He was a prince of a peculiar disposition and
+habits. Before his accession to the imperial throne, he had been kept,
+apparently not greatly against his will, in the background. Nor, while his
+father lived, did he give any indications of a desire for power, or of any
+capacity for exercising it; but since he had been placed on the throne he
+had displayed great activity and energy, though he was still, in the
+opinion of many, more of a philosopher--a detractor might said more of a
+pedant--than of a statesman. He studied theories of government, and was
+extremely fond of giving advice; and as both Louis and Marie Antoinette
+were persons who in many respects stood in need of friendly counsel, Mercy
+and Maria Teresa had both looked forward to his visit to the French court
+as an event likely to be of material service to both, while his sister
+regarded it with a mixed feeling of hope and fear, in which, however, the
+pleasurable emotions predominated.
+
+She was not insensible to the probability that he would disapprove of some
+of her habits; indeed, we have already seen that he had expressed his
+disapproval of them, and of some of her friends, in the preceding year;
+and she dreaded his lectures; but, on the other hand, she felt confident
+that a personal acquaintance with the court would prove to him that many
+of the tales to her prejudice which had readied him had been mischievous
+exaggerations, and that thus he would be able to disabuse their mother,
+and to tranquilize her mind on many points. She hoped, too, that a
+personal knowledge of each other by him and her own husband would tend to
+cement a real friendship between them; and that his stronger mind would
+obtain an influence over Louis, which might induce him to rouse himself
+from his ordinary apathy and reserve, and make him more of a man of the
+world and more of a companion for her. Lastly, but probably above all, she
+thirsted with sisterly affection for the sight of her brother, and
+anticipated with pride the opportunity of presenting to her new countrymen
+a relation of whom she was proud on account of his personal endowments and
+character, and whose imperial rank made his visit wear the appearance of a
+marked compliment to the whole French nation.
+
+High-strung expectations often insure their own disappointment, but it was
+not so in this instance; though the august visitor's first act displayed
+an eccentricity of disposition which must have led more people than one to
+entertain secret misgivings as to the consequences which might flow from a
+visit which had such a commencement. Like his brother Maximilian, he too
+traveled incognito, under the title of the Count Falkenstein; and he
+persisted in maintaining his disguise so absolutely that he refused to
+occupy the apartments which the queen had prepared for him in the palace,
+and insisted on taking up his quarters with Mercy in Paris, and at a
+hotel, for the few days which he passed at Versailles.
+
+However, though by his conduct in this matter he to some extent
+disappointed the hope which his sister had conceived of an uninterrupted
+intercourse with him during his stay in France, in every other respect the
+visit passed off to the satisfaction of all the parties principally
+concerned. Fortunately, at their first interview Marie Antoinette herself
+made a most favorable impression on him. She had been but a child when he
+had last seen her. She was now a woman, and he was wholly unprepared for
+the matured and queenly beauty at which she had arrived. He was not a man
+to flatter any one, but almost his first words to her were that, had she
+not been his sister, he could not have refrained from seeking her hand
+that he might secure to himself so lovely a partner; and each succeeding
+meeting strengthened his admiration of her personal graces. She, always
+eager to please, was gratified at the feeling she had inspired; and thus
+an affectionate tone was from the first established between them, and all
+reserve was banished from their conversation. It was not diminished by the
+admonitions which, as he conceived, his age and greater experience
+entitled him to address to her, though sometimes they took the form of
+banter and ridicule, sometimes that of serious reproof;[5] but she bore
+all his lectures with unvarying good humor, promising him that the time
+should come when she would make the amendment which he desired; never
+attempting to conceal from him, and scarcely to excuse, the faults of
+which she was not unconscious, nor the vexations which in some particulars
+continually disquieted her.
+
+It was, at least, equally fortunate that the king also conceived a great
+liking for his brother-in-law at first sight. His character disposed him
+to receive with eagerness advice from one who had himself occupied a
+throne for several years, and whose relationship seemed a sufficient
+warrant that his counsels would be honest and disinterested. Accordingly
+those about him soon remarked that Louis treated the emperor with a
+cordiality that he had never shown to any one else. They had many long and
+interesting conversations, sometimes with Marie Antoinette as a third
+party, sometimes by themselves. Louis discussed with the emperor his
+anxiety to have a family, and his hopes of such a result; and Joseph
+expressed his opinion freely on all subjects, even volunteering
+suggestions of a change in the king's habits; as when he recommended him,
+as a part of his kingly duty, to visit the different provinces, sea-ports,
+cities, and manufacturing towns of his kingdom, so as to acquaint himself
+generally with the feelings and resources of the people. Louis listened
+with attention. If there was any case in which the emperor's advice was
+thrown away, it was, if the queen's suspicions were correct, when he
+recommended to the king a line of conduct adverse to her influence.
+
+Mercy had told the emperor that Louis was devotedly attached to the queen,
+but that he feared her at least as much as he loved her; and Joseph would
+have desired to see some of this fear transferred to and felt by her; and
+showed his wish that the king should exert his legitimate authority as a
+husband to check those habits of his wife of which they both disapproved,
+and which she herself did not defend. But, even if Louis did for a moment
+make up his mind to adopt a tone of authority, his resolution faded away
+in his wife's presence before her superior resolution; and to the end of
+their days she continued to be the leader, and he to follow her guidance.
+
+It need hardly be told that so august a visitor had entertainments given
+in his honor. The king gave banquets at Versailles, the queen less formal
+parties at her Little Trianon, though gayeties were not much to Joseph's
+taste; and, at a visit which his sister compelled him to pay to the opera,
+he remained ensconced at the back of her box till she dragged him forward,
+and, as if by main force, presented him to the audience. The whole theatre
+resounded with applause, expressed in such a way as to mark that it was to
+the queen's brother, fully as much as to the emperor, that the homage was
+paid. The opera was "Iphigénie," the chorus in which, "_Chantons,
+célébrons notre reine_," had by this time been almost as fully adopted, as
+the expression of the national loyalty, as "God save the Queen" is in
+England. But even on its first performance it had not been hailed with
+more rapturous cheering than shook the whole house on this occasion; and
+Joseph had the satisfaction of believing that his sister's hold on the
+affection and on the respect of the Parisians was securely established.
+
+He was less pleased at the races in the Bois de Boulogne, which he visited
+the next day. No inconsiderable part of Mercy's disapproval of such
+gatherings had been founded on the impropriety of gentlemen appearing in
+the queen's presence in top-boots and leather breeches, instead of in
+court dress; and the emperor's displeasure appears to have been chiefly
+excited by the hurry and want of stately order which were inseparable from
+the excitement of a race-course, and which, indifferent as he was to many
+points of etiquette, seemed even to him derogatory to the majesty of a
+queen to witness so closely. But he was far more dissatisfied with the
+company at the Princess de Guimenée's, to which the queen, with not quite
+her usual judgment, persuaded him one evening to accompany her. He saw not
+only gambling for much higher stakes than could be right for any lady to
+venture (the queen did not play herself), but he saw those who took part
+in the play lose their tempers over their cards and quarrel with one
+another; while he heard the hostess herself accused of cheating, the
+gamesters forgetting the respect due to their queen in their excitement
+and intemperance. He spoke strongly on the subject to Marie Antoinette,
+declaring that the apartment was no better than a common gaming-house; but
+was greatly mortified to see that his reproofs on this subject were
+received with less than the usual attention, and that she allowed her
+partiality for those whom she called her friends to outweigh her feeling
+of the impropriety of disorders of which she could not deny the existence.
+
+But entertainments and amusements were not permitted to engross much of
+his time. If he visited the king and queen as a brother, he was visiting
+France and Paris as a sovereign and a statesman, and as such he made a
+careful inspection of all that Paris had most worthy of his attention--of
+the barracks, the arsenals, the hospitals, the manufactories. And he
+acquired a very high idea of the capabilities and resources of the
+country, though, at the same time, a very low opinion of the talents and
+integrity of the existing ministers. Of the king himself he conceived a
+favorable estimate. Of his desire to do his duty to his people he had
+always been convinced, but, in a long conversation which he had held with
+him on the character of the French people,[6] and of the best mode of
+governing them, in which Louis entered into many details, he found his
+correctness of judgment and general knowledge of sound principles of
+policy far superior to his anticipations, though at the same time he felt
+convinced that his want of readiness and decision, and his timidity in
+action, would always render and keep him very inferior to the queen,
+especially whenever it should be necessary to come to a prompt decision on
+matters of moment.
+
+After a visit of six weeks, he quit Paris for his dominions in the
+Netherlands at the end of May, and a letter of the queen to her mother is
+very expressive of the pleasure which she had received from his visit, and
+of the lasting benefits which she hoped to derive from it.
+
+"Versailles, June 14th.
+
+"MY DEAREST MOTHER,--It is plain truth that the departure of the emperor
+has left a void in my heart from which I can not recover. I was so happy
+during the short time of his visit that at this moment it all seems like a
+dream. But one thing will never be a dream to me, and that is, the good
+advice and counsel which he gave me, and which is forever engraven in my
+heart.
+
+"I must tell my dear mamma that he gave me one thing which I earnestly
+begged of him, and which causes me the greatest pleasure: it is a packet
+of advice, which he has left me in writing. At this moment it constitutes
+my chief reading; and, if ever I could forget what he said to me, which I
+do not believe I ever could, I should still have this paper always before
+me, which would soon recall me to my duty. My dear mamma will have learned
+by the courier, who started yesterday, how well the king behaved during
+the last moments of my brother's visit. I can assure you that I thoroughly
+understand him, and that he was really affected at the emperor's
+departure. As he does not always recollect to pay attention to forms, he
+does not at all times show his feelings to the outer world, but all that I
+see proves to me that he is truly attached to my brother, and that he has
+the greatest regard for him; and at the moment of my brother's departure,
+when I was in the deepest distress, he showed an attention to, and a
+tenderness for, me which all my life I shall never forget, and which would
+attach me to him, if I had not been attached to him already.
+
+"It is impossible that my brother should not have been pleased with this
+nation. For one who, like him, knows how to estimate men, must have seen
+that, in spite of the exceeding levity which is inveterate in the people,
+there is a manliness and cleverness in them, and, speaking generally, an
+excellent heart, and a desire to do right. The only thing is to manage
+them properly.... I have this moment received your dear letter by the
+post. What goodness yours is, at a moment when you have so much business
+to think of, to recollect my name day! It overwhelms me. You offer up
+prayers for my happiness. The greatest happiness that I can have is to
+know that you are pleased with me, to deserve your kindness, and to
+convince you that no one in the world feels greater affection or greater
+respect for you than I."
+
+It is a letter very characteristic of the writer, as showing that neither
+time nor distance could chill her affection for her family; and that the
+attainment of royal authority had in no degree extinguished her habitual
+feeling of duty: that it had even strengthened it by making its
+performance of importance not only to herself, but to others. Nor is the
+jealousy for the reputation of the French people, and the desire so warmly
+professed that they should have won her brother's favorable opinion, less
+becoming in a queen of France; while, to descend to minor points, the
+neatness and felicity of the language may be admitted to prove, if her
+education had been incomplete when she left Austria, with how much pains,
+since her progress had depended on herself, she had labored to make up for
+its deficiencies. That she should have asked her brother, as she here
+mentions, to leave her his advice in writing, is a practical proof that
+her expression of an earnest desire to do her duty was not a mere form of
+words; while the resolution which she avows never to forget his
+admonitions shows a genuine humility and candor, a sincere desire to be
+told of and to amend her faults, which one is hardly prepared to meet with
+in a queen of one-and-twenty. For Joseph did not spare her, nor forbear to
+set before her in the plainest light those parts of her conduct which he
+disapproved. He told her plainly that if in France people paid her respect
+and observance, it was only as the wife of their king that they honored
+her; and that the tone of superiority in which she sometimes allowed
+herself to speak of him was as ill-judged as it was unbecoming. He hinted
+his dissatisfaction at her conduct toward him as her husband in a series
+of questions which, unless she could answer as he wished, must, even in
+her own judgment, convict her of some failure in her duties to him. Did
+she show him that she was wholly occupied with him, that her study was to
+make him shine in the opinion of his subjects without any thought of
+herself? Did she stifle every wish to shine at his expense, to be affable
+when he was not so, to seem to attend to matters which he neglected? Did
+she preserve a discreet silence as to his faults and weaknesses, and make
+others keep silence about them also? Did she make excuses for him, and
+keep secret the fact of her acting as his adviser? Did, she study his
+character, his wishes? Did she take care never to seem cold or weary when
+with him, never indifferent to his conversation or his caresses?
+
+The other matters on which the emperor chiefly dwells were those on which
+Mercy, and, by Mercy's advice, Maria Teresa also, had repeatedly pressed
+her. But those questions of Joseph's set plainly before us some of his
+young sister's difficulties and temptations, and, it must be confessed,
+some points in which her conduct was not wholly unimpeachable in
+discretion, even though her solid affection for her husband never wavered
+for a moment. In some respects they were an ill-assorted couple. He was
+slow, reserved, and awkward. She was clever, graceful, lively, and looking
+for liveliness. Both were thoroughly upright and conscientious; but he was
+indifferent to the opinions formed of him, while she was eager to please,
+to be applauded, to be loved. The temptation was great, to one so young,
+at times to put her graces in contrast to his uncouthness; to be seen to
+lead him who had a right to lead her; and, though we may regret, we can
+not greatly wonder, that she had not always steadiness to resist it. One
+tie was still wanting to bind her to him more closely; and happily the day
+was not far distant when that was added to complete and rivet their union.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+Impressions made on the Queen by the Emperor's Visit.--Mutual Jealousies
+of her Favorites.--The Story of the Chevalier d'Assas.--The Terrace
+Concerts at Versailles--More Inroads on Etiquette.--Insolence and
+Unpopularity of the Count d'Artois.--Marie Antoinette takes Interest in
+Politics.--France concludes an Alliance with the United States.--Affairs
+of Bavaria.--Character of the Queen's Letters on Politics.--The Queen
+expects to become a Mother.--Voltaire returns to Paris.--The Queen
+declines to receive him.--Misconduct of the Duke of Orléans in the Action
+off Ushant.--The Queen uses her Influence in his Favor.
+
+
+The emperor's admonitions and counsels had not been altogether unfruitful.
+If they had not at once entirely extinguished his sister's taste for the
+practices which he condemned, they had evidently weakened it; even though,
+as the first impression wore off, and her fear of being overwhelmed with
+_ennui_[1] resumed its empire, she relapsed for a while into her old
+habits, it was no longer with the same eagerness as before, and not
+without frequent avowals that they had lost their attraction. She visibly
+drew off from the entanglements of the coterie with which she had
+surrounded herself. The members had grown jealous of one another. Madame
+de Polignac feared the influence of the superior disinterestedness of the
+Princess de Lamballe; Madame de Guimenée, who was suspected of a want of
+even common honesty, grudged every favor that was bestowed on Madame de
+Polignac; and their rivalry, which was not always suppressed even in the
+queen's presence, was not only felt by her to be degrading to herself, but
+was also wearisome.
+
+Throughout the autumn her occupations and amusements were of a simpler
+kind. She read more, and agreeably surprised De Vermond by the soundness
+of her reflections on many incidents and characters in history. Accounts
+of chivalrous deeds had an especial charm for her. Hume was still her
+favorite author. And it happened that, while the gallantry of the loyal
+champions of Charles I. was fresh in her memory, a casual conversation
+threw in her way an opportunity of doing honor to the self-devoted heroism
+of a French soldier whom the proudest of the British cavaliers might have
+welcomed as a brother, but whose valiant and self-sacrificing fidelity had
+been left unnoticed by the worthless sovereign in whose service he had
+perished, and by his ministers, who thought only of securing the favor of
+the reigning mistress--favor to be won by actions of a very different
+complexion.
+
+In the Seven Years' War, when the French army, under the Marshal De
+Broglie, and the Prussians, under Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, were
+watching one another in the neighborhood of Wesel, the Chevalier d'Assas,
+a captain in the regiment of Auvergne, was in command of an outpost on a
+dark night of October. He had strolled a little in advance of his sentries
+into the wood which fronted his position, when suddenly he found himself
+surrounded and seized by a body of armed enemies. They were the advanced
+guard of the prince's army, who was marching to surprise De Broglie by a
+night attack, and they threatened him with instant death if he made the
+slightest noise. If he were but silent, he was safe as a prisoner of war;
+but his safety would have been the ruin of the whole French army, which
+had no suspicion of its danger. He did not for even a moment hesitate.
+With all the strength of his voice he shouted to his men, who were within
+hearing, that the enemy were upon them, and fell, bayoneted to death,
+almost before the words had passed his lips. He had saved his comrades and
+his commander, and had influenced the issue of the whole campaign. The
+enemy, whose well-planned enterprise his self-devotion had baffled, paid a
+cordial tribute of praise to his heroism, Ferdinand himself publicly
+expressing his regret at the fate of one whose valor had shed honor on
+every brother-soldier; but not the slightest notice had been taken of him
+by those in authority in France till his exploit was accidentally
+mentioned in the queen's apartments. It filled her with admiration. She
+asked what had been done to commemorate so noble a deed. She was told
+"nothing;" the man and his gallantry had been alike forgotten. "Had he
+left descendants or kinsmen?" "He had a brother and two nephews; the
+brother a retired veteran of the same regiment, the nephews officers in
+different corps of the army." The dead hero was forgotten no longer. Marie
+Antoinette never rested till she had procured an adequate pension for the
+brother, which was settled in perpetuity on the family; and promotion for
+both the nephews; and, as a further compliment, Clostercamp, the name of
+the village which was the scene of the brave deed, was added forever to
+their family name. The pension is paid to this day. For a time, indeed, it
+was suspended while France was under the sway of the rapacious and
+insensible murderers of the king who had granted it; but Napoleon restored
+it; and, amidst all the changes that have since taken place in the
+government of the country, every succeeding ruler has felt it equally
+honorable and politic to recognize the eternal claims which patriotic
+virtue has on the gratitude of the country.
+
+Marie Antoinette had thus the honor of setting an example to the
+Government and the nation. Her heart was getting lighter as the vexations
+under which she had so long fretted began to disappear. The late
+card-parties were often superseded, throughout the autumn, by concerts on
+the terrace at Versailles, where the regimental bands were the performers,
+and to which all the well-dressed towns-people were admitted, while the
+queen, attended by the princesses and her ladies, and occasionally
+escorted by Louis himself, strolled up and down and among the crowd,
+diffusing even greater pleasure than they themselves enjoyed; Marie
+Antoinette, as usual, being the central object of attraction, and greeting
+all with a teaming brightness of expression, and an affability as cordial
+as it was dignified, which deserved to win all hearts. One of the
+entertainments which she gave to the king at the Little Trianon may he
+recorded, not for any unusual sumptuousness of the spectacle, but as
+having been the occasion on which she made one more inroad on the
+established etiquette of the court in one of its most unaccountable
+restrictions: to such royal parties the king's ministers had never been
+regarded as admissible, but on this night Marie Antoinette commanded the
+company of the Count and Countess de Maurepas. And the innovation was
+regarded not only by them as a singular favor, but by all their colleagues
+as a marked compliment to the whole body of ministers, and served to
+increase their desire to consult her inclinations in every matter in which
+she took an interest.
+
+And the esteem which she thus conciliated was at this time not destitute
+of real importance, since the conduct of the other members of the royal
+family excited very different feelings. The Count de Provence was
+generally distrusted as intriguing and insincere. And the Count d'Artois,
+whose bad qualities were of a more conspicuous character, was becoming an
+object of general dislike, not so much from his dissipated mode of life as
+from the overbearing arrogance which he imparted into his pleasures. No
+rank was high enough to protect the objects of his displeasure from his
+insolence; even ladies were not safe from it;[2] while his extravagance
+was beyond all bounds since he considered himself entitled to claim from,
+the national treasury whatever he might require in addition to his stated
+income. He was at the same time repairing one castle, that of St. Germain,
+which the king had given him; rebuilding another large house which he had
+purchased in the same neighborhood; and pulling down and rebuilding a
+third, named Bagatelle, in the Bois de Boulogne, which he had just bought,
+and as to which he had laid an enormous wager that it should be completed
+and furnished in sixty days. To win his bet nearly a thousand workmen were
+employed day and night, and, as the requisite materials could not be
+provided at so short a notice, he sent patrols of his regiment to scour
+the roads, and seize every cart loaded with stones or timber for other
+employers, which he thus appropriated to his own use. He did, indeed, pay
+for the goods thus seized, and he won his bet, but when the princes of the
+land made so open a parade of their disregard of all law and all decency,
+one can hardly wonder that men in secret began, to talk of a revolution,
+or that all the graces and gentleness of the queen should be needed to
+outweigh such grave causes of discontent and indignation.
+
+As the new year opened, affairs of a very different kind began to occupy
+the queen's attention. On political questions, the advice which the
+empress gave her differed in some degree from that of her embassador.
+Maria Teresa was an earnest politician, but she was also a mother; and, as
+being eager above all things for her daughter's happiness, while she
+entreated Marie Antoinette to study politics, history, and such other
+subjects as might qualify her to be an intelligent companion of the king,
+and so far as or whenever he might require it, his chief confidante, she
+warned her also against ever wishing to rule him. But Mercy was a
+statesman above every thing, and, feeling secure of being able to guide
+the queen, he desired to instill into her mind an ambition to govern the
+king. On one most important question she proved wholly unable to do so,
+since the decision taken was not even in accordance with the judgment or
+inclination of Louis himself; but he allowed himself to be persuaded by
+two of his ministers to adopt a course against which Joseph had earnestly
+warned him in the preceding year, and which, as he had been then
+convinced, was inconsistent alike with his position as a king and with his
+interests as King of France.
+
+England had been for some years engaged in a civil war with her colonies
+in North America, and from the commencement of the contest a strong
+sympathy for the colonists had been evinced by a considerable party in
+France. Louis, who, for several reasons disliked England and English
+ideas, was at first inclined to coincide in this feeling as a development
+of anti-English principles: he was far from suspecting that its source was
+rather a revolutionary and republican sentiment. But he had conversed with
+his brother-in-law on the possibility of advantages which might accrue to
+France from the weakening of her old foe, if French aid should enable the
+Americans to establish their independence. Joseph's opinion was clear and
+unhesitating: "I am a king; it is my business to be royalist." And he
+easily convinced Louis that for one sovereign to assist the subjects of
+another monarch who were in open revolt, was to set a mischievous example
+which might in time be turned against himself. But since his return to
+Vienna, unprecedented disasters had befallen England; a whole army had
+laid down its arms; the ultimate success of the Americans seemed to every
+statesman in Europe to be assured, and the prospect gave such
+encouragement to the war party in the French cabinet that Louis could
+resist it no longer. In February, 1778, a treaty was concluded with the
+United States, as the insurgents called themselves; and France plunged
+into a war from which she had nothing to gain, which involved her in
+enormous expenses, which brought on her overwhelming defeats, and which,
+from its effects upon the troops sent to serve with the American army, who
+thus became infected with republican principles, had no slight influence
+in bringing about the calamities which, a few years later, overwhelmed
+both king and people.
+
+All Marie Antoinette's language on the subject shows that she viewed the
+quarrel with England with even greater repugnance than her husband; but it
+is curious to see that her chief fear was lest the war should be waged by
+land, and that she felt much greater confidence in the French navy than in
+the army;[3] though it was just at this time that Voltaire was pointing
+out to his countrymen that England had always enjoyed and always would
+possess a maritime superiority which different inquirers might attribute
+to various causes, but which none could deny.[4]
+
+Even before the conclusion of this treaty, however, the Americans had
+found sympathizers in France, to one of whom some of the circumstances of
+the war which they were now waging gave a subsequent importance to which
+no talents or virtues of his own entitled him. The Marquis de La Fayette
+was a young man of ancient family, and of fair but not excessive fortune.
+He was awkward in appearance and manner, gawky, red-haired, and singularly
+deficient in the accomplishments which were cultivated by other youths of
+his age and rank.[5] But he was deeply imbued with the doctrines of the
+new philosophy which saw virtue in the mere fact of resistance to
+authority; and when the colonists took up arms, he became eager to afford
+them such aid as he could give. He made the acquaintance of Silas Deane,
+one of the most unscrupulous of the American agents, who promised him,
+though he was only twenty years of age, the rank of major-general. As he
+was at all times the slave of a most overweening conceit, he was tempted
+by that bait; and, though he could not leave France without incurring the
+forfeiture of his military rank in the army of his own country, in April,
+1777, he crossed over to America to serve as a volunteer under Washington,
+who naturally received with special distinction a recruit of such
+political importance. He was present at more than one battle, and was
+wounded at Brandywine; but the exploit which made him most conspicuous was
+a ridiculous act of bravado in sending a challenge to Lord Carlisle, the
+chief of the English Commissioners who in 1778 were dispatched to America
+to endeavor to re-establish peace. However, the close of the war, which
+ended, as is well known, in the humiliation of Great Britain and the
+establishment of the independence of the colonies, made him seem a hero to
+his countrymen on his return. The queen, always eager to encourage and
+reward feats of warlike enterprise, treated him with marked distinction,
+and procured him from her husband not only the restoration of his
+commission, but promotion to the command of a regiment;[6] kindness which,
+as will be seen, he afterward requited with the foulest ingratitude.
+
+Nor was this most imprudent war with England the only question of foreign
+politics which at this time interested Marie Antoinette. Her native land,
+her mother's hereditary dominions, were also threatened with war. On the
+death of the Elector of Bavaria at the end of 1777, Joseph, who had been
+married to his sister, claimed a portion of his territories; and Frederick
+of Prussia, that "bad neighbor," as Marie Antoinette was wont to call him,
+announced his resolution to resist that claim, by force of arms if
+necessary. If he should carry out the resolution which he had announced,
+and if war should in consequence break out, much would depend on the
+attitude which France would assume on her fidelity to or disregard of the
+alliance which had now subsisted more than twenty years. So all-important
+to Austria was her decision, that Maria Teresa forgot the line which, as a
+general rule of conduct, she had recommended to her daughter, and wrote to
+her with the most extreme earnestness to entreat her to lose no
+opportunity of influencing the King's council. If it depended upon Maria
+Teresa, the claim would probably not have been advanced; but Joseph had
+made it on the part of the empire, and, when it was once made, the empress
+could not withhold her support from her son. She therefore threw herself
+into the quarrel with as much earnestness as if it had been her own.
+Indeed, since Joseph had as yet no authority over her hereditary
+possessions, it was only by her armies that it could be maintained; and in
+her letters to her daughter she declared that Marie Antoinette had her
+happiness, the welfare of her house, and of the whole Austrian nation in
+her hands; that all depended on her activity and affection. She knew that
+the French ministers were inclined to favor the views of Frederick, but if
+the alliance should be dissolved it would kill her.[7] Marie Antoinette
+grew pale at reading so ominous a denunciation. It required no art to
+inflame her against Frederick. The Seven Years' War had begun when she was
+but a year old; and all her life she had heard of nothing more frequently
+than of the rapacity and dishonesty of that unprincipled aggressor. She
+now entered with eagerness into her mother's views, and pressed them on
+Louis with unremitting diligence and considerable fertility of argument,
+though she was greatly dismayed at finding that not only his ministers,
+but he himself, regarded Austria as actuated by an aggressive ambition,
+and compared her claim to a portion of Bavaria to the partition of Poland,
+which, six years before, had drawn forth unwonted expressions of honorable
+indignation from even his unworthy grandfather. The idea that the alliance
+between France and the empire was itself at stake on the question, made
+her so anxious that she sent for the ministers themselves, pressing her
+views on both Maurepas and Vergennes with great earnestness. But they,
+though still faithful to the maintenance of the alliance, sympathized with
+the king rather than with her in his view of the character of the claim
+which the emperor had put forward; and they also urged another argument
+for abstaining from any active intervention, that the finances of the
+country were in so deplorable a state that France could not afford to go
+to war. It was plain, as she told them, that this consideration should at
+least equally have prevented their quarreling with England. But, in spite
+of all her persistence, they were not to be moved from this view of the
+true interest of France in the conjuncture that had arisen; and,
+accordingly, in the brief war which ensued between the empire and Prussia,
+France took no part, though it is more than probable that her mediation
+between the belligerents, which had no little share in bringing about the
+peace of Teschen,[8] was in a great degree owing to the queen's influence.
+
+For she was not discouraged by her first failure, but renewed her
+importunities from time to time; and at last did succeed in wringing a
+promise from her husband that if Prussia should invade the Flemish
+provinces of Austria, France would arm on the empress's side. So fully did
+the affair absorb her attention that it made her indifferent to the
+gayeties which the carnival always brought round. She did, indeed, as a
+matter of duty, give one or two grand state balls, one of which, in which
+the dancers of the quadrilles were masked, and in which their dresses
+represented the male and female costumes of India, was long talked of for
+both the magnificence and the novelty of the spectacle; and she attended
+one or two of the opera-balls, under the escort of her brothers-in-law and
+their countesses; but they had begun to pall upon her, and she made
+repeated offers to the king to give them up and to spend her evenings in
+quiet with him. But he was more inclined to prompt her to seek amusement
+than to allow her to sacrifice any,[9] even such as he did not care to
+partake of; nevertheless, he was pleased with the offer, and it was
+observed by the courtiers that the mutual confidence of the husband and
+wife in each other was more marked and more firmly established than ever.
+He showed her all the dispatches, consulted her on all points, and
+explained his reasons when he could not adopt all her views. As Marie
+Antoinette wrote to her brother, "If it were possible to reckon wholly on
+any man, the king was the one on whom she could thoroughly rely.[10]"
+
+So greatly, indeed, did the quarrel between Austria and Prussia engross
+her, that it even occupied the greater part of letters whose ostensible
+object is to announce prospects of personal happiness which might have
+been expected to extinguished every other consideration. In one, after
+touching briefly on her health and hopes, she proceeds:
+
+"How kind my dear mamma is, to express her approval of the way in which I
+have conducted myself in these affairs up to the present time! Alas! there
+is no need for you to feel obliged to me; it was my heart that acted in
+the whole matter. I am only vexed at not being able to enter myself into
+the feelings of all these ministers, so as to be able to make them
+comprehend how every thing which has been done and demanded by the
+authorities at Vienna is just and reasonable. But unluckily none are more
+deaf than those who will not hear; and, besides, they have such a number
+of terms and phrases which mean nothing, that they bewilder themselves
+before they come to say a single reasonable thing. I will try one plan,
+and that is to speak to them both in the king's presence, to induce them,
+at least, to hold language suitable to the occasion to the King of
+Prussia; and in good truth it is for the interest and glory of the
+king[11] himself that I am anxious to see this done; for he can not but
+gain by supporting allies who on every account ought to be so dear to him.
+
+"In other respects, and especially in my present conditions, he behaves
+most admirably, and is most attentive to me. I protest to you, my dear
+mamma, that my heart would be torn by the idea that you could for a moment
+suspect his good-will in what has been done. No; it is the terrible
+weakness of his ministers, and tis own great want of self-reliance, which
+does all the mischief; and I am sure that if he would never act but on his
+own judgment, every one would see his honesty, his correctness of feeling,
+and his tact, which at present they are far from appreciating.[12]"
+
+And at the end of the month she writes again:
+
+"I saw Mercy a day or two ago: he showed me the articles which the King of
+Prussia sent to my brother. I think it is impossible to see any thing more
+absurd than his proposals. In fact, they are so ridiculous that they must
+strike every one here; I can answer for their appearing so to the king. I
+have not been able to see the ministers. M. de Vergennes has not been here
+[she is writing from Marly]; he is not well, so that I must wait till we
+return to Versailles.
+
+"I had seen before the correspondence of the King of Prussia with my
+brother. It is most abominable of the former to have sent it here, and the
+more so since, in truth, he has not much to boast of. His imprudence, his
+bad faith, and his malignant temper are visible in every line. I have been
+enchanted with my brother's answers. It is impossible to put into letters
+more grace, more moderation, and at the same time more force. I am going
+to say something which is very vain; but I do believe that there is not in
+the whole world any one but the emperor, the son of my dearest mother, who
+has the happiness of seeing her every day, who could write in such a
+manner."
+
+There is no trace in these letters of the levity and giddiness of which
+Mercy so often complains, and which she at times did not deny. On the
+contrary, they display an earnestness as well as a good sense and an
+energy which are gracefully set off by the affection for her mother, and
+the pride in her brother's firmness and address which they also express.
+With respect to the conduct of Louis at this crisis we may perhaps differ
+from her; and may think that he rarely showed so much self-reliance, the
+general want of which was in truth his greatest defect, as when he
+preferred the arguments of Vergennes to her entreaties. But if her praises
+of the emperor are, as she herself terms them, vanity, it is the vanity of
+sisterly and patriotic affection, which can not but be regarded with
+approval; and we may see in it an additional proof of the correctness of
+an assertion, repeated over and over again in Mercy's correspondence,
+that, whenever Marie Antoinette gave the rein to her own natural impulses,
+she invariably both thought and acted rightly.
+
+In one of the extracts which have just been quoted, the queen alludes to
+her own condition; and that, in any one less unselfish, might well have
+driven all other thoughts from her head. For the event to which she had so
+long looked forward as that which was wanted to crown her happiness, and
+which had been so long deferred that at times she had ceased to hope for
+it at all, was at last about to take place--she was about to become a
+mother. Her own joy at the prospect was shared to its full extent by both
+the king and the empress. Louis, roused out of his usual reserve, wrote
+with his own hand to both the empress and the emperor, to give the
+intelligence; and Maria Teresa declared that she had nothing left to wish
+for, and that she could now close her eyes in peace. And the news was
+received with almost equal pleasure by the citizens of Paris, who had long
+desired to see an heir born to the crown; and by those of Vienna, who had
+not yet forgotten the fair young princess, the flower of her mother's
+flock, as they had fondly called her, whom they had sent to fill a foreign
+throne. Her own happiness exhibited itself, as usual, in acts of
+benevolence, in the distribution of liberal gifts to the poor of Paris and
+Versailles, and a foundation of a hospital for those in a similar
+condition with herself.[13]
+
+In the course of the spring, Paris was for a moment excited even more than
+by the declaration of war against England, or than by the expectation of
+the queen's confinement, by the return of Voltaire, who had long been in
+disgrace with the court, and had been for many years living in a sort of
+tacit exile on the borders of the Lake of Geneva. He was now in extreme
+old age, and, believing himself to have but a short time to live, he
+wished to see Paris once more, putting forward as his principal motive his
+desire to superintend the performance of his tragedy of "Irene." His
+admirers could easily secure him a brilliant reception at the theatre; but
+they were anxious above all things to obtain for him admission to the
+court, or at least a private interview with the queen. She felt in a
+dilemma. Joseph, a year before, had warned her against giving
+encouragement to a man whose principles deserved the reprobation of all
+sovereigns. He himself, though on his return to Vienna he had passed
+through Geneva, had avoided an interview with him, while the empress had
+been far more explicit in her condemnation of his character. On the other
+hand, Marie Antoinette had not yet learned the art of refusing, when those
+who solicited a favor had personal access to her; and she had also some
+curiosity to see a man whose literary fame was accounted one of the chief
+glories of the nation and the age. She consulted the king, but found
+Louis, on this subject, in entire agreement with her mother and her
+brother. He had no literary curiosity, and he disapproved equally the
+lessons which Voltaire had throughout his life sought to inculcate upon
+others, and the licentious habits with which he had exemplified his own
+principles in action. She yielded to his objections, and Voltaire, deeply
+mortified at the refusal,[14] was left to console himself as best he could
+with the enthusiastic acclamations of the play-goers of the capital, who
+crowned his bust on the stage, while he sat exultingly in his box, and
+escorted him back in triumph to his house; those who could approach near
+enough even kissing his garments as he passed, till he asked them whether
+they designed to kill him with delight; as, indeed, in some sense, they
+may be said to have done, for the excitement of the homage thus paid to
+him day after day, whenever he was seen in public, proved too much for his
+feeble frame. He was seized with illness, which, however, was but a
+natural decay, and in a few weeks after his arrival in Paris he died.
+
+As the year wore on, Marie Antoinette was fully occupied in making
+arrangements for the child whose coming was expected with such impatience.
+Her mother is of course her chief confidante. She is to be the child's
+godmother; her name shall be the first its tongue is to learn to
+pronounce; while for its early management the advice of so experienced a
+parent is naturally sought with unhesitating deference. Still, Marie
+Antoinette is far from being always joyful. Russia has made an alliance
+with Prussia; Frederick has invaded Bohemia, and she is so overwhelmed
+with anxiety that she cancels invitations for parties which she was about
+to give at the Trianon, and would absent herself from the theatre and from
+all public places, did not Mercy persuade her that such a withdrawal would
+seem to be the effect, not of a natural anxiety, but of a despondency
+which would be both unroyal and unworthy of the reliance which she ought
+to feel on the proved valor of the Austrian armies.
+
+The war with England, also, was an additional cause of solicitude and
+vexation. The sailors in whom she had expressed such confidence were not
+better able than before to contend with British antagonists. In an
+undecisive skirmish which took place in July between two fleets of the
+first magnitude, the French admiral, D'Orvilliers, had made a practical
+acknowledgment of his inferiority by retreating in the night, and eluding
+all the exertions of the English admiral, Keppel, to renew the action. The
+discontent in Paris was great; the populace was severe on one or two of
+the captains, who were thought to have taken undue care of their ships and
+of themselves, and especially bitter against the Duke de Chartres, who had
+had a rear-admiral's command in the fleet, and who, after having made
+himself conspicuous before D'Orvilliers sailed, by his boasts of the
+prowess which he intended to exhibit, had made himself equally notorious
+in the action itself by the pains he took to keep himself out of danger.
+On his return to Paris, shameless as he was, he scarcely dared show his
+face, till the Comte d'Artois persuaded the queen to throw her shield over
+him. It was impossible for him to remain in the navy; but, to soften his
+fall, the count proposed that the king should create a new appointment for
+him, as colonel-general of the light cavalry. Louis saw the impropriety of
+such a step: truly it was but a questionable compliment to pay to his
+hussars, to place in authority over them a man under whom no sailor would
+willingly serve. Marie Antoinette in her heart was as indignant as any
+one. Constitutionally an admirer of bravery, she had taken especial
+interest in the affairs of the fleet and in the details of this action.
+She had honored with the most marked eulogy the gallantry of Admiral du
+Chaffault, who had been severely wounded; but now she allowed herself to
+be persuaded that the duke's public disgrace would reflect on the whole
+royal family, and pressed the request so earnestly on the king that at
+last he yielded. In outward appearance the duke's honor was saved; but the
+public, whose judgment on such matter is generally sound, and who had
+revived against him some of the jests with which the comrades of Luxemburg
+had shown their scorn of the Duke de Maine, blamed her interference; and
+the duke himself, by the vile ingratitude with which he subsequently
+repaid her protection, gave but too sad proof that of all offenders
+against honor the most unworthy of royal indulgence is a coward.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+Birth of Madame Royale.--Festivities of Thanksgiving.--The Dames de la
+Halle at the Theatre.--Thanksgiving at Notre Dame.--The King goes to a Bal
+d'Opéra.--The Queen's Carriage breaks down.--Marie Antoinette has the
+Measles.--Her Anxiety about the War.--Retrenchments of Expense.
+
+
+Mercy, while deploring the occasional levity of the queen's conduct, and
+her immoderate thirst for amusement, had constantly looked forward to the
+birth of a child as the event which, by the fresh and engrossing
+occupation it would afford to her mind, would be the surest remedy for her
+juvenile heedlessness. And, as we have seen, the absence of any prospect
+of becoming a mother had, till recently, been a constant source of anxiety
+and vexation to the queen herself--the one drop of bitterness in her cup,
+which, but for that, would have been filled with delights. But this
+disappointment was now to pass away. From the moment that it was publicly
+announced that the queen was in the way to become a mother, one general
+desire seemed to prevail to show how deep an interest the whole nation
+felt in the event. In cathedrals, monasteries, abbeys, universities, and
+parish churches, masses were celebrated and prayers offered for her safe
+delivery. In many instances, private individuals even gave extraordinary
+alms to bring down the blessing of Heaven on the nation, so interested in
+the expected event. And on the 19th of December, 1778, the prayers were
+answered, and the hopes of the country in great measure realized by the
+birth of a princess, who was instantly christened Maria Thérèse Charlotte,
+in compliment to the empress, her godmother.
+
+The labor was long, and had nearly proved fatal to the mother, from the
+strange and senseless custom which made the queen's bed-chamber on such an
+occasion a reception-room for every one, of whatever rank or station, who
+could force his way in.[1] In most countries, perhaps in all, the
+genuineness of a royal infant is assured by the presence of a few great
+officers of state; but on this occasion not only all the ministers, with
+all the members of the king's or of the queen's household, were present in
+the chamber, but a promiscuous rabble filled the adjacent saloon and
+gallery, and, the moment that it was announced that the birth was about to
+take place, rushed in disorderly tumult into the apartment, some climbing
+on the chairs and sofas, and even on the tables and wardrobes, to obtain a
+better sight of the patient. The uproar was great. The heat became
+intense; the queen fainted. The king himself dashed at the windows, which
+were firmly closed, and by an unusual effort of strength tore down the
+fastenings and admitted air into the room. The crowd was driven out, but
+Marie Antoinette continued insensible; and the moment was so critical that
+the physician had recourse to his lancet, and opened a vein in her foot.
+As the blood came she revived. The king himself came to her side, and
+announced to her that she was the mother of a daughter.
+
+It can hardly be said that the hopes of the nation, or of the king
+himself, had been fully realized, since an heir to the throne, a dauphin,
+that had been universally hoped for. But in the general joy that was felt
+at the queen's safety the disappointment of this hope was disregarded, and
+the little princess, Madame Royale, as she was called from her birth, was
+received by the still loyal people in the same spirit as that in which
+Anne Boleyn's lady in waiting had announced to Henry VIII. the birth of
+her "fair young maid:"
+
+  "_King Henry_. Now by thy looks
+  I guess thy message. Is the queen delivered?
+  Say ay; and of a boy.
+
+  "_Lady_. Ay, ay, my liege,
+  And of a lovely boy. The God of Heaven
+  Both now and ever bless her. 'Tis a girl,
+  Promises boys hereafter."
+
+And a month before the empress had expressed a similar sentiment: "I
+trust," she wrote to her daughter in November, "that God will grant me the
+comfort of knowing that you are safely delivered. Every thing else is a
+matter of indifference. Boys will come after girls.[2]" And the same
+feeling was shared by the Parisians in general, and embodied by M. Imbert,
+a courtly poet, whose odes were greatly in vogue in the fashionable
+circles, in an epigram which was set to music and sung in the theatres.
+
+  "Pour toi, France, un dauphin doit naître,
+    Une Princesse vient pour en être témoin,
+  Sitôt qu'on voit une grâce paraître,
+    Croyez que l'amour n'est pas loin.[3]"
+
+Marie Antoinette herself was scarcely disappointed at all. When the
+attendants brought her her babe, she pressed it to her bosom. "Poor little
+thing," said she, "you are not what was desired, but you shall not be the
+less dear to me. A son would have belonged to the State; you will be my
+own: you shall have all my care, you shall share my happiness and sweeten
+my vexations.[4]"
+
+The Count de Provence made no secret of his joy. He was still heir
+presumptive to the throne. And, though no one shared his feelings on the
+subject, for the next few weeks the whole kingdom, and especially the
+capital, was absorbed in public rejoicings. Her own thankfullness was
+displayed by Marie Antoinette in her usual way, by acts of benevolence.
+She sent large sums of money to the prisons to release poor debtors; she
+gave dowries to a hundred poor maidens; she applied to the chief officers
+of both army and navy to recommend her veterans worthy of especial reward;
+and to the curates of the metropolitan parishes to point out to her any
+deserving objects of charity; and she also settled pensions on a number of
+poor children who were born on the same day as the princess; one of whom,
+who owed her education to this grateful and royal liberality, became
+afterward known to every visitor of Paris as Madame Mars, the most
+accomplished of comic actresses.[5]
+
+One portion of the rejoicings was marked by a curious incident, in which
+the same body whose right to a special place of honor at ceremonies
+connected with the personal happiness of the royal family we have already
+seen admitted--the ladies of the fish-market--again asserted their
+pretensions with triumphant success. On Christmas-eve the theatres were
+opened gratuitously, but these ladies, who, with their friends, the
+coal-heavers, selected the most aristocratic theatre, La Comédie
+Française, for the honor of their visit, arrived with aristocratic
+unpunctuality, so late that the guards stopped them at the doors,
+declaring that the house was full, and that there was not a seat vacant.
+They declared that in any event room must be made for them. "Who were in
+the boxes of the king and queen? for on such occasions those places were
+theirs of right." Even they, however, were full, and the guards demurred
+to the ladies' claim to be considered, though for this night only, as the
+representatives of royalty, and to have the existing occupants of the
+seats demanded turned out to make room for them. The box-keeper and the
+manager were sent for. The registers of the house confirmed the validity
+of the claim by former precedents, and a compromise was at last effected.
+Rows of benches were placed on each side of the stage itself. Those on the
+right were allotted to the coal-heavers as representatives of Louis; the
+ladies of the fish-market sat on the left as the deputies of Marie
+Antoinette. Before the play was allowed to begin, his majesty the king of
+the coal-heavers read the bulletin of the day announcing the rapid
+progress of the queen toward recovery; and then, giving his hand to the
+queen of the fish-wives, the august pair, followed by their respective
+suites, executed a dance expressive of their delight at the good news, and
+then resumed their seats, and listened to Voltaire's "Zaire" with the most
+edifying gravity.[6] It was evident that in some things there was already
+enough, and rather more than enough, of that equality the unreasonable and
+unpractical passion for which proved, a few years later, the most pregnant
+cause of immeasurable misery to the whole nation.
+
+But the demonstration most in accordance with the queen's own taste was
+that which took place a few weeks later, when she went in a state
+procession to the great national cathedral of Notre Dame to return thanks;
+one most interesting part of the ceremony being the weddings of the
+hundred young couples to whom she had given dowries, who also received a
+silver medal to commemorate the day. The gayety of the spectacle, since
+they, with the formal witnesses of their marriage, filled a great part of
+the antechapel; and the blessings invoked on the queen's head as she left
+the cathedral by the prisoners whom she had released, and by the poor
+whose destitution she had relieved, made so great an impression on the
+spectators, that even the highest dignitaries of the court added their
+cheers and applause to those of the populace who escorted her coach to the
+gates on its return to Versailles.
+
+She was now, for the first time since her arrival in France, really and
+entirely happy, without one vexation or one foreboding of evil. The king's
+attachment to her was rendered, if not deeper than before, at least far
+more lively and demonstrative by the birth of his daughter; his delight
+carrying him at times to most unaccustomed ebullitions of gayety. On the
+last Sunday of the carnival, he even went alone with the queen to the
+masked opera ball, and was highly amused at finding that not one of the
+company recognized either him or her. He even proposed to repeat his visit
+on Shrove-Tuesday; but when the evening came he changed his mind, and
+insisted on the queen's going by herself with one of her ladies, and the
+change of plan led to an incident which at the time afforded great
+amusement to Marie Antoinette, though it afterward proved a great
+annoyance, as furnishing a pretext for malicious stories and scandal. To
+preserve her _incognito_, a private carriage was hired for her, which
+broke down in the street close by a silk-mercer's shop. As the queen was
+already masked, the shop-men did not know her, and, at the request of the
+lady who attended her, stopped for her the first hackney-coach which
+passed, and in that unroyal vehicle, such as certainly no sovereign of
+France had ever set foot in before, she at last reached the theatre. As
+before, no one recognized her, and she might have enjoyed the scene and
+returned to Versailles in the most absolute secrecy, had not her sense of
+the fun of a queen using such a conveyance overpowered her wish for
+concealment, so that when, in the course of the evening, she met one or
+two persons of distinction whom she knew, she could not forbear telling
+them who she was, and that she had come in a hackney-coach.
+
+Her health seemed less delicate than it had been before her confinement.
+But in the spring she was attacked by the measles, and her illness, slight
+as it was, gave occasion to a curious passage in court history. The fear
+of infection was always great at Versailles, and, as the king himself and
+some of the ladies had never had the complaint, they were excluded from
+her room. But that she might not be left without attendants, four nobles
+of the court, the Duke de Coigny, the Duke de Guines, the Count Esterhazy,
+and the Baron de Besenval, in something of the old spirit of chivalry,
+devoted themselves to her service, and solicited permission to watch by
+her bedside till she recovered. As has been already seen, the bed-chamber
+and dressing-room of a queen of France had never been guarded from
+intrusion with the jealousy which protects the apartments of ladies in
+other countries, so that the proposal was less startling than it would
+have been considered elsewhere, while the number of nurses removed all
+pretext for scandal. Louis willingly gave the required permission, being
+apparently flattered by the solicitude exhibited for his queen's health.
+And each morning at seven the sick-watchers[7] took their seats in the
+queen's chamber, sharing with the Countess of Provence, the Princesse de
+Lamballe, and the Count d'Artois the task of keeping order and quiet in
+the sick-room till eleven at night. Though there was no scandal, there was
+plenty of jesting at so novel an arrangement. Wags proposed that in the
+case of the king being taken ill, a list should be prepared of the ladies
+who should tend his sick-bed. However, the champions were not long on
+duty: at the end of little more than a week their patient was
+convalescent. She herself took off the sentence of banishment which she
+had pronounced against the king in a brief and affectionate note, which
+said "that she had suffered a great deal, but what she had felt most was
+to be for so many days deprived of the pleasure of embracing him." And the
+temporary separation seemed to have but increased their mutual affection
+for each other.
+
+The Trianon was now more than ever delightful to her. The new plantations,
+which contained no fewer than eight hundred different kinds of trees, rich
+with every variety of foliage, were beginning, by their effectiveness, to
+give evidence of the taste with which they had been laid out; while with a
+charity which could not bear to keep her blessings wholly to herself, she
+had set apart one corner of the grounds for a row of picturesque cottages,
+in which she had established a number of pensioners whom age or infirmity
+had rendered destitute, and whom she constantly visited with presents from
+her dairy or her fruit-trees. Roaming about the lawns and walks, which she
+had made herself, in a muslin gown and a plain straw hat, she could forget
+that she was a queen. She did not suspect that the intriguers, who from
+time to time maligned her most innocent actions, were misrepresenting even
+these simple and natural pleasures, and whispering in their secret cabals
+that her very dress was a proof that she still clung as resolutely as ever
+to her Austrian preferences; that she discarded her silk gowns because
+they were the work of French manufacturers, while they were her brother's
+Flemish subjects who supplied her with muslins.
+
+But, far beyond her plantations and her flowers, her child was to her a
+source of unceasing delight. She could be carried by her side about the
+garden a great part of the day. For, as in her anticipations and
+preparations she had told her mother long before, French parents kept
+their children as much as possible in the open air,[8] a fashion which
+fully accorded with her own notions of what was best calculated to give an
+infant health and strength. And before the babe was five months old,[9]
+she flattered herself that it already distinguished her from its nurses.
+That nothing might be wanting to her comfort, peace was re-established
+between Austria and Prussia; and if at this time the war with England did
+make her in some degree uneasy, she yet felt a sanguine anticipation of
+triumph for the French arms, in the event of a battle between the hostile
+fleets; a result of which, when the antagonists did come within sight of
+each other, it appeared that the French and Spanish admirals felt far less
+confident. Her anxieties and hopes are vividly set forth in a letter
+which, in the course of the summer, she wrote to her mother, which is also
+singularly interesting from its self-examination, and from the substantial
+proof it supplies of the correctness of those anticipations which were
+based on the salutary effect which her novel position as a mother might be
+expected to have upon her character.
+
+"Versailles, August 16th.
+
+"My Dearest Mother,--I can not find language to express to my dear mamma
+my thanks for her two letters, and for the kindness with which she
+expresses her willingness to exert herself to the utmost to procure us
+peace.[10] It is true that that would be a great happiness, and my heart
+desires it more than any thing in the world; but, unhappily, I do not see
+any appearance of it at present. Every thing depends on the moment. Our
+fleets, the French and Spanish, being now united, we have a considerable
+superiority.[11]
+
+"They are now in the Channel; and I can not without great agitation
+reflect that at any instant the whole fate of the war may be decided. I am
+also terrified at the approach of September, when the sea is no longer
+practicable. In short, it is only on the bosom of my dearest mamma that I
+lay aside all my disquiet God grant that it may be groundless, but her
+kindness encourages me to speak to her as I think. The king is touched,
+quite as he should be, with all the service you so kindly propose to
+render him; and I do not doubt that he will be always eager to profit by
+it, rather than to deliver himself up to the intrigues of those who have
+so frequently deceived France, and whom we must regard as our natural
+enemies.
+
+"My health is completely re-established. I am going to resume my ordinary
+way of life, and consequently I hope soon to be able to announce to my
+dearest mother fresh news such as that of last year. She may feel quite
+re-assured now as to my behavior. I feel too strongly the necessity of
+having more children to be careless in that. If I have formerly done
+amiss, it was my youth and my levity; but now my head is thoroughly
+steadied, and you may reckon confidently on my properly feeling all my
+duties. Besides that, I owe such conduct to the king as a reward for his
+tenderness, and, I will venture to say it, his confidence in me, for which
+I can only praise him more find more.
+
+"... I venture to send my dear mamma the picture of my daughter: it is
+very like her. The dear little thing begins to walk very well in her
+leading-strings. She has been able to say "papa" for some days. Her teeth
+have not yet come through, but we can feel them all. I am very glad that
+her first word has been her father's name. It is one more tie for him. He
+behaves to me most admirably, and nothing could be wanting to make me love
+him more. My dear mamma will forgive my twaddling about the little one;
+but she is so kind that sometimes I abuse her kindness."
+
+It was well for Marie Antoinette's happiness that her husband was one in
+whom, as we have seen that she told her mother, she could feel entire
+confidence, for during her seclusion in the measles the intriguers of the
+court had ventured to try and work upon him. Mercy had reason to suspect
+that some were even wicked enough to desire to influence him against his
+wife by the same means by which the Duke de Richelieu had formerly
+alienated his grandfather from Marie Leczinska; and the queen herself
+received proof positive that Maurepas, in spite of her civilities to him
+and his countess, had become jealous of her political influence, and had
+endeavored to prevent his consulting her on public affairs. But all
+manoeuvres intended to disturb the conjugal felicity of the royal pair
+were harmless against the honest fidelity of the king, the graceful
+affection of the queen, and the firm confidence of each in the other. The
+people generally felt that the influence which it was now notorious that
+the queen did exert on public affairs was a salutary one; and great
+satisfaction was expressed when it became known in the autumn that the
+usual visit to Fontainebleau was given up, partly as being costly, and
+therefore undesirable while the nation had need to concentrate all its
+resources on the effective prosecution of the war, and partly that the
+king might be always within reach of his ministers in the event of any
+intelligence of importance arriving which required prompt decision.
+
+Her letters to her mother at this time show how entirely her whole
+attention was engrossed by the war; and, at the same time, with what wise
+earnestness she desired the re-establishment of peace. Even some gleams of
+success which had attended the French arms in the West Indies, where the
+Marquis de Bouillé, the most skillful soldier of whom France at that time
+could boast, took one or two of the British islands, and the Count
+d'Estaing, whose fleet of thirty-six sail was for a short time far
+superior to the English force in that quarter, captured one or two more,
+did not diminish her eagerness for a cessation of the war. Though it is
+curious to see that she had become so deeply imbued with the principles of
+statesmanship with which M. Necker, the present financial minister, was
+seeking to inspire the nation, that her objections to the continuance of
+the war turned chiefly on the degree in which it affected the revenue and
+expenditure of the kingdom. She evidently sympathizes in the
+disappointment which, as she reports to the empress, is generally felt by
+the public at the mismanagement of the admiral, M. d'Orvilliers, who, with
+forces so superior to those of the English, has neither been able to fall
+in with them so as to give them battle, nor to hinder any of their
+merchantmen from reaching their harbors in safety. As it is, he will have
+spent a great deal of money in doing nothing.[12] And a month later she
+repeats the complaints.[13] The king and she have renounced the journey
+to Fontainebleau because of the expenses of the war; and also that they
+may be in the way to receive earlier intelligence from the army. But the
+fleet has not been able to fall in with the English, and has done nothing
+at all. It is a campaign lost, and which has cost a great deal of money.
+What is still more afflicting is, that disease has broken out on board the
+ships, and has caused great havoc; and the dysentery, which is raging as
+an epidemic in Brittany and Normandy, has attacked the land force also,
+which was intended to embark for England ... "I greatly fear," she
+proceeds, "that these misfortunes of ours will render the English
+difficult to treat with, and may prevent proposals of peace, of which I
+see no immediate prospect. I am constantly persuaded that if the king
+should require a mediation, the intrigues of the King of Prussia will
+fail, and will not prevent the king from availing himself of the offers of
+my dear mamma. I shall take care never to lose sight of this object, which
+is of such interest to the whole happiness of my life." So full is her
+mind of the war, that four or five words in each letter to report that
+"her daughter is in perfect health," or that "she has cut four teeth," are
+all that she can spare for that subject, generally of such engrossing
+interest to herself and the empress; while, before the end of the year, we
+find her taking even the domestic troubles of England into her
+calculations,[14] and speculating on the degree in which the aspect of
+affairs in Ireland may affect the great preparations which the English
+ministers are making for the next campaign.
+
+The mere habit of devoting so much consideration to affairs of this kind
+was beneficial as tending to mature and develop her capacity. She was
+rapidly learning to take large views of political questions, even if they
+were not always correct. And the acuteness and earnestness of her comments
+on them daily increased her influence over both the king and the
+ministers, so that in the course of the autumn Mercy could assure the
+empress[15] that "the king's complaisance toward her increased every day,"
+that "he made it his study to anticipate all her wishes, and that this
+attention showed itself in every kind of detail," while Maurepas also was
+unable to conceal from himself that her voice always prevailed "in every
+case in which she chose to exert a decisive will," and accordingly "bent
+himself very prudently" before a power which he had no means of resisting.
+So solicitous indeed did the whole council show itself to please her, that
+when the king, who was aware that her allowance, in spite of its recent
+increase was insufficient to defray the charges to which she was liable,
+proposed to double it, Necker himself, with all his zeal for economy and
+retrenchment, eagerly embraced the suggestion; and its adoption gave the
+queen a fresh opportunity of strengthening the esteem and affection of the
+nation, by declaring that while the war lasted she would only accept half
+the sum thus placed at her disposal.
+
+The continuance of the war was not without its effect on the gayety of the
+court, from the number of officers whom their military duties detained
+with their regiments; but the quiet was beneficial to Marie Antoinette,
+whose health was again becoming delicate, so much so, that after a grand
+drawing-room which she held on New-year's-eve, and which was attended by
+nearly two hundred of the chief ladies of the city, she was completely
+knocked up, and forced to put herself under the care of her physician.
+
+Meanwhile the war became more formidable. The English admiral, Rodney, the
+greatest sailor who, as yet, had ever commanded a British fleet, in the
+middle of January utterly destroyed a strong Spanish squadron off Cape St.
+Vincent; and as from the coast of Spain he proceeded to the West Indies,
+the French ministry had ample reason to be alarmed for the safety of the
+force which they had in those regions. It was evident that it would
+require every effort that could be made to enable their sailors to
+maintain the contest against an antagonist so brave and so skillful And,
+as one of the first steps toward such a result, Necker obtained the king's
+consent to a great reform in the expenditure of the court and in the civil
+service; and to the abolition of a great number of costly sinecures. We
+may be able to form some idea of the prodigality which had hitherto wasted
+the revenues of the country, from the circumstance that a single edict
+suppressed above four hundred offices; and Marie Antoinette was so sincere
+in her desire to promote such measures, that she speaks warmly in their
+praise to her mother, even though they greatly curtailed her power of
+gratifying her own favorites.
+
+"The king," she says, "has just issued an edict which is as yet only the
+forerunner of a reform which he designs, to make both in his own household
+and in mine. If it be carried out, it will be a great benefit, not only
+for the economy which it will introduce, but still more for its agreement
+with public opinion, and for the satisfaction it will give the nation." It
+is impossible for any language to show more completely how, above all
+things, she made the good of the country her first object. And she was the
+more inclined to approve of all that was being done in this way from her
+conviction that Necker was both honest and able; an opinion which she
+shared with, if she had not learned it from, her mother and her brother,
+and which was to some extent justified by the comparative order which he
+had re-established in the finance of the country, and by the degree in
+which he had revived public credit. She was not aware that the real
+dangers of the situation had a source deeper than any financial
+difficulty, a fact which Necker himself was unable to comprehend. And she
+could not foresee, when it became necessary to grapple with those dangers,
+how unequal to the struggle the great banker would be found.
+
+It may, perhaps, be inferred that she did suspect Necker of some
+deficiency in the higher qualities of statesmanship when, in the spring of
+1780, she told her mother that "she would give every thing in the world to
+have a Prince Kaunitz in the ministry;[16] but that such men were rare,
+and were only to be found by those who, like the empress herself, had the
+sagacity to discover and the judgment to appreciate such merit." She was,
+however, shutting her eyes to the fact that her husband had had a minister
+far superior to Kaunitz; and that she herself had lent her aid to drive
+him from his service.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+Anglomania in Paris.--The Winter at Versailles.--Hunting.--Private
+Theatricals.--Death of Prince Charles of Lorraine.--Successes of the
+English in America.--Education of the Duc d'Angoulême.--Libelous Attacks
+on the Queen.--Death of the Empress.--Favor shown to some of the Swedish
+Nobles.--The Count de Fersen.--Necker retires from Office.--His Character.
+
+
+It is curious, while the resources of the kingdom were so severely taxed
+to maintain the war against England, of which every succeeding dispatch
+from the seat of war showed more and more the imprudence, to read in
+Mercy's correspondence accounts of the Anglomania, which still subsisted
+in Paris; surpassing that which the letters of the empress describe as
+reigning in Vienna, though it did not show itself now in quite the same
+manner as a year or two before, in the aping of English vices, gambling at
+races, and hard drinking, but rather in a copying of the fashions of men's
+dress; in the introduction of top-boots; and, very wholesomely, in the
+adoption of a country life by many of the great nobles, in imitation of
+the English gentry; so that, for the first time since the coronation of
+Louis XIV., the great territorial lords began to spend a considerable part
+of the year on their estates, and no longer to think the interests and
+requirements of their tenants and dependents beneath their notice.
+
+The winter of 1779 and the spring of 1780 passed very happily. If
+Versailles, from the reasons mentioned above, was not as crowded as in
+former years, it was very lively. The season was unusually mild; the
+hunting was scarcely ever interrupted, and Marie Antoinette, who now made
+it a rule to accompany her husband on every possible occasion, sometimes
+did not return from the hunt till the night was far advanced, and found
+her health much benefited by the habit of spending the greater part of
+even a winter's day in the open air. Her garden, too, which daily occupied
+more and more of her attention, as it increased in beauty, had the same
+tendency; and her anxiety to profit by the experience of others on one
+occasion inflicted a whimsical disappointment of the free-thinkers of the
+court. The profligate and sentimental infidel Rousseau had died a couple
+of years before, and had been buried at Ermenonville, in the park of the
+Count de Girardin. In the course of the summer the queen drove over to
+Ermenonville, and the admirers of the versatile writer flattered
+themselves that her object was to pay a visit of homage to the shrine of
+their idol; but they wore greatly mortified to find that, though his tomb
+was pointed out to her, she took no further notice of it than such as
+consisted of a passing remark that it was very neat, and very prettily
+placed; and that what had attracted her curiosity was the English garden
+which the count had recently laid out at a great expense, and from which
+she had been led to expect that she might derive some hints for the
+further improvement of her own Little Trianon.
+
+She had not yet entirely given up her desire for novelty in her
+amusements; and she began now to establish private theatricals at
+Versailles, choosing light comedies interspersed with song, and with but
+few characters, the male parts being filled by the Count d'Artois and some
+of the most distinguished officers of the household, while she herself
+took one of the female parts; the spectators being confined to the royal
+family and those nobles whose posts entitled them to immediate attendance
+on the king and queen. She was so anxious to perform her own part well,
+though she did not take any of the principal characters, but preferred to
+act the waiting-woman rather than the mistress, that she placed herself
+under the tuition of Michu, a professional actor of reputation from one of
+the Parisian theatres; but, though the audience was far too courtly to
+greet her appearance on the stage without vociferous applause, the
+preponderance of evidence must lead us to believe that her majesty was not
+a good actress.[1] And perhaps we may think that as the parts which she
+selected required rather an arch pertness than the grace and majesty which
+were more natural to her, so, also, they were not altogether in keeping
+with the stately dignity which queens should never wholly lay aside.
+
+It was well, however, that she should have amusements to cheer her, for
+the year was destined to bring her heavy troubles before its close: losses
+in her own family, which would be felt with terrible heaviness by her
+affectionate disposition, were impending over her; while the news from
+America, where the English army at this time was achieving triumphs which
+seemed likely to have a decisive influence on the result of the war,
+caused her great anxiety. How great, a letter which she wrote to her
+mother in July affords a striking proof. In June, when she heard of the
+dangerous illness of her uncle, Prince Charles of Lorraine, now Governor
+of the Low Countries, formerly the gallant antagonist of Frederick of
+Prussia, she declared that "the intelligence overwhelmed her with an
+agitation and grief such as she had never before experienced," and she
+lamented with evidently deep and genuine distress the threatened
+extinction of the male line of the house of Lorraine. But before she wrote
+again, the news of Sir Henry Clinton's exploits in Carolina had arrived,
+and, though almost the same post informed her of the prince's death, the
+sorrow which that bereavement awakened in her mind was scarcely allowed,
+even in its first freshness, an equal share of her lamentations with the
+more absorbing importance of the events of the campaign beyond the
+Atlantic.
+
+"MY DEAREST MOTHER,--I wrote to you the moment that I received the sad
+intelligence of my uncle's death; though, as the Brussels courier had
+already started, I fear my letter may have arrived rather late. I will not
+venture to say more on the subject, lest I should be reopening a sorrow
+for which you have so much cause to grieve.... The capture of
+Charleston[2] is a most disastrous event, both for the facilities it will
+afford the English and for the encouragement which it will give to their
+pride. It is perhaps still more serious because of the miserable defense
+made by the Americans. One can hope nothing from such bad troops."
+
+It is curious to contrast the angry jealousy which she here betrays of our
+disposition and policy as a nation, with the partiality which, as we have
+seen, she showed for the agreeable qualities of individual Englishmen. But
+her uneasiness on this subject led to practical results, by inducing her
+to add her influence to that of a party which was discontented with the
+ministry; and was especially laboring to persuade the king to make a
+change in the War Department, and to dismiss the Prince de Montbarey,
+whose sole recommendation for the office of secretary of state seemed to
+be that he was a friend of the prime minister, and to give his place to
+the Count de Ségur. The change was made, as any change was sure to be made
+in favor of which she personally exerted herself; even the partisans of M.
+de Maurepas himself were forced to allow that the new minister was in
+every respect far superior to his predecessor; and Mercy was desirous that
+she should procure the dismissal of Maurepas also, thinking it of great
+importance to her own comfort that the prime minister should be bound to
+her interests.
+
+But she was far more anxious on other subjects. Nearly two years had now
+elapsed since the birth of the princess royal; and there was as yet no
+prospect of a companion to her, so that the Count d'Artois began to make
+arrangements for the education of his infant son, the Duc d'Angoulême,
+with a premature solicitude, which was evidently designed to point the
+child out to the nation as its future sovereign.[3] The queen was greatly
+annoyed; and, to add to her vexation, one of the teething illnesses to
+which children are subject at this time threw the little princess into
+convulsions, which, to a mother's anxiety, seemed even dangerous to her
+life; though in a day or two that apprehension passed away.
+
+But these hopes of D'Artois and his flatterers again filled the court with
+intrigues. In the course of the summer she was made highly indignant by
+finding that news from the court, with malicious comments, were sent from
+Paris across the frontier to be printed at Deux-Ponts or Düsseldorf, and
+then circulated in Paris and in Vienna; and it was difficult to avoid
+connecting these libels with those who in the palace itself were
+manifestly building hopes on the diminution of her influence and the
+disparagement of her character.
+
+But this and all other vexations were presently thrown into the shade by a
+great grief, the more difficult to bear because it was wholly unexpected
+by her--the death of her mother. In reality, Maria Teresa had been unwell
+for some time; but the suspicions of the serious character of her
+complaint, which she secretly entertained, she had never revealed to Marie
+Antoinette; and at last the end followed too quickly on the first
+appearance of danger to allow time for any preparatory warnings to be
+received at Versailles before the fatal intelligence arrived. On the 24th
+of November she was taken ill in a manner which excited the alarm of her
+physicians, but her family felt no apprehensions. Even on the 27th, the
+emperor felt so sanguine that the cough which seemed her most distressing
+symptom was but temporary, that it was with the greatest unwillingness
+that he consented to her receiving the communion, as the physicians
+recommended; but the next day even he was forced to acquiesce in the
+hopeless view which they took of their patient; and on the 29th she died,
+after having borne sufferings, which for the last three days had been of
+the most painful character, with the same heroism with which, in her
+earlier life, she had struggled against griefs of a different kind.
+
+The dispatch announcing her death was brought to the king; and it is
+characteristic of his timid disposition that he could not nerve himself to
+communicate it to his wife, but suppressed all mention of it during the
+evening; and in the morning summoned the Abbé de Vermond, and employed him
+to break the news to her, reserving for himself the less painful task of
+approaching her with words of affectionate consolation after the first
+shock was over. For a time, however, she was almost overwhelmed with
+sorrow. She attempted to write to her brother, but after a few lines she
+closed the letter, declaring that her tears prevented her from seeing the
+paper; and those about her found that for some time she could bear no
+other topic of conversation than the courage, the wisdom, the greatness of
+her mother, and, above all, her warm affection for herself and for all her
+other children.[4]
+
+With the death of the empress we lose the aid of Mercy's correspondence,
+which has afforded such invaluable service in the light it has thrown on
+the peculiarities of Marie Antoinette's position, and the gradual
+development of her character during the earlier years of her residence in
+France. We shall again obtain light from the same source of almost greater
+importance, when the still more terrible dangers of the Revolution
+rendered the queen more dependent than ever on his counsels. But for the
+next few years we shall be compelled to content ourselves with scantier
+materials than have been furnished by the empress's unceasing interest in
+her daughter's welfare, and the embassador's faithful and candid reports.
+
+The death of Maria Teresa naturally closed the court of her daughter
+against all gayeties during the spring of 1781. Still, one of the taxes
+which princes pay for their grandeur is the force which, at times, they
+are compelled to put upon their inclinations, when they dispense with that
+retirement which their own feelings would render acceptable; and, after a
+few weeks of seclusion, a few guests began to be admitted to the royal
+supper-table, among whom, as a very extraordinary favor, were some Swedish
+nobles;[5] one of whom, the Count de Stedingk, had established a claim to
+the royal favor by serving, with several of his countrymen, as a volunteer
+in the Count d'Estaing's fleet in the West Indies. Such service was highly
+esteemed by both king and queen, since Louis, though he had been
+unwillingly dragged into the war by the ambition of the Count de Vergennes
+and the popular enthusiasm, naturally, when once engaged in it, took as
+vivid an interest in the prowess of his forces as if he had never been
+troubled with any misgivings as to the policy which had set them in
+motion; and Marie Antoinette was at all times excited to enthusiasm by any
+deed of valor, and, as we have seen, took an especial interest in the
+achievements of the navy.
+
+The King of Sweden, the chivalrous Gustavus III., had already made the
+acquaintance of Louis and Marie Antoinette in a short visit which he had
+paid to France the year after their marriage; and the queen now wrote to
+him in warm praise of M. de Stedingk, and all his countrymen who had come
+under her notice, while the king rewarded the count's valor and the wounds
+which had been incurred in its exhibition by an order of knighthood,[6]
+and the more substantial gift of a pension. But the Swede who soon outran
+all his compatriots in the race for the royal favor of both king and queen
+was the Count Axel de Fersen, a descendant, it was believed, of one of the
+Scotch officers of the great Macpherson clan, who, in the stormy times of
+the Thirty Years' War, had sought fame and fortune under the banner of
+Gustavus Adolphus. The beauty of his countess was celebrated throughout
+both Sweden and France, and his own was but little inferior to it. If she
+was known as "The Rose of the North," his name was rarely mentioned
+without the addition of "The handsome." He was a perfect master of all
+noble and knightly accomplishments, and was also distinguished for a
+certain high-souled and romantic[7] enthusiasm, which lent a tinge to all
+his conversation and demeanor; and this combination won for him the marked
+favor of Marie Antoinette. The calumniators, whom the condition and
+prospects of the royal family made more busy than ever at this time,
+insinuated that he had touched her heart; but those who knew best the
+manners of life and characters of both denounced it as the vilest of
+libels. The count's was a loyal attachment, doing nothing but honor to him
+who felt it, and to the queen who inspired it; and it was marked by a
+permanence which distinguishes no devotion but that which is pure and
+noble, as he showed ten years later by the well-planned and courageous,
+though unsuccessful, efforts which he made for the deliverance of the
+queen and all her family.
+
+That Marie Antoinette, who from early youth had shown an intuitive
+accuracy of judgment in her estimate of character, should, from the very
+first, honorably distinguish a man capable of such devotion to her service
+was not unnatural; but there was another circumstance in his favor, which
+he shared with the other foreign nobles, English and German, who in these
+years were well received by the queen. Their disinterestedness presented a
+striking contrast to the rapacity of the French. Every French noble valued
+the court only for what he could obtain from it. Even Madame de Polignac,
+whom the queen specially honored with the title of her friend, exhibited
+an all-grasping covetousness, of which, with all her efforts to shut her
+eyes to it, Marie Antoinette could not be unconscious; and her perception
+of the difference between her French and her foreign courtiers was marked
+by herself in a few words, when the Comte de la Marck, who was himself of
+foreign extraction, ventured once to recommend to her greater caution in
+her display of liking for the foreign nobles, as what might excite the
+jealousy of the French;[8] and she replied that "he might be right, but
+the foreigners were the only people who asked her for nothing."
+
+Meanwhile, the war went on in America; the colonists themselves were
+making but little, if any, progress, and the French contingent were
+certainly reaping no honor, M. de La Fayette, the only officer who came in
+contact with a British force, showing no military skill or capacity, and
+not even much courage. But in the course of the spring France sustained a
+far heavier loss than even the defeat of an army could have inflicted on
+her, in the retirement of Necker from the ministry. As a statesman, he was
+certainly not entitled to any very high rank. He had neither extensive
+knowledge, nor large views, nor firmness; the only project of
+constitutional reform which he had brought forward had been but a
+mutilated and imperfect copy of the system devised by the original and
+statesman-like daring of Turgot. At a subsequent period he proved himself
+incapable of discerning the true character of the circumstances which
+surrounded him, and wholly ignorant of the feelings of the nation, and of
+the principles and objects of those who aspired to take a lead in its
+councils. But as yet his financial policy had undoubtedly been successful.
+He had greatly relieved the general distress, he had maintained the public
+credit, and he had inspired the nation with confidence in itself, and
+other countries also with confidence in its resources; but he had made
+many and powerful enemies by the retrenchments which had been a necessary
+part of his system. As early as the spring of 1780, Mercy had reported to
+the empress that both the king's brothers and the Duc d'Orléans complained
+that some of his measures infringed upon their established rights; that
+the Count d'Artois had had a very stormy discussion with Necker himself,
+and, when he could neither convince nor overbear him, had tried, though
+unsuccessfully, to enlist the queen against him. The count had since
+employed the controller of his own household, M. Boutourlin, to write
+pamphlets against him, and, in point of fact, many of the most elaborate
+details of a financial statement which Necker had recently published were
+very ill-calculated to endure a strict scrutiny; but M. Boutourlin did his
+work so badly that Necker had no difficulty in repelling him, and for a
+moment seemed the stronger for the attack that had been made upon him.
+
+He had been so far right in his estimate of his position that he could
+rely on the support of the queen, who was aware that both her mother and
+her brother had a high opinion of his integrity; but though the king also
+had from time to time given his cordial sanction to his different
+measures, it was not in the nature of Louis to withstand repeated pressure
+and solicitation. Necker, too, himself unintentionally played into the
+hands of his enemies. He had nominally only a subordinate position in the
+ministry. As he was a Protestant, Louis had feared to offend the clergy by
+giving him a seat in the council, or the title of comptroller-general; but
+had conferred that post on M. Taboureau des Reaux, making Necker director
+of the treasury under him. The real management of the exchequer was,
+however, placed wholly in his hands; and, as he was one of the vainest of
+men, he had gradually assumed a tone of importance as if his were the
+paramount influence in the Government; going so far as even to open
+negotiations with foreign statesmen to which none of his colleagues were
+privy.[9] It was not strange that he was not very well satisfied with a
+position which seemed as if it had been contrived in order to keep him out
+of sight, and to deprive him of the credit belonging to his financial
+successes; but hitherto he had been satisfied to bide his time. Now,
+however, his triumph over M. Boutourlin seemed to him so to have
+established his supremacy as to entitle him to insist on a promotion which
+should be a public recognition of his position as the real minister of
+finance, and as entitled to a preponderating voice in all matters of
+general policy. He accordingly demanded admission to the council, and, on
+its being refused, at once resigned his office.
+
+The consternation was universal; the general public had gradually learned
+to place such confidence in him that they looked on his loss as
+irreparable. Some even of the princes who had originally striven to
+prepossess the king against him either changed their minds or feared to
+show their disagreement with the common feeling. And Marie Antoinette, who
+fully shared his views as to the primary importance of finance in all
+questions of government, condescended to admit him to an interview;
+requested him, as a personal favor to herself, to recall his resignation,
+urging upon him that patience would surely in time procure him all that he
+asked; and, in her honest earnestness for the welfare of the nation, wept
+when he withdrew without having yielded to her solicitations. It was late
+in the evening and dark when he took his leave, and afterward, when he was
+told that he had drawn tears from her eyes by his refusal, he said that,
+had he seen them, he should have submitted to a wish so enforced, even at
+the sacrifice of his own comfort and reputation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+The Queen expects to be confined again.--Increasing Unpopularity of the
+King's Brothers.--Birth of the Dauphin.--Festivities.--Deputations from
+the Different Trades.--Songs of the Dames de la Halle.--Ball given by the
+Body-guard.--Unwavering Fidelity of the Regiment.--The Queen offers up her
+Thanksgiving at Notre Dame.--Banquet at the Hôtel de Ville.--Rejoicing in
+Paris.
+
+
+How irreparable his loss was, was shown by the rapid succession of finance
+ministers who, in the course of the next seven years, successively held
+the office of comptroller-general. All were equally incompetent, and under
+their administration, sometimes merely incapable, sometimes combining
+recklessness and corruption with incapacity, the treasury again became
+exhausted, the resources of the nation dwindled away, and the distress of
+all but the wealthiest classes became more and more insupportable. But for
+a time the attention of Marie Antoinette was drawn off from political
+embarrassments by the event which alone seemed wanting to complete her
+personal happiness, and to place her position and popularity on an
+impregnable foundation.
+
+In the spring she discovered that she was again about to become a mother.
+The whole nation expected the result with an intense anxiety. The king's
+brothers were daily becoming more and more deservedly unpopular. The Count
+d'Artois, who as the father of a son, occupied more of the general
+attention than his elder brother, seemed to take pains to parade his
+contempt for the commercial class, and still more for the lower orders,
+and his disapproval of every proposal which had for its object to
+conciliate the traders or to relieve the sufferings of the poor; while the
+Count de Provence openly established a mistress, the Countess de Balbi, at
+the Luxembourg Palace, his residence in the capital, where she presided
+over the receptions which he took upon himself to hold, to the exclusion
+of his lawful princess. The Countess de Provence was not well calculated
+to excite admiration or sympathy, since she was plain and ungracious. But
+Madame de Balbi, whose character had been disgracefully notorious even
+before her connection with the count, was not more attractive in
+appearance or manner than the Savoy princess; and the citizens of Paris,
+who in this instance faithfully represented the feelings of the entire
+nation, did not disguise their anxiety that the child about to be born
+should be a prince, who might extinguish the hopes and projects of both
+his uncles.
+
+Their wishes were gratified. On the morning of the 22d of October the king
+was starting from the palace on a hunting expedition with his brothers,
+when it was announced to him that the queen was taken ill.[1] He at once
+returned to her room, and, mindful of the danger which she had incurred on
+the occasion of the birth of Madame Royale from the greatness and disorder
+of the crowd, he broke through the ancient custom, and ordered that the
+doors should be closed, and that no one should be admitted beyond a very
+small number of the great officers, male and female, of the household. His
+cares were rewarded by a comparatively easy birth; and his anxiety to
+protect his wife from agitation was further shown by a second arrangement,
+which was perhaps hardly so easy to carry out, but which was also
+perfectly successful. As was most natural, the queen and himself fully
+shared the ardent wishes of the nation that the expected child should
+prove an heir to the throne; and he consequently feared that, should it
+not be so, the disappointment might produce an injurious effect on the
+mother's health; or, should their hopes be realized, that the excessive
+joy might be equally dangerous. With a desire, therefore, to avoid
+exposing her to either shock in the first moments of weakness, he forbade
+any announcement of the sex of the child being made to any one but
+himself. The instant that the child was born, he hastened to the bedside
+to judge for himself whether she could bear the news. Presently she came
+to herself; and it seemed to her that the general silence indicated that
+she had become the mother of a second daughter. But she desired to be
+assured of the fact. "See," said she to Louis, "how reasonable I am. I ask
+no questions.[2]" And Louis, who from joy was scarcely able to contain
+himself, seeing her freedom from agitation, thought he might safely reveal
+to her the whole extent of their happiness. He called out, so as to be
+heard by the Princess de Guimenée, who still held the post of governess to
+the royal children, and who had already exhibited the child to the
+witnesses in the antechamber, and was now awaiting his summons at the open
+door, "My lord the dauphin begs to be admitted." The Princess de Guimenée
+brought "my lord the dauphin" to his mother's arms, and for a few minutes
+the small company in the room gazed in respectful silence while the father
+and mother mingled tears of joy with broken words of thanksgiving.
+
+Yet even in this moment of exultation Marie Antoinette could not forget
+her first-born, nor the feelings which had made her rejoice at the birth
+of a daughter, who still had, as it were, no rival in her eyes, because no
+rival claim to her own could be set up with respect to a princess. She
+kissed the long-wished-for infant over and over again; pressed him fondly
+to her heart; and then, after she had perused each feature with anxious
+scrutiny, and pointed out some resemblances, such as mothers see, to his
+father, "Take him," said she, to Madame de Guimenée; "he belongs to the
+State; but my daughter is still mine.[3]"
+
+Presently the chamber was cleared; and in a few minutes the glad tidings
+were carried to every corner of the palace and town of Versailles, and, as
+speedily as expresses could gallop, to the anxious city of Paris. By a
+somewhat whimsical coincidence, the Count de Stedingk, who, from having
+been one of the intended hunting-party, had been admitted into the
+antechamber, rushing down-stairs in his haste to spread the intelligence,
+met the Countess de Provence on the staircase. "It is a dauphin, madame,"
+he cried; "what a happy event!" The countess made him no reply. Nor did
+she or her husband pretend to disguise their mortification. The Count
+d'Artois was a little less open in the display of his discontent, which
+was, however, sufficiently notorious. But, with these exceptions, all
+France, or at least all France sufficiently near the court to feel any
+personal interest in its concerns, was unanimous in its exultation.
+
+As soon as the new-born child was dressed, his father took him in his
+arms, and, carrying him to the window, showed him to the crowd[4] which,
+on the first news of the queen's illness, had thronged the court-yard, and
+was waiting in breathless expectation the result. A rumor had already
+begun to penetrate the throng that the child was a son, and the moment
+that the happy tidings were confirmed, and the infant--their future king,
+as they undoubtingly hailed him--was presented to their view, their joy
+broke forth in such vociferous acclamations that it became necessary to
+silence them by an appeal to them to show consideration for the mother's
+weakness.
+
+For the next three months all was joy and festivity. When the little Duc
+d'Angoulême, now a sprightly boy of six years old, was taken into the
+nursery to see, or, in the court language, to pay his homage to, the heir
+to the throne, he said to his father, as he left the room, "Papa, how
+little my cousin is!" "The day will come, my boy," replied the count,
+"when you will find him quite great enough." And it seemed as if the whole
+nation, and especially the city of Paris, thought no celebration of the
+birth of its future king could be too sumptuous for his greatness. It was
+a real heart-felt joy that was awakened in the people. On the day
+following the birth, chroniclers of the time remarked that no other
+subject was spoken of; that even strangers stopped one another in the
+streets to exchange congratulations.[5]
+
+The different trades and guilds led the way in the expression of these
+loyal felicitations. When his royal highness was a week old, he held a
+grand reception. Deputations from different bodies of artisans, each with
+a band of music at its head, and each carrying some emblem of its
+occupation, marched in a long procession to Versailles. The chimney-sweeps
+bore aloft a chimney entwined with garlands, on the top of which was
+perched one of the smallest of their boys; the chairmen carried a chair
+superbly gilt, on which sat in state a representative of the royal nurse,
+with a child in her arms in royal robes; the butchers drove a fat ox; the
+pastry-cooks bore on a splendid tray a variety of pastry and sweetmeats
+such as might tempt children of a larger growth than the little prince
+they had come to honor; the blacksmiths beat an anvil in time to their
+cheers; the shoe-makers brought a pair of miniature boots; the tailors had
+devoted elaborate and minute pains to the embroidering of a uniform of the
+dauphin's regiment, such as might even now fit its young colonel, if his
+parents would permit him to be attired in it. The crowd was too great to
+be received in even the largest saloon of the palace; but it filled the
+court-yard beneath; and, as the weather was luckily favorable, the dauphin
+was brought to the balcony and displayed to the people, while they greeted
+him with cheers, which were renewed from time to time, even after he had
+been withdrawn, till the shouting seemed as if it would have no end.
+
+One deputation, consisting of members of the fairer sex, received even
+higher honors. Fifty ladies of the fish-market vindicated the
+long-acknowledged claims of their body by forming a separate procession.
+Each dame was dressed in a gown of rich black silk, their established
+court-dress, and nearly every one had diamond ornaments. To them, the
+celebrated antechamber, from the oval window at the end known as the
+Bull's Eye, was opened;[6] and three of their body were admitted even into
+the queen's room, and to the side of the bed. The popular poet La Harpe,
+whom the partiality of Voltaire had designated as the heir of his genius,
+had composed an address, which the spokeswoman of the party had written
+out on the back of her fan, and now read with a sweet voice, which had
+procured her the honor of being so selected,[7] and with very appropriate
+delivery. The queen made a brief but most gracious answer, and then, on
+their retirement, the whole company, with a train of fish-women of the
+lower class, was entertained at a grand banquet, which they enlivened with
+songs composed for the occasion. One of them so hit the fancy of the king
+and queen that they quoted it more than once in their letters to their
+correspondents, and Marie Antoinette even sung it occasionally to her
+harp:
+
+  "Ne craignez pas,
+  Cher papa,
+  D' voir augmenter vot' famille,
+  Le Bon Dieu z'y pourvoira:
+  Fait's en tant qu' Versailles en fourmille
+  Y eut-il cent Bourbons chez nous,
+  Y a du pain, du laurier pour tous."
+
+The body-guard celebrated the auspicious event by giving a grand ball in
+the concert-room of the palace to the queen on her recovery; it was
+attended by the whole court, and Marie Antoinette opened it herself,
+dancing a minuet with one of the troop, whom his comrades had selected for
+the honor, and whom the king promoted, as a memorial of the occasion and
+as a testimony of his approval of the loyalty of that gallant regiment.
+
+Amidst all the troubles of later years, the fidelity of those noble troops
+never wavered. They had even in one hour of terrible danger the honor, in
+the same palace, of saving the life of their queen. But it is a melancholy
+proof of the fleeting character and instability of popular favor which is
+supplied by the recollection that these very artisans who were now so
+vociferous, and undoubtedly at this moment so sincere in their profession
+of loyalty, were afterward her foul and ferocious enemies. And yet between
+1781 and 1789 there had been no change in the character or conduct of the
+king and queen, or rather, it may be said, the intervening years had been
+a period during which a countless series of acts of beneficence had
+displayed their unceasing affection for their subjects.
+
+The festivities were crowned in the most appropriate manner by a public
+thanksgiving, offered by the queen herself to Heaven for the gift of a
+son, and for her own recovery. But that celebration was necessarily
+postponed till her strength was entirely re-established; and it was not
+till the 21st of January that the physicians would allow her to encounter
+the excitement of so interesting but fatiguing a day. The court had quit
+Versailles for La Muette the day before, to be nearer the city; and on the
+appointed morning, which the watchers for omens delightedly remarked as
+one of midsummer brilliancy,[8] the most superb procession that even Paris
+had ever witnessed issued from the gates of the old hunting-lodge, whose
+earlier occupants had been animated by a very different spirit.[9]
+
+That the honors of the day might be wholly the queen's, Louis himself did
+not accompany her, but followed her three hours later, to meet her at the
+Hôtel de Ville. Nineteen coaches, glittering with burnished gold, and
+every panel of which was embellished with crowns, wreaths, or allegorical
+pictures, marching on at a stately walk toward the city gate, conveyed the
+queen, radiant with beauty and happiness, the sisters and aunts of the
+king, the long train of her and their ladies, and all the great officers
+of her household. Squadrons of the body-guard furnished the escort, riding
+in front of the queen's carriage and behind it, but not on either side,
+she herself having forbidden any arrangement which might intercept the
+full sight of herself from a single citizen. Companies of other regiments
+awaited the procession at different points, and closed up behind it as it
+passed, swelling the vast train which thus grew at every step. An
+additional escort, almost an army in itself, in double rank, lined the
+whole road from the barrier of the Champs Élysées of the great cathedral;
+and, as the royal coach passed through the city gate, a herald proclaimed
+that "The king wishing to consecrate by fresh acts of kindness the happy
+moment when God showered his mercies on him by the birth of a dauphin, and
+at the same time to give to the inhabitants of his good city of Paris some
+special mark of his beneficence, granted an exemption from the poll-tax to
+all the burgesses, traders, and artisans who were not in such
+circumstances as made the payment easy."
+
+The proclamation was received with all the thankfulness of surprise; the
+cheers, which had never censed from the moment that the procession first
+came in sight, were redoubled, and it was amidst shouts of congratulation
+both to themselves and to her that the queen proceeded onward to Notre
+Dame. Having paid her vows and made her offerings in the cathedral of the
+nation, she passed on to the Church of Ste. Geneviève, the especial
+patroness of the city, and repeated her thanksgiving before the tomb of
+Clovis, the founder of the monarchy. At the Hôtel de Ville she was met by
+the king, with the princess, his brothers, the great officers of his
+household, and the ministers; and there (after having first come forward
+on the balcony to afford the multitude, who completely filled the vast
+square in front of the building, a sight of their sovereigns), the royal
+pair, sitting side by side, presided at a banquet of unsurpassed
+magnificence and luxury. In compliance with the strictest laws of the old
+etiquette, none but ladies were admitted to the king's table, but other
+tables were provided for the male guests. The most renowned musicians
+performed the sweetest airs, but the melodies of Gluck and Grétry were
+drowned in the cheers of the multitude outside, who thus relieved their
+impatience for the re-appearance of their queen.
+
+The banquet was succeeded by a grand reception, with its singular but
+invariable accompaniment of a gaming-table,[10] and the whole was
+concluded by a grand illumination and display of fireworks, in which the
+pyrotechnists had exhausted their allegorical ingenuity. A Temple of Hymen
+occupied the centre, and the God of Marriage--never, so far as present
+appearances indicated, more auspiciously employed--presented to France the
+precious infant who was the most recent fruit of his favor; while the
+flame upon his altar, which never had burned with a brighter light, was
+fed by the thank-offerings of the whole French people. As each new feature
+of the display burst upon their eyes, the acclamations of the populace
+redoubled, and their enthusiasm was kindled to the utmost pitch when Louis
+and Marie Antoinette descended the stairs, and, arm-in-arm, walked out
+among the crowd, ostensibly to see the illuminations from the different
+points which presented the most imposing spectacle; but really, as the
+citizens perceived, to show their sympathy with the joy of the people by
+mingling with the multitude, and thus allowing all to approach and even to
+accost them; while they, and especially the queen, replied to every loyal
+cheer or homely word of congratulation by a cordial smile or expression of
+approval or thanks, which long dwelt in the memory of those to whom they
+were addressed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+Madame de Guimenée resigns the Office of Governess of the Royal Children.
+--Madame de Polignac succeeds her.--Marie Antoinette's Views of
+Education.--Character of Madame Royale.--The Grand Duke Paul and his Grand
+Duchess visit the French Court.--Their Characters.--Entertainments given
+in their Honor.--Insolence of the Cardinal de Rohan.--His Character and
+previous Life.--Grand Festivities at Chantilly.--Events of the War.--
+Rodney defeats de Grasse.--The Siege of Gilbralter fails.--M. de Suffrein
+fights five Drawn Battles with Sir E. Hughes in the Indian Seas.--The
+Queen receives him with great Honor on his Return.
+
+
+The post of governess to the royal children was one which was conferred
+for life, and did not even cease on the accession of a new sovereign, and
+the birth of a new royal family. Madame de Guimenée, therefore, having
+been appointed to that office on the birth of the first child of the late
+dauphin, the father of Louis XVI., still retained it, and on the birth of
+Madame Royale transferred her services to that princess. The arrangement
+had been far from acceptable to Marie Antoinette, who had no great liking
+for the lady, though, with her habitual kindness of disposition, she had
+accepted her attentions, and had often condescended to appear as a guest
+at her evening parties, taking only the precaution of ascertaining
+beforehand whom she was likely to meet there.[1] But, in the spring of
+1782, the Prince de Guimenée became involved in pecuniary difficulties
+that compelled him to retire from the court, and his princess to resign
+her appointment, which Marie Antoinette at once bestowed on Madame de
+Polignac. Her attachment to that lady affords a striking exemplification
+of one feature in her character, a steady adherence to friendships once
+formed, which can never be otherwise than amiable, even when, as it may be
+thought was the case in this and one or two other instances, she carried
+it to excess; for she could hardly fail to be aware that Madame de
+Polignac was most unpopular with all classes, and that her unpopularity
+was not undeserved. She was covetous for herself, and she had a number of
+relations, equally rapacious, who regarded her court favor solely as a
+means of enriching the whole family. She had procured a valuable reversion
+for her husband; and subsequently the rare favor of an hereditary dukedom;
+and it was characteristic of her disposition that she might have attained
+the rank of duchess for herself at an earlier date, but that she preferred
+to it the chance of other favors of a more practically useful nature; nor
+was it till she had received such sums of money that nothing more could
+well be asked, that she turned her ambition to titles, and to the
+much-coveted dignity of a stool to sit upon in the presence of royalty.[2]
+
+But the more people spoke ill of her, the more the queen protected her;
+and if she received the resignation of Madame de Guimenée with pleasure,
+much of her joy seemed to be owing to the opportunity which it afforded
+her of promoting the new duchess to the vacant place, while Madame de
+Polignac had even the address to persuade her that she accepted the post
+unwillingly, and, in undertaking it, was making a sacrifice to loyalty and
+friendship. But if the queen was duped on that point, she was not deceived
+on others. She knew that the duchess had no qualifications for the office;
+that she was neither clever nor accomplished. But her absence of any
+special qualifications was, in fact, her best recommendation in the eyes
+of her patroness; for Marie Antoinette had high ideas of the duty which a
+mother owes to her children. She thought herself bound to take upon
+herself the real superintendence of their education, and, having this
+view, she preferred a governess who would be content that her children's
+minds should receive their color from herself. Her own idea of education,
+as we shall see it hereafter described by herself,[3] was that example was
+more powerful than precept, and that love was a better teacher than fear;
+and, acting on this principle, from the moment that her little daughter
+was old enough to comprehend her intentions and wishes, she began to make
+her her companion; abandoning, or at least relaxing, her pursuit of other
+pleasures for that which was now her chief delight, as well as in her eyes
+her chief duty--the task of watching over the early promise, the opening
+talents and virtues of those who were destined, as she hoped, to have a
+predominant influence on the future welfare of the nation. Especially she
+made a rule of taking the little princess with her on the different
+errands of humanity and benevolence, which, wherever she might be, and
+more particularly while she was at Versailles, formed an almost habitual
+part of her occupations. She saw that much of the distress which now
+seemed to be the normal condition of the humbler classes, and much of the
+discontent, which was felt by all classes but the highest, were caused by
+the pride of the princes and nobles, who, in France, drew a far more
+rigorous and unbending line of demarkation between themselves and their
+inferiors than prevailed in other countries; and she desired from their
+earliest infancy to imbue her children with a different principle, and to
+teach them by her own example that none could be so lowly as to be beneath
+the notice even of a sovereign; and that, on the contrary, the greater the
+depression of the poor, the greater claim did it give them on the
+solicitude and protection of their princes and rulers.
+
+Nor were these lessons, which even worldly policy might have dictated, the
+only ones which she sought to inculcate on the little princess before the
+more exciting pursuits of society should have rendered her less
+susceptible to good impressions. Unfriendly as her husband's aunts had
+always been to herself, and little as there was that was really amiable in
+their characters, there was yet one, the Princess Louise, the Nun of St.
+Denis, whose renunciation of the world seemed to point her out to her
+family as a model of holiness and devotion; and as, above all things,
+Marie Antoinette desired to inspire her little daughter with a deep sense
+of religious obligation, she soon began to take her with her in all her
+visits to the convent, and to encourage her to converse with the other
+Sisters of the house. Nor did she abandon the practice even when it was
+suggested to her that such an intercourse with those who were notoriously
+always on the watch to attract recruits of rank or consideration, might
+have the result of inclining the child to follow her great-aunt's example;
+and perhaps, by renouncing the world, to counteract plans which her
+parents might have preferred for her establishment in life. Marie
+Antoinette declared that should the princess express such a desire, far
+from being annoyed, "she should feel flattered by it;[4]" she would, it
+may be presumed, have regarded it as a convincing testimony of the
+soundness of her own system of education, and of the purity of the
+instruction which she had given.
+
+But such was not to be the destiny of her whose life at this moment seemed
+to beam with prospects of happiness which it would have been cruel to
+allow her to exchange for the gloom of a convent, though, even before she
+arrived at womanhood, the most austere seclusion of such an abode would
+have seemed a welcome asylum from dangers yet undreamed of. Her destiny
+was indeed to be one of trials and afflictions even to the end; trials
+very different in their kind from those which the gates of the Carmelite
+sisterhood would have opened to her. But her mother's early lessons of
+humility and piety, and still more her mother's virtuous and heroic
+example, never ceased to bear their fruit in their influence on her
+character, amidst all the vicissitudes of fortune. The unhappy
+daughter,[5] as she was styled by the faithful and eloquent champion of
+her race, lived to win the respect even of its enemies,[6] supplying, at
+more than one critical moment, a courage and decision of which her male
+relatives were destitute; and, in the second and final ruin of her house,
+her fortitude and resignation still commanded the loyal adherence of a
+large party among her countrymen, and the esteem of foreign statesmen, who
+gladly recognized in her no small portion of the nobility of her female
+ancestors.
+
+In the spring of 1782 the attention of the Parisians was occupied for a
+while by the arrival of two visitors from a nation which as yet had sent
+forth but few of its sons to mingle in society with those of other
+countries. The Grand Duke of Russia, who had indeed been its rightful
+emperor ever since the murder of his father twenty years before, but who
+had been compelled to postpone his claims to those of his ambitious and
+unscrupulous mother, Catherine II., had conceived a desire so far to
+imitate the example of his great ancestor, the founder of the Russian
+empire, Peter the Great, as to make a personal investigation of the
+manners of other people besides his own. To use the language in which the
+empress communicated to Louis XVI. her son's wish to pay him a visit, he
+sought, in the first instance, "to take lessons in courtesy and nobility
+from the most elegant court in the world." And as Louis had responded with
+a cordial invitation to Versailles, at the end of May he, with his grand
+duchess, a princess of Würtemberg, arrived at the palace.
+
+Paul had not as yet given any indications of the brutal and ferocious
+disposition which distinguished him in his later years, till it gradually
+developed into a savage insanity which neither his nobles nor even his
+sons could endure. He appeared rather a young man of frank and open
+temper, somewhat more unguarded in his language, especially concerning his
+own affairs and position, than was quite prudent or becoming; but kind in
+intention, sometimes even courteous in manner, shrewd in discerning what
+things and what persons were most worthy of his notice, and showing no
+deficiency of judgment in the observations which he made upon them. The
+grand duchess, however, was generally regarded as greatly superior to her
+husband in every respect. He was almost repulsive in his ugliness. She was
+extremely handsome in feature, though disfigured by a stoutness
+extraordinary in one so young. She had also a high reputation for
+accomplishments and general ability, though that too was disguised by a
+coldness or ungraciousness of manner that gave strangers a disagreeable
+impression of her; which, however, a more intimate acquaintance greatly
+removed.
+
+Their characters had preceded them, and Marie Antoinette, for perhaps the
+first time in her life, felt very uneasy as to her own power of receiving
+them with the dignity which became both her and them. As she afterward
+explained her feelings to Madame de Campan, "she found the part of a
+queen much move difficult to play in the presence of other sovereigns, or
+of princes who were born to become sovereigns, than before ordinary
+courtiers.[7]" She even fortified her courage before dinner with a glass
+of water, and the medicine proved effectual. Even if it cost her an effort
+to preserve her habitual gayety, her difficulty was unperceived, and
+indeed, after the few first moments, ceased to be a difficulty. Paul
+himself cared but little for female attractions or graces; but the
+archduchess was charmed with her union of liveliness and dignity, which
+surpassed all her previous experiences of courts; and one of her ladies,
+Madame d'Oberkirch, who has left behind her some memoirs, to which all
+succeeding writers have been indebted for many particulars of this visit,
+could scarcely find words to describe the impression the queen's beauty
+had made upon her and all her fellow-travelers. "The queen was marvelously
+beautiful; she fascinated every eye. It was absolutely impossible for any
+one to display a greater grace and nobility of demeanor.[8]" Madame
+d'Oberkirch, like herself, was German by birth; and Marie Antoinette
+begged her to speak German to her, that she might refresh her recollection
+of her native language; but she found that she had almost forgotten it.
+"Ah," said she, "German is a fine language; but French, in the mouths of
+my children, seems to me the finest language in the world." And in the
+same spirit of entire adoption of French feelings, and even of French
+prejudices, she declared to the baroness that though the Rhine and the
+Danube were both noble rivers, the Seine was so much more beautiful that
+it had made her forget them both.
+
+But her preference for every thing French did not make her neglect the
+duties of hospitality to her foreign visitors; she wished rather that they
+should carry with them as fixed an idea as she herself entertained of the
+superiority of France to their own country, in this as in every other
+particular. And she gave two magnificent entertainments in their honor at
+the Little Trianon, displaying the beauties of her garden by day, and also
+by night, by an illumination of extraordinary splendor. They were highly
+delighted with the beauty and the novelty of a scene such as they had
+never before witnessed; but her pleasure was in a great degree marred by
+the indecent boldness of one whose sacred profession, as well as his
+ancient lineage, ought to have restrained him from such misconduct, though
+it was but too completely in harmony with his previous life. Prince Louis
+de Rohan was a descendant of the great Duke de Sully, and a member of a
+family which, during the last reign, had possessed an influence at court
+which was surpassed by that of no other house among the French nobles.[9]
+He himself had reaped the full advantage of its interest. As we have
+already seen, he had been coadjutor of Strasburg when Marie Antoinette
+passed through that city on her way to France in 1770. He had subsequently
+been promoted to the rank of cardinal; and, though he was notoriously
+devoid of capacity, yet through the influence of his relations, and that
+of Madame du Barri, with whom they maintained an intimate connection, he
+had obtained the post of embassador to the court of Vienna, where he had
+made himself conspicuous for every species of disorder. His whole life in
+the Austrian capital had been a round of shameless profligacy and
+extravagance. The conduct of the inferior members of the embassy,
+stimulated by his example, and protected by his official character, had
+been equally scandalous, till at last Maria Teresa had felt herself bound,
+in justice to her subjects, to insist on his recall. The moment that he
+became aware that his position was in danger, he began to write abusive
+letters against the Empress-queen, and to circulate libels at Vienna
+against both her and Marie Antoinette, on whom he openly threatened to
+avenge himself, if his pleasures or his prospects should in any way be
+interfered with.[10]
+
+Since his return to France he had had the address to conciliate Maurepas,
+who, adding the authority of his ministerial office to the solicitations
+of the cardinal's sister, Madame de Marsan, had succeeded in wringing from
+the unwilling king his appointment to the honorable and lucrative
+preferment of grand almoner. But even that post, though it made him one of
+the great officers of the court, did not weaken his desire to annoy the
+queen, for having, as he believed, used her influence to deprive him of
+his embassy, and for having by her marked coldness since his return from
+Vienna, showed her disapproval of his profligate character, and of his
+insolence to her mother.
+
+And, unhappily, there were not wanting persons base enough to co-operate
+with him, generally discredited as he was, as instruments of their own
+secret malice. The birth of the dauphin had been a fatal blow to the hopes
+which had been founded on the possible succession of the king's brothers;
+and from this time forth the whisperers of detraction and calumny were
+more than ever busy, sometimes venturing to forge her handwriting, and
+sometimes daring, with still fouler audacity, to invent stories designed
+to tarnish her reputation by throwing doubts on her conjugal fidelity. At
+such a moment the presence of such a man as the cardinal on the stage was
+an evil omen. His audacity, it seemed, could hardly be purposeless, and
+his purpose could not be innocent.
+
+He had been most anxious to obtain admission to one of the entertainments
+which the queen gave to the Russian princes; and, when he was
+disappointed, he had the silly audacity to bribe the porter of the Trianon
+to admit him into the garden, where, as the royal party passed down the
+different walks, he thrust himself ostentatiously at different points into
+their sight, professing to disguise himself by throwing a mantle over his
+shoulders, but taking care that his scarlet stockings should prevent any
+uncertainty from being felt as to his identity. That he should have
+presumed to intrude into the queen's presence in her own palace without
+permission was in itself an insult; but those behind the scenes believed
+that he had a deeper design, and that he wished to diffuse a belief that
+Marie Antoinette secretly regarded him with a favor which she was
+unwilling to show openly, and that he had not obtained admission to her
+garden without her connivance.
+
+The princes of the blood, too, the Prince de Condé and the Duke de
+Bourbon, invited Paul and his archduchess to an entertainment at
+Chantilly, which far surpassed in splendor the display at Trianon. But the
+queen was willing, on such an occasion, to be eclipsed by her subjects.
+"The princes," she said, "might well give festivities of vast cost,
+because they defrayed the charges out of their private revenues; but the
+expenses of entertainments given by the king or by herself fell on the
+national treasury, of which they were bound to be the guardians in the
+interest of the poor tax-payers."
+
+Not that, in all probability, Paul and his archduchess noticed the
+inferiority. Court festivities at St. Petersburg were as yet neither
+numerous nor magnificent, and they soon showed themselves so wearied with
+the round of gayety which had been forced upon them, that some of the
+diversions which had been projected at other royal palaces besides
+Versailles were given up to avoid distressing them.[11] The sight which
+pleased them most was the play, to which, at their own special request,
+the queen accompanied them, and where they were greatly struck by the
+magnificence of the theatre and every thing connected with the
+performance, as well as with the reception which the audience gave the
+queen. Much as they had admired what they had seen, it was her grace and
+kind solicitude for their gratification which made the greatest impression
+on them; and the archduchess kept up a correspondence with her during the
+rest of their travels, especially dwelling on the scenes which pleased her
+most in Germany, and on the persons she met who were known to and regarded
+by the queen.
+
+Political affairs were at this time causing Marie Antoinette great
+anxiety. One of her most frequently expressed wishes had been that the
+French fleet should have an opportunity of engaging that of England in a
+pitched battle, when the judicious care which M. de Sartines had bestowed
+on the marine would be seen to bear its fruit. But when the battle did
+take place, the result was such as to confound instead of justifying her
+patriotic expectations. In April, the English Admiral Rodney inflicted on
+the Count de Grasse a crushing defeat off the coast of Jamaica. In
+September, the combined forces of France and Spain were beaten off with
+still heavier loss from the impregnable fortress of Gibraltar; and the
+only region in which a French admiral escaped disaster was the Indian Sea,
+where the Bailli de Suffrein, an officer of rare energy and ability,
+encountered the British admiral, Sir Edward Hughes, in a series of severe
+actions, and, except on one occasion in which he lost a few transports,
+never permitted his antagonist to claim any advantage over him; the single
+loss which he sustained in his first combat being more than
+counterbalanced by his success on land, where, by the aid of Hyder Ali's
+son, the celebrated Tippoo, be made himself master of Cuddalore; and then,
+dropping down to the Cingalese coast, recaptured Trincomalee, the conquest
+of which had been one of Hughes's most recent achievements.[12] The queen
+felt the reverses keenly. She even curtailed some of her own expenses in
+order to contribute to the building of new ships to replace those which
+had been lost; and she received M. de Suffrein, on his return from India
+at the conclusion of the war, with the most sincere and marked
+congratulations. She invited him to the palace, and, when he arrived, she
+caused Madame de Polignac to bring both her children into the room. "My
+children," said she, "and especially you, my son, know that this M. de
+Suffrein. We are all under the greatest obligations to him. Look well at
+him, and ever remember his name. It is one of the first that all my
+children must learn to pronounce, and one which they must never
+forgot.[13]"
+
+She was acting up to her mother's example, than whom no sovereign had
+better known how to give their due honor to bravery and loyalty. Such a
+queen deserved to have faithful friends; and Suffrein was a man who, had
+his life been spared, might, like the Marquis de Bouillé, have shown that
+even in France the feelings of chivalry and devotion to kings and ladies
+were not yet extinguished. But he died before either his country or his
+queen had again need of his services, or before he had any opportunity of
+proving by fresh achievements his gratitude to a sovereign who knew so
+well how to appreciate and to honor merit.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+Peace is re-established.--Embarrassments of the Ministry.--Distress of the
+Kingdom.--M. de Calonne becomes Finance Minister.--The Winter of 1783-'84
+is very Severe.--The Queen devotes Large Sums to Charity.--Her Political
+Influence increases--Correspondence between the Emperor and her on
+European Politics.--The State of France.--The Baron de Breteuil.--Her
+Description of the Character of the King.
+
+
+The conclusion of peace between France and England was one of the earliest
+events of the year 1783, but it brought no strength to the ministry; or,
+rather, it placed its weakness in a more conspicuous light. Maurepas had
+died at the end of 1781, and, since his death, the Count de Vergennes had
+been the chief adviser of the king; but his attention was almost
+exclusively directed to the conduct of the diplomacy of the kingdom, and
+to its foreign affairs, and he made no pretensions to financial knowledge.
+Unluckily the professed ministers of finance, Joly de Fleury and his
+successor, D'Ormesson, were as ignorant of that great subject as himself,
+and, within two years after Necker's retirement, their mismanagement had
+brought the kingdom to the very verge of bankruptcy. D'Ormesson was
+dismissed, and for many days it was anxiously deliberated in the palace by
+whom he should be replaced. Some proposed that Necker should he recalled,
+but the king had felt himself personally offended by some circumstances
+which had attended the resignation of that minister two years before. The
+queen inclined to favor the pretensions of Loménie de Brienne, Archbishop
+of Toulouse; not because he had any official experience, but because
+fifteen years before he had recommended the Abbé de Vermond to Maria
+Teresa; and the abbé, seeing in the present embarrassment an opportunity
+of repaying the obligation, now spoke highly to her of the archbishop's
+talents. But Madame de Polignac and her party persuaded her majesty to
+acquiesce in the appointment of M. de Calonne, a man who, like Turgot, had
+already distinguished himself as intendant of a province, though he had
+not inspired those who watched his career with as high an opinion of his
+uprightness as of his talents. He had also secured the support of the
+Count d'Artois by promising to pay his debts; and Louis himself was won to
+think well of him by the confidence which he expressed in his own capacity
+to grapple with the existing, or even with still greater difficulties.
+
+Nor, indeed, had he been possessed of steadiness, prudence, and principle,
+was he very unfit for such a post at such a time. For he was very fertile
+in resources, and well-endowed with both physical and moral courage; but
+these faculties were combined with, were indeed the parents of, a
+mischievous defect. He had such reliance on his own ingenuity and ability
+to deal with each difficulty or danger as it should arise, that he was
+indifferent to precautions which might prevent it from arising. The spirit
+in which he took office was exemplified in one of his first speeches to
+the queen. Knowing that he was not the minister whom she would have
+preferred, he made it his especial business to win her confidence; and he
+had not been long installed in office when she expressed to him her wish
+that he would find means of accomplishing some object which she desired to
+promote. "Madame," was his courtly reply, "if it is possible, it is done
+already. If it is impossible, I will take care and manage it." But being
+very unscrupulous himself, he overshot his mark when he sought to
+propitiate her further by offering to represent as hers acts of charity
+which she had not performed. The winter of 1783 was one of unusual
+severity. The thermometer at Paris was, for some weeks, scarcely above
+zero; scarcity, with its inevitable companion, clearness of price, reduced
+the poor of the northern provinces, and especially of the capital and its
+neighborhood, to the verge of starvation. The king, queen, and princesses
+gave large sums from their privy purses for their relief; but as such
+supplies were manifestly inadequate, Louis ordered the minister to draw
+three millions of francs from the treasury, and to apply them for the
+alleviation of the universal distress. Calonne cheerfully received and
+executed the beneficent command. He was perhaps not sorry, at his first
+entrance on his duties, to show how easy it was for him to meet even an
+unforeseen demand of so heavy an amount; and he fancied he saw in it a
+means of ingratiating himself with Marie Antoinette. He proposed to her
+that he should pay one of the millions to her treasurer, that that officer
+might distribute it, in her name, as a gift from her own allowance; but
+Marie Antoinette disdained such unworthy artifice. She would have felt
+ashamed to receive praise or gratitude to which she was not entitled. She
+rejected the proposal, insisting that the king's gift should be attributed
+to himself alone, and expressing her intention to add to it by curtailing
+her personal expenditure, by abridging her entertainments so long as the
+distress should last, and by dedicating the sums usually appropriated to
+pleasure and festivity to the relief of those whose very existence seemed
+to depend on the aid which it was her duty and that of the king to
+furnish. For there was this especial characteristic in Marie Antoinette's
+charity, that it did not proceed solely from kindness of heart and
+tenderness of disposition, though these were never wanting, but also from
+a settled principle of duty, which, in her opinion, imposed upon
+sovereigns, as a primary obligation, the task of watching over the welfare
+of their subjects as persons intrusted by Providence to their care; and
+such a feeling was obviously more to be depended upon as a constant motive
+for action than the most vivid emotion of the moment, which, if easily
+excited, is not unfrequently as easily overpowered by some fresh object.
+
+Meanwhile events were gradually compelling her to take a more active part
+in politics. Maurepas had been jealous of her influence, and, while that
+old minister lived, Louis, who from his childhood had been accustomed to
+see him in office, committed almost every thing to his guidance. But, as
+he always required some one of stronger mind than himself to lean upon, as
+soon as Maurepas was gone he turned to the queen. It was to her that he
+now chiefly confided his anxieties and perplexities; from her that he
+sought counsel and strength; and the ministers naturally came to regard
+her as the real ruler of the State. Accordingly, we find from her
+correspondence of this period that even such matters as the appointment of
+the embassadors to foreign states were often referred to her decision; and
+how greatly the habit of considering affairs of importance expanded her
+capacity we may learn from the opinion which her brother, the emperor, who
+was never disposed to flatter, or even to spare her, had evidently come to
+entertain of her judgment. In one long letter, written in September of the
+year 1783, he discussed with her the attitude which France had assumed
+toward Austria ever since the dismissal of Choiseul; the willingness of
+her ministers to listen to Prussian calumnies; the encouragement which
+they had given to the opposition in the empire; and their obsequiousness
+to Prussia; while Austria had not retaliated, as she had had many
+opportunities of doing, by any complaisance toward England, though the
+English statesmen had made many advances toward her. It is a curious
+instance of fears being realized in a sense very different from that which
+troubled the writer at the moment, that among the acts of France of which,
+had he been inclined to be captious, he might justly have complained, he
+enumerates her recent acquisition of Corsica, as one which, "for a number
+of reasons, might be very prejudicial to the possessions of the house of
+Austria and its branches in Italy." It did indeed prove an acquisition
+which largely influenced the future history, not only of Austria, but of
+the whole world, when the little island, which hitherto had been but a
+hot-bed of disorder, and a battle-field of faction burdensome to its
+Genoese masters, gave a general to the armies of France whose most
+brilliant exploits were a succession of triumphs over the Austrian
+commanders in every part of the emperor's dominion. His letter concludes
+with warnings drawn from the present condition and views of the different
+states of Europe, and especially of France, whose "finances and resources,
+to speak with moderation, have been greatly strained" in the recent war;
+embracing in their scope even the designs of Russia on the independence of
+Turkey; and with a request that his sister would inform him frankly what
+he is to believe as to the opinions of the king; and in what light he is
+to regard the recent letters of Vergennes, which, to his apprehension,
+show an indifference to the maintenance of the alliance between the two
+countries.[1]
+
+It is altogether a letter such as might pass between statesmen, and proves
+clearly that Joseph regarded his sister now as one fully capable of taking
+large views of the situation of both countries. And her answer shows that
+she fully enters into all the different questions which he has raised,
+though it also shows that she is guided by her heart as well as by her
+judgment; still looks on the continuance of the friendship between her
+native and her adopted country as essential not only to her comfort, but
+even in some degree to her honor, and also that on that account she is
+desirous at times of exerting a greater influence than is always allowed
+her.
+
+"Versailles, September 29th, 1783.
+
+"Shall I tell you, my dear brother, that your letter has delighted me by
+its energy and nobleness of thought and why should I not tell you so? I am
+sure that you will never confound your sister and your friend with the
+tricks and manoeuvres of politicians.
+
+"I have read your letter to the king. You may be sure that it, like all
+your other letters, shall never go out of my hands. The king was struck
+with many of your reflections, and has even corroborated them himself.
+
+"He has said to me that he both desired and hoped always to maintain a
+friendship and a good understanding with the empire; but yet that it was
+impossible to answer for it that the difference of interests might not at
+times lead to a difference in the way of looking at and judging of
+affairs. This idea appeared to me to come from himself alone, and from the
+distrust with which people have been inspiring him for a long time. For,
+when I spoke to him, I believe it to be certain that he had not seen M. de
+Vergennes since the arrival of your courier. M. de Mercy will have
+reported to you the quietness and gentleness with which this minister has
+spoken to him. I have had occasion to see that the heads of the other
+ministers, which were a little heated, have since cooled again. I trust,
+that this quiet spirit will last, and in that case the firmness of your
+reply ought to lead to the rudeness of style which the people here adopted
+being forgotten. You know the ground and the characters, so you can not be
+surprised if the king sometimes allows answers to pass which he would not
+have given of his own accord.
+
+"My health, considering my present condition,[2] is perfect. I had a
+slight accident after my last letter; but it produced no bad consequences:
+it only made a little more care necessary. Accordingly I shall go from
+Choisy to Fontainebleau by water. My children are quite well. My boy will
+spend his time at La Muette while we are absent. It is just a piece of
+stupidity of the doctors, who do not like him to take so long a journey at
+his age, though he has two teeth and is very strong. I should be perfectly
+happy if I were but assured of the general tranquillity, and, above all,
+of the happiness of my much-loved brother, whom I love with all my
+heart.[3]"
+
+Another letter, written three months later, explains to the emperor the
+object of some of the new arrangements which Calonne had introduced,
+having for one object, among others, the facilitation of a commercial
+intercourse, especially in tobacco, with the United States. She hopes that
+another consequence of them will be the abolition of the whole system of
+farmers-general of the revenue; and she explains to him both the
+advantages of such a measure, and at the same time the difficulties of
+carrying it out immediately after so costly a war, since it would involve
+the instant repayment of large sums to the farmers, with all the clearness
+of a practiced financier. She mentions also the appointment of the Baron
+de Breteuil as the new minister of the king's household,[4] and her
+estimate of his character is rendered important by his promotion, six
+years later, to the post of prime minister. The emperor also had ample
+means of judging of it himself, since the baron had succeeded the Cardinal
+de Rohan as embassador at Vienna. "I think, with you, that he requires to
+be kept within bounds; and he will be so more than other ministers by the
+nature of his office, which is very limited, and entirely under the eyes
+of the king and of his colleagues, who will be glad of any opportunities
+of mortifying his vanity. However, his activity will be very useful in a
+thousand details of a department which has been neglected and badly
+managed for the last sixty years." And though it is a slight anticipation
+of the order of our narrative, it will not be inconvenient to give here
+some extracts from a third letter to the same brother, written in the
+autumn of the following year, in which she describes the king's character,
+and points out the difficulties which it often interposes to her desire of
+influencing his views and measures.
+
+It may perhaps be thought that she unconsciously underrates her influence
+over her husband, though there can be no doubt that he was one of those
+men whom it is hardest to manage; wholly without self-reliance, yet with a
+scrupulous wish to do right that made him distrustful of others, even, of
+those whose advice he sought, or whose judgment he most highly valued.
+
+"September 22d, 1784.
+
+"I will not contradict you, my dear brother, on what you say about the
+short-sightedness of our ministry. I have long ago made some of the
+reflections which you express in your letter. I have spoken on the subject
+more than once to the king; but one must know him thoroughly to be able to
+judge of the extent to which, his character and prejudices cripple my
+resources and means of influencing him. He is by nature very taciturn; and
+it often happens that he does not speak to me about matters of importance
+even when he has not the least wish to conceal them from me. He answers me
+when I speak to him about them, but he scarcely ever opens the subject;
+and when I have learned a quarter of the business, I am then forced to use
+some address to make the ministers tell me the rest, by letting them think
+that the king has told me every thing. When I reproach him for not having
+spoken to me of such and such matters, he is not annoyed, but only seems a
+little embarrassed, and sometimes answers, in an off-hand way, that he had
+never thought of it. This distrust, which is natural to him, was at first
+strengthened by his govern--or before my marriage. M. de Vauguyon had
+alarmed him about the authority which his wife would desire to assume over
+him, and the duke's black disposition delighted in terrifying his pupil
+with all the phantom stories invented against the house of Austria. M. de
+Maurepas, though less obstinate and less malicious, still thought it
+advantageous to his own credit to keep up the same notions in the king's
+mind. M. de Vergennes follows the same plan, and perhaps avails himself of
+his correspondence on foreign affairs to propagate falsehoods. I have
+spoken plainly about this to the king more than once. He has sometimes
+answered me rather peevishly, and, as he is never fond of discussion, I
+have not been able to persuade him that his minister was deceived, or was
+deceiving him. I do not blind myself as to the extent of my own influence.
+I know that I have no great ascendency over the king's mind, especially in
+politics; and would it be prudent in me to have scenes with his ministers
+on such subjects, on which it is almost certain that the king would not
+support me? Without ever boasting or saying a word that is not true, I,
+however, let the public believe that I have more influence than I really
+have, because, if they did not think so, I should have still less. The
+avowals which I am making to you, my dear brother, are not very flattering
+to my self-love; but I do not like to hide any thing from you, in order
+that you may be able to judge of my conduct as correctly as is possible at
+this terrible distance from you, at which my destiny has placed me.[5]"
+
+A melancholy interest attunes to sentences such as these, from the
+influence which the defects in her husband's character, when joined to
+those of his minister, had on the future destinies of both, and of the
+nation over which he ruled. It was natural that she should explain them to
+a brother; and though, as a general rule, it is clearly undesirable for
+queens consort to interfere in politics, it is clear that with such a
+husband, and with the nation and court in such a condition as then existed
+in France, it was indispensable that Marie Antoinette should covet, and,
+so far as she was able, exert, influence over the king, if she were not
+prepared to see him the victim or the tool of caballers and intriguers who
+cared far more for their own interests than for those of either king or
+kingdom. But as yet, though, as we see, these deficiencies of Louis
+occasionally caused her annoyance, she had no foreboding of evil. Her
+general feeling was one of entire happiness; her children were growing and
+thriving, her own health was far stronger than it had been, and she
+entered with as keen a relish as ever into the excitements and amusements
+becoming her position, and what we may still call her youth, since she was
+even now only eight-and-twenty.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+"The Marriage of Figaro"--Previous History and Character of Beaumarchais.
+--The Performance of the Play is forbidden.--It is said to be a little
+altered.--It is licensed.--Displeasure of the Queen.--Visit of Gustavus
+III. of Sweden.--Fête at the Trianon.--Balloon Ascent.
+
+
+In the spring of 1784, the court and capital wore wrought up to a high
+pitch of excitement by an incident which was in reality of so ordinary and
+trivial a character, that it would be hard to find a more striking proof
+how thoroughly unhealthy the whole condition and feeling of the nation
+must have been, when such a matter could have been regarded as important.
+It was simply a question whether a play, which had been recently accepted
+by the manager of the principal theatre in Paris, should receive the
+license from the theatrical censor which was necessary to its being
+performed.
+
+The play was entitled "The Marriage of Figaro." The history of the author,
+M. Beaumarchais, is curious, as that of a rare specimen of the literary
+adventurer of his time. He was born in the year 1732. His father was a
+watch-maker named Caron, and he himself followed that trade till he was
+three or four and twenty, and attained considerable skill in it. But he
+was ambitious. He was conscious of a handsome face and figure, and knew
+their value in such a court as that of Louis XV. He gave up his trade as a
+watch-maker, and bought successively different places about the court, the
+last of which was sold at a price sufficient to entitle him to claim
+gentility; so that, in one of his subsequent railings against the nobles,
+he declared that his nobility was more incontestable than that of most of
+the body, since he could produce the stamped receipt for it. Following the
+example of Molière and Voltaire, he changed his name, and called himself
+Beaumarchais. He married two rich widows. He formed a connection with the
+celebrated financier, Paris Duverney, who initiated him in the mysteries
+of stock-jobbing. Being a good musician, he obtained the protection of the
+king's daughters, taught them the harp, and conducted the weekly concerts
+which, during the life of Marie Leczinska, they gave to the king and the
+royal family. He wrote two or three plays, none of which had any great
+success, while one was a decided failure. He became involved in lawsuits,
+one of which he conducted himself against the best ability of the Parisian
+bar, and displayed such wit and readiness that he not only gained his
+cause, but established a notoriety which throughout life was apparently
+his dearest object. He crossed over to England, where he made the
+acquaintance of Wilkes, and one or two agents of the American colonies,
+then just commencing their insurrection; and, partly from political
+sympathy with their views of freedom, partly, as he declared, to retaliate
+on England for the injuries which France had suffered at her hands in the
+Seven Years' War, he became a political agent himself, procuring arms and
+ships to be sent across the Atlantic, and also a great quantity of stores
+of a more peaceful character, out of which he had hoped to make a handsome
+profit. But the Americans gave him credit for greater disinterestedness;
+the President of Congress wrote him a letter thanking him for his zeal,
+but refused to pay for his stores, for which he demanded nearly a hundred
+and fifty thousand francs. He commenced an action for the money in the
+American courts, but, as he could not conduct it himself, he did not
+obtain an early decision; indeed, the matter imbittered all his closing
+days, and was not settled when he died.
+
+But while he was in the full flush of self-congratulation at the degree in
+which, as he flattered himself, he had contributed to the downfall of
+England, the exuberance of his spirits prompted him to try his hand at a
+fourth play, a sort of sequel to one of his earlier performances--"The
+Barber of Seville." He finished it about the end of the year 1781, and, as
+the manager of the theatre was willing to act it, he at once applied for
+the necessary license. But it had already been talked about: if one party
+had pronounced it lively, witty, and the cleverest play that had been seen
+since the death of Molière, another set of readers declared it full of
+immoral and dangerous satire on the institutions of the country. It is
+almost inseparable from the very nature of comedy that it should be to
+some extent satirical. The offense which those who complained of "The
+Marriage of Figaro" on that account really found in it was, that it
+satirized classes and institutions which could not bear such attacks, and
+had not been used to them. Molière had ridiculed the lower middle class;
+the newly rich; the tradesman who, because he had made a fortune, thought
+himself a gentleman; but, as one whose father was in the employ of
+royalty, he laid no hand on any pillar of the throne. But Beaumarchais, in
+"The Marriage of Figaro," singled out especially what were called the
+privileged classes; he attacked the licentiousness of the nobles; the
+pretentious imbecility of ministers and diplomatists; the cruel injustice
+of wanton arrests and imprisonments of protracted severity against which
+there was no appeal nor remedy; and the privileged classes in consequence
+denounced his work, and their complaints of its character and tendency
+made such an impression that the court resolved that the license should
+not he granted.
+
+The refusal, however, was not at first pronounced in a straightforward
+way; but was deferred, as if those who had resolved on it feared to
+pronounce it. For a long time the censor gave no reply at all, till
+Beaumarchais complained of the delay as more injurious to him than a
+direct denial. When at last his application was formally rejected, he
+induced his friends to raise such a clamor in his favor, that Louis
+determined to judge for himself, and caused Madame de Campan to read it to
+himself and the queen. He fully agreed with the censor. Many passages he
+pronounced to be in extremely bad taste. When the reader came to the
+allusions to secret arrests, protracted imprisonments, and the tedious
+formalities of the law and lawyers, he declared that it would be necessary
+to pull down the Bastile before it could be acted with safety, as
+Beaumarchais was ridiculing every thing which ought to be respected. "It
+is not to be performed, then?" said the queen. "No," replied the king,
+"you may depend upon that."
+
+Similar refusals of a license had been common enough, so that there was no
+reason in the world why this decision should have attracted any notice
+whatever. But Beaumarchais was the fashion. He had influential patrons
+even in the palace: the Count d'Artois and Madame de Polignac, with the
+coterie which met in her apartments, being among them; and the mere idea
+that the court or the Government was afraid to let the play be acted
+caused thousands to desire to see it, who, without such a temptation,
+would have been wholly indifferent to its fate. The censor could not
+prevent its being read at private parties, and such readings became so
+popular that, in 1782, one was got up for the amusement of the Russian
+prince, who was greatly pleased by the liveliness of the dramatic
+situations, and, probably, not sufficiently aware of the prevalence of
+discontent in many circles of French society to sympathize with those who
+saw danger in its satire.
+
+The praises lavished on it gave the author greater boldness, which was
+quite unnecessary. He even meditated an evasion of the law by getting it
+acted in a place which was not a theatre, and tickets were actually issued
+for the performance in a saloon which was often used for rehearsals, when
+a royal warrant[1] peremptorily forbidding such a proceeding was sent down
+from the palace. A clamor was at once raised by the friends of
+Beaumarchais, as if "sealed letters" had never been issued before. They
+talked in a loud voice of "oppression" and "tyranny;" and any one who knew
+the king's disposition might have divined that such an act of vigor was
+sure to be followed by one of weakness. Presently Beaumarchais changed his
+tone. He gave out that he had retrenched the passages which had excited
+the royal disapproval, and requested that the play might be re-examined. A
+new censor of high literary reputation reported to the head of the
+police[2] that if one or two passages were corrected, and one or two
+expressions, which were liable to be misinterpreted, were suppressed, he
+foresaw no danger in allowing the representation. Beaumarchais at once
+promised to make the required corrections, and one of Madame de Polignac's
+friends, the Count de Vaudreuil, the very nobleman with whom that lady's
+name was by many discreditably connected, obtained the king's leave to
+perform it at his country house, that thus an opportunity might be
+afforded for judging whether or not the alterations which had been made
+were sufficient to render its performance innocent.
+
+The king was assured that the passages which he had regarded as
+mischievous were suppressed or divested of their sting. Marie Antoinette
+apparently had her suspicions; but Louis could never long withstand
+repeated solicitations, and, as he had not, when Madame de Campan read it,
+formed any very high opinion of its literary merits, he thought that, now
+that it was deprived of its venom, it would be looked upon as heavy, and
+would fail accordingly. Some good judges, such as the Marquis de
+Montesquieu, were of the same opinion. The actors thought differently. "It
+is my belief," said a man of fashion to the witty Mademoiselle Arnould,
+using the technical language of the theatre, "that your play will be
+'damned.'" "Yes," she replied, "it will, fifty nights running." But, even
+if Louis had heard of her prophecy, he would have disregarded it. He gave
+his permission for the performance to take place, and on the 27th April,
+1784, "The Marriage of Figaro" was accordingly acted to an audience which
+filled the house to the very ceiling; and which the long uncertainty as to
+whether it would ever be seen or not had disposed to applaud every scene
+and every repartee, and even to see wit where none existed. To an
+impartial critic, removed both by time and country from the agitation
+which had taken place, it will probably seem that the play thus obtained a
+reception far beyond its merits. It was undoubtedly what managers would
+call a good acting play. Its plot was complicated without being confused.
+It contained many striking situations; the dialogue was lively, but there
+was more humor in the surprises and discoveries than verbal wit in the
+repartees. Some strokes of satire were leveled at the grasping disposition
+of the existing race of courtiers, whose whole trade was represented as
+consisting of getting all they could, and asking for more; and others at
+the tricks of modern politicians, feigning to be ignorant of what they
+knew; to know what they were ignorant of; to keep secrets which had no
+existence; to lock the door to mend a pen; to appear deep when they were
+shallow; to set spies in motion, and to intercept letters; to try to
+ennoble the poverty of their means by the grandeur of their objects. The
+censorship, of course, did not escape. The scene being laid in Spain,
+Figaro affirmed that at Madrid the liberty of the press meant that, so
+long as an author spoke neither of authority, nor of public worship, nor
+of politics, nor of morality, nor of men in power, nor of the opera, nor
+of any other exhibition, nor of any one who was concerned in any thing, he
+might print what be pleased. The lawyers were reproached with a scrupulous
+adherence to forms, and a connivance at needless delays, which put money
+into their pockets; and the nobles, with thinking that, as long as they
+gave themselves the trouble to be born, society had no right to expect
+from them any further useful action. But such satire was too general, it
+might have been thought, to cause uneasiness, much more to do specific
+injury to any particular individual, or to any company or profession.
+Figaro himself is represented as saying that none but little men feared
+little writings.[3] And one of the advisers whom King Louis consulted as
+to the possibility of any mischief arising from the performance of the
+play, is said to have expressed his opinion in the form of an apothegm,
+that "none but dead men were killed by jests." The author might even have
+argued that his keenest satire had been poured upon those national
+enemies, the English, when he declared what has been sometimes regarded as
+the national oath to be the pith and marrow of the English language, the
+open sesame to English society, the key to unlock the English heart, and
+to obtain the judicious swearer all that he could desire.[4]
+
+And an English writer, with English notions of the liberty of the press,
+would hardly have thought it worth while to notice such an affair at all,
+did he not feel bound to submit his judgment to that of the French
+themselves. And if their view be correct, almost every institution in
+France must have been a dead man past all hopes of recovery, since the
+French historical writers, to whatever party they belong, are unanimous in
+declaring that it was from this play that many of the oldest institutions
+in the country received their death-blow, and that Beaumarchais was at
+once the herald and the pioneer of the approaching Revolution.
+
+Paris had scarcely cooled down after this excitement, when its attention
+was more agreeably attracted by the arrival of a king, Gustavus III. of
+Sweden. He had paid a visit to France in 1771, which had been cut short by
+the sudden death of his father, necessitating his immediate return to his
+own country to take possession of his throne; but the brief acquaintance
+which Marie Antoinette had then made with him had inspired her with a
+great admiration of his chivalrous character; and in the preceding year,
+hearing that he was contemplating a tour in Southern Europe, she had
+written to him to express a hope that he would repeat his visit to
+Versailles, promising him "such a reception as was due to an ancient ally
+of France;[5]" and adding that "she should personally have great pleasure
+in testifying to him how greatly she valued his friendship."
+
+Her mention of the ancient alliance between the two countries, which,
+indeed, had subsisted ever since the days of Francis I., was very welcome
+to Gustavus, since the object of his journey was purely political, and he
+desired to negotiate a fresh treaty. But those matters he, of course,
+arranged with the ministers. The queen was only concerned in the
+entertainments due from royal hosts to so distinguished a guest. Most of
+them were of the ordinary character, there being a sort of established
+routine of festivity for such occasions. And it may be taken as a proof
+that the court had abated somewhat of its alarm at Beaumarchais's play
+that "The Marriage of Figaro" was allowed to be acted on one of the king's
+visits to the theatre. She also gave him an entertainment of more than
+usual splendor at the Trianon, at which all the ladies present, and the
+invitations were very numerous, were required to be dressed in white,
+while all the walks and shrubberies of the garden were illuminated, so
+that the whole scene presented a spectacle which he described in one of
+his letters as "a complete fairy-land; a sight worthy of the Elysian
+Fields themselves.[6]" But, as usual, the queen herself was the chief
+ornament of the whole, as she moved graciously among her guests, laying
+aside the character of queen to assume that of the cordial hostess; and
+not even taking her place at the banquet, but devoting herself wholly to
+the pleasurable duty of doing honor to her guests.
+
+One of the displays was of a novel character, from which its inventors and
+patrons expected scientific results of importance, which, though nearly a
+century has since elapsed, have not yet been realized. In the preceding
+year, Montgolfier had for the first time sent up a balloon, and the new
+invention was now exhibited in the Court of Versailles: the queen allowed
+the balloon to be called by her name; and, to the great admiration of
+Gustavus, who had a decided taste for matters which were in any way
+connected with practical science, the "Marie Antoinette" made a successful
+voyage to Chantilly. The date of another invention, if, indeed, it
+deserves so respectable a title, is also fixed by this royal visit. Mesmer
+had recently begun to astonish or bewilder the Parisians with his theory
+of animal magnetism; and Gustavus spent some time in discussing the
+question with him, and seems for a moment to have flattered himself that
+he comprehended his principles. But the only durable result which arose
+from his stay in France was the sincere regard and esteem which he and the
+queen mutually conceived for each other. They established a
+correspondence, in which Marie Antoinette repeatedly showed her eagerness
+to gratify his wishes and to attend to his recommendations; and when, at a
+later period, unexpected troubles fell on her and her husband, there was
+no one whom their troubles inspired with greater eagerness to serve them
+than Gustavus, whose last projects, before he fell by the hand of an
+assassin, were directed to their deliverance from the dangers which,
+though neither he nor they were as yet fully alive to their magnitude,
+were on the point of overwhelming them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+St. Cloud is purchased for the Queen.--Libelous Attacks on her.--Birth of
+the Duc de Normandie.--Joseph presses her to support his Views in the Low
+Countries.---The Affair of the Necklace.--Share which the Cardinal de
+Rohan had in it.--The Queen's Indignation at his Acquittal.--Subsequent
+Career of the Cardinal.
+
+
+Marie Antoinette had long since completed her gardens at the Trianon, but
+the gradual change in the arrangements of the court had made a number of
+alterations requisite at Versailles, with which the difficulty of finding
+money rendered it desirable to proceed slowly. It was reckoned that it
+would be necessary to give up the greater part of the palace to workmen
+for ten years; and as the other palaces which the king possessed in the
+neighborhood of Paris were hardly suited for the permanent residence of
+the court, the queen proposed to her husband to obtain St. Cloud from the
+Duc d'Orléans, giving him in exchange La Muette, the Castle of Choisy, and
+a small adjacent forest. Such an arrangement would have produced a
+considerable saving by the reduction of the establishments kept up at
+those places, at which the court only spent a few days in each year. And
+as the duke was disposed to think that he should be a gainer by the
+exchange, it is not very easy to explain how it was that the original
+project was given up, and that St. Cloud was eventually sold to the crown
+for a sum of money, Choisy and La Muette being also retained.
+
+St. Cloud was bought; and Marie Antoinette, still eager to prevent her own
+acquisition from being too costly, proposed to the king that it should he
+bought in her name, and called her property; since an establishment for
+her would naturally lie framed on a more moderate scale than that of any
+palace belonging to the king, which was held always to require the
+appointment of a governor and deputy-governors, with a corresponding staff
+of underlings, while she should only require a porter at the outer gate.
+The advantage of such a plan was so obvious that it was at once adopted.
+The porters and servants wore the queen's livery; and all notices of the
+regulations to be observed were signed "In the queen's name.[1]" Yet so
+busy were her enemies at this time, that even this simple arrangement,
+devised solely for the benefit of the people who were intimately concerned
+in every thing that tended to diminish the royal expenditure, gave rise to
+numberless cavils. Some affirmed that the issue of such notices in the
+name of the queen instead of in that of the king was an infringement on
+his authority. One most able and influential counselor of the Parliament,
+Duval d'Esprémesnil, who in more than one discussion in subsequent years
+showed that in general he fully appreciated the principles of
+constitutional government, but who at this time seems to have been
+animated by no other feeling than that of hatred for the existing
+ministers, even went the length of affirming that there was "something not
+only impolitic but immoral in the idea of any palace belonging to a queen
+of France.[2]" But when the arrangements had once been made, Marie
+Antoinette not unnaturally thought her honor concerned in not abandoning
+it in deference to clamor so absurd, as well as so disrespectful to
+herself; and St. Cloud, to which she had always been partial, continued
+hers, and for the next five years divided her attention with the Trianon.
+
+But though she herself disregarded all such attacks with the calm dignity
+which belonged to her character, her friends were not free from serious
+apprehensions as to the power of persistent detraction and calumny. It was
+one of the penalties which the nation had to pay for the infamies which
+had stained the crown during the last three centuries, that the people had
+learned to think that nothing was too bad to say and to believe of their
+kings; and Marie Antoinette seemed as yet a fairer mark than usual for
+slanderous attack, because her position was weaker than that of a King.[3]
+It depended on the life of her husband and of a single son, who was
+already beginning to show signs of weakness of constitution. It was
+therefore with exceeding satisfaction that in the autumn of 1784 her
+friends learned that she was again about to become a mother. They prayed
+with inexpressible anxiety that the expected child should prove a son; and
+on the 27th of March, 1785, their prayers were granted. A son was born,
+whom his delighted father at once took in his arms, calling him "his
+little Norman," and, saying "that the name alone would bring him
+happiness," created Duke of Normandy. No prophecy was ever so sadly
+falsified; no king's son had ever so miserable a lot; but no forebodings
+of evil as yet disturbed his parents. Their delight was fully shared by
+the body of the people; for the cabals against the queen were as yet
+confined to the immediate precincts of the court, and had not descended to
+infect the middle classes. It was with difficulty when, after her
+confinement, she paid her visit to Paris to return thanks at Notre Dame
+and St. Geneviève, that the citizens could he prevented from unharnessing
+her horses and dragging her coach in triumph through the streets.[4] And
+their exultation was fully shared by the better-intentioned class of
+courtiers, and by all Marie Antoinette's real friends, who felt assured
+that the birth of this second son had given her the security which had
+hitherto been wanting to her position.
+
+Meanwhile, she was again led to interest herself greatly in foreign
+politics, though in truth she hardly regarded any thing in which her
+brother's empire was interested as foreign, so deep was her conviction
+that the interests of France and Austria were identical and inseparable,
+and so unwearied were her endeavors to make her husband's ministers see
+all questions that concerned her brother's dominions with her eyes.
+Throughout the latter part of 1784, and the earlier months of 1785,
+Joseph, who was always restless in his ambition, was full of schemes of
+aggrandizement which he desired to carry out through the favor and
+co-operation of France. At one moment he projected obtaining Bavaria in
+exchange for the Netherlands, at another he aimed at procuring the opening
+of the Scheldt by threatening the Dutch with instant war if they resisted.
+But, as all these schemes were eventually abandoned, they would hardly
+require to be mentioned here, were it not for the proofs which his
+correspondence with his sister affords of his increasing esteem for her
+capacity, and his evident conviction of her growing influence in the
+French Government, and for the light which some of her answers to his
+letters throw on her relations with the ministers, which had perhaps some
+share in increasing the annoyance that the affair of "the necklace," as
+will be presently mentioned, caused her before the end of the year. Her
+difficulties with Louis himself were the same as she had already described
+to her brother on former occasions. "It was impossible to induce him to
+take a strong line, so as to speak resolutely to M. de Vergennes in her
+presence, and equally so to prevent his changing his mind afterward;[5]"
+while she distrusted the good faith of the minister so much that, though
+she resolved to speak to him strongly on the subject, she would not do so
+till she could discuss the question with him "in the presence of the king,
+that he might not be able to disfigure or to exaggerate what she said."
+Yet she did not always find her precautions effectual. Louis's judgment
+was always at the mercy of the last speaker. She assured her brother that
+"he had abundant reason to be contented with the king's personal feelings
+on the subject. When he received the emperor's letter, he spoke to her
+about it in a way that delighted her. He regarded Joseph's demands as
+just, and his motives as most reasonable. Yet--she blushed to own it even
+to her brother--after he had seen his minister, his tone was no longer the
+same; he was embarrassed; he shunned the subject with her, and often found
+some new objection to weaken the effect of his previous admissions."
+
+At one time she even feared a rupture between the two countries. Vergennes
+was urging the king to send an army of observation to the frontier; and,
+if it were sent, the proximity of such a force to the Austrian troops in
+the Netherlands would, to her apprehension, be full of danger. There was
+sound political acuteness in her remark that the dispatch of an army of
+observation was not "in itself a declaration of war, but that when two
+armies are so near to one another an order to advance is very soon
+executed;" and, with a shrewd perception of the argument which was most
+likely to influence the humane disposition of her husband, she pressed
+upon him that "the delays and shuffling of his ministers might very
+probably involve him in war, in spite of his own intentions." However,
+eventually the clouds which had caused her anxiety were dissipated; the
+mediation of France had even some share in leading to a conclusion of
+these disputes in a manner in which Joseph himself acquiesced; and the
+good understanding between the two crowns, on which, as Marie Antoinette
+often declared, her happiness greatly depended, was preserved, or, as she
+hoped, even strengthened, by the result of these negotiations.
+
+But on one occasion of real moment to the personal comfort and credit of
+the queen, Louis behaved with a clear good sense, and, what was equally
+important, with a firmness which she gratefully acknowledged,[6] and
+contrasted remarkably with the pusillanimous advice that had been given by
+more than one of the ministers. That the affair in which he exhibited
+these qualities should for a moment have been regarded as one of political
+importance, is another testimony to the diseased state of the public mind
+at the time; and that it should have been possible so to use it as to
+attach the slightest degree of discredit to the queen, is a proof as
+strange as melancholy how greatly the secret intrigues of the basest cabal
+that ever disgraced a court had succeeded in undermining her reputation,
+and poisoning the very hearts of the people against her.[7]
+
+Boehmer, the court jeweler, had collected a large number of diamonds of
+unusual size and brilliancy, which he had formed into a necklace, in the
+hope of selling it to the queen, whose fancy for such jewels had some
+years before been very great. She had at one time spent sums on diamond
+ornaments, large enough to provoke warm remonstrances from her mother,
+though certainly not excessive for her rank; and Louis, knowing her
+partiality for them, had more than once made her costly gifts of the kind.
+But her taste for them had cooled; her children now engrossed far more of
+her attention than her dress, and she was keenly alive to the distress
+which still prevailed in many parts of the kingdom, and to the
+embarrassments of the revenue, which the ingenuity of Calonne did not
+relieve half so rapidly as his rashness encumbered it. Accordingly, her
+reply to Boehmer's application that she would purchase his necklace was
+that her jewel-case was sufficiently full, and that she had almost given
+up wearing diamonds; and that if such a sum as he asked, which was nearly
+seventy thousand pounds, were available, she should greatly prefer its
+being spent on a ship for the nation, to replace the _Ville de Paris_,
+whose loss still rankled in her breast.
+
+The king, who thought that she must secretly wish for a jewel of such
+unequalled splendor, offered to make her a present of the necklace, but
+she adhered to her refusal. Boehmer was greatly disappointed; he had
+exhausted his resources and his credit in collecting the stones in the
+hope of making a grand profit, and declared loudly to his patrons that he
+should be ruined if the queen could not be induced to change her mind. His
+complaints were so unrestrained that they reached the ears of those who
+saw in his despair a possibility of enriching themselves at his expense.
+There was in Paris at the time a Countess de la Mothe, who, as claiming
+descent from a natural son of Henri II., had added Valois to her name, and
+had her claim to royal birth so far allowed that, as she was in very
+destitute circumstances, she had obtained a small pension from the crown.
+Her pension and her pretensions had perhaps united to procure her the hand
+of the Count de la Mothe, who had for some time been discreditably known
+as one of the most worthless and dangerous adventurers who infested the
+capital. But her marriage had been no restraint on a life of unconcealed
+profligacy, and among her lovers she reckoned the Cardinal de Rohan, who,
+as we have already seen, was as little scrupulous or decent as herself.
+
+As, however, the cardinal's extravagance had left him with little means of
+supplying her necessities, Madame La Mothe conceived the idea of swindling
+Boehmer out of his necklace, and of making de Rohan an accomplice in the
+fraud. The one thing which in the transaction is difficult to determine is
+whether the cardinal was her willing and conscious assistant, or her dupe.
+That his capacity was of the very lowest order was notorious, but he was a
+man who had been bred in courts; he knew the manner in which princes
+transacted their business, and in which queens signed their names. He had
+long been acquainted with Marie Antoinette's figure and gestures and
+voice; while, unhappily, there was nothing in his character which was
+incompatible with his becoming an accomplice in any act of baseness.
+
+What followed was a drama of surprises. It was with as much astonishment
+as indignation that Marie Antoinette learned that Boehmer believed that
+she had secretly bought the necklace, which openly and formally she had
+refused, and that he was looking to her for the payment of its price. And
+about a fortnight later it was like a thunder-clap that a summons came
+upon the Cardinal de Rohan, who had just been performing mass before the
+king and queen, to appear before them in Louis's private cabinet, and that
+he found himself subjected to an examination by Louis himself, who
+demanded of him with great indignation an explanation of the circumstances
+that had led him to represent himself to Boehmer as authorized to buy a
+necklace for the queen. Terrified and confused, he gave an explanation
+which was half a confession; but which was too complicated to be
+thoroughly intelligible. He was ordered to retire into the next room and
+write out his statement. His written narrative proved more obscure than
+his spoken words. In spite of his prayers that he might be spared the
+degradation of being arrested while still clad in his pontifical habits,
+he was at once sent to the Bastile. A day or two afterward Madame La Mothe
+was apprehended in the provinces, and Louis directed that a prosecution
+should be instantly commenced against all who had been concerned in the
+transaction.
+
+For the queen's name had been forged. The cardinal did not deny that he
+had represented himself to Boehmer as employed by her for the purchase of
+the jewel which, as he said, she secretly coveted, and for the payment of
+its price by installments. But, as his justification, he produced a letter
+desiring him to undertake the business, and signed "Marie Antoinette de
+France." He declared that he had never suspected the genuineness of this
+letter, though it was notorious that such an addition to their Christian
+names was used by none but the sons and daughters of the reigning
+sovereign, and never by a queen. And eventually his whole story was found
+to be that Madame La Mothe had induced him to believe that she was in the
+queen's confidence, and also that the queen coveted the necklace and was
+resolved to obtain it; but that she was unable at once to pay for it; and
+that, being desirous to make amends to the cardinal for the neglect with
+which she had hitherto treated him, she had resolved on employing him to
+make arrangements with Boehmer for the instant delivery of the ornament,
+and for her payment of the price by installments.
+
+This was strange enough to have excited the suspicions of most men. What
+followed was stranger still. Not content with forging the queen's
+handwriting, Madame La Mothe had even, if one may say so, forged the queen
+herself. She had assured the cardinal that Marie Antoinette had consented
+to grant him a secret interview; and at midnight, in the gardens of
+Versailles, had introduced him to a woman of notoriously bad character
+named Oliva, who in height resembled the queen, and who, in a conference
+of half a minute, gave him a letter and a rose with the words, "You know
+what this means." She had hardly uttered the words when Madame La Mothe
+interrupted the pair with the warning the Countesses of Provence and
+Artois were approaching. The mock queen retired in haste. The cardinal
+pressed the rose to his heart; acted on the letter; and protested that he
+had never doubted that he had seen the queen, and had been acting on her
+commands in obtaining the necklace from Boehmer and delivering it to
+Madame La Mothe, though he now acknowledged that he had been imposed upon,
+and offered to pay the jeweler for his property.
+
+There were not wanting those who advised that this offer should be
+accepted, and that the matter should be hushed up, rather than that a
+prince of the Church should be publicly disgraced by a prosecution for
+fraud. But Louis and Marie Antoinette both rightly judged that their duty
+as sovereigns of the kingdom forbade them to compromise justice by
+screening dishonesty. It was but two years before that a great noble, the
+most eloquent of all French orators, had singled out Marie Antoinette's
+love of justice as one of her most conspicuous, as it was one of her most
+noble, qualities; and the words deserve especially to be remembered from
+the melancholy contrast which his subsequent conduct presents to the
+voluntary tribute which he now paid to her excellence. In 1783, the young
+Count de Mirabeau, pleading for the restitution of his conjugal rights,
+put the question to the judges at Aix before whom he was arguing, "Which
+of you, if he desired to consecrate a living personification of justice,
+and to embellish it with all the charms of beauty, would not set up the
+august image of our queen?"
+
+She and her husband might well have felt they were bound to act up to such
+a eulogy. Some of their advisers also, and especially the Baron de
+Breteuil and the Abbé de Yermond, fortified their decision with their
+advice; being, in truth, greatly influenced by a reason which they forbore
+to mention, namely, by their suspicion that the untiring malice of the
+queen's enemies would not have failed to represent that the suppression of
+the slightest particle of the truth could only have been dictated by a
+guilty consciousness which felt that it could not bear the light; and that
+the queen had forborne to bring the cardinal into court solely because she
+knew that he was in a situation to prove facts which would deservedly
+damage her reputation.
+
+It is impossible to doubt that the resolution which was adopted was the
+only one consistent with either propriety or common sense. However
+plausible may be the arguments which in this or that case may be adduced
+for concealment, the common instinct of mankind, which rarely errs in such
+matters, always conceives a suspicion that it is dictated by secret and
+discreditable motives; and that he who screens manifest guilt from
+exposure and punishment makes himself an accomplice in the wrong-doing, if
+he was not so before. But, though Louis judged rightly for his own and his
+queen's character in bringing those who were guilty of forgery and robbery
+to a public trial, the result inflicted an irremediable wound on one great
+institution, furnishing an additional proof how incurably rotten the whole
+system of the Government must have been, when corruption without shame or
+disguise was allowed to sway the highest judicial tribunal in the country.
+
+The Parliament of Paris, constantly endeavoring throughout its whole
+history to encroach upon the royal prerogative, had always founded its
+pretensions on its purity and disinterestedness. Since its
+re-establishment at the beginning of the present reign, it had advanced
+its claim to the possession of those virtues more loudly than ever; yet
+now, in the very first case which came before it in which a noble of the
+highest rank was concerned, it was made apparent not only that it was
+wholly destitute of every quality which ought to belong to a judicial
+bench, of a regard for truth and justice, and even of a knowledge of the
+law; but that no one gave it credit for them, and that every one regarded
+the decision to be given as one which would depend, not on the merits of
+the case, but on the interest which the culprits might be able to make
+with the judges.[8]
+
+The trial took place in May of the following year. We need not enter into
+its details; the denials, the admissions, the mutual recriminations of the
+persons accused. In the fate of the La Mothes and Mademoiselle Oliva no
+one professed to be concerned; but the friends of the cardinal were
+numerous, rich, and powerful; and for months had been and still were
+indefatigable in his cause. Some days before the trial, the attorney-
+general had become aware that nearly the whole of the Parliament had been
+gained by them; he even furnished the queen with a list of the names of
+those judges who had promised their verdict beforehand, and of the means
+by which they had been won over. And on the decisive morning the cardinal
+and his friends made a theatrical display which was evidently intended to
+overawe those members of the Parliament who were yet unconvinced, and to
+enlist the sympathies of the public in general. He himself appeared at the
+bar in a long violet cloak, the mourning robe of cardinals; and all the
+passages leading to the hall of justice were lined by his partisans, also
+in deep mourning; and they were not solely his own relations, the nobles
+of the different branches of his family, the Soubises, the Rohans, the
+Guimenées; but though, as princes of the blood, the Condés were nearly
+allied to the king and queen, they also were not ashamed to swell the
+company assembled, and to solicit the judges as they passed into the court
+to disregard alike justice and their own oaths, and to acquit the
+cardinal, whatever the evidence might be which had been, or was to be,
+produced against him. They were only asking what they had already assured
+themselves of obtaining. The queen's signature was indeed declared to be a
+forgery, and the La Mothes, Mademoiselle Oliva, and a man named Retaux de
+Villette, who had been the actual writer of the forged letters, were
+convicted and sentenced to the punishment which the counsel for the crown
+had demanded. But the cardinal was acquitted, as well as a notorious
+juggler and impostor of the day, called Cagliostro, who had apparently
+been so entirely unconnected with the transaction that it is not easy to
+see how he became included in the prosecution; and permission was given to
+the cardinal to make his acquittal public in any manner and to any extent
+which he might desire.[9]
+
+The subsequent history of the La Mothes was singular and characteristic.
+The countess, who had been sentenced to be flogged, branded, and
+imprisoned for life, after a time contrived, it is believed by the aid of
+some of the Rohan family, to escape from prison. She fled to London, where
+for some time she and her husband lived on the proceeds of the necklace,
+which they had broken up and sold piecemeal to jewelers in London and
+other cities; but they were soon reduced to great distress. After the
+Revolution had broken out in Paris, they tried to make money by publishing
+libels on the queen, in which they are believed to have obtained the aid
+of some who in former times had been under great personal obligations to
+Marie Antoinette. But the scheme failed: they were overwhelmed with debt;
+writs were issued against them, and in trying to escape from the sheriff's
+officers, the countess fell from a window at the top of a house, and
+received injuries which proved fatal.
+
+A most accomplished writer of the present day, who has devoted much care
+and ability to the examination of the case, has pronounced an opinion that
+the cardinal was innocent of dishonesty,[10] and limits his offense to
+that of insulting the queen by the mere suspicion that she could place her
+confidence in such an unworthy agent as Madame La Mothe, or that he
+himself could be allowed to recover her favor by such means as he had
+employed. But his absolute ignorance of the countess's schemes is not
+entirely consistent with the admitted fact that, when he was arrested, his
+first act was to send orders to his secretary to burn all the letters
+which he had received from her on the subject; and unquestionably neither
+Louis nor Marie Antoinette doubted his full complicity in the conspiracy.
+Louis at once deprived him of his office of grand almoner, and banished
+him from the court, declaring that "he knew too well the usages of the
+court to have believed that Madame La Mothe had really been admitted to
+the queen's presence and intrusted with such a commission.[11]" And Marie
+Antoinette gave open expression to her indignation at the acquittal "of an
+intriguer who had sought to ruin her, or to procure money for himself, by
+abusing her name and forging her signature," adding, with undeniable
+truth, that still more to be pitied than herself was a "nation which had
+for its supreme tribunal a body of men who consulted nothing but their
+passions; and of whom some were full of corruption, and others were
+inspired with a boldness which always vented itself in opposition to those
+who were clothed with lawful authority.[12]"
+
+But her magnanimity and her sincere affection for the whole people were
+never more manifest than now even in her first moments of indignation.
+Even while writing to Madame de Polignac that she is "bathed in tears of
+grief and despair," and that she can "hope for nothing good when
+perverseness is so busy in seeking means to chill her very soul," she yet
+adds that "she shall triumph over her enemies by doing more good than
+ever, and that it will be easier for them to afflict her than to drive her
+to avenging herself on them.[13]" And she uses the same language to her
+sister Christine, even while expressing still more strongly her
+indignation at being "sacrificed to a perjured priest and a shameless
+intriguer." She demands her sister's "pity, as one who had never deserved
+such injurious treatment;[14] but who had only recollected that she was
+the daughter of Maria Teresa--to fulfill her mother's exhortations, always
+to show herself French to the very bottom of her heart;" but she concludes
+by repeating the declaration that "nothing shall tempt her to any conduct
+unworthy of herself, and that the only revenge that she will take shall he
+to redouble her acts of kindness."
+
+It is pleasing to be able to close so odious a subject by the statement
+that the disgrace which the cardinal had thus brought upon himself may be
+supposed in some respects to have served as a lesson to him, and that his
+conduct in the latter days of his life was such as to do no discredit to
+the noble race from which he sprung.
+
+A great part of his diocese as Bishop of Strasburg lay on the German side
+of the Rhine; and thither,[15] when the French Revolution began to assume
+the blood-thirsty character which has made it a warning to all future
+ages, he was fortunate to escape in safety from the fury of the assassins
+who ruled France. And though he was no longer rich, his less fortunate
+countrymen, and especially his clerical brethren, found in him a liberal
+protector and supporter.[16] He even levied a body of troops to re-enforce
+the royalist army. But, when the First Consul wrung from the Pope a
+concordat of which he disapproved, he resigned his bishopric, and shortly
+afterward died at Ettenheim,[17] where, had he remained but a short time
+longer, he, like the Duke d'Enghien, might have found that a residence in
+a foreign land was no protection against the ever-suspicious enmity of
+Bonaparte.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+The King visits Cherbourg.--Rarity of Royal Journeys.--The Princess
+Christine visits the Queen--Hostility of the Duc d'Orléans to the Queen.--
+Libels on her.--She is called Madame Deficit.--She has a Second Daughter,
+who dies.--Ill Health of the Dauphin.--Unskillfulness and Extravagance of
+Calonne's System of Finance.--Distress of the Kingdom.--He assembles the
+Notables.--They oppose his Plans.--Letters of Marie Antoinette on the
+Subject.--Her Ideas of the English Parliament.--Dismissal of Calonne.--
+Character of Archbishop Loménie de Brienne.--Obstinacy of Necker.--The
+Archbishop is appointed Minister.--The Distress increases.--The Notables
+are dissolved.--Violent Opposition of the Parliament--Resemblance of the
+French Revolution to the English Rebellion of 1642.--Arrest of
+d'Esprémesnil and Montsabert.
+
+
+It was owing to Marie Antoinette's influence that Louis himself in the
+following year began to enter on a line of conduct which, if circumstances
+had not prevented him from persevering in it, might have tended, more
+perhaps than any thing else that he could have done, to make him also
+popular with the main body of the people. The emperor, while at
+Versailles, had strongly pressed upon him that it was his duty, as king of
+the nation, to make himself personally acquainted with every part of his
+kingdom, to visit the agricultural districts, the manufacturing towns, the
+fortresses, arsenals, and harbors of the country. Joseph himself had
+practiced what he preached. No corner of his dominions was unknown to him;
+and it is plain that there can be no nation which must not be benefited by
+its sovereign thus obtaining a personal knowledge of all the various
+interests and resources of his subjects. But such personal investigations
+were not yet understood to be a part of a monarch's duties. Louis's
+contemporary, our own sovereign, George III., than whom, if rectitude of
+intention and benevolence of heart be the principal standards by which
+princes should be judged, no one ever better deserved to be called the
+father of his country, scarcely ever went a hundred miles from Windsor,
+and never once visited even those Midland Counties which before the end of
+his reign had begun to give undeniable tokens of the contribution which
+their industry was to furnish to the growing greatness of his empire; and
+the last two kings of France, though in the course of their long reigns
+they had once or twice visited their armies while waging war on the
+Flemish or German frontier, had never seen their western or southern
+provinces.
+
+But now Marie Antoinette suggested to her husband that it was time that he
+should extend his travels, which, except when he had gone to Rheims for
+his coronation, had never yet carried him beyond Compiègne in one
+direction and Fontainebleau in another; and, as of all the departments of
+Government, that which was concerned with the marine of the nation
+interested her most (we fear that she was secretly looking forward to a
+renewal of war with England), she persuaded him to select for the object
+of his first visit the fort of Cherbourg in Normandy, where those great
+works had been recently begun which have since been constantly augmented
+and improved, till they have made it a worthy rival to our own harbors on
+the opposite side of the Channel. He was received in all the towns through
+which he passed with real joy. The Normans had never seen their king since
+Henry IV. had made their province his battle-field; and the queen, who
+would gladly have accompanied him, had it not been that such a journey
+undertaken by both would have resembled a state procession, and therefore
+have been tedious and comparatively useless, exulted in the reception
+which he had met with, and began to plan other expeditions of the same
+kind for him, feeling assured that his presence would be equally welcomed
+in other provinces--at Bourdeaux, at Lyons, or at Toulon. And a series of
+such visits would undoubtedly have been calculated to strengthen the
+attachment of the people everywhere to the royal authority; which,
+already, to some far-seeing judges, seemed likely soon to need all the
+re-enforcement which it could obtain in any quarter.
+
+In the summer of 1786 she had a visit from her sister Christine, the
+Princess of Teschen, who, with her husband, had been joint governor of
+Hungary, and since the death of her uncle, Charles of Lorraine, had been
+removed to the Netherlands. She had never seen her sister since her own
+marriage, and the month which they spent together at Versailles may be
+almost described as the last month of perfect enjoyment that Marie
+Antoinette ever knew; for troubles were thickening fast around the
+Government, and were being taken wicked advantage of by her enemies, at
+the head of whom the Duc d'Orléans now began openly to range himself. He
+was a man notorious, as has been already seen, for every kind of infamy;
+and though he well knew the disapproval with which Marie Antoinette
+regarded his way of life and his character, it is believed that he had had
+the insolence to approach her with the language of gallantry; that he had
+been rejected with merited indignation; and that he ever afterward
+regarded her noble disdain as a provocation which it should be the chief
+object of his life to revenge. In fact, on one occasion he did not scruple
+to avow his resentment at the way in which, as he said, she had treated
+him; though he did not mention the reason.[1]
+
+Calumny was the only weapon which could be employed against her; but in
+that he and his partisans had long been adept. Every old libel and pretext
+for detraction was diligently revived. The old nickname of "The Austrian"
+was repeated with pertinacity as spiteful as causeless; even the king's
+aunts lending their aid to swell the clamor on that ground, and often
+saying, with all the malice of their inveterate jealousy, that it was not
+to be expected that she should have the same feelings as their father or
+Louis XIV., since she was not of their blood, though it was plain that the
+same remark would have applied to every Queen of France since Anne of
+Brittany. Even the embarrassments of the revenue were imputed to her; and
+she, who had curtailed her private expenses, even those which seemed
+almost necessary to her position, that she might minister more largely to
+the necessities of the poor--who had declined to buy jewels that the money
+might be applied to the service of the State--was now held up to the
+populace as being by her extravagance the prime cause of the national
+distress. Pamphlets and caricatures gave her a new nickname of "Madame
+Deficit;" and such an impression to her disfavor was thus made on the
+minds of the lower classes, that a painter, who had just finished an
+engaging portrait of her surrounded by her children, feared to send it to
+the exhibition, lest it should be made a pretext for insult and violence.
+Her unpopularity did not, indeed, last long at this time, but was
+superseded, as we shall presently see, by fresh feelings of gratitude for
+fresh labors of charity; nevertheless, the outcry now raised left its seed
+behind it, to grow hereafter into a more enduring harvest of distrust and
+hatred.
+
+She had troubles, too, of another kind which touched her more nearly. A
+second daughter, Sophie[2], had been born to her in the summer of 1786;
+but she was a sickly child, and died, before she was a year old, of one of
+the illnesses to which children are subject, and for some months the
+mother mourned bitterly over her "little angel," as she called her. Her
+eldest boy, too, was getting rapidly and visibly weaker in health: his
+spine seemed to diseased, Marie Antoinette's only hope of saving him
+rested on the fact that his father had also been delicate at the same age.
+Luckily his brother gave her no cause for uneasiness; as she wrote to the
+emperor[3]--"he had all that his elder wanted; he was a thorough peasant's
+child, tall, stout, and ruddy.[4]" She had also another comfort, which, as
+her troubles thickened, became more and more precious to her, in the warm
+affection that had sprung up between her and her sister-in-law, the
+Princess Elizabeth. A letter[5] has been preserved in which the princess
+describes the death of the little Sophie to one of her friends, which it
+is impossible to read without being struck by the sincerity of the
+sympathy with which she enters into the grief of the bereaved mother. In
+these moments of anguish she showed herself indeed a true sister, and, the
+two clinging to one another the more the greater their dangers and
+distresses became, a true sister she continued to the end.
+
+Meanwhile the embarrassments of the Government were daily assuming a more
+formidable appearance. Calonne had for some time endeavored to meet the
+deficiency of the revenue by raising fresh loans, till he had completely
+exhausted the national credit; and at last had been forced to admit that
+the scheme originally propounded by Turgot, and subsequently in a more
+modified degree by Necker, of abolishing the exemptions from taxation
+which were enjoyed by the nobles--the privileged classes, as they were
+often called--was the only expedient to save the nation from the disgrace
+and ruin of total bankruptcy. But, as it seemed probable that the nobles
+would resist such a measure, and that their resistance would prove too
+strong for him, as it had already been found to be for his predecessors,
+he proposed to the king to revive an old assembly which had been known by
+the title of the Notables; trusting that, if he succeeded in obtaining the
+sanction of that body to his plans, the nobles would hardly venture to
+insist on maintaining their privileges in defiance of the recorded
+judgment of so respectable a council. His hopes were disappointed. He
+might fairly have reckoned on obtaining their concurrence, since it was
+the unquestioned prerogative of the king to nominate all the members; but,
+even when he was most deliberate and resolute, his rashness and
+carelessness were incurable. He took no pains whatever to select members
+favorable to his views; and the consequence was that, in March, 1787, in
+the very first month of the session of the Notables, the whole body
+protested against one of the taxes which he desired to impose; and his
+enemies at once urged the king to dismiss him, basing their recommendation
+on the practice of England, where, as they affirmed, a minister who found
+himself in a minority on an important question immediately retired from
+office.
+
+Marie Antoinette, who, as we have seen, had been a diligent reader of
+Hume, had also been led to compare the proceedings of the refractory
+Notables with the conduct of our English parliamentary parties, and to an
+English reader some of her comments can not fail to be as interesting as
+they are curious. The Duchess de Polignac was drinking the waters at Bath,
+which at that time was a favorite resort of French valetudinarians, and,
+while she was still in that most beautiful of English cities, the queen
+kept up an occasional correspondence with her. We have two letters which
+Marie Antoinette wrote to her in April; one on the 9th, the very day on
+which Calonne was dismissed; the second, two days latter; and even the
+passages which do not relate to politics have their interest as specimens
+of the writer's character, and of the sincere frankness with which she
+laid aside her rank and believed in the possibility of a friendship of
+complete equality.
+
+"April 9th, 1787.
+
+"I thank you, my dear heart, for your letter, which has done me good. I
+was anxious about you. It is true, then, that you have not suffered much
+from your journey. Take care of yourself, I insist on it, I beg of you;
+and be sure and derive benefit from the waters, else I should repent of
+the privation I have inflicted on myself without your health being
+benefited. When you are near I feel how much I love you; and I feel it
+much more when you are far away. I am greatly taken up with you and yours,
+and you would be very ungrateful if you did not love me, for I can not
+change toward you.
+
+"Where you are you can at least enjoy the comfort of never hearing of
+business. Although you are in the country of an Upper and a Lower House,
+you can stop your ears and let people talk. But here it is a noise that
+deafens one in spite of all I can do. The words 'opposition' and 'motions'
+are established here as in the English Parliament, with this difference,
+that in London, when people go into opposition, they begin by denuding
+themselves of the favors of the king; instead of which, here numbers
+oppose all the wise and beneficent views of the most virtuous of masters,
+and still keep all he has given them. It may be a cleverer way of
+managing, but it is not so gentleman-like. The time of illusion is past,
+and we are tasting cruel experience. We are paying dearly to-day for our
+zeal and enthusiasm for the American war. The voice of honest men is
+stifled by members and cabals. Men disregard principles to bind themselves
+to words, and to multiply attacks on individuals. The seditious will drag
+the State to its ruin rather than renounce their intrigues."
+
+And in her second letter she specifies some of the Opposition by name; one
+of whom, as will be seen hereafter, contributed greatly to her subsequent
+miseries.... "The repugnance which you know that I have always had to
+interfering in business is today put cruelly to the proof; and you would
+be as tired as I am of all that goes on. I have already spoken to you of
+our Upper and Lower House,[6] and of all the absurdities which take place
+there, and of the nonsense which is talked. To be loaded with benefits by
+the king, like M. de Beauvau, to join the Opposition, and to surrender
+none of them, is what is called having spirit and courage. It is, in
+truth, the courage of infamy. I am wholly surrounded with folks who have
+revolted from him. A duke,[7] a great maker of motions, a man who has
+always a tear in his eye when he speaks, is one of the number. M. de La
+Fayette always founds the opinions he expresses on what is done at
+Philadelphia.... Even bishops and archbishops belong to the Opposition,
+and a great many of the clergy are the very soul of the cabal. You may
+judge, after this, of all the resources which they employ to overturn the
+plans of the king and his ministers."
+
+Calonne, however, as has already been intimated, had been dismissed from
+office before this last letter was written. There had been a trial of
+strength between him and his enemies; which he, believing that he had won
+the confidence of Louis himself, reckoned on turning to his own advantage,
+by inducing the king to dismiss those of his opponents who were in office.
+To his astonishment, he found that Louis preferred dispensing with his own
+services, and the general voice was probably correct when it, affirmed
+that it was the queen who had induced him to come to that decision.
+
+Loménie de Brienne, Archbishop of Toulouse, was again a candidate for the
+vacant post, and De Vermond was as diligent as on the previous occasion[8]
+in laboring to return the obligations under which that prelate had
+formerly laid him, by extolling his abilities and virtues to the queen,
+and recommending him as a worthy successor to Calonne, whom she had never
+trusted or liked. In reality, the archbishop was wholly destitute of
+either abilities or virtues. He was notorious both for open profligacy and
+for avowed infidelity, so much so that Louis had refused to transfer him
+to the diocese of Paris, on the ground that "at least the archbishop of
+the metropolis ought to believe in God.[9]" But Marie Antoinette was
+ignorant of his character, and believed De Vermond's assurance that the
+appointment of so high an ecclesiastic would propitiate the clergy, whose
+opposition, as many of her letters prove, she thought specially
+formidable, and for whose support she knew her husband to be nervously
+anxious. Some of Calonne's colleagues strongly urged the king to
+re-appoint Necker, whose recall would have been highly popular with the
+nation. But Necker had recently given Louis personal offense by publishing
+a reply to some of Calonne's statements, in defiance of the king's express
+prohibition, and had been banished from Paris for the act; and the queen,
+recollecting how he had formerly refused to withdraw his resignation at
+her entreaty, felt that she had no reason to expect any great
+consideration for the opinions or wishes of either herself or the king
+from one so conceited and self-willed, who would be likely to attribute
+his re-appointment, not to the king's voluntary choice, but to his
+necessities: she therefore strongly pressed that the archbishop should be
+preferred. In an unhappy moment she prevailed;[10] and on the 1st of May,
+1787, Loménie de Brienne was installed in office with the title of Chief
+of the Council of Finance.
+
+A more unhappy choice could not possibly have been made. The new minister
+was soon seen to be as devoid of information and ability as he was known
+to be of honesty. He had a certain gravity of outward demeanor which
+imposed upon many, and he had also the address to lead the conversation to
+points which, his hearers understood still less than himself; dilating on
+finance and the money market even to the ladies of the court, who had had
+some share in persuading the queen of his fitness for office.[11] But his
+disposition was in reality as rash as that of Calonne; and it was a
+curious proof of his temerity, as well as of his ignorance of the feeling
+of parties in Paris, that though he knew the Notables to be friendly to
+him, as indeed they would have been to any one who might have superseded
+Calonne, he dismissed them before the end of the month. And the language
+held on their dissolution both by the ministers and by the President of
+the Notables, and which was cheerfully accepted by the people, is
+remarkable from the contrast which it affords to the feelings which swayed
+the national council exactly two years afterward. Some measures of
+retrenchment which the Notables had recommended had been adopted; some
+reductions had been made in the royal households; some costly ceremonies
+had been abolished; and one or two imposts, which had pressed with great
+severity on the poorer classes, had been extinguished or modified. And not
+only did M. Lamoignon, the Keeper of the Seals, in the speech in which he
+dismissed them, venture to affirm that these reductions would be found to
+have effected all that was needed to restore universal prosperity to the
+kingdom; but the President of the Assembly, in his reply, thanked God "for
+having caused him to be born in such an age, under such a government, and
+for having made him the subject of a king whom he was constrained to
+love," and the thanksgiving was re-echoed by the whole Assembly. But this
+contentment did not last long. The embarrassments of the Treasury were too
+serious to be dissipated by soft speeches. The Notables were hardly
+dissolved before the archbishop proposed a new loan of an enormous amount;
+and, as he might have foreseen, their dissolution revived the pretensions
+of the Parliament. The queen's description of the rise of a French
+opposition at once received a practical commentary. The debates in the
+Parliament became warmer than they had ever been since the days of the
+Fronde: the citizens, sharing in the excitement, thronged the palace of
+the Parliament, expressing their approval or disapproval of the different
+speakers by disorderly and unprecedented clamor; the great majority
+hooting down the minister and his supporters, and cheering those who spoke
+against him. The Duc d'Orléans, by open bribes, gained over many of the
+councilors to oppose the court in every thing. The registration of several
+of the edicts which the minister had sent down was refused; and one member
+of the Orleanist party even demanded the convocation of the States-
+general, formerly and constitutionally the great council of the nation,
+but which had never been assembled since the time of Richelieu.
+
+The archbishop was sometimes angry, and sometimes terrified, and as weak
+in his anger as in his terror. He persuaded the king to hold a bed of
+justice to compel the registration of the edicts. When the Parliament
+protested, he banished it to Troyes. In less than a month he became
+alarmed at his own vigor, and recalled it. Encouraged by his
+pusillanimity, and more secure than ever of the support of the citizens
+who had been thrown into consternation by his demand of a second loan,
+nearly[12] six times as large as the first, it became more audacious and
+defiant than ever, D'Orléans openly placing himself at the head of the
+malcontents. Loménie persuaded the king to banish the duke, and to arrest
+one or two of his most vehement partisans; and again in a few weeks
+repented of this act of decision also, released the prisoners, and
+recalled the duke.
+
+As a matter of course, the Parliament grew bolder still. Every measure
+which the minister proposed was rejected; and under the guidance of one of
+their members, Duval d'Esprémesnil, the councilors at last proceeded so
+far as to take the initiative in new legislation into their own hands. In
+the first week in May, 1788, they passed a series of resolutions affirming
+that to be the law which indeed ought to have been so, but which had
+certainly never been regarded as such at any period of French history. One
+declared that magistrates were irremovable, except in cases of misconduct;
+another, that the individual liberty and property of every citizen were
+inviolable; others insisted on the necessity of convoking the States-
+general as the only assembly entitled to impose taxes; and the councilors
+hoped to secure the royal acceptance of these resolutions by some previous
+votes which asserted that, of those laws which were the very foundation of
+the Constitution, the first was that which assured the "crown to the
+reigning house and to its descendants in the male line, in the order of
+primogeniture.[13]"
+
+But Louis, or rather his rash minister, was not to be so conciliated; and
+a scene ensued which is the first of the striking parallels which this
+period in France affords to the events which had taken place in England a
+century and a half before. As in 1642 Charles I. had attempted to arrest
+members of the English Parliament in the very House of Commons, so the
+archbishop now persuaded Louis to send down the captain of the guard, the
+Marquis d'Agoust, to the palace of the Parliament, to seize D'Esprémesnil,
+and another councilor named Montsabert, who had been one of his foremost
+supporters in the recent discussions. They behaved with admirable dignity.
+Marie Antoinette was not one to betray her husband's counsels, as
+Henrietta Maria had betrayed those of Charles. D'Esprémesnil and his
+friend, wholly taken by surprise, had had no warning of what was designed,
+no time to withdraw, nor in all probability would they have done so in any
+case. When M. d'Agoust entered the council hall and demanded his
+prisoners, there was a great uproar. The whole Assembly made common cause
+with their two brethren who were thus threatened. "We are all
+d'Esprémesnils and Montsaberts," was their unanimous cry; while the tumult
+at the doors, where a vast multitude was collected, many of whom had arms
+in their hands and seemed prepared to use them, was more formidable still.
+But D'Agoust, though courteous in the discharge of his duty, was intrepid
+and firm; and the two members voluntarily surrendered themselves and
+retired in custody, while the archbishop was so elated with his triumph
+that a few days afterwards he induced the king to venture on another
+imitation of the history of England, though now it was not Charles, but
+the more tyrannical Cromwell, whose conduct was copied. Before the end of
+the month the Governor of Paris entered the palace of the Parliament,
+seized all the registers and documents of every kind, locked the doors,
+and closed them with the king's seal; and a royal edict was issued
+suspending all the parliaments both in the capital and the provinces.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+Formidable Riots take place in some Provinces.--The Archbishop invites
+Necker to join his Ministry.--Letter of Marie Antoinette describing her
+Interview with the Archbishop, and her Views.--Necker refuses.--The Queen
+sends Messages to Necker.--The Archbishop resigns, and Necker becomes
+Minister.--The Queen's View of his Character.--General Rejoicing.--Defects
+in Necker's Character.--He recalls the Parliament.--Riots in Paris.--
+Severe Winter.--General Distress.--Charities of the King and Queen.--
+Gratitude of the Citizens.--The Princes are concerned in the Libels
+published against the Queen.--Preparations for the Meeting of the States-
+general.--Long Disuse of that Assembly.--Need of Reform.--Vices Of the Old
+Feudal System.--Necker's Blunders in the Arrangements for the Meeting of
+the States.--An Edict of the King concedes the Chief Demands of the
+Commons.--Views of the Queen.
+
+
+The whole kingdom was thrown into great and dangerous excitement by these
+transactions. Little as were the benefits which the people had ever
+derived from the conduct of the Parliament, their opposition to the
+archbishop, who had already had time to make himself generally hated and
+despised, caused the councilors to be very generally regarded as champions
+of liberty; and in the most distant provinces, in Béarn, in Isère, and in
+Brittany, public meetings (a thing hitherto unknown in the history of the
+nation) were held, remonstrances were drawn up, confederacies were formed,
+and oaths were administered by which those who took them bound themselves
+never to surrender what they affirmed to be the ancient privileges of the
+nation.
+
+The archbishop became alarmed; a little, perhaps, for the nation and the
+king, but far more for his own place, which he had already contrived to
+render profitable to himself by the preferments which it had enabled him
+to engross. And, in the hope of saving it, he now entreated Necker to join
+the Government, proposing to yield up the management of the finances to
+him, and to retain only the post of prime minister.
+
+A letter from the queen to Mercy shows that she acquiesced in the scheme.
+Her disapproval of Necker's past conduct was outweighed by her sense of
+the need which the State had of his financial talents; though, for reasons
+which she explains, she was unwilling wholly to sacrifice the archbishop;
+and the letter has a further interest as displaying some of the
+difficulties which arose from the peculiar disposition of the king, while
+every one was daily more and more learning to look upon her as the more
+important person in the Government. On the 19th of August, 1783, she
+writes to Mercy,[1] whom the archbishop had employed as his agent to
+conciliate the stubborn Swiss Banker:
+
+"The archbishop came to me this morning, immediately after he had seen
+you, to report to me the conversation which he had had with you. I spoke
+to him very frankly, and was touched by what he said. He is at this moment
+with the king, to try and get him to decide; but I very much fear that M.
+Necker will not accept while the archbishop remains. The animosity of the
+public against him is pushed so far that M. Necker will be afraid of being
+compromised, and, indeed, perhaps it might injure his credit; but, at the
+same time, what is to be done? In truth and conscience we can not
+sacrifice a man who has made for as all these sacrifices of his
+reputation, of his position in the world, perhaps even of his life; for I
+fear they would kill him. There is yet M. Foulon, if M. Necker refuses
+absolutely.[2] But I suspect him of being a very dishonest man; and
+confidence would not be established with him for comptroller. I fear, too,
+that the public is pressing us to take a part much more humiliating for
+the ministers, and much more vexatious for ourselves, inasmuch as we shall
+have done nothing of our own will. I am very unhappy. I will close my
+letter after I know the result of this evening's conference. I greatly
+fear the archbishop will be forced to retire altogether, and then what man
+are we to take to place at the head of the whole? For we must have one,
+especially with M. Necker. He must have a bridle; and the person who is
+above me[3] is not able to be such; and I, whatever people may say, and
+whatever happens, am never any thing but second; and, in spite of the
+confidence which the first has in me, he often makes me feel it.... The
+archbishop has just gone. The king is very unwilling; and could only be
+brought to make up his mind by a promise that the person[4] should only be
+sounded; and that no positive engagement should be made."
+
+Necker refused. The next day Mercy reported to the queen that, though the
+excitement was great, it confined itself to denunciations of the
+archbishop and of the keeper of the seals; and that "the name of the queen
+had never once been mentioned;" and on the 22d, Marie Antoinette,[5] from
+a conviction of the greatness of the emergency, determined to see Necker
+herself; and employed the embassador and De Vermond to let him know that
+her own wish for his restoration to the direction of the finances was
+sincere and earnest, and to promise him that the archbishop should not
+interfere in that department in any way whatever. Two days later,[6] she
+wrote again to mention that the king had vanquished his repugnance to
+Necker, and had come wholly over to her opinion. "Time pressed, and it was
+more essential than ever that Necker should accept;" and on the 25th she
+writes a final letter to report to Mercy that the archbishop has resigned,
+and that she has just summoned Necker to come to her the next morning.
+Though she felt that she had done what was both right and indispensable,
+she was not without misgivings. "If," she writes, in a strain of anxious
+despondency very foreign to her usual tone, and which shows how deeply she
+felt the importance of the crisis, and of every step that might be taken--
+"if he will but undertake the task, it is the best thing that can be done;
+but I tremble (excuse my weakness) at the fact that it is I who have
+brought him back. It is my fate to bring misfortune, and, if infernal
+machinations should cause him once more to fail, or if he should lower the
+authority of the king, they will hate me still more."
+
+In one point of view she need not have trembled at being known to have
+caused Necker's re-appointment, since it is plain that no other nomination
+was possible. Vergennes had died a few months before, and the whole
+kingdom did not supply a single statesman of reputation except Necker. Nor
+could any choice have for the moment been more universally popular. The
+citizens illuminated Paris; the mob burned the archbishop in effigy; and
+the leading merchants and bankers showed their approval in a far more
+practical way. The funds rose; loans to any amount were freely offered to
+the Treasury; the national credit revived; as if the solvency or
+insolvency of the nation depended on a single man, and him a foreigner.
+
+Yet, if regarded in any point of view except that of a financier, he was
+extremely unfit to be the minister at such a crisis; and the queen's
+acuteness had, in the extract from her letter which has been, quoted
+above, correctly pointed out the danger to be apprehended, namely, that he
+might lower the authority of the king.[7] It was, in fact, to his uniform
+and persistent degradation of the king's authority that the greater part,
+if not the whole, of the evils which ensued may be clearly traced, and the
+cause that led him to adopt this fatal system was thoroughly visible to
+one gifted with such intuitive penetration into character as Marie
+Antoinette. For he had two great defects or weaknesses; an overweening
+vanity, which, as it is valued applause above every thing, led him to
+regard the popularity which they might win for him as the natural motive
+and the surest test of his actions; and an abstract belief in human
+perfection and in the submission of all classes to strict reason, which
+could only proceed from a total ignorance of mankind.[8] Yet, greatly as
+financial skill was needed, if the kingdom was to be saved from the
+bankruptcy which seemed to be imminent, it was plain that a faculty for
+organization and legislation was no less indispensable if the vessel of
+the State was to be steered safely along the course on which it was
+entering; for the archbishop's last act had been to induce the king to
+promise to convoke the States-general. The 1st of May of the ensuing year
+was fixed for their meeting; and the arrangements for and the management
+of an assembly, which, as not having met for nearly two hundred years,
+could not fail to present many of the features of an entire novelty, were
+a task which would have severely tested the most statesman-like capacity.
+
+But, unhappily, Necker's very first acts showed him equally void of
+resolution and of sagacity. He was not only unable to estimate the
+probable conduct of the people in future, but he showed himself incapable
+of profiting by the experience of the past; and, in spite of the
+insubordinate spirit which the Parliament had at all times displayed, he
+at once recalled them in deference to the clamor of the Parisian citizens,
+and allowed them to enter Paris in a triumphal procession, as if his very
+object had been to parade their victory over the king's authority. Their
+return was the signal for a renewal of riots, which assumed a more
+formidable character than ever. The police, and even the guardhouses, were
+attacked in open day, and the Government had reason to suspect that the
+money which was employed in fomenting the tumults was supplied by the Duc
+d'Orléans. A fierce mob traversed the streets at night, terrifying the
+peaceable inhabitants with shouts of triumph over the king as having been
+compelled to recall the Parliament against his will; while those who were
+supposed to be adverse to the pretensions of the councilors were insulted
+in the streets, and branded as Royalists, the first time in the history of
+the nation that ever that name had been used as a term of reproach.
+
+Yet, presently the whole body of citizens, with their habitual impulsive
+facility of temper, again, for a while, became Royalists. The winter was
+one of unprecedented severity. By the beginning of December the Seine was
+frozen over, and the whole adjacent country was buried in deep snow.
+Wolves from the neighboring forests, desperate with hunger, were said to
+have made their way into the suburbs, and to have attacked people in the
+streets. Food of every kind became scarce, and of the poorer classes many
+were believed to have died of actual starvation. Necker, as head of the
+Government, made energetic and judicious efforts to relieve the universal
+distress, forming magazines in different districts, facilitating the means
+of transport, finding employment for vast numbers of laborers and
+artisans, and purchasing large quantities of grain in foreign countries;
+and, not only were Louis and Marie Antoinette conspicuous for the
+unstinting liberality with which they devoted their own funds to the
+supply of the necessities of the destitute, but the queen, in many cases
+of unusual or pressing suffering that were reported to her in Versailles
+and the neighboring villages, sent trustworthy persons to investigate
+them, and in numerous instances went herself to the cottages, making
+personal inquiries into the condition of the occupants, and showing not
+only a feeling heart, but a considerate and active kindness, which doubled
+the value of her benefactions by the gracious, thoughtful manner in which
+they were bestowed.
+
+She would willingly have done the good she did in secret, partly from her
+constant feeling that charity was not charity if it were boasted of,
+partly from a fear that those ready to misconstrue all her acts would find
+pretexts for evil and calumny even in her bounty. One of her good deeds
+struck Necker as of so remarkable a character that he pressed her to allow
+him to make it known. "Be sure, on the contrary," she replied, "that you
+never mention it. What good could it do? they would not believe you;[9]"
+but in this she was mistaken. Her charities were too widely spread to
+escape the knowledge even of those who did not profit by them; and they
+had their reward, though it was but a short-lived one. Though the majority
+of her acts of personal kindness were performed in Versailles rather than
+in Paris, the Parisians were as vehement in their gratitude as the
+Versaillese; and it found a somewhat fantastic vent in the erection of
+pyramids and obelisks of snow in different quarters of the city, all
+bearing inscriptions testifying the citizens' sense of her benevolence.
+One, which far exceeded all its fellows in size--the chief beauty of works
+of that sort--since it was fifteen feet high, and each of the four faces
+was twelve feet wide at the base, was decorated with a medallion of the
+royal pair, and bore a poetical inscription commemorating the cause of its
+erection:
+
+  "Reine, dont la beauté surpasse les appas
+  Près d'un roi bienfaisant occupe ici la place.
+  Si ce monument frêle est de neige et de glace,
+    Nos coeurs pour toi ne le sont pas.
+    De ce monument sans exemple,
+  Couple auguste, l'aspect bien doux pur votre coeur
+  Sans doute vous plaira plus qu'un palais, qu'un temple
+   Que vous élèverait un peuple adulateur.[10]"
+
+Neither the queen's feelings nor her conduct had been in any way altered;
+but six months later the same populace who raised this monument and
+applauded these verses were, with ferocious and obscene threats, clamoring
+for her blood. And there is hardly any thing more strange or more grievous
+in the history of the nation, hardly any greater proof of that incurable
+levity which was one great cause of the long series of miseries which soon
+fell upon it, than that the impressions of gratitude which were so vivid
+at the moment, and so constantly revived by the queen's untiring
+benevolence, could yet be so easily effaced by the acts of demagogues and
+libelers, whom the people thoroughly despised even while suffering
+themselves to be led by them. How great a part in these libels was borne
+by those who were bound by every tie of blood to the king to be his
+warmest supporters, we have a remarkable proof in an Edict of Council
+which was issued during the ministry of the archbishop, and which deprived
+the palaces of the Count de Provence, the Count d'Artois, and the Duc
+d'Orléans of their usual exemption from the investigation of the syndics
+of the library, as those officers were called whose duty it was to search
+all suspected places for libelous or seditious pamphlets; the reason
+publicly given for this edict being that the dwellings of these three
+princes were a perfect arsenal for the issue of publications contrary to
+the laws, to morality, and to religion.[11]
+
+With the return of spring, the severity of the distress began to pass
+away. But, even while it lasted, it scarcely diverted the attention of the
+middle classes from the preparations for the approaching meeting of the
+States-general, from which the whole people, with few exceptions, promised
+themselves great advantages, though comparatively few had formed any
+precise notion of the benefits which they expected, or of the mode in
+which they were to be attained. The States-general had been originally
+established in the same age which saw the organization of our own
+Parliament, with very nearly the same powers, though the members had more
+of the narrower character of delegates of their constituents than was the
+case in England, where they were more wisely regarded as representatives
+of the entire nation.[12] And it was an acknowledged principle of their
+constitution that they could neither propose any measure nor ask for the
+redress of any grievance which was not expressly mentioned in the
+instructions with which their constituents furnished them at the time of
+their election.
+
+In England, the two Houses of Parliament, by a vigilant and systematic
+perseverance, had gradually extorted from the sovereign a great and
+progressive enlargement of their original powers, till they had almost
+engrossed the entire legislative authority in the kingdom. But in France,
+a variety of circumstances had prevented the States-general from arriving
+at a similar development. And, consequently, as in human affairs very
+little is stationary, their authority had steadily diminished, instead of
+increasing, till they had become so powerless and utterly insignificant
+that, since the year 1615, they had never once been convened. Not only had
+they been wholly disused, but they seemed to have been wholly forgotten.
+During the last two reigns no one had ever mentioned their name; much less
+had any wish been expressed for their resuscitation, till the financial
+difficulties of the Government, and the general and growing discontent of
+the great majority of the nation, with which, since the death of Turgot,
+every successive minister had been manifestly incompetent to deal, had, as
+we have seen, led some ardent reformers to demand their restoration, as
+the one expedient which had not been tried, and which, therefore, had this
+in its favor, that it was not condemned by previous failure.
+
+That great reforms were indispensable was admitted in every quarter. There
+was no country in Europe where the feudal system had received so little
+modification.[13] Every law seemed to have been made, and every custom to
+have been established for the exclusive benefit of the nobles. They were
+even exempted from many of the taxes, an exemption which was the more
+intolerable from the vast number of persons who were included in the list.
+Practically it may be said that there were two classes of nobles--the old
+historic houses, as they were sometimes called, such as the Grammonts or
+Montmorencies, which were not numerous, and many of which had greatly
+decayed in wealth and influence; and an inferior class whose nobility was
+derived from their possession of office under the crown in any part of the
+kingdom. Even tax-gatherers and surveyors, if appointed by royal warrant,
+could claim the rank; and new offices were continually being created and
+sold which conferred the same title. Those so ennobled were not reckoned
+the equals of the higher class. They could not even be received at court
+until their patents were four hundred years old, but they had a right to
+vote as nobles at elections to any representative body. Those whose
+patents were twenty-four years old could be elected as representatives;
+and from the moment of their creation they all enjoyed great exemptions;
+so that, as the lowest estimate reckoned their numbers at a hundred
+thousand, it is a matter for some wonder how the taxes to which they did
+not contribute produced any thing worth collecting. It was, of course,
+manifest that the exemptions enormously increased the burden to be borne
+by the classes which did not enjoy such privileges.
+
+But, heavy as the grievance of these exemptions was, it was as nothing
+when compared with the feudal rights claimed by the greater nobles. The
+peasants on their estates were forced to grind their corn at the lord's
+mill, to press their grapes at his wine-press, paying for such act
+whatever price he might think fit to exact, and often having their crops
+wholly wasted or spoiled by the delays which such a system engendered. The
+game-laws forbade them to weed their fields lest they should disturb the
+young partridges or leverets; to manure the soil with any thing which
+might injure their flavor; or even to mow or reap till the grass or corn
+was no longer required as shelter for the young coveys. Some of the rights
+of seigniory, as it was called, were such as can hardly be mentioned in
+this more decorous age; some were so ridiculous that it is inconceivable
+how their very absurdity had not led to their abolition. In the marshy
+districts of Brittany, one right enjoyed by the great nobles was "the
+silence of the frogs,[14]" which, whenever the lady was confined, bound
+the peasants to spend their days and nights in beating the swamps with
+long poles to save her from being disturbed by their inharmonious
+croaking. And if this or any other feudal right was dispensed with, it was
+only commuted for a money payment, which was little less burdensome.
+
+The powers exercised by the crown were more intolerable still. The
+sovereign was absolute master of the liberties of his subjects. Without
+alleging the commission of any crime, he could issue warrants--letters
+under seal, as they were called--which consigned the person named in them
+to imprisonment, which was often perpetual. The unhappy prisoner had no
+power of appeal. No judge could inquire into his case, much less release
+him. The arrests were often made with such secrecy and rapidity that his
+nearest relations knew not what had become of him, but he was cut off from
+the outer world, for the rest of his life, as completely as if he had at
+once been handed over to the executioner.[15]
+
+It was impossible but that such customs should produce general discontent,
+and a resolute demand for a complete reformation of the system. And one of
+the problems which the minister had to determine was, how to organize the
+States-general so that they should be disposed to promote such measures as
+reform as should be adequate without being excessive; as should give due
+protection to the middle and lower classes without depriving the nobles of
+that dignity and authority which were not only desirable for themselves,
+but useful to their dependents; and, lastly, such as should carefully
+preserve the rightful prerogatives of the crown, while putting an end to
+those arbitrary powers, the existence of which was incompatible with the
+very name of freedom.
+
+In making the necessary arrangements, the long disuse of the Assembly was
+a circumstance greatly in favor of the Government, if Necker had had skill
+to avail himself of it, since it wholly freed him from the obligation of
+being guided by former precedents. Those arrangements were long and warmly
+debated in the king's council. Though the records of former sessions had
+been so carelessly preserved that little was known of their proceedings,
+it seemed to be established that the representatives of the Commons had
+usually amounted to about four-tenths of the whole body, those of the
+clergy and of the nobles being each about three-tenths; and that they had
+almost invariably deliberated and voted in separate chambers; and the
+princes and the chief nobles presented memorials to the king, in which
+they almost unanimously recommended an adherence to these ancient forms;
+while, with patriotic prudence, they sought to obviate all jealousy of
+their own pretensions or views which might be entertained or feigned in
+any quarter, by announcing their willingness to abandon all the exclusive
+privileges and exemptions which they had hitherto possessed, and which
+were notoriously one chief cause of the generally prevailing discontent.
+
+But the party which had originated the clamor for the States-general, now,
+encouraged by their success, put forward two fresh demands; the first,
+that the number of the representatives of the Commons should equal that of
+both the other orders put together, which they called "the duplication of
+the Third Estate;" the second, that the three orders should meet and vote
+as one united body in one chamber; the two proposition taken together
+being manifestly calculated and designed to throw the whole power into the
+hands of the Commons.
+
+Necker had great doubts about the propriety and safety of the first
+proposal, and no doubt at all of the danger of the second. His own
+judgment was that the wisest plan would be to order the clergy and nobles
+to unite in an Upper Chamber, so as in some degree to resemble the British
+House of Lords; while the Third Estate, in a Lower Chamber, would be a
+tolerably faithful copy of our House of Commons. But he could never bring
+himself to risk his popularity by opposing what he regarded as the opinion
+of the masses. He was alarmed by the political clubs which were springing
+up in Paris; one, whose president was the Duc d'Orléans, assuming the
+significant and menacing title of Les Enragés;[16] and by the vast number
+of pamphlets which were circulated both in the capital and the chief towns
+of the provinces by thousands,[17] every writer of which put himself
+forward as a legislator,[18] and of which the vast majority advocated what
+they called the rights of the Third Estate, in most violent language; and,
+finally, he adopted the course which is a great favorite with vain and
+weak men, and which he probably represented to himself as a compromise
+between unqualified concession and unyielding resistance, though, every
+one possessed of the slightest penetration could see that it practically
+surrendered both points: he advised the king to issue his edict that the
+number of representatives to be returned to the States-general should be
+twelve hundred, half of whom were to be returned by the Commons, a quarter
+by the clergy, and a quarter by the nobles;[19] and to postpone the
+decision as to the number of the chambers till the Assembly should meet,
+when he proposed to allow the States themselves to determine it; trusting,
+against all probability, that, after having thus given the Commons the
+power to enforce their own views, he should be able to persuade them to
+abandon the same in deference to his judgment.
+
+Louis, as a matter of course, adopted his advice; and, after several
+different towns--Blois, Tours, Cambrai, and Compiègne among them--had been
+proposed as the place of meeting, he himself decided in favor of
+Versailles,[20] as that which would afford him the best hunting while the
+session lasted. The queen in her heart disapproved of every one of these
+resolutions. She saw that Necker had, as she had foreboded, sacrificed the
+king's authority by his advice on the two first questions; and she
+perceived more clearly than any one the danger of fixing the States-
+general so near to Paris that the turbulent population of the city should
+be able to overawe the members. She pressed these considerations earnestly
+on the king,[21] but it was characteristic of the course which she
+prescribed to herself from, the beginning, and from which she never
+swerved, that when her advice was overruled she invariably defended the
+course which had been taken. Her language, when any one spoke to her
+either of her own opinions and wishes, or of the feelings with which the
+different classes of the nation regarded her, was invariably the same.
+"You are not to think of me for a moment. All that I desire of you is to
+take care that the respect which is due to the king shall not be
+weakened;[22]" and it was only her most intimate friends who knew how
+unwise she thought the different decisions that had been adopted, or how
+deep were her forebodings of evil.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+The Reveillon Riot.--Opening of the States-general.--The Queen is insulted
+by the Partisans of the Duc d'Orléans.--Discussions as to the Number of
+Chambers.--Career and Character of Mirabeau.--Necker rejects his Support.
+--He determines to revenge himself.--Death of the Dauphin.
+
+
+The meeting of the States-general, as has been already seen, was fixed for
+the 4th of May, 1789; and, as if it were fated that the bloody character
+of the period now to be inaugurated should be displayed from the very
+outset, the elections for the city of Paris, which were only held in the
+preceding week, were stained with a riot so formidable as to be commonly
+spoken of in the records of the time as an insurrection.[1]
+
+One of the candidates for the representation of the Third Estate was a
+paper-maker of the name of Reveillon, a man eminent for his charity and
+general liberality, but one who was believed to regard the views of the
+extreme reformers with disfavor. He was so popular with his own workmen,
+who were very numerous, and with their friends, who knew his character
+from them, that he was generally expected to succeed. The opposite party,
+who had candidates of their own, and had the support of the purse of the
+Duc d'Orléans, were determined that he should not; and no way seemed so
+sure as to murder him. Bands of ferocious-looking ruffians were brought in
+from the country districts, armed with heavy bludgeons, and, as was
+afterward learned, well supplied with money; and on the morning of the
+28th of April news was brought to the Baron de Besenval, the commander of
+the Royal Guards, that a mob of several thousand men had collected in the
+streets, who had read a mock sentence, professing to have been passed by
+the Third Estate, which condemned Reveillon to be hanged, after which they
+had burned him in effigy, and then attacked his house, which they were
+sacking and destroying. They even ventured to attack the first company of
+soldiers whom De Besenval sent to the rescue; and it was not till he
+dispatched a battalion with a couple of field-pieces to the spot that the
+plunderers were expelled from the house and the riot was quelled. Nearly
+five hundred of the mob were killed, but when the Parliament proceeded to
+set on foot a judicial inquiry into the cause of the tumult, Necker
+prevailed on the secretary of state to suppress the investigation, as he
+feared to exasperate D'Orléans further by giving publicity to his
+machinations, which he did not yet suspect either the extent or the
+object.[2]
+
+A momentary tranquility was, however, restored at Paris; and all eyes were
+turned from the capital to Versailles, where the first few days of May
+were devoted to the receptions of the States-general by the king and
+queen, ceremonies which might have had a good effect, since the bitterest
+adversaries of the court were favorably impressed by the grace and
+affability of the queen; but which many shrewd judges afterward believed
+to have had a contrary influence, from the offense taken by the
+representatives of the Commons at some of the details of the ancient
+etiquette, which on so solemn an occasion was revived in all its stately
+strictness. The dignitaries of the Church wore their most sumptuous robes.
+The Nobles glittered with silk and gold lace; jeweled clasps fastened
+plumes of feathers in their hats; orders glittered on their breasts; and
+many a precious stone sparkled in the hilts of their swords. The
+representatives of the Commons were allowed neither feathers, nor
+embroidery, nor swords; but were forced to content themselves with plain
+black cloaks, and an unadorned homeliness of attire, which seemed as if
+intended to exclude all idea of their being the equals of those other
+orders of which they had for a moment become the colleagues. And, in a
+similar spirit it was arranged that, after the folding-doors of the saloon
+in which the sovereigns were awaiting them were thrown wide open to admit
+the representatives of the higher orders, the Commons were let in through
+a side door. And though in the eyes of persons habituated to the
+ceremonious niceties of court life these distinctions seemed matters of
+course, and, as such, unworthy of notice, it can hardly be wondered at if
+they were galling to men accustomed only to the simpler manners of a
+provincial town; and who, proud of their new position and deeply impressed
+with its importance, fancied they saw in them a settled intention to
+degrade both them and their constituents by thus stamping them with a
+badge of inferiority before all the spectators.
+
+The opening of the States-general was fixed for the 5th of May, and on the
+day before, which was Sunday, a solemn mass was performed at the principal
+church in Versailles, that of Notre Dame; after which the congregation
+proceeded to another church,  that of St. Louis, to hear a sermon from the
+Bishop of Nancy. It was a stately procession that moved from one church to
+the other, and it was afterward remembered as the very last in which the
+royal pair appeared before their subjects with the undiminished
+magnificence of ancient ceremony. First, after a splendid escort of
+troops, came the members of the States in their several orders; then the
+king marched by himself; the queen followed; and behind her came the
+princes and princesses of the royal family of the blood, the officers of
+state and of the household, and companies of the Body-guard brought up the
+rear. The acclamations of the spectators were loud as the deputies of the
+States, and especially as the representatives of the Commons, passed on;
+loud, too, as the king; moved forward, bearing himself with unusual
+dignity; but, when the queen advanced, though still the main body of the
+people cheered with sincere respect, a gang of ruffians, among whom were
+several women,[3] shouted out "Long live the Duke of Orléans!" in her ear,
+with so menacing an accent that, she nearly fainted with terror. By a
+strong mastery over herself she shook off the agitation, which was only
+perceived by her immediate attendants; but the disloyal feeling thus shown
+toward her at the outset was a sad omen of the spirit in which one party
+at least was prepared to view the measures of the Government; and, so far
+as she was concerned, of the degree in which her enemies had succeeded in
+poisoning the minds of the people against her, as the person whose
+resistance to their meditated encroachments on the royal authority was
+likely to prove the most formidable.
+
+It was a significant hint, too, of the projects already formed by the
+worthless prince whose adherents these ruffians proclaimed themselves. The
+Duc d'Orléans conceived himself to have lately received a fresh
+provocation, and an additional motive for revenge. His eldest son, the Duc
+de Chartres,[4] was now a boy of sixteen, and he had proposed to the king
+to give him Madame Royale in marriage; an idea which the queen, who held
+his character in deserved abhorrence, had rejected with very decided marks
+of displeasure. He was also stimulated by views of personal ambition. The
+history of England had been recently studied by many persons in France
+besides the king and queen; and there were not wanting advisers to point
+out to the duke that the revolution which had taken place in England
+exactly a century before had owed its success to the dethronement of the
+reigning sovereign and the substitution of another member of the royal
+family in his place. As William of Orange was, after the king's own
+children, the next heir to James II., so was the Duc d'Orléans now the
+next heir, after the king's children and brothers, to Louis XVI.; and for
+the next five months there can be no doubt that he and his partisans, who
+numbered in their body some of the most influential members of the States-
+general, kept constantly in view the hope of placing him on the throne
+from which they were to depose his cousin.
+
+The next day the States were formally opened by Louis in person. The place
+of meeting was a spacious hall which, two years before, had been used for
+the meeting of the Notables. It had been the scene of many a splendid
+spectacle in times past, but had never before witnessed so imposing or
+momentous a ceremony. The town itself had not risen into notice till the
+memory of the preceding States-general had almost passed away. And now,
+after all the deputies had ranged themselves to receive their sovereign,
+the representatives of the clergy on the right of the throne, the Nobles
+on the left, the Commons in denser masses at the bottom of the hall;[5] as
+the king, accompanied by the queen, leading two of her children[6] by the
+hand, and attended by all the princes of the royal family and of the
+blood, by the dukes and peers of the kingdom, the ministers and great
+officers of state, entered and took his seat on the throne, the most
+unimpassioned spectator must have felt that he was beholding a scene at
+once magnificent and solemn; and one, from long desuetude, as novel as if
+it had been wholly unprecedented, such as might well inaugurate a new
+policy or a new constitution.
+
+Could those who beheld it as spectators, could those who bore a part in
+the solemnity, have looked into futurity; could they have divined that no
+other hall would ever again see that virtuous and beneficent king
+surrounded with that pomp, or received with that reverential homage which
+was now paid to him as as unquestioned right; nay, that the end, of which
+this day was the beginning, scarcely one single person of all those now
+present, whether men in the flower of their strength, women in the pride
+of their beauty, or even children in their infantine innocence and grace,
+would live to behold; but that sovereigns and subjects were destined,
+almost without exception, to perish with circumstances of unutterable,
+unimaginable horror and misery, as the direct consequence of this day's
+pageant; we may well believe that the most sanguine of those who now
+greeted it with eager hope and exultation would rather have averted his
+eyes from the ill-omened spectacle, and would have preferred to bear the
+worst evils of which he was anticipating the abolition, to bringing on his
+country the calamities which were about to fall upon it.
+
+A large state arm-chair, a little lower than the throne, had been set
+beside it for the queen; the princes and princesses were ranged on each
+side on a row of chairs without arms; and, when all had taken their
+places, the king opened the session with a short speech, leaving the real
+business to be unfolded at greater length by his ministers. In order to
+feel assured of the proper emphasis and expression, he had rehearsed his
+speech frequently to the queen; and, as he now delivered it with unusual
+dignity and gracefulness, it was received with frequent acclamations,
+though some of those who were watching all that passed with the greatest
+anxiety fancied that one or two compliments to the queen which it
+contained met with a colder response; while, at its close, the
+representatives of the Third Estate gave an indication of their feeling
+toward the other orders, and provoked a display on their part which
+promised little cordiality to their deliberations. The king, who had
+uncovered himself while speaking, on resuming his seat replaced his hat.
+The Nobles, according to the ancient etiquette, replaced theirs; and many
+of the Commons at once asserted their equality with them by also covering
+themselves. Such an assumption was a breach of all established custom. The
+Nobles were indignant, and with angry shouts demanded the removal of the
+Commons' hats. They were met with louder clamor by the Commons, and in a
+moment the whole hall was in an uproar, which was only allayed by the
+presence of mind of Louis himself, who, as if oppressed by the heat, laid
+aside his own hat, when, as a matter of course, the Nobles followed his
+example. The deputies of the Commons did the same, and peace was restored.
+
+The king's speech was followed by another short one from the keeper of the
+seals, which received but little attention; and by one of prodigious
+length from Necker, which was equally injudicious and unacceptable to his
+hearers, both in what it said and in what it omitted. He never mentioned
+the question of constitutional reform. He said nothing of what the
+Commons, at least, thought still more important--the number of chambers in
+which the members were to meet; and, though he dilated at the most profuse
+length on the condition of the finances, and on his own success in
+re-establishing public credit, they were by no means pleased to hear him
+assert that success had removed any absolute necessity for their meeting
+at all, and that they had only been called together in fulfillment of the
+king's promise, that so the sovereign might establish a better harmony
+between the different parts of the Constitution.
+
+Before any business could be proceeded with, it was necessary for the
+members to have the writs of their elections properly certified and
+registered, for which they were to meet on the following day. We need not
+here detail the artifices and assumptions by which the members of the
+Third Estate put forward pretensions which were designed to make them
+masters of the whole Assembly; nor is it necessary to unfold at length the
+combination of audacity and craft, aided by the culpable weakness of
+Necker, by which they ultimately carried the point they contended for,
+providing that the three orders should deliberate and vote together as one
+united body in one chamber. Emboldened by their success, they even
+proceeded to a step which probably not one among them had originally
+contemplated; and, as if one of their principal objects had been to disown
+the authority of the king by which they had been called together, they
+repudiated the title of States-general, and invented for themselves a new
+name, that of "The National Assembly," which, as it had never been heard
+of before, seemed to mark that they owed their existence to the nation,
+and not to the sovereign.
+
+But the discussions that took place before all these points were settled,
+presented, besides the importance of the conclusion which was adopted,
+another feature of powerful interest, since it was in them that the
+members first heard the voice of the Count de Mirabeau, who, more than any
+other deputy, was supposed during the ensuing year to be able to sway the
+whole Assembly, and to hold the destinies of the nation in his hands.
+
+Necker's daughter, the celebrated Baroness de Staël, wife of the Swedish
+embassador, who was present at the opening of the States, which, as her
+father's daughter, she regarded with exulting confidence as the body of
+legislators who were to regenerate the nation, remarked, as the long
+procession passed before her eyes, that of the six hundred deputies of the
+Commons[7], the Count de Mirabeau alone bore a name which was previously
+known; and he was manifestly out of his place as a representative of the
+Commons. His history was a strange one. He was the eldest son of a
+Provençal noble, of Italian origin, great wealth, and a ferocious
+eccentricity of character, which made him one of the worst possible
+instructors for a youth of brilliant talents, unbridled passions, and a
+disposition equally impetuous in its pursuit of good and of evil. Even
+before he arrived at manhood he had become notorious for every kind of
+profligacy; while his father, in an almost equal degree, provoked the
+censure of those who interested themselves in the career of a youth of
+undeniable ability, by punishments of such severity as wore the appearance
+of vengeance rather than of fatherly correction. In six or seven years he
+obtained no fewer than fifteen warrants, or letters under seal, for the
+imprisonment of his son in different jails or fortresses, while the young
+man seemed to take a wanton pleasure in showing how completely all efforts
+for his reformation were thrown away. Though unusually ugly (he himself
+compared his face to that of a tiger who had had the small-pox), he was
+irresistible among women. While one of the youngest subalterns in the
+army, he made love, rarely without success, to the mistresses or wives of
+his superior officers, and fought duel after duel with those who took
+offense at his gallantries, From one castle in which he was imprisoned he
+was aided to escape by the wife of an officer of the garrison, who
+accompanied his flight. From another he was delivered by the love of a
+lady of the highest rank, the Marchioness de Monnier, whom he had met at
+the governor's table.
+
+When, after some years of misery, the marchioness terminated them by
+suicide, he seduced a nun of exquisite beauty to leave her convent for his
+sake; and as France was no longer a safe residence for them, he fled to
+Frederick of Prussia, who, equally glad to welcome him as a Frenchman, a
+genius, and a profligate, received him for a while into high favor. But he
+was penniless; and Frederick was never liberal of his money. Debt soon
+drove him from Prussia, and he retired to England, where he made
+acquaintance with Fox, Fitzpatrick, and other men of mark in the political
+circles of the day. He was at all times and amidst all his excesses both
+observant and studious; and while witnessing in person the strife of
+parties in this country, he learned to appreciate the excellencies of our
+Constitution, both in its theory and in its practical working. But
+presently debt drove him from London as it had driven him from Berlin;
+and, after taking refuge for a short time in Holland and Switzerland, he
+was hesitating whither next to betake himself, when, hearing of the
+elections for the States-general, he resolved to offer himself as a
+candidate; and returned to Provence to seek the suffrages of the Nobles of
+his own county.
+
+Unluckily, his character was too well known in his native district; and
+the Nobles, unwilling to countenance the ambition of one who had obtained
+so evil a notoriety, rejected him. Full of indignation, he turned to the
+Third Estate, offering himself as a representative of the Commons. In his
+speeches to the citizens of Aix and Marseilles--for he canvassed both
+towns--he inveighed against Necker and the Government with an eloquence
+which electrified his audience, who had never before been addressed in the
+language of independence. He was returned for both towns, and hastened to
+Versailles, eager to avenge on the Nobles, the body which, as he felt, he
+had a right to have represented, the affront which had driven him, against
+his will, to seek the votes of a class with which he had scarcely a
+feeling in common; for in the whole Assembly there was no man less of a
+democrat in his heart, or prouder of his ancestry and aristocratic
+privileges.
+
+He differed from most of his colleagues, inasmuch as he, from the first,
+had distinct views of the policy desirable for the nation, which he
+conceived to be the establishment of a limited constitutional monarchy,
+such as he had seen in England.[8] But no man in the whole Assembly was
+more inconsistent, as he was ever changing his views, or at least his
+conduct and language, at the dictates of interest or wounded pride;
+sometimes, as it might seem, in the mere wantonness of genius, as if he
+wished to show that he could lead the Assembly with equal ease to take a
+course, or to retrace its steps--that it rested with him alone alike to do
+or to undo. The only object from which he never departed was that of
+making all parties feel and bow to his influence. And it is this very
+inconsistency which so especially connects his career for the rest of his
+life with the fortunes of the queen, since, while he misunderstood her
+character, and feared her power with the king and ministers as likely to
+be exerted in opposition to his own views, he was the most ferocious and
+most foul of her enemies: when he saw that she was willing to accept his
+aid, and when he therefore began to conceive a hope of making her useful
+to himself in the prosecution of his designs, no man was louder in her
+praise, nor, it must be admitted, more energetic or more judicious in the
+advice which he gave her.
+
+His language on the first occasion on which he made his voice heard in the
+Assembly was eminently characteristic of him, so manifestly was it
+directed to the attainment of his own object--that of making himself
+necessary to the court, and obtaining either office or some pension which
+might enable him to live, since his own resources had long been exhausted
+by his extravagance. D'Espresménil had strongly advocated the doctrine
+that the meeting of the three orders in separate chambers was a
+fundamental principle of the monarchy; and Mirabeau, in opposition to him,
+moved an address to the king, which represented the Third Estate as
+desirous to ally itself with the throne, so as to enable it to resist the
+pretensions of the clergy and the nobles; and, as this speech of his
+produced no overture from the minister, in the middle of June he made a
+direct offer to Necker to support the Government, if Necker had any plan
+at all which was in the least reasonable;[9] and he gave proof of his
+sincerity by vigorously opposing some proposals of the extreme reformers.
+But, with incredible folly, Necker rejected his support, treating his
+arguments to his face as insignificant, and affirming that their views
+were irreconcilable, since Mirabeau wished to govern by policy, while he
+himself preferred morality.
+
+He at once resolved to revenge himself on the minister who had thus
+slighted him,[10] and he was not long in finding an opportunity. On the
+23d of June, after the States had assumed their new form, and Louis at a
+royal sitting had announced the reforms he had resolved to grant, and
+which were so complete that the most extreme reformers admitted that they
+could have wished for nothing more, except that they should themselves
+have taken them, and that the king should not have given them, Mirabeau
+took the lead in throwing down a defiance to his sovereign; refusing to
+consent to the adjournment of the Assembly, as was natural on the
+withdrawal of the king, and declaring that they, the members of the
+Commons, would not quit the hall unless they were expelled by bayonets.
+
+But, violently as Versailles and Paris were agitated throughout May and
+June, Marie Antoinette took no part in the discussion which these
+questions excited. She had a still graver trouble at home. Her eldest son,
+the dauphin, whose birth had been greeted so enthusiastically by all
+classes, had, as we have seen, long been sickly. Since the beginning of
+the year his health had been growing worse, and on the 4th of June he
+died; and, though his bereaved mother bore up bravely under his loss, she
+felt it deeply, and for a time was almost incapacitated from turning her
+attention to any other subject.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+Troops are brought up from the Frontier.--The Assembly petitions the King
+to withdraw them.--He refuses.--He dismisses Necker.---The Baron de
+Breteuil is appointed Prime Minister.--Terrible Riots in Paris.--The
+Tri-color Flag is adopted.--Storming of the Bastile and Murder of the
+Governor.--The Count d'Artois and other Princes fly from the Kingdom.--The
+King recalls Necker.--Withdraws the Soldiers and visits Paris.--Formation
+of the National Guard.-Insolence of La Fayette and Bailly.--Madame de
+Tourzel becomes Governess of the Royal Children--Letters of Marie
+Antoinette on their Character, and on her own Views of Education.
+
+
+But even so solemn, a grief as that for a dead child she was not suffered
+to indulge long. Even for such a purpose royalty is not always allowed the
+respite which would be conceded to those in a more moderate station; and
+affairs in Paris began to assume so menacing a character that she was
+forced to rouse herself to support her husband. Demagogues in Paris
+excited the lower classes of the citizens to formidable tumults. The
+troops were tampered with; they mutinied; and when the Assembly so
+violated its duty as to take the mutineers under its protection, and to
+intercede with the king for their pardon, Louis, or, as we should probably
+say, Necker, did not venture to refuse, though it was plain that the
+condign punishment of such an offense was indispensable to the maintenance
+of discipline for the future. And Louis felt the humiliation so deeply
+that some of those about him, the Count d'Artois taking the lead in that
+party, were able to induce him to bring up from the frontier some German
+and Swiss regiments, which, as not having been exposed to the contagion of
+the capital, were free from the prevailing taint of disloyalty. But Louis
+was incapable of carrying out any plan resolutely. He selected the
+commander with judgment, placing the troops under the orders of a veteran
+of the Seven Years' War, the old Marshal de Broglie, who, though more than
+seventy years of age, gladly brought once more his tried skill and valor
+to the service of his sovereign. But the king, even while intrusting him
+with this command, disarmed him at the same moment by a strict order to
+avoid all bloodshed and violence; though nothing could be more obvious
+than that such outbreaks as the marshal was likely to be called on to
+suppress could not be quelled by gentle means.
+
+The Orleanists and Mirabeau probably knew nothing of this humane or rather
+pusillanimous order, though most of the secrets of the court were betrayed
+to them; but Mirabeau saw in the arrival of the soldiers a fresh
+opportunity of making the king feel the folly of the minister in rejecting
+his advances; and in a speech of unusual power he thundered against those
+who had advised the bringing-up of troops, as he declared, to overawe the
+Assembly; though, in fact, nothing but their presence and active exertions
+could prevent the Assembly from being overawed by the mob. But,
+undoubtedly, at this time his own first object was to use the populace of
+Paris to terrify the members into obedience to himself. In one of his ends
+he succeeded; he drove Necker from office. He carried the address which he
+proposed, to entreat the king to withdraw the troops; but Louis had for
+the moment resolved on adopting bolder counsels than those of Necker. He
+declined to comply with the petition, declaring that it was his duty to
+keep in Paris a force sufficient to preserve the public tranquillity,
+though, if the Assembly were disquieted by their neighborhood, he
+expressed his unwillingness to remove their session to some more distant
+town. And at the same time he dismissed Necker from office, banishing him
+from France, but ordering him to keep his departure secret.
+
+The queen had evidently had great influence in bringing him to this
+decision; but how cordially she approved of all the concessions which the
+king had already made, and how clearly she saw that more still remained to
+be done before the necessary reformation could be pronounced complete, the
+letter which on the evening of Necker's dismissal she wrote to Madame de
+Polignac convincingly proves. She had high ideas of the authority which a
+king was legitimately entitled to exercise; and to what she regarded as
+undue restrictions on it, injurious to his dignity, she would never
+consent. She probably regarded them as abstract questions which had but
+little bearing on the substantial welfare of the people in general; but of
+all measures to increase the happiness of all classes, even of the very
+lowest, she was throughout the warmest advocate.
+
+"July 11th, 1789.
+
+"I can not sleep, my dear heart, without letting you know that M. Necker
+is gone. MM. de Breteuil and de la Vauguyon will be summoned to the
+council to-morrow. God grant that we may at last be able to do all the
+good with which we are wholly occupied. The moment will be terrible; but I
+have courage, and, provided that the honest folks support us without
+exposing themselves needlessly, I think that I have vigor enough in myself
+to impart some to others. But it is more than ever necessary to bear in
+mind that all classes of men, so long as they are honest, are equally our
+subjects, and to know how to distinguish those who are right-thinking in
+every district and in every rank. My God! if people could only believe
+that these are my real thoughts, perhaps they would love me a little. But
+I must not think of myself. The glory of the king, that of his son, and
+the happiness of this ungrateful nation, are all that I can, all that I
+ought to, wish for; for as for your friendship, my dear heart, I reckon on
+that always..."
+
+Such language and sentiments were worthy of a sovereign. That the feelings
+here expressed were genuine and sincere, the whole life of the writer is a
+standing proof; and yet already fierce, wicked spirits, even of women (for
+never was it more clearly seen than in France at this time how far, when
+women are cruel, they exceed the worst of men in ferocity), were thirsting
+for her blood. Already a woman in education and ability far above the
+lowest class, one whose energy afterward raised her to be, if not the
+avowed head, at least the moving spirit, of a numerous party (Madame
+Roland), was urging the public prosecution, or, if the nation were not
+ripe for such a formal outrage, the secret assassination, of both king and
+queen.[1] But, however benevolent and patriotic were the queen's
+intentions, it became instantly evident that those who had counseled the
+dismissal of Necker had given their advice in entire ignorance of the hold
+which he had established on the affections of the Parisians; while the new
+prime minister, the Baron de Breteuil, whose previous office had connected
+him with the police, was, on that account, very unpopular with a class
+which is very numerous in all large cities. The populace of Paris broke
+out at once in riots which amounted to insurrection. Thousands of
+citizens, not all of the lowest class, decorated with green cockades, the
+color of Necker's livery, and armed with every variety of weapon, paraded
+the streets, bearing aloft busts of Necker and the Duc d'Orléans, without
+stopping, in their madness, to consider how incongruous a combination they
+were presenting. The most ridiculous stories were circulated about the
+queen: it was affirmed that she had caused the Hall of the Assembly to be
+undermined, that she might blow it up with gunpowder;[2] and, by way of
+averting or avenging so atrocious an act, the mob began to set fire to
+houses in different quarters of the city. Growing bolder at the sight of
+their own violence, they broke open the prisons, and thus obtained a
+re-enforcement of hundreds of desperadoes, ripe for any wickedness. The
+troops were paralyzed by Louis's imbecile order to avoid bloodshed, and in
+the same proportion the rioters were encouraged by their inaction and
+evident helplessness. They attacked the great armory, and equipped
+themselves with its contents, applying to the basest uses time-honored
+weapons, monuments of ancient valor and patriotism. The spear with which
+Dunois had cleared his country of the British invaders; the sword with
+which the first Bourbon king had routed Egmont's cavalry at Ivry, were
+torn down from the walls to arm the vilest of mankind for rapine and
+slaughter. They stormed the Hôtel de Ville, and got possession of the
+municipal chest, containing three millions of francs; and now, more and
+more intoxicated with their triumph, and with the evidence which all these
+exploits afforded that the whole city was at their mercy, they proceeded
+to give their riot a regular organization, by establishing a committee to
+sit in the Guildhall and direct their future proceedings. Lawless and
+ferocious as was the main body of the rioters, there were shrewd heads to
+guide their fury; and the very first order issued by this committee was
+marked by such acute foresight, and such a skillful adaptation to the
+requirements of the moment and the humor of the people, that it remains in
+force to this day. It was hardly strange that men in open insurrection
+against the king's authority should turn their wrath against one of its
+conspicuous emblems, consecrated though it was by usage of immemorial
+antiquity and by many a heroic achievement--the snow-white banner bearing
+the golden lilies. But that glorious ensign could not be laid aside till
+another was substituted for it; and the colors of the city, red and blue,
+and white, the color of the army, were now blended together to form the
+tricolor flag which has since won for itself a wider renown than even the
+deeds of Bayard or Turenne had shed upon the lilies, and with which, under
+every form of government, the nation has permanently identified itself.
+
+They demanded more men, and a committee with three millions of francs
+could easily command recruits. They stormed the Hôtel des Invalides, where
+thousands of muskets were kept fit for instant use; one division of
+regular troops, whose commander, the Baron de Besenval, was a resolute
+man, determined to do his duty, mutinying against his orders, and refusing
+to fire on the mob. They took possession of the city gates, and, thinking
+themselves now strong enough for any exploit, on the third day of the
+insurrection, the 14th of July, they marched in overpowering force to
+attack the Bastile.
+
+In former times the Bastile had been the great fortress of the city; and,
+as such, it had been fortified with all the resources of the engineer's
+art. Massive well-armed towers rose at numerous points above walls of
+great height and solidity. A deep fosse surrounded it, and, when well
+supplied and garrisoned, it had been regarded with pride by the citizens,
+as a bulwark capable of defying the utmost efforts of a foreign enemy, and
+not the less to be admired because they never expected it to be exposed to
+such a test; but as a warlike fortress it had long been disused. In recent
+times it had only been known as the State-prison, identified more than any
+other with the worst acts of despotism and barbarity. As such it was now
+as much detested as it had formerly been respected; and it had nothing but
+the outward appearance of strength to resist an attack. Evidently the
+military authorities had never anticipated the possibility that the mob
+would rise to such a height of audacity. But the rioters were now
+encouraged by two days of unbroken success, and those who spurred them on
+were well-informed as well as fearless. They knew that the castle was in
+such a state that its apparent strength was its real weakness; that its
+entire garrison consisted of little more than a hundred soldiers, most of
+whom were superannuated veterans, a force inadequate to man one-tenth of
+the defenses; and that the governor, De Launay, though personally brave,
+was a man devoid of presence of mind, and nervous under responsibility.
+
+Led by a brewer, named Santerre, who for the next three years bore a
+conspicuous part in all the worst deeds of ferocity and horror, they
+assailed the gates in vast numbers. While the attention of the scanty
+garrison was fully occupied by this assault, another party scaled the
+walls at a point where there was not even a sentinel to give the alarm,
+and let down one draw-bridge across the fosse, while another was loosened,
+as is believed, by traitors in the garrison itself. Swarming across the
+passage thus opened to them, thousands of the assailants rushed in;
+murdered the governor, officers, and almost every one of the garrison; and
+with a savage ferocity, as yet unexampled, though but a faint omen of
+their future crimes, they cut off the head and hands of De Launay and
+several of their chief victims, and, sticking them on pikes, bore them as
+trophies of their victory through the streets of the city.
+
+The news of what had been done came swiftly to Versailles, where it
+excited feelings in the Assembly which, had the king or his advisers been
+capable of availing themselves of it with skill and firmness, might have
+led to a salutary change in the policy of that body; for the greater part
+of the deputies were thoroughly alarmed at the violence of Santerre and
+his companions, and would in all probability have supported the king in
+taking strong measures for the restoration of order. But Louis could not
+be roused, even by the murder of his own faithful servant, to employ force
+to save those who might be similarly menaced. The only expedient which
+occurred to his mind was to concede all that the rioters required; and at
+midday on the 15th he repaired to the Assembly, and announced that he had
+ordered the removal of the troops from Paris and from Versailles;
+declaring that he trusted himself to the Assembly, and wished to identify
+himself with the nation. The Assembly could hardly have avoided feeling
+that it was a strange time to select for withdrawing the troops, when an
+armed mob was in possession of the capital; but, as they had formerly
+requested that measure, they thought themselves bound    now to applaud
+it, and, being for the moment touched by the compliment paid to
+themselves, when he quit the Hall they unanimously rose and followed him,
+escorting him back to the palace with vehement cheers. A vast crowd filled
+the outer courts, who caught the contagion, and shouted out a demand for a
+sight of the whole royal family; and presently, when the queen brought out
+on the balcony her only remaining boy, whom the death of his brother had
+raised to the rank of dauphin, and saluted them, with a graceful bow, the
+whole mass burst out in one vociferous acclamation.
+
+Yet even in that moment of congratulation there were base and malignant
+spirits in the crowd, full of bitterness against the royal family, and
+especially against the queen, whom they had evidently been taught to
+regard as the chief obstacle to the reforms which they desired. Her
+faithful waiting-woman, Madame de Campan, had gone down into the
+court-yard and mingled with the crowd, to be the better able to judge of
+their real feelings. She could see that many were disguised; and one
+woman, whose veil of black lace, with which she concealed her features,
+showed that she did not belong to the lowest class, seized her violently
+by the arm, calling her by her name, and bid her "go and tell her queen
+not to interfere any more in the Government, but to leave her husband and
+the good States-general to work out the happiness of the people." Others
+she heard uttering threats of vengeance against Madame de Polignac. And
+one, while pouring forth "a thousand invectives" against both king and
+queen, declared that it should soon be impossible to find even a fragment
+of the throne on which they were now seated.
+
+Marie Antoinette was greatly alarmed, not for herself, but for her
+husband; and, now that he had determined on withdrawing the soldiers from
+the capital, she earnestly entreated him to accompany them, taking the not
+unreasonable view that the violence of the Parisian mob would be to some
+extent quelled, and the well-intentioned portion of the Assembly would
+have greater boldness to support their opinions, if the king were thus
+placed out of the reach of danger from any fresh outbreak; and it was
+generally understood that an attack on Versailles itself was
+anticipated.[3] She felt so certain of the wisdom of such a course, and so
+sanguine of prevailing, that she packed up her diamonds, burned many of
+her papers, and drew up a set of orders for the arrangement of the details
+of the journey. But on the morning of the 16th she was compelled to inform
+Madame Campan that the plan was given up. Large portions of the Parisian
+mob, and among them one deputation of the fish-women, who in this, as well
+as on more festive occasions, claimed equally to take the lead, had come
+out to demand that the king should visit Paris; and the Ministerial
+Council thought it safer for him to comply with that petition than to
+throw himself into the arms of the soldiers, a step which might not
+improbably lead to a civil war.
+
+To the queen this seemed the most dangerous course of all. She knew that
+both at Versailles and at Paris the agents of the Duke of Orléans had been
+scattering money with a lavish hand; and she scarcely doubted that either
+on his road, or in the city, her husband would be assassinated, or at the
+least detained by the mob as a prisoner and a hostage.
+
+Had she not feared to increase his danger, she would have accompanied him;
+but at such a crisis it required more courage and fortitude to separate
+herself from him; and the most courageous part was ever that which was
+most natural to her. But, though she took no precautions for herself, she
+was as thoughtful as ever for her friends; and, knowing how obnoxious the
+Duchess de Polignac was to the multitude, she insisted on her departing
+with her family. The duchess fled, not unwillingly; and at the same time
+others also quit Versailles who had not the same plea of delicacy of sex
+to excuse their terrors, and who were bound by every principle of duty to
+remain by the king's side the more steadily the greater might be the
+danger. The Prince de Condé, who certainly at one time had been a brave
+man, and had won an honorable name, worthy of his intrepid ancestor, in
+the Seven Years' War; his brother, the Prince de Conti; the Count
+d'Artois, who, having always been the advocate of the most violent
+measures, was doubly bound to stand forward in defense of his king and
+brother, all fled, setting the first example of that base emigration which
+eventually left the king defenseless in the midst of his enemies. The
+Baron de Breteuil and some of the ministers made similar provision for
+their own safety; though it may be said, as some extenuation of their
+ignoble flight, that they had no longer any official duties to detain
+them, since the king had already dismissed them, and on the evening of the
+16th had written to Necker to beg him to return without delay and resume
+his office, claiming his instant obedience as a proof of the attachment
+and fidelity which he had promised when departing five days before.
+
+On the morning of the 17th, Louis set out for Paris in a single carriage,
+escorted by a very slender guard and accompanied by a party of the
+deputies. He was fully alive to the danger he was incurring. He knew that
+threats had been openly uttered that he should not reach Paris alive;[4]
+and he had prepared for his journey as for death, burning his papers,
+taking the sacrament, and making arrangements for a regency. Marie
+Antoinette was almost hopeless of his safety. She sat with her children in
+her private room, shedding no tears, lest the knowledge of her grief
+should increase the alarm of her attendants; but her carriages were kept
+harnessed, and she had prepared and learned by heart a short speech, with
+which, if the worst news which she apprehended should arrive, she intended
+to repair to the Assembly, and claim its protection for the wife and
+children of their sovereign.[5] But often, as she rehearsed it, her voice,
+in spite of all her efforts, was broken by sobs, and her reiterated
+exclamation, "They will never let him return!" but too truly expressed the
+deep forebodings of her heart.
+
+They were not yet fated to be realized; the Insurrection Committee had
+already organized a force which they had entitled the National Guard, and
+of which they had conferred the command on the Marquis de La Fayette, And
+at the gates of the city the king was met by him and the mayor, a man
+named Bailly, who had achieved a considerable reputation as a
+mathematician and an astronomer, but who was thoroughly imbued with the
+leveling and irreligious doctrines of the school of the Encyclopedists. No
+men in Paris were less likely to treat their sovereign with due respect.
+
+Since his return from America, La Fayette had been living in retirement on
+his estate, till at the recent election he had been returned to the
+States-general as one of the representatives of the nobles for his native
+province of Auvergne. He had taken no part in the debates, being entirely
+destitute of political abilities;[6] and he had apparently no very
+distinct political views, but wavered between a desire for a republic,
+such, as that of which he had witnessed the establishment in America, and
+a feeling in favor of a limited monarchy such as he understood to exist in
+Great Britain, though he had no accurate comprehension of its most
+essential principles. But his ruling passion was a desire for popularity;
+and as he had always been vain of his unbending ill-manners as a proof of
+his liberal sentiments,[7] and as his vanity made him regard kings and
+queens with a general dislike, as being of a rank superior to his own, he
+looked on the present occurrence as a favorable opportunity for gaining
+the good-will of the mob, by showing marked disrespect to Louis. He would
+not even pay him the ordinary compliment of appearing in uniform, but
+headed his new troops in plain clothes; and even those were not such as
+belonged to his rank, but were the ordinary dress of a plain citizen;
+while Bailly's address, as Louis entered the gates, was marked with the
+most studied and gratuitous insolence. "Sire," said he, "I present to your
+majesty the keys of your good city of Paris. They are the same which were
+presented to Henri IV. He had conquered his people: to-day the people have
+conquered their king."
+
+Louis proceeded onward to the Hôtel de Ville, in a strange procession,
+headed by a numerous band of fish-women, always prominent, and recruited
+at every step by a crowd of rough peasant-looking men, armed with
+bludgeons, scythes, and every variety of rustic weapons, evidently on the
+watch for some opportunity to create a tumult, and seeking to provoke one
+by raising from time to time vociferous shouts of "Vive la nation!" and
+uttering ferocious threats against any one who might chance to exclaim,
+"Vive le roi!" But they were disconcerted by the perfect calmness of the
+king, on whom danger to himself seemed the only thing incapable of making
+an impression. On Bailly's insolent speech he had made no comment,
+remarking, in a whisper to his principal attendant, that he had better
+appear not to have heard it. And now at the Hôtel de Ville his demeanor
+was as unruffled as if every thing that had happened had been in perfect
+accordance with his wishes. He made a short speech, in which he confirmed
+all the concessions and promises which he had previously made. He even
+placed in his hat a tricolor cockade, which the mayor had the effrontery
+to present to him, though it was the emblem of the revolt of his subjects
+and of the defeat of his troops. And at last such an effect had his
+fearless dignity on even the fiercest of his enemies, that when he
+afterward came out on the balcony to show himself to the crowd beneath,
+the whole mass raised the shout of "Vive le roi!" with as much enthusiasm
+as had ever greeted the most feared or the most beloved of his
+predecessors.
+
+His return to the barrier resembled a triumphal procession. Yet, happy as
+it seemed that outrage had thus been averted and unanimity restored, the
+result of the day can not, perhaps, be deemed entirely fortunate, since it
+probably contributed to fix more deeply in the king's mind the belief that
+concession to clamor was the course most likely to be successful. Nor did
+the queen, though for the moment her despondency was changed to thankful
+exultation, at all conceal from herself that the perils which had been
+escaped were certain to recur; and that vigilance and firmness would
+surely again be called for to repel them--qualities which she could find
+in herself, but which she might well doubt her ability to impart to
+others.[8]
+
+Her own attention was for a moment occupied by the necessary work of
+selecting a new governess for her children in the place of Madame de
+Polignac; and after some deliberation her choice fell on the Marchioness
+de Tourzel, a lady of the most spotless character, who seems to have been
+in every respect well fitted for so important an office. As Marie
+Antoinette had scarcely any previous acquaintance with her, it was by her
+character alone that she had been recommended to her; as was gracefully
+expressed in the brief speech with which Marie Antoinette delivered her
+little charges into her hands. "Madame," said she, "I formerly intrusted
+my children to friendship; to-day I intrust them to virtue;[9]" and, a day
+or two afterward, to make easier the task which the marchioness had not
+undertaken without some unwillingness, she addressed her a letter in which
+she describes the character of her son, and her own principles and method
+of education, with an impartiality and soundness of judgment which could
+not have been surpassed by one who had devoted her whole attention to the
+subject:
+
+"July 25th, 1789.
+
+"My son is four years and four months old, all but two days. I say nothing
+of his size nor of his general appearance; it is only necessary to see
+him. His health has always been good, but even in his cradle we perceived
+that his nerves were very delicate.... This delicacy of his nerves is such
+that any noise to which he is not accustomed frightens him. For instance,
+he is afraid of dogs because he once heard one bark close to him; and I
+have never obliged him to see one, because I believe that, as his reason
+grows stronger, his fears will pass away. Like all children who are strong
+and healthy, he is very giddy, very volatile, and violent in his passions;
+but he is a good child, tender, and even caressing, when his giddiness
+does not run away with him. He has a great sense of what is due to
+himself, which, if he be well managed, one may some day turn to his good.
+Till he is entirely at his ease with any one, he can restrain himself,
+and even stifle his impatience and his inclination to anger, in order to
+appear gentle and amiable. He is admirably faithful when once he has
+promised any thing, but he is very indiscreet; he is thoughtless in
+repeating any thing that he has heard; and often, without in the least
+intending to tell stories, he adds circumstances which his own imagination
+has put into his head. This is his greatest fault, and it is one for which
+he must be corrected. However, taken altogether, I say again, he is a good
+child; and by treating him with allowance, and at the same time with
+firmness, which must be kept clear of severity, we shall always be able to
+do all that we can wish with him. But severity would revolt him, for he
+has a great deal of resolution for his age. To give you an instance: from
+his very earliest childhood the word _pardon_ has always offended him. He
+will say and do all that you can wish when he is wrong, but as for the
+word _pardon_, he never pronounces it without tears and infinite
+difficulty.
+
+"I have always accustomed my children to have great confidence in me, and,
+when they have done wrong, to tell me themselves; and then, when I scold
+them, this enables me to appear pained and afflicted at what they have
+done rather than angry. I have accustomed them all to regard 'yes' or
+'no,' once uttered by me, as irrevocable; but I always give them reasons
+for my decision, suitable to their ages, to prevent their thinking that my
+decision comes from ill-humor. My son can not read, and he is very slow at
+learning; but he is too giddy to apply. He has no pride in his heart, and
+I am very anxious that he should continue to feel so. Our children always
+learn soon enough what they are. He is very fond of his sister, and has a
+good heart. Whenever any thing gives him pleasure, whether it be the going
+anywhere, or that any one gives him any thing, his first movement always
+is to ask that his sister may have the same. He is light-hearted by
+nature. It is necessary for his health that he should be a great deal in
+the open air; and I think it is better to let him play and work in the
+garden on the terrace, than to take him longer walks. The exercise which
+children take in running about and playing in the open air is much more
+healthy than forcing them to walk, which often makes their backs
+ache.[10]"
+
+Some of these last recommendations may seem to show that the governess
+was, to some extent, regarded as a nurse as well as a teacher; and when we
+find Marie Antoinette complaining of want of discretion in a child of four
+years old, it may perhaps be thought that she is expecting rather more of
+such tender years than is often found in them; that she is inclined to be
+overexacting rather than overindulgent; an error the more venial, since it
+is probable that the educators of princes are more likely to go astray in
+the opposite direction. But it is impossible to avoid being struck with
+the candor with which she judges her boy's character, and with the
+judiciousness of her system of education; and equally impossible to resist
+the conviction that a boy of good disposition, trained by such a mother,
+had every chance of becoming a blessing to his subjects, if fate had only
+allowed him to succeed to the throne which she had still a right to look
+forward to for him as his assured inheritance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+Necker resumes Office.--Outrages in the Provinces.--Pusillanimity of the
+Body of the Nation.--Parties in the Assembly.--Views of the
+Constitutionalists or "Plain."--Barnave makes Overtures to the Court.--The
+Queen rejects them.--The Assembly abolishes all Privileges, August 4th.--
+Debates on the Veto.--An Attack on Versailles is threatened.--Great
+Scarcity in Paris.--The King sends his Plate to be melted down.--The
+Regiment of Flanders is brought up to Versailles.--A Military Banquet is
+held in the Opera-house.--October 5th, a Mob from Paris marches on
+Versailles.--Blunders of La Fayette--Ferocity of the Mob on the 5th.--
+Attack on the Palace on the 6th.--Danger and Heroism of the Queen.--The
+Royal Family remove to Paris.--Their Reception at the Barrier and at the
+Hôtel de Ville.--Shabbiness of the Tuileries.--The King fixes his
+Residence there.
+
+
+Necker had obeyed the king's summons the moment that he received it, and
+before the end of the month he returned to Versailles and resumed his
+office. But, even before the king's dispatch reached him, Paris had
+witnessed terrible proofs that the tranquillity which the king's visit to
+the capital was supposed to have re-established was but temporary. The
+populace had broken out into fresh tumults, murdering some of Breteuil's
+colleagues with circumstances of frightful barbarity; while intelligence
+of similar disturbances in the provinces was constantly arriving. In
+Normandy, in Alsace, and in Provence, in the towns, and in the rural
+districts, the towns-people and the peasants rose against their wealthier
+neighbors or their landlords, burning their houses, and commonly murdering
+the owners with the most revolting barbarity. Some were torn into pieces;
+some were roasted alive; some had actually portions of their flesh cut off
+and eaten by their murderers in their own sight, before the blow was given
+which terminated their agonies. Their sex did not save ladies from being
+victims of the same cruelties, nor did it prevent women from being actors
+in them.
+
+Yet the horror of these scenes was scarcely stranger than the
+pusillanimity of those who endured them unresistingly; for there were not
+wanting instances of magistrates honest enough to detest, and courageous
+enough to chastise, such outrages; and wherever the effort was made it
+succeeded so completely as to fix no slight criminality on those who
+submitted to them. In Dauphiny, the States of the province raised a small
+guard, which quelled the first attempts to cause riots there, and hanged
+the ringleaders. In Mâcon, a similar force, though not three hundred
+strong, encountered a band of brigands, six thousand in number, and
+brought back two hundred prisoners, the chiefs of whom were instantly
+executed, and by their prompt punishment tranquillity was restored.
+Similar firmness would have saved other districts, which now allowed
+themselves to be the victims of ravage and murder; as afterward it would
+have preserved the whole country, even when the madness and wickedness of
+subsequent years were at their height; for in no part of the kingdom did
+those who perpetrated or sympathized with the crimes which have made the
+Revolution a by-word, approach the number of those who loathed them, but
+who had not the courage or foresight to withstand them. It seemed as if a
+long course of misgovernment, and the example of the profligacy and
+impiety set by the higher classes for many generations, had demoralized
+the entire people, some in their excesses discarding the ordinary
+instincts of human beings; while the bulk of the nation had lost even that
+courage which had once been among its most shining qualities, and had no
+longer the manliness to resist outrages which they abhorred, even when
+their own safety was staked upon their repression.
+
+And similar weakness was exhibited in the Assembly itself; for,
+unquestionably, the party which at last prevailed was not that which was
+originally the strongest. Like most assemblies of the kind, it was divided
+into three parties--the extreme Royalists, or "the Right;" the extreme
+Reformers (who were subdivided into several sections), or "the Left;" and
+between them the moderate Constitutionalists, or "the Plain," as they were
+called, from occupying seats in the middle of the hall, between the raised
+benches on either side. And to the last party belonged all the men most
+distinguished either for statesman-like perceptions or for eloquence,
+Mirabeau himself agreeing with them in all their leading principles,
+though he never formally enrolled himself in the ranks of any party.
+
+The majority of the Constitutionalists were as loyal to the king's person
+and dignity as the extreme Royalists; their most eloquent speaker, a young
+lawyer named Barnave, at the first opening of the States had even sought
+to open a direct communication with the court, begging Madame de
+Lamballe[1] to assure the queen of the wish of himself and all his friends
+to maintain the king in the full enjoyment and exercise of what he called
+a Constitutional authority, borrowing the idea and expression from the
+English Government. But though Marie Antoinette had no objection to the
+king of his own accord renouncing portions of the power which had been
+claimed and exerted by his predecessors, she would not hear of the States
+taking upon themselves to impose such sacrifices on him, or to curtail his
+authority by any exercise of their own; and she rejected with something
+like disdain the support of those whose alliance was only to be purchased
+on such conditions. Barnave, like Mirabeau, felt insulted; determined to
+revenge himself, and for a while united himself to the fiercest of the
+Republicans; while the Right, with incredible folly, often played into his
+hand, joining the Left, of which many members avowedly aimed at the
+abolition of royalty, and with none of whom they had one opinion or
+sentiment in common to defeat the Constitutionalists, with whom they
+practically had but very slight differences. And thus, as with a base
+pusillanimity, many, both of the Right and of the Plain, fled from the
+country after the tumults of October, the mastery of the Assembly
+gradually fell into the hands of that party which contained by far fewer
+men of ability or honesty than either of the others, but which surpassed
+them both in distinctness of object, and in unscrupulous resolution to
+carry out its views.
+
+But the events of July, the mutiny of the troops, the successful
+insurrection of the mob, the destruction of the Bastile, and the visit of
+Louis to Paris, had been a series of damaging blows to the Government; and
+as each successive exploit gave encouragement to the movement party,
+events proceeded with extreme rapidity. Necker, who returned to Versailles
+on the 27th of July, showed more clearly than ever his unfitness for the
+chief post in the administration at such a crisis, by devoting himself
+solely to financial arrangements, and omitting to take, on the part of the
+crown, the initiative in any one of the reforms which the king had
+promised. Those he permitted to be intrusted to a committee of the
+Assembly; and the committee had scarcely met when the Assembly took the
+matter into its own hands; and in a strange panic, and at a single
+sitting, swept away the privileges of both Nobles and clergy, those who
+seemed personally most concerned in their maintenance being the foremost
+in urging their suppression. A member of the oldest nobility proposed the
+abolition of the privileges of the Nobles. A bishop moved the extinction
+of tithes; Bretons, Burgundians, Provençals, renounced for their fellow-
+citizens the old distinctions and immunities to which each province had
+hitherto clung with an unyielding if somewhat unreasoning attachment; and
+the whole was crowned by the Archbishop of Paris proposing a celebration
+of the _Te Deum_, as an expression of gratitude to God for having inspired
+a series of actions calculated to confer so much happiness on the nation.
+
+Though he could not avoid seeing the mischievous character of many of the
+resolutions thus tumultuously passed, and though his royal assent to them
+was asked in language unceremonious and almost peremptory in its curtness,
+Louis could not bring himself, or perhaps did not venture, to refuse his
+sanction to them. He had laid down a rule for himself to refuse no
+concession except such as on religious grounds his conscience might revolt
+from; and on the 18th he signified his formal acceptance of the
+resolutions, and of the title of "Restorer of French Liberty." It was an
+act of great weakness, and was rewarded, as such acts generally are, by
+further encroachments on his authority. The progress of the Left was not
+even arrested by a quarrel between some of its members (who, being
+clergymen, were not inclined to be reduced to beggary by the extinction of
+their incomes), and Mirabeau, who, not unnaturally, bore the priests
+especial ill-will. Before the end of the month, the Assembly even deprived
+the king of the power of withholding his assent from measures which it
+might pass, enacting that he should no longer possess an absolute "veto,"
+as it was called, and Necker, exhibiting on this question an incapacity
+more glaring than even his former conduct had displayed, induced the king
+to yield this point also; and to express his own preference for what its
+contrivers called a suspensive veto--a power, that is, of withholding his
+assent to any measure till it had been passed by two successive
+Assemblies. The discussions on this most momentous point had been very
+vehement in the Assembly itself; and, besides the greatness of the
+principle involved in the decision, they have a peculiar importance as
+showing that Mirabeau had not the absolute power over the minds of the
+members which he believed himself to possess; since he contended with all
+the energy of his temper, and with irresistible force of argument, against
+a vote which, as he declared, could only take the power from the king to
+vest it in the Assembly, and yet was wholly unable to carry more than a
+small minority with him in his opposition.
+
+And this defeat may have had some share in prompting him to countenance
+and aid, if indeed he was not the original contriver of, a plot which was
+undoubtedly intended to produce a change in the whole frame-work of the
+Government. The harvest had been bad, and at the beginning of September
+Paris was suffering under a scarcity almost as severe as had ever been
+felt in the depth of winter. The emergency was so great that the king sent
+all his plate to the Mint to be melted down, to procure money to purchase
+food for the starving citizens; and many patriotic individuals, Necker
+himself being among the most munificent, gave their plate and jewels for
+the same benevolent object. But relief procured from such sources was
+unavoidably of too limited a character to last long. Though Necker
+proposed and the Assembly voted taxes of prodigious amount, they could not
+at once be made available, and some of the lower classes were said to have
+died of actual famine. In their distress the citizens looked to the king,
+and attributed their misery in a great degree to his ignorance of their
+situation, which was caused by his living at Versailles. They nicknamed
+him the "Baker," as if he could supply them with bread, and began to
+clamor for him at least to take up an occasional residence among them in
+in his capital. From raising a cry, the step was easy to organize a riot
+to compel him to do so. And to this object the partisans of the Duke of
+Orleans, assisted, if not prompted, by Mirabeau, now began to apply
+themselves, hoping that the result would be the deposition of Louis and
+the enthronement of the duke, who might be glad to take the great orator
+for his prime minister.
+
+So certain did the conspirators feel of success, that they took no pains
+to keep their machinations secret. As early as the middle of September
+intelligence was received at Versailles that the Parisians would march
+upon that town in force, on the 5th of October; and the Assembly was
+greatly alarmed, believing, not without reason, that the object of the
+intended attack was to overawe and overbear them. The magistrates of the
+town were even more terrified, and besought the king to bring up at least
+one regiment for their protection. And, prudent and reasonable as the
+request was, the compliance with it furnished the agents of sedition with
+pretexts for further violence.
+
+A regiment, known as that of Flanders, was sent for from the frontiers,
+and speedily arrived at Versailles, when, according to their old and
+hospitable fashion, the Body-guard,[2] who regarded Versailles as their
+home, invited the officers, and with them the officers of the Swiss Guard,
+and those of the town militia also, to a banquet on the 1st of October.
+The opera-house, as had often been done in similar instances, was lent for
+the occasion; and the boxes were filled with the chief ladies of the court
+and of the town, and also with many members of the Assembly, as
+spectators. So enthusiastic were the acclamations that greeted the toast
+of the king's health, that, though Marie Antoinette had previously desired
+that the royal family should not appear to have any connection with the
+entertainment, the captain of the guard, the Count de Luxembourg, had no
+difficulty in persuading her that it would but be a graceful recognition
+of such spontaneous and sincere loyalty at such a time if she were to
+honor the banquet with her presence, though but by the briefest visit.
+Louis, too, accepted the proposal with greater warmth than usual, and when
+the royal pair with their children--the queen, as was her custom, leading
+one in each hand--descended from their apartments and walked through the
+banquet-hall, the enthusiasm was redoubled. The spectators, among whom
+were many members of the Assembly, caught the contagion. Loyal cheers
+resounded from every part of the theatre, and the feelings excited became
+so fervid that some officers of the National Guard, who were among the
+guests, reversed their new tricolor cockade, and, displaying the white
+side outermost, seemed to have resumed the time-honored badge under which
+the army had reaped all its old glories. The band struck up a favorite air
+from one of the new operas, "Peut-on affliger ce qu'on aime?" which those
+who saw the anxiety which recent events had already stamped upon the
+queen's majestic brow could hardly avoid applying to their royal mistress;
+and when it followed it up by Blondel's lamentation for Richard, "O
+Richard, O mon roi, l'univers t'abandonne," the first notes of the
+well-known song touched a chord in every heart, and the whole company,
+courtiers, ladies, soldiers, and deputies, were all carried away in a
+perfect delirium of loyal rapture. The whole company escorted the royal
+family back to their apartments; though it was remarked afterward that
+some of the soldiers, who on this occasion were the most vociferous in
+their exultation, were, before the end of the same week, among the most
+furious threateners and assailants of the palace.
+
+But a demonstration such as this, in which the whole number of the
+soldiers concerned did not exceed fifteen hundred men, could not deter the
+organizers of the impending riot from carrying out their plan: if it did
+not even aid them by the opportunities which it afforded for spreading
+abroad exaggerated accounts of what had taken place, as an additional
+proof of the settled hatred and contempt which the court entertained for
+the people. Mirabeau had suggested that the best chance of success for an
+insurrection in Paris lay in placing women at its head; and, in compliance
+with his hint, at day-break on the appointed morning a woman of notorious
+infamy of character moved toward the chief market-place of Paris, beating
+a drum, and calling on all who heard her to follow her.[3] She soon
+gathered round her a troop of followers worthy of such a leader, market-
+women, fish-women, and men in women's clothes, whose deep voices, and the
+power with which they brandished their weapons, betrayed their sex through
+their disguise.
+
+One man, Maillard, who had been conspicuous as one of the fiercest of the
+stormers of the Bastile, disdained any concealment or dress but his own;
+they chose him for their leader, mingling with their cries for bread
+horrid threats against the queen and the aristocrats. Their numbers
+increased till they felt themselves strong enough to attack the Hôtel de
+Ville. A detachment of the National Guard who were on duty offered them no
+resistance, pleading that they had received no orders from La Fayette; and
+the rioters, now amounting to many thousands, having armed themselves from
+the store of muskets and swords which they found in the armory, passed on
+to the barrier and took the road to Versailles.
+
+The riot had lasted four hours, and the very last of the rioters had
+already passed through the gates before La Fayette reached the Hôtel de
+Ville, though his office of Commander of the National Guard made the
+preservation of tranquillity one of his most especial duties. He had
+evidently feared to risk his popularity by resisting the mob, and even now
+he refused to act at all till be had received a written order from the
+Municipal Council; and, when he had obtained that, he did not obey it; but
+preferred complying with the demands of his own soldiers, who insisted on
+following the rioters to Versailles, where they would exterminate the
+regiment of Flanders; bring the king back to Paris; and perhaps depose him
+and appoint a Regent. Yet even this open avowal of their treasonable views
+did not deter their unworthy general from submitting to their dictates. He
+had indeed no desire for the success of their designs; for he had no
+connection with the Duc d'Orléans, and no inclination to co-operate with
+Mirabeau, who he knew was in the habit of speaking of him with contempt;
+but he had not firmness to resist their demand. His vanity, too, always
+his most predominant feeling, was flattered by the desire they expressed
+to retain him as their commander, and at last he procured from the
+magistrates a fresh order, authorizing him to comply with the soldiers'
+clamor, and to lead them to Versailles.
+
+When before the magistrates he had professed an expectation that he should
+be able to induce the king to comply with the wishes of the Assembly, and
+a determination to restrain the excesses of the mob; but the whole day had
+been so wasted by his irresolution that when he at last put his regiment
+in motion it was seven o'clock in the evening--full four hours after
+Maillard and his fish-women had reached Versailles. The news of their
+approach and of their designs had been brought to the palace by Monsieur
+de Chinon, the eldest son of the Duc de Richelieu, who, at great personal
+risk, had disguised himself as an artisan, and had marched some way with
+the crowd to learn their object. He reported that even the women and
+children were armed, that the great majority were drunk; that they were
+beguiling the way with the most ferocious threats, and that they had been
+joined by a gang of men who gave themselves the name of "Coupe-têtes," and
+boasted that they should have ample opportunity of proving their title to
+it.
+
+In addition to the warnings previously received, a rumor had reached the
+palace on the preceding evening that the Duc d'Orléans had come down to
+Versailles in disguise,[4] a movement which could hardly have an innocent
+object; but so little heed had been given to the intelligence, or, it may
+perhaps be said, so little was it supposed that, if such an attack was
+really meditated, any warning would have been given, that Monsieur de
+Chinon found the palace empty. Louis had gone to hunt in the Bois de
+Meudon; Marie Antoinette was at the Little Trianon. But messengers easily
+found them. The queen came in with speed from her garden, which she was
+destined never to behold again; the king hastened hack from his coverts;
+and by the time that they returned, the Count de St. Priest, the Minister
+of the Household, had their carriages ready for them to retire to
+Rambouillet, and he earnestly pressed the adoption of such a course.
+Louis, as usual, could not make up his mind. He sat in his chair,
+repeating that it was a moment to think seriously. "Rather," said Marie
+Antoinette, "say that it is a time to act promptly." He would gladly have
+had her depart with her children, but she refused to leave him, declaring
+that her place was by his side; that, as the daughter of Maria Teresa, she
+did not fear death; and after a time he changed his mind and ceased to
+wish even her to retire, clinging to his old conviction that conciliation
+was always possible. He believed that he had won over even the worst of
+the mob, and that all danger was past.
+
+Versailles witnessed a strange scene that morning. The moment that the mob
+reached the town, they forced their way into the Assembly Hall, where
+Maillard, as their spokesman, after terrifying the members with ferocious
+threats against the whole body of the Nobles, demanded that the Assembly
+should send a deputation to the king to represent to him the distress of
+the people, and that a party of the women should accompany it. Louis
+consented to receive them, and when they reached the palace, the women,
+disorderly and ferocious as they were, were so awed by the magnificence
+and pomp which they beheld, and by the actual presence of the king and
+queen, that they could only summon up a few modest and humble words of
+petition, and one, a young and pretty girl of seventeen, fainted with the
+excitement. One of the princesses brought her a glass of water: she
+recovered, and, as she knelt to kiss the king's hand, Louis kissed her
+himself, and, transported by his affability, she and her companions quit
+the apartment, uttering loud cheers for the king and queen. But this had
+not been the impression which their leaders had intended them to receive;
+and, when they reached the streets, their new-born loyalty so exasperated
+their comrades that the soldiers had some difficulty in saving them from
+their fury.
+
+Meanwhile, the mob increased every hour. They occupied the court-yard of
+the palace, roaring out ferocious threats, the most sanguinary of which
+were directed against the queen. The President of the Assembly moved that
+the members should adjourn and repair to the palace for the protection of
+the royal family, but Mirabeau resisted the proposal, and procured its
+rejection; and when a large party of the members went, as individuals, to
+place their services at the king's disposal, he mingled with the rioters,
+tampering with the soldiers, and urging them to espouse what he called the
+cause of the people. As it grew dark, the crowd grew more and more
+tumultuous and violent. The Body-guard, who were all gentlemen, were
+faithful and fearless; but it began to be seen that none of the other
+troops, not even the regiment of Flanders, could be trusted. Some of them
+even fired on the Body-guard, and mortally wounded its commander, the
+Marquis de Savonières; while Louis, adhering to his unhappy policy of
+conciliation even at such a moment, sent down orders to the officer who
+succeeded to the command that the men were not to use their weapons, and
+that all bloodshed was to be avoided. "Tell the king," replied M.
+d'Huillier, "that his orders shall be obeyed; but that we shall all be
+assassinated."
+
+The mob grew fiercer when it became known that La Fayette and his regiment
+were approaching. No one knew what course he might take, but the
+ringleaders of the rioters resolved on a strenuous effort to render his
+arrival useless by their previous success. Guns were fired, heavy blows
+were dealt on the railings of the inner court-yard and on the gates; and
+the danger seemed so imminent that the mob might force its way into the
+palace, that the deputies themselves besought the king to delay no longer,
+but to retire to Rambouillet. He was still irresolute, and still trusting
+to his plan of conciliating by non-resistance. The queen, though more
+earnest than ever that he should depart, still nobly adhered to her own
+view of duty, and refused to leave him; but, hoping that he might change
+his mind, she gave a written order to keep the carriages harnessed, and to
+prepare to force a passage for them if the life of the king should appear
+to be in danger; but, she added, they were not to be used if she alone
+were threatened.
+
+At last, when it was nearly midnight, La Fayette arrived. With a singular
+perverseness of folly, at a time when every moment was of consequence, he
+had halted his men a mile out of the town to make them a speech in praise
+of himself and his own loyalty, and to administer to them an oath to be
+faithful to the nation, to the law, and to the king; an oath needless if
+they were inclined to keep it; useless, if they were not; and in the state
+of feeling then common, mischievous in the order in which he ranged the
+powers to which he required them to profess allegiance. At last he reached
+the palace. Leaving his men below, he ascended to the king's apartments,
+and, laying his hand on his heart, assured the king that he had no more
+loyal servant than himself. Louis was not given to sarcasm: yet some of
+the bystanders fancied that there was a tone of irony in his voice when in
+reply he expressed his conviction of the marquis's sincerity; and perhaps
+La Fayette thought so too, for he proceeded to harangue his majesty on his
+favorite subject of his own courage; describing the dangers which, as he
+affirmed, he had incurred in the course of the day. After which he
+descended into the court-yard to assure the soldiers that the king had
+promised to accede to their wishes; and then returned to the royal
+apartments to inform the king that contentment was restored, and that he
+himself would be responsible for the tranquillity of the night.
+
+The royal family, exhausted with the fatigues of so terrible a day,
+retired to rest, the queen expressly enjoining her ladies to follow her
+example. Fortunately they were too anxious for her safety to obey her,
+and, with their own attendants, kept watch in the room outside her
+bed-chamber. But La Fayette, in spite of the responsibility which he had
+taken upon himself, felt no such anxiety. He declared himself tired and
+sleepy; and, leaving the palace, went to a friend's house to ask for a
+bed.[5] Yet he well knew that the crowd was still assembled around the
+palace, and was increasing in violence. Though the night was stormy and
+wet, the rioters sought no shelter except such as was afforded by a
+hurried resort to the wine-shops in the neighborhood, where they inflamed
+their intoxication, and from which they soon returned to renew their
+savage clamor and threats, increasing the disorder by keeping up a
+frequent fire of their muskets. Throughout the night the Duc d'Orléans was
+briskly going to and fro, his emissaries scattering money among the
+rioters, who seemed to have no definite purpose or plan, till, as day
+began to break, one of the gates leading into the Princes' Court was seen
+to be open. It had been intrusted to some of La Fayette's soldiers, and
+could not have been opened without treachery. The crowd poured in,
+uttering fiercer threats than ever, from the belief that their prey was
+within their reach. There was, in truth, nothing between them and the
+staircase which led to the royal apartments except two gallant gentlemen,
+M. des Huttes and M. Moreau, the sentries of the detachment of the Body-
+guard on duty, whose quarters were at the head of the staircase in a
+saloon opposite to the queen's chamber. But these brave men were worthy of
+the best days of the French army. The more formidable the mob, and the
+greater the danger, the more imperative to their loyal hearts was the duty
+to defend those whose safety was intrusted to their vigilance; and with so
+dauntless a front did they stand to their posts that for a moment the
+ruffians recoiled and shrunk from attacking them, till D'Orléans himself
+came forward, waving to them with his hand a signal to force the way in,
+and pointing out to them which way to take.
+
+What, then, could two men effect against such a multitude? Des Huttes
+perished, pierced by a hundred pikes, and torn into pieces by his blood-
+thirsty assailants. Moreau, with equal valor, but with better fortune,
+backed up the stairs, fighting so desperately as he retreated that he gave
+his comrades time to barricade the doors leading to the queen's
+apartments, and to come to his assistance. As they drew him back, terribly
+wounded, into the guardroom, De Varicourt and Durepaire took his place. De
+Varicourt was soon slain, but Durepaire, a man of prodigious strength and
+prowess, held the assassins at bay for some time, till he too fell,
+reduced to helplessness by a score of deep wounds; when he, in his turn,
+was replaced by Miomandre. His devotion and intrepidity equaled that of
+his comrades; he was eminently skillful also in the use of his weapons,
+and with his own hand he struck down many of his assailants, till he was
+gradually forced back by numbers, when he placed his musket as a barrier
+across the door-way, and thus still kept his enemies at bay, while he
+shouted to the queen's ladies, now separated from him by but a single
+partition, to save the queen, for "the tigers with whom he was struggling
+were aiming at her life."
+
+In the annals of the ancient chivalry of the nation it had been recorded
+as the most brilliant feat of Bayard, that, on a bridge of the Garigliano,
+he had for a while, with his single arm, stemmed the onset of two hundred
+Spaniards; and that glorious exploit of the model hero of the nation had
+never been more faithfully copied and more nobly rivaled than it was on
+this morning of shame and danger by Miomandre and his intrepid comrades,
+as they successively stepped into the breach to fight against those whom
+he truly called, not men, but tigers. It was but a brief moment before he
+too was struck down; but he had gained for the ladies a respite sufficient
+to enable them to secure the safety of their royal mistress. They roused
+her from her bed, for her fatigue had been so great that she had hitherto
+slept soundly through the uproar, and hurried her off to the apartments of
+the king, who, having in been just similarly awakened, was coming to seek
+her; and in a few minutes the whole family was collected in his
+antechamber; while the Body-guard occupied the queen's bedroom, and the
+rioters, balked of their intended victim, were pillaging the different
+rooms into which they had been able to make their way. Luckily, La Fayette
+was still absent: he was having his hair dressed with great composure,
+while the mob, for whose contentment and orderly behavior he had vouched,
+was plundering the royal palace and seeking its owners to murder them; and
+in his absence the Marquis de Vaudreuil and a body of nobles took upon
+themselves the office of defenders of the crown, and, going down to the
+court-yard, reproached the National Guard with their inaction at such a
+moment of danger, and with their manifest sympathy with the rioters. At
+first, out of mere shame, the National Guard attempted to justify
+themselves: "they had been told," they said, "that the Body-guard were the
+aggressors; that they had attacked the people." "Do you pretend to
+believe," said the gallant marquis, "that two hundred men have been mad
+enough to attack thirty thousand?" The argument was irresistible; they
+declared that if the Body-guard would assume the tricolor, they would
+stand by them as brothers. And, by a reaction not uncommon at such times
+of excitement, the two regiments became reconciled in a moment. As no
+tricolor cockades could be procured, they exchanged shakos, and, in many
+cases, arms. And presently, when the Coup-têtes, after mutilating the
+bodies of two of the Body-guard who had been killed on the previous
+evening, were preparing to murder two or three more who had fallen into
+their hands, the National Guard dashed to their rescue, shouting out, with
+a curious identification of their force with the old French army, that
+"they would save the Body-guard who saved them at Fontenoy," and brought
+them off unhurt.
+
+Balked of their expected prey, the rioters grew more furious than ever; in
+useless wrath they kept firing against the walls of the palace, and
+shouting out a demand for the queen to show herself. She, with her
+children, was still in the king's apartment, where the princesses, the
+ministers, and a few courtiers were also assembled. Necker, in an agony of
+terror and distress, sat with his face buried in his hands, unable to
+offer any advice; La Fayette, who had just arrived, dwelt upon the dangers
+which he had run, though no one else knew what they were, and assured the
+king of the power which he still possessed to allay the tumult, if the
+reasonable demands of the people (as he called them) were granted. Marie
+Antoinette alone was undaunted and calm; or, at least, if in the depths of
+her woman's heart she felt terror at the sanguinary and obscene threats of
+her ruffianly enemies, she scorned to show it. When the firing began, M.
+de Luzerne, one of the ministers, had quietly placed himself between her
+and the window; but, while she thanked him for his devotion, she begged
+him to retire, saying, with her habitually gracious courtesy, that it was
+her place to be there,[6] not his, since the king could not afford to have
+so faithful a servant endangered. And now, holding her little son and
+daughter, one in each hand, she stepped out on the balcony, to confront
+those who were shouting for her blood. "No children!" was their cry. She
+led the dauphin and his sister back into the room, and, returning to the
+balcony, stood before them alone, with her hands crossed and her eyes
+looking up to heaven, as one who expected instant death, with a firmness
+as far removed from defiance as from supplication. Even those ruthless
+miscreants were awed by her magnanimous fearlessness; not a shot was
+fired; for a moment it seemed as if her enemies had become her partisans.
+Loud shouts of "Bravo!" and "Long live the queen!" were heard on all
+sides; and one ruffian, who raised his gun to take aim at her, had his
+weapon beaten down by those who stood near him, and ran some risk of being
+himself sacrificed to their indignation. But this impulse of respect, like
+other impulses of such a people, was short-lived, and presently the
+multitude began to raise a shout, which expressed the original purpose
+which had led the majority to march upon Versailles. "To Paris!" was the
+cry, and again La Fayette volunteered his advice, urging the king to
+comply with the request. By this time Louis had learned the value of the
+marquis's loyalty. But he had no alternative. It was evident that the
+rioters had the power of compelling compliance with their demand. And
+accordingly he authorized the marquis to promise that he would remove his
+family to Paris, and a few minutes afterward he himself went out on the
+balcony with the queen, and himself announced his intention, with the view
+of giving his act a greater appearance of being voluntarily resolved upon.
+
+Soon after midday he set out, accompanied by the queen, his brother the
+Count de Provence, his sister the Princess Elizabeth, and his children. It
+was a strange and shameful retinue that escorted the King of France to his
+capital. One party of the rioters, with Maillard and another ruffian named
+Jourdan, the chief of the Coupe-têtes, at their head, had started two
+hours before, bearing aloft in triumph the heads of the mangled
+Body-guards, and combining such hideous mockery with their barbarity that
+they halted at Sèvres to compel a barber to dress the hair on the lifeless
+skulls. And now the royal carriage was surrounded by a vast and confused
+medley; market-women and the rest of the female rabble, with drunken gangs
+of the ruffians who had stormed the palace in the morning, still
+brandishing their weapons, or bearing loaves of bread on their pike-heads,
+and singing out that they should all have enough of bread now, since they
+were bringing the baker, the bakeress, and the baker's boy to Paris.[7]
+The only part of the procession that bore even a decent appearance was a
+small escort of 'different regiments--the Guards, the National Guards, and
+the Body-guards; many of the latter still bleeding from the wounds which
+they had received in the conflict and tumult of the morning. A train of
+carriages containing a deputation of the members of the Assembly also
+followed; Mirabeau himself having just earned a motion that the Assembly
+was inseparable from the king, and that wherever he was there must be the
+place of meeting for the great council of the nation. Yet, in spite of the
+confidence which their presence might have been expected to diffuse among
+the mob, and in spite of the hopes of coming plenty which the rioters
+themselves announced, the royal party was not even yet safe from further
+attacks. Some ruffians stabbed at the royal carriage as it passed with
+their pikes, and several shots were fired at it, though fortunately they
+missed their aim and no one was injured.[8]
+
+To the queen the journey was more painful than to any one else. A few
+weeks before she had congratulated Mademoiselle de Lamballe on not being a
+mother--perhaps the bitterest exclamation that grief and anxiety ever
+wrung from her lips; and now the keenest anxieties of a mother were indeed
+added to those of a queen. The procession moved with painful slowness. No
+provisions had been taken in the carriage, and the little dauphin was
+suffering from hunger and begging for some food. Tears, which her own
+danger could not bring to her eyes, flowed plentifully as she witnessed
+the suffering of her child. She could only beg him to bear his privations
+with patience; and she had the reward of the pains she had always taken to
+inspire him with confident in her, in the fortitude with which, for the
+rest of the day, he bore what to children of his age is probably the
+severest hardship to which they can be exposed.[9]
+
+So vast and disorderly was the procession that it was nine o'clock at
+night before it reached Paris. Bailly again met the royal carriage at the
+barrier, and, re-assuming the tone of coarse insult which he had adopted
+on the king's previous visit, had the effrontery to describe the day so
+full of horror to every one, and of humiliation and agony to those whom he
+was addressing, as a glorious day. It was at such moments as these that
+Louis's impassibility assumed the character of dignity. He disdained to
+notice the mayor's insolence, and briefly answered that it was always with
+pleasure and with confidence that he found himself among the inhabitants
+of his good city of Paris. He proceeded to the Hôtel de Ville, where the
+council of civic magistrates was sitting; and where the president
+addressed him in language which afforded a marked contrast to that of the
+mayor, calling him "an adored father who had come to visit the place where
+he could meet with the greatest number of his children." And it seemed as
+if Bailly himself had become in some degree ashamed of his insolence; for
+now, when Louis desired him, in reply to the president's address, to
+repeat the answer which he had made to him at the barrier, he merely said
+that the king had come with pleasure among the Parisians. "The king, sir,"
+interrupted the queen, "added, 'and with confidence.'" "Gentlemen," said
+Bailly, "you hear her majesty's words. You are happier in doing so than if
+I myself had uttered them." The whole company burst into one rapturous
+cheer, and at their request the king and queen showed themselves for a few
+minutes at the windows, beneath which, late as the hour was, a vast
+multitude was still collected, which received them with vociferous cheers.
+And then the royal family, quitting the Hotel, drove to the Tuileries,
+where their attendants had been hastily making such preparations as a few
+hours allowed for their reception.
+
+Since the completion of the Palace at Versailles the Tuileries had been
+almost deserted.[10] The paint and gilding were tarnished, the curtains
+were faded, many most necessary articles of furniture were altogether
+wanting; and the whole was so shabby that it attracted the notice of even
+the little dauphin. "How bad, mamma," said he, "every thing looks here."
+"My boy," she replied, "Louis XIV. lived here comfortably enough." But
+they had not yet decided on making it their permanent residence. La
+Fayette, who had tried to induce the king to promise to do so, had been
+distinctly refused; and for some days Louis did not make up his mind. But,
+after a time, the fear, if he should propose to return, to Versailles, of
+being met by an opposition on the part of the Assembly or the civic
+magistrates, which he might be unable to surmount, or, if he should again
+settle there, of his absence from the city furnishing a pretext for fresh
+tumults, caused him to announce his intention of making Paris his
+principal abode for the future. He gave orders for the removal of some
+furniture and of the queen's library to the Tuileries; and, with something
+of the apathy of despair, began to reconcile himself to his new abode and
+his changed position.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+Feelings of Marie Antoinette on coming to the Tuileries.--Her Tact in
+winning the Hearts of the Common People.--Mirabeau changes his Views.--
+Quarrel between La Fayette and the Duc d'Orléans.--Mirabeau desires to
+offer his Services to the Queen.--Riots in Paris.--Murder of François.--
+The Assembly pass a Vote prohibiting any Member from taking Office.--The
+Emigration.--Death of the Emperor Joseph II.--Investigation into the Riots
+of October.--The Queen refuses to give Evidence.--Violent Proceedings in
+the Assembly.--Execution of the Marquis de Favras.
+
+
+The comment made by Marie Antoinette on quitting Versailles was that "they
+were undone; they were being dragged off, perhaps to death, which was
+never far removed from captive sovereigns;[1]" and such henceforward was
+her prevailing feeling. She may occasionally, prompted by her own innate
+courage and sanguineness of disposition, have cherished a short-lived
+hope, founded on a consciousness of the king's and her own purity of
+intention, or on a belief, which she never wholly discarded, in the
+natural goodness of heart of the French people when not led astray by
+demagogues; and of their impulsive levity of disposition, which seemed to
+make no change of temper on their part impossible; but her general feeling
+was one of humiliation for the past and despair for the future. Not only
+did the example of Charles I., whose fate was ever before her eyes, fill
+her with dread for her husband's life (to her own danger she never gave a
+thought), but she felt also that the cause and principle of royalty had
+been degraded by the shameful scenes through which she had lately passed;
+and we shall fail to do justice to the patience, fortitude, and energy of
+her conduct during the remainder of her life, if we allow ourselves to
+forget that these high qualities were maintained and exerted in spite of
+the most depressing circumstances and the most discouraging convictions;
+that she was struggling because it was her duty to struggle for her
+husband's honor and her child's inheritance; but that she was never long
+sustained by that incentive which, with so many, is absolutely
+indispensable to steady and useful exertion--the anticipation of eventual
+success.
+
+A letter which the very next morning she wrote to Mercy, who fortunately
+still retained his old post as embassador, shows the courage with which
+she still caught at every circumstance which seemed in the least hopeful;
+and with what unfaltering tact she sought every opportunity of acting on
+the impulsiveness which she regarded as one chief characteristic of the
+French people.
+
+"October 7th, 1789.
+
+"I am quite well. You may be easy about me. If we could only forget where
+we are and how we came here, we ought to be satisfied with the feelings of
+the people, especially this morning. I hope, if bread does not fall short,
+that many things will return to their proper order. I speak to the people,
+militia, fish-women, and all: all offer me their hands; I give them mine.
+In the Hôtel de Ville I was personally well received. The people this
+morning begged us to remain here. I answered them, speaking for the king,
+who was by my side, that it depended on themselves whether we remained;
+that we desired nothing better; that all animosities must be laid aside;
+that the slightest renewal of bloodshed would make us flee, with horror.
+Those who were nearest to me swore that all that was over. I told the
+fish-women to go and tell others all that we had just said to one
+another.[2]"
+
+And a day or two later, on the 10th, even while giving fuller expression
+to her feelings of unhappiness, and of disgust at the events of the past
+week, as to which she assures Mercy that "no description could be
+exaggerated; on the contrary, that any account must fall far short of what
+the king and she had seen and experienced," she yet repeats that "she
+hopes to bring back to a right feeling the honest and sound portion of the
+citizens and people. Unhappily, however," as she adds, "they are not the
+most numerous body. Still, with gentleness and unwearied patience, she may
+hope that at least she shall succeed in doing away with the horrible
+distrust which occupies every mind, and which has dragged the king and
+herself into the gulf in which they are at present." So keen at this time
+was her feeling that one principal cause of their miseries was the unjust
+distrust which the citizens in general conceived of the views and designs
+of the court, that she desires Mercy not to try to see her; and, while she
+describes the scantiness of the accommodation which her attendants had as
+yet been able to provide for her, so that Madame Royale had a bed in her
+dressing-room, and the little dauphin was in her own room, she finds
+advantage in these arrangements, inconvenient as they were, since they
+prevented any suspicion from arising that she was giving audiences which
+she desired to keep secret.
+
+She did not overrate the impression which she had made on the people; and
+her faithful attendant, Madame Campan, has preserved more minute details
+of the events of the 7th than she herself reported to the embassador. She
+was hardly dressed when a huge crowd collected on the terrace under her
+window, shouting for her to show herself; and, when she came forward, they
+began to accost her in a mingled tone of expostulation and menace. "She
+must drive away the courtiers who were the ruin of kings. She must love
+the inhabitants of her good city." She replied "that she had always felt
+so toward them; she had loved them while at Versailles; she should
+continue to love them at Paris." "Ah," interrupted a virago, hardier than
+her companions, "but on the 14th of July you would have besieged and
+bombarded the city; and on the 6th of October you wanted to flee to the
+frontier." She answered, in the gentlest tone, that "these were idle
+stories, which they were wrong to believe; tales like these were what
+caused at once the misery of the people and that of the best of kings."
+Another woman addressed her in German. Marie Antoinette declared that "she
+did not understand what she said; that she had become so completely French
+that she had forgotten her native language;" and the compliment to their
+country fairly vanquished them. They received it with shouts of "Bravo,"
+and with loud clapping of their hands. They begged the ribbons and flowers
+of her bonnet. She took them off with her own hand and distributed them
+among them; and they divided the spoils with thankful exultation, smiling,
+waving their hands, and crying out, "Long live Marie Antoinette! Long live
+our good queen![3]"
+
+For a time it seemed as if the fortunes of the king and country were being
+weighed in an uncertain balance. One day some circumstances seemed to hold
+out a prospect of the re-establishment of tranquillity, and of the return
+of the masses to a better feeling. The next day these favorable
+appearances were more than counterbalanced by fresh evidences of the
+increasing power of the factious and unscrupulous demagogues. It was
+greatly in favor of the crown that the triumph of the mob on the 6th of
+October had led to violent quarrels between the Duc d'Orléans, La Fayette,
+and Mirabeau. La Fayette had charged the duke with having entered into a
+plot to assassinate him, and threatened to impeach him formally if he did
+not at once quit the kingdom.[4] The duke trembled and consented, easily
+procuring from the ministers, who were glad to get rid of him, a
+diplomatic mission to England as a pretext for his departure; and
+Mirabeau, who despised both the duke and the marquis, full of contempt for
+the pusillanimity which the former had shown in the quarrel, abandoned all
+idea of placing him on his cousin's throne. "Make him my king!" he
+exclaimed; "I would not have him for my valet."
+
+Emboldened by his success with the duke, La Fayette, who had great
+confidence in his own address, next tried to win over or to get rid of
+Mirabeau himself. He proposed to obtain an embassy for him also. The
+suggestion of what was clearly an honorable exile in disguise was at once
+declined.[5] He then offered him a large sum of money, for at that moment
+he had the entire disposal of the civil list; but he found that the
+great orator was disinclined to connect himself with him in any way, much
+more to lay himself under any obligation to him. In fact, Mirabeau was at
+this moment hoping to obtain a post in the home administration, where, if
+he could once succeed in procuring a footing, he had no doubt of soon
+obtaining the entire mastery; and the royal family was hardly settled at
+the Tuileries before he applied to his friend, the Count de la Marck, whom
+he rightly believed to enjoy the queen's good opinion, begging him to
+express to her his ardent wish to serve her. He even drew up a long
+memorial on the existing state of affairs, indicating the line of conduct
+which, in his opinion, the king ought to pursue; the leading feature of
+which was an early departure from Paris to some city at no great distance,
+that he might be safe and free; while in the capital it was evident that
+he was neither. And the step which he thus recommended at the outset
+deserves attention as being also that on which a year later he still
+insisted as the indispensable preliminary to whatever line of conduct
+might be decided on.
+
+But at this moment his advice never reached those for whom it was
+intended. La Marck, with all his good-will both to his friend and to the
+court, could not venture to bring before the queen's notice the name of
+one who, only a few days before, had denounced her in the foulest manner
+in the Assembly for having appeared at the soldiers' banquet, and whom she
+with her own eyes had beheld uniting with the assailants of the palace. He
+thought it more politic, even for the eventual attainment of his friend's
+objects, to content himself for the time with giving the memorial and
+stating the views of the writer to the Count de Provence; and that prince
+declared that it would be useless to bring it to the knowledge of either
+king or queen: "that the queen had not sufficient influence over her
+husband to induce him to adopt such a plan;" and he even hinted that at
+times Louis was disposed to be jealous of her appearing to influence him.
+
+But if these circumstances--the quarrel between the enemies of the court,
+and the conversion of one more able and formidable than either--were in
+the king's favor, other events which took place in the same few weeks were
+full of mischief and danger. Before the end of the month fresh riots broke
+out in Paris. Bread, the supply of which Marie Antoinette, as we have
+seen, rightly regarded as a matter of the first importance to the
+tranquillity of the city, continued scarce and dear; and the mob broke
+open the bakers' shops, and murdered one baker, a man named François, with
+a ferocity more terrible than they had even shown toward De Launay, or the
+guards at Versailles. They tore his body to pieces, and, having cut off
+his head, compelled his wife to kiss the scarcely cold lips, and then left
+her fainting on the pavement still covered with his blood. Even La Fayette
+was horror-stricken at such brutality. It was the only occasion on which
+he did his duty during the whole progress of the Revolution. He came down
+with a company of the National Guard, dispersed the rioters, seized the
+ruffian who was bearing aloft, the head of the murdered man on a pole, and
+caused him to be hanged the next day. And during the next few weeks he
+more than once brought his soldiers to the support of the civil power, and
+inflicted summary punishment on gangs of miscreants, whose idea of reform
+was a state of things which should afford impunity to crime.
+
+But in the next month the Assembly dealt a heavier blow on the king's
+authority than could be inflicted by the worst excesses of an informal
+mob--they passed a resolution prohibiting any of its members from
+accepting any office in the administration: it was an imitation of the
+self-denying ordinance into which Cromwell had tricked the English
+Parliament; and, though bearing an appearance of disinterestedness in
+closing the access to official emoluments and honors against themselves,
+was in reality an injury to the king, as depriving him of his right to
+select his ministers from the entire body of the nation; and to the nation
+itself, as preventing it from obtaining the services of those who might be
+presumed to be its ablest citizens, as having been already selected as its
+representatives.
+
+But a far more irreparable injury than any that could be inflicted on the
+court by either populace or Assembly came from its friends. We have seen
+that the Count d'Artois, with some nobles who had especial reason to fear
+the enmity of the Parisians, had fled from the country in July; and now
+their example was followed by a vast number of the higher classes, several
+of them having hitherto been prominent as the leaders of the Moderate or
+Constitutional section of the Assembly--men who had no grounds for
+complaining that, except in one or two instances, at moments of
+extraordinary excitement, their influence had been overborne, but who now
+yielded to an infectious panic. Before the end of the year more than three
+hundred deputies had resigned their seats and quit the country; salving
+over to themselves the dereliction of the duties which a few months before
+they had voluntarily sought, and their performance of which was now a more
+imperative duty than ever, by denunciations of the crimes which had been
+committed, and which they had found themselves unable to prevent. They did
+not see that their pusillanimous flight must lead to a continuance of such
+atrocities, leaving, as it did, the undisputed sway in the Assembly to
+those very men who had been the authors of the outrages of which they
+complained. They were, in fact, insuring the ruin of all that they most
+wished to preserve; for, in the progress of the debates in the Assembly
+during the winter, many questions of the most vital importance were
+decided by very small majorities, which their presence would have turned
+into minorities. The greater the danger was, the more irresistible they
+ought to have felt the obligation to stand to the last by the cause of
+which they were the legitimate champions; and the final triumph of the
+Jacobin party owed hardly more to the energy of its leaders than to the
+cowardly and inglorious flight of the princes and nobles who left the
+field open without resistance to their wickedness and audacity.
+
+It was a melancholy winter that the queen now passed. So far as she was
+able, she diverted her mind from political anxieties by devoting much of
+her time to the education of her children. A little plot of ground was
+railed off in the garden of the Tuileries for the dauphin's[6] amusement;
+and one of her favorite relaxations was to watch him working at the
+flower-beds himself with his little hoe and rake; though, as if to mark
+that they were in fact prisoners, both she and he were followed wherever
+they went by grenadiers of the city-guard, and were not allowed to
+dispense with their attendance for a single moment. Marie Antoinette had
+reason to complain that she was watched as a criminal[7]. Sad as she was
+at heart, she was not allowed the comfort of privacy and retirement. She
+was forced to hold receptions for the nobles and chief citizens, and as
+the court was now formally established at the Tuileries, she dined every
+week in public with the king; but she steadily resisted the entreaties of
+some of the ministers and courtiers to visit the theatres, thinking, with
+great justice, that an attendance at public spectacles of that character
+would have had an appearance of gayety, as unbecoming at such a period of
+anxiety, as it was inconsistent with her feelings; and before the end of
+the winter she sustained a fresh affliction in the loss of her brother the
+emperor[8]; whose death bore with it the additional aggravation of
+depriving her of a counselor whose advice she valued, and of an ally on
+whose active aid she believed that she could rely far more than she could
+on that of their brother Leopold, who now succeeded to the imperial
+throne.
+
+Not that Leopold can be charged with indifference to his sister's welfare.
+In the very week of his accession to the throne he wrote to her with great
+affection, assuring her of his devotion to her interests, and expressing
+his desire to correspond with her in the most unreserved confidence. But
+the same letter shows that  as yet he knew but very little of her;[9] and
+that he regarded the difficulties in which some of Joseph's recent
+measures had involved the Imperial Government as sufficiently serious to
+engross his attention. A few extracts from her reply are worth preserving,
+as proving how steadily in her conduct and language to every one she
+adhered to her rule of concealing her husband's defects, and putting him
+forward as the first person on whose wishes and directions her own conduct
+most depend. It also shows what advances she was herself making in the
+perception of the true character of the crisis, so far as the objects of
+the few honest members who still remained in the Assembly were concerned,
+and the extent to which she was trying to reconcile herself to some
+curtailment of her husband's former authority.
+
+Thanking him for the assurance of his friendship, she says: "Believe me,
+my dear brother, we shall always be worthy of it. I say we, because I do
+not separate the king from myself. He was touched by your letter, as I was
+myself, and bids me assure you of this. His heart is loyalty and honesty
+itself; and if ever again we become, I do not say what we have been, but
+at least what we ought to be, you may then depend on the entire fidelity
+of a good ally.
+
+"I do not say any thing to you of our actual position: it is too heart-
+rending. It ought to afflict every sovereign in the universe, and still
+more an affectionate relation like you. It is only time and patience that
+can bring back men's minds to a healthy state. It is a war of opinions,
+and one which is still far from being terminated. It is only the justice
+of our cause and the feeling of a good conscience that can support us ...
+My most sincere wish is that you may never meet with ingratitude. My own
+melancholy experience proves to me that, of all evils, that is the most
+terrible."
+
+Yet no indignation at the thanklessness of the Parisians could chill her
+constant benevolence toward them; and amidst all the anxieties which
+filled her mind for herself, her husband, and her child, she founded an
+asylum for the education of a number of orphan daughters of old soldiers,
+and found time to give her careful attention to a code of regulations for
+its management.[10]
+
+Meanwhile circumstances were gradually paving the way for her accepting
+the help of him who, during the earliest discussions of the Assembly, had
+been, not so much through his own malice as through Necker's folly, her
+worst enemy. We have seen how, immediately after the attack on Versailles,
+Mirabeau had once more endeavored to find an opening through which to
+place himself at her service. He alone, perhaps, of all men in the
+kingdom, perceived the reality and greatness of the danger which
+threatened even the lives of the sovereigns;[11] and, as amidst all the
+errors into which his regard for his own interests, his vindictiveness, or
+his caprice impelled him, he always preserved the perceptions and
+instincts of a genuine statesman, many of the transactions of the winter
+increased his conviction of the peril in which every interest in the whole
+kingdom was placed, if the headlong folly of the Assembly could not be
+restrained, and if even, proverbially difficult as such a course is, some
+of its acts could not be rescinded; while one transaction, which, more
+than any other that had yet taken place, showed the greatness of the
+queen's heart, much sharpened his eagerness to prove himself a worthy
+servant of so noble-minded a mistress.
+
+Some of the magistrates who still desired to discharge their duty had
+instituted an investigation into the conspiracy which had originated the
+attack on Versailles, and all its multiplied horrors. They had examined a
+great body of witnesses, whose evidence left no doubt of the active part
+taken in it by the Duc d'Orléans and his partisans, and by Mirabeau,
+whether he were to be included among that prince's adherents or not; but
+they conceived it specially important to procure the testimony of the
+queen herself. However, it was in vain that they applied to her for the
+slightest information. Appeals to her indignation, to her pride, and to
+her danger, were equally disregarded by her. No denunciation of those who,
+whatever had been their crimes, were still the subjects of her husband,
+could, in her eyes, be becoming to her as queen; and when those who hoped
+to make a tool of her to crush their political rivals urged that no
+evidence would be accepted as equally conclusive with hers, since no one
+had seen so much of what had taken place, or had in so great a degree
+preserved that coolness which was indispensable to a clear account of it,
+and to the identification of the guilty, her reply was a dignified and
+magnanimous pardon of the outrages beneath which she had so nearly
+perished. "I have seen every thing; I have known every thing; I have
+forgotten every thing;" and Mirabeau, not unthankful for the protection
+which her magnanimity thus throw around him, was eager to make atonement
+for his past insults and injuries.
+
+And many of the recent events had convinced him that there was no time to
+lose. The vote of November, debarring him, in common with all other
+members of the Assembly, from office, was a severe blow to the most
+important of his projects, so far as his own interests were concerned.
+Within a month it had been followed by another, proposed by the Abbé
+Siéyes, a busy priest who boasted that he had made himself master of the
+whole science of politics, but who was in fact a mere slave of abstract
+theories, the safety or even the practicability of which he was utterly
+unable to estimate. On his motion, the Assembly, in a single evening,
+abolished all the ancient territorial divisions of the kingdom, and the
+very names of the provinces; dividing the country anew into eighty-three
+departments, and coupling with this new arrangement a number of details
+which were evidently calculated to wrest the whole executive authority of
+the kingdom from the crown and to vest it in the populace. At another
+sitting, the whole property of the Church was confiscated. On another
+night, the Parliaments were abolished; and on a fourth, the party which
+had carried these measures made a still more direct and audacious attack
+on the royal prerogative, by passing a resolution which deprived the crown
+of all power of revising the sentences of the judicial tribunals, and of
+pardoning or mitigating the punishment of those who might have been
+condemned. And, if to bring home to the tender-hearted monarch the full
+effect of this last inroad upon his legitimate power, they at the same
+time created a new crime to which they gave the name of treason against
+the nation,[12] without either defining it, or specifying the kind of
+evidence which should he required to prove it; and they proceeded at once
+to put it in force to procure the condemnation of a nobleman of decayed
+fortune, but of the highest character, the Marquis de Favras, in a manner
+which showed that their real object was to strike terror into the whole
+Royalist party. The charges on which he was brought to trial were not
+merely unfounded, but ridiculous. He was charged with designing to raise
+an army of thirty thousand men, with the object of carrying off the king
+from Paris, of dissolving the Assembly by force, and putting La Fayette
+and Bailly to death. The evidence with which it was pretended to support
+these charges broke down on every point, and its failure of itself
+established the prisoner's innocence, even without the aid of his own
+defense, which was lucid and eloquent. But the marquis was known to be a
+Royalist in feeling, and, though very poor, to stand high in the
+confidence of the princes. The demagogues collected mobs round the
+courthouse to intimidate the judges, and the judges proved as base as the
+accusers themselves. They professed, indeed, to fear not so much for their
+own lives as for the public tranquillity, but they pronounced him guilty.
+One of them had even the effrontery to acknowledge his innocence to Favras
+himself, and to affirm that his life was a necessary sacrifice to the
+public peace.
+
+No event since the attack on Versailles had caused Marie Antoinette equal
+anguish. It showed that attachment to the king and herself was in itself
+regarded as an inexpiable crime, and her distress was greatly augmented
+when, on the Sunday following the execution of the marquis, some of his
+friends brought to the table where, as usual, she was dining in public
+with the king, the widowed marchioness and her orphaned son in deep
+mourning, and presented them to their majesties. Their introducers
+evidently expected that the king, or at least the queen, by the
+distinguished reception which she would accord to them, would mark their
+sense of the merits of their late husband and father, and of the indignity
+of the sentence under which he had suffered.
+
+Marie Antoinette was sadly embarrassed and distressed: she was taken
+wholly by surprise; and it happened by a cruel perverseness of fortune
+that Santerre, the brewer, whose ruffianly and ferocious enmity to the
+whole royal family, and especially to herself, had been conspicuous
+throughout the worst outrages of the past summer and autumn, was on the
+same day on duty at the palace as commander of one of the battalions of
+the Parisian Guard, and was standing behind her chair when the marchioness
+and her son were introduced. Her embarrassment and all her feelings on the
+occasion were described by herself in the course of the afternoon to
+Madame Campan.
+
+After the dinner was over, she went up to her attendant's room, saying
+that it was a relief to find herself where she could weep at her ease; for
+weep she must at the folly of the ultra-Royalists. "We can not but be
+destroyed," she continued, "when we are attacked by people who unite every
+kind of talent to every kind of wickedness; and when we are defended by
+folks who are indeed very estimable, but who have no just notion of our
+position. They have now compromised me with both parties, in their
+presenting to me the widow and son of Favras. If I had been free to do as
+I would, I should have taken the child of a man who had just been
+sacrificed for us, and have placed him at table between the king and
+myself; but surrounded as I was by the very murderers who had caused his
+father's death, I could not venture even to bestow a glance upon him. Yet
+the Royalists will blame me for not having seemed to be interested in the
+poor child; while the Revolutionists will be furious, thinking that those
+who presented him to me knew that it would please me." And all that she
+could venture to do she did. She knew that the marchioness was very poor,
+and she sent her by a trusty agent a few hundred louis, and with it a kind
+message, assuring the unhappy widow that she would always watch over her
+and her son's interests.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+The King accepts the Constitution so far as it has been settled.--The
+Queen makes a Speech to the Deputies.--She is well received at the
+Theatre.--Negotiations with Mirabeau.--The Queen's Views of the Position
+of Affairs.--The Jacobin Club denounces Mirabeau.--Deputation of
+Anacharsis Clootz.--Demolition of the Statue of Louis XIV.--Abolition of
+Titles of Honor.--The Queen admits Mirabeau to an Audience.--His
+Admiration of her Courage and Talents.--Anniversary of the Capture of the
+Bastile.--Fête of the Champ de Mars.--Presence of Mind of the Queen.
+
+
+What was probably as painful to Marie Antoinette as these occurrences
+themselves was the apathy with which the king regarded them. The English
+traveler to whose journal we have more than once referred, and who, in the
+first week of the year, saw the royal pair waiting in the gardens of the
+Tuileries, remarked that though the queen did not appear in good health,
+but showed melancholy and anxiety in her face, the king, on the other
+hand, "was as plump as ease could render him.[1]" And in the course of
+February, in spite of all her remonstrances, Necker succeeded in
+persuading him to go down to the Assembly, and to address the members in a
+long speech, in which, though some of his expressions were clearly
+intended as a reproof of the Assembly itself for the precipitation and
+violence of some of its measures, he nevertheless declared his cordial
+assent to the new Constitution, so far as they had yet settled it, and
+promised to co-operate in a spirit of affection and confidence in the
+labors which still remained to be achieved.
+
+The greater part of the speech is believed to have been his own
+composition; and it is characteristic of the fidelity with which, on every
+occasion, Marie Antoinette adhered to her rule of strengthening her
+husband's position by her own cordial and conspicuous support, that,
+strongly as she had objected to the step before it was taken, now that it
+was decided on, she professed a decided approval of it; and when a
+deputation of the Assembly, which had been appointed to escort the king
+with honor back to the palace, solicited an audience of herself to pay
+their respects, she assured the deputies that "she partook of all the
+sentiments of the king; that she united with all her heart and mind in the
+measure which his love for his people had just dictated to him." And then,
+bringing the dauphin forward, she added: "Behold my son. I shall
+unceasingly speak to him of the virtues of his most excellent father. I
+shall teach him from the earliest age to cherish public liberty, and I
+hope that he will be its firmest bulwark."
+
+For a moment the step seemed to have succeeded, though the proofs of its
+success were still more strongly proofs of the utter want of sense that
+marked all the proceedings of the Assembly. As Louis had expressed his
+assent to the Constitution so far as it was settled, it was proposed, as a
+fitting compliment to him, that the Assembly and the whole body of the
+citizens of Paris should take an oath of fidelity to the Constitution
+without any such reservation. But in the course of the next few weeks the
+Assembly showed how little his reproof of its former precipitation and
+violence had been heeded, since, among the first measures with which it
+proceeded to the completion of the Constitution, one deprived him of the
+right of deciding on peace and war, a power which all wise statesmen
+regard as inseparable from the executive government; another extinguished
+the right of primogeniture; and a third confiscated all the property of
+the monastic establishments.
+
+However, those who took the lead in the management of affairs (for Necker
+and the ministers had long ceased to exert the slightest authority) were
+blinded by their own fury to the absurdity and inconsistency of their
+conduct. Their exultation was unbounded, and, adhering to the line of
+conduct which she had marked out for herself, Marie Antoinette now yielded
+to their entreaties that she would show herself to the citizens at the
+theatre. Even in the days of her earliest popularity she had never met a
+more enthusiastic reception. The greater part of the house rose at her
+entrance, clapping their hands and cheering, and the disloyalty of a few
+malcontents only made her triumph more conspicuous, so roughly were they
+treated by the rest of the audience. Marie Antoinette was herself touched
+at the cordiality with which she was greeted, and saw in it another proof
+that "the people and citizens were good at heart if left to themselves;
+but," she added to the Princess de Lamballe, to whom she described the
+scene, "all this enthusiasm is but a gleam of light, a cry of conscience
+which weakness will soon stifle.[2]"
+
+It is probably doing no injustice to Mirabeau to believe that the crimes
+which had made the greatest impression on the queen were not the events
+which affected him the most strongly. But he was not only a statesman in
+intellect, but an aristocrat in every feeling of his heart. No man was
+fonder of referring to his illustrious ancestors; or of claiming kindred
+with men of old renown, such as the Admiral de Coligny, of whom he more
+than once boasted in the Assembly as his cousin; and each blow dealt at
+the consideration of the Nobles was an additional incentive to him to seek
+to arrest the progress of a revolution which had already gone far beyond
+his wishes or his expectations. And as he was always energetic in the
+pursuit of his plans, he had, by some means or other, in spite of the
+discouragement derived from the language and conduct of the Count de
+Provence, contrived to get information of his willingness to enlist in the
+Royalist party conveyed to the queen. The Count de la Marck, who was still
+his chief confidant, was at Brussels at the beginning of the spring, when
+he received a letter from Mercy, begging him to return without delay to
+Paris. He lost no time in obeying the summons, when he learned, to his
+great delight, though his pleasure was alloyed by some misgiving, that the
+king and queen had resolved to avail themselves of Mirabeau's services,
+and that he himself was selected as the intermediate agent in the
+negotiation. La Marck's misgiving,[3] as he frankly told the embassador at
+the outset, was caused by the fear that Mirabeau had done more harm than
+he could repair; but he gladly undertook the commission, though its
+difficulty was increased by a stipulation which showed at once the
+weakness of the king, and the extraordinary difficulties which it placed
+in the way of his friends. The count was especially warned to keep all
+that was passing a secret from Necker. He was startled, as he well might
+be, at such an injunction. But he did not think it became his position to
+start a difficulty; and, as he was fully impressed with the importance of
+not losing time, the negotiation proceeded rapidly. He introduced Mirabeau
+to Mercy, and he himself was admitted to an interview with the queen, when
+he learned that her greatest objections to accepting Mirabeau's services
+were of a personal nature, founded partly on the general badness of his
+character, partly on the share he had borne in the events of the 5th and
+6th of October. By the count's own account, he went rather beyond the
+truth in his endeavors to exculpate his friend on this point; and he
+probably deceived himself when he believed that he had convinced the queen
+of his innocence. But both she and Louis, who was present at a part of the
+interview, had evidently made up their minds to forget the past, if they
+could trust his promises for the future. And the interview ended in the
+further conduct of the necessary arrangements being left by Louis to the
+queen.
+
+In a subsequent conversation with the count, she explained her own views
+of the existing situation of affairs, describing them, indeed, according
+to her custom, as the ideas of the king, in a manner which shows how much
+she was willing that the king should abate of his old prerogatives,
+provided only that the concessions were made voluntarily by himself, and
+not imposed by violent and illegal resolutions of the Assembly. Mirabeau
+had drawn up an elaborate memorial for the consideration of the king, in
+which he pointed out in general terms his sense of the state of "utter
+anarchy" into which France had fallen, his shame and indignation at
+feeling "that he himself had contributed to bring affairs into such a bad
+state." and his "profound conviction of the necessity, in the interests of
+the whole nation, of re-establishing the legitimate authority of the
+king.[4]" And Marie Antoinette, commenting on this expression, assured La
+Marck that "the king had no desire to recover the full extent of the
+authority which he had formerly possessed; and that he was far from
+thinking it necessary for his own personal happiness any more than for the
+welfare of his people.[5]" And it seemed to the count that she placed
+unlimited confidence in Mirabeau's ability to re-establish her husband's
+power on a sufficient and satisfactory basis; so full was her
+conversation, during the latter part of the interview, of the good which
+she expected to be again able to do, and of the warm affection with which
+she regarded the people.
+
+The benefits of this new alliance were not to be all on one side. Mirabeau
+was overwhelmed with debt; and though his father had died in the preceding
+summer, he had not yet entered into his inheritance, but was in a state
+little short of absolute destitution. From this condition he was to be
+relieved, and the arrangements for the discharge of his debts, and the
+securing to him the enjoyment of a sufficient though by no means excessive
+income, were intrusted to Marie Antoinette by the king, and by her to her
+almoner, M. de Fontanges, who, when Loménie de Brienne was promoted to the
+archbishopric of Sens, had succeeded him at Toulouse. The archbishop, who
+was sincerely devoted to his royal mistress, carried out the necessary
+arrangements with great skill, but they could not be managed with such
+secrecy as entirely to escape notice. Among the clubs which had been set
+on foot at the beginning of the previous year the most violent had been
+that known as the Breton Club, from being founded by some of the deputies
+from the great province of Brittany; but, when the court removed to Paris,
+and the Assembly was established in a large building close to the garden
+of the Tuileries, the Bretons obtained the use of an apartment in an old
+convent of Dominican or Jacobin friars (as they were called), the same
+which two centuries before had been the council-room of the League, and
+they changed their own designation also, and called themselves the
+Jacobins; and, canceling the rule which limited the right of membership to
+deputies, they now admitted every one who, by application for election,
+avowed his adherence to their principles. Their leaders at this time were
+Barnave; a young noble named Alexander Lameth, whose mother, having been
+left in necessitous circumstances, owed to the bounty of the king and
+queen the means of educating her children, a benefit which they repaid
+with the most unremitting hostility to the whole royal family; and a
+lawyer named Duport. Mirabeau was in the habit of ridiculing them as the
+triumvirate; but they were crafty and unscrupulous men, skillful in
+procuring information; and, having obtained intelligence of his
+negotiations with the court, they retaliated on him by hiring pamphleteers
+and journalists to attack him, and narratives of the treason of the Count
+de Mirabeau were hawked about the streets.
+
+To apply such language to the adherence of a French noble to the crown was
+the most open avowal of disloyalty on which the revolutionary party had
+yet ventured; and in the next four weeks it received a practical
+development in a series of measures, some of which were so ridiculous as
+only to deserve notice from the additional evidence which they furnished
+of the extreme folly of those who now had the lead in the Assembly, and of
+the strange excitement in which the whole nation, or at least the whole
+population of Paris, must have been wrought up before they could mistake
+their acts for those of sagacity or patriotism; but others of which,
+though not less unwise, were of greater importance as being irrevocable
+steps in the downward course of destruction along which the whole country
+was being dragged.
+
+The leaders of the revolutionary party had already selected two days in
+the past year as especially memorable for the triumphs won over the crown:
+one was the 20th of June, on which, in the Tennis Court at Versailles, the
+members of the Assembly had bound themselves to effect the regeneration of
+the kingdom; the other the 14th of July, on which, as they boasted, they
+had forever established freedom by the destruction of the Bastile; and
+they determined this year to celebrate both these anniversaries in a
+becoming manner. Accordingly, on the 20th of June, a crack-brained member
+of the Jacobin Club, a Prussian of noble birth, named Clootz, who, to show
+his affinity with the philosophers of old, had assumed the name of
+Anacharsis, hired a band of vagrants and idlers, and, dressing them up in
+a variety of costumes to represent Arabs, red Indians, Turks, Chinese,
+Laplanders, and other tribes, savage and civilized, led them into the
+Assembly as a deputation from all the nations of the earth to announce the
+resurrection of the whole world from slavery; and demanded permission for
+them to attend the festival of the ensuing month, that each, on behalf of
+his country, might give in his adhesion to the principles of liberty as
+expounded by the Assembly. The president of the day replied with an
+oration thanking M. Clootz for the honor done to France by such an
+embassy; and Alexander Lameth followed up the president's harangue by
+fresh praises of the deputation as holy pilgrims who had thrown off the
+shackles of superstition. Nor was he content with a barren panegyric. He
+had devised an appropriate sacrifice with which to commemorate such
+exalted virtue. In the finest square of the city, the Place des Victoires,
+the Duke de la Feuillade had erected a statue of Louis XIV. to celebrate
+his royal master's triumphs, the pedestal of which was decorated with
+allegorical representations of the nations which had been conquered by the
+French marshals. It was generally regarded as the finest work of art in
+the city, and as such it had long been an object of admiration and pride
+to the citizens. But M. Lameth, in his new-born enthusiasm, regarded it
+with other eyes, and closed his speech by proposing that, as monuments of
+despotism and flattery could not fail to be shocking to so enlightened a
+body, the Assembly should order its instant demolition. His proposal was
+received with enthusiastic cheers, and the noble monument was instantly
+overthrown in a fit of blind fury more resembling the orgies of drunken
+Bacchanals, or the thirst for desolation which had animated the Goths and
+Huns, than the conduct of the chosen legislators of a polite and
+accomplished people.
+
+But even this was not all. The insult to the memory of a king who, little
+as he deserved it, had a century before been the object of the unanimous
+admiration of his subjects, was but a prelude to other resolutions of far
+greater moment, as giving an indelible character to the future of the
+nation. A deputy, M. Lambel, whose very name was previously unknown to the
+majority of his colleagues, rose and made a speech of three lines, as if
+the proposal which it contained only required to be mentioned to command
+instant and universal assent "This day," said he, "is the tomb of vanity.
+I demand the suppression of the titles of duke, count, marquis, viscount,
+baron, and knight." La Fayette and Alexander Lameth's brother, Charles,
+supported the demand with almost equal brevity; a representative of one of
+the most ancient families in the kingdom, the Viscount Matthieu de
+Montmorency moved a prohibition of the use of armorial bearings; another
+noble, M. de St. Targeau, proposed that the use of names derived from the
+estates of the owners should be abolished. Every proposal was carried by
+acclamation. Louder and louder cheers followed each suggestion of a new
+abolition; a member who ventured to propose an amendment to one proposal
+was hooted down; and in little more than an hour the whole series of
+resolutions, which struck at once at the recollections and glories of the
+past and at the dignity of the future, was made the law of the land.
+
+Every one of these attacks on the nobles was a fresh provocation to
+Mirabeau, and increased his eagerness to complete his reconciliation with
+the crown. He pronounced the abolition of titles a torch to kindle civil
+war, and pressed more earnestly than ever for an interview with the queen,
+in which he might both learn her views and explain his own. Marie
+Antoinette had foreseen that she should be forced to admit him to her
+presence, but there was nothing to which she felt a stronger repugnance.
+His profligate character excited a feeling of perfect disgust in her mind;
+but for the public good she overcame it, and, having in the course of June
+removed to St. Cloud for change of air, on the 3d of July she, accompanied
+by the king, received him in the garden of that palace. The account which
+she sent her brother of the interview shows with what a mixture of
+feelings she had been agitated. She speaks of herself as "shivering with
+horror" as the moment drew near, and can not bring herself to describe him
+except as a "monster," though, she admits that his language speedily
+removed her agitation, which, when he was first presented to her, had
+nearly made her ill. "He seemed to be actuated by entire good faith, and
+to be altogether devoted to the king; and Louis was highly pleased with
+him, so that they now thought every thing was safe.[6]"
+
+She, on her part, had made an equally favorable impression on him. She had
+adroitly flattered his high opinion of himself by saying that "if she had
+been speaking to persons of a different class and character she should
+have felt the necessity of being guarded in her language, but that in
+dealing with a Mirabeau there could be no need of such caution;" and he
+told his confidant, La Marck, that till he knew "the soul and thoughts of
+the daughter of Maria Teresa, and learned how fully he could reckon on
+that august ally, he had seen nothing of the court but its weakness; but
+now confidence had raised his courage, and gratitude had made the
+prosecution of his principles a duty;[7]" and in some subsequent letters
+he speaks of every thing as depending on the queen, and describes in brief
+but forcible language his appreciation of the dangers which surrounded
+her, and of the magnanimous courage with which he sees that she is
+prepared to confront them. "The king," he says, "has but one man about
+him, and that is his wife. There is no safety for her but in the
+reestablishment of the royal authority. I love to believe that she would
+not desire to preserve life without the crown. What I am quite certain of
+is, that she will not preserve her life unless she preserves her crown."
+
+In his interview with her, as she reported it to the emperor, he had
+recommended, as the first step to be adopted by the king and herself, a
+departure from Paris; and, in reference to that plan, which he at all
+times regarded as the foundation of every other, he tells La Marck: "The
+moment will soon come when it will be necessary to try what can be done by
+a woman and a child on horseback. For her it is but the adoption of an
+hereditary mode of action.[8] But she must be prepared for it, and must
+not suppose that one can extricate one's self from an extraordinary crisis
+by mere chance or by the combinations of an ordinary man."
+
+The hopes with which the acquisition of such an ally inspired the queen at
+this time nerved her to bear her part in the festival with which the
+Assembly had decided on celebrating the demolition of the Bastile. The
+arrangements for it were of a gigantic character. Round the sides of the
+Champ de Mars a vast embankment was raised, so as to give the plain the
+appearance of an amphitheatre, and to afford accommodation to three
+hundred thousand spectators. At the entrance a magnificent arch of triumph
+was erected. The centre was occupied by a grand altar; and on one side a
+gorgeous pavilion was appropriated to the king, his family, and retinue,
+the members of the Assembly, and the municipal magistrates. They were all
+to be performers in the grand ceremony which was to be the distinguishing
+feature of the day. The Constitution was scarcely more complete than it
+had been when Louis signified his acceptance of it five months before; but
+now, not only were he, the deputies, and municipal authorities of Paris to
+swear to its maintenance, but the same oath was to be taken by the
+National Guard, and by a deputation from every regiment in the army; and
+it was to bind the soldiers throughout the kingdom to the new order of
+things that the ceremony was originally designed.[9]
+
+As a spectacle few have been more successful, and perhaps none has ever
+been so imposing. Before midnight on the 13th of July, the whole of the
+vast amphitheatre was filled with a dense crowd, in its gayest holiday
+attire--a marvelous and magnificent sight from its mere numbers; and early
+the next morning the heads of the procession began to defile under the
+arch at the entrance of the plain--La Fayette, at the head of the National
+Guard, leading the way. It was a curious proof of the king's weakness, and
+of the tenacity with which he clung to his policy of conciliation, that,
+in spite of his knowledge of the general's bitter animosity to his
+authority and to himself, and of his recent vote for the suppression of
+all titles of honor, Louis had offered him the sword of the Constable of
+France, a dignity which had been disused for many years; and it was an
+equally striking evidence of La Fayette's inveterate disloyalty that,
+gratifying as the succession to Duguesclin and Montmorency would have been
+to his vanity, he nevertheless refused the honor, and contented himself
+with the dignity which the enrollment of the detachments from the
+different departments under his banner conferred on him, by giving him the
+appearance of being the commander-in-chief of the National Guard
+throughout the kingdom. The National Guard was followed by regiment after
+regiment, and deputation after deputation, of the regular army; and, to
+show the subordination to the law which they were expected to acknowledge
+for the future, their swords were all sheathed, while the deputies, the
+municipal magistrates, and other peaceful citizens who bore a part in the
+procession had their swords drawn. Sailors from the fleet, magistrates and
+deputations from every department, and from every city or town of
+importance in the kingdom, followed; and after them came two hundred
+priests, with Talleyrand, Bishop of Autun, in his episcopal vestments at
+their head, their white robes somewhat uncanonically decorated with
+tricolor ribbons, who passed on into the centre of the plain and ranged
+themselves on the steps of the altar. So vast was the procession that it
+was half-past three in the afternoon before the detachment of Royal Guards
+which closed it took up their position.
+
+When at last all were in their places, Louis, accompanied by the queen and
+other members of his family, entered the royal pavilion. He was known by
+sight to the deputations from the most distant provinces, for he had
+reviewed them in a body the day before, when several of them had been
+separately presented to him, toward whom he had for once laid aside his
+habitual reserve, assuring them of his fatherly regard for all his
+subjects with warmth and manifest sincerity. The queen, too, as she always
+did, had made a most favorable impression on those members whom she had
+seen by her judicious and cordial affability. Louis wore no robes, but
+only the ordinary dress of a French noble. Marie Antoinette was in full
+evening costume, and her hair was dressed with a plume of tricolor
+feathers. Yet even on this day, which was intended to be one of universal
+joy and friendliness, evil signs were not wanting to show how powerful
+were the enemies of both king and queen; for no seat whatever had been
+provided for her, while by the aide of that constructed for the king
+another on very nearly the same level had been placed for the President of
+the Assembly.
+
+But these refinements of discourtesy were lost on the spectators. They
+cheered the royal pair joyously the moment that they appeared. Before the
+shouts had died away, Bishop Talleyrand began the service of the mass;
+and, on its termination, administered the oath "of fidelity to the nation,
+the law, the king, and the Constitution as decreed by the Assembly and
+accepted by the king." La Fayette took the oath first in the name of the
+army. Talleyrand followed on behalf of the clergy. Bailly came next, as
+the representative of the citizens of Paris. It was a stormy day; and when
+the moment arrived for the king to set the seal to the universal
+acceptance of the constitution by swearing to exert all his own power for
+its maintenance, the rain came down so heavily as to render it impossible
+for him to leave the shelter of his own pavilion. As it happened, the
+momentary disappointment gave a greater effect to his act. With more than
+usual presence of mind, he advanced to the front of the pavilion, so as to
+be seen by the whole of the assembled multitude, and took the oath with a
+loud voice and perfect dignity of manner. As he resumed his seat, the rain
+cleared away, the sun burst through the clouds; and the queen, as if by a
+sudden inspiration, brought forward the little dauphin, and, lifting him
+up in her arms, showed him to the people. Those whom the king's voice
+could not reach saw the graceful action; and from every side of the plain
+one universal acclamation burst forth, which seemed to bear out Marie
+Antoinette's favorite assertion that the people were good at heart, and
+that it was not without great perseverance in artifice and malignity that
+they could be excited to disloyalty and treason.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+Great Tumults in the Provinces.--Mutiny in the Marquis de Bouillé's Army.
+--Disorder of the Assembly.--Difficulty of managing Mirabeau.--Mercy is
+removed to The Hague.--Marie Antoinette sees constant Changes in the
+Aspect of Affairs.--Marat denounces Her.--Attempts are made to assassinate
+Her.--Resignation of Mirabeau.--Misconduct of the Emigrant Princes.
+
+
+But men less blinded by the feverish excitement of revolutionary
+enthusiasm would have seen but little in the state of France at this time
+to regard as matter for exultation. Many of the recent measures of the
+Assembly, and especially the extinction of the old provinces, had created
+great discontent in the rural districts. Formidable riots had broken out
+in many quarters, especially in the great southern cities, in some of
+which the mob had rivaled the worst excesses of its Parisian brethren;
+massacring the magistrates, tearing their bodies into pieces, and
+terrifying the peaceable inhabitants by processions, in which the mangled
+remains of their victims formed the most conspicuous feature. At Brest and
+at Toulon the sailors showed that they fully shared the general
+dissatisfaction; while in the army a formidable mutiny broke out among the
+troops which were under the command of the Marquis de Bouillé, in
+Lorraine. That, indeed, had a different object, since it had been excited
+by Jacobin emissaries, who were aware that the marquis, the soldier who,
+of the whole French army at that time, enjoyed the highest reputation, was
+firmly attached to the king; though he was not one of the nobles who had
+opposed all reform, nor had he hesitated to follow his royal master's
+example and to declare his acceptance of the new Constitution. Fortunately
+he had subalterns worthy of him, and faithful to their oaths; and as he
+was a man of great promptitude and decision, he, with their aid, quelled
+the mutiny, though not without a sanguinary conflict, in which he himself
+lost above four hundred men, while the loss which he inflicted on the
+mutineers was far heavier. But he had set a noble example, and had given
+an undeniable proof of the possibility of quelling the most formidable
+tumults; and it may be said that his quarters were the only spot in all
+France which was not wholly given up to anarchy and disorder.
+
+For even the Assembly itself was a prey to tumult and violence. From the
+time of its assuming that title admission had been given to every one who
+could force his way into the chamber, whether he was a member or not; nor
+was any order preserved among those who thus obtained admission; but they
+were allowed to express their opinion of every speaker and of every speech
+by friendly or unfriendly clamor: a practice which, as may well be
+supposed, materially influenced many votes. And presently attendance for
+that purpose became a trade; some of the most violent deputies hiring a
+regularly appointed troop to take their station in the galleries, and
+paying them daily wages to applaud or hiss in accordance with the signs
+which they themselves made from the body of the hall.[1] And if the
+populace was thus the master of the Assembly while at Versailles, this was
+far more the case after its removal to Paris, where the number of the idle
+portion of the population furnished the Jacobins with far greater means of
+intimidating their adversaries.
+
+It was remarkable that La Marck himself, as has been already intimated,
+did not fully share the hopes which the king and queen founded on the
+adhesion of Mirabeau. It was not only that on one point he had sounder
+views than Mirabeau himself--doubting, as he did, whether the mischief
+which his vehement friend had formerly done could now be undone by the
+same person, merely because he had changed his mind--but he also felt
+doubts of Mirabeau's steadiness in his new path, and feared lest eagerness
+for popularity, or an innate levity of disposition, might still lead him
+astray. As he described him in a letter to Mercy, "he was sometimes very
+great and sometimes very little; he could be very useful, and he could be
+very mischievous: in a word, he was often above, and sometimes greatly
+below, any other man." At another time he speaks of him as "by turns
+imprudent through excess of confidence, and lukewarm from distrust;" and
+this estimate of the great demagogue, which was not very incorrect, shows,
+too, how high an opinion La Marck had formed of the queen's ability and
+force of character, for he looks to her "to put a curb on his
+inconstancy,[2]" trusting for that result not so much to her power of
+fascination as to her clearness of view and resolution.
+
+And she herself was never so misled by her high estimate of Mirabeau's
+abilities and influence as to think his judgment unerring. On the
+contrary, her comment to Mercy on one of the earliest letters which he
+addressed to the king was that it was "full of madness from one end to the
+other," and she asked "how he, or any one else, could expect that at such
+a moment the king and she could be induced to provoke a civil war?"
+alluding, apparently, to his urgent advice that the royal family should
+leave Paris, a step of the necessity for which she was not yet convinced.
+Her hope evidently was that he would bring forward some motions in the
+Assembly which might at least arrest the progress of mischief, and perhaps
+even pave the way for the repair of some of the evil already done.
+
+On one point she partly agreed with him, but not wholly. He insisted on
+the necessity of dismissing the ministers; but she, though thinking them,
+both as a body and individually, unequal to the crisis, saw great
+difficulty in replacing them, since the vote of the preceding winter
+forbade the king to select their successors from the members of the
+Assembly;[3] and she feared also lest, if he should dismiss them, the
+Assembly would carry out a plan which, as it seemed to her, it already
+showed great inclination to adopt, of managing every thing by means of
+committees, and preventing the appointment of any new administration. Her
+view of the situation, and of the king's and her position, varied from
+time to time, as indeed their circumstances and the views of the Assembly
+appeared to alter. In August she is in great distress, caused by a
+decision of the emperor to remove Mercy to the Hague. "I am," she writes
+to the embassador, "in despair at your departure, especially at a moment
+when affairs are becoming every day more embarrassing and more painful,
+and when I have therefore the greater need of an attachment as sincere and
+enlightened as yours. But I feel that all the powers, under different
+pretexts, will withdraw their ministers one after another. It is
+impossible to leave them incessantly exposed to this disorder and license;
+but such is my destiny, and I am forced to endure the horror of it to the
+very end.[4]" But a fortnight later she tells Madame de Polignac that "for
+some days things have been wearing a better complexion. She can not feel
+very sanguine, the mischievous folks having such an interest in perverting
+every thing, and in hindering every thing which, is reasonable, and such
+means of doing so; but at the moment the number of ill-intentioned people
+is diminished, or at least the right-thinking of all classes and of all
+ranks are more united ... You may depend upon it," she adds, "that
+misfortunes have not diminished my resolution or my courage: I shall not
+lose any of that; they will only give me more prudence.[5]" Indeed, her
+own strength of mind, fortitude, and benevolence were the only things in
+France which were not constantly changing at this time; and she derived
+one lesson from the continued vicissitudes to which she was exposed,
+which, if partly grievous, was also in part full of comfort and
+encouragement to so warm a heart. "It is in moments such as these that one
+learns to know men, and to see who are truly attached to one, and who are
+not. I gain every day fresh experiences in this point; sometimes cruel,
+sometimes pleasant; for I am continually finding that some people are
+truly and sincerely attached to us, to whom I never gave a thought."
+
+Another of her old vexations was revived in the renewed jealousy of
+Austrian influence with which the Jacobin leaders at this time inspired
+the mob, and which was so great that, when in the autumn Leopold sent the
+young Prince de Lichtenstein as his envoy to notify his accession, Marie
+Antoinette could only venture to give him a single audience; and, greatly
+as she enjoyed the opportunity of gathering from him news of Vienna and of
+the old friends of the childhood of whom she still cherished an
+affectionate recollection, she was yet forced to dismiss him after a few
+minutes' conversation, and to beg him to accelerate his departure from
+Paris, lest even that short interview should be made a pretext for fresh
+calumnies. "The kindest thing that any Austrian of mark could do for her,"
+she told her brother, "was to keep away from Paris at present.[6]" She
+would gladly have seen the Assembly interest itself a little in the
+politics of the empire, where Leopold's own situation was full of
+difficulties; but the French had not yet come to consider themselves as
+justified in interfering in the internal government of other countries. As
+she describes their feelings to the emperor, "They feel their own
+individual troubles, but those of their neighbors do not yet affect them;
+and the names of Liberty and Despotism are so deeply engraved in their
+heads, even though they do not clearly define them, that they are
+everlastingly passing from the love of the former to the dread of the
+latter;" and then she adds a sketch of her own ideas and expectations, and
+of the objects which she conceives it her duty to keep in view, in which
+it is affecting to see that her utter despair of any future happiness for
+the king and herself in no degree weakens her desire to promote the
+happiness of the very people who have caused her suffering. "Our task is
+to watch skillfully for the moment when men's heads have returned to
+proper ideas sufficiently to make them enjoy a reasonable and honest
+freedom, such as the king has himself always desired for the happiness of
+his people; but far from that license and anarchy which have precipitated
+the fairest of kingdoms into all possible miseries. Our health continues
+good, but it would be better if we could only perceive the least gleam of
+happiness around us; as for ourselves, that is at an end forever, happen
+what will. I know that it is the duty of a king to suffer for others; and
+it is one which we are discharging thoroughly."
+
+She had indeed at this time sufferings to which it is characteristic of
+her undaunted courage that she never makes the slightest allusion in her
+letters. Of all the Jacobin party, one of the most blood-thirsty was a
+wretch named Marat.[7] At the very outset of the Revolution he had
+established a newspaper to which he gave the name of _The People's
+Friend_, and the staple topic of which was the desirableness of bloodshed
+and massacre. He had been exasperated at the receptions given to the royal
+family at the festival of July; and for some weeks afterward his efforts
+were directed to inflame the populace to a new riot, in which the king and
+queen should be dragged into Paris from St. Cloud, as in 1789 they had
+been dragged in from Versailles, and which should end in the murder of the
+queen, the ministers, and several hundreds of other innocent persons; and
+his denunciations very nearly bore a part of their intended fruit. The
+royal family had hardly returned to St. Cloud, when a man named Rotondo
+was apprehended in the inner garden, who confessed that he had made his
+way into it with the express design of assassinating Marie Antoinette, a
+design which was only balked by the fortunate accident of a heavy shower
+which prevented her from leaving the house; and a week or two afterward a
+second plot was discovered, the contrivers of which designed to poison
+her. Her attendants were greatly alarmed; and her physician furnished
+Madame Campan with an antidote for such poisons as seemed most likely to
+be employed. But Marie Antoinette herself cared little for such
+precautions. Assassination was not the end which she anticipated. On one
+occasion, when she found Madame Campan changing some powdered sugar which,
+it was suspected, might have been tampered with, she thanked her, and
+praised M. Vicq-d'Azyr, the physician by whose instructions Madame Campan
+was acting, but told her that she was giving herself needless trouble.
+"Depend upon it," she added, "they will not employ a grain of poison
+against me. The Brinvilliers[8] do not belong to this age; people now use
+calumny, which is much more effectual for killing people; and it is by
+calumny that they will work my destruction.[9] But even thus, if my death
+only secures the throne to my son, I shall willingly die."
+
+One of the measures which Mirabeau strongly urged, and as to which Marie
+Antoinette hesitated, balancing the difficulties to which it was not
+unlikely to give rise against the advantages which were more obvious, was
+arranged without her intervention. Necker had but one panacea for all the
+ills of a defective constitution or an ill-regulated government--the
+re-establishment of the finances of the country; and, as public confidence
+is indispensable to national credit, the troubles of the last year had
+largely increased the embarrassments of the Treasury. He was also but
+scantily endowed with personal courage. In the denunciations of Marat he
+had not been spared, and by the beginning of September fear had so
+predominated over every other feeling in his mind that he resolved to quit
+a country which, as he was not one of her sons, seemed to him to have no
+such claim on his allegiance that he should imperil his life for her sake.
+But in carrying out his determination, he exhibited a strange
+forgetfulness, not only of the respect due to his royal master as king,
+but also of all the ordinary rules of propriety; for he did not resign his
+office into the hands of the sovereign from whom he had received it, but
+he announced his retirement to the Assembly, sending the president of the
+week a letter in which he attributed his reasons for the step partly to
+his health, which he described as weak, and partly to the "mortal
+anxieties of his wife, as virtuous as she was dear to his heart." It was
+hardly to be wondered at that the members present were moved rather to
+laughter than to sympathy by this sentimental effusion. They took no
+notice of the letter, and passed to the order of the day; and certainly,
+if it afforded evidence of his amiable disposition, it supplied proof at
+least equally strong of the weakness of his character, and of his
+consequent unfitness for any post of responsibility at such a time.
+
+It was more to his credit that he at the same time placed in the treasury
+a sum of two millions of francs to cover any incorrectness which might be
+discovered or suspected in his accounts, and any loss which might be
+sustained from the depreciation of the paper money lately issued under his
+administration, though not with his approbation. All the rest of his
+colleagues retired at the same time, except the foreign secretary, M.
+Montmorin. They had recently been attacked with great violence in the
+Assembly by a combination of the most extreme democrats and the most
+extreme Royalists, the latter of whom accused them of having betrayed the
+royal authority by unworthy accessions. But, though, in the division which
+had taken place they had been supported by a considerable majority, they
+feared a repetition of the attack, and resigned their offices; in some
+degree undoubtedly weakening their royal master by their retirement, since
+those by whom he found himself compelled to replace them had still less of
+his confidence. Two--Duport de Tertre, Keeper of the Seals, and Duportail,
+Minister of War--were creatures of La Fayette, and the first mentioned was
+notoriously unfriendly to the queen. Two others--Lambert, the successor of
+Necker, and Fleurieu, the Minister of Marine--were under the influence of
+Barnave and the Jacobins. The only member of the new ministry who was in
+the least degree acceptable to Louis was M. de Lessart, the Minister of
+the Interior; but he, though loyal in purpose, was of too moderate talents
+for his appointment to add any real strength to the royal cause.
+
+Marie Antoinette, however, paid but little attention to these ministerial
+changes; she disregarded them--and her view was not unsound--as but the
+displacement of one set of weak men by another set equally weak; and she
+saw, too, that the Assembly had established so complete a mastery over the
+Government, that even men of far greater ability and force of character
+would have been impotent for good. Her whole dependence was on Mirabeau;
+and his course at this time was so capricious and erratic that it often
+caused her more perplexity and alarm than pleasure or confidence. He
+regarded himself as having a very difficult part to play. He could not
+conceal from himself that he was no longer able to lead the Assembly as he
+had done at first, except when he was urging it along a road which it
+desired to take. In spite of one of his most brilliant efforts of
+eloquence, he had recently been defeated in an endeavor to preserve to the
+king the right of peace and war; and, to regain his ascendency, he more
+than once in the course of the autumn supported measures to which the king
+and queen had the greatest repugnance, and made speeches so inflammatory
+that even his own friend, La Marck, was indignant at his language, and
+expostulated with him with great earnestness. He justified himself by
+explaining his view[10] that no man in the country could at present bring
+the people back to reasonable notions; that they could only at this moment
+be governed by flattering their prejudices; that the king must trust to
+time alone; and that his own sole prospect of being of use to the crown
+lay in his preservation of his popularity till the favorable moment should
+arrive, even if, to preserve that popularity, it were necessary for him at
+times still to appear a supporter of revolutionary principles. It is not
+impossible that the motives which he thus described did really influence
+him; but it was not strange that Marie Antoinette should fail to
+appreciate such refined subtlety. She had looked forward to his taking a
+bold, straightforward course in defense of Royalist principles; and she
+could hardly believe in the honesty of a man who for any object whatever
+could seem to disregard or to despise them. Her feelings may be shown by
+some extracts from one of her letters to the emperor written just after
+one of Mirabeau's most violent outbursts, apparently his speech in support
+of a motion that the fleet should be ordered to hoist the tricolor flag.
+
+"October 22d, 1790.
+
+"We are again fallen back into chaos and all our old distrust. Mirabeau
+had sent the king some notes, a little violent in language, but well
+argued, on the necessity of preventing the usurpations of the Assembly ...
+when, on a question concerning the fleet, he delivered a speech suited
+only to a violent demagogue, enough to frighten all honest men. Here,
+again, all our hopes from that quarter are overthrown. The king is
+indignant, and I am in despair. He has written to one of his friends, in
+whom I have great confidence, a man of courage and devoted to us, an
+explanatory letter, which seems to me neither an explanation nor an
+excuse. The man is a volcano which would set an empire on fire; and we are
+to trust to him to put out the conflagration which is devouring us. He
+will have a great deal to do before we can feel confidence in him again.
+La Marck defends Mirabeau, and maintains that if at times he breaks away,
+he is still in reality faithful to the monarchy ... The king will not
+believe this. He was greatly irritated yesterday. La Marck says that he
+has no doubt that Mirabeau thought that he was acting well in speaking as
+he did, to throw dust in the eyes of the Assembly, and so to obtain
+greater credit when circumstances still more grave should arise. O my God!
+if we have committed faults, we have sadly expiated them.[11]"
+
+And before the end of the year, the royal cause had fresh difficulties
+thrown in its way by the perverse and selfish wrongheadedness of the
+emigrant princes, who were already evincing an inclination to pursue
+objects of their own, and to disown all obedience to the king, on the plea
+that he was no longer master of his policy or of his actions. They showed
+such open disregard of his remonstrances that, in December, as Marie
+Antoinette told the emperor, Louis had written both to the Count d'Artois
+and to the King of Sardinia (in whose dominions the count was at the
+time), that, if his brothers persisted in their designs, "he should be
+compelled to disavow them peremptorily, and summon all his subjects who
+were still faithful to him to return to their obedience. She hoped," she
+said, "that that would make them pause. It seemed certain to her that no
+one but those on the spot, no one but themselves, could judge what moments
+and what circumstances were favorable for action, so as to put an end to
+their own miseries and to those of France. And it will be then," she
+concludes, "my dear brother, that I shall reckon on your friendship, and
+that I shall address myself to you with the confidence with which I am
+inspired by the feelings of your heart, which are well known to me, and by
+the good-will which you have shown us on all occasions.[12]"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+Louis and Marie Antoinette contemplate Foreign Intervention.--The Assembly
+passes Laws to subordinate the Church to the Civil Power.--Insolence of La
+Fayette.--Marie Antoinette refuses to quit France by Herself.--The
+Jacobins and La Fayette try to revive the Story of the Necklace.--Marie
+Antoinette with her Family.--Flight from Paris is decided on.--The Queen's
+Preparations and Views.--An Oath to observe the new Ecclesiastical
+Constitution is imposed on the Clergy.--The King's Aunts leave France.
+
+
+The last sentence of the letter just quoted points to a new hope which the
+king and she had begun to entertain of obtaining aid from foreign princes.
+As it can hardly have been suggested to them by any other advisers, we may
+probably attribute the origination of the idea to the queen, who was
+naturally inclined to rate the influence of the empire highly, and to rely
+on her brother's zeal to assist her confidently. And Louis caught at it,
+as the only means of extricating him from a religious difficulty which was
+causing him great distress, and which appeared to him insurmountable by
+any means which he could command in his own country. As has been already
+seen, he had had no hesitation in yielding up his own prerogatives, and in
+making any concessions or surrenders which the Assembly required, so long
+as they touched nothing but his own authority. He had even (which was a
+far greater sacrifice in his eyes) sanctioned the votes which had deprived
+the Church of its property; but, in the course of the autumn the Assembly
+passed other measures also, which appeared to him absolutely inconsistent
+with religion. They framed a new ecclesiastical constitution which not
+only reduced the number of bishops (which, indeed, in France, as in all
+other Roman Catholic countries, had been unreasonably excessive), but
+which also vested the whole patronage of the Church in the municipal
+authorities, and generally subordinated the Church to the civil law. And
+having completed these arrangements, which to a conscientious Roman
+Catholic bore the character of sacrilege, they required the whole body of
+the clergy to accept them, and to take an oath to observe them faithfully.
+
+Louis was in a great strait. Many of the chief prelates appealed to him
+for protection, which he thought his duty as a Christian man bound him to
+afford them. But the protection which they implored could only be given by
+refusal of the royal assent to the bill. And he could not disguise from
+himself that such an exercise of his veto would furnish a pretext to his
+enemies for more violent denunciations of himself and the queen than had
+yet been heard. He had also, though his personal safety was at all times
+very slightly regarded by him, begun to feel himself a prisoner, at the
+mercy of his enemies. La Fayette, as Commander-in-chief of the National
+Guard of Paris, had the protection of the royal palace intrusted to him;
+and he availed himself of this charge, not as the guardian of the royal
+family, but rather as their jailer,[1] placing his sentries so as to be
+spies and a restraint upon all their movements, and seeking every
+opportunity to gain an ignoble popularity by an ostentatious disregard of
+all their wishes, and of all courtesy, not to say decency, in his behavior
+to them.[2] And these considerations led the king, not only to authorize
+the Baron de Breteuil, who, as we have seen, had fled from the country in
+the previous year, to treat with any foreign princes who might he willing
+to exert themselves in his cause, but even to write, with his own hand, to
+the principal sovereigns, informing them that "in spite of his acceptance
+of the Constitution, the factious portion of his subjects openly
+manifested their intention of destroying the monarchy," and suggesting the
+idea of "an armed congress of the principal powers of Europe, supported by
+an armed force, as the best measure to arrest the progress of factions, to
+re-establish order in France, and to prevent the evils which were
+devouring his country from seizing on the other states of Europe.[3]"
+
+The historians of the democratic party have denounced with great severity
+the conduct of Louis in thus appealing to foreign aid, as a proof that, in
+spite of his acceptance of the Constitution, he was meditating a counter-
+revolution. The whole tenor of his and the queen's correspondence proves
+that this charge is groundless; but it is equally certain that it was an
+impolitic step, one wholly opposed to every idea of Constitutional
+principles, of which the very foundation must always be perfect freedom
+from foreign influence, and from foreign connection in the internal
+government of the country.
+
+Fortunately, his secret was well kept, so that no knowledge of this step
+reached the leaders of the popular party; and, however great may have been
+the queen's secret anxieties and fears, she kept them bravely to herself,
+displaying outwardly a serenity and a patience which won the admiration of
+all those who, in foreign countries, were watching the course of events in
+France with interest.[4] When she wept, she wept by herself. Her one
+comfort was that her children were always with her; and though the dauphin
+could only witness without understanding her grief, "remarking on one
+occasion, when in one of his childish books he met the expression 'as
+happy as a queen,' that all queens are not happy, for his mamma wept from
+morning till night." Her daughter was old enough to enter into her
+sorrows; and, as she writes to Madame de Polignac, mingles her own tears
+with hers. She had also the society of her sister-in-law Elizabeth, whom
+she had learned to love with an affection which could not be exceeded even
+by that which she bore her own sister, and which was cordially returned.
+She tells Madame de Polignac that Elizabeth's calmness is one great relief
+and support to them all; and Elizabeth can not find adequate words to
+express to one of her correspondents her admiration for the queen's "piety
+and resignation, which alone enable her to bear up against troubles such
+as no one before has ever known."
+
+But amidst all her grief she cherishes hope--hope that the people (the
+"good people," as she invariably terms them) will return to their senses;
+and her other habitual feeling of benevolence, though she can now only
+exert it in forming projects for conferring further benefits on them when
+tranquillity should be restored. The feeling shows itself even in letters
+which have no reference to her own position. There had been discontent and
+signs of insurrection in the Netherlands which Mercy's recent letters led
+her to believe were passing away; and her congratulations to her brother
+on this peaceful result dwell on the happiness "which it is to be able to
+pardon one's subjects without shedding one drop of blood, of which
+sovereigns are bound to be always careful.[5]"
+
+Her brother, and many of her friends in France, were at this time pressing
+her to quit the country, professing to believe that if her enemies knew
+that she was out of their reach, they would be less vehement in their
+hostility to the king; but she felt that such a course would be both
+unworthy of her, as timid and selfish, and in every way injurious rather
+than beneficial to her husband. It could not save his authority, which was
+what the Jacobins made it their first object to destroy; and it would
+deprive him of the support of her affection and advice, which he
+constantly needed.
+
+"Pardon me, I beg of you," she replied to Leopold, "if I continue to
+reject your advice to leave Paris. Consider that I do not belong to
+myself. My duty is to remain where Providence has placed me, and to oppose
+my body, if the necessity should arise, to the knives of the assassins who
+would fain reach the king. I should be unworthy of the name of our mother,
+which is as dear to you as to me, if danger could make me desert the king
+and my children.[6]"
+
+We have seen that Marie Antoinette dreaded calumny more than the knife or
+poison of the assassin; and there could hardly have been a greater proof
+how well founded her apprehensions were, and how unscrupulous her enemies,
+than is afforded by the fact that, in the latter part of this year, they
+actually brought back Madame La Mothe to Paris with the purpose of making
+a demand for a re-investigation of the whole story of the fraud on the
+jeweler--a pretense for reviving the libelous stories to the disparagement
+of the queen, the utter falsehood and absurdity of which had been
+demonstrated to the satisfaction of the whole world four years before. Nor
+was it wholly a Jacobin plot. La Fayette himself was, to a certain extent,
+an accomplice in it. As commander of the National Guard of the city, it
+was his duty to apprehend one who was an escaped convict; but instead of
+doing so he preferred identifying himself with her, and on one occasion
+had what Mirabeau rightly called the inconceivable insolence to threaten
+the queen with a divorce on the ground of unfaithfulness to her husband.
+She treated his insinuations with the dignity which became herself, and
+the scorn which they and their utterers deserved; and he found that his
+conduct had created such general disgust among all people who made the
+slightest pretense to decency, that he feared to lose his popularity if he
+did not disconnect himself from the plotters. Accordingly, he separated
+himself from the lady, though he still forbore to arrest her, and for some
+time confined himself to his old course of heaping on the royal family
+these petty annoyances and insults, which he could inflict with impunity
+because they were unobserved except by his victims. It is remarkable,
+however, that Mirabeau, who held him in a contempt which, however
+deserved, had in it some touch of rivalry and envy, believed that the
+queen was not really so much the object of his animosity as the king. In
+his eyes "all the manoeuvres of La Fayette were so many attacks on the
+queen; and his attacks on the queen were so many steps to bring him within
+reach of the king. It was the king whom he really wanted to strike; and he
+saw that the individual safety of one of the royal pair was as inseparable
+from that of the other as the king was from his crown.[7]" And this
+opinion of Mirabeau is strongly corroborated by the Count de la Marck,
+who, a few weeks later, had occasion to go to Alsace, and who took great
+pains to ascertain the general state of public feeling in the districts
+through which he passed. During his absence he was in constant
+correspondence with those whom he had left behind, and he reports with
+great satisfaction that in no part of the country had he found the very
+slightest ill-feeling toward the queen. It was in Paris alone that the
+different libels against her were forged, and there alone that they found
+acceptance; and, manifestly referring to the projected departure from
+Paris, he expresses his firm conviction that the moment that she is at
+liberty, and able to show herself in the provinces, she will win the
+confidence of all classes.[8]
+
+However greatly Mirabeau would, on other grounds, have preferred personal
+intercourse with the court, he thought that his power of usefulness
+depended so entirely on his connection with it being unsuspected, that he
+did not think it prudent to solicit interviews with the queen. But he kept
+up a constant communication with the court, sometimes by notes and
+elaborate memorials, addressed indeed to Louis, but intended for Marie
+Antoinette's perusal and consideration; and sometimes by conversations
+with La Marck, which the count was expected to repeat to her. But, in all
+the counsels thus given, the thing most to be remarked is the high opinion
+which they invariably display of the queen's resolution and ability. Every
+thing depends on her; it is from her alone that he wishes to receive
+instructions; it is her resolution that must supply the deficiencies of
+all around her. When he urges that a line of conduct should be adopted
+calculated to render their majesties more popular; that they should show
+themselves more in public; that they should walk in the most frequented
+places; that they should visit the hospitals, the artisans' workshops, and
+make themselves friends by acts of charity and generosity, it is to her
+that he looks to carry out his suggestions, and to her affability and
+presence of mind that he trusts for the success which is to result from
+them;[9] and La Marck is equally convinced that "her ability and
+resolution are equal to the conduct of affairs of the first importance."
+
+Meantime her health continued good. It showed her strength of mind that
+she never intermitted the recreations which contributed to her strength,
+about which she was especially anxious, that she might at all times be
+ready to act on any emergency; but rode with Elizabeth with great
+regularity in the Bois de Boulogne, even in the depth of the winter; and,
+while watching with her habitual vigilance of affection over the education
+of her children, she found a pleasant relaxation for herself in providing
+them with amusement also; often arranging parties, to which other children
+of the same age were invited, and finding amusement herself from watching
+their gambols in the long corridor of the Tuileries, their blindman's-buff
+and hide-and-seek.[10]
+
+The new year opened with grave plans for their extrication from their
+troubles--plans requiring the utmost forethought, ingenuity, and secrecy
+to bring them to a successful issue; and also with fresh injuries and
+insults from the Assembly and the municipal authorities, which every week
+made the necessity of promptitude in carrying such plans out more
+manifest. Mirabeau, as we have seen, had from the very first recommended
+that the king and his family should withdraw from Paris. In his eyes such
+a step was the indispensable preliminary to all other measures; and some
+of the earliest of the queen's letters in 1791 show that the resolution to
+leave the turbulent city had at last been taken. But though what he
+recommended was to be done, it was not to be done as he recommended; yet
+there was a manliness about the course of action which he proposed which
+would of itself have won the queen's preference, if she had not been
+forced to consider not what was best and fittest, but what it was most
+easy to induce him on whom the final choice must impend, the king, to
+adopt. Mirabeau advised that the king should depart publicly, in open day,
+"like a king," as he expressed himself,[11] and he affirmed his conviction
+that it would in all probability be quite unnecessary to remove farther
+than Compiègne; but that the moment that it should be known that the king
+was out of Paris, petitions demanding the re-establishment of order would
+flock in from every quarter of the kingdom, and public opinion, which was
+for the most part royalist, would compel the Assembly to modify the
+Constitution which it had framed, or, if it should prove refractory, would
+support the king in dissolving it and convoking another.
+
+But this was too bold a step for Louis to decide on. He anticipated that
+the Assembly or the mob might endeavor to prevent such a movement by
+force, which could only be repelled by force; and force he was resolved
+never to employ. The only alternative was to flee secretly; and in the
+course of January, Mercy learns that that plan has been adopted, and that
+Compiègne is not considered sufficiently distant from Paris, but that some
+fortified place will be selected; Valenciennes being the most likely, as
+he himself imagined, since, if farther flight should become necessary, it
+would be easy from thence to cross the frontier into the Belgian dominions
+of the queen's brother. But if Valenciennes had ever been thought of, it
+was rejected on that very account; for Louis had learned from English
+history that the withdrawal of James II. from his kingdom had been alleged
+as one reason for declaring the throne vacant; and he was resolved not to
+give his enemies any plea for passing a similar resolution with respect to
+himself. Valenciennes was so celebrated as a frontier town, that the mere
+fact of his fixing himself there might easily be represented as an
+evidence of his intention to quit the kingdom. But there was a small town
+of considerable strength named Montmédy, in the district under the command
+of the Marquis de Bouillé, which afforded all the advantages of
+Valenciennes, and did not appear equally liable to the same objections.
+Montmédy, therefore, was fixed upon; and, in the very first week of
+February, Marie Antoinette announced the decision to Mercy; and began her
+own preparations by sending him a jewel-case full of those diamonds which
+were her private property. She explained to him at considerable length the
+reasons which had dictated the choice. The very smallness of Montmédy was
+in itself a recommendation, since it would prevent any one from thinking
+it likely to be selected as a refuge. It was also so near Luxembourg that,
+in the present temper of the nation, which regarded the Austrian power
+with "a panic fear," any addition which M. de Bouillé might make to either
+the garrison or to his supplies would seem only a wise precaution against
+the much-dreaded foreigner. Moreover, the troops in that district were
+among the most loyal and well-disposed in the whole army; and if the king
+should find it unsafe to remain long at Montmédy, he would have a
+trustworthy escort to retreat to Alsace.
+
+She also explained the reasons which had led them to decide on quitting
+Paris secretly by night. If they started in the daytime, it would be
+necessary to have detachments of troops planted at different spots on
+their road to protect them. But M. de Bouillé could not rely on all his
+own regiments for such a service, and still less on the National Guards in
+the different towns; while to bring up fresh forces from distant quarters
+would attract attention, and awaken suspicions beforehand which might be
+fatal to the enterprise. Montmédy, therefore, had been decided on, and the
+plans were already so far settled that she could tell Mercy that they
+should take Madame de Tourzel with them, and travel in one single
+carriage, which they had never been seen to use before.
+
+Their preparations had even gone beyond these details, minute as they
+were. The king was already collecting materials for a manifesto which he
+designed to publish the moment that he found himself safely out of Paris.
+It would explain the reasons for his flight; it would declare an amnesty
+to the people in general, to whom it would impute no worse fault than that
+of being misled (none being excepted but the chief leaders of the disloyal
+factions; the city of Paris, unless it should at once return to its
+ancient tranquillity; and any persons or bodies who might persist in
+remaining in arms). To the nation in general the manifesto would breathe
+nothing but affection. The Parliaments would be re-established, but only
+as judicial tribunals, which should have no pretense to meddle with the
+affairs of administration or finance. In short, the king and she had
+determined to take his declaration of the 23d of June[12] as the basis of
+the Constitution, with such modifications as subsequent circumstances
+might have suggested. Religion would be one of the matters placed in the
+foreground.
+
+So sanguine were they, or rather was she, of success, that she had even
+taken into consideration the principles on which future ministries should
+be constituted; and here for the first time she speaks of herself as
+chiefly concerned in planning the future arrangements. "In private we
+occupy ourselves with discussing the very difficult choice which we shall
+have to make of the persons whom we shall desire to call around us when we
+are at liberty. I think that it will be best to place a single man at the
+head of affairs, as M. Maurepas was formerly; and if it be settled in this
+way, the king would thus escape having to transact business with each
+individual minister separately, and affairs would proceed more uniformly
+and more steadily. Tell me what you think of this idea. The fit man is not
+easy to find, and the more I look for him, the greater inconveniences do I
+see in all that occur to me."
+
+She proceeds to discuss foreign affairs, the probable views and future
+conduct of almost every power in Europe--of Holland, Prussia, Spain,
+Sweden, England; still showing the lingering jealousy which she
+entertained of the British Government, which she suspected of wishing to
+detach the chivalrous Gustavus from the alliance of France by the offer of
+a subsidy. But she is sanguine that, "though some may he glad to see the
+influence of France diminished, no wise statesman in any country can
+desire her ruin or dismemberment. What is going on in France would be an
+example too dangerous to other countries, if it were left unpunished.
+Their cause is the cause of all kings, and not a simple political
+difficulty.[13]"
+
+The whole letter is a most remarkable one, and fully bears out the
+eulogies which all who had an opportunity of judging pronounced on her
+ability. But the most striking reflection which it suggests is with what
+admirable sagacity the whole of the arrangements for the flight of the
+royal family had been concerted, and with what judgment the agents had
+been chosen, since, though the enterprise was not attempted till more than
+four months after this letter was written, the secret was kept through the
+whole of that time without the slightest hint of it having been given, or
+the slightest suspicion of it having been conceived, by the most watchful
+or the most malignant of the king's enemies.
+
+Yet during the winter and early spring the conduct of the Jacobin party in
+the Assembly, and of the Parisian mob whom they were keeping in a constant
+state of excitement, increased in violence; while one occurrence which
+took place was, in Mirabeau's opinion, especially calculated to prompt a
+suspicion of the king's intentions. Louis had at, last, and with extreme
+reluctance, sanctioned, the bill which required the clergy to take an oath
+to comply with the new ecclesiastical arrangements, in the vain hope that
+the framers of it would be content with their triumph, and would forbear
+to enforce it by fixing any precise date for administering the oath. But,
+at the end of January, Barnave obtained from the Assembly a decree that it
+should be taken within twenty-four hours, under the penalty of deprivation
+of all their preferments to all who should refuse it; the clerical members
+of the Assembly were even threatened by the mob in the galleries with
+instant death if they declined or even delayed to swear. And as very few
+of any rank complied, the main body of the clergy was instantly stripped
+of all their appointments and reduced to beggary, and a large proportion
+of them fled at once from the kingdom. Those who took the oath, and who in
+consequence were appointed to the offices thus vacated, were immediately
+condemned and denounced by the pope; and the consequence was that a great
+number of their flocks fled with their old priests, not being able to
+reconcile to their consciences to stay and receive the sacrament and rites
+of the Church from ministers under the ban of its head.
+
+Among those who thus fled were the king's two aunts, the Princesses
+Adelaide and Victoire. Bigotry was their only virtue; and they determined
+to seek shelter in Rome. Louis highly disapproved of the step, which, as
+Mirabeau,[14] in a very elaborate and forcible memorial which he drew up
+and submitted to him, pointed out, might be very dangerous for the king
+and queen as well as for themselves, since it could be easily represented
+by the evil-minded as a certain proof that they also were designing to
+flee. And he even recommended that Louis should formally notify to the
+Assembly that he disapproved of his aunts' journey, and should make it a
+pretext for demanding a law which should give him the power of regulating
+the movements of the members of his family.
+
+The flight of the princesses, however, did not, as it turned out, cause
+any inconvenience to the king or queen, though it did endanger themselves;
+for, though they were furnished with passports, the municipal authorities
+tried to stop them at Moret; and at Arnay-le-Duc the mob unharnessed their
+horses and detained them by force They appealed to the Assembly by letter;
+Alexander Lameth, on this occasion uniting with the most violent Jacobins,
+was not ashamed to move that orders should be dispatched to send them back
+to Paris: but the body of the Assembly had not yet descended to the
+baseness of warring with women; and Mirabeau, who treated the proposal as
+ridiculous, and overwhelmed the mover with his wit, had no difficulty in
+procuring an order that the fugitives, "two princesses of advanced age and
+timorous consciences," as he called them, should be allowed to proceed on
+their journey.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+The Mob attacks the Castle at Vincennes.--La Fayette saves it.--He insults
+the Nobles who come to protect the King.--Perverseness of the Count
+d'Artois and the Emigrants.--Mirabeau dies.--General Sorrow for his
+death.--He would probably not have been able to arrest the Revolution.--
+The Mob prevent the King from visiting St. Cloud.--The Assembly passes a
+Vote to forbid him to go more than twenty Leagues from Paris.
+
+
+The mob, however, was more completely under Jacobin influence; and, at the
+end of February, Santerre collected his ruffians for a fresh tumult; the
+object now being the destruction of the old castle of Vincennes, which for
+some time had been almost unoccupied. La Fayette, whose object at this
+time was apparently regulated by a desire to make all parties acknowledge
+his influence, in a momentary fit of resolution marched a body of his
+National Guard down to save the old fortress, in which he succeeded,
+though not without much difficulty, and even some danger. He found he had
+greatly miscalculated his influence, not only over the populace, but over
+his own soldiers. The rioters fired on him, wounding some of his staff;
+and at first many of the soldiers refused to act against the people. His
+officers, however, full of indignation, easily quelled the spirit of
+mutiny; and, when subordination was restored, proposed to the general to
+follow up his success by marching at once back into the city and seizing
+the Jacobin demagogues who had caused the riot. There was little doubt
+that the great majority of the citizens, in their fear of Santerre and his
+gang, would joyfully have supported him in such a measure; but La
+Fayette's resolution was never very consistent nor very durable. He became
+terrified, not, indeed, so much at the risk to his life which he had
+incurred, as at the symptom that to resist the mob might cost him his
+popularity; and to appease those whom he might have offended, he proceeded
+to insult the king. A report had got abroad, which was not improbably well
+founded, that Louis's life had been in danger, and that an assassin had
+been detected while endeavoring to make his way into the Tuileries; and
+the report had reached a number of nobles, among whom D'Esprémesnil, once
+so vehement a leader of the Opposition in Parliament, was conspicuous, who
+at once hastened to the palace to defend their sovereign. It was not
+strange that he and Marie Antoinette should receive them graciously; they
+had not of late been used to such warm-hearted and prompt displays of
+attachment. But the National Guards who were on duty were jealous of the
+cordial and honorable reception which those Nobles met with; they declared
+that to them alone belonged the task of defending the king; though they
+took so little care to perform it that they had allowed a gang of drunken
+desperadoes to get possession of the outer court of the palace, where they
+were menacing all aristocrats with death. Louis became alarmed for the
+safety of his friends, and begged them to lay aside their arms; and they
+had hardly done so when La Fayette arrived. He knew that the mob was
+exasperated with him for his repression of their outrages in the morning,
+and that some of his soldiers had not been well pleased at being compelled
+to act against the rioters. So now, to recover their good-will, he handed
+over the weapons of the Nobles, which were only pistols, rapiers, and
+daggers, to the National Guard; and after reproaching D'Esprémesnil and
+his companions for interfering with the duties of his troops, he drove
+them down the stairs, unarmed and defenseless as they were, among the
+drunken and infuriated mob. They were hooted and ill-treated; but not only
+did he make no attempt to protect them, but the next day he offered them a
+gratuitous insult by the publication of a general order, addressed to his
+own National Guard, in which he stigmatized their conduct as indecent,
+their professed zeal as suspicious, and enjoined all the officials of the
+palace to take care that such persons were not admitted in future. "The
+king of the Constitution," he said, "ought to be surrounded by no
+defenders but the soldiers of liberty."
+
+Marie Antoinette had good reason to speak as she did the next week to
+Mercy; though we can hardly fail to remark, as a singular proof of the
+strength of her political prejudices, and of the degree in which she
+allowed them to blind her to the objects and the worth of the few honest
+or able men whom the Assembly contained, that she still regards the
+Constitutionalists as only one degree less unfavorable to the king's
+legitimate authority than the Jacobins. And we shall hereafter see that to
+this mistaken estimate she adhered almost to the end. "Mischief," she
+says, "is making progress so rapid that there is reason to fear a speedy
+explosion, which can not fail to be dangerous to us, if we ourselves do
+not guide it There is no middle way; either we must remain under the sword
+of the factions, and consequently be reduced to nothing, if they get the
+upper hand, or we must submit to be fettered under the despotism of men
+who profess to be well-intentioned, but who always have done, and always
+will do us harm. This is what is before us, and perhaps the moment is
+nearer than we think, if we can not ourselves take a decided line, or lead
+men's opinions by our own vigor and energetic action. What I here say is
+not dictated by any exaggerated notions, nor by any disgust at our
+position, nor by any restless desire to be doing something. I perfectly
+feel all the dangers and risks to which we are exposed at this moment. But
+I see that all around us affairs are so full of terror that it is better
+to perish in trying to save ourselves than to allow ourselves to be
+utterly crushed in a state of absolute inaction.[1]"
+
+And she held the same language to her brother, the emperor, assuring him
+that "the king and herself were both convinced of the necessity of acting
+with prudence, but there were cases in which dilatoriness might ruin every
+thing; and that the factious and disloyal were prosecuting their objects
+with such celerity, aiming at nothing less than the utter subversion of
+the kingly power, that it would be extremely dangerous not to offer a
+resistance to their plans.[2]" And referring to her project of foreign
+aid, she reported to him that she had promises of assistance from both
+Spain and Switzerland, if they could depend on the co-operation of the
+empire.
+
+And still the emigrant princes were adding to her perplexity by their
+perverseness. She wrote herself to the Count d'Artois to expostulate with
+him, and to entreat him "not to abandon himself to projects of which the
+success, to say the least, was doubtful, and which would expose himself to
+danger without the possibility of serving the king.[3]" No description of
+the relative influence of the king and queen at this time can be so
+forcible as the fact that it was she who conducted all the correspondence
+of the court, even with the king's brothers. But her remonstrances had no
+influence. We may not impute to the king's brothers any intention to
+injure him; but unhappily they had both not only a mean idea of his
+capacity, but a very high one, much worse founded, of their own; and full
+of self-confidence and self-conceit, they took their own line, perfectly
+regardless of the suspicions to which their perverse and untractable
+conduct exposed the king, carrying their obstinacy so far that it was not
+without difficulty, that the emperor himself, though they were in his
+dominions, was able to restrain their machinations.
+
+Meanwhile, the queen was steadily carrying on the necessary arrangements
+for flight. Money had to be provided, for which trustworthy agents were
+negotiating in Switzerland and Holland, while some the emperor might be
+expected to furnish. Mirabeau marked out for himself what he regarded as a
+most important share in the enterprise, undertaking to defend and justify
+their departure to the Assembly, and nothing doubting that he should be
+able to bring over the majority of the members to his view of that
+subject, as he had before prevailed upon them to sanction the journey of
+the princesses. But in the first days of April all the hopes of success
+which had been founded on his cooperation and support were suddenly
+extinguished by his death. Though he had hardly entered upon middle age, a
+constant course of excess had made him an old man before his time. In the
+latter part of March he was attacked by an illness which his physicians
+soon pronounced mortal, and on the 2d of April he died. He had borne the
+approach of death with firmness, professing to regret it more for the sake
+of his country than for his own. He was leaving behind him no one, as he
+affirmed, who would he able to arrest the Revolution as he could have
+done; and there can be no doubt that the great bulk of the nation did
+place confidence in his power to offer effectual resistance to the designs
+of the Jacobins. The various parties in the State showed this feeling
+equally by the different manner in which they received the intelligence.
+The court and the Royalists openly lamented him. The Jacobins, the
+followers of Lameth, and the partisans of the Duke of Orleans, exhibited
+the most indecent exultation.[4] But the citizens of Paris mourned for
+him, apparently, without reference to party views. They took no heed of
+the opposition with which he had of late often defeated the plots of the
+leaders whom they had followed to riot and treason. They cast aside all
+recollection of the denunciations of him as a friend to the court with
+which the streets had lately rung. In their eyes he was the
+personification of the Revolution as a whole; to him, as they viewed his
+career for the last two years, they owed the independence of the Assembly,
+the destruction of the Bastile, and of all other abuses; and through him
+they doubted not still to obtain every thing that was necessary for the
+completion of their freedom.
+
+His remains were treated with honors never before paid to a subject. He
+lay in state; he had a public funeral. His body was laid in the great
+Church of St. Geneviève, which, the very day before, had been renamed the
+Pantheon, and appropriated as a cemetery for such of her illustrious sons
+as France might hereafter think worthy of the national gratitude. Yet,
+though his great confidant and panegyrist, M. Dumont,[5] has devoted an
+elaborate argument to prove that he had not overestimated his power to
+influence the future; and though the Russian embassador, M. Simolin, a
+diplomatist of extreme acuteness, seems to imply the same opinion by his
+pithy saying that "he ought to have lived two years longer, or died two
+years earlier," we can hardly agree with them. La Marck, as has been seen,
+even when first opening the negotiation for his connection with the court,
+doubted whether he would be able to undo the mischief which he had
+acquiesced in, measures not of reform nor of reconstruction, but of total
+abolition and destruction, are in their very nature irrevocable and
+irremediable. The nobility was gone; he had not resisted its suppression.
+The Church was gone; he had himself been among the foremost of its
+assailants. How, even if he had wished it, could he have undone these
+acts? and if he could not, how, without those indispensable pillars and
+supports, could any monarchy endure? That he was now fully alive to the
+magnitude of the dangers which encompassed both throne and people, and
+that he would have labored vigorously to avert them, we may do him the
+justice to believe. But it seems not so probable that he would have
+succeeded, as that he would have added one more to the list of these
+politicians who, having allowed their own selfish aims to carry them
+beyond the limits of prudence and justice, have afterward found it
+impossible to retrace their steps, but have learned to their shame and
+sorrow that their rashness has but led to the disappointment of their
+hopes, the permanent downfall of their own reputations, and the ruin of
+what they would gladly have defended and preserved. And, on the whole, it
+is well that from time to time such lessons should be impressed upon the
+world. It is well that men of lofty genius and pure patriotism should
+learn, equally with the most shallow empiric or the most self-seeking
+demagogue, that false steps in politics can rarely be retraced; that
+concessions once made can seldom, if ever, be recalled, but are usually
+the stepping-stones to others still more extensive; that what it would
+have been easy to preserve, it is commonly impossible to repair or to
+restore.
+
+He had been laid in the grave only a fortnight, when, as if on purpose to
+show how utterly defenseless the king now was, the Jacobins excited the
+mob and the assembly to inflict greater insults on him than had been
+offered even by the attack on Versailles, or by any previous vote. As
+Easter, which was unusually late this year, approached, Louis became
+anxious to spend a short time in tranquillity and holy meditation; and,
+since the tumultuousness of the city was not very favorable for such a
+purpose, he resolved to pass a fortnight at St. Cloud. But when he was
+preparing to set out, a furious mob seized the horses and unharnessed
+them; the National Guards united with the rioters, refusing to obey La
+Fayette's orders to clear the way for the royal carriage, and the king and
+queen were compelled to dismount and to return to their apartments; while,
+a day or two afterward, the Assembly came to a vote which seemed as if
+designed for an express sanction of this outrage, and which ordained that
+the king should not be permitted ever to move more than twenty leagues
+from Paris.
+
+Of all the decrees which it had yet enacted, this, in some sense, may be
+regarded as the most monstrous. It was not only passing a penal sentence
+on the royal family such as in no country or age any but convicted
+criminals had even been subjected to, but it was an insult and an injury
+to every part of the kingdom except the capital, which, by an intolerable
+assumption, it treated as if it were the whole of France. Joseph, as has
+been seen, had wisely pointed out to his brother-in-law that it was one,
+and no unimportant part, of a sovereign's duty to visit the different
+provinces and chief cities of his kingdom, and Louis had in one instance
+acted on his advice. We have seen how gladly he was received by the
+citizens of Cherbourg, and what advantages they promised themselves from
+his having thus made himself personally acquainted with their situation
+and wants and prospects; and we can not doubt that other towns and cities
+shared this feeling, nor that it was well founded, and that the
+acquisition by a king of a personal knowledge of the resources and
+capabilities and interests of the great cities, of agriculture,
+manufactures, and commerce, is a benefit to the whole community; but of
+this every province and every city but Paris was now to be deprived. It
+was to be an offense to visit Rouen, or Lyons, or Bordeaux; to examine
+Riquet's canal or Vauban's fortifications. The king was the only person in
+the kingdom to whom liberty of movement was to be denied; and the peasants
+of every province, and the citizens of every other town, were to be
+refused for a single day the presence of their sovereign, whom the
+Parisians thus claimed a right to keep as a prisoner in their own
+district.
+
+It is hardly strange that such open attacks on their liberty made a deeper
+impression on the queen, and even on the phlegmatic disposition of the
+king, than any previous act of violence, or that it increased their
+eagerness to escape with as little delay as possible. Indeed, the queen
+regarded the public welfare as equally concerned with their own in their
+safe establishment in some town to which they should also be able to
+remove the Assembly, so that that body as well as themselves should be
+protected from the fatal influence of the clubs of Paris, and of the
+populace which was under the dominion of the clubs.[6] Accordingly, on the
+20th of April, she writes to the emperor[7] that "the occurrence which has
+just taken place has confirmed them more than ever in their plans. The
+very guards who surrounded them are the persons who threaten them most.
+Their very lives are not safe; but they must appear to submit to every
+thing till the moment comes when they can act; and in the mean time their
+captivity proves that none of their actions are done by their own accord."
+And she urges her brother at once to move a strong body of troops toward
+some of his fortresses on the Belgian frontier--Arlon, Vitron, or Mons--in
+order to give M. de Bouillé a pretext for collecting troops and munitions
+of war at Montmédy. "Send me an immediate answer on this point; let me
+know, too, about the money; our position is frightful, and we must
+absolutely put an end to it next month. The king desires it even more than
+I do."
+
+As May proceeds she presses on her preparations, and urges the emperor to
+accelerate his, especially the movements of his troops; but the Count
+d'Artois and his followers are a terrible addition to her anxieties.
+Leopold had told her that the ancient minister, Calonne, always restless
+and always unscrupulous, was now with the count, and was busily stirring
+him up to undertake some enterprise or other;[8] and her reply shows how
+justly she dreads the results of such an alliance. "The prince, the Count
+d'Artois, and all those whom they have about them, seem determined to be
+doing something. They have no proper means of action, and they will ruin
+us, without our having the slightest connection with their plans. Their
+indiscretion, and the men who are guiding them, will prevent our
+communicating our secret to them till the very last moment."
+
+To Mercy she is even more explicit in her description of the imminence of
+the danger to which the king and she are now exposed than she had been to
+her brother. As the time for attempting to escape grew nearer, the
+embassador became the more painfully impressed with the danger of the
+attempt. Failure, as it seems to him, will be absolutely fatal. He asks
+her anxiously whether the necessity is such that it has become
+indispensable to risk such a result;[9] and she, in an answer of
+considerable length and admirable clearness of expression and argument,
+explains her reasons for deciding that it is absolutely unavoidable: "The
+only alternative for us, especially since the 18th of April,[10] is either
+blindly to submit to all that the factions require, or to perish by the
+sword which is forever suspended over our heads. Believe me, I am not
+exaggerating the danger; you know that my notion used to be, as long as I
+could cherish it, to trust to gentleness, to time, and to public opinion.
+But now all is changed, and we must either perish or take the only line
+which remains to us. We are far from shutting our eyes to the fact that
+this line also has its perils; but, if we must die, it will be at least
+with glory, and in having done all that we could for our duty, for honor,
+and for religion.... I believe that the provinces are less corrupted than
+the capital; but it is always Paris which gives the tone to the whole
+kingdom. We should greatly deceive ourselves if we fancied that the events
+of the 18th of April, horrible as they were, produced any excitement in
+the provinces. The clubs and the affiliations lead France where they
+please; the right-thinking people, and those who are dissatisfied with
+what is taking place, either flee from the country or hide themselves,
+because they are not the stronger party, and because they have no
+rallying-point. But when the king can show himself freely in a fortified
+place, people will be astonished to see the number of dissatisfied people
+who will then come forward, who, till that time, are groaning in silence;
+but the longer we delay, the less support we shall have....
+
+"Let us resume. You ask two questions: 1st. Is it possible or useful to
+wait? No; by the explanation of our position which I gave at the beginning
+of this letter, I have sufficiently proved the impossibility.... As to the
+usefulness, it could only be useful on the supposition that we could count
+on a new legislative body.... 2d. Admitting the necessity of acting
+promptly, are we sure of means to escape; of a place to retreat to, and of
+having a party strong enough to maintain itself for two months by its own
+resources? I have answered this question several times. It is more than
+probable that the king, once escaped from here, and in a place of safety,
+will have, and will very soon find, a very strong party. The means of
+escape depend on a flight the most immediate and the most secret. There
+are only four persons who are acquainted with our secret; and those whom
+we mean to take with us will not know it till the very moment. None of our
+own people will attend us; and at a distance of only thirty or thirty-five
+leagues we shall find some troops to protect our march, but not enough to
+cause us to be recognized till we reach the place of our destination.
+
+"....I can easily conceive the repugnance which, on political grounds, the
+emperor would feel to allowing his troops to enter France.... But if their
+movement is solicited by his brother-in-law, his ally, whose life,
+existence, and honor are in danger, I conceive the case is very different;
+and as to Brabant, that province will never be quiet till this country is
+brought back to a different state. It is, then, for himself also that my
+brother will be working in giving us this assistance, which is so much the
+more valuable to us, that his troops will serve as an example to ours, and
+will even be able to restrain them.
+
+"And it is with this view that the person[11] of whom I spoke to you in my
+letter in cipher demands their employment for a time ... We can not delay
+longer than the end of this month. By that time I hope we shall have a
+decisive answer from Spain. But till the very instant of our departure we
+must do everything that is required of us, and even appear to go to meet
+them. It is one way, perhaps the only one, to lull the mob to sleep and to
+save our lives."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+Plans for the Escape of the Royal Family.--Dangers of Discovery.--
+Resolution of the Queen.--The Royal Family leave the Palace.--They are
+recognized at Ste. Menehould.--Are arrested at Varennes.--Tumult in the
+City, and in the Assembly.--The King and Queen are brought back to Paris.
+
+
+Marie Antoinette, as we have seen, had been anxious that their departure
+from Paris should not be delayed beyond the end of May, and De Bouillé had
+agreed with her; but enterprises of so complicated a character can rarely
+be executed with the rapidity or punctuality that is desired, and it was
+not till the 20th of June that this movement, on which so much depended,
+was able to be put in execution. Often during the preceding weeks the
+queen's heart sunk within her when she reflected on the danger of
+discovery, whether from the acuteness of her enemies or the treachery of
+pretended friends; and even more when she pondered on the character of the
+king himself, so singularly unfitted for an undertaking in which it was
+not the passive courage with which he was amply endowed, but daring
+resolution, promptitude, and presence of mind, which were requisite. She
+was cheered, however, by repeated letters from the emperor, showing the
+warm and affectionate interest which he took in the result of the
+enterprise, and promising with evident sincerity "his own most cordial
+co-operation in all that could tend to her and her husband's success,
+when the time should come for him to show himself."
+
+But her main reliance was on herself; and all who were privy to the
+enterprise knew well that it was on her forethought and courage that its
+success wholly depended. Those who were privy to it were very few; and it
+is a singular proof how few Frenchmen, even of the highest rank, could be
+trusted at this time, that of these few two were foreigners--a Swede, the
+Count de Fersen, whose name has been mentioned in earlier chapters of this
+narrative, and (an English writer may be proud to add) an Englishman, Mr.
+Craufurd. In such undertakings the simplest arrangements are the safest;
+and those devised by the queen and her advisers, the chief of whom were De
+Fersen and De Bouillé, were as simple as possible. The royal fugitives
+were to pass for a traveling party of foreigners. A passport signed by M.
+Montmorin, who still held the seals of the Foreign Department, was
+provided for Madame de Tourzel, who, assuming the name of Madame de Korff,
+a Russian baroness, professed to be returning to her own country with her
+family and her ordinary equipage. The dauphin and his sister were
+described as her children, the queen as their governess; while the king
+himself, under the name of Durand, was to pass as their servant. Three of
+the old disbanded Body-guard, MM. De Valory, De Malden, and De Moustier,
+were to attend the party in the disguise of couriers; and, under the
+pretense of providing for the safe conveyance of a large sum of money
+which was required for the payment of the troops, De Bouillé undertook to
+post a detachment of soldiers at each town between Châlons and Montmédy,
+through which the travelers were to pass.
+
+Some of the other arrangements were more difficult, as more likely to lead
+to a betrayal of the design. It was, of course, impossible to use any
+royal carriage, and no ordinary vehicle was large enough to hold such a
+party. But in the preceding year De Fersen had had a carriage of unusual
+dimensions built for some friends in the South of Europe, so that he had
+no difficulty now in procuring another of similar pattern from the same
+maker; and Mr. Craufurd agreed to receive it into his stables, and at the
+proper hour to convey it outside the barrier.
+
+Yet in spite of the care displayed in these arrangements, and of the
+absolute fidelity observed by all to whom the secret was intrusted, some
+of the inferior attendants about the court suspected what was in
+agitation. The queen herself, with some degree of imprudence, sent away a
+large package to Brussels; one of her waiting-women discovered that she
+and Madame Campan had spent an evening in packing up jewels, and sent
+warning to Gouvion, an aid-de-camp of La Fayette, and to Bailly, the
+mayor, that the queen at last was preparing to flee. Luckily Bailly had
+received so many similar notices that he paid but little attention to
+this; or perhaps he was already beginning to feel the repentance, which he
+afterward exhibited, at his former insolence to his sovereign, and was not
+unwilling to contribute to their safety by his inaction; while Gouvion was
+not anxious to reveal the source from which he had obtained his
+intelligence. Still, though nothing precise was known, the attention of
+more than one person was awakened to the movements of the royal family,
+and especially that of La Fayette, who, alarmed lest his prisoners should
+escape him, redoubled his vigilance, driving down to the palace every
+night, and often visiting them in their apartments to make himself certain
+of their presence. Six hundred of the National Guard were on duty at the
+Tuileries, and sentinels were placed at the end of every passage and at
+the foot of every staircase; but fortunately a small room, with a secret
+door which led into the queen's chamber, as it had been for some time
+unoccupied, had escaped the observation of the officers on guard, and that
+passage therefore offered a prospect of their being able to reach the
+courtyard without being perceived.[1]
+
+On the morning of the day appointed for the great enterprise, all in the
+secret were vividly excited except the queen. She alone preserved her
+coolness. No one could have guessed from her demeanor that she was on the
+point of embarking in an undertaking on which, in her belief, her own life
+and the lives of all those dearest to her depended. The children, who knew
+nothing of what was going on, went to their usual occupations--the dauphin
+to his garden on the terrace, Madame Royale to her lessons; and Marie
+Antoinette herself, after giving some orders which were to be executed in
+the course of the next day or two, went out riding with her sister-in-law
+in the Bois de Boulogne. Her conversation throughout the day was light and
+cheerful. She jested with the officer on guard about the reports which she
+understood to be in circulation about some intended flight of the king,
+and was relieved to find that he totally disbelieved them. She even
+ventured on the same jest with La Fayette himself, who replied, in his
+usual surly fashion, that such a project was constantly talked of; but
+even his rudeness could not discompose her.
+
+As the hour drew near she began to prepare her children. The princess was
+old enough to be talked to reasonably, and she contented herself,
+therefore, with warning her to show no surprise at any thing that she
+might see or hear. The dauphin was to be disguised as a girl, and it was
+with great glee that he let the attendants dress him, saying that he saw
+that they were going to act a play. The royal supper usually took place
+soon after nine; at half-past ten the family separated for the night, and
+by eleven their attendants were all dismissed; and Marie Antoinette had
+fixed that hour for departing, because, even if the sentinels should get a
+glimpse of them, they would be apt to confound them with the crowd which
+usually quit the palace at that time.
+
+Accordingly, at eleven o'clock the Count de Fersen, dressed as a coachman,
+drove an ordinary job-carriage into the court-yard; and Marie Antoinette,
+who trusted nothing to others which she could do herself, conducted Madame
+de Tourzel and the children down-stairs, and seated them safely in the
+carriage. But even her nerves nearly gave way when La Fayette's coach,
+brilliantly lighted, drove by, passing close to her as he proceeded to the
+inner court to ascertain from the guard that every thing was in its usual
+condition. In an agony of fright she sheltered herself behind some
+pillars, and in a few minutes the marquis drove back, and she rejoined the
+king, who was awaiting her summons in his own apartment, while one of the
+disguised Body-guards went for the Princess Elizabeth. Even the children
+were inspired with their mother's courage. As the princess got into the
+carriage she trod on the dauphin, who was lying in concealment at the
+bottom, and the brave boy spoke not a word; while Louis himself gave a
+remarkable proof how, in spite of the want of moral and political
+resolution which had brought such miseries on himself and his country, he
+could yet preserve in the most critical moments his presence of mind and
+kind consideration for others. He was half way down-stairs when he
+returned to his room. M. Valory, who was escorting him, was dismayed when
+he saw him turn back, and ventured to remind him how precious was every
+instant. "I know that," replied the kind-hearted monarch; "but they will
+murder my servant to-morrow for having aided my escape;" and, sitting down
+at his table, he wrote a few lines declaring that the man had acted under
+his peremptory orders, and gave the note to him as a certificate to
+protect him from accusation. When all the rest were seated, the queen took
+her place. De Fersen drove them to the Porte St. Martin, where the great
+traveling-carriage was waiting, and, having transferred them to it, and
+taken a respectful leave of them, he fled at once to Brussels, which, more
+fortunate than those for whom he had risked his life, he reached in
+safety.
+
+For a hundred miles the royal fugitives proceeded rapidly and without
+interruption. One of the supposed couriers was on the box, another rode by
+the side of the carriage, and the third went on in advance to see that the
+relays were in readiness. Before midday they reached Châlons, the place
+where they were to be met by the first detachment of De Bouillé's troops;
+and, when the well-known uniforms met her eye, Marie Antoinette for the
+first time gave full expression to her feelings. "Thank God, we are
+saved!" she exclaimed, clasping her hands; the fervor of her exclamation
+bearing undesigned testimony to the greatness of the fears which, out of
+consideration for others, she had hitherto kept to herself; but in truth
+out of this employment of the troops arose all their subsequent disasters.
+
+De Bouillé had been unwilling to send his detachments so far forward,
+pointing out that the notice which their arrival in the different towns
+was sure to attract would do more harm than their presence as a protection
+could do good. But his argument had been overruled by the king himself,
+who apprehended the greatest danger from the chance of being overtaken,
+and expected it, therefore, to increase with every hour of the journey. De
+Bouillé's fears, however, were found to be the best justified by the
+event. In more than one town, even in the few hours that had elapsed since
+the arrival of the soldiers, there had been quarrels between them and the
+towns-people; in others, which was still worse, the populace had made
+friends with them and seduced them from their loyalty, so that the
+officers in command had found it necessary to withdraw them altogether;
+and anxiety at their unexpected absence caused Louis more than once to
+show himself at the carriage window. More than once he was recognized by
+people who knew him and kept his counsel; but Drouet, the postmaster at
+Ste. Menehould, a town about one hundred and seventy miles from Paris, was
+of a less loyal disposition. He had lately been in the capital, where he
+had become infected with the Jacobin doctrines. He too saw the king's
+face, and on comparing his somewhat striking features with the stamp on
+some public documents which he chanced to have in his pocket, became
+convinced of his identity. He at once reported to the magistrates what he
+had seen, and with their sanction rode forward to the next town, Clermont,
+hoping to be able to collect a force sufficient to stop the royal carriage
+on its arrival there. But the king traveled so fast that he had quit
+Clermont before Drouet reached it, and he even arrived at Varennes before
+his pursuer. Had he quit that place also he would have been in safety, for
+just beyond it De Bouillé had posted a strong division which would have
+been able to defy all resistance. But Varennes, a town on the Oise, was so
+small as to have no post-house, and by some mismanagement the royal party
+had not been informed at which end of the town they were to find the
+relay. The carriage halted while M. Valory was making the necessary
+inquiries; and, while it was standing still, Drouet rode up and forbade
+the postilions to proceed. He himself hastened on through the town,
+collected a few of the towns-people, and with their aid upset a cart or
+two on the bridge to block up the way; and, having thus made the road
+impassable, he roused the municipal authorities, for it was nearly
+midnight, and then, returning to the royal carriage, he compelled the
+royal family to dismount and follow him to the house of the mayor, a petty
+grocer, whose name was Strausse. The magistrates sounded the tocsin: the
+National Guard beat to arms: the king and queen were prisoners.
+
+How they were allowed to remain so is still, after all the explanations
+that have been given, incomprehensible. Two officers with sixty hussars,
+all well disposed and loyal, were in a side street of the town waiting for
+their arrival, of which they were not aware. Six of the troopers actually
+passed the travelers in the street as they were proceeding to the mayor's
+house, but no one, not even the queen, appealed to them for succor; or
+they could have released them without an effort, for Drouet's whole party
+consisted of no more than eight unarmed men. And when, an hour afterward,
+the officers in command learned that the king was in the town in the hands
+of his enemies, instead of at once delivering him, they were seized with a
+panic: they would not take on themselves the responsibility of acting
+without express orders, but galloped back to De Bouillé to report the
+state of affairs. In less than an hour three more detachments, amounting
+in all to above one hundred men, also reached the town; and their
+commanders did make their way to the king, and asked his orders. He could
+only reply that he was a prisoner, and had no orders to give; and not one
+of the officers had the sense to perceive that the fact of his announcing
+himself a prisoner was in itself an order to deliver him.
+
+One word of command from Louis to clear the way for him at the sword's
+point would yet have been sufficient; but he had still the same invincible
+repugnance as ever to allow blood to be shed in his quarrel. He preferred
+peaceful means, which could not but fail. With a dignity arising from his
+entire personal fearlessness, he announced his name and rank, his reasons
+for quitting Paris and proceeding to Montmédy; declaring that he had no
+thought of quitting the kingdom, and demanded to be allowed to proceed on
+his journey. While the queen, her fears for her children overpowering all
+other feelings, addressed herself with the most earnest entreaties to the
+mayor's wife, declaring that their very lives would be in danger if they
+should be taken back to Paris, and imploring her to use her influence with
+her husband to allow them to proceed. Neither Strausse nor his wife was
+ill-disposed toward the king, but had not the courage to comply with the
+request of the royal couple whom, after a little time, the mayor and his
+wife could not have allowed to proceed, however much they might have
+wished it; for the tocsin had brought up numbers of the National Guard,
+who were all disloyal; while some of the soldiers began to show a
+disinclination to act against them. And so matters stood for some hours; a
+crowd of towns-people, peasants, National Guards, and dragoons thronging
+the room; the king at times speaking quietly to his captors; the queen
+weeping, for the fatigue of the journey, and the fearful disappointment at
+being thus baffled at the last moment, after she had thought that all
+danger was passed, had broken down even her nerves. At first she had tried
+to persuade Louis to act with resolution; but when, as usual, she failed,
+she gave way to despair, and sat silent, with touching, helpless sorrow,
+gazing on her children, who had fallen asleep.
+
+At seven o'clock on the morning of the 22d a single horseman rode into the
+town. He was an aid-de-camp of La Fayette. On the morning of the 21st the
+excitement had been great in Paris when it became known that the king had
+fled. The mob rose in furious tumult. They forced their way into the
+Tuileries, plundering the palace and destroying the furniture. A
+fruit-woman took possession of the queen's bed, as a stall to range her
+cherries on, saying that to-day it was the turn of the nation; and a
+picture of the king was torn down from the walls, and, after being stuck
+up in derision outside the gates for some time, was offered for sale to
+the highest bidder.[2] In the Assembly the most violent language was used.
+An officer whose name has been preserved through the eminence which after
+his death was attained by his widow and his children, General Beauharnais,
+was the president; and as such, he announced that M. Bailly had reported
+to him that the enemies of the nation had carried off the king. The whole
+Assembly was roused to fury at the idea of his having escaped from their
+power. A decree was at once drawn up in form, commanding that Louis should
+be seized wherever he could be found, and brought back to Paris. No one
+could pretend that the Assembly had the slightest right to issue such an
+order; but La Fayette, with the alacrity which he always displayed when
+any insult was to be offered to the king or queen, at once sent it off by
+his own aid-de-camp, M. Romeuf, with instructions to see that it was
+carried out The order was now delivered to Strausse; the king, with
+scarcely an attempt at resistance, declared his willingness to obey it;
+and before eight o'clock he and his family, with their faithful
+Body-guard, now in undisguised captivity, were traveling back to Paris.
+
+When was there ever a journey so miserable as that which now brought its
+sovereigns back to that disloyal and hostile city! The National Guard of
+Varennes, and of other towns through which they passed, claimed a right to
+accompany them; and as they were all infantry, the speed of the carriage
+was limited to their walking pace. So slowly did the procession advance,
+that it was not till the fourth day that it reached the barrier; and, in
+many places on the road, a mob had collected in expectation of their
+arrival, and aggravated the misery of their situation by ferocious threats
+addressed to the queen, and even to the little dauphin. But at Châlons
+they were received with respect by the municipal authorities; the Hôtel de
+Ville had been prepared for their reception: a supper had been provided.
+The queen was even entreated to allow some of the principal ladies of the
+city to be presented to her; and, as the next day was the great Roman
+Catholic festival of the Fête Dieu, they were escorted with all honor to
+hear mass in the cathedral, before they resumed their journey. Even the
+National Guard were not all hostile or insolent. At Épernay, though a
+menacing crowd surrounded the carriage as they dismounted, the commanding
+officer took up the dauphin in his arms to carry him in safety to the door
+of the hotel; comforting the queen at the same time with a loyal whisper
+well suited to her feelings, "Despise this clamor, madame; there is a God
+above all."
+
+But, miserable as their journey was, soon after leaving Châlons it became
+more wretched still. They were no longer to be allowed the privilege of
+suffering and grieving by themselves. The Assembly had sent three of its
+members to take charge of them, selecting, as might have been expected,
+two who were known as among their bitterest enemies--Barnave, and a man
+named Pétion; the third, M. Latour Maubourg, was a plain soldier, who
+might be depended on for carrying out his orders with resolution. In one
+respect those who made the choice were disappointed. Barnave, whose
+hostility to the king and queen had been chiefly dictated by personal
+feelings, was entirely converted by the dignified resignation of the
+queen, and from this day renounced his republicanism; and, though he
+adhered to what were known as Constitutionalist views, was ever afterward
+a zealous advocate of both the monarch and the monarchy. But Pétion took
+every opportunity of insulting Louis, haranguing him on the future
+abolition of royalty, and reproaching him for many of his actions, and for
+what he believed to be his feelings and views for the future.
+
+It was the afternoon of the 25th when they came in sight of Paris. So
+great had been Marie Antoinette's mental sufferings that in those few days
+her hair had turned white; and fresh and studied humiliations were yet in
+store for her. The carriage was not allowed to take the shortest road, but
+was conducted some miles round, that it might be led in triumph down the
+Champs Élysées, where a vast mob was waiting to feast their eyes on the
+spectacle, whose display of sullen ill-will had been bespoken by a notice
+prohibiting any one from taking off his hat to the king, or uttering a
+cheer. The National Guard were forbidden to present arms to him; and it
+seemed as if they interpreted this order as a prohibition also against
+using them in his defense; for, as the carriage approached the palace, a
+gang of desperate ruffians, some of whom were recognized as among the most
+ferocious of the former assailants of Versailles, forced their way through
+their ranks, pressed up against the carriage, and even mounted on the
+steps. Barnave and Latour Maubourg, fearing that they intended to break
+open the doors, placed themselves against them; but they contented
+themselves with looking in at the window, and uttering sanguinary threats.
+Marie Antoinette became alarmed--not for herself, but for her children.
+They had so closed up every avenue of air that those within were nearly
+stifled, and the youngest, of course, suffered most. She let down a glass,
+and appealed to those who were crowding round: "For the love of God," she
+exclaimed, "retire; my children are choking!" "We will soon choke you,"
+was the only reply they vouchsafed to her. At last, however, La Fayette
+came up with an armed escort, and they were driven off; but they still
+followed the carriage up to the very gate of the palace with yells of
+insult. And it had a stranger follower still: behind the royal carriage
+came an open cabriolet, in which sat Drouet, with a laurel crown on his
+head,[3] as if the chief object of the procession wore to celebrate his
+triumph over his king.
+
+The mob was even hoping to add to its impressiveness by the slaughter of
+some immediate victims--not of the king and queen, for they believed them
+to be destined to public execution; but they were eager to massacre the
+faithful Body-guards, who had been brought back, bound, on the box of the
+carriage; and they would undoubtedly have carried out their bloody purpose
+had not the queen remembered them, and, as she was dismounting, entreated
+Barnave and La Fayette to protect them. Though during the last three days
+many things had had their names altered,[4] the Tuileries had been spared.
+It was still in name a royal palace, but those who now entered it knew it
+for their prison. The sun was setting, the emblem of the extinction of
+their royalty, as they ascended the stairs to find such rest as they
+might, and to ponder in privacy for this one night over their fatal
+disappointment, and their still more fatal future.
+
+Yet, though their return was full of ignominy and wretchedness, though
+their home had become a prison, the only exit from which was to be the
+scaffold, still, if posthumous renown can compensate for miseries endured
+in this life; if it be worth while to purchase, even by the most terrible
+and protracted sufferings, an undying, unfading memory of the most
+admirable virtues--of fidelity, of truth, of patience, of resignation, of
+disinterestedness, of fortitude, of all the qualities which most ennoble
+and sanctify the heart--it may be said, now that her agonies have long
+been terminated, and that she has been long at rest, that it was well for
+Marie Antoinette that she had failed to reach Montmédy, and that she had
+thus fallen again, without having to reproach herself in any single
+particular, into the hands of her enemies. As a prisoner to the basest of
+mankind, as victim to the most ferocious monsters that have ever disgraced
+humanity, she has ever commanded, and she will never cease to command, the
+sympathy and admiration of every generous mind. But the case would have
+been widely different had Louis and she found the refuge which they sought
+with the loyal and brave De Bouillé. Their arrival in his camp could not
+have failed to be a signal for civil war; and civil war, under such
+circumstances as those of France at that time, could have had but one
+termination--their defeat, dethronement, and expulsion from the country.
+In a foreign land they might, indeed, have found security, but they would
+have enjoyed but little happiness. Wherever he may be, the life of a
+deposed and exiled sovereign must be one of ceaseless mortification. The
+greatest of the Italian poets has well said that the recollection of
+former happiness is the bitterest aggravation of present misery; and not
+only to the fugitive monarch himself, but to those who still preserve
+their fidelity to him, and to the foreign people to whom he is indebted
+for his asylum, the recollection of his former greatness will ever be at
+hand to add still further bitterness to his present humiliation. The most
+friendly feeling his misfortunes can ever excite is a contemptuous pity,
+such as noble and proud minds must find it harder to endure than the
+utmost virulence of hatred and enmity.
+
+From such a fate, at least, Marie Antoinette was saved. During the
+remainder of her life her failure did indeed condemn her to a protraction
+of trial and agony such as no other woman has ever endured; but she always
+prized honor far above life, and it also opened to her an immortality of
+glory such as no other woman has ever achieved.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+Marie Antoinette's Feelings on her Return.--She sees Hopes of
+Improvement.--The 17th of July.--The Assembly inquire into the King's
+Conduct on leaving Paris.--They resolve that there is no Reason for taking
+Proceedings.--Excitement in Foreign Countries.--The Assembly proceeds to
+complete the Constitution.--It declares all the Members Incapable of
+Election to the New Assembly.--Letters of Marie Antoinette to the Emperor
+and to Mercy.--The Declaration of Pilnitz.--The King accepts the
+Constitution.--Insults offered to him at the Festival of the Champ de
+Mars.--And to the Queen at the Theatre.--The First or Constituent Assembly
+is dissolved.
+
+
+It was eminently characteristic of Marie Antoinette that her very first
+act, the morning after her return, was to write to De Fersen, to inform
+him that she was safe and well in health; but though she had roused
+herself for that effort of gratitude and courteous kindness, for some days
+she seemed stupefied by grief and disappointment, and unable to speak or
+think for a single moment of any thing but the narrow chance which had
+crushed her hopes, and changed success, when it had seemed to be secured,
+into ruin; and, if ever she could for a moment drive the feeling from her
+mind, her enemies took care to force it back upon her every hour. Before
+they reached the Tuileries, La Fayette had obtained from the Assembly
+authority to place guards wherever he might think fit; and no jailer ever
+took more rigorous precautions for the safe-keeping of the most desperate
+criminals than this man of noble birth, but most ignoble heart[1], now
+practiced toward his king and queen. Sentinels were placed along every
+passage of the palace, and, that they might have their prisoners
+constantly in sight, the door of every room was kept open day and night.
+The queen was not allowed even to close her bed-chamber, and a soldier was
+placed so as at all times to command a sight of the whole room; the only
+moment that the door was permitted to be shut being a short period each
+morning while she was dressing.
+
+But after a time she rallied, and even began again to think the future not
+wholly desperate. She always looked at the most promising side of affairs,
+and the first shock of the anguish felt at Varennes had scarcely passed
+away, when, with irrepressible sanguineness, she began to look around her
+and search for some foundation on which to build fresh hopes. She even
+thought that she had found it in the divisions which were becoming daily
+more conspicuous in the Assembly itself. She had yet to learn that at such
+times violence always overpowers moderation, and that the worse men are,
+the more certain are they to obtain the upper hand.
+
+The divisions among her enemies were indeed so furious as to justify at
+one time the expectation that one party would destroy the other. The
+Jacobins summoned a vast meeting, whose members they fixed beforehand at a
+hundred thousand citizens, to meet on Sunday, the 17th of July, to
+petition the Assembly to dethrone the king. On the appointed day, long
+before the hour fixed for the meeting, a fierce riot took place, the
+causes and even the circumstances of which have never been clearly
+ascertained, but which soon became marked with scenes of extraordinary
+violence. La Fayette, who tried to crush it in the bud, was pelted and
+fired at. Bailly hung out the red flag, the token of martial law being
+proclaimed, at the Hôtel de Ville, The mob pelted the National Guard. The
+National Guard, too much exasperated and alarmed to obey La Fayette's
+order to fire over the people's heads, at one volley shot down a hundred
+of the rioters. The Jacobin leaders fled in alarm. Robespierre, who had
+been one of the chief organizers of the tumult, being also one of the
+basest of cowards, was the most terrified of all, and fled for shelter to
+his admirer, of congenial spirit, Madame Roland, whose protection he
+afterward repaid by sending her to the scaffold. The riot was quelled, and
+the officers of the National Guard urged La Fayette to take advantage of
+the opportunity, and lead them on to close by force the club of the
+Jacobins, and another of equal ferocity, known as the Cordeliers[2],
+lately founded by the fiercest of the Jacobins, Danton, and a butcher
+named Legendre, who boasted of his ferocity as his only title to interfere
+in the Government. If he had been honest in his professions of a desire to
+save the monarchy, La Fayette would have adopted their advice, for it had
+already become plain to every one that the existence of these clubs was
+incompatible with the preservation of the kingly authority; but his
+imbecile love of popularity made him fear to offend even such a body of
+miscreants as the followers of Danton and Robespierre, and he professed to
+believe that he had given them a sufficient lesson, and had so convinced
+them of his power to crush them that they would be grateful to him for
+sparing them, and learn to act with more moderation in future.
+
+The decision of the Assembly also on the question, of the king's conduct
+in leaving Paris was not without its encouragement to one of the queen's
+disposition. She herself had been interrogated by commissioners appointed
+by the Assembly to inquire into the circumstances connected with the
+transaction, and her statement has been preserved. With her habitual
+anxiety to conceal from others the king's incapacity and want of
+resolution, she represented herself as acting wholly under his orders. "I
+declare," said she, "that as the king desired to quit Paris with his
+children, it would have been unnatural for me to allow any thing to
+prevent me from accompanying him. During the last two years, I have
+sufficiently proved, on several occasions, that I should never leave him;
+and what in this instance determined me most was the assurance which I
+felt that he would never wish to quit the kingdom. If he had had such a
+desire, all my influence would have been exerted to dissuade him from such
+a purpose[3]." And she proceeded further to exculpate all their
+attendants. She declared that Madame de Tourzel, who had been ill for some
+weeks, had never received her orders till the very day of the departure.
+She knew not whither she was going, and had taken no luggage, so that the
+queen herself had been forced to lend her some clothes. The three
+Body-guards were equally ignorant, and the waiting-women. Though it was
+true, she said, that the Count and Countess de Provence had gone to
+Flanders, they had only taken that course to avoid interfering with the
+relays which were required by the king, and had intended to rejoin him at
+Montmédy. The king's own statement tallied with hers in every respect,
+though it was naturally more explicit as to his motives and intentions;
+and his innocence of purpose was so irresistibly demonstrated, that,
+though Robespierre, in the most sanguinary speech which, he had ever yet
+uttered, demanded that he should be brought to trial, not concealing his
+desire that it should end in his condemnation; and though Pétion, and a
+wretch named Buzot, a warm admirer and intimate friend of Madame Roland,
+demanded his deposition and the proclamation of a republic, Barnave had no
+difficulty in carrying the Assembly with him in opposition to their
+violence; and it was finally resolved that nothing which had happened
+furnished grounds for taking proceedings against any member of the royal
+family. It was ordered at the same time that De Bouillé should be arrested
+and impeached; but when he found that nothing could be effected for the
+deliverance of the king, he had fled across the frontiers, and was safe
+from their malice.
+
+Meanwhile, the unconstitutional and unprecedented violence which had been
+offered to the king naturally created the greatest excitement and
+indignation in all foreign countries. A month before the late expedition,
+the emperor had addressed a formal note to M. Montmorin, as Secretary of
+State, declaring that he would regard any ill-treatment of his sister as
+an injury done to himself;[4] and now[5] the chivalrous Gustavus of Sweden
+proposed to address to the Assembly a joint letter of warning from all the
+sovereigns of Europe, to declare that they would all make common cause
+with the King of France if any attempt were made to offer him further
+violence. But even the Austrian ministers regarded such a declaration as
+more likely to aggravate than to diminish the dangers of those whom it was
+designed to serve; and the queen herself preferred waiting for a time, to
+see the result of the strife between the rival parties in the Assembly.
+
+The Assembly was at this time fully occupied with the completion of the
+Constitution, a work for which it had but little time left, since its own
+duration had been fixed at two years, which would expire in September; and
+also with the consideration of a question concerning the composition of
+the next Assembly which had been lately brought forward, and on which the
+queen was unfortunately misled into using her influence to procure a
+decision which was undoubtedly, in its eventual consequences, as
+disastrous to the king's fortunes as it was irreconcilable with common
+sense. Robespierre brought forward a resolution that no members of the
+existing Assembly should be eligible for a seat in that by which it was to
+be replaced. It was in reality a resolution to exclude from the new
+Assembly not only every one who had any parliamentary or legislative
+experience, but also all the adherents or friends of the throne, and to
+place the coming elections wholly in the power of the Jacobins.
+Robespierre was willing to be excluded himself from a conviction, that,
+with such an Assembly as would surely be returned, the Jacobin Club would
+practically exercise all the power of the State. But the Constitutional
+party, who saw that it was aimed at them, opposed it with great vigor; and
+would probably have been able to defeat it if the Royalist members who
+still retained their seats would have consented to join them. Unhappily
+the queen took the opposite view. With far more acuteness, penetration,
+and fertility of imagination than are usually given to women, or to men
+either, she had still in some degree the defect common to her sex, of
+being prone to confine her views to one side of a question; and to
+overrule her reason by her feelings and prejudices. Though she
+acknowledged the service which Barnave had rendered by defeating those who
+had wished to bring the king and herself to trial, she, nevertheless,
+still regarded the Constitutionalists in general with deep distrust as the
+party which desired to lower, and had lowered, the authority and dignity
+of the throne; and, viewing the whole Assembly with not unnatural
+antipathy, she fancied that one composed wholly of new members could not
+possibly be, more unfriendly to the king's person and government, and
+might probably be far better disposed toward them. She easily brought the
+king to adopt her views, and exerted the whole of her influence to secure
+the passing of the decree, sending agents to canvass those deputies who
+were opposed to it. With the Royalist members, the Extreme Right, her
+voice was law, and, by the unnatural union of them and the Jacobins, the
+resolution was carried.
+
+It is the more singular that she should have been willing thus, as it
+were, to proscribe the members of the present Assembly, because, in a very
+remarkable letter which she wrote to her brother the emperor at the end of
+July, she founds the hopes for the future, which she expresses with a
+degree of sanguineness which can hardly fail to be thought strange when
+the events of June are remembered, on the conduct of the Assembly itself.
+The letter is too long to quote at full length, but a few extracts from it
+will help us in our task of forming a proper estimate of her character,
+from the unreserved exposition which it contains of her feelings, both
+past and present, with her views and hopes for the future, even while she
+keenly appreciates the difficulties of the king's position; and from the
+unabated eagerness for the welfare of France which it displays in every
+reflection and suggestion. That she still considers the imperial alliance
+of great importance to the welfare of both nations will surprise no one.
+The suspension of the royal authority which the Assembly had decreed on
+the 26th of June had been removed on the decision that the king was not to
+be proceeded against. Yet her first sentence shows that she was still
+subjected to cruel and lawless tyranny, which even hindered her
+correspondence with her own relations. A queen might have expected to be
+able to write in security to another sovereign; a sister to a brother; but
+La Fayette and those in authority regarded the rights of neither royalty
+nor kindred.
+
+"A friend, my dear brother, has undertaken to convey this letter to you,
+for I myself have no means of giving you news of my health. I will not
+enter into details of what preceded our departure. You have already known
+all the reasons for it. During the events which befell us on our journey,
+and in the situation in which we were immediately after our return to
+Paris, I was profoundly distressed. After I recovered from the first shock
+of the agitation which they produced, I set myself to work to reflect on
+what I had seen; and I have endeavored to form a clear idea of what, in
+the actual state of affairs, the king's interests are, and what the
+conduct is which they prescribe to me. My ideas have been formed by a
+combination of motives which I will proceed to explain to you.
+
+"...The situation of affairs here has greatly changed since our journey.
+The National Assembly was divided into a multitude of parties. Far from
+order being re-established, every day seemed to diminish the power of the
+law. The king, deprived of all authority, did not even see any possibility
+of recovering it on the completion of the Constitution through the
+influence of the Assembly, since that body itself was every day losing
+more the respect of the people. In short, it was impossible to see any end
+to disorder.
+
+"To-day, circumstances present much more hope. The men who have the
+greatest influence in affairs are united together, and have openly
+declared for the preservation of the monarchy and the king, and for the
+re-establishment of order. Since their union, the efforts of the seditious
+have been defeated by a great superiority of strength. The Assembly has
+acquired a consistency and an authority in every part of the kingdom,
+which it seems disposed to use to establish the observance of the laws and
+to put an end to the Revolution. At this moment the most moderate men, who
+have never ceased to be opposed to revolutionary acts, are uniting,
+because they see in union the only prospect of enjoying in safety what the
+Revolution has left them, and of putting an end to the troubles of which
+they dread the continuance. In short, every thing seems at this moment to
+contribute to put an end to the agitations and commotions to which France
+has been given over for the last two years. This termination of them,
+however, natural and possible as it is, will not give the Government the
+degree of force and authority which I regard as necessary; but it will
+preserve us from greater misfortunes; it will place us in a situation of
+greater tranquillity, and, when men's minds have recovered from their
+present intoxication, perhaps they will see the usefulness of giving the
+royal authority a greater range.
+
+"This, in the course which matters are now taking, is what one can foresee
+for the future, and I compare this result with what we could promise
+ourselves from a line of conduct opposed to the wishes which the nation
+displays. In that ease I see an absolute impossibility of obtaining any
+thing except by the employment of a superior force; and on this last
+supposition I will say nothing of the personal dangers which the king, my
+son, and I myself may have to encounter. But what could be the
+consequences but some enterprise, the issue of which is uncertain, and the
+ultimate result of which, whatever it might be, presents disasters such as
+one can not endure to contemplate? The army is in a bad state from want of
+leaders and of subordination; but the kingdom is full of armed men, and
+their imagination is so inflamed that it is impossible to foresee what
+they might do, and the number of victims who might be sacrificed.... It is
+impossible, when one sees what is going on here, to calculate what might
+be the effects of their despair. I only see, in the events which might
+arise out of such an attempt, but very doubtful prospects of success, and
+the certainty of great miseries for every one....
+
+"If the Revolution should be terminated in the manner of which I have
+spoken, then it will be important that the king shall acquire, in a solid
+manner, the confidence and consideration which alone can give a real
+strength to the royal authority. No means are so well calculated to
+procure them for him as the influence which we might have over one of your
+resolutions[6] which would contribute to insure peace to France, and to
+dispel disquietude, which are so much the more grievous for the whole
+world, that they are among the principal obstacles to the re-establishment
+of public tranquillity. The share which in that way we should have in the
+termination of these troubles would win over to us all men of moderate
+temper, while the others, especially the chiefs of the Revolution, would
+attach themselves to us because of the sincere and efficacious inclination
+which we should have shown to conduct matters to the end, which they all
+wish for. Your own interests seem to me also to have a place in this
+system of conduct. The National Assembly, before separating, will desire,
+in concert with the king, to determine the alliances to which France is to
+continue attached; and the power of Europe which shall be the first to
+recognize the Constitution, after it has been accepted by the king, will
+undoubtedly be the one with which the Assembly will be inclined to form
+the closest alliance; and to these general views I might add the means
+which I myself have to dispose men's minds to maintain this alliance--
+means which will be extremely strengthened, if you share my view of the
+present circumstances.
+
+"I can not doubt that the chiefs of the Revolution, who have supported the
+king in the last crisis, will be desirous to assure to him the
+consideration and respect necessary to the exercise of his authority, and
+that they will see in a close alliance of France with that power with
+which he is connected by ties of blood, a means of combining his dignity
+with the interests of the nation, and in that way of consolidating and
+strengthening a Constitution of which they all agree that the majesty of
+the king is one essential foundation.
+
+"I do not know if, independently of all other reasons, the king will not
+find in that feeling and in the inclinations of the nation, when it has
+recovered its calmness, more deference, and a temper more favorable to
+him, than he could expect from the majority of those Frenchmen who are at
+present out of the kingdom.[7]"
+
+And a letter which she wrote to Mercy a fortnight later is perhaps even
+more worthy of attention, as supplying abundant proof, if proof were
+needed, of the good-will and good faith which were the leading principles
+of herself and the king in all their dealings with the Assembly. Since her
+letter to her brother, matters had been proceeding rapidly. She had found
+some means of treating more directly than on any previous occasion, not
+only with Barnave, but with the far more unscrupulous A. Lameth; and the
+Assembly had made such progress in completing the Constitution that it was
+on the point of submitting it to the king for his acceptance. We have seen
+in Marie Antoinette's letter to the emperor that she was convinced of the
+necessity of Louis signifying that acceptance, and she adhered to that
+view of the policy to be pursued, though the last touches given to the
+Constitution had rendered many of its articles far more unreasonable than
+she had anticipated, and though the great English statesman, Burke, whose
+"Reflections" of the preceding year had naturally caused him to be
+regarded as one of the ablest advisers on whom she could rely, forwarded
+to her an earnest exhortation to induce her husband to reject it. He
+implored her "to have nothing to do with traitors." Using the argument
+which, to one so sensitive for her honor as Marie Antoinette, was well
+calculated to exert an almost irresistible influence over her mind, he
+declared that "her resolution at this most critical moment was to decide
+whether her glory was to be maintained, and her distresses to cease, or
+whether" (and he begged pardon for ever mentioning such an alternative)
+"shame and affliction were to be her portion for the rest of her life;"
+and he declared that "if the king should accept the Constitution, both
+king and queen were ruined forever."
+
+The great writer was, as in more than one other instance of his career,
+too earnest in his conviction that principles were at stake in the course
+which he recommended, to consider whether that course were safe for those
+on whom he urged it, or even practicable. But Marie Antoinette, as one on
+whose decision the very lives of her husband and her child might depend,
+felt bound to consider, in the first place, how far her adoption of the
+advice thus tendered might endanger both; and, accordingly, while
+expressing to Mercy the full extent of her repugnance to the system of
+government, if indeed it deserved the name of a system, which the new
+Constitution had framed, she shows that her disapproval of it has in no
+degree led her to change her mind on the practical question of the course
+which the king should pursue. She justifies her decision to Mercy in a
+most elaborate letter, in which the whole position is surveyed with
+admirable good sense.[8]
+
+"Our position is this: We are now on the point of having the Constitution
+brought to us for acceptance. It is in itself so monstrous that it is
+impossible that it should be long maintained. But, in the position in
+which we are, can we risk refusing it? No; and I will prove it to you. I
+am not speaking of the personal dangers which we should run. We have fully
+shown by the journey which we undertook two months ago that we do not take
+our own safety into account when the public welfare is at stake. But this
+Constitution is so intrinsically bad that it can only acquire consistence
+from any resistance which we might oppose to it. Our business, therefore,
+is to take a middle course, which may save our honor, and may put us in
+such a position that the people may come back to us when once their eyes
+are opened, and they have become weary of the existing state of affairs. I
+think also that it is necessary that, when they have presented the act to
+the king, he should keep it by him a few days; for he is not supposed to
+know what it is till it has been presented to him in all legal form; and
+that then he should summon the Commissioners before him, not to make any
+comments, not to demand any alterations, which perhaps might not be
+admitted, and which would be interpreted as an admission that he approved
+of the basis, but to declare that his opinions are not changed; that, in
+his declaration of the 20th of June,[9] he proved the absolute
+impossibility of governing under the new system, and that he is still of
+the same mind; but that, for the sake of the tranquillity of his country,
+he sacrifices himself; and that, as his people and the nation stake their
+happiness on his accepting it, he does not hesitate to signify that
+acceptance; and that the sight of their happiness will speedily make him
+forget the cruel and bitter griefs which they have inflicted on him and on
+his family.
+
+"But if we take this line we must adhere to it; and, above all things, we
+must avoid any step which can create distrust, and we must move on, so to
+say, always with the law in our hand. I promise you that this is the best
+way to give them an early disgust at the Constitution. The mischief is,
+that for this we shall want an able and a trustworthy ministry.... Several
+people urge us to reject the act, and the king's brothers press upon him
+every day that it is indispensable to do so, and affirm that we shall be
+supported. By whom?" And she proceeds to examine the situation and policy
+of Spain, of the empire of England, and of Prussia, to prove that from
+none of them is there any hope of active aid, while to trust to the
+emigrants would be the worst expedient of all, because "we should then
+fall into a new slavery worse than the first, since, while we should
+appear to be in some degree indebted to them, we should not be able to
+extricate ourselves from their toils. They already prove this when they
+refuse to listen to the persons who are in our confidence, on the pretext
+that they do not trust them, while they seek to force us to give ourselves
+up to M. de Calonne, who, I fear, in all that he does is guided by nothing
+but his own ambition, his private enmities, and his habitual levity,
+thinking every thing he wishes not only possible, but already done.
+
+"... One circumstance worthy of remark is that in all these discussions on
+the Constitution the people take no interest, and concern themselves
+solely about their own affairs, limiting their wishes to having a
+Constitution and getting rid of the aristocrats... As to our acceptance of
+the Constitution, it is impossible for any thinking being to avoid seeing
+that we are not free. But it is essential that we should not awaken a
+suspicion of our feelings in the monsters who surround us. Let me know
+where the emperor's forces are and what is their present position. In
+every case the foreign powers can alone save us. The army is lost. There
+is no money. There is no bond, no curb which can restrain the populace,
+which is everywhere armed. Even the chiefs of the Revolution, when they
+wish to speak of order, are not listened to. This is the deplorable
+condition in which we are placed. Add that we have not a single friend--
+that every one betrays us, some out of hatred, others out of weakness or
+ambition. In short, I actually am reduced to dread the day when they will
+have the appearance of giving us a kind of freedom. At least, in the state
+of nullity in which we are at present, no one can reproach us.... You know
+the character of the person with whom I have to do.[10] At the last
+moment, when one seems to have convinced him, an argument, a word, will
+make him change his mind before any one suspects it. This is the reason
+why many expedients can not be even attempted."
+
+On the 21st she hears that the Charter will be presented at the end of the
+week, and she repeats her fears that the conduct of the emigrants may
+involve them in fresh troubles. "It is essential that the French, and most
+especially the brothers of the king, should keep in the background, and
+allow the foreign princes to act by themselves. But no entreaty, no
+argument from us will induce them to do so. The emperor must insist upon
+it. It is the only way in which he can serve us. You know yourself the
+mischievous wrong-headedness and evil designs of the emigrants. The
+cowards! after having abandoned us, they seek to make us expose ourselves
+alone to danger, and serve nothing but their interests. I do not accuse
+the king's brothers; I believe their hearts and their intentions to be
+pure, but they are surrounded and guided by ambitious men who will ruin
+them after having first ruined us." ... On the 26th she hears that it will
+still be a week before the Constitution is brought to the king. "It is
+impossible, considering our position, that the king should refuse to
+accept it. You may depend upon this being true, since I say it. You know
+my character sufficiently to be sure that it would incline me rather to a
+noble and bold course. We have no resource but in the foreign powers. They
+must come to our assistance; but it is the emperor who must put himself at
+the head of every thing, and manage every thing.... I declare to you that
+matters are now come to such a state that it would be better to be king of
+a single province than of a kingdom so abandoned and disordered as this. I
+shall endeavor, if I can, to send the emperor information on all these
+matters. But, in the mean time, do you tell him all that you consider
+necessary to prove to him that we have no longer any resource except in
+him, and that our happiness, our existence, and that of my child depend on
+him alone, and on his prudence and promptitude in action.[11]"
+
+And, however she from time to time caught at momentary hopes arising from
+other sources, the only one on which she placed any permanent reliance
+were the affection and power of her brother; and that hope, in the course
+of the winter, was cut from under her by his death.[12] Yet so correct was
+her judgment and appreciation of sound political principles, or, perhaps
+we might say, so keen was her sense of what was due to the independence
+and dignity of France, in spite of its present disloyalty, that a report
+that the emperor and Prussia had, by implication, claimed a right to
+dictate to France in matters of her internal government drew from her a
+warm remonstrance. As sovereign and brother she conceived that Leopold had
+a right to interfere to insure the safety of his own sister and of a
+brother sovereign; but she never desired him to interpose for any other
+object. From her childhood, as we have seen more than once, she had
+learned to regard the Prussian character and Prussian designs with
+abhorrence. And in a letter to Mercy of the 12th of September, after
+expressing an earnest hope that the emperor will not allow himself to be
+guided by "the cunning of Calonne, and the detestable policy of Prussia,"
+she adds, "It is said here that in the agreement signed at Pilnitz,[13]
+the two powers engage never to permit the new French Constitution to be
+established. There certainly are things which foreign powers have a right
+to oppose, but, as to what concerns the internal laws of a country, every
+nation has a right to adopt those which suit it. They would be wrong,
+therefore, to intervene in such a matter; and all the world would see in
+such an act a proof of the intrigues of the emigrants.[14]"
+
+She proceeds to tell him that all is settled. The king had adopted the
+line which she had marked out for him in her former letter. The
+Constitution had been presented to him on the 3d of September. He had
+taken a few days to consider it, not with the idea of proposing the
+slightest alteration, but in order to avoid the appearance of acting under
+compulsion; and, on the same day on which she wrote to Mercy, he was
+drawing up a letter to the Assembly, to announce his intention of visiting
+the Assembly to give it his royal assent in due form. But, though she
+would not have had him act otherwise, she can not announce this apparent
+termination of the contest without some natural expressions of grief and
+indignation.
+
+"At last the die is cast. All that we have now to do is to regulate the
+future progress and conduct of affairs as circumstances may permit. I only
+wish that others would regulate their conduct by mine. But even in our own
+inner circle we have great difficulties and great conflicts. Pity me: I
+assure you that it requires more courage to support the condition in which
+I am placed than to encounter a pitched battle. And the more so that I do
+not deceive myself, and that I see nothing but misery in the want of
+energy shown by some, and the evil designs of others. My God! is it
+possible that, endowed as I am with force of character, and feeling as I
+do so thoroughly the blood which runs in my veins, I should yet be
+destined to pass my days in such an age and with such men! But, for all
+this, never believe that my courage is deserting me. Not for my own sake,
+but for the sake of my child, I will support myself, and I will fulfill to
+the end my long and painful career, I can no longer see what I am writing.
+Farewell.[15]"
+
+Tears, we may suppose, were blinding her eyes, in spite of all her
+fortitude. There was no exaggeration in her declaration to the Empress
+Catherine of Russia, with whom at this time she was in frequent
+communication, that the "distrust which was shown by all around them was a
+moral and continual death, a thousand times worse than that physical death
+which was a release from all miseries.[16]" And in the same letter she
+explains that to remove this distrust was one principal object which the
+king and she had in view in all their measures. Yet, in spite of all his
+concessions, the week was not to pass without fresh insults being offered
+to the king, which shocked even his phlegmatic apathy. The letter which he
+sent to the Assembly to announce his compliance with its wishes was indeed
+received with acclamations which, if not sincere, were at least loud, and
+apparently unanimous; and, as if in reply to it, La Fayette proposed and
+carried a motion that the Assembly should pass an act of amnesty for all
+political offenses; and a magnificent festival was appointed to be held in
+the Champ de Mars on the following Sunday, in celebration of the joyful
+event. But, after the first brief excitement had passed away, the Jacobin
+faction recovered its ascendency, and contrived to make that very
+festival, which was designed to express the gratitude of the nation, an
+occasion of further humiliation to the unhappy Louis. Every arrangement
+for the day was discussed in a spirit of the bitterest disloyalty. When
+the question was raised, which in any other Assembly that ever met in the
+world would have been thought needless, what attitude the members were to
+preserve while the king was taking the prescribed oath to observe the
+Constitution, a hundred voices shouted out that they should all keep their
+seats, and that the king should swear, standing and bare-headed; and when
+one deputy of high reputation, M. Malouet, remonstrated against such a
+vote, arguing that so to treat the chief of the State would be a greater
+insult to the nation than even to himself, a deputy from Brittany cried
+out that M. Malouet and those who thought with him might receive Louis on
+their knees, if they liked, but that the rest of the Assembly should be
+seated.
+
+And, in accordance with the feeling thus shown, every mark of respect was
+studiously withheld from the unhappy monarch, and every care was taken to
+show him that every deputy considered himself his equal. Two chairs
+exactly similar were provided for him and for the president; and when,
+after taking the oath and affixing his signature to the act, the king
+resumed his seat, the president, who, having to reply to him in a short
+address, had at first risen for that purpose, on seeing that Louis
+retained his seat, sat down beside him, and finished his speech in that
+position. Louis felt the affront. He contained himself while in the hall,
+and while the members were conducting him back to the palace, which they
+presently did amidst the music of military bands and the salutes of
+artillery. But when his escort had left him, and he reached his own
+apartments, his pride gave way. The queen with the dauphin had been
+present in a box hastily fitted up for her, and had followed him back. He
+felt for her more than for himself. Bursting into tears, he said, "It is
+all over. You have seen my humiliation. Why did I ever bring you into
+France for such degradation?" And the queen, while endeavoring to console
+him, turned to Madame de Campan, who has recorded the scene, and dismissed
+her from her attendance.[17] "Leave us," she said, "leave us to
+ourselves." She could not bear that even that faithful servant should
+remain to be a witness to the despair and prostration of her sovereign.
+
+The very rejoicings were turned by the agents of the Jacobins into
+occasions for further outrages. The whole city was illuminated, and the
+sovereigns yielded to the entreaties of the popular leaders, to drive
+through the streets and the Champs Élysées to see the illumination. The
+populace, who believed the Revolution at an end and their freedom secured,
+cheered them heartily as they passed; but at every cry of "Vive le roi," a
+stentorian voice, close to the royal carriage, shouted out, "Not so: Vive
+la nation!" and the queen, though it was plain that the ruffian had been
+hired thus to outrage them, almost fainted with terror at his ferocity. A
+few days afterward, the insults were renewed even more pointedly. The
+royal family went in state to the opera, where, before their arrival, the
+Jacobins had packed the pit with a gang of their own hirelings, whose
+unpowdered hair made them conspicuous objects.[18] The opera was one of
+Grétry's, "Les Événements Imprévus," in which one of the duets contains
+the line "Ah, comme j'aime ma maïtresse." Madame Dugazon, a popular singer
+of the day, as she uttered the words, bowed toward the royal box, and
+instantly the whole pit was in a fury. "No mistress for us! no master!
+Liberty!" The whole house was in an uproar. The king's partisans and
+adherents replied with loyal cheers, "Vive le roi! Vive la reine!" The pit
+roared out, "No master! no queen!" and the Jacobins even proceeded to acts
+of violence toward all who refused to join in their cry. Blows were
+struck, and it became necessary to send for a company of the Guard to
+restore order.
+
+Yet when, on the last day of the month, the king visited the Assembly[19]
+to declare its dissolution, the president addressed him in terms of the
+most loyal gratitude, affirming that by his acceptance of the
+Constitution, he had earned the blessings of all future generations; and
+when he quitted the hall, the populace escorted the royal carriage back to
+the palace with vociferous cheers. Though, in the eyes of impartial
+observers, this display of returning good-will was more than
+counterbalanced when, as the members of the Assembly came out, some of the
+Royalists and Constitutionalists were hooted, and some of the fiercest
+Jacobins were greeted with still more enthusiastic acclamations.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+Composition of the New Assembly.--Rise of the Girondins,--Their Corruption
+and Eventual Fate.--Vergniaud's Motions against the King.--Favorable
+Reception of the King at the Assembly, and at the Opera.--Changes in the
+Ministry.--The King's and Queen's Language to M. Bertrand de Moleville.--
+The Count de Narbonne.--Pétion is elected Mayor of Paris.--Scarcity of
+Money, and Great Hardships of the Royal Family.--Presents arrive from
+Tippoo Sahib.--The Dauphin.--The Assembly passes Decrees against the
+Priests and the Emigrants.--Misconduct of the Emigrants.--Louis refuses
+his Assent to the Decrees.--He issues a Circular condemning Emigration.
+
+
+The new Assembly met on the 1st of October, and its composition afforded
+the Royalists, or even the Constitutionalists, the party that desired to
+stand by the Constitution which had just been ratified, very little
+prospect of a re-establishment of tranquillity. The mischievous effect of
+the vote which excluded members of the last Assembly from election was
+seen in the very lists of those who had been returned. In the whole number
+there were scarcely a dozen members of noble or gentle birth; the number
+of ecclesiastics was equally small; while property was as little
+represented as the nobility or the Church. It was reckoned that of the
+whole body scarcely fifty possessed two thousand francs a year. The
+general youth of the members was as conspicuous as their poverty; half of
+them had hardly attained middle age; a great many were little more than
+boys. The Jacobins themselves, who, before the elections, had reckoned on
+swaying their decisions by terror, could hardly have anticipated a result
+which would place the entire body so wholly at their mercy.
+
+But what was still move ominous of evil was the rise of a new party, known
+as that of the Girondins, from the circumstance of some of its most
+influential members coming from the Gironde, one of the departments which
+the late Assembly had carved out of the old province of Gascony. It was
+not absolutely a new party, since the foundations of it had been laid,
+during the last two months of the old Assembly, by Pétion and a low-born
+pamphleteer named Brissot, who, as editor of a newspaper to which he gave
+the name of _Le Patriote Français_, rivaled the most blood-thirsty of the
+Jacobins in exciting the worst passions of the populace. But Pétion and
+Brissot had only sown the seeds. The opening of the new Assembly at once
+gave it growth and vigor, when the deputies from the Gironde plunged into
+the arena of debate, and showed an undeniable superiority in eloquence to
+every other party. The chiefs, Vergniaud, Gensonné, and Gaudet, were
+lawyers who had never obtained any practice. Isnard, the first man to make
+an open profession of atheism in the Assembly, was the son of a perfumer
+in Provence. They were adventurers as utterly without principle as without
+resources. And their first thought appears to have been to make money of
+the king's difficulties, and to sell themselves to him. They applied to
+the Minister of the Interior, M. de Lessart, proposing to place the whole
+of their influence at the service of the Government, on condition of his
+securing each of them a pension of six thousand francs a month.[1] M. de
+Lessart would not have objected to buy them, but he thought the price
+which they set upon themselves too high; and as they adhered to their
+demand, the negotiation went off, and they resolved to revenge themselves
+on his royal master with all the malice of disappointed rapacity.
+
+As none of them had any force of character, they fell under the influence
+of the wife of one of their number, a small manufacturer, named Roland,
+the same who, as we have already seen, was the first to raise the cry of
+blood in France, and to recommend the assassination of the king and queen
+while they were still in fancied security at Versailles. Under the
+direction of this fierce woman, whose ferocity was rendered more
+formidable by her undoubted talents, the Girondins began an internecine
+war with the king, who had refused them the wages which they had asked.
+They planned and carried out the sanguinary attacks on the palace in the
+summer of the next year. They brought Louis to the scaffold by the
+unanimity of their votes. Yet it would have been more fortunate for
+themselves as well as for him had they been less exorbitant in their
+demands, and had they connected themselves with the Government as they
+desired. For though they succeeded in their treason, though Madame Roland
+saw the accomplishment of her wish in the murder of the king and queen,
+their success was equally fatal to themselves. Almost all of them perished
+on the same scaffold to which they had consigned their virtuous
+sovereigns, meeting a fate in one respect worse even than theirs, from the
+infamy of the names which they have left behind them.
+
+Yet for a few days it seemed as if their malignity would miss its aim.
+They did not wait a single day before displaying it; but, at the
+preliminary meeting of the Assembly, before it was opened for the dispatch
+of business, Vergniaud proposed to declare it illegal to speak of the king
+as his majesty, or to address him as "sire;" while another deputy, named
+Couthon, who at first belonged to the same party, though he afterward
+joined the Jacobins, carried a motion that, when Louis came to open the
+Assembly, the president should occupy the place of honor, and the second
+seat should be allotted to the sovereign.
+
+Still, for a moment it seemed as if they had overshot their mark, and as
+if the more loyal party would be able to withstand and defeat them. The
+Assembly itself was compelled to repeal its recent votes, since Louis,
+whom indignation for once inspired with greater firmness than he usually
+displayed, refused to open the new Assembly in person unless he were to be
+received with the honors to which his rank entitled him. The offensive
+resolutions were canceled; and, when he had therefore opened the session
+in a dignified and conciliatory speech which was chiefly of his own
+composition, the president, M. Pastoret, a member of the Constitutional
+party, replied in a language which was not only respectful, but
+affectionate. The Constitution, he said, had given the king friends in
+those who were formerly only styled his subjects. The Assembly and the
+nation felt the need of his love. As the Constitution had rendered him the
+greatest monarch in the world, so his attachment to it would place him
+among the kings most beloved by their people.
+
+And it seemed as if the Parisians in general shared to the full the loyal
+sentiments uttered by M. Pastoret. Writing the same week to her brother,
+Marie Antoinette, with a confidence which could only spring from a sincere
+attachment to the whole nation, reiterated her old opinion that "the good
+citizens and good people had always in their hearts been friendly to the
+king and herself;[2]" and expressed her belief that since the acceptance
+of the Constitution the people "had again learned to trust them." She was
+"far from giving herself up to a blind confidence. She knew that the
+disaffected had not abandoned their treasonable purposes; but, as the king
+and she herself were resolved to unite themselves in sincere good faith to
+the people, it was impossible but that, when their real feelings were
+known, the bulk of the people should return to them. The mischief was that
+the well-meaning knew not how to act in concert."
+
+It did seem as if she were correct in her estimate of the feelings of the
+citizens, when, in the evening of the day on which Louis had opened the
+Assembly, the whole royal family, including the two children, went to the
+opera; and, as if with express design to ratify the loyal language of the
+president of the Assembly, the whole audience greeted them with a most
+enthusiastic reception. More than once they interrupted the performance
+with loud cheers for both king and queen; and as the pleasure of children
+is always an attractive sight, they sympathized especially with the
+delight of the little dauphin, their future king, as they all then thought
+him, who, being new to such a spectacle, only took his eyes off the stage
+to imitate the gestures of the actors to his mother, and draw her
+attention to them.
+
+In more than one of her letters the queen had vehemently deplored the want
+of a stronger ministry than of late had been in the king's service. It was
+a natural complaint, though in fact the ability or want of ability
+displayed by the ministers was a matter of but slight practical
+importance, so completely had the Assembly engrossed the whole power of
+the State; but in the course of the autumn some changes were made, one of
+which for a time certainly added to the comfort of the sovereigns. M.
+Montmorin retired; M. de Lessart was transferred to his office; and M.
+Bertrand de Moleville, who was entirely new to official life, became the
+minister of marine. The whole kingdom did not contain a man more attached
+to the king and queen. But he combined statesman-like prudence with his
+loyalty; and his conduct before he took office elicited a very remarkable
+proof of the singleness of mind and purpose with which the king and queen
+had accepted the Constitution. M. Bertrand had previously refused office,
+and was very unwilling to take it now; and he frankly told Louis that he
+could not hope to be of any real service to him unless he knew the plans
+which the king might have formed with respect to the Constitution, and the
+line of conduct which he desired his ministers to observe on the subject;
+and Louis told him distinctly that though "he was far from regarding the
+Constitution as a masterpiece, and though he thought it easy to reform it
+advantageously in many particulars, yet he had sworn to observe it as it
+was, and that he was bound to be, and resolved to be, strictly faithful to
+his oath; the more so because it seemed to him that the most exact
+observance of the Constitution was the surest method to lead the nation to
+understand it in all its bearings; when the people themselves would
+perceive the character of the changes in it which it was desirable to
+make."
+
+M. Bertrand expressed his warm approval of the wisdom of such a policy,
+but thought it so important to know how far the queen coincided in her
+husband's sentiments that he ventured to put the question to his majesty.
+The king assured him that he had been speaking her sentiments as well as
+his own, and that he should hear them from her own lips; and accordingly
+the queen immediately granted the new minister an audience, in which,
+after expressing, with her habitual grace and kindness, her feeling that,
+by accepting office at such a time, he was laying both the king and
+herself under a personal obligation, she added, "The king has explained to
+you his intentions with respect to the Constitution; do not you think that
+the only plan for him to follow is to be faithful to his oath?"
+"Undoubtedly, madame." "Well, you may depend upon it that nothing will
+make us change. Have courage, M. Bertrand; I hope that, with patience,
+firmness, and consistency, all is not yet lost.[3]"
+
+Nor was M. Bertrand the only one of the ministers who received proofs of
+the resolution of the queen to adhere steadily to the Constitution. There
+was also a new minister of war, the Count de Narbonne, as firmly attached
+to the persons of the sovereigns as M. Bertrand himself, though in
+political principle more inclined to the views of the Constitutionalists
+than to those of the extreme Royalists. He was likewise a man of
+considerable capacity, eloquent and fertile in resources; but he was
+ambitious and somewhat vain; and he was so elated at the approval
+expressed by the Assembly of a report on the military resources of the
+kingdom which he laid before it soon after his appointment, that he
+obtained an audience of the queen, the object of which was to convince her
+that the only means of saving the State was to confer on a man of talent,
+energy, sagacity, and activity, who enjoyed the confidence of the Assembly
+and of the nation, the post of prime minister; and he admitted that he
+intended to designate himself by this description. Marie Antoinette,
+though fully aware of the desirableness of having a single man of ability
+and firmness at the head of the administration, was for a moment surprised
+out of her habitual courtesy. She could not forbear a smile, and in plain
+terms asked him "if he were crazy.[4]" But she proceeded with her usual
+kindness to explain to him the impracticability of the scheme which he had
+suggested, and the foundation of her argument was an explanation that such
+an appointment would be a violation of the Constitution, which forbade the
+king to create any new ministerial office. And the count deserves to have
+it mentioned to his honor that the rebuff which he had received in no
+degree cooled his attachment to the king and queen, or the zeal with which
+he labored for their service.
+
+We have no information how far the new minister coincided in a step which
+the queen took in the course of November, and which is commonly ascribed
+to her judgment alone. Before its dissolution, the late Assembly had
+broken up the National Guard of Paris into separate legions, and had
+suppressed the appointment of commander-in-chief of the forces; and La
+Fayette, whom this measure had left without employment, feeling keenly the
+diminution of his importance, and instigated by the restlessness common to
+men of moderate capacity, conceived the hope of succeeding Bailly in the
+mayoralty of Paris, which that magistrate was on the point of resigning.
+
+It had become a post of great consequence, since the extent to which the
+authority of the crown had been pared away tended to make the mayor the
+absolute dictator of the capital; and consequently the Jacobins were
+anxious to secure the office for one of the extreme Revolutionary party,
+and set up Pétion as a rival candidate. The election belonged to the
+citizens, and, as in the city the two parties possessed almost equal
+strength, it was soon seen that the court, which had by no means lost its
+influence among the tradesmen and shop-keepers, had the power of deciding
+the contest in favor of the candidate for whom it should pronounce, Marie
+Antoinette declared for Pétion. She knew him to be a Jacobin,[5] but he
+was so devoid of any reputation for ability that she did not fear him.
+Nor, except that he had behaved with boorish disrespect and ill-manners
+during their melancholy return from Varennes, had she any reason for
+suspecting him of any special enmity to the king.
+
+But La Fayette, though always loud in his professions of loyalty, had
+never lost an opportunity of offering personal insults to both the king
+and herself. It was to his shameful neglect (to put his conduct in the
+most favorable light) that she justly attributed the danger to which she
+had been exposed at Versailles, and the compulsion which had been put upon
+the king to take up his residence in Paris; and, not to mention a constant
+series of petty insults which he had heaped on both Louis and herself, and
+on the Royalists as a body, he had given unmistakable proofs of his
+personal animosity toward the king by his conduct on the 21st of June, and
+by the indecent rigor with which he treated them both after their return
+from Varennes. Even when he was loudest in the profession of his desire
+and power to influence the Assembly in the king's favor, one of his own
+friends had told him to his face that he was insincere,[6] and that Louis
+could not and ought not to trust his promises; and every part of his
+conduct toward the royal pair was stamped with duplicity as well as with
+ill-will. It was not strange, therefore, indeed it was fully consistent
+with the honest openness of Marie Antoinette's own character, that she
+should prefer an open enemy to a pretended friend. She even believed what,
+from the very commencement of the Revolution, many had suspected, that La
+Fayette cherished views of personal ambition, and aimed at reviving the
+old authority of a Maire du Palais over a Roi Fainéant[7]. She therefore
+directed her friends to throw their weight into the scale in favor of
+Pétion, who was accordingly elected by a great majority, while the
+marquis, greatly chagrined, retired for a time to his estate in Auvergne.
+
+The victory, however, was an unfortunate one for the court. It contributed
+to increase the confidence of its enemies; and, as their instinct showed
+them that it was from the resolution of the queen that they had the most
+formidable opposition to dread, it was against her that, from their first
+entrance into the Assembly, Vergniaud and his friends specially exerted
+themselves; Vergniaud openly contending that the inviolability of the
+sovereign, which was an article of the new Constitution, applied only to
+the king himself, and in no degree to his consort; while in the Jacobin
+and Cordelier Clubs the coarsest libels were poured forth against her with
+unremitting perseverance to stimulate and justify the most obscene and
+ferocious threats. The coarsest ruffians in a street quarrel never used
+fouler language of one another than these men of education applied to the
+pure-minded and magnanimous lady whose sole offense was that she was the
+wife of their kind-hearted king.
+
+And, in addition to this daily increase of their danger which such
+denunciations could not fail to augment, the royal family were now
+suffering inconveniences which even those whose measures had caused them
+had never designed. They were in the most painful want of money. The
+agitation of the last two years had rendered the treasury bankrupt. The
+paper money, which now composed almost the whole circulation of the
+country, was valueless. While, as it was in this paper money (assignats,
+as the notes were called, as being professedly secured by assignments on
+the royal domains and on the ecclesiastical property which had been
+confiscated), that the king's civil list was paid, at the latter end of
+each month it was not uncommon for him and the queen to be absolutely
+destitute. It was with great reluctance that they accepted loans from
+their loyal adherents, because they saw no prospect of being able to repay
+them; but had they not availed themselves of this resource, they would at
+times have wanted absolute necessaries.[8]
+
+The royal couple still kept their health, the king's apathy being in this
+respect as beneficial as the queen's courage: they still rode a great deal
+when the weather was favorable; and on one occasion, at the beginning of
+1792, the queen, with her sister-in-law and her daughter, went again to
+the theatre. The opera was the same which had been performed at the visit
+in October; but this time the Jacobins had not been forewarned so as to
+pack the house, and Madame du Gazon's duet was received with enthusiasm.
+Again, as she sung "Ah, que j'aime ma maîtresse!" she bowed to the royal
+box, and the audience cheered. As if in reply to one verse, "Il faut les
+rendre heureux," "Oui, oui!" with lively unanimity, came from all parts of
+the house, and the singers were compelled to repeat the duet four times.
+"It is a queer nation this of ours," says the Princess Elizabeth, in
+relating the scene to one of her correspondents, "but we must allow that
+it has very charming moments.[9]"
+
+A somewhat curious episode to divert their minds from these domestic
+anxieties was presented by an embassy from the brave and intriguing Sultan
+of Mysore, the celebrated Tippoo Sahib, who sought to engage Louis to lend
+him six thousand French troops, with whose aid he trusted to break down
+the ascendency which England was rapidly establishing in India. Tippoo
+backed his request, in the Oriental fashion, by presents, though not such
+as, in the opinion of M. Bertrand, were quite worthy of the giver or of
+the receiver. To the king he sent some diamonds, but they were yellow,
+ill-cut, and ill-set; and the rest of the offering was composed of a few
+pieces of embroidered silk, striped cloth, and cambric: while the queen's
+present consisted of nothing more valuable than a few bottles of perfume
+of no very exquisite quality, and a few boxes of powdered scents, pastils,
+and matches. The king and queen gave nearly the whole present to M.
+Bertrand for his grandchildren, the queen only reserving a bottle of attar
+of rose and a couple of pieces of cambric; and that chiefly to afford a
+pretext for seeing M. Bertrand once or twice, without his reception being
+imputed to a desire to promote some Austrian intrigue; for the Jacobins
+had lately revived the clamor against Austrian influence with greater
+vehemence than ever.
+
+As M. Bertrand had grandchildren, he could well appreciate the pleasure of
+the queen at an incident which closed one of his audiences. While he was
+thus receiving her commands, the little dauphin, "beautiful as an angel,"
+as the minister describes him, was capering about the room in high
+delight, brandishing a wooden sword, a new toy which had just been given
+him. An attendant called him to go to supper; and he bounded toward the
+door. "How is this, my boy?" said Marie Antoinette, calling him back; "are
+you going off without making M. Bertrand a bow?" "Oh, mamma," said the
+little prince, still skipping about, and smiling, "that is because I know
+well that M. Bertrand is one of our friends.... Good-evening, M.
+Bertrand." "Is not he a nice child?[10]" said the queen, after he had left
+the room. "He is very happy to be so young. He does not feel what we
+suffer, and his gayety does us good." Alas! that which was now perhaps her
+only pleasure--the contemplation of her child's opening grace and
+amiability--before long became even an addition to her affliction, as the
+probabilities increased that the madness of the people and the wickedness
+of their leaders would deprive him of the inheritance, to preserve which
+to him was the principal object of all her cares and exertions.
+
+But these moments of gratification were becoming fewer as time went on.
+Each month, each week brought fresh and increasing anxieties to engross
+all her thoughts. As the Girondin leaders began to feel their strength,
+the votes of the Assembly became more violent. One day it passed a fresh
+decree against the priests, depriving all who refused to take the oath to
+the new ecclesiastical constitution of the stipends for which their former
+preferments had been commuted, placing them under strict supervision, and
+declaring them liable to instant banishment if they should venture to
+exercise their functions in private. Another day it vented its wrath upon
+the emigrants, summoning the Count de Provence by name to return at once
+to France; and, with respect to the rest of the body, now very numerous,
+declaring their conduct in being assembled on the frontier of the kingdom
+in a state of readiness for war in itself an act of treason; and
+condemning to death and confiscation of their estates all who should fail
+to return to their native land before a stated day.
+
+But in these decrees the advocates of violence had for the moment gone too
+far--they had outrun the feelings of the nation. The emigrants, indeed,
+neither deserved nor found sympathy in any quarter. The main body of them
+was at this time settled at Coblentz, where their conduct was such that it
+is hard to say whether it were more offensive to their country, more
+injurious to their king, or more discreditable to themselves. They could
+not even act in harmony. The king's two brothers established rival courts,
+with a mistress at the head of each. Madame de Balbi still ruled the Count
+de Provence; Madame de Polastron was the presiding genius of the coterie
+of the Count d'Artois. The two ladies, regarding each other with bitter
+jealousy, agitated the whole town with their rivalries and wranglings, and
+agreed in nothing but in their endeavors to excite some foreign sovereign
+or other to make war upon their native land. It was in vain that Louis
+himself first entreated them, and, when he found his entreaties were
+disregarded, commanded his brothers to return. They positively refused
+obedience to his order, telling him, in language which can only be
+characterized as that of studied insult, that he was writing under
+coercion; that his letter did not express his real views, and that "their
+honor, their duty, even their affection for him, alike forbade them to
+obey him.[11]" The queen could not command, but she wrote to them more
+than one letter of most earnest entreaty, and, as the princes founded part
+of their hopes on the co-operation of the Northern sovereigns, she wrote
+also to the empress and to Gustavus, pressing both, and especially the
+King of Sweden,[12] to restrain them; but they were too headstrong and
+full of their own projects to listen to her entreaties any more than to
+the king's commands, and did not even take the trouble to conceal their
+negotiations with foreign powers, nor their object, which could be nothing
+but war.
+
+It was impossible that such conduct steadily pursued by the king's own
+brothers could be any thing but most pernicious to his cause. It could not
+fail to excite suspicions of his own good faith. It supplied the Jacobins
+with pretexts for putting fresh restraints on his authority; and it
+frightened even the Constitutionalists, since it was plain that civil war
+must ensue, with, very probably, the addition of foreign war also, if
+these machinations of the emigrants were not suppressed.
+
+Still, these sweeping proscriptions of entire classes were not yet to the
+taste of the nation. Petitions from the country, and even one from the
+department of the Seine, were presented to Louis, begging him to refuse
+his assent to the decree against the priests; and the feeling which they
+represented was so strong, and the reputation of some of the petitioners
+stood so high for ability and influence, that the ministers believed that
+he could safely refuse his sanction to both the votes. Even without their
+advice he would have rejected the decree against the priests, as one
+absolutely incompatible with his reverence for religion and its ministers;
+and his conduct on this subject supplies one more striking parallel to the
+history of the great English rebellion; since there can hardly be a more
+precise resemblance between events occurring in different ages and
+different countries than is afforded by the resistance made by Charles to
+the last vote of the London Parliament against the bishops, and this
+resistance of Louis to the will of the Assembly on behalf of the priests,
+and by the fatal effect which, in each case, their conscientious and
+courageous determination had upon the fortunes of the two sovereigns.
+
+Louis therefore put his veto on both the decrees, with the exception of
+that clause in the act against the emigrants which summoned his brothers
+to return to the kingdom. But, that no one might pretend to fancy that he
+either approved of the conduct of the emigrants or sympathized with their
+principles or designs, he issued a circular letter to the governors of the
+different sea-ports, in which he remonstrated most earnestly with the
+sailors, numbers of whom, as it was reported in Paris, were preparing to
+follow their example. He pointed out in it that those who thus deserted
+their country mistook their duty to that country, to him as their king,
+and to themselves; that the present aspect of the nation, desirous to
+return to order and to submission to the law, removed every pretext for
+such conduct. He set before them his own example, and bid them remain at
+their posts, as he was remaining at his; and, in language more impressive
+than that of command, he exhorted them not to turn a deaf ear to his
+prayers; and at the same time he addressed letters to the electors of
+Trèves and Mayence, and to the other petty German princes whose
+territories, bordering on the Rhine, were the principal resort of the
+emigrants, requiring them to cease to give them shelter, and announcing
+that if they should refuse to remove them from their dominions he should
+consider their refusal a sufficient ground for war; while, to show that he
+did not intend this menace to be a dead letter, he soon afterward
+announced to the Assembly that he had ordered a powerful army of a hundred
+and fifty thousand men to be moved toward the frontier, under the command
+of Marshal Luckner, Marshal Rochambeau, and General La Fayette, and he
+invited the members to vote a levy of fifty thousand more men to raise the
+force of the nation to its full complement.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+Death of Leopold.--Murder of Gustavus of Sweden.--Violence of Vergniaud.
+--The Ministers resign.--A Girondin Ministry is appointed.--Character of
+Dumouriez.--Origin of the Name Sans-culottes.--Union of Different Parties
+against the Queen.--War is declared against the Empire.--Operations in the
+Netherlands.--Unskillfulness of La Fayette.--The King falls into a State
+of Torpor.--Fresh Libels on the Queen.--Barnave's Advice.--Dumouriez has
+an Audience of the Queen.--Dissolution of the Constitutional Guard.--
+formation of a Camp near Paris.--Louis adheres to his Refusal to assent to
+the Decree against the Priests.--Dumouriez resigns his Office, and takes
+command of the Army.
+
+
+War of some kind--foreign war, civil war, or both combined--had
+apparently become inevitable; and Marie Antoinette deceived herself if she
+thought that the armed congress of sovereigns, for which she was above all
+things anxious, could lead to any other result. In any ease, a congress
+must have produced one consequence which she deprecated as much as any
+other, a waste of time, while, as she truly said, her enemies never wasted
+a moment. Nor, with the very different views of the policy to be pursued,
+which the emperor and the King of Prussia entertained (Frederick being an
+advocate of an armed intervention in the affairs of France, which Leopold
+opposed as impracticable, and, if practicable, impolitic), was it easy to
+see how a congress could have brought those monarchs to agree on any
+united system of action. But all projects of that kind necessarily fell to
+the ground in consequence of the death of the emperor, which took place,
+after a very short illness, on the 1st of March, 1792; and before the end
+of the same month the royal family lost another warm friend in Gustavus of
+Sweden, who was assassinated in the very midst of preparations which he
+confidently hoped might contribute to deliver his brother sovereign from
+his troubles.
+
+Marie Antoinette spoke truly when she said that the enemies of the crown
+never lost time. The very prospect of war increased the divisions of the
+Assembly, since the Jacobins were undisguisedly averse to it. Not one of
+their body had any reputation for skill in arms, so that in the event of
+war it was evident that the chief commands, both in army and navy, must be
+conferred on persons unconnected with them; while the Girondins, though,
+as far as was yet known, equally destitute of members possessed of any
+military ability, looked on war as favorable to their designs, whatever
+might be the issue of a campaign. They were above all things eager for the
+destruction of the monarchy, and they reckoned that if the French army
+were victorious, its success would disable those who were most willing and
+might be most able to support the throne; while, if the enemy should
+prevail, it would be easy to represent their triumph as the fruit of the
+mismanagement, if not of the treachery, of the king's generals and
+ministers; and the opposition of these two parties was at this time so
+notorious that the queen thought it favorable to the king, since each
+would be eager to preserve him as a possible ally against its adversaries.
+It is for her husband's and her child's safety that she expresses anxiety,
+never for her own. With respect to herself her uniform language is that of
+fearlessness. She does not for a moment conceal from her correspondents
+her sense of the dangers which surround her. She has not only open
+hostility to fear, but treachery, which is far worse; and she declares
+that "a perpetual imprisonment in a solitary tower on the sea-shore would
+be a less cruel fate than that which she daily endures from the wickedness
+of her enemies and the weakness of her friends. Every thing menaces an
+inevitable catastrophe; but she is prepared for every thing. She has
+learned from her mother not to fear death. That may as well come to-day as
+to-morrow. She only fears for her dear children, and for those she loves;
+and high among those whom she loves she places her sister-in-law
+Elizabeth, who is always an angel aiding her to support her sorrows, and
+who, with her poor, dear children, never quits her.[1]"
+
+A long continuance of sorrows and fears, such as had now for nearly three
+years pressed upon the writer of this letter, would so wear away and break
+down ordinary souls that, when a crisis came, they would be found wholly
+unequal to grapple with it; and we may therefore the better form some idea
+of the strength of mind and almost superhuman fortitude of this admirable
+queen, if, from time to time, we fix our attention on these not
+exaggerated complaints, for indeed the misfortunes that elicited them
+admit of no exaggeration; and then remember that, after so long a period
+of such uninterrupted suffering, her spirit was so far from being broken,
+that, as increasing dangers and horrors thickened around her, her courage
+seemed to increase also. Her faithful attendant, Madame de Campan, has
+remarked that her troubles had not even affected her temper; that no one
+ever saw her out of humor. In every respect, to the very last, she showed
+herself superior to the utmost malice of her enemies.
+
+The news of the death of Leopold, whose son and successor, Francis, was
+but three-and-twenty years of age, gave fresh encouragement to his
+sister's enemies. The intelligence had hardly reached Paris when Vergniaud
+began to prepare the way for a fresh assault on the crown by a
+denunciation of the ministers, while the Jacobins and Cordeliers made an
+open attack upon another club which the Constitutionalists had lately
+formed under the name of Les Feuillants, holding its meetings in a convent
+of the Monks of St. Bernard,[2] and closed it by main force. Though
+several soldiers, and La Fayette among them, were members of the
+Feuillants, they made no resistance; they only applied to Pétion, as mayor
+of the city, for protection; and that worthy magistrate refused them aid,
+telling them that though the law forbade them to be attacked, the voice of
+the people was against them, and to that voice he was bound to listen.
+
+The ministers fell before Vergniaud, and the unhappy king had no resource
+but to choose their successors from the party which had triumphed over
+them. The absurd law by which the last Assembly had excluded its members
+from office was still in force, so that the orator himself and his
+colleagues could obtain no personal promotion; but they were able to
+nominate the new ministers, who, with but one exception, were all men
+equally devoid of ability and reputation, and therefore were the better
+fitted to be the tools of those to whom they owed their preferment. The
+names of three were Lacoste, Degraves, and Duranton, of whom nothing
+beyond their names is known. A fourth was Roland, who was indeed known,
+though not for any abilities of his own, but as the husband of the woman
+who, as has been already mentioned, was the first person in the whole
+nation to raise the cry for the murder of the king and queen, and whose
+fierce thirst for blood so predominated over every other feeling that a
+few weeks afterward she even began to urge the assassination of the only
+one among her husband's colleagues who was possessed of the slightest
+ability because his views did not altogether coincide with her own.
+
+General Dumouriez, whom she thus honored by singling him out for her
+especial hatred, was an exception to his colleagues in several points. He
+was a man of middle age, who enjoyed a good reputation, not only for
+military skill, but also for diplomatic sagacity and address, earned as
+far back as the latter years of the preceding reign; and he was so far
+from being originally imbued with revolutionary principles that, when, in
+the summer of 1789, a mutinous spirit first appeared among the troops in
+Paris, he volunteered to place his services at the king's disposal,
+recommending measures of vigor and resolution, which, if they had been
+adopted, might have quelled the spirit of rebellion, and have changed the
+whole subsequent history of the nation. But as Necker had rejected
+Mirabeau a few weeks before, so he also rejected Dumouriez; and discontent
+at the treatment which he received from the minister, and which seemed to
+prove that active employment, of which he was desirous, could only be
+obtained through some other influence, drove the general into the ranks of
+the Revolutionary party. He now accepted the post of foreign secretary in
+the new ministry; but the connection with the enemies of the monarchy was
+uncongenial to his taste; and, after a short time, the frequent
+intercourse with Louis, which was the necessary consequence of his
+appointment, and the conviction of the king's perfect honesty and
+patriotism which this intercourse forced upon him, revived his old
+feelings of loyalty, and, so long as he remained in office, he honestly
+endeavored to avert the evils which he foresaw, and to give the advice and
+to support the policy by which, in his honest belief, it was alone
+possible for Louis to preserve his authority.
+
+Dumouriez was a gentleman in birth and manners; but his colleagues had so
+little of either the habits or appearance of decent society that the
+attendants on the royal family gave them the name of the Sans-culottes;
+and this name, meant originally to describe the absence of the ordinary
+court dress, without which no previous ministers had ever ventured to
+appear in the presence of royalty, was presently adopted as a distinctive
+title by the whole body of the extreme revolutionists, who knew the value
+of a name under which to bind their followers together.[3]
+
+The attacks on the ministry were accompanied with more direct attacks on
+the king and queen themselves than had ever been ventured on in the former
+Assembly. By this time the system of espial and treachery by which they
+were surrounded had become so systematic that they could not even send a
+messenger to their nephew, the emperor, except under a feigned name;[4]
+and the Baron de Breteuil, who announced his mission to Francis, reported
+to him at the same time that the chiefs of the Assembly were proposing to
+pass votes suspending the "king from his functions, and to separate the
+queen from him on the ground that an impeachment was to be presented
+against both, as having solicited the late emperor to form a confederacy
+among the great powers of Europe in favor of the royal prerogative." The
+queen was, in fact, now, as always, more the object of their hatred than
+her husband, and toward the end of March a reconciliation of all her
+enemies took place, that the attack upon her might be combined with a
+strength that should insure its success. The Marquis de Condorcet, a man
+of some eminence in philosophy, as the word had been understood since the
+reign of the Encyclopedists, and closely connected with the Girondins,
+though not formally enrolled in their party, gave a supper, at which the
+Duc d'Orléans formally reconciled himself to La Fayette; and both, in
+company with Brissot and the Abbé Siéyes, who of late had scarcely been
+heard of, drew up an indictment against the queen.[5] Their malignity even
+went the length of resolving to separate the dauphin from his mother, on
+the plea of providing for his education; but the means which the Girondins
+took to secure their triumph for the moment defeated them. La Fayette did
+not keep the secret. One of his friends gave information to the king of
+the plot that was in contemplation, and the next day the
+Constitutionalists mustered in the Assembly in such strength that neither
+Girondins nor Jacobins dared bring forward the infamous proposal.
+
+But Louis and Marie Antoinette reasonably regarded the attack on them as
+only postponed, not as defeated or abandoned. They began to prepare for
+the worst. They burned most of their papers, and removed into the custody
+of friends whom they could trust those which they regarded as too valuable
+to destroy; and at the same time they sent notice to their partisans to
+cease writing to them. They could neither venture to send nor to receive
+letters. They believed that at this time the plan of their enemies was to
+terrify them into repeating their attempt to escape; an attempt of which
+the espial and treachery with which they were surrounded would have
+insured the failure, but which would have given the Jacobins a pretext for
+their trial and condemnation. But this scheme they could themselves defeat
+by remaining at their posts. Patience and courage was their only possible
+defense, and with those qualities they were richly endowed.
+
+A vital difference of principle distinguished the old from the new
+ministry: the former had wished to preserve, the majority of the latter
+were resolved to destroy, the throne; and the means by which each sought
+to attain its end were as diametrically opposite as the ends themselves.
+Bertrand and De Lessart, the ministers who, in the late administration,
+had enjoyed most of the king and queen's confidence, had been studious to
+preserve peace, believing that policy to be absolutely essential for the
+safety of Louis himself. Because they entertained the same opinion, the
+new ministers were eager for war; and, unhappily Dumouriez, in spite of
+his desire to uphold the throne, was animated by the same feeling. His own
+talents and tastes were warlike, and his office enabled him to gratify
+them in this instance. For the conciliatory tone which De Lessart had
+employed toward the Imperial Government, he now substituted a language not
+only imperious, but menacing. Prince Kaunitz, who still presided over the
+administration at Vienna, attached though he was to the system of policy
+which he had inaugurated under Maria Teresa, could not avoid replying in a
+similar strain, until at last, on the 20th of April, Louis, sorely against
+his will, was compelled to announce to the Assembly that all his efforts
+for the preservation of peace had failed, and to propose an instant
+declaration of war.
+
+The declaration was voted with enthusiasm; but for some time it brought
+nothing but disaster. The campaign was opened in the Netherlands, where
+the Austrians, taken by surprise, were so weak in numbers that it seemed
+certain that they would be driven from the country without difficulty or
+delay. Marshal Beaulieu, their commander-in-chief, had scarcely twenty
+thousand men, while the Count de Narbonne had left the French army in so
+good a condition that Degraves, his successor, was able to send a hundred
+and thirty thousand men against him; and Dumouriez furnished him with a
+plan for an invasion of the Netherlands, which, if properly carried out,
+would have made the French masters of the whole country in a few days. But
+the largest division of the army, to which the execution of the most
+important portions of the intended operations was intrusted, had been
+placed under the command of La Fayette, who proved equally devoid of
+resolution and of skill. Some of his regiments showed a disorderly and
+insubordinate temper. One battalion first mutinied and murdered some of
+its officers, and then disgraced itself by cowardice in the field. Another
+displayed an almost equal want of courage; and La Fayette, disheartened
+and perplexed, though the number of his troops still more than doubled
+those opposed to him, retreated into France, and remained there in a state
+of complete inactivity.
+
+But, as has been said before, disaster was almost as favorable to the
+political views of the Girondins as success, while it added to the dangers
+of the sovereigns by encouraging the Jacobins, who were elated at the
+failure of a general so hateful to them as La Fayette. They now adopted a
+party emblem, a red cap; and the Duc d'Orléans and his son, the Duc de
+Chartres,[6] assumed it, and with studied insult paraded in it up and down
+the gardens of the palace, under the queen's windows; and if the two
+factions did not formally coalesce, they both proceeded with greater
+boldness than ever toward their desired object, not greatly differing as
+to the means by which it was to be attained.
+
+The palace was now indeed a scene of misery. The king's apathy was
+degenerating into despair. At one time he was so utterly prostrated that
+he remained for ten days absolutely silent, never uttering a word except
+to name his throws when playing at backgammon with Elizabeth. At last the
+queen roused him from his torpor, throwing herself at his feet, and
+mingling caresses with her expostulations; entreating him to remember what
+he owed to his family, and reminding him that, if they must perish, it was
+better at least to perish with honor, and be king to the last, than to
+wait passively till assassins should come and murder them in their own
+rooms. She herself was in a condition in which nothing but her indomitable
+courage prevented her from utterly breaking down. Sleep had deserted her.
+By day she rarely ventured out-of-doors. Riding she had given up, and she
+feared to walk in the garden of the Tuileries, even in the little portion
+marked off for the dauphin's playground, lest she should expose herself to
+the coarse insults which, the basest of hirelings were ever on the watch
+to offer her.[7] She could not even venture to go openly to mass at
+Easter, but was forced to arrange for one of her chaplains to perform the
+service for her before daylight. Balked of their wish to offer her
+personal insults, her enemies redoubled their diligence in inventing and
+spreading libels. The demagogues of the Palais Royal revived the stories
+of her subservience to the interests of Austria, and even sent letters
+forged in her name to different members of the Assembly, inviting them to
+private conferences with her in the apartments of Madame de Lamballe. But
+she treated all such attacks with lofty disdain, and was even greatly
+annoyed when she learned that the chief of the police, with the king's
+sanction, had bought up a life of Madame La Mothe, in which that infamous
+woman pretended to give a true account of the affair of her necklace, and
+had had it burned in the manufactory of Sèvres. She thought, with some
+reason, that to take a step which seemed to show a dread of such attacks
+was the surest way to encourage more of them, and that apparent
+indifference to them was the only line of action consistent with her
+innocence or with her dignity.
+
+The increasing dangers of her position moved the pity of some who had once
+been her enemies, and sharpened their desire to serve her. Barnave, who
+probably overrated his present influence[8] in many letters pressed his
+advice upon her; of which the substance was that she should lay aside her
+distrust of the Constitutionalist party, and, with the king, throw herself
+wholly on the Constitution, to which the nation was profoundly attached.
+He even admitted that it was not without defects; but held out a hope
+that, with the aid of the Royalists, he and his friends might be able to
+amend them, and in time to re-invest the throne with all necessary
+splendor. And the queen was so touched by his evident earnestness that she
+granted him an audience, and assured him of her esteem and confidence.
+Barnave was partly correct in his judgment, but he overlooked one
+all-essential circumstance. There is no doubt that he spoke truly when he
+declared that the nation in general was attached to the Constitution; but
+he failed to give sufficient weight to the consideration that the Jacobins
+and Girondins were agreed in seeking to overthrow it, and that for that
+object they were acting with a concert and an energy to which he and his
+party were strangers.
+
+Dumouriez too was equally earnest in his desire to serve the king and her,
+with far greater power to be useful than Barnave. He too was admitted to
+an audience, of which he has left us an account which, while it shows both
+his notions of the state of the country and of the rival parties, and also
+his own sincerity, is no less characteristic of the queen herself.
+Admitted to her presence, he found her, as he describes the interview,
+looking very red, walking up and down the room with impetuous strides, in
+an agitation which presaged a stormy discussion. The different events
+which had taken place since the king in the preceding autumn had ratified
+the Constitution, the furious language held in, and the violent measures
+carried by, the Assembly, had evidently changed her belief in the
+possibility of attempting, even for a short time, to carry on the
+Government under the conditions imposed by that act. She came toward him
+with an air which was at once majestic and yet showed irritation, and
+said:
+
+"You, sir, are all-powerful at this moment; but it is only by the favor of
+the people, which soon breaks its idols to pieces. Your existence depends
+on your conduct. You are said to have great talents. You must see that
+neither the king nor I can endure all these novelties nor the
+Constitution. I tell you this frankly. Now choose your side."
+
+To this fervid apostrophe Dumouriez replied in a tone which he intended to
+combine a sorrowful tenderness with loyal respect:
+
+"Madame," said he, "I am overwhelmed with the painful confidence which
+your majesty has reposed in me. I will not betray it; but I am placed
+between the king and the nation, and I belong to my country. Permit me to
+represent to you that the safety of the king, of yourself, and of your
+august children is bound up with the Constitution, as well as is the
+re-establishment of the king's legitimate authority. You are both
+surrounded with enemies who are sacrificing you to their own interests."
+The unfortunate queen, shocked as well as surprised at this opposition to
+her views, replied, raising her voice,  "That will not last; take care of
+yourself."  "Madame," replied he, in his turn, "I am more than fifty years
+old. My life has been passed in countless dangers, and when I took office
+I reflected deeply that its responsibility was not the greatest of its
+perils." "This was alone wanting," cried out the queen, with an accent of
+indignant grief, and as if astonished herself at her own vehemence.
+
+"This alone was wanting to calumniate me! You seem to suppose that I am
+capable of causing you to be assassinated!" and she burst into tears.
+Dumouriez was as agitated as she was. "God forbid," he replied, "that I
+should do you such an injustice!" And he added some flattering expressions
+of attachment, such as he thought calculated to soothe a mind so proud,
+yet so crushed. And presently she calmed herself, and came up to him,
+putting her hand on his arm; and he resumed: "Believe me, madame, I have
+no object in deceiving you; I abhor anarchy and crime as much as you do.
+Believe me, I have experience; I am better placed than your majesty for
+judging of events. This is not a short-lived popular movement, as you seem
+to think. It is the almost unanimous insurrection of a great nation
+against inveterate abuses. There are great factions which fan this flame.
+In all factions there are many scoundrels and many madmen. In the
+Revolution I see nothing but the king and the entire nation. Every thing
+which tends to separate them tends to their mutual ruin: I am laboring as
+much as I can to reunite them. It is for you to help me. If I am an
+obstacle to your designs, and if you persist in thinking so, tell me so.
+and I will at once send in my resignation to the king, and will retire
+into a corner to grieve over the fate of my country and of you."  And he
+concludes his narrative by expressing his belief that he had regained the
+queen's confidence by his frank explanation of his views, while he himself
+in his turn was evidently fascinated by the affability with which, after a
+brief further conversation, she dismissed him.[9] Though, if we may trust
+Madame de Campan, Marie Antoinette was not as satisfied as she had seemed
+to be, but declared that it was not possible for her to place confidence
+in his protestations when she recollected his former language and acts,
+and the party with which he was even now acting.
+
+Madame de Campan probably gives a more correct report of the queen's
+feelings than the general himself, whom the consciousness of his own
+integrity of purpose very probably misled into believing that he had
+convinced her of it. But, though, if Marie Antoinette did listen to his
+professions and advice with some degree of mistrust, she undoubtedly did
+him less than justice: she can hardly be blamed for indulging such a
+feeling, when it is remembered in what an atmosphere of treachery she had
+lived for the last three years. Undoubtedly Dumouriez, though not a
+thorough-going Royalist like M. Bertrand, was not only in intention an
+honest and friendly counselor, but was by far the ablest adviser who had
+had access to her since the death of Mirabeau, and in one respect was a
+more judicious and trustworthy adviser than even that brilliant and
+fertile statesman; since he did not fall into the error of miscalculating
+what was practical, or of overrating his own influence with the Assembly
+or the nation.
+
+Yet, had the king and queen adopted his views ever so unreservedly, it may
+well be doubted whether they would have averted or even deferred the fate
+which awaited them. The leaders of the two parties, before whose union
+they fell, had as little attachment to the new Constitution as the queen.
+The moment that they obtained the undisputed ascendency, they trampled it
+underfoot in every one of its provisions. Constitution or no Constitution,
+they were determined to overthrow the throne and to destroy those to whom
+it belonged; and to men animated with such a resolution it signified
+little what pretext might be afforded them by any actions of their
+destined victims. The wolf never yet wanted a plea for devouring the lamb.
+
+One of the first fruits of the union between the Jacobins and the
+Girondins was the preparation of an insurrection. The Assembly did not
+move fast enough for them. It might be still useful as an auxiliary, but
+the lead in the movement the clubs assumed to themselves. Their first care
+was to deprive the king of all means of resistance, and with this view to
+get rid of the Constitutional Guard, the commander of which was still the
+gallant Duke de Brissac, a noble-minded and faithful adherent of Louis
+amidst all his distresses. But it was not easy to find any ground for
+disbanding a force which was too small to be formidable to any but
+traitors; and the pretext which was put forward was so preposterous that
+it could excite no feeling but that of amusement, if the object aimed at
+were not too serious and shocking for laughter. At Easter the dauphin had
+presented the mess of the regiment with a cake, one of the ornaments of
+which was a small white flag taken from among his own toys. Pétion now
+issued orders to search the officers' quarters for this child's flag, and,
+when it was found, one of the Jacobin members was not ashamed to produce
+it to the Assembly as a proof that the court was meditating a counter-
+revolution and a massacre of the patriots, and to propose the instant
+dissolution of the Guard. The motion was carried, though some of the
+Constitutionalist party had the honesty to oppose it, as one which could
+have only regicide for its object; and Louis did not dare refuse it his
+assent.
+
+He was now wholly disarmed. To render his defeat in the impending struggle
+more certain, one of the ministers, Servan, himself proposed a levy of
+twenty thousand fresh soldiers, to be stationed permanently at Paris, and
+this motion also was passed. Again Louis could not venture to withhold his
+sanction from the bill, though he comforted himself by dismissing the
+mover, with two of his colleagues, Roland and Clavière. Roland's dismissal
+had indeed become indispensable, since, on the preceding day, he had had
+the audacity to write him an insolent letter, composed by his ferocious
+wife, which in express terms threatened him with death "if he did not give
+satisfaction to the Revolution.[10]" Nor was Madame Roland inclined to be
+satisfied with the murder of the king and queen. As has been already
+mentioned, she at the same time urged upon her submissive husband the
+assassination of Dumouriez, who, having intelligence of her enmity, began
+in self-defense to connect himself with the Jacobins. On the dismissal of
+Roland and the others, he had exchanged the foreign port-folio for that of
+war, and was practically the prime minister, being in fact the only one
+whom Louis admitted to any degree of confidence; but this arrangement
+lasted less than a single week. Louis had yielded to and adopted his
+advice on every point but one. He had sanctioned the dismissal of the
+Constitutional Guard, and the formation of the new body of troops, which,
+no one doubted, was intended to be used against himself; but he was as
+firmly convinced as ever that his religious duty bound him to refuse his
+assent to the decree against the priests, and he refused to do a violence
+to his conscience, and to commit what he regarded as a sin. But this very
+decree was the one which Dumouriez regarded as the most dangerous one for
+him to reject, as being that which the Assembly was most firmly resolved
+to make law; and, as his most vigorous remonstrances failed to shake the
+king's resolution on this point, he resigned his post as a minister, and
+repaired to the Flemish frontier to take the command of the army, which
+greatly needed an able leader.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+The Insurrection of June 20th.
+
+
+Both Jacobins and Girondins felt that the departure of Dumouriez from
+Paris had removed a formidable obstacle from their path, and they at once
+began to hurry forward the preparations for their meditated insurrection.
+The general gave in his resignation on the 15th of June, and the 20th was
+fixed for an attack on the palace, by which its contrivers designed to
+effect the overthrow of the throne, if not the destruction of the entire
+royal family. It was organized with unusual deliberation. The meetings of
+conspirators were attended not only by the Girondin leaders, to whom
+Madame Roland had recently added a new recruit, a young barrister from the
+South, named Barbaroux, remarkable for his personal beauty, and, as was
+soon seen, for a pitiless hardness of heart, and energetic delight in
+deeds of cruelty that, even in that blood-thirsty company, was equaled by
+few; with them met all those as yet most notorious for ferocity--Danton
+and Legendre, the founders of the Cordeliers; Marat, daily, in his obscene
+and blasphemous newspaper, clamoring for wholesale bloodshed; Santerre,
+odious as the sanguinary leader of the very first outbreaks of the
+Revolution; Rotondo, already, as we have seen, detected in attempting to
+assassinate the queen; and Pétion, who thus repaid her preference of him
+to La Fayette, which had placed him in the mayoralty, whose duties he was
+now betraying. Some, too, bore a part in the foul conspiracy as partisans
+of the Duc d'Orléans, who were generally understood to have instructions
+to be lavish of their master's gold, the vile prince hoping that the
+result of the outbreak would be the assassination of his cousin, and his
+own elevation to the vacant throne. In their speeches they gave Louis the
+name of Monsieur Veto, in allusion to the still legal exercise of his
+prerogative, by which he had sought to protect the priests; while the
+queen was called Madame Veto, though in fact she had finally joined
+Dumouriez in urging her husband to give his royal assent to the decree
+against them, not, as thinking it on any pretense justifiable, but as
+believing, with the general, in the impossibility of maintaining its
+rejection. Yet nothing could more completely prove the absolute innocence
+and unimpeachable good faith of both king and queen than the act of his
+enemies in giving them this nickname; so clear an evidence was it that
+they could allege nothing more odious against them than the possession by
+Louis, in a most modified degree, of a prerogative which, without any
+modification at all, has in every country been at all times regarded as
+indispensable to, and inseparable from, royalty; and the exercise of it
+for the defense of a body of men of whom none could deny the entire
+harmlessness.
+
+On the night of the 19th the appointed leaders of the different bands into
+which the insurgents were to be divided separated; the watch-word,
+"Destruction to the palace," was given out; and all Paris waited in
+anxious terror for the events of the morrow. Louis was as well aware as
+any of the citizens of the intended attack, and prepared for it as for
+death. On the afternoon of the 19th he wrote to his confessor to desire
+him to come to him at once. "He had never," he said, "had such need of his
+consolations. He had done with this world, and his thoughts were now fixed
+on Heaven alone. Great calamities were announced for the morrow; but he
+felt that he had courage to meet them." And after the holy man had left
+him, as he gazed on the setting sun he once more gave utterance to his
+forebodings. "Who can tell," said he, "whether it be not the last that I
+shall ever see?" The Royalists felt his danger almost as keenly as
+himself, but were powerless to prevent it by any means of their own. The
+Duke de Liancourt, who had some title to be listened to by the
+Revolutionary party, since no one had been more zealous in promoting the
+most violent measures of the first Assembly, pressed earnestly on Pétion
+that his duty as mayor bound him to call out the National Guards, and so
+prevent the intended outbreak, but was answered by sarcasms and insults;
+while Vergniaud, from the tribune of the Assembly itself, dared to deride
+all who apprehended danger.
+
+On the morning of the 20th, daylight had scarcely dawned when twenty
+thousand men, the greater part of whom were armed with some weapon or
+other--muskets, pikes, hatchets, crowbars, and even spits from the
+cook-shops forming part of their equipment--assembled on the place where
+the Bastile had stood. Santerre was already there on horseback as their
+appointed leader; and, when all were collected and marshaled in three
+divisions, they began their march. One division had for its chief the
+Marquis de St. Huruge, an intimate friend and adherent of the Duc
+d'Orléans; at the head of another, a woman of notorious infamy, known as
+La Belle Liégeoise, clad in male attire, rode astride upon a cannon;
+while, as it advanced, the crowd was every moment swelled by vast bodies
+of recruits, among whom were numbers of women, whose imprecations in
+ferocity and foulness surpassed even the foulest threats of the men.
+
+The ostensible object of the procession was to present petitions to the
+king and the Assembly on the dismissal of Roland and his colleagues from
+the administration, and on the refusal of the royal assent to the decree
+against the priests. The real design of those who had organized it was
+more truthfully shown by the banners and emblems borne aloft in the ranks.
+"Beware the Lamp,[1]" was the inscription on one. "Death to Veto and his
+wife," was read upon another. A gang of butchers carried a calf's heart on
+the point of a pike, with "The Heart of an Aristocrat" for a motto. A band
+of crossing-sweepers, or of men who professed to be such, though the
+fineness of their linen was inconsistent with the rags which were their
+outward garments, had for their standard a pair of ragged breeches, with
+the inscription, "Tremble, tyrants; here are the Sans-culottes." One gang
+of ruffians carried a model of a guillotine. Another bore aloft a
+miniature gallows with an effigy of the queen herself hanging from it. So
+great was the crowd that it was nearly three in the afternoon before the
+head of it reached the Assembly, where its approach had raised a debate on
+the propriety of receiving any petition at all which was to be presented
+in so menacing a guise; M. Roederer, the procurator-syndic, or chief legal
+officer of the department of Paris, recommending its rejection, on the
+ground that such a procession was illegal, not only because of its avowed
+object of forcing its way to the king, but also because it was likely to
+lead into acts of violence even if it had not premeditated them.
+
+His arguments were earnestly supported by the constitutionalists, and
+opposed and ridiculed by Vergniaud. But before the discussion was over,
+the rioters, who had now reached the hall, took the decision into their
+own hands, forced open the door, and put forward a spokesman to read what
+they called a petition, but which was in truth a sanguinary denunciation
+of those whom it proclaimed the enemies of the nation, and of whom it
+demanded that "the land should be purged." Insolent and ferocious as it
+was, it, however, coincided with the feelings of the Girondins, who were
+now the masters of the Assembly. One orator carried a motion that the
+petitioners should receive what were called the honors of the Assembly;
+or, in other words, should be allowed to enter the hall with their arms
+and defile before them. They poured in with exulting uproar. Songs, half
+blood-thirsty and half obscene, gestures indicative some of murder, some
+of debauchery, cries of "Vive la nation!" interspersed with inarticulate
+yells, were the sounds, the guillotine and the queen upon the gallows were
+the sights, which were thought in character with the legislature of a
+people which still claimed to be regarded as the pattern of civilization
+by all Europe. Evening approached before the last of the rabble had passed
+through the hall; and by that time the leading ranks were in front of the
+Tuileries.
+
+There were but scanty means of resisting them. A few companies of the
+National Guard formed the whole protection of the palace; and with them
+the agents of Orleans and the Girondins had been briskly tampering all the
+morning. Many had been seduced. A few remained firm in their loyalty; but
+those on whom the royal family had the best reason to rely were a band of
+gentlemen, with the veteran Marshal de Noailles at their head, who had
+repaired to the Tuileries in the morning to furnish to their sovereign
+such defense as could be found in their loyal and devoted gallantry. Some
+of them besides the old marshal, the Count d'Hervilly, who had commanded
+the cavalry of the Constitutional Guard, and M. d'Acloque, an officer of
+the National Guard, brought military experience to aid their valor, and
+made such arrangements as the time and character of the building rendered
+practicable to keep the rioters at bay. But the utmost bravery of such a
+handful of men, for they were no more, and even the more solid resistance
+of iron gates and barriers, were unavailing against the thousands that
+assailed them. Exasperated at finding the gates closed against them, the
+rioters began to beat upon them with sledge-hammers. Presently they were
+joined by Sergent and Panis, two of the municipal magistrates, who ordered
+the sentinels to open the gates to the sovereign people. The sentinels
+fled; the gates were opened or broken down; the mob seized one of the
+cannons which stood in the Place du Carrousel, carried it up the stairs of
+the palace, and planted it against the door of the royal apartments; and,
+while they shouted out a demand that the king should show himself, they
+began to batter the door as before they had battered the gates, and
+threatened, if it should not yield to their hatchets, to blow it down with
+cannon-shot.
+
+Fear of personal danger was not one of the king's weaknesses. The hatchets
+beat down the outer door, and, as it fell, he came forth from the room
+behind, and with unruffled countenance accosted the ruffians who were
+pouring through it. His sister, the Princess Elizabeth, was at his side.
+He had charged those around him to keep the queen back; and she, knowing
+how special an object of the popular hatred and fury she was, with a
+fortitude beyond that which defies death, remained out of sight lest she
+should add to his danger. For a moment the mob, respecting, in spite of
+themselves, the calm heroism with which they were confronted, paused in
+their onset; but those in front were pushed on by those behind, and pikes
+were leveled and blows were aimed at both the king and the princess, whom
+they mistook for the queen. At first there were but one or two attendants
+at the king's side, but they were faithful and brave men. One struck down
+a ruffian who was lifting his weapon to aim a blow at Louis himself. A
+pike was even leveled at his sister, when her equerry, M. Bousquet, too
+far off to bring her the aid of his right hand, called out, "Spare the
+princess." Delicate as were her frame and features, Elizabeth was worthy
+of her blood, and as dauntless as the rest. She turned to her preserver
+almost reproachfully: "Why did you undeceive him? it might have saved the
+queen." But after a few seconds, Acloque with some grenadiers of the
+National Guard on whom he could still rely, hastened up by a back
+staircase to defend his sovereign; and, with the aid of some of the
+gentlemen who had come with the Marshal de Noailles, drew the king back
+into a recess formed by a window; and raised a rampart of benches in front
+of him, and one still more trustworthy of their own bodies. They would
+gladly have attacked the rioters and driven them back, but were restrained
+by Louis himself. "Put up your swords," said he; "this crowd is excited
+rather than wicked." And he addressed those who had forced their way into
+the room with words of condescending conciliation. They replied with
+threats and imprecations; and sought to force their way onward, pressing
+back by their mere numbers and weight the small group of loyal champions
+who by this time had gathered in front of him.
+
+So great was the uproar that presently a report reached the main body of
+the insurgents, who were still in the garden beneath, that Louis had been
+killed; and they mingled shouts of triumph with cheers for Orleans as
+their new king, and demanded that the heads of the king and queen should
+be thrown down to them from the windows; but no actual injury was
+inflicted on Louis, though he owed his safety more to his own calmness
+than even to the devotion of his guards. One ruffian threatened him with
+instant death if he did not at once grant every prayer contained in their
+petition. He replied, as composedly as if he had been on his throne at
+Versailles, that the present was not the time for making such a demand,
+nor was this the way in which to make it. The dignity of the answer seemed
+to imply a contempt for the threateners, and the mob grew more uproarious.
+"Fear not, sire," said one of Acloque's grenadiers, "we are around you."
+The king took the man's hand and placed it on his heart, which was beating
+more calmly than that of the soldier himself. "Judge yourself," said he,
+"if I fear." Legendre, the butcher, raised his pike as if to strike him,
+while he reproached him as a traitor and the enemy of his country. "I am
+not, and never have been aught but the sincerest friend of my people," was
+the gentle but fearless answer. "If it be so, put on this red cap," and
+the butcher thrust one into his hand on the end of his pike, prepared, as
+Louis believed, to plunge the weapon itself into his breast if he refused.
+The king put it on, and so little regarded it that he forgot to remove it
+again, as he afterward repented that he had not done, thinking that his
+conduct in allowing it to remain on his head bore too strong a resemblance
+to fear or to an unworthy compromise of his dignity.
+
+But still the uproar increased, and above it rose loud cries for the
+queen, till at last she also came forward. As yet, from the motives that
+have already been mentioned, she had consented to remain out of sight; but
+each explosion of the mob increased her unwillingness to keep back. It
+was, she felt, her duty to be always at the king's side; if need be, to
+die with him; to stand aloof was infamy; and at last, as the demands for
+her appearance increased, even those around her confessed that it might be
+safer for her to show herself. The door was thrown open, and, leading
+forth her children, from whom she refused to part, and accompanied by
+Madame de Tourzel, Madame de Lamballe, and others of her ladies, the most
+timid of whom seemed as if inspired by her example, Marie Antoinette
+advanced and took her place by the side of her husband, and, with head
+erect and color heightened by the sight of her enemies, faced them
+disdainfully. As lions in their utmost rage have recoiled before a man who
+has looked them steadily in the face, so did even those miscreants quail
+before their pure and high-minded queen. At first it seemed as if her
+bitterest enemies were to be found among her own sex. The men were for a
+moment silenced; but a young girl, whose appearance was not that of the
+lowest class, came forward and abused her in coarse and furious language,
+especially reviling her as "the Austrian." The queen, astonished at
+finding such animosity in one apparently tender and gentle, condescended
+to expostulate with her. "Why do you hate me? I have never injured you."
+"You have not injured me, but it is you who cause the misery of the
+nation." "Poor child," replied Marie Antoinette, "they have deceived you.
+I am the wife of your king, the mother of your dauphin, who will be your
+king. I am a Frenchwoman in every feeling of my heart. I shall never again
+see Austria. I can only be happy or unhappy in France, and I was happy
+when you loved me." The girl was melted by her patience and gentleness.
+She burst into tears of shame, and begged pardon for her previous conduct.
+"I did not know you," she said; "I see now that you are good.[2]" Another
+asked her, "How old is your girl?" "She is old enough," replied the queen,
+"to feel acutely such scenes as these." But, while these brief
+conversations were going on, the crowd kept pressing forward. One officer
+had drawn a table in front of the queen as she advanced, so as to screen
+her from actual contact with any of the rioters, but more than one of them
+stretched across it as if to reach her. One fellow demanded that she
+should put a red cap, which he threw to her, on the head of the dauphin,
+and, as she saw the king wearing one, she consented; but it was too large
+and fell down the child's face, almost stifling him with its thickness.
+Santerre himself reached across and removed it, and, leaning with his
+hands on the table, which shook beneath his vehemence, addressed her with
+what he meant for courtesy. "Princess," said he, "do not fear. The French
+people do not wish to slay you. I promise this in their name." Marie
+Antoinette had long ago declared that her heart had become French; it was
+too much so for her to allow such a man's claim to be the spokesman of the
+nation. "It is not by such as you," she replied, with lofty scorn; "it is
+not by such as you that I judge of the French people, but by brave men
+like these;" and she pointed to the gentlemen who were standing round her
+as her champions, and to the faithful grenadiers. The well-timed and
+well-deserved compliment roused them to still greater enthusiasm, but
+already the danger was passing away.
+
+The Assembly had seen with indifference the departure of the mob to attack
+the Tuileries, and had proceeded with its ordinary business as if nothing
+were likely to happen which could call for its interference. But when the
+uproar within the palace became audible in the hall, the Count de Dumas,
+one of the very few men of noble birth who had been returned to this
+second Assembly, with a few other deputies of the better class, hastened
+to see what was taking place, and, quickly returning, reported the king's
+imminent danger to their colleagues. Dumas gave such offense by the
+boldness of his language that some of the Jacobins threatened him with
+violence, but he refused to be silenced; and his firmness prevailed, as
+firmness nearly always did prevail in an Assembly where, though there were
+many fierce and vehement blusterers, there were very few men of real
+courage. In compliance with his vehement demand for instant action, a
+deputation of members was sent to take measures for the king's safety; and
+then, at last, Pétion, who had carefully kept aloof while there seemed to
+be a chance of the king being murdered, now that he could no longer hope
+for such a consummation, repaired to the palace and presented himself
+before him. To him he had the effrontery to declare that he had only just
+become apprised of his situation. From the Assembly, at a later hour in
+the evening, he claimed the credit of having organized the riot. But Louis
+would not condescend to pretend to believe him. "It was extraordinary," he
+replied, "that Pétion should not have earlier known what had lasted so
+long." Even he could not but be for a moment abashed at the king's
+unwonted expression of indignation. But he soon recovered himself, and
+with unequaled impudence turned and thanked the crowd for the moderation
+and dignity with which they had exercised the right of petition, and bid
+them "finish the day in similar conformity with the law, and retire to
+their homes." They obeyed. The interference of the deputies had convinced
+their leaders that they could not succeed in their purpose now. Santerre,
+whose softer mood, such as it had been, had soon passed away, muttered
+with a deep oath that they had missed their blow, but must try it again
+hereafter. For the present he led off his brigands; the palace and gardens
+were restored to quiet, though the traces of the assault to which they had
+been exposed could not easily be effaced; and Louis and his family were
+left in tranquillity to thank God for their escape, but to forebode also
+that similar trials were in store for them, all of which, it was not
+likely, would have so innocent a termination.[3]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+Feelings of Marie Antoinette.--Different Plans are formed for her Escape.
+--She hopes for Aid from Austria and Prussia.--La Fayette comes to Paris.
+--His Mismanagement.--An Attempt is made to assassinate the Queen.--The
+Motion of Bishop Lamourette.--The Feast of the Federation.--La Fayette
+proposes a Plan for the King's Escape.--Bertrand proposes Another.--Both
+are rejected by the Queen.
+
+
+We can do little more than guess at the feelings of Marie Antoinette after
+such a day of horrors. She could scarcely venture to write a letter, lest
+it should fall into hands for which it was not intended, and be
+misinterpreted so as to be mischievous to herself and to her
+correspondents. And two brief notes--one on the 4th of July to Mercy, and
+one written a day or two later to the Landgravine of Hesse-Darmstadt--are
+all that, so far as we know, proceeded from her pen in the sad period
+between the two attacks on the palace. Brief as they are, they are
+characteristic as showing her unshaken resolution to perform her duty to
+her family, and proving at the same time how absolutely free she was from
+any delusion as to the certain event of the struggle in which she was
+engaged. No courage was ever more entirely founded on high and virtuous
+principle, for no one was ever less sustained by hope. To Mercy she says:
+
+"July 4th, 1792.
+
+"You know the occurrences of the 20th of June. Our position becomes every
+day more critical. There is nothing but violence and rage on one side,
+weakness and inactivity on the other. We can reckon neither on the
+National Guard nor on the army. We do not know whether to remain in Paris,
+or to throw ourselves into some other place. It is more than time for the
+powers to speak out boldly. The 14th of July and the days which will
+follow it may become days of general mourning for France, and of regret to
+the powers who will have been too slow in explaining themselves. All is
+lost if the factions are not arrested in their wickedness by fear of
+impending chastisement. They are resolved on a republic at all risks. To
+arrive at that, they have determined to assassinate the king. It would be
+necessary that any manifesto[1] should make the National Assembly and
+Paris responsible for his life and the lives of his family.
+
+"In spite of all these dangers, we will not change our resolution. You may
+depend on this as much as I depend on your attachment. It is a pleasure to
+me to believe that you allow me a share of the attachment which bound you
+to my mother. And this is a moment to give me a great proof of it, in
+saving me and mine, if there be still time.[2]"
+
+The letter to the landgravine was one of reply to a proposal which that
+princess, who had long been one of her most attached friends, had lately
+made to her, that she should allow her brother, Prince George of
+Darmstadt, to carry out a plan by which, as he conceived, he could convey
+the queen and her children safely out of Paris; the enterprise being, as
+both he and his sister flattered themselves, greatly facilitated by the
+circumstance that the prince's person was wholly unknown in the French
+capital.
+
+"July, 1792.[3]
+
+"Your friendship and your anxiety for me have touched my very inmost soul.
+The person[4] who is about to return to you will explain the reasons which
+have detained him so long. He will also tell you that at present I do not
+dare to receive him in my own apartment. Yet it would have been very
+pleasant to talk to him about you, to whom I am so tenderly attached. No,
+my princess, while I feel all the kindness of your offers, I can not
+accept them. I am vowed for life to my duties, and to those beloved
+persons whose misfortunes I share, and who, whatever people may say of
+them, deserve to be regarded with interest by all the world for the
+courage with which they support their position. The bearer of this letter
+will be able to give you a detailed account of what is going on at
+present, and of the spirit of this place where we are living. I hear that
+he has seen much, and has formed very correct ideas. May all that we are
+now doing and suffering one day make our children happy! This is the only
+wish that I allow myself. Farewell, my princess; they have taken from me
+every thing except my heart, which will always remain constant in its love
+for you. Be sure of this; the loss of your love would be an evil which I
+could not endure. I embrace you tenderly. A thousand compliments to all
+yours. I am prouder than ever of having been born a German."
+
+In her mention of the 14th of July as likely to bring fresh dangers, she
+is alluding to the announcement of an intention of the Jacobins to hold a
+fresh festival to commemorate the destruction of the Bastile on the
+anniversary of that exploit; a celebration which she had ample reason to
+expect would furnish occasion for some fresh tumult and outrage. And we
+may remark that in one of these letters she rests her whole hope on
+foreign assistance; while in the other, she rejects foreign aid to escape
+from her almost hopeless position. But the key to her feeling in both
+cases is one and the same. Above all things she was a devoted, faithful
+wife and mother. To herself and her own safety she never gave a thought.
+Her first duty, she rightly judged, was to the king, and she looked to
+such a manifesto as she desired Austria and Prussia to issue, backed by
+the movements of a powerful army, as the measure which afforded the best
+prospect of saving her husband, who could hardly be trusted to save
+himself; while, for the very same reason, she refused to fly without him,
+even though flight might have saved her children, her son and heir, as
+well as herself, because it would have increased her husband's danger. In
+each case her decision was that of a brave and devoted wife, not perhaps
+in both instances judicious; for when Prussia did mingle in the contest,
+as it did in the first week in July, it evidently increased the perils of
+Louis, if indeed they were capable of aggravation, by giving the Jacobins
+a plea for raising the cry "that the country was in danger." But in the
+second case, in her refusal to flee, and to leave her husband by himself
+to confront the existing and impending dangers, she judged rightly and
+worthily of herself; and the only circumstance that has prevented her from
+receiving the credit due for her refusal to avail herself of Prince
+George's offer is that throughout the whole period of the Revolution her
+acts of disinterestedness and heroism are so incessant that single deeds
+of the kind are lost in the contemplation of her entire career during this
+long period of trial.
+
+It was the peculiar ill-fortune of Louis that more than once the very
+efforts made by people who desired to assist him increased his perils. The
+events of the 20th of June had shocked and alarmed even La Fayette. From
+the beginning of the Revolution he had vacillated between a desire for a
+republic and for a limited monarchy on something like the English pattern,
+without being able to decide which to prefer. He had shown himself willing
+to court a base popularity with the mob by heaping uncalled-for insults on
+the king and queen. But though he had coquetted with the ultra-
+revolutionists, and allowed them to make a tool of him, he had not nerve
+for the villainies which it was now clear that they meditated. He had no
+taste for bloodshed; and, though gifted with but little acuteness, he saw
+that the success of the Jacobins and Girondins would lead neither to a
+republic nor to a limited monarchy, but to anarchy; and he had discernment
+enough to dread that. He therefore now sincerely desired to save the
+king's life, and even what remained of his authority, especially if he
+could so order matters that their preservation should be seen to be his
+own work. He was conscious also that he could reckon on many allies in any
+effort which he might make for the prevention of further outrages. The
+more respectable portion of the Parisians viewed the recent outrages with
+disgust, sharpened by personal alarm. The dominion of Santerre and his
+gangs of destitute desperadoes was manifestly fraught with destruction to
+themselves as well as to the king. The greater part of the army under his
+command shared these feelings, and would gladly have followed him to Paris
+to crush the revolutionary clubs, and to inflict condign punishment on the
+authors and chief agents in the late insurrection. If he had but had the
+skill to avail himself of this favorable state of feeling, there can be
+little doubt that it was in his power at this moment to have established
+the king in the full exercise of all the authority vested in him by the
+Constitution, or even to have induced the Assembly to enlarge that
+authority. He so mismanaged matters that he only increased the king's
+danger, and brought general contempt and imminent danger on himself
+likewise. His enemies had more than once accused him of wishing to copy
+Cromwell. His friends had boasted that he would emulate Monk. But if he
+was too scrupulous for the audacious wickedness of the one, he proved
+himself equally devoid of the well-calculating shrewdness of the other.
+If, subsequently, he had any reason to congratulate himself on the result
+of his conduct, it was that, like the stork in the fable, after be had
+thrust his head into the mouth of the wolf, he was allowed to draw it out
+again in safety.
+
+Louis's enemies had abundantly shown that they did not lack boldness. If
+they were to be defeated, it could only be by action as bold as their own.
+Unhappily, La Fayette's courage had usually found vent rather in
+blustering words than in stout deeds; and those were the only weapons he
+could bring himself to employ now. He resolved to remonstrate with the
+Assembly; but instead of bringing up his army, or even a detachment, to
+back his remonstrance, he came to Paris with a single aid-de-camp, and, on
+the 28th of June, presented himself at the bar of the Assembly and
+demanded an audience. A fortnight before he had written a letter to the
+president, in which he had denounced alike the Jacobin leaders of the
+clubs and the Girondin ministers, and had called on the Assembly to
+suppress the clubs; a letter which had produced no effect except to unite
+the two parties against whom it was aimed more closely together, and also
+to give them a warning of his hostility to them, which, till he was in a
+position to show it by deeds, it would have been wiser to have avoided.
+
+He now repeated by word of mouth the statements and arguments which he had
+previously advanced in writing, with the addition of a denunciation of the
+recent insurrection and its authors, whom, he insisted, the Assembly was
+bound instantly to prosecute. His speech was not ill received; for the
+Constitutionalists, who knew what he designed to say, had mustered in full
+force, and had packed the galleries beforehand with hired clappers; and
+many even of the Deputies who did not belong to that party cheered him, so
+obvious to all but the most desperate was the danger to the whole State,
+if Santerre and his brigands should be allowed to become its masters. But
+they cared little for a barren indignation which had no more effectual
+weapon than reproaches. He had said enough to exasperate, but had not done
+enough to intimidate; while those whom he denounced had greater boldness
+and presence of mind than he, and had the forces on which they relied for
+support at hand and available. They instantly turned the latter on
+himself, and in their turn denounced him for having left his army without
+leave. He was frightened, or at least perplexed, by such a charge. He made
+no reply, but seemed like one stupefied; and it was only through the
+eloquence of one of his friends, M. Ramond, that he was saved from the
+impeachment with which Guadet and Vergniaud openly threatened him for
+quitting the army without leave.
+
+Ramond's oratory succeeded in carrying through the Assembly a motion in
+his favor, and several companies of the National Guard and a vast
+multitude of the citizens showed their sympathy with his views by
+escorting him with acclamations to his hotel. But neither their evident
+inclination to support him, nor even the danger with which he himself had
+been threatened, could give him resolution and firmness in action. For a
+moment he made a demonstration as if he were prepared to secure the
+success of his designs by force. He proposed that the king should the next
+morning review Acloque's companies of the National Guard, after which he
+himself would harangue them on their duty to the king and Constitution.
+But the Girondins persuaded Pétion to exert his authority, as mayor, to
+prohibit the review. La Fayette was weak enough to submit to the
+prohibition; and, quickened, it is said, by intelligence that Pétion was
+preparing to arrest him, the next day retired in haste from Paris and
+rejoined the army.
+
+He had done the king nothing but harm. He had shown to all the world that
+though the Royalists and Constitutionalists might still be numerically the
+stronger party, for all purposes of action they were by far the weaker. He
+had encouraged those whom he had intended to daunt, and strengthened those
+whom he had hoped to crush; and they, in consequence, proceeded in their
+treasons with greater boldness and openness than ever. Marie Antoinette,
+as we have seen, had expressed her belief that they designed to
+assassinate Louis, and she now employed herself, as she had done once
+before, in quilting him a waistcoat of thickness sufficient to resist a
+dagger or a bullet; though so incessant was the watch which was set on all
+their movements that it was with the greatest difficulty that she could
+find an opportunity of trying it on him. But it was not the king, but she
+herself, who was the victim whom the traitors proposed to take off in such
+a manner; and in the second week of July a man was detected at the foot of
+the staircase leading to her apartments, disguised as a grenadier, and
+sufficiently equipped with murderous weapons. He was seized by the guard,
+who had previous warning of his design; but was instantly rescued by a
+gang of ruffians like himself, who were on the watch to take advantage of
+the confusion which might be expected to arise from the accomplishment of
+his crime.
+
+Meanwhile the Assembly wavered, hesitated, and did nothing; the Girondins
+and Jacobins were fertile in devising plots, and active in carrying them
+out. One day, as if seized with a panic at some report of the strength of
+the Austrian and Prussian armies, the Assembly again passed a vote
+declaring the country in danger; on another, roused by a letter which a
+Madame Gouges, a daughter of a fashionable dress-maker, a lady of more
+notoriety than reputation, but who cultivated a character for philosophy,
+took upon herself to write to them, and still more by a curiously
+sentimental speech of the Bishop of Lyons, with the appropriate name of
+Lamourette,[5] the members bound themselves to have for the future but one
+heart and one sentiment; and for some minutes Jacobins, Girondins,
+Constitutionalists, and Royalists were rushing to and fro across the floor
+of the hall in a frenzy of mutual benevolence, embracing and kissing one
+another, and swearing an eternal friendship. They even sent a message to
+Louis to beg him to come and witness this new harmony. He came at once.
+With his disposition, it was not strange that he yielded to the illusion
+of the strange spectacle which he beheld. He shed tears of joy, declared
+the complete agreement of his sentiments with theirs, and predicted that
+their union would save France. They escorted him back to the Tuileries
+with cheers, and the very same evening, after a stormy debate, which was a
+remarkable commentary on the affection which they had just vowed to one
+another, they set him at defiance, insulting him by annulling some decrees
+to which he had given his assent, and passing a vote of confidence in
+Pétion as mayor.
+
+The Feast of the Federation, as it was called, passed off quietly. The
+king again recognized the Constitution before the altar erected in the
+Champ de Mars, and, as he drove back to the palace, the populace
+accompanied him the whole way, never ceasing their acclamations of "Vivent
+le roi et la reine![6]" till they had dismounted and returned to their
+apartments. Such a close of the day had been expected by no one. La
+Fayette, who seems at last to have become really anxious to save the lives
+of the king and queen, and to have been seriously convinced that they were
+in danger, had now formally opened a communication with the court. He
+concerted his plans with Marshal Luckner, and had learned so much wisdom
+from his recent failure that he now placed no reliance on any thing but a
+display of superior force. He accordingly proposed to Louis to bring up a
+battalion of picked men from his and the marshal's armies to escort him to
+the Champ de Mars; and, judging that, even if the feast should pass off
+without any fresh danger, the king could never be considered permanently
+safe while he remained in Paris, he recommended that on the next day,
+Louis, still under the protection of the same troops, should announce to
+the Assembly his departure for Compiègne, and should at once quit the
+capital for that town, to which trusty officers would in the mean time
+have brought up other divisions of the army in sufficient strength to set
+all disaffected and seditious spirits at defiance.
+
+The plan was at all events well conceived, but it was declined. Louis did
+not apparently distrust the marquis's good faith, but he doubted his
+ability to carry out an enterprise requiring an energy and decision of
+which no part of La Fayette's career had given any indication; while the
+queen distrusted his loyalty even more than his capacity. One of those
+with whom she took counsel expressed his opinion of the marquis's real
+object by saying that he might save the monarch, but not the monarchy; and
+she replied that his head was still full of republican notions which he
+had brought from America, and refused to place the slightest confidence in
+him. We may suspect that she did not do him entire justice, and may rather
+believe, with Louis, that he was now acting in good faith; but, with a
+recollection of all that she had suffered at his hands, we can not wonder
+at her continued distrust of him.[A7]
+
+But his was not the only plan proposed for the escape of the royal family.
+Bertrand de Moleville, though no longer Louis's minister, retained his
+undiminished confidence, and he had found a place which he regarded as
+admirably suited for a temporary retreat--the Castle of Gaillon, near the
+left bank of the Seine, in Normandy, the people of which province were
+almost universally loyal. It was within the twenty leagues from Paris
+which the Assembly had fixed for the limit of the royal journeys; while
+yet, in case of the worst, it was likewise within easy distance of the
+coast. An able engineer officer had pronounced it to be thoroughly
+defensible; and the Count d'Hervilly, with other officers of proved
+courage and presence of mind, undertook the arrangement of all the
+military measures necessary for the safe escort of the entire royal
+family, which they themselves were willing to conduct, with the aid of
+some detachments of the Swiss Guards; while the necessary funds were
+provided by the loyal devotion of the Duke de Liancourt, who placed a
+million of francs at his sovereign's disposal, and of one or two other
+nobles who came forward with almost equally lavish offerings. Louis
+certainly at first regarded the plan with favor, and, in the opinion of M.
+Bertrand, it would not have been difficult to induce him to adopt it, if
+the queen could have been brought over to a similar view.
+
+Unhappily several motives combined to disincline her to it. The
+insurrection which the Girondins[8] were preparing had originally been
+fixed for the 29th of July; but, a few days before, M. Bertrand learned
+that it had been postponed till the 10th of August. This gave him time to
+mature his arrangements, all of which, as he reckoned, could be completed
+in time for the king to leave Paris on the evening of the 8th. But before
+that day arrived news had reached the court that the Duke of Brunswick,
+the Prussian commander-in-chief, had put his army in motion, and that he
+was not likely to meet any obstacle sufficient to prevent him from
+marching at once on Paris; a measure which, to quote the language of M.
+Bertrand, "the queen was too anxious to see accomplished to hesitate at
+believing in its execution.[9]" And at the same time some of the Jacobin
+leaders--Danton, Pétion, and Santerre--had opened communications with the
+Government, and had undertaken for a large bribe to prevent the threatened
+outbreak. The money had been paid to them, and Marie Antoinette more than
+once boasted to her attendants that they were now safe, as having gained
+over Danton; placing the firmer reliance on this mode of extrication
+because it coincided with her belief that the mutual jealousy of the two
+parties would dispose one of them at least eventually to embrace the cause
+of the king, as their beat ally against the other. The result seems to
+show that the Jacobins only took the bribe the more effectually to lull
+their destined victims into a false security.
+
+A third consideration, and that apparently not the weakest, was Marie
+Antoinette's rooted dislike of the Constitutionalist party. In their rants
+the Duc de Liancourt had taken his seat in the first Assembly; though, as
+he assured M. Bertrand, the king himself was aware that his object in so
+doing had been to serve his majesty in the most effectual manner; and he
+was also the statesman whose advice had mainly contributed to induce the
+king to visit Paris after the destruction of the Bastile, a step which she
+had always regarded as the forerunner and cause of some of the most
+irremediable encroachments of the Revolutionists. Even the duke's present
+devotion to the king's cause could not entirely efface from her mind the
+impression that he was not in his heart friendly to the royal authority.
+She urged these arguments on the king. The last probably weighed with him
+but little: the two former he felt as strongly as the queen herself; and
+he delayed his decision, sending word to M. Bertrand that he had resolved
+to defer his departure "till the last extremity.[10]" His faithful servant
+was in amazement. "When," he exclaimed, "was the last extremity to be
+looked for, if it had not already come?" But his astonishment was turned
+to absolute despair when the next day M. Montmorin informed him that the
+project had been entirely given up, the queen herself remarking "that M.
+Bertrand overlooked the circumstance that he was throwing them altogether
+into the hands of the Constitutionalists."
+
+She has been commonly blamed for this decision, as that which was the
+chief cause of all the subsequent calamities which overwhelmed her and the
+whole family. Yet it is not difficult to understand the motives which
+influenced her, and it is impossible to refrain from regarding them with
+sympathy. She was now at the decisive moment of a crisis which might well
+perplex the clearest head. There could be no doubt that the coming
+insurrection would be the turning-point of the long conflict which had now
+lasted three years; and it was a conflict in which her husband's throne
+was certainly at stake, perhaps even his and her own life. They had indeed
+been so for three years; and throughout the whole contest her view had
+constantly been that honor was still dearer than life; and honor she
+identified with the preservation of her husband's crown, her children's
+inheritance. Mirabeau had said that she would not care to save her life if
+she could not save the crown also; and, though she can not have decided
+without a terrible conflict of feeling, her decision was now in conformity
+with Mirabeau's judgment of her. In the preceding year the journey to
+Varennes had been treated by the Republicans as a plea for pronouncing the
+deposition of the king; and, though they were defeated then, they were
+undoubtedly stronger in the new Assembly. On the other hand, she suspected
+that they themselves had some misgivings as to the chance of a second
+attack on the palace being more successful than the former one had proved;
+and that the openness with which the preparations for it were announced
+was intended to terrify Louis and herself into a second flight; and she
+might not unreasonably infer that what their enemies desired was not the
+wisest course for them to adopt. To fly would evidently be to leave the
+whole field in both the Assembly and the city open to their enemies. It
+might save their lives, but it would almost to a certainty forfeit the
+crown. To stay and face the coming danger might indeed lose both, but it
+might also save both; and she determined rather to risk all, both crown
+and life, in the endeavor to save all, rather than to save the one by the
+deliberate sacrifice of the other. It was a gallant and unselfish
+determination: if in one point of view it was unwise, it was at least
+becoming her lofty lineage, and consistent with her heroic character.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+Preparation for a New Insurrection.--Barbaroux brings up a Gang from
+Marseilles.--The King's last Levee.--The Assembly rejects a Motion for the
+Impeachment of La Fayette.--It removes some Regiments from Paris.--
+Preparations of the Court for Defense.--The 10th of August.--The City is
+in Insurrection.--Murder of Mandat.--Louis reviews the Guards.--He takes
+Refuge with the Assembly.--Massacre of the Swiss Guards.--Sack of the
+Tuileries.--Discussions in the Assembly.--The Royal Authority is
+suspended.
+
+
+The die was cast. Nothing was left but to wait, with such patience as
+might be, for the coming explosion, which was sure not to be long
+deferred. Madame de Staël has said that there never can be a conspiracy,
+in the proper sense of the word, in Paris; and that if there could be one,
+it would be superfluous, since every one at all times follows the
+majority, and no one ever keeps a secret. But on this occasion the chief
+movers of sedition studiously discarded all appearance of concealment.
+Vergniaud, Guadet, and Gensonné wrote the king a letter couched in terms
+of the most insolent defiance, and signed with all their names, in which
+they openly announced to him that an insurrection was organized which
+should be abandoned if he replaced Roland and his colleagues in the
+ministry, but which should surely break on the palace and overwhelm it if
+he refused. And Barbaroux, who had promised Madame Roland to bring up from
+Marseilles and other towns in the south a band of men capable of any
+atrocity, had collected a gang of five hundred miscreants, the refuse of
+the galleys and the jails, and paraded them in triumph through the
+streets, which their arrival was destined and intended to deluge with
+blood.
+
+And yet Louis, or, to speak more correctly, Marie Antoinette, for it was
+with her that every decision rested, preferred to face the impending
+struggle in Paris. She still believed that the king had many friends in
+whose devotion and gallantry he could confide to the very death. On
+Sunday, the 5th of August, the very last Sunday which he was ever to
+behold as the acknowledged sovereign of the land, his levee was attended
+by a more than usually numerous and brilliant company; though the gayety
+appropriate to such a scene was on this occasion clouded over by the
+anxiety for their royal master and mistress which sobered every one's
+demeanor, and spread a gloom over every countenance. And three days later
+both the Assembly and the National Guard displayed feelings which, to so
+sanguine a temper as hers, seemed to show a disposition to make a stout
+resistance to the further progress of disorder. The Assembly, by a
+majority of more than two to one, rejected a motion made by Vergniaud for
+the impeachment of La Fayette for his conduct in June; and when the mob
+fell upon those who had voted against it, as they came out of the hall,
+the National Guard came promptly to their rescue, and inflicted severe
+chastisement on the foremost of the rioters.
+
+The vote of the Assembly may be said to have been the last it ever gave
+for any object but the promotion of anarchy. It more than neutralized its
+effect the very next day, when it passed a decree for the immediate
+removal of three regiments of the line which were quartered in Paris. It
+even at first included in its resolution the Swiss Guards also; but was
+subsequently compelled to withdraw that clause, since an old treaty with
+Switzerland expressly secured to the republic the right of always
+furnishing a regiment for the honorable service of guarding the palace.
+And at the same time, as if to punish the National Guard for its conduct
+on the previous day, another vote broke up the staff of that force;
+cashiered its finest companies, the grenadiers and the mounted troopers,
+on the plea that such distinctions were inconsistent with equality; and
+filled up the vacancies with men who were the very dregs of the city, many
+of whom were, in fact, secret agents of the Jacobins, by whose aid they
+hoped to spread disaffection through the entire force.
+
+The afternoon of the 9th was passed in anxious preparation by both the
+conspirators and those whom they were about to attack. The king and queen
+were not destitute of faithful adherents, whom their very danger only
+rendered the more zealous to place all their strength, their valor, and,
+as they truly foreboded, their lives, at the disposal of their honored and
+threatened sovereigns. The veteran Marshal de Mailly, one of those gallant
+nobles whose devoted loyalty had been so scandalously insulted by La
+Fayette[1] in the spring of the preceding year, though now eighty years of
+age, hastened to the defense of his royal master and mistress, and brought
+with him a chivalrous phalanx of above a hundred gentlemen, all animated
+with the same self-sacrificing heroism, as his own, to fight, or, if need
+should be, to die for their king and queen, though they had no arms but
+their swords. It seemed fortunate, too, that the command of the National
+Guard for the day fell by rotation to an officer named Mandat, a man of
+high professional skill, intrepid courage, and unshaken in his zeal for
+the royal cause, though in former days the constitutionalists had reckoned
+him among their adherents. His brigade numbered about two thousand four
+hundred men, on most of whom he could thoroughly rely. And it was no
+slight proof of his force of character and energy, as well as of his
+address, that, as the National Guard could not be employed out of the
+routine of their regular duty without a special authorisation from the
+civil power, he contrived to extort from Pétion, as mayor of the city, a
+formal authority to augment his brigade for the special occasion, and, if
+force should be used against him, to repel it by force.
+
+The Swiss Guard of about a thousand men were all trustworthy; and there
+was also a small body of heavy cavalry of the gendarmery who had proved
+true enough to resist all the seductions of the conspirators. There were
+likewise a few cannon. In all, nearly four thousand men could be mustered
+for the defense of the palace; a force, if well equipped and well led, not
+inadequate to the task of holding it out for some time against any number
+of undisciplined assailants. But they were not well armed. They were
+nearly destitute of ammunition, and Mandat's most vehement entreaties and
+remonstrances could not wring out from Pétion an order for a supply of
+cartridges, though, as he told him, several companies had not four rounds
+left, some had only one; and though it was notorious that the police had
+served out ammunition to the Marseillese, who had no claim to a single
+bullet. Still less were they well led; for at such a crisis every thing
+depended on the king's example, and Louis was utterly wanting to himself.
+
+As night approached, the agitation in the palace, and still more in the
+city, grew more and more intense. It was a brilliant and a warm night. By
+ten o'clock the mob began to cluster in the streets, many only curious and
+anxious from uncertain fear; those in the secret hastening toward the
+point of rendezvous. The rioters also had cannon, and by eleven their
+artillery-men had taken charge of their guns. The conspirators had got
+possession of all the churches; and as the hour of midnight struck, a
+single cannon-shot gave the signal, and from every steeple and tower in
+the city the fatal tocsin began to peal. The insurrection was begun.
+
+Pétion, who, from some motive which is not very intelligible, wished to
+save appearances, and who, though in fact he had been eager in promoting
+the insurrection, pretended innocence of all complicity in it even to the
+Assembly, whom he was aware that he was not deceiving, on the first sound
+of the bells repaired to the Hôtel de Ville. He found, as indeed he was
+aware that he should find, a strange addition to the Municipal Council.
+The majority of the sections of the city had declared themselves in
+insurrection; had passed resolutions that they would no longer obey the
+existing magistrates; and had appointed a body of commissioners to
+overbear them, trusting in the cowardice of the majority, and in the
+willing acquiescence and co-operation of Danton and the other members of
+the party of violence. The commissioners seized on a room in the Hôtel by
+the side of the regular council-room, and their first measures were marked
+with a cunning and unscrupulousness which largely contributed to the
+success of their more active comrades in the streets. Even Pétion himself
+was not wicked enough or resolute enough for them. The authority which
+Mandat had wrung from him on the previous morning was, in their eyes, a
+proof of unpardonable weakness. He might be terrified into issuing some
+other order which might disconcert or at least impede their plans; and
+accordingly they put him under a kind of honorable arrest, and sent him to
+his own house under the guard of an armed force, which was instructed to
+allow no one access to him; and at the same time they sent an order in his
+name to Mandat to repair to the Hôtel de Ville, to concert with them the
+measures necessary for the safety of the city.
+
+Had he acted on his own judgment, Mandat would have disregarded the
+summons; but M. Roederer urged upon him that he was bound to comply with
+an order brought in the name of the mayor. Accordingly he repaired to the
+Hôtel de Ville, and gave to the Municipal Council so distinct an account
+of his measures, and of his reason for taking them, that, though Danton
+and some of his more factious colleagues reproached him for exhibiting
+what they called a needless distrust of the people, the majority of the
+Council approved of his conduct, and dismissed him to return to his
+duties. But as he quit their chamber, he was dragged before the other
+body, the Commissioners of the Sections,[2] and subjected to another
+examination, which, as a matter of course, they conducted with every kind
+of insult and violence. The Municipal Council sent down a deputation to
+remonstrate with them; they rose on the Council and expelled them from
+their own council-chamber by main force, and then sent off Mandat to
+prison, whither, a few minutes later, they dispatched a gang of assassins
+to murder him.
+
+The news of his death soon reached the Tuileries, where it struck a chill
+even into the firm heart of the queen,[3] who had deservedly placed great
+reliance on his fidelity and resolution. She had now to trust to the valor
+and loyalty of the troops themselves, though thus deprived of their
+commander; and, as a last hope, she persuaded the king to go down and
+review them, hoping that his presence might animate the faithful, and
+perhaps fix the waverers. Louis consented, as he would have consented to
+any course that was recommended to him; but on such occasions more depends
+on the grace and spirit with which a thing is done than on the act itself,
+and grace and spirit were now less than ever to be looked for in the
+unhappy Louis. He visited first the courts of the palace, and the
+Carrousel, and then the gardens, at whose different entrances strong
+detachments of troops were stationed. When he first appeared he was
+greeted by one general cheer of "Vive le roi!" But as he passed along the
+ranks the unanimity and loyalty began to disappear. Even of those
+regiments which were still true to him the cheers were faint, as if half
+suppressed by alarm; while many companies mingled shouts for "the nation"
+with those for himself, and individual soldiers murmured audibly, "Down
+with the Veto!" or, "Long live the Sans-culottes!" secure that their
+officers would not venture to reprove, much less to chastise them. The
+Swiss Guard alone showed enthusiasm in their loyalty and resolution in
+their demeanor.
+
+But when he reached the artillery, on whom perhaps most depended, many of
+the gunners made no secret of their disaffection. Some even quit their
+ranks to offer him personal insults, doubling their fists in his face, and
+shouting out the coarsest threats which the Revolution had yet taught
+them. Both cheers and insults the hapless king received with almost equal
+apathy. The despair which was in his heart was shown in his dress, which
+had no military character or decoration, but was a suit of plain violet
+such as was never worn by kings of France but on occasions of mourning. It
+was to no purpose that the queen put a sword into his hand, and exhorted
+him to take the command of the troops himself, and to show himself ready
+to fight in person for his crown. It was only once or twice that he could
+even be brought to utter a few words of acknowledgment to those who
+treated him with respect, of expostulation to those who insulted and
+threatened him; and presently, pale, and, as it seemed, exhausted with
+that slight effort, he returned to his apartments.
+
+The queen was almost in despair. She told Madame de Campan that all was
+lost; that the king had shown no energy; that such a review as that had
+done harm rather than good. All that could now be done was for her to show
+herself not wanting to the occasion, nor to him. Her courage rose with the
+imminence of the danger. Those who beheld her, as with dilating eyes and
+heightened color she listened to the unceasing tumult, and, repressing
+every appearance of alarm, strove with unabated energy to rouse her
+husband, and to fortify the good disposition of the loyal friends around
+her, have described in terms of enthusiastic admiration the majestic
+dignity of her demeanor at this trying moment. She had need of all her
+presence of mind; for even among those who were most faithful to her
+dissensions were springing up. At the first alarm Marshal de Mailly and
+his company of gallant nobles and gentlemen had hastened to her side; but
+the National Guards were jealous of them. It seemed as if they expected to
+be allowed to remain nearest to the royal person; and the soldiers
+disdained to yield the post of honor to men who were not in uniform, and
+whom, as they were mostly in court dress, they even disliked as
+aristocrats. They besought the queen to dismiss them. "Never!" she
+replied; and, trusting rather that the example of their self-sacrificing
+devotion might stimulate those who thus complained, and full of that royal
+magnanimity which feels that it confers honor on those whom it trusts, and
+that it has a right to look for the loyalty of its servants even to the
+death, she added, "They will serve with you, and share your dangers. They
+will fight with you in the van, in the rear, where you will. They will
+show you how men can die for their king."
+
+But meanwhile the insurgents were rapidly approaching the palace, and
+already the tramp of the leading column might be heard. The tocsin had
+continued its ominous sound throughout the night, and at six in the
+morning the main body of the insurgents, twenty thousand strong, and well
+armed--for the new council had opened to them the stores of the arsenal--
+began their march under the command of Santerre. As they advanced they
+were joined by the Marseillese, who had been quartered in a barrack near
+the Hall of the Cordeliers, and their numbers were further swelled by
+thousands of the populace. Soon after eight they reached the Carrousel,
+forced the gates, and pressed on to the royal court, the National Guard
+and Swiss falling back before them to the entrance to the royal
+apartments, where the more confined space seemed to afford a better
+prospect of making an effectual resistance.
+
+But already the palace was deserted by those who were the intended objects
+of the attack. Roederer, and one or two of the municipal magistrates, in
+whom the indignity with which the new commissioners of the sections had
+treated them had excited a feeling of personal indignation, had been
+actively endeavoring to rouse the National Guards to an energetic
+resistance; but they had wholly failed. Those who listened to them most
+favorably would only promise to defend themselves if attacked, while some
+of the artillery-men drew the charges from their guns and extinguished
+their matches. Roederer, whom the strange vicissitudes of the crisis had
+for the moment rendered the king's chief adviser, though there seems no
+reason to doubt his good faith, was not a man of that fiery courage which
+hopes against hope, and can stimulate waverers by its example. He saw that
+if the rioters should succeed in storming the palace, and should find the
+king and his family there, the moment that made them masters of their
+persons would be the last of their lives and of the monarchy. He returned
+into the palace to represent to Louis the utter hopelessness of making any
+defense, and to recommend him, as his sole resource, to claim the
+protection of the Assembly. The queen, who, to use her own words, would
+have preferred being nailed to the walls of the palace to seeking a refuge
+which she deemed degrading, pointed to the soldiers, and showed by her
+gestures that they were the only protectors whom it became them to look
+to. Roederer assured her that they could not he relied on. She seemed
+unconvinced. He almost forgot his respect in his earnestness. "If you
+refuse, madame, you will be guilty of the blood of the king, of your two
+children; you will destroy yourself, and every soul within the palace."
+While she was still hesitating between her feeling of shame and her
+anxiety for those dearest to her, the king gave the word. "Let us go,"
+said he. "Let us give this last proof of our devotion to the
+Constitution." The princess spoke. "Could Roederer answer for the king's
+life?" He affirmed that he would answer for it with his own. The queen
+repeated the question. "Madame," he replied, "we will answer for dying at
+your side--that is all that we can promise." "Let us go," said Louis, and
+moved toward the door. Even at the last moment, one officer, M. Boscari,
+commander of a battalion of the National Guard, known as that of Les
+Filles St. Thomas, whose loyalty no disaster had ever been able to shake,
+implored him to change his mind. His men, united to the Swiss, would be
+able, he said, to cut a way for the royal family to the Rouen road; the
+insurgents were all on the other side of the city, and nothing could
+resist him. But again, as on all previous occasions, Louis rejected the
+brave advice. He pleaded the risk to which he should expose those dearest
+to him, and led them to almost certain death in committing them to the
+Assembly. Some of De Mailly's gentlemen gathered round him to accompany
+him; but such an escort seemed to Roederer likely to provoke additional
+animosity, and at his entreaty Louis trusted himself to a company of his
+faithful Swiss and to a detachment of the National Guard, who formed
+themselves into an escort to conduct him to the Assembly, whose hall
+looked into one side of the palace garden.
+
+The minister for foreign affairs walked at his side. The queen leaned on
+the arm of M. Dubouchage, the minister of marine, and with the other hand
+led the dauphin. The Princess Elizabeth and the princess royal followed
+with another minister. And thus, with the Princess de Lamballe, Madame de
+Tourzel, and one or two other ministers and attendants, the royal family
+left the palace of their ancestors, which only one of them was ever to
+behold again. As they quit the saloon, moved down the stairs, and crossed
+the garden, their every step was one toward a downfall and a destruction
+which could never be retraced. Marie Antoinette felt it to be so, and, as
+she reached the foot of the staircase, cast restless and anxious glances
+around, looking perhaps even then for any prospect of succor or of
+effectual resistance which might present itself. One of the Swiss
+misunderstood her, and with rude fidelity endeavored to encourage her.
+"Fear nothing, madame," said he, "your majesty is surrounded by honest
+citizens." She laid her hand on her heart. "I do fear nothing," and passed
+on without another word.
+
+As they crossed the garden the king broke the silence. "How unusually
+early," he remarked, "the leaves fall this year!" To those who heard him,
+the bareness which he remarked seemed an omen of the fate which awaited
+himself, about to be stripped of his royal dignity; perhaps even, like
+some superfluous crowder of the grove, to fall beneath the axe. The
+Assembly had already been deliberating whether it should invite him to
+take refuge with them when they heard that he was approaching. It was
+instantly voted that a deputation should be sent to meet him, which, after
+a few words of respectful salutation, fell in behind. A vast crowd was
+collected outside the doors of the hall. They hooted the king, and, still
+more bitterly, the queen, as they advanced. "Down with Veto!" was the
+chief cry; but mingled with it were still more unmanly insults, invoking
+more especially death on all the women. But the Guards kept the mob at a
+distance, though when they reached the hall the Jacobins made an effort to
+deprive them of that protection. They declared that it was illegal for
+soldiers to enter the hall, as indeed it was; yet without them the princes
+must at the last moment have been exposed to all the fury of the mob. At
+this critical moment Roederer showed both fidelity and presence of mind.
+He implored the deputies to suspend the law which forbade the entrance of
+the troops, and, while the Jacobins were reviling him and his proposal, he
+pretended to suppose that it had been agreed to, and led forward a
+detachment of soldiers who cleared the way. One grenadier look up the
+dauphin in his arms and carried him in; and, although the pressure of the
+crowd was extreme, at last the whole family were placed within the hall in
+such safety as the Assembly was able or disposed to afford them.
+
+Louis bore himself not without dignity. His words were few but calm. "I am
+come here to prevent a great crime. I think I can not be better placed,
+nor more safely, gentlemen, than among you." The president, who happened
+to be Vergniaud, while appearing to desire to give him confidence, yet
+avoided uttering a single word, except the simple address of "sire," which
+should be a recognition of the royal dignity, if indeed his speech was not
+a studied disavowal of it. Louis might reckon, he said, on the firmness of
+the National Assembly: its members had sworn to die in support of the
+rights of the people and of the constituted authorities: and then, on the
+plea that the Assembly must continue its deliberations, and that the law
+forbade them to be conducted in the presence of the sovereign, he assigned
+him and his family a little box behind the president's chair, which was
+usually set apart for the reporters of the debates. A Jacobin deputy
+proposed their removal into one of the committee-rooms, with the idea, as
+he afterward boasted, that it would be easy there to admit a band of
+assassins to murder them all; but Vergniaud and his party divined his
+object and overruled him. It might seem that the Girondins, though they
+had been the original promoters and chief organizers of the insurrection,
+were as yet disposed to be content with the overthrow of the throne, and
+had not arrived at the hardihood which can not be sated without murder;
+and it is a remarkable instance of the rapidity with which unprincipled
+men sink deeper and deeper into iniquity, that they who now exerted
+themselves successfully to save the life of Louis, five months afterward
+were as unanimous as the most ferocious Jacobins in destroying him.
+
+One object of Louis in abandoning his palace had been to save the lives of
+the National Guards and of the Swiss, by withdrawing them from what he
+regarded as an unequal combat with the infuriated multitude; and of the
+National Guard the greater part did escape, drawing off silently in small
+detachments, when the sovereign whom it had been their duty to defend,
+seemed no longer to require their service. But the Swiss remained bravely
+at their posts around the royal staircase, though, as they abstained from
+provoking the rioters by any active opposition, which now seemed to have
+no object, they hoped that they might escape attack. But the mob and
+Santerre were bent on their destruction. Some of the insurgents tried to
+provoke them by threats. Some endeavored to tamper with them to desert
+their allegiance. But an accidental interruption suddenly terminated their
+brief period of inaction. In the confusion a pistol went off, and the
+Swiss fancied it was meant as a signal for an assault upon them. Thinking
+that the time was come to defend their own lives, they leveled their
+muskets and fired: they charged down the steps, driving the insurgents
+before them like sheep; they cleared the inner or royal court, forced
+their way into the Carrousel, recovered the cannon which were posted in
+the large square, and were so completely victorious that, had there been
+any superior officer at hand to direct their movements, they might even
+now have checked the insurrection.
+
+There might even have been some hope had not Louis himself actually
+interfered to check their exertions. Hearing what they had accomplished,
+the gallant D'Hervilly made his way to them, and called on them to follow
+him to the rescue of the king. They hesitated, unwilling to leave their
+wounded comrades to the mercy of their enemies; but their hesitation was
+brief, for it was put an end to by the wounded men themselves, who bid
+them hasten forward; their duty, they told them, was to save the king; for
+themselves, they could but die where they lay.[4] There were still plenty
+of gallant spirits to do their duty to the king, if he could but have been
+persuaded to take a right view of his duty to himself and to them.
+
+The Swiss gladly obeyed D'Hervilly's summons. Forming in close order, and
+as steady as on parade, they marched through the garden, one battalion
+moving toward the end opposite to the palace, where there was a
+draw-bridge which it was essential to secure; the other following
+D'Hervilly to the Assembly hall. Nothing could resist their advance: they
+forced their way up the stairs; and in a few moments a young officer, M.
+de Salis, at the head of a small detachment, sword in hand, entered the
+chamber. Some of the deputies shrieked and fled, while others, more calm,
+reminded him that armed men were forbidden to enter the hall, and ordered
+him to retire. He refused, and sent his subaltern to the king for orders.
+But Louis still held to his strange policy of non-resistance. Even the
+terrible scenes of the morning, and the deliberate attack of an armed mob
+upon his palace, had failed to eradicate his unwillingness to authorize
+his own Guards to fight in his behalf, or to convince him that when his
+throne (perhaps even his life and the lives of all his family) was at
+stake, it was nobler to struggle for victory, and, if defeated, to die
+with arms in his hands, than tamely to sit still and be stripped of his
+kingly dignity by brigands and traitors. Could he but have summoned energy
+to put himself at the head of his faithful Guards, as we may be sure that
+his brave wife urged him to do; could he have even sent them one
+encouraging order, one cheering word, there still might have been hope;
+for they had already proved that no number of Santerre's ruffians could
+stand before them.[5] But Louis could not even now bring himself to act;
+he could only suffer. His command to the officer, the last he ever issued,
+was for the whole battalion to lay down their arms, to evacuate the
+palace, and to retire to their barracks. He would not, he said, that such
+brave men should die. They knew that in fact he was consigning them to
+death without honor; but they were loyal to the last. They obeyed, though
+their obedience to the first part of the order rendered the last part
+impracticable. They laid down their arms, and were at once made prisoners;
+and the fate of prisoners in such hands as those of their captors was
+certain. A small handful, consisting, it is said, of fourteen men, escaped
+through the courage of one or two friends, who presently brought them
+plain clothes to exchange for their uniforms, but before night all the
+rest were massacred.
+
+Not more fortunate were their comrades of the other battalion, except in
+falling by a more soldier-like death. Though no longer supported by the
+detachment under D'Hervilly, they succeeded in forcing their way to the
+draw-bridge. It was held by a strong detachment of the National Guard, who
+ought to have received them as comrades, but who had now caught the
+contagion of successful treason, and fired on them as they advanced. But
+the gallant Swiss, in spite of their diminished numbers still invincible,
+charged through them, forced their way across the bridge into the Place
+Louis XV., and there formed themselves into square, resolved to sell their
+lives dearly. It was all that was left to them to do. The mounted
+gendarmery, too, came up and turned against them. Hemmed in on all sides,
+they fell one after another; Louis, who had refused to let them die for
+him, having only given their death the additional pang that it had been of
+no service to him.
+
+The retreat of the king had left the Tuileries at the mercy of the
+rioters. Furious to find that he had escaped them, they wreaked their rage
+on the lifeless furniture, breaking, hewing, and destroying in every way
+that wantonness or malice could devise. Different articles which had
+belonged to the queen were the especial objects of their wrath. Crowds of
+the vilest women arrayed themselves in her dresses, or defiled her bed.
+Her looking-glasses were broken, with imprecations, because they had
+reflected her features. Her footmen were pursued and slaughtered because
+they had been wont to obey her. Nor were the monsters who slew them
+contented with murder. They tore the dead bodies into pieces; devoured the
+still bleeding fragments, or deliberately lighted fire and cooked them;
+or, hoisting the severed limbs on pikes, carried them in fiendish triumph
+through the streets.
+
+And while these horrors were going on in the palace, the tumult in the
+Assembly was scarcely less furious. The majority of the members--all,
+indeed, except the Girondins and Jacobins, who were secure in their
+alliance with the ringleaders--were panic-stricken. Many fled, but the
+rest sat still, and in terrified helplessness voted whatever resolutions
+the fiercest of the king's enemies chose to propose. It was an ominous
+preliminary to their deliberations that they admitted a deputation from
+the commissioners of the sections into the hall, where Guadet, to whom
+Vergniaud had surrendered the president's chair, thanked them for their
+zeal, and assured them that the Assembly regarded them as virtuous
+citizens only anxious for the restoration of peace and order. They were
+even formally recognized as the Municipal Council; and then, on the motion
+of Vergniaud, the Assembly passed a series of resolutions, ordering the
+suspension of Louis from all authority; his confinement in the Luxembourg
+Palace; the dismissal and impeachment of his ministers; the re-appointment
+of Roland and those of his colleagues whom he had dismissed, and the
+immediate election of a National Convention. A large pecuniary reward was
+even voted for the Marseillese, and for similar gangs from one or two
+other departments which had been brought up to Paris to take a part in the
+insurrection.
+
+Yet so deeply seated were hope and confidence in the queen's heart, so
+sanguine was her trust that out of the mutual enmity of the populace and
+the Assembly safety would still be wrought for the king and the monarchy,
+that even while the din of battle was raging outside the hall, and inside
+deputy after deputy was rising to heap insults on the king and on herself,
+or to second Vergniaud's resolutions for his formal degradation, she could
+still believe that the tide was about to turn in her favor. While the
+uproar was at its height she turned to D'Hervilly, who still kept his
+post, faithful and fearless, at his master's side. "Well, M. d'Hervilly,"
+said she, with an air, as M. Bertrand, who tells the story, describes it,
+of the most perfect security, "did we not do well not to leave Paris?" "I
+pray God," said the brave noble, "that your majesty may be able to ask me
+the same question in six months' time.[6]" His foreboding was truer than
+her hopes. In less than six months she was a desolate, imprisoned widow,
+helplessly awaiting her own fate from her husband's murderers.
+
+All these resolutions of Vergniaud, all the ribald abuse with which
+different members supported them, the unhappy sovereigns were condemned to
+hear in the narrow box to which they had been removed. They bore the
+insults, the queen with her habitual dignity, the king with his inveterate
+apathy; Louis even speaking occasionally with apparent cheerfulness to
+some of the deputies. The constant interruptions protracted the
+discussions through the entire day. It was half-past three in the morning
+before the Assembly adjourned, when the king and his family were removed
+to the adjacent Convent of the Feuillants, where four wretched cells had
+been hastily furnished with camp-beds, and a few other necessaries of the
+coarsest description. So little was any attempt made to disguise the fact
+that they were prisoners, that their own domestic servants were not
+allowed the next day to attend them till they had received a formal ticket
+of admittance from the president. Yet even in this extremity of distress
+Marie Antoinette thought of others rather than of herself; and when at
+last her faithful attendant, Madame de Campan, obtained access to her, her
+first words expressed how greatly her own sorrows were aggravated by the
+thought that she had involved in them those loyal friends whose attachment
+merited a very different recompense.[7]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+Indignities to which the Royal Family are subjected.--They are removed to
+the Temple.--Divisions in the Assembly.--Flight of La Fayette.--Advance of
+the Prussians.--Lady Sutherland supplies the Dauphin with Clothes.--Mode
+of Life in the Temple.--The Massacres of September.--The Death of the
+Princess de Lamballe.--Insults are heaped on the King and Queen.--The
+Trial of the King.--His Last Interview with his Family.--His Death.
+
+
+From the 11th of August the life of Marie Antoinette is almost a blank to
+us. We may be even thankful that it is so, and that we are spared the
+details, in all their accumulated miseries, of a series of events which
+are a disgrace to human nature. For month after month the gentle,
+benevolent king, whom no sovereign ever exceeded in love for his people,
+or in the exercise of every private virtue; the equally pure-minded,
+charitable, and patriotic queen, who, to the somewhat passive excellences
+of her husband added fascinating graces and lofty energies of which he was
+unhappily destitute, were subjected to the most disgusting indignities, to
+the tyranny of the vilest monsters who ever usurped authority over a
+nation, and to the daily insults of the meanest of their former subjects,
+who thought to make a merit with their new masters of their brutality to
+those whose birthright had been the submission and reverence of all around
+them.
+
+Vergniaud's motion had only extended to the suspension of the king from
+his functions till the meeting of the Convention; but no one could doubt
+that that suspension would never be taken off, and that Louis was in fact
+dethroned. Marie Antoinette never deceived herself on the point, and,
+retaining the opinion as to the fate of deposed monarchs which she had
+expressed three years before, pronounced that all was over with them. "My
+poor children," said she, apostrophizing the little dauphin and his
+sister, "it is cruel to give up the hope of transmitting to you so noble
+an inheritance, and to have to say that all is at an end with ourselves;"
+and, lest any one else should have any doubt on the subject, the Assembly
+no longer headed its decrees with any royal title, but published them in
+the name of the nation. In one point the resolutions of the 10th were
+slightly departed from. The municipal authorities reported that the
+Luxembourg had so many outlets and subterranean passages, that it would be
+difficult to prevent the escape of a prisoner from that palace; and
+accordingly the destination of the royal family was changed to the Temple.
+Thither, after having been compelled to spend two more days in the
+Assembly, listening to the denunciations and threats of their enemies,
+whom even the knowledge that they were wholly in their power failed to
+pacify, they were conveyed on the 13th; and they never quit it till they
+were dragged forth to die.
+
+The Temple had been, as its name imported, the fortress and palace of the
+Knights Templars, and, having been erected by them in the palmy days of
+their wealth and magnificence, contained spacious apartments, and
+extensive gardens protected from intrusion by a lofty wall, which
+surrounded the whole. It was not, unfit for, nor unaccustomed to, the
+reception of princes; for the Count d'Artois had fitted up a portion of it
+for himself whenever he visited the capital. And to his apartments those
+who had the custody of the king and queen at first conducted them. But the
+new Municipal Council, whom the recent events had made the real masters of
+Paris, considered those rooms too comfortable or too honorable a lodging
+for any prisoners, however royal; and the same night, before they could
+retire to rest, and while Louis was still occupying himself in
+distributing the different apartments among the members of his family and
+the few attendants who were allowed to share his captivity, an order was
+sent down to remove them all into a small dilapidated tower which had been
+used as a lodging for some of the count's footmen, but whose bad walls and
+broken windows rendered it unfit for even the servants of a prince.
+Besides their meanness and ruinous condition, the number of the rooms it
+contained was so scanty, that for the first few days the only room that
+could be found for the Princess Elizabeth was an old, disused kitchen; and
+even after that was remedied, she was forced to share her new chamber,
+though it was both small and dark, with her niece, Madame Royale; while
+the dauphin's bed was placed by the side of the queen's, in one which was
+but little large.[1] And the dungeon-like appearance of the entire place
+impressed the whole family with the idea that it was not intended that
+they should remain there long, but that an early death was preparing for
+them.
+
+Even this distress was speedily aggravated by a fresh severity. Four days
+afterward an order was sent down which commanded the removal of all their
+attendants, with the exception of one or two menial servants. Madame de
+Tourzel, the governess of the royal children, was driven away with the
+coarsest insults. The Princess de Lamballe, that most faithful and
+affectionate friend of the queen, was rudely torn from her embrace by the
+municipal officers; and, though no offense was even imputed to her, was
+dragged off to a prison, where she was soon to pay the forfeit of her
+loyalty with her blood.
+
+From this time forth the king and queen were completely cut off from the
+outer world. They were treated with a rigor which in happier countries is
+not even experienced by convicted criminals. They were forbidden to
+receive letters or newspapers; and presently they were deprived of pens,
+ink, and paper; though they would neither have desired to write nor
+receive letters which would have been read by their jailers, and could
+only have exposed their correspondents to danger. After a few days they
+were even deprived of the attendance of all their servants but two[2]--a
+faithful valet named Cléry (fidelity such as his may well immortalize his
+name), to whom we are indebted for the greater part of the scanty
+knowledge which we possess of the fate of the captive princes as long as
+Louis himself was permitted to live; and Turgy, a cook, who, by an act of
+faithful boldness, had obtained a surreptitious entrance into the Temple,
+and whose services seemed to have escaped notice, though at a later period
+they proved of no trivial importance.
+
+Had they but known what was passing in the Assembly, Marie Antoinette
+would in all probability have still found matter for some comfort and hope
+in the fierce mutual strife of the Jacobins and Girondins, which for some
+weeks kept the Assembly in a constant state of agitation; and she would
+have found even greater encouragement in the dissatisfaction which in many
+departments the people expressed at the late events; and in the conduct of
+La Fayette's army, which at first cordially approved of and supported the
+town-council and magistrates of Sedan, who arrested and threw into prison
+the commissioners whom the Assembly had sent to announce the suspension of
+the royal authority. But the intelligence of that demonstration in their
+favor never reached them, nor that of its suppression a few days later;
+when La Fayette, who, as on a former occasion, had committed himself to
+measures beyond his strength to carry out, was forced to fly from the
+country, and by a strange violation of military law was thrown into an
+Austrian prison. Nor again, when for a moment the Duke of Brunswick
+appeared likely to realize the hopes on which Marie Antoinette had built
+so confidently, and by the capture of Longwy seemed to have opened to
+himself the road to Paris, did any tidings of his achievement come to the
+ears of those who had felt such deep interest in his operations. After a
+time the ingenuity of Cléry found a mode of obtaining for them some little
+knowledge of what was passing outside, by contriving that some of his
+friends should send criers to cry an abstract of the news contained in the
+daily journals under his windows, which he in his turn faithfully reported
+to them while employed in such menial offices about their persons as took
+off the attention of their guards, who day and night maintained an
+unceasing espial on all their actions and even words.
+
+From the very first they had to endure strange privations for princes.
+They had not a sufficient supply of clothes; the little dauphin, in
+particular, would have been wholly unprovided, had not the English
+embassadress, Lady Sutherland, whose son was of a similar age and size,
+sent in a stock of such as she thought might be wanted. But as the
+garments thus received wore out, and as all means of replacing them were
+refused, the queen and princess were reduced to ply their own needles
+diligently to mend the clothes of the whole family, that they might not
+appear to their jailers, or to the occupants of the surrounding houses,
+who from their windows could command a view of the garden in which they
+took their daily walks, absolutely ragged.
+
+Such enforced occupation must indeed in some degree have been welcome as a
+relief from thought, which their unbroken solitude left them but too much
+leisure to indulge. Cléry has given us an account of the manner in which
+their day was parceled out.[3] The king rose at six, and Cléry, after
+dressing his hair, descended to the queen's chamber, which was on the
+story below, to perform the same service for her and for the rest of the
+family. And the hour so spent brought with it some slight comfort, as he
+could avail himself of that opportunity to mention any thing that he might
+have learned of what was passing out-of-doors, or to receive any
+instructions which they might desire to give him. At nine they breakfasted
+in the king's room. At ten they came down-stairs again to the queen's
+apartments, where Louis occupied himself in giving the dauphin lessons in
+geography, while Marie Antoinette busied herself in a corresponding manner
+with Madame Royale. But, in whatever room they were, their guards were
+always present; and when, at one o'clock, they went down-stairs to walk in
+the garden, they were still accompanied by soldiers: the only member of
+the family who was not exposed to their ceaseless vigilance being the
+little dauphin, who was allowed to run up and down and play at ball with
+Cléry, without a soldier thinking it necessary to watch all his movements
+or listen to all his childish exclamations. At two dinner was served, and
+regularly at that hour the odious Santerre, with two other ruffians of the
+same stamp, whom he called his aids-de-camp, visited them to make sure of
+their presence and to inspect their rooms; and Cléry remarked that the
+queen never broke her disdainful silence to him, though Louis often spoke
+to him, generally to receive some answer of brutal insult. After dinner,
+Louis and Marie Antoinette would play piquet or backgammon; as, while they
+were thus engaged, the vigilance of their keepers relaxed, and the noise
+of shuffling the cards or rattling the dice afforded them opportunities of
+saying a few words in whispers to one another, which at other times would
+have been overheard. In the evening the queen and the Princess Elizabeth
+read aloud, the books chosen being chiefly works of history, or the
+masterpieces of Corneille and Racine, as being most suitable to form the
+minds and tastes of the children; and sometimes Louis himself would seek
+to divert them from their sorrows by asking the children riddles, and
+finding some amusement in their attempts to solve them. At bed-time the
+queen herself made the dauphin say his prayers, teaching him especially
+the duty of praying for others, for the Princess de Lamballe, and for
+Madame de Tourzel, his governess; though even those petitions the poor boy
+was compelled to utter in whispers, lest, if they were repeated to the
+Municipal Council, he should bring ruin on those whom he regarded as
+friends. At ten the family separated for the night, a sentinel making his
+bed across the door of each of their chambers, to prevent the possibility
+of any escape.
+
+In this way they passed a fortnight, when the monotony of their lives was
+fearfully disturbed. The Jacobins had established their ascendency. They
+had created a Revolutionary Tribunal, which at once began its course of
+wholesale condemnation, sending almost every one who was brought before it
+to the scaffold with merely a form of trial; the guillotine being erected,
+as it was said, _en permanence_, that the deaths of the victims might
+never be delayed for want of means to execute them; while, that a
+succession of victims might never be wanting, Danton, in his new character
+of Minister of Justice, instituted a search of every house for arms or
+papers, or any thing which might afford evidence or even suggest a
+suspicion that the owners disliked or feared the new authorities.
+
+But it was not enough to strike terror into all the peaceful citizens. The
+Girondins had always been objects of jealous rivalry to the Jacobins.
+Fanatical and relentless as they were in their cruelty, they had recently
+given proofs that they disapproved of the furious blood-thirstiness that
+was beginning to decimate the city, and they had carried the Assembly with
+them in a vote for the dissolution of the new Municipal Council. At the
+same time, intelligence of the Prussian successes readied the capital,
+intelligence which, it seemed possible, might animate the Royalists to
+some fresh effort; and, lest they should find means of reconciling
+themselves to Vergniaud and his party, the Jacobins and Cordeliers
+resolved to give both a lesson by a deed of blood which should strike
+terror into them. We may spare ourselves the pain of relating the horrors
+of the September massacre, when, for more than four days, gangs of men
+worse than devils, and of women unsexed by profligacy and cruelty till
+they had become worse even than the men, gave themselves up to the work of
+indiscriminate slaughter, deluging the streets with blood, and where they
+could spare time, aggravating the pangs of death by superfluous tortures.
+It will be sufficient for our purpose to record the fate of one of the
+most innocent of all the victims, who owed her death to the fact that she
+had long been the queen's most chosen friend, and whose murder was gloated
+over with special ferocity by the monsters who perpetrated it, as enabling
+them to inflict an additional pang on her wretched friend and mistress.
+
+Madame de Lamballe, as we have seen, had accompanied the queen to the
+Temple on the first day of her captivity, and had subsequently been
+removed to one of the city prisons known as La Force. It was on the
+prisoners in the different places of confinement that the work of death
+was to be done: and she had been specially marked out for slaughter, not
+solely because she was beloved by Marie Antoinette, but also, it was
+understood, because, as she was very rich, and sister-in-law to the Duc
+d'Orléans, that detestable prince desired to add her inheritance to his
+OWD already vast riches. She was dragged before Hébert, one of the foulest
+of the Jacobin crew, who had taken his seat at the gate of the prison to
+preside over the trials, as they were called, of the prisoners in La
+Force. "Swear," said he, "devotion to liberty and to the nation, and
+hatred to the king and queen, and you shall live." "I will take the first
+oath," she replied, "but the second never; it is not in my heart. The king
+and queen I have ever loved and honored." Almost before she had finished
+speaking she was pushed into the gate-way. One ruffian struck her from
+behind with his sabre. She fell. They tore her into pieces. A letter of
+the queen's fell from her hair, in which she had hidden it. The sight of
+it redoubled the assassins' fury. They stuck her head on a pike, and
+carried it in triumph to the Palais Royal to display it to D'Orléans, who
+was feasting with some of the companions of his daily orgies, and then
+proceeded to the Temple to brandish it before the eyes of the queen.
+
+It was about three o'clock.[4] Dinner had just been removed, and the king
+and queen were sitting down to play backgammon, when horrid shouts were
+heard in the street. One of the soldiers on guard in the room, who had not
+yet laid aside every feeling of humanity, closed the window and even drew
+the curtain. Another of different temper insisted that Louis should come
+to the window and show himself. As the uproar increased, the queen rose
+from her seat, and the king asked what was the matter. "Well," said the
+man, "since you wish to know, they want to show you the head of Madame de
+Lamballe." No event that had yet occurred had struck the queen with such
+anguish. The uproar increased. Those who bore the head had wished even to
+force the doors, and bring their trophy, still bleeding, into the very
+room where the royal family were, and were only prevented by a compromise
+which permitted them to parade it round their tower in triumph. As the
+shouts died away, Pétion's secretary arrived with a small sum of money
+which had been issued for the king's use. He noticed that the queen stood
+all the time that he was in the room, and fancied she assumed that
+attitude out of respect to the mayor. She had never stirred since she had
+heard of the princess's death, but had stood rooted, as it were, to the
+ground, stupefied and speechless with horror and anguish. It was long
+before she could be restored; and all through the night the rest of the
+princesses, if at least they could have slept, was broken by her sobs,
+which never ceased.
+
+As time passed on, the prospects of the unhappy prisoners became still
+more gloomy. On the 21st of September the Convention met, and its first
+act was to abolish royalty and declare the government a republic, and an
+officer was instantly sent to make proclamation of the event under the
+Temple walls; and, as if the establishment of a republic authorized an
+increase of insolence on the part of the guards of the prisoners, the
+insults to which they were subjected grew more frequent and more gross.
+Sentences both menacing and indecent were written on the walls where they
+must catch their eye: the soldiers puffed their tobacco-smoke in the
+queen's face as she passed, or placed their seats in the passages so much
+in her way that she could hardly avoid stumbling over their legs as she
+went down to the garden. Sometimes they even assailed her with direct
+abuse, calling her the assassin of the people, who in their turn would
+assassinate her. More than once the whole family had to submit to a
+personal search, and to empty their pockets, when the officers who made
+the search carried off whatever they chose to term suspicious, especially
+their knives and scissors, so that, when at work, the queen and princess
+were forced to bite off the threads with their teeth. And amidst all this
+misery no one ever heard Marie Antoinette utter a word to lament her own
+fate, or to ask pity for herself. She mourned over her husband's fall; she
+pitied Elizabeth, to whom malice itself could not impute a share in the
+wrongs of which Danton and Vergniaud had taught the people to complain.
+Most of all did she bewail the ruined prospects of her son; and more than
+once she brought tears into Cléry's eyes by the earnest tenderness with
+which she implored him to provide for the safety of the noble child after
+his parents should have been destroyed.
+
+The insults increased, each being an additional omen of the future. The
+most painful injuries were reserved for the queen. Toward the end of
+October the dauphin was removed from her apartment to that of the king,
+that she might thus be deprived of the comfort of ministering to his daily
+wants. But Louis himself was not spared. One day an order came down to
+deprive him of his sword; on another he was stripped of his different
+decorations and orders of knighthood. The system of espial, too, was
+carried out with increased severity. Their linen, when it came hack from
+the washer-woman, and even their washing-bills, were held to the fire to
+see if any invisible ink had been employed to communicate with them. Their
+loaves and biscuits were cut asunder lest they should contain notes. The
+end was approaching. A week or two later the king was removed to another
+tower, and was only permitted to see his family during a certain portion
+of the day. At last it was determined to bring him to trial. On the 11th
+of December he was suddenly informed that he was to be brought before the
+Convention; and from that day forth he was cut off from all intercourse
+with his family, even his wife being forbidden to see or hear from him.
+The barbarous restriction afforded him one more opportunity of showing his
+amiable unselfishness and fortitude. The regulation had been made by the
+Municipal Council, not by the Assembly; and its inhuman and unprecedented
+severity, coupled with a jealousy of the Council, as seeking to usurp the
+whole authority of the State, induced the Assembly to rescind it, and to
+grant permission, for Louis to have the dauphin and his sister with him.
+Yet, lest these innocent children should prove messengers of conspiracy
+between him and the queen and Elizabeth, it was ordered at the same time
+that, so long as they were allowed to visit him, they should be separated
+from their mother and their aunt; and Louis, though never in greater need
+of comfort, thought it so much better for the children themselves that
+they should be with the queen, that for their sakes he renounced their
+society, and allowed the decree of the Council to be carried out in all
+its pitiless cruelty.
+
+And, again, we may spare ourselves from dwelling on the details of what,
+in hideous mockery, was called the king's trial, though it was in fact a
+mere ceremonious prelude to his murder, which had been determined on
+before it began. Deep as is the disgrace with which it has forever covered
+the nation which tolerated such an abomination, it was relieved by some
+incidents which did honor to the country and to human nature. The
+murderers of Louis, in their ignoble pedantry, wearied the ear with
+appeals to the examples of the ancient Romans, of Decius[5] and of Brutus.
+But no Roman ever gave a nobler proof of contempt of danger, and devotion
+to duty, than was afforded by the intrepid lawyers, Malesherbes, De Séze,
+and Tronchet, who voluntarily undertook the king's defense, though Louis
+himself warned them that their utmost efforts would be fruitless, and
+would only bring destruction on themselves without saving him. One member,
+too, of the Convention, Lanjuinais, though originally he had been a member
+of the Breton Club, and had latterly been generally regarded as connected
+with the Girondins, made more than one eloquent effort in the king's
+behalf, provoking the Jacobins and Girondins to their very wildest fury by
+his contemptuous defiance of their menaces. And even when the verdict was
+being given; when Jacobins, Girondins, and Cordeliers, Robespierre,
+Vergniaud, Danton, and the infamous Duc d'Orléans were vying with one
+another in the eagerness with which they pushed forward to record their
+votes of condemnation; and when a mob of hired ruffians, who thronged the
+hall, were cheering every vote for death, and holding daggers to the
+throat of every one from whom they apprehended a contrary judgment; one
+noble of frail body, but of a spirit worthy of his birth and rank, the
+Marquis de Villette, laughed in the faces of his threateners, looked the
+assassins in the face, and told them that he would not obey their orders,
+and that they dared not kill him; and with a loud voice pronounced a vote
+of acquittal.
+
+But no courage or devotion of a few honest men could save Louis. One vote
+by an immense majority pronounced him guilty; a second refused all appeal
+to the people; a third, by a majority of fifty voices, condemned him to
+death. And on the morning of the 20th of January, 1793, Louis was roused
+from his bed to hear his sentence, and to learn that it was to be carried
+out the next day.
+
+While the trial lasted, the queen and those with her had been kept in
+almost absolute ignorance of what was taking place. They never, however,
+doubted what the result would be,[6] so that it was scarcely a shock to
+them when they heard the news-men crying the sentence under their windows
+--the only mercy that was shown to either the prisoner who was to die, or
+to those who were to survive him, being that they were allowed once more
+to meet on earth. At eight in the evening the queen, his children, and his
+sister were to be allowed to visit him. He prepared for the interview with
+astonishing calmness, making the arrangements so deliberately that, when
+he noticed that Cléry had placed a bottle of iced water on the table, he
+bid him change it, lest, if the queen should require any, the chill should
+prove injurious to her health. Even that last interview was not allowed to
+pass wholly without witnesses, since the Municipal Council refused, even
+on such an occasion, to relax their regulation that their guards were
+never to lose sight-of the king; and all that was permitted was that he
+might retire with his family into an inner room which had a glass door, so
+that, though what passed must be seen, their last words might not be
+overheard. His daughter, Madame Royale, now a girl of fourteen, and old
+enough, as her mother had said a few months before, to realize the misery
+of the scenes which she daily saw around her, has left us an account of
+the interview, necessarily a brief one, for the queen and princess were
+too wretched to say much. Louis wept when he announced to them how short
+was the time which he had to live, but his tears were those of pity for
+the desolation of those he loved, and not of fear for himself. He was
+even, in some sense, a willing victim, for, as he told them, it had been
+proposed to save him by appealing to the primary Assemblies of the nation;
+but he had refused his consent to a step which must throw the whole
+country into confusion, and might be the cause of civil war. He would
+rather die than risk the bringing of such calamities on his people. He
+even sought to comfort the queen by making some excuses for the monsters
+who had condemned him; and his last words to his family were an entreaty
+to forgive them; to his son, an injunction never to seek to revenge his
+death, even, if some change of fortune should enable him to do so.
+
+The queen said nothing, but sat clinging to him in speechless agony. At
+last he begged them to retire, that he might seek rest to prepare himself
+for the morrow; and then she spoke, to beg that at least they might meet
+again the next morning. "Yes," said he, "at eight o'clock." "Why not at
+seven?" asked she. "Well, then, at seven." But, after she had left him he
+determined to avoid this second meeting, not so much because he feared its
+unnerving himself, but because he felt that the second parting must be too
+terrible for her.
+
+When she returned to her own chamber she had scarcely strength left to
+place the dauphin in his bed. She threw herself, dressed as she was, on
+her own bed, where her sister-in-law and daughter heard her, as the little
+princess describes her state, "shivering with cold and grief the whole
+night long.[7]"
+
+Even if she could have slept, her rest would soon have been disturbed by
+the movement of troops, the beating of the drums, and the heavy roll of
+the cannon passing through the street. For the miscreants who bore sway in
+the city knew well that the crime which they were about to commit was
+viewed with horror by the great majority of the nation, and even of the
+Parisians, and to the last moment were afraid of a rescue. But no one
+could interpose between Louis and his doom; and the next intelligence of
+him that reached his wife, who was waiting the whole morning in painful
+anxiety for the summons to see him once more, was that he had perished
+beneath the fatal guillotine, and that she was a widow.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+The Queen is refused Leave to see Cléry.--Madame Royale is taken Ill.--
+Plans are formed for the Queen's Escape by MM. Jarjayes, Toulan, and by
+the Baron de Batz.--Marie Antoinette refuses to leave her Son.--Illness of
+the young King.--Overthrow of the Girondins.--Insanity of the Woman
+Tison.--Kindness of the Queen to her.--Her Son is taken from her, and
+intrusted to Simon.--His Ill-treatment.--The Queen is removed to the
+Conciergerie.--She is tried before the Revolutionary Tribunal.--She is
+condemned.--Her last Letter to the Princess Elizabeth.--Her Death and
+Character.
+
+
+Shouts in the streets announced to her and those around her that all was
+over. All the morning she had alarmed the princesses by the speechless,
+tearless stupor into which she seemed plunged; but at last she roused
+herself, and begged to see Cléry, who had been with Louis till he left the
+Temple, and who, therefore, she hoped, might have some last message for
+her, some last words of affection, some parting gift. And so indeed he
+had;[1] for the last act of Louis had been to give that faithful servant
+his seal for the dauphin, and his ring for the queen, with a little packet
+containing portions of her hair and those of his children which he had
+been in the habit of wearing. And he had bid him tell them all--"the
+queen, his dear children, and his sister--that he had promised to see them
+that morning, but that he had desired to save them the pain of so cruel a
+separation. How much," he continued, "does it cost me to go without
+receiving their last embraces! You must bear to them my last farewell."
+
+But even the poor consolation of receiving these sad tokens of unchanged
+affection was refused to her. The Council refused Cléry admittance to her,
+and seized the little trinkets and the packet of hair. The king's last
+words never reached her. But a few days afterward, Toulan, one of the
+commissioners of the Council, who sympathized with her bereavement, found
+means to send her the ring and seal.[2] Her sister and her daughter were
+the more anxious that she should see Cléry, from the hope that
+conversation with him might bring on a flood of tears, which would have
+given her some relief. But her own fortitude was her best support.
+Miserable as she was, hopeless as she was, it was characteristic of her
+magnanimous courage that she did not long give way to womanly
+lamentations. She recollected that she had still duties to perform to the
+living, to her daughter and sister, and, above all, to her son, now her
+king, whom, if some happier change of fortune, when the nation should have
+recovered from its present madness, should replace him on his father's
+throne, it must be her care to render worthy of such a restoration. She
+began to apply herself diligently to the work of giving him lessons such
+as his father had given him, mingling them with the constant references to
+that father's example, which she never ceased to hold up to him, dwelling
+with the emphatic exaggeration of lasting affection on his gentleness, his
+benevolence, his love for his subjects; qualities which, in truth, he had
+possessed in sufficient abundance, had he but been gifted with the courage
+and firmness indispensable to secure to his people the benefits he wished
+them to enjoy.
+
+She had too, for a time, another occupation. The princess royal was, as
+she had said not long before, of an age to feel keenly the miseries of her
+parents, and the agitation into which she had been thrown had its natural
+effect upon her health. Her own language on the subject affords a striking
+proof how well Marie Antoinette had succeeded in imbuing her with her own
+forgetfulness of self. As she has recorded the occurrence in her journal,
+"Fortunately her affliction increased her illness to so serious a degree
+as to cause a favorable diversion to her mother's despair.[3]"
+
+Youth, however, and a strong constitution prevailed, and the little
+princess recovered; while other matters also for a time claimed a large
+share of her mother's attention. For herself, Marie Antoinette felt, as
+she well might feel, that, come what would, happiness and she were forever
+parted; and the death to which she never doubted that her enemies destined
+her could hardly have been anticipated by her as any thing but a relief,
+if she had thought only of her own feelings. But, again, she had others to
+think of besides herself--of her children. And she presently learned that
+others were thinking of her, and were willing (it should rather be said
+were eager and proud) to encounter any danger, if they might only have the
+happiness and honor of securing and saving her whom they still regarded as
+their queen. Two had long been attached to the royal household: the wife
+of M. de Jarjayes, a gentleman of ancient family in Dauphiné, had been one
+of Marie Antoinette's waiting-women, and he himself, since the fatal
+expedition to Varennes, had been employed by Louis on several secret
+missions. From the moment that his royal master was brought before the
+Convention he had despaired of his life, and had, therefore, bent all his
+thoughts on the preservation of the queen. M. Turgy, the second, was in a
+humbler rank of life. He was, as we have seen, one of the officers of the
+kitchen; but in the household of a king of France even the cooks had
+pretensions to gentle blood. A third was a man named Toulan, who had
+originally been a music-seller in Paris, but had subsequently obtained
+employment under the Municipal Council, and was now a commissioner, with
+duties which brought him into constant contact with the imprisoned queen.
+Either he had never in his heart been her enemy, or he had been converted
+by the dignified fortitude with which she bore her miseries, and by the
+irresistible fascination which even in prison she still exercised over all
+whose hearts had not been hardened by fanatical wickedness against every
+manly or honest feeling; he won the queen's confidence by the most welcome
+service, which has been already mentioned, of conveying to her her
+husband's seal and ring. She gave him a letter to recommend him to the
+confidence of Jarjayes; and their combined ingenuity devised a plan for
+the escape of the whole family. It was in their favor that a man, who came
+daily to look to the lamps, usually brought with him his two sons, who
+nearly matched the size of the royal children. And Jarjayes and Toulan,
+aided by another of the municipal commissioners, named Lepitre, who had
+also learned to abhor the indignities practiced on fallen royalty, had
+prepared full suits of male attire for the queen and princess, with red
+scarfs and sashes as were worn by the different commissioners, of whom
+there were too many for all of them to be known to the sentinels; and also
+clothes for the two children, ill-fitting and shabby, to resemble the
+dress of the lamp-lighter's boys. Passports, too, by the aid of Lepitre,
+whose duties lay in the department which issued them, were provided for
+the whole family; and after careful discussion of the arrangements to be
+adopted when once the prisoners were clear of the Temple, it was settled
+that they should take the road to Normandy in three cabriolets, which
+would be less likely to attract notice than any larger and less ordinary
+carriage.
+
+The end of February or the beginning of March was fixed for the attempt;
+but before that time the Government and the people had become greatly
+disquieted by the operations of the German armies, which were about to
+receive the powerful assistance of England. Prussia had gained decided
+advantages on the Rhine. An Austrian army, under the Archduke Charles, was
+making formidable progress in the Netherlands. Rumors, also, which soon
+proved to be well founded, of an approaching insurrection in the western
+departments of France, reached the capital. The vigilance with which the
+royal prisoners were watched was increased. Information, too, though of no
+precise character, that they had obtained means of communicating with
+their partisans who were at liberty, was conveyed to the magistrates. And
+at last Jarjayes and Toulan were forced to abandon the idea of effecting
+the escape of the whole family, though they were still confident that they
+could accomplish that of the queen, which they regarded as the most
+important, since it was plain that it was she who was in the most
+immediate danger. Elizabeth, as disinterested as herself, besought her to
+embrace their offers, and to let her and the children, as being less
+obnoxious to the Jacobins, take their chance of some subsequent means of
+escape, or perhaps even mercy.
+
+But such a flight was forbidden alike by Marie Antoinette's sense of duty
+and by her sense of honor, if indeed the two were ever separated in her
+mind. Honor forbade her to desert her companions in misery, whose danger
+might even be increased by the rage of her jailers, exasperated at her
+escape. Duty to her boy forbade it still more emphatically. As his
+guardian, she ought not to leave him; as his mother, she could not. And
+her renunciation of the whole design was conveyed to M. Jarjayes in a
+letter which did honor alike to both by the noble gratitude which it
+expressed, and which was long cherished by his heirs as one of their most
+precious possessions, till it was destroyed, with many another valuable
+record, when Paris a second time fell under the rule of wretches scarcely
+less detestable than the Jacobins whom they imitated.[4] It was written by
+stealth, with a pencil; but no difficulties or hurry, as no acuteness of
+disappointment or depth of distress, could rob Marie Antoinette of her
+desire to confer pleasure on others, or of her inimitable gracefulness of
+expression. Thus she wrote:
+
+"We have had a pleasant dream, that is all. I have gained much by still
+finding, on this occasion, a new proof of your entire devotion to me. My
+confidence in you is boundless. And on all occasions you will always find
+strength of mind and courage in me. But the interest of my son is my sole
+guide; and, whatever happiness I might find in being out of this place, I
+can not consent to separate myself from him. In what remains, I thoroughly
+recognize your attachment to me in all that you said to me yesterday. Rely
+upon it that I feel the kindness and the force of your arguments as far as
+my own interest is concerned, and that I feel that the opportunity can not
+recur. But I could enjoy nothing if I were to leave my children; and this
+idea prevents me from even regretting my decision.[5]"
+
+And to Toulan she said that "her sole desire was to be reunited to her
+husband whenever Heaven should decide that her life was no longer
+necessary to her children." He was greatly afflicted, but he could no
+longer be of use to her. Her last commission to him was to convey to her
+eldest brother-in-law, the Count de Provence, her husband's ring and seal,
+that they might be in safer custody than her own, and that she or her son
+might reclaim them, if either should ever be at liberty. She gave Toulan
+also, as a memorial of her gratitude, a small gold box, one of the few
+trinkets which she still possessed, and which, unhappily, proved a fatal
+present. In the summer of the next year it was found in his possession,
+its history was ascertained, and he was sent to the scaffold for the sole
+offense of having and valuing a relic of his murdered sovereign.
+
+Nor was this the only plan formed for the queen's rescue. The Baron de
+Batz was a noble of the purest blood in France, seneschal of the Duchy of
+Albret, and bound by ancient ties of hereditary friendship to the king, as
+the heir of Henry IV., whose most intimate confidence had been enjoyed by
+his ancestor. He was still animated by all the antique feelings of
+chivalrous loyalty, and from the first breaking-out of the troubles of the
+Revolution he had brought to the service of his sovereign the most
+absolute devotion, which was rendered doubly useful by an inexhaustible
+fertility of resource, and a presence of mind that nothing could daunt or
+perplex. On the fatal 21st of January, he had even formed a project of
+rescuing Louis on his way to the scaffold, which failed, partly from the
+timidity of some on whose co-operation he had reckoned, and partly, it is
+said, from the reluctance of Louis himself to countenance an enterprise
+which, whatever might be its result, must tend to fierce conflict and
+bloodshed. Since his sovereign's death he had bent all the energies of his
+mind to contrive the escape of the queen, and he had so far succeeded that
+he had enlisted in her cause two men whose posts enabled them to give must
+effectual resistance: Michonis, who, like Toulan, was one of the
+commissioners of the Council; and Cortey, a captain of the National Guard,
+whose company was one of those most frequently on duty at the Temple. It
+seemed as if all that was necessary to be done was to select a night for
+the escape when the chief outlets of the Temple should be guarded by
+Cortey's men; and De Batz, who was at home in every thing that required
+manoeuvre or contrivance, had provided dresses to disguise the persons of
+the whole family while in the Temple, and passports and conveyances to
+secure their escape the moment they were outside the gates. Every thing
+seemed to promise success, when at the last moment secret intelligence
+that some plan or other was in agitation was conveyed to the Council. It
+was not sufficient to enable them to know whom they were to guard against
+or to arrest, but it was enough to lead them to send down to the Temple
+another commissioner whose turn of duty did not require his presence
+there, but whose ferocious surliness of temper pointed him out as one not
+easily to be either tricked or overborne. He was a cobbler, named Simon,
+the very same to whose cruel superintendence the little king was presently
+intrusted.
+
+He came down the very evening that every thing was arranged for the escape
+of the hapless family. De Batz saw that all was over if he staid, and
+hesitated for a moment whether he should blow out his brains, and try to
+accomplish the queen's deliverance by force; but a little reflection
+showed him that the noise of fire-arms would bring up a crowd of enemies
+beyond his ability to overpower, and it soon appeared that it would tax
+all his resources to secure his own escape. He achieved that, hoping still
+to find some other opportunity of being useful to his royal mistress; but
+none offered. The Assembly did him the honor to set a price on his head;
+and at last he thought himself fortunate in being able to save himself.
+Those who had co-operated with him had worse fortune. Those in authority
+had no proofs on which to condemn them; but in those days suspicion was a
+sufficient death-warrant. Michonis and Cortey were suspected, and in the
+course of the next year a belief that they had at least sympathized with
+the queen's sorrows sent them both to the scaffold.
+
+With the failure of De Batz every project of escape was abandoned; and a
+few weeks later the queen congratulated herself that she had refused to
+flee without her boy, since in the course of May he was seized with
+illness which for some days threatened to assume a dangerous character.
+With a brutality which, even in such monsters as the Jacobin rulers of the
+city, seems almost inconceivable, they refused to allow him the attendance
+of M. Brunier, the physician who had had the charge of his infancy. It
+would be a breach of the principles of equality, they said, if any
+prisoner were permitted to consult any but the prison doctor. But the
+prison doctor was a man of sense and humanity, as well as of professional
+skill. He of his own accord sought the advice of Brunier; and the poor
+child recovered, to be reserved for a fate which, even in the next few
+weeks, was so foreshadowed, that his own mother must almost have begun to
+doubt whether his restoration to health had been a blessing to her or to
+himself.
+
+The spring was marked by important events. Had one so high-minded been
+capable of exulting in the misfortunes of even her worst enemies, Marie
+Antoinette might have triumphed in the knowledge that the murderers of her
+husband were already beginning that work of mutual destruction which in
+little more than a year sent almost every one of them to the same scaffold
+on which he had perished. The jealousies which from the first had set the
+Jacobins and Girondins at variance had reached a height at which they
+could only be extinguished by the annihilation of one party or the other.
+They had been partners in crime, and so far were equal in infamy; but the
+Jacobins were the fiercer and the readier ruffians; and, after nearly two
+months of vehement debates in the Convention, in which Robespierre
+denounced the whole body of the Girondin leaders as plotters of treason
+against the State, and Vergniaud in reply reviled Robespierre as a coward,
+the Jacobins worked up the mob to rise in their support. The Convention,
+which hitherto had been divided in something like equality between the two
+factions, yielded to the terror of a new insurrection, and on the 2d of
+June ordered the arrest of the Girondin leaders. A very few escaped the
+search made for them by the officers--Roland, to commit suicide;
+Barbaroux, to attempt it; Pétion and Buzot reached the forests to be
+devoured by congenial wolves. Lanjuinais,[6] whom the decree of the
+Convention had identified with them, but who, even in the moments of the
+greatest excitement, had kept himself clear of their wickedness and
+crimes, was the only one of the whole body who completely eluded the rage
+of his enemies. The rest, with Madame Roland, the first prompter of deeds
+of blood, languished in their well-deserved prisons till the close of
+autumn, when they all perished on the same scaffold to which they had sent
+their innocent sovereign.[7]
+
+But it may be that Marie Antoinette never learned their fall; though that
+if she had, pity would at least have mingled with, if it had not
+predominated over, her natural exultation, she gave a striking proof in
+her conduct toward one from whom she had suffered great and constant
+indignities. From the time that her own attendants were dismissed, the
+only person appointed to assist Cléry in his duties were a man and woman
+named Tison, chosen for that task on account of their surly and brutal
+tempers, in which the wife exceeded her husband. Both, and especially the
+woman, had taken a fiendish pleasure in heaping gratuitous insults on the
+whole family; but at last the dignity and resignation of the queen
+awakened remorse in the woman's heart, which presently worked upon her to
+such a degree that she became mad. In the first days of her frenzy she
+raved up and down the courtyard declaring herself guilty of the queen's
+murder. She threw herself at Marie Antoinette's feet, imploring her
+pardon; and Marie Antoinette not only raised her up with her own hand, and
+spoke gentle words of forgiveness and consolation to her, but, after she
+had been removed to a hospital, showed a kind interest in her condition,
+and amidst all her own troubles found time to write a note to express her
+anxiety that the invalid should have proper attention.[8]
+
+But very soon a fresh blow was struck at the hapless queen which made her
+indifferent to all else that could happen, and even to her own fate, of
+which it may be regarded as the precursor. At ten o'clock on the 3d of
+July, when the little king was sleeping calmly, his mother having hung a
+shawl in front of his bed to screen his eyes from the light of the candle
+by which she and Elizabeth were mending their clothes, the door of their
+chamber was violently thrown open, and six commissioners entered to
+announce to the queen that the Convention had ordered the removal of her
+boy, that he might he committed to the care of a tutor--the tutor named
+being the cobbler, Simon, whose savageness of disposition was sufficiently
+attested by the fact of his having been chosen on the recommendation of
+Marat. At this unexpected blow, Marie Antoinette's fortitude and
+resignation at last gave way. She wept, she remonstrated, she humbled
+herself to entreat mercy. She threw her arms around her child, and
+declared that force itself should not tear him from her. The commissioners
+were not men likely to feel or show pity. They abused her; they threatened
+her. She begged them rather to kill her than take her son. They would not
+kill her, but they swore that they would murder both him and her daughter
+before her eyes if he were not at once surrendered. There was no more
+resistance. His aunt and sister took him from the bed and dressed him. His
+mother, with a voice choked by her sobs, addressed him the last words he
+was ever to hear from her. "My child, they are taking you from me; never
+forget the mother who loves you tenderly, and never forget God! Be good,
+gentle, and honest, and your father will look down on you from heaven and
+bless you!" "Have you done with this preaching?" said the chief
+commissioner. "You have abused our patience finely," another added; "the
+nation is generous, and will take care of his education." But she had
+fainted, and heard not these words of mocking cruelty. Nothing could touch
+her further.
+
+If it be not also a mockery to speak of happiness in connection with this
+most afflicted queen, she was happy in at least not knowing the details of
+the education which was in store for the noble boy whose birth had
+apparently secured for him the most splendid of positions, and whose
+opening virtues seemed to give every promise that he would be worthy of
+his rank and of his mother. A few days afterward Simon received his
+instructions from a committee of the Convention, of which Drouet, the
+postmaster of Ste. Menehould, was the chief. "How was he to treat the wolf
+cub?" he asked (it was one of the mildest names he ever gave him). "Was he
+to kill him?" "No." "To poison him?" "No." "What then?" "He was to get rid
+of him,[9]" and Simon carried out this instruction by the most unremitting
+ill-treatment of his pupil. He imposed upon him the most menial offices;
+he made him clean his shoes; he reviled him; he beat him; he compelled him
+to wear the red cap and jacket which had been adopted as the Revolutionary
+dress; and one day, when his mother obtained a glimpse of him as he was
+walking on the leads of the tower to which he had been transferred, it
+caused her an additional pang to see that he had been stripped of the suit
+of mourning for his father, and had been clothed in the garments which, in
+her eyes, were the symbol, of all that was most impious and most
+loathsome.
+
+All these outrages were but the prelude of the final blow which was to
+fall on herself; and it shows how great was the fear with which her lofty
+resolution had always had inspired the Jacobins--fear with such natures
+being always the greatest exasperation of hatred and the keenest incentive
+to cruelty--that, when they had resolved to consummate her injuries by her
+murder, they did not leave her in the Temple as they had left her husband,
+but removed her to the Conciergerie, which in those days, fitly
+denominated the Reign of Terror, rarely led but to the scaffold. On the
+night of the 1st of August (the darkest hours were appropriately chosen
+for deeds of such darkness) another body of commissioners entered her
+room, and woke her up to announce that they had come to conduct her to the
+common prison. Her sister and her daughter begged in vain to be allowed to
+accompany her. She herself scarcely spoke a word, but dressed herself in
+silence, made up a small bundle of clothes, and, after a few words of
+farewell and comfort to those dear ones who had hitherto been her
+companions, followed her jailers unresistingly, knowing, and for her own
+sake certainly not grieving, that she was going to meet her doom. As she
+passed through the outer door it was so low that she struck her head. One
+of the commissioners had so much decency left as to ask if she was hurt.
+"No," she replied, "nothing now can hurt me.[10]" Six weeks later, an
+English gentleman saw her in her dungeon. She was freely exhibited to any
+one who desired to behold her, on the sole condition--a condition worthy
+of the monsters who exacted it, and of them alone--that he should show no
+sign of sympathy or sorrow.[11] "She was sitting on an old worn-out chair
+made of straw which scarcely supported her weight. Dressed in a gown which
+had once been white, her attitude bespoke the immensity of her grief,
+which appeared to have created a kind of stupor, that fortunately rendered
+her less sensible to the injuries and reproaches which a number of inhuman
+wretches were continually vomiting forth against her."
+
+Even after all the atrocities and horrors of the last twelve months, the
+news of the resolution to bring her to a trial, which, it was impossible
+to doubt, it was intended to follow up by her execution, was received as a
+shook by the great bulk of the nation, as indeed by all Europe. And
+Necker's daughter, Madame de Staël, who, as we have seen, had been
+formerly desirous to aid in her escape, now addressed an energetic and
+eloquent appeal to the entire people, calling on all persons of all
+parties, "Republicans, Constitutionalists, and Aristocrats alike, to unite
+for her preservation." She left unemployed no fervor of entreaty, no depth
+of argument. She reminded them of the universal admiration which the
+queen's beauty and grace had formerly excited, when "all France thought
+itself laid under an obligation by her charms;[12]" of the affection that
+she had won by her ceaseless acts of beneficence and generosity. She
+showed the absurdity of denouncing her as "the Austrian"--her who had left
+Vienna while still little more than a child, and had ever since fixed her
+heart as well as her home in France. She argued truly that the vagueness,
+the ridiculousness, the notorious falsehood of the accusations brought
+against her were in themselves her all-sufficient defense. She showed how
+useless to every party and in every point of view must be her
+condemnation. What danger could any one apprehend from restoring to
+liberty a princess whose every thought was tenderness and pity? She
+reproached those who now held sway in France with the barbarity of their
+proscriptions, with governing by terror and by death, with having
+overthrown a throne only to erect a scaffold in its place; and she
+declared that the execution of the queen would exceed in foulness all the
+other crimes that they had yet committed. She was a foreigner, she was a
+woman; to put her to death would be a violation of all the laws of
+hospitality as well as of all the laws of nature. The whole universe was
+interesting itself in the queen's fate. Woe to the nation which knew
+neither justice nor generosity! Freedom would never be the destiny of such
+a people.[13]
+
+It had not been from any feeling of compunction or hesitation that those
+who had her fate in their hands left her so long in her dungeon, but from
+the absolute impossibility of inventing an accusation against her that
+should not be utterly absurd and palpably groundless. So difficult did
+they find their task, that the jailer, a man named Richard, who, when
+alone, ventured to show sympathy for her miseries, sought to encourage her
+by the assurance that she would be replaced in the Temple. But Marie
+Antoinette indulged in no such illusion. She never doubted that her death
+was resolved on. "No," she replied to his well-meant words of hope, "they
+have murdered the king; they will kill me in the same way. Never again
+shall I see my unfortunate children, my tender and virtuous sister." And
+the tears which her own sufferings could not wring from her flowed freely
+when she thought of what they were still enduring.
+
+But at last the eagerness for her destruction overcame all difficulties or
+scruples. The principal articles of the indictment charged her with
+helping to overthrow the republic and to effect the reestablishment of the
+throne; with having exerted her influence over her husband to mislead his
+judgment, to render him unjust to his people, and to induce him to put his
+veto on laws of which they desired the enactment; with having caused
+scarcity and famine; with having favored aristocrats; and with having kept
+up a constant correspondence with her brother, the emperor; and the
+preamble and the peroration compared her to Messalina, Agrippina,
+Brunehaut, and Catherine de' Medici--to all the wickedest women of whom
+ancient or modern history had preserved a record. Had she been guided by
+her own feelings alone, she would have probably disdained to defend
+herself against charges whose very absurdity proved that they were only
+put forward as a pretense for a judgment that had been previously decided
+on. But still, as ever, she thought of her child, her fair and good son,
+her "gentle infant," her king. While life lasted she could never wholly
+relinquish the hope that she might see him once again, perhaps even that
+some unlooked-for chance (none could be so unexpected as almost every
+occurrence of the last four years) might restore him and her to freedom,
+and him to his throne; and for his sake she resolved to exert herself to
+refute the charges, and at least to establish her right to acquittal and
+deliverance.
+
+Louis had been tried before the Convention. Marie Antoinette was to be
+condemned by the, if possible, still more infamous court that had been
+established in the spring under the name of the Revolutionary Tribunal;
+and on the 13th of October she was at last conducted before a small
+sub-committee, and subjected to a private examination. To every question
+she gave firm and clear answers.[14] She declared that the French people
+had indeed been deceived, but not by her or by her husband. She affirmed
+"that the happiness of France always had been, and still was, the first
+wish of her heart;" and that "she should not even regret the loss of her
+son's throne, if it led to the real happiness of the country." She was
+taken back to her cell. The next day the four judges of the tribunal took
+their seats in the court. Fouquier-Tinville, the public prosecutor, a man
+whose greed of blood stamped him with an especial hideousness, even in
+those days of universal barbarity, took his seat before them; and eleven
+men, the greater part of whom had been carefully picked from the very
+dregs of the people--journeymen carpenters, tailors, blacksmiths, and
+discharged policemen--were constituted the jury.
+
+Before this tribunal--we will not dignify it with the name of a court of
+justice--Marie Antoinette, the widow Capet, as she was called in the
+indictment, was now brought. Clad in deep mourning for her murdered
+husband, and aged beyond her years by her long series of sorrows, she
+still preserved the fearless dignity which became her race and rank and
+character. As she took her place at the bar and cast her eyes around the
+hall, even the women who thronged the court, debased as they were, were
+struck by her lofty demeanor. "How proud she is!" was the exclamation, the
+only sign of nervousness that she gave being that, as those who watched
+her closely remarked, she moved her fingers up and down on the arm of her
+chair, as if she had been playing on the harpsichord. The prosecutor
+brought up witness after witness; some whom it was believed that some
+ancient hatred, others whom it was expected that some hope of pardon for
+themselves, might induce to give evidence such as was required. The Count
+d'Estaing had always been connected with her enemies. Bailly, once Mayor
+of Paris, as has been seen, had sought a base popularity by the wantonness
+of the unprovoked insults which he had offered to the king. Michonis knew
+that his head was imperiled by suspicions of his recent desire to assist
+her. But one and all testified to her entire innocence of the different
+charges which they had been brought forward to support, and to the
+falsehood of the statements contained in the indictment. Her own replies,
+when any question was addressed to herself, were equally in her favor.
+When accused of having been the prompter of the political mesures of the
+king's government, her answer could not be denied to be in accordance with
+the law: "That she was the wife and subject of the king, and could not be
+made responsible for his resolutions and actions." When charged with
+general indifference or hostility to the happiness of the people, she
+affirmed with equal calmness, as she had previously declared at her
+private examination, that the welfare of the nation had been, and always
+was, the first of her wishes.
+
+Once only did a question provoke an answer in any other tone than that of
+a lofty imperturbable equanimity. She had not known till that moment the
+depth of her enemies' wickedness, or the cruelty with which her son's mind
+had been dealt with, worse ten thousand times than the foulest tortures
+that could be applied to the body. Both her children had been subjected to
+an examination, in the hope that something might be found to incriminate
+her in the words of those who might hardly be able to estimate the exact
+value of their expressions. The princess had been old enough to baffle the
+utmost malice of her questioners; and the boy had given short and plain
+replies from which nothing to suit their purpose could be extracted, till
+they forced him to drink brandy, and, when he was stupefied with drink,
+compelled him to sign depositions in which he accused both the queen and
+Elizabeth of having trained him in lessons of vice. At first, horror at so
+monstrous a charge had sealed the queen's lips; but when she gave no
+denial, a juryman questioned her on the subject, and insisted on an
+answer. Then at last Marie Antoinette spoke in sublime indignation. "If I
+have not answered, it was because nature itself rejects such an accusation
+made against a mother. I appeal from it to every mother who hears me."
+
+Marie Antoinette had been allowed two counsel, who, perilous as was the
+duty imposed upon them, cheerfully accepted it as an honor; but it was not
+intended that their assistance should be more than nominal. She had only
+known their names on the evening preceding the trial; but when she
+addressed a letter to the President of the Convention, demanding a
+postponement of the trial for three days, as indispensable to enable them
+to master the case, since as yet they had not had time even to read the
+whole of the indictment, adding that "her duty to her children bound her
+to leave nothing undone which was requisite for the entire justification
+of their mother," the request was rudely refused; and all that the lawyers
+could do was to address eloquent appeals to the judges and jurymen, being
+utterly unable, on so short notice, to analyze as they deserved the
+arguments of the prosecutor or the testimony by which he had professed to
+support them. But before such a tribunal it signified little what was
+proved or disproved, or what was the strength or weakness of the arguments
+employed on either side. It was long after midnight of the second day that
+the trial concluded. The jury at once pronounced the prisoner guilty. The
+judges as instantly passed sentence of death, and ordered it to be
+executed the next morning.
+
+It was nearly five in the morning of the 16th of October when the favorite
+daughter of the great Empress-queen, herself Queen of France, was led from
+the court, not even to the wretched room which she had occupied for the
+last ten weeks, but to the condemned cell, never tenanted before by any
+but the vilest felons. Though greatly exhausted by the length of the
+proceedings, she had heard the sentence without betraying the slightest
+emotion by any change of countenance or gesture. On reaching her cell she
+at once asked for writing materials. They had been withheld from her for
+more than a year, but they were now brought to her; and with them she
+wrote her last letter to that princess whom she had long learned to love
+as a sister of her own, who had shared her sorrows hitherto, and who, at
+no distant period, was to share the fate which was now awaiting herself.
+
+"16th October, 4.30 A.M.
+
+"It is to you, my sister, that I write for the last time. I have just been
+condemned, not to a shameful death, for such is only for criminals, but to
+go and rejoin your brother. Innocent like him, I hope to show the same
+firmness in my last moments. I am calm, as one is when one's conscience
+reproaches one with nothing. I feel profound sorrow in leaving my poor
+children: you know that I only lived for them and for you, my good and
+tender sister. You who out of love have sacrificed everything to be with
+us, in what a position do I leave you! I have learned from the proceedings
+at my trial that my daughter was separated from you. Alas! poor child; I
+do not venture to write to her; she would not receive my letter. I do not
+even know whether this will reach you. Do you receive my blessing for both
+of them. I hope that one day when they are older they may be able to
+rejoin you, and to enjoy to the full your tender care. Let them both think
+of the lesson which I have never ceased to impress upon them, that the
+principles and the exact performance of their duties are the chief
+foundation of life; and then mutual affection and confidence in one
+another will constitute its happiness. Let my daughter feel that at her
+age she ought always to aid her brother by the advice which her greater
+experience and her affection may inspire her to give him. And let my son
+in his turn render to his sister all the care and all the services which
+affection can inspire. Let them, in short, both feel that, in whatever
+positions they may be placed, they will never be truly happy but through
+their union. Let them follow our example. In our own misfortunes how much
+comfort has our affection for one another afforded us! And, in times of
+happiness, we have enjoyed that doubly from being able to share it with a
+friend; and where can one find friends more tender and more united than in
+one's own family? Let my son never forget the last words of his father,
+which I repeat emphatically; let him never seek to avenge our deaths. I
+have to speak to you of one thing which is very painful to my heart, I
+know how much pain the child must have caused you. Forgive him, my dear
+sister; think of his age, and how easy it is to make a child say whatever
+one wishes, especially when he does not understand it.[15] It will come to
+pass one day, I hope, that he will better feel the value of your kindness
+and of your tender affection for both of them. It remains to confide to
+you my last thoughts. I should have wished to write them at the beginning
+of my trial; but, besides that they did not leave me any means of writing,
+events have passed so rapidly that I really have not had time.
+
+"I die in the Catholic Apostolic and Roman religion, that of my fathers,
+that in which I was brought up, and which I have always professed. Having
+no spiritual consolation to look for, not even knowing whether there are
+still in this place any priests of that religion[16] (and indeed the place
+where I am would expose them to too much danger if they were to enter it
+but once), I sincerely implore pardon of God for all the faults which I
+may have committed during my life. I trust that, in his goodness, he will
+mercifully accept my last prayers, as well as those which I have for a
+long time addressed to him, to receive my soul into his mercy. I beg
+pardon of all whom I know, and especially of you, my sister, for all the
+vexations which, without intending it, I may have caused you. I pardon all
+my enemies the evils that they have done me. I bid farewell to my aunts
+and to all my brothers and sisters. I had friends. The idea of being
+forever separated from them and from all their troubles is one of the
+greatest sorrows that I suffer in dying. Let them at least know that to
+my latest moment I thought of them.
+
+"Farewell, my good and tender sister. May this letter reach you. Think
+always of me; I embrace you with all my heart, as I do my poor dear
+children. My God, how heart-rending it is to leave them forever! Farewell!
+farewell! I must now occupy myself with my spiritual duties, as I am not
+free in my actions. Perhaps they will bring me a priest; but I here
+protest that I will not say a word to him, but that I will treat him as a
+person absolutely unknown."
+
+Her forebodings were realized; her letter never reached Elizabeth, but was
+carried to Fouquier, who placed it among his special records. Yet, if in
+those who had thus wrought the writer's destruction there had been one
+human feeling, it might have been awakened by the simple dignity and
+unaffected pathos of this sad farewell. No line that she ever wrote was
+more thoroughly characteristic of her. The innocence, purity, and
+benevolence of her soul shine through every sentence. Even in that awful
+moment she never lost her calm, resigned fortitude, nor her consideration
+for others. She speaks of and feels for her children, for her friends, but
+never for herself. And it is equally characteristic of her that, even in
+her own hopeless situation, she still can cherish hope for others, and can
+look forward to the prospect of those whom she loves being hereafter
+united in freedom and happiness. She thought, it may be, that her own
+death would be the last sacrifice that her enemies would require. And for
+even her enemies and murderers she had a word of pardon, and could address
+a message of mercy for them to her son, who, she trusted, might yet some
+day have power to show that mercy she enjoined, or to execute the
+vengeance which with her last breath she deprecated.
+
+She threw herself on her bed and fell asleep. At seven she was roused by
+the executioner. The streets were already thronged with a fierce and
+sanguinary mob, whose shouts of triumph were so vociferous that she asked
+one of her jailers whether they would tear her to pieces. She was assured
+that, as he expressed it, they would do her no harm. And indeed the
+Jacobins themselves would have protected her from the populace, so anxious
+were they to heap on her every indignity that would render death more
+terrible. Louis had been allowed to quit the Temple in his carriage. Marie
+Antoinette was to be drawn from the prison to the scaffold in a common
+cart, seated on a bare plank; the executioner by her side, holding the
+cords with which her hands were already bound. With a refinement of
+barbarity, those who conducted the procession made it halt more than once,
+that the people might gaze upon her, pointing her out to the mob with
+words and gestures of the vilest insult. She heard them not; her thoughts
+were with God: her lips were uttering nothing but prayers. Once for a
+moment, as she passed in sight of the Tuileries, she was observed to cast
+an agonized look toward its towers, remembering, perhaps, how reluctantly
+she had quit it fourteen months before. It was midday before the cart
+reached the scaffold. As she descended, she trod on the executioner's
+foot. It might seem to have been ordained that her very last words might
+be words of courtesy. "Excuse me, sir," she said, "I did not do it on
+purpose;" and she added, "make haste." In a few moments all was over.
+
+Her body was thrown into a pit in the common cemetery, and covered with
+quicklime to insure its entire destruction. When, more than twenty years
+afterward, her brother-in-law was restored to the throne, and with pious
+affection desired to remove her remains and those of her husband to the
+time-honored resting-place of their royal ancestors at St. Denis, no
+remains of her who had once been the admiration of all beholders could be
+found beyond some fragments of clothing, and one or two bones, among which
+the faithful memory of Châteaubriand believed that he recognized the mouth
+whose sweet smile had been impressed on his memory since the day on which
+it acknowledged his loyalty on his first presentation, while still a boy,
+at Versailles.
+
+Thus miserably perished, by a death fit only for the vilest of criminals,
+Marie Antoinette, the daughter of one sovereign, the wife of another, who
+had never wronged or injured one human being. No one was ever more richly
+endowed with all the charms which render woman attractive, or with all the
+virtues that make her admirable. Even in her earliest years, her careless
+and occasionally undignified levity was but the joyous outpouring of a
+pure innocence of heart that, as it meant no evil, suspected none; while
+it was ever blended with a kindness and courtesy which sprung from a
+genuine benevolence. As queen, though still hardly beyond girlhood when
+she ascended the throne, she set herself resolutely to work by her
+admonitions, and still more effectually by her example, to purify a court
+of which for centuries the most shameless profligacy had been the rule and
+boast; discountenancing vice and impiety by her marked reprobation, and
+reserving all her favor and protection for genius and patriotism, and
+honor and virtue. Surrounded at a later period by unexampled dangers and
+calamities, she showed herself equal to every vicissitude of fortune, and
+superior to its worst frowns. If her judgment occasionally erred, it was
+in cases where alternatives of evil were alone offered to her choice, and
+in which it is even now scarcely possible to decide what course would have
+been wiser or safer than that which she adopted. And when at last the long
+conflict was terminated by the complete victory of her combined enemies--
+when she, with her husband and her children, was bereft not only of power,
+but even of freedom, and was a prisoner in the hands of those whose
+unalterable object was her destruction--she bore her accumulated miseries
+with a serene resignation, an intrepid fortitude, a true heroism of soul,
+of which the history of the world does not afford a brighter example.
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+[1] One entitled "Marie-Antoinette, correspondance secrète entre Marie-
+Thérèse et le Comte Mercy d'Argenteau, avec des lettres de Marie-Thérèse
+et de Marie-Antoinette." (The edition referred to in this work is the
+greatly enlarged second edition in three volumes, published at Paris,
+1875.) The second is entitled "Marie-Antoinette, Joseph II., and Leopold
+II," published at Leipsic, 1866.
+
+[2] Entitled "Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette, et Madame Elizabeth," in six
+volumes, published at intervals from 1864 to 1873.
+
+[3] In his "Nouveau Lundi," March 5th, 1866, M. Sainte-Beuve challenged M.
+Feuillet de Conches to a more explicit defense of the authenticity of his
+collection than he had yet vouchsafed; complaining, with some reason, that
+his delay in answering the charges brought against it "was the more
+vexatious because his collection was only attacked in part, and in many
+points remained solid and valuable." And this challenge elicited from M.F.
+de Conches a very elaborate explanation of the sources from which he
+procured his documents, which he published in the _Revue des Deux Mondes_,
+July 15th, 1866, and afterward in the Preface to his fourth volume. That
+in a collection of nearly a thousand documents he may have occasionally
+been too credulous in accepting cleverly executed forgeries as genuine
+letters is possible, and even probable; in fact, the present writer
+regards it as certain. But the vast majority, including all those of the
+greatest value, can not be questioned without imputing to him a guilty
+knowledge that they were forgeries--a deliberate bad faith, of which no
+one, it is believed, has ever accused him.
+
+It may be added that it is only from the letters of this later period that
+any quotations are made in the following work; and the greater part of the
+letters so cited exists in the archives at Vienna, while the others, such
+as those, addressed by the Queen, to Madame de Polignac, etc., are just
+such as were sure to be preserved as relics by the families of those to
+whom they were addressed, and can therefore hardly be considered as liable
+to the slightest suspicion.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+[1] Sainte-Beuve, "Nouveaux Lundis," August 8th, 1864.
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+[1] "Histoire de Marie Antoinette," par E. and J. de Goncourt, p. 11.
+
+[2] How popular masked halls were in London at this time may be learned
+from Walpole's "Letters," and especially from a passage in which he gives
+an account of one given by "sixteen or eighteen young Lords" just two
+months before this ball at Vienna.--_Walpole to Mann_, dated February
+27th, 1770. Some one a few years later described the French nation as half
+tiger and half monkey; and it is a singular coincidence that Walpole's
+comment on this masquerading fashion should be, "It is very lucky, seeing
+how much of the tiger enters into the human composition, that there should
+be a good dose of the monkey too."
+
+[3] "Mémoires concernant Marie Antoinette," par Joseph Weber (her foster-
+brother), i., p. 6.
+
+[4] "Goethe's Biography," p. 287.
+
+[5] "Mémoires de Bachaumont," January 30th, 1770.
+
+[6] La maison du roi.
+
+[7] Chevalier d'honneur. We have no corresponding office at the English
+court.
+
+[8] The king said, "Vous étiez déjà de la famille, car votre mère a l'âme
+de Louis le Grand."--SAINTE-BEUVE, _Nouveaux Lundis_, viii., p. 322.
+
+[9] In the language of the French heralds, the title princes of the royal
+family was confined to the children or grandchildren of the reigning
+sovereign. His nephews and cousins were only princes of the blood.
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+[1] The word is Maria Teresa's own; "anti-français" occurring in more than
+one of her letters.
+
+[2] Quoted by Mme. du Deffand in a letter to Walpole, dated May 19th, 1770
+("Correspondance complète de Mme. du Deffand," ii., p.59).
+
+[3] Mercy to Marie-Thérèse, August 4th, 1770; "Correspondance secrète
+entre Marie-Thérèse et la Comte de Mercy Argenteau, avec des Lettres de
+Marie-Thérèse et Marie Antoinette," par M. le Chevalier Alfred d'Arneth,
+i., p. 29. For the sake of brevity, this Collection will be hereafter
+referred to as "Arneth."
+
+[4] "The King of France is both hated and despised, which seldom happens
+to the same man."--LORD CHESTERFIELD, _Letter to Mr. Dayrolles_, dated May
+19th, 1752.
+
+[5] Maria Teresa died in December, 1780.
+
+[6] Mme. du Deffand, letter of May 19th, 1770.
+
+[7] Chambier, i., p. 60.
+
+[8] Mme. de Campan, i., p. 3.
+
+[9] He told Mercy she was "'vive et un peu enfant, mais," ajouta-t-il,
+"cela est bien de son âge.'"--ARNETH, i., p. 11.
+
+[10] Arneth, i., p.9-16
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+[1] Dates 9th and 12th., Arneth, i., pp. 16, 18.
+
+[2] Marly was a palace belonging to the king, but little inferior in
+splendor to Versailles itself, and a favorite residence of Louis XV.,
+because a less strict etiquette had been established there. Choisy and
+Bellevue, which will often be mentioned in the course of this narrative,
+were two others of the royal palaces on a somewhat smaller scale. They
+have both been destroyed. Marly, Choisy, and Bellevue were all between
+Versailles and Paris.
+
+[3] Mém. de Goncourt, quoting a MS. diary of Hardy, p. 35.
+
+[4] De Vermond, who had accompanied her from Vienna as her reader.
+
+[5] See St. Simon's account of Dangeau, i., p. 392.
+
+[6] The Duc de Noailles, brother-in-law of the countess, "l'homme de
+France qui a peut-être le plus d'esprit et qui connait le mieux son
+souverain et la cour," told Mercy in August that "jugeant d'après son
+expérience et d'après les qualités qu'il voyait dans cette princesse, il
+était persuadé qu'elle gouvernerait un jour l'esprit du roi."--ARNETH, i.,
+p. 34.
+
+[7] La petite rousse.
+
+[8] "De monter à cheval gâte le teint, et votre taille à la longue s'en
+ressentira."--_Marie-Thérèse à Marie-Antoinette_, Arneth, i., p. 104.
+
+[9] "On fit chercher partout des ânes fort doux et tranquilles. Le 21 on
+répéta la promenade sur les ânes. Mesdames voulurent être de la partie
+ainsi que le Comte de Provence et le Comte d'Artois."--_Mercy à Marie-
+Thérèse_, September 19, 1770, Arneth, i., p. 49.
+
+[10] "Madame la Dauphine, à laquelle le trésor royal doit remettre 6000
+frs. par mois, n'a réellement pas un écu dont elle peut disposer elle-même
+et sans le concours de personne" (Octobre 20).--ARNETH, i. p. 69.
+
+[11] "Ses garçons de chambre reçoivent cent louis [a louis was twenty-four
+francs, so that the hundred made 2100 francs out of her 6000] par mois
+pour la dépense du jeu de S.A.R.; et soit qu'elle perde ou qu'elle gagne,
+on ne revoit rien de cette somme."--ARNETH, i.
+
+[12] "Mme. Adelaide ajouta, 'On voit bien que vous n'êtes pas de notre
+sang.'"--ARNETH, i., p. 94.
+
+[13] Arneth, i., p. 95.
+
+[14] "Finalement, Mme. la Dauphine se fait adorer de ses entours et du
+public; il n'est pas encore survenu un seul inconvénient grave dans sa
+conduite."--_Mercy à Marie-Thérèse_, Novembre 16, Arneth, i., p. 98.
+
+[15] Prince de Ligne, "Mém." ii., p. 79.
+
+[16] Mercy to Maria Teresa, dated November 17th, 1770, Arneth, i., p. 94.
+
+[17] Mercy to Maria Teresa, dated February 25th, 1771, Arneth, i, p. 134.
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+[1] See the "Citizen of the World," Letter 55. Reference has often been
+made to Lord Chesterfield's prediction of the French Revolution. But I am
+not aware that any one has remarked on the equally acute foresight of
+Goldsmith.
+
+[2] Letter of April 16th, 1771, Arneth, i., p. 148.
+
+[3] Arneth, i., p. 186.
+
+[4] Maria Teresa to Marie Antoinette, July 9th, and August 17th, Arneth,
+i., p. 196.
+
+[5] "Ne soyez pas honteuse d'être allemande jusqu'aux gaucheries.... Le
+Français vous estimera plus et fera plus de compte sur vous s'il vous
+trouve la solidité et la franchise allemande."--_Maria Teresa to Marie
+Antoinette._ May 8th, 1771, Arneth, i., p. 159.
+
+[6] Walpole's letter to Sir H. Mann, June 8th, 1771, v., p. 301.
+
+[7] Mercy to Maria Teresa, January 23d, 1772, Arneth, i., p. 265.
+
+[8] The Duc de la Vauguyon, who, after the dauphin's marriage, still
+retained his post with his younger brother.
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+[1] Mercy's letter to the empress, August 14th, 1772, Arneth, i., p. 335.
+
+[2] Mercy to Maria Teresa, November 14th, 1772, Arneth, i., p. 307.
+
+[3] Marie Antoinette to Maria Teresa, December 15th, 1772, Arneth, i., p.
+382.
+
+[4] Her sister Caroline, Queen of Naples.
+
+[5] Her brother Leopold, at present Grand Duke of Tuscany, afterward
+emperor. His wife, Marie Louise, was a daughter of Charles III. of Spain.
+
+[6] They, with several of the princes of the blood and some of the peers,
+as already mentioned, had been banished for their opposition to the
+abolition of the Parliaments; but now, in the hopes of obtaining the
+king's consent to his marriage with Madame de Montessan, a widow of
+enormous wealth, the Due d'Orléans made overtures for forgiveness,
+accompanying them, however, with a letter so insolent that it might we be
+regarded as an aggravation of his original offense. According to Madame du
+Deffand (letter to Walpole, December 18th, 1772, vol. ii., p. 283), he was
+only prevented from reconciling himself to the king some months before by
+his son, the Due de Chartres (afterward the infamous Égalité), whom she
+describes as "a young man, very obstinate, and who hopes to play a great
+part by putting himself at the head of a faction." The princes, however,
+in the view of the shrewd old lady, had made the mistake of greatly
+overrating their own importance. "These great princes, since their
+protest, have been just citizens of the Rue St. Denis. No one at court
+ever perceived their absence, and no one in the city ever noticed their
+presence."
+
+[7] Lord Stormont, the English Embassador at Vienna, from which city he
+was removed to Paris. In the preceding September Maria Teresa had
+complained to him of being "animated against her cabinet, from indignation
+at the partition of Poland."
+
+[8] That is, sisters-in-law--the Princesses Clotilde and Elizabeth.
+
+[9] The Hotel-Dieu was the most ancient hospital in Paris. It had already
+existed several hundred years when Philip Augustus enlarged it, and gave
+it the name of Maison de Dieu. Henry IV. and his successors had further
+enlarged it, and enriched it with monuments; and even the revolutionists
+respected it, though when they had disowned the existence of God they
+changed its name to that of L'Hospice de l'Humanité. It had been almost
+destroyed by fire a fortnight before the date of this letter, on the night
+of the 29th of December.
+
+[10] St. Anthony's Day was June 14th, and her name of Antoinette was
+regarded as placing her under his especial protection.
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+[1] They have not, however, been preserved.
+
+[2] Mercy to Maria Teresa, June 16th, 1773, Arneth, i., p. 467.
+
+[3] "Marie Antoinette, Louis XVI., et la Famille Royale", p. 23.
+
+[4] Marie Antoinette to Maria Theresa, July 17th, Arneth, ii., p. 8.
+
+[5] "Histoire de Marie Antoinette," par M. de Goncourt, p. 50. Quoting an
+unpublished journal by M.M. Hardy, in the Royal Library.
+
+[6] It is the name by which she is more than once described in Madame du
+Deffand's letters. See her "Correspondence," ii., p. 357.
+
+[7] Mercy to Maria Teresa, December 11th, 1773, Arneth, ii., p. 81.
+
+[8] "Mémoires de Besenval," i., p. 304.
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+[1] Mercy to Maria Teresa, August 14th, 1773, Arneth, ii., p. 31.
+
+[2] The money was a joint gift from herself as well as from him. Great
+distress, arising from the extraordinarily high price of bread, was at
+this time prevailing in Paris.
+
+[3] The term most commonly used by Marie Antoinette in her letters to her
+mother to describe Madame du Barri. She was ordered to retire to the Abbey
+of Pont-aux-Dames, near Meaux. Subsequently she was allowed to return to
+Luciennes, a villa which her royal lover had given her.
+
+[4] Madame de Mazarin was the lady who, by the fulsomeness of her
+servility to Madame du Barri, provoked Madame du Deffand (herself a lady
+not altogether _sans reproche_) to say that it was not easy to carry "the
+heroism of baseness and absurdity farther."
+
+[5] Lorraine had become a French province a few years before, on the death
+of Stanislaus Leczinsky, father of the queen of Louis XV.
+
+[6] Maria Teresa to Marie Antoinette, May 18th, and to Mercy on the same
+day, Arneth, ii., p. 149.
+
+[7] See his letter of 8th May to Maria Teresa. "Il faut que pour la suite
+de son bonheur, elle commence à s'emparer de l'autorité que M. le Dauphin
+n'exercera jamais que d'une façon convenable, et ... ce serait du dernier
+danger et pour l'état et pour le système général que qui ce soit s'emparât
+de M. le Dauphin et qu'il fut conduit par autre que par Madame la
+Dauphine."--ARNETH, ii., p. 137.
+
+[8] "Je parle à l'amie, à la confidente du roi."--_Maria Teresa to Marie
+Antoinette_, May 30th, 1770, Arneth, ii., p. 155.
+
+[9] "Jusqu'à présent l'étiquette de cette cour a toujours interdit aux
+reines et princesses royales de manger avec des hommes."--_Mercy to Maria
+Teresa_, June 7th, 1774, Arneth, ii, p. 164
+
+[10] "Elle me traite, à mon arrivée, comme tous les jeunes gens qui
+composaient ses pages, qu'elle comblait de bontés, en leur montrant une
+bienveillance pleine de dignité, mais qu'on pouvait aussi appeler
+maternelle."--_Marie Thérèse, Mémoires de Tilly_, i., p. 25.
+
+[11] Le don, ou le droit, de joyeux avènement.
+
+[12] La ceinture de la reine. It consisted of three pence (deniers) on
+each hogs-head of wine imported into the city, and was levied every three
+years in the capital.--ARNETH, ii, p. 179.
+
+[13] The title "ceinture de la reine" had been given to it because in the
+old times queens and all other ladies had carried their purses at their
+girdles.
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+[1] The title by which the count was usually known: that of the countess
+was madame.
+
+[2] St. Simon, 1709, ch. v., and 1715, ch. i, vols. vii. and xiii., ed.
+1829.
+
+[3] Ibid., 1700, ch xxx., vol. ii., p. 469.
+
+[4] Arneth, ii, p. 206.
+
+[5] Madame de Campan, ch. iv.
+
+[6] Madame de Campan, ch. v., p. 106.
+
+[7] _Id._, p. 101.
+
+[8] "_Sir Peter_. Ah, madam, true wit is more neatly allied to good--
+nature than your ladyship is aware of."--_School for Scandal_, act ii.,
+sc. 2.
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+[1] "Elle avait entièrement le défaut contraire [à la prodigalité], et je
+pouvais prouver qu'elle portait souvent l'économie jusqu'à des détails
+d'une mesquinerie blâmable, surtout dans une souveraine."--MADAME DE
+CAMPAN, ch. v., p. 106, ed. 1858.
+
+[2] Arneth, ii., p. 307.
+
+[3] See the author's "History of France under the Bourbons," iii., p.
+418. Lacretelle, iv., p. 368, affirms that this outbreak, for which in his
+eyes "une prétendue disette" was only a pretext, was "évidemment fomenté
+par des hommes puissans," and that "un salaire qui était payé par des
+hommes qu'on ne pouvait nommer aujourd'hui avec assez de certitude,
+excitait leurs fureurs factices."
+
+[4] La Guerre des Farines.
+
+[5] Arneth, ii., p. 342.
+
+[6] "Souvenirs de Vaublanc," i., p. 231.
+
+[7] August 23d, 1775, No. 1524, in Cunningham's edition, vol. vi., p. 245.
+
+[8] The Prince of Wales and the Duke of York, who were just at this time
+astonishing London with their riotous living.
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+[1] "Gustave III. et la Cour de France," i. p. 279.
+
+[2] The Duc d'Angoulême, afterward dauphin, when the Count d'Artois
+succeeded to the throne as Charles X.
+
+[3] Marie Antoinette to Maria Teresa, August 12th, 1775, Arneth, ii., p.
+366.
+
+[4] "Le projet de la reine était d'exiger du roi que le Sieur Turgot fût
+chassé, même envoyé à la Bastille ... et il a fallu les représentations
+les plus fortes et les plus instantes pour arrêter les effets de la colère
+de la Reine."--_Mercy to Maria Teresa_, May 16th, 1776, Arneth, ii., p.
+446.
+
+[5] The compiler of "Marie Antoinette, Louis XVI., et La Famille Royale"
+(date April 24th, 1776) has a story of a conversation between the king and
+queen which illustrates her feeling toward the minister. She had just come
+in from the opera. He asked her "how she had been received by the
+Parisians; if she had had the usual cheers." She made no reply; the king
+understood her silence. "Apparently, madame, you had not feathers enough."
+"I should have liked to have seen you there, sir, with your St. Germain
+and your Turgot; you would have been rudely hissed." St. Germain was the
+minister of war.
+
+[6] Mercy to Maria Teresa, May 16th, 1776, Arneth, ii., p. 446.
+
+[7] January 14th, 1776, Arneth, ii., p. 414.
+
+[8] The ground-floor of the palace was occupied by the shops of jewelers
+and milliners, some of whom were great sufferers by the fire.
+
+[9] In a letter written at the end of 1775, Mercy reports to the empress
+that some of Turgot's economical reforms had produced real discontent
+among those "qui trouvent leur intérêt dans le désordre," which they had
+vented in scandalous and seditious writings. Many songs of that character
+had come out, some of which were attributed to Beaumarchais, "le roi et la
+reine n'y ont point été respectés."--_December 17th_, 1775. Arneth, ii, p.
+410.
+
+[10] Mercy to Maria Teresa, November 15th, 1776, Arneth, ii., p. 524.
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+[1] "Le petit nombre de ceux que la Reine appelle 'sa société'"--_Mercy to
+Marie Teresa_, February 15th, 1777, Arneth, iii., p. 18.
+
+[2] "Il faut cependant convenir que dans ces circonstances si rapprochées
+de la familiarité, la Reine, par un maintien qui tient à son âme, a
+toujours su imprimer à ceux qui l'entouraient une contenance de respect
+qui contrebalançait un peu la liberté des propos."--_Mercy to Maria
+Teresa_, Arneth, ii, p.520.
+
+[3] Brunoy is about fifteen miles from Paris.
+
+[4] "Au reste il est temps pour la santé de la Reine que le carnaval
+finisse. On remarque qu'elle s'en altère, et que sa Majesté maigrit
+beaucoup."--_Marie Thérèse à Louis XVI._, la date Février 1, 1777, p 101.
+
+[5] Once when he had spoken to her with a severity which alarmed Mercy,
+who feared it might irritate the queen, "Il me dit en riant qu'il en avait
+agi ainsi pour sonder l'âme de la reine, et voir si par la force il n'y
+aurait pas moyen d'obtenir plus que par la douceur."--_Mercy to Maria
+Teresa_, Arneth, iii., p. 79.
+
+[6] Arneth, iii., p. 73.
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+[1] When Mercy remonstrated with her on her relapse into some of her old
+habits from which at first she seemed to have weaned herself, "La seule
+réponse que j'aie obtenu a été la crainte de s'ennuyer."--_Mercy to Maria
+Teresa_, November 19th, 1777, Arneth, iii., p. 13.
+
+[2] See Marie Antoinette's account to her mother of his quarrel with the
+Duchess de Bourbon at a _bal de l'opéra_, Arneth, iii., p. 174.
+
+[3] "Il y a apparence que notre marine dont on s'occupe depuis longtemps
+va bientôt être en activité. Dieu veuille que tous ces mouvements
+n'amènent pas la guerre de terre."--_Marie Antoinette to Maria Teresa_,
+March 18th, 1777, Arneth, iii., p. 174.
+
+[4] "Jamais les Anglais n'ont eu tant de supériorité sur mer; mais ils en
+eurent sur les Français dans tous les temps."--_Siècle de Louis_, ch xxxv.
+
+[5] The Comte de la Marck, who knew him well, says of him, "Il était
+gauche dans toutes ses manières; sa taille était très élevée, ses cheveux
+très roux, il dansait sans grâce, montait mal à cheval, et les jeunes gens
+avec lesquels il vivait se montraient plus adroits que lui dans les
+diverses exercices d'alors à la mode." He describes his income as "une
+fortune de 120,000 livres de rente," a little under £5000 a year.--
+_Correspondance entre le Comte de Mirabeau et le Comte de la Marck_, i. p.
+47.
+
+[6] "On a parlé de moi dans tous les cercles, même après que la bonté de
+la reine m'eut valu le régiment du roi dragons."--_Mémoires de ma Main,
+Mémoires de La Fayette_, i., p 86.
+
+[7] "La lettre où Votre Majesté, parlant du Roi de Prusse, s'exprime ainsi
+.... 'cela ferait un changement dans notre alliance, ce qui me donnerait
+la mort,' j'ai vu la reine pâlir en me lisant cet article."--_Mercy to
+Maria Teresa_, February 18th, 1778, Arneth, iii., p. 170.
+
+[8] See Coxe's "House of Austria," ch. cxxi. The war, which was marked by
+no action or event of importance, was terminated by the treaty of Teschen,
+May 10th, 1779.
+
+[9] "Il n'a pas voulu y consentir, et a toujours été attentif à exciter
+lui-même la reine aux choses qu'il jugeait pouvoir lui être agréables."--
+_Mercy to Maria Teresa_, March 29th, 1778, Arneth, iii., p. 177.
+
+[10] Marie Antoinette to Joseph II, and Leopold II., p. 21, date January
+16th, 1778.
+
+[11] Louis.
+
+[12] Marie Antoinette to Maria Teresa, May 16th, Arneth, iii., p. 200.
+
+[13] Weber, i., p.40.
+
+[14] One of his admirers, seeing his mortification, said to him: "You are
+very simple to have wished to go to court. Do you know what would have
+happened to you? I will tell you. The king, with his usual affability,
+would have laughed in your face, and talked to you of your converts at
+Ferney. The queen would have spoken of your plays. Monsieur would have
+asked you what your income was. Madame would have quoted some of your
+verses. The Countess of Artois would have said nothing at all; and the
+count would have conversed with you about 'the Maid of Orleans.'"--_Marie
+Antoinette, Louis XVI. et la Famille Royale_, p. 125, March 3d.
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+[1] "La cour se précipite pêle-mêle avec la foule, car l'étiquette de
+France veut que tous entrent à ce moment, que nul ne soit refusé, et que
+le spectacle soit public d'une reine qui va donner un héritier à la
+couronne, ou seulement un enfant au roi."--_Mém. de Goncourt_, p. 105.
+
+[2] Arneth, iii., p. 270.
+
+[3] Madame de Campan, ch. ix.
+
+[4] _Ibid_., ch. ix.
+
+[5] Chambrier, i., p. 394.
+
+[6] "Marie Antoinette, Louis XVI., et la Famille Royale," p. 147, December
+24th, 1778.
+
+[7] _Garde-malades_ was the name given to them.
+
+[8] "Du moment qu'ils [les enfants] peuvent être à l'air on les y
+accoutume petit à petit, et ils finissent par y être presque toujours; je
+crois que c'est la manière la plus saine et la meilleure des les élever."
+
+[9] Letter of Marie Antoinette to Maria Teresa, May 15th, 1779, Arneth,
+iii., p. 311.
+
+[10] Maria Teresa had offered the mediation of the empire to restore peace
+between England and France.
+
+[11] Spain had recently entered into the alliance against England in the
+hope of recovering Gibraltar. And just at the date of this letter the
+combined fleet of sixty-six sail of the line sailed into the Channel,
+while a French army of 50,000 men was waiting at St. Malo to invade
+England so soon as the British Channel fleet should have been defeated;
+but, though Sir Charles Hardy had only forty sail under his orders,
+D'Orvilliers and his Spanish colleague retreated before him, and at the
+beginning of September, from fear of the equinoctial gales, of which the
+queen here speaks with such alarm, retired to their own harbors, without
+even venturing to come to action with a foe of scarcely two-thirds of
+their own strength. See the author's "History of the British Navy," ch.
+xiv.
+
+[12] Letter of September 15th.
+
+[13] Letter of October 14th.
+
+[14] Letter of November 16th.
+
+[15] Letter of November 17th.
+
+[16] Kaunitz had been the prime minister of the empress, who negotiated
+the alliances with France and Russia, which were the preparations for the
+Seven Years' War.
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+[1] "On assure que sa majesté ne joue pas bien; ce que personne, excepté
+le roi, n'a osé lui dire. Au contraire, on l'applaudit à tout rompre."--
+_Marie Antoinette, Louis XVI. et la Famille Royale_ p. 203, date September
+28th, 1780.
+
+[2] In May, 1780, Sir Henry Clinton took Charleston, with a great number
+of prisoners, a great quantity of stores and four hundred guns.--LORD
+STANHOPE'S _History of England_, ch. lxii.
+
+[3] "Cette disposition a été faite deux ans plutôt que ne le comporte
+l'usage établi pour les enfants de France."--_Mercy to Maria Teresa_,
+October 14th, Arneth, iii. p. 476.
+
+[4] Madame de Campan, ch. ix.
+
+[5] "Gustave III. et la Cour de France," i., p. 349.
+
+[6] An order known as that "du Mérite" had been recently distributed for
+foreign Protestant officers, whose religion prevented them from taking the
+oath required of the Knights of the Grand Order of St. Louis.
+
+[7] "Sa figure et son air convenaient parfaitement à un héros de roman,
+mais non pas d'un roman français; il n'en avait ni le brillant ni
+légèreté."--_Souvenirs et Portraits_, par M. de Levis, p. 130.
+
+[8] "La Marck et Mirabeau," p. 32.
+
+[9] See his letter to Lord North proposing peace, date December 1st, 1780.
+Lord Stanhope's "History of England," vol. vii., Appendix, p. 13.
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+[1] "Gustave III. et la Cour de France," i., p. 357.
+
+[2] Chambrier, i., p. 430; "Gustave III.," etc., i., p. 353.
+
+[3] "Gustave III.," etc., i., p. 353.
+
+[4] "Mémoires de Weber," i., p. 50.
+
+[5] "On s'arrêtait dans les rues, on se parlait sans se connaître."--
+Madame de Campan, ch. ix.
+
+[6] L'Oeil de Boeuf.
+
+[7] Madame de Campan, ch. ix.; "Marie Antoinette, Louis XII., et la
+Famille Royale," p. 238.
+
+[8] "Un soleil d'été"--Weber, i., p. 53.
+
+[9] La Muette derived its name from _les mues_ of the deer who were reared
+there. It had been enlarged by the Regent d'Orléans, who gave it to his
+daughter, the Duchess de Berri; and it, was the frequent scene of the
+orgies of that infamous father and daughter, while more recently it had
+been known as the Parc aux Cerfs, under which title it had acquired a
+still more infamous reputation.
+
+[10] "Après le dîner il y eut appartement jeu, et la fête fut terminée par
+un feu d'artifice."--Weber, i., p. 57, from whom the greater part of those
+details are taken. For the etiquette of the "jeu," see Madame de Campan,
+ch. ix., p. 17, and 2 ed. 1858.
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+[1] Mercy to Maria Teresa, June 18th, 1780, Arneth iii., p. 440.
+
+[2] Le tabouret. See St. Simon.
+
+[3] See _infra_, the queen's letter to Madame de Tourzel, date July 25th,
+1789.
+
+[4] "Souvenirs de Quarante Ans," by Mademoiselle de Tourzel, p. 20.
+
+[5] "Filia dolorosa."--Châteaubriand.
+
+[6] Napoleon, in 1814, called her the only man of her family.
+
+[7] Madame de Campan, ch. x.
+
+[8] Mémoires de Madame d'Oberkirch, i., p. 279
+
+[9] The Marshal Prince de Soubise, whose incapacity and cowardice caused
+the disgraceful rout of Rosbach, was the head of this family; his sister,
+Madame Marsan, as governess of the "children of France", had brought up
+Louis XVI.
+
+[10] "Il [Rohan] a même menacé, si on ne veut pas prendre le bon chemin
+qui lui indique, que ma fille s'en ressentira."--_Marie-Thérèse à Mercy_,
+August 28th, 1774, Arneth, ii., p. 226.
+
+[11] "Ils paraissent si excédés du grand monde et des fêtes, qu'avec
+d'autres petites difficultés qui se sont élevées, nous avons décidé qu'il
+n'y aurait rien à Marly."--_Marie Antoinette to Mercy; Marie Antoinette,
+Joseph II., and Leopold II_., p. 27.
+
+[12] "No fewer than five actions were fought in 1782, and the spring of
+1783, by those unwearied foes. De Suffrein's force was materially the
+stronger of the two; it consisted of ten sail of the line, one fifty-gun
+ship, and four frigates; while Sir E. Hughes had but eight sail of the
+line, a fifty-gun ship, and one frigate," See the author's "History of the
+British Navy," i., p. 400.
+
+[13] Weber, i., p. 77. For the importance at this time attached to a
+reception at court, see Châteaubriand, "Mémoires d'Outre-tombe," i., p.
+221.
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+[1] Joseph to Marie Antoinette, date September 9th, 1783.--_Marie
+Antoinette, Joseph II., and Leopold II._, p.30, which, to save such a
+lengthened reference, will hereafter be referred to as "Arneth."
+
+[2] She was again expecting a confinement; but, as had happened between
+the birth of Madame Royale and that of the dauphin, an accident
+disappointed her hope, and her third child was not born till 1785.
+
+[3] Date September 29th, 1783, Arneth, p. 35.
+
+[4] Ministre de la maison du roi.
+
+[5] Arneth, p. 38.
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+[1] "Le roi signa une lettre de cachet qui défendait cette
+représentation."--Madame de Campan, ch. xi.; see the whole chapter. Madame
+de Campan's account of the queen's inclinations on the subject differs
+from that given by M. de Loménie, in his "Beaumarchais et son Temps," but
+seems more to be relied on, as she had certainly better means of
+information.
+
+[2] See M. Gaillard's report to the lieutenant of police.--_Beaumarchais
+et son Temps_, ii., p. 313.
+
+[3] "Il n'y a que les petits hommes qui redoutent les petits écrits."--
+_Act v., scene_ 3.
+
+[4] "Avec _Goddam_ en, Angleterre on ne manque de rien nulle part. Voulez-
+vous tâter un bon poulet gras ... _Goddam_ ... Aimez-vous à boire un coup
+d'excellent Bourgogne ou de clairet? rien que celui-ci _Goddam_. Les
+Anglais à la vérité ajoutent par-ci par-là autres mots en conversant, mais
+il est bien aisé de voir que _Goddam_ est le fond de la langue."--_Act_
+iii., _scene_ 5.
+
+[5] "Gustave III. et la Cour de France," ii., p.22
+
+[6] _Ibid_., p. 35.
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+[1] "De par la reine."
+
+[2] Madame de Campan, ch. xi.
+
+[3] "'La légèreté à tout croire et à tout dire des souverains,' écrit très
+justement M. Nisard (_Moniteur_ du 22 Janvier, 1886), 'est un des travers
+de notre pays, et comme le défaut de notre qualité de nation monarchique.
+C'est ce travers qui a tué Marie Antoinette par la main des furieux qui
+eurent peut-être des honnêtes gens pour complices. Sa mort devait rendre à
+jamais impossible en France la calomnie politique.'"--Chambrier, i., p.
+494.
+
+[4] "Mémoires de la Reine de France," par M. Lafont d'Aussonne, p. 42.
+
+[5] See her letters to Mercy, December 26th, 1784, and to the emperor,
+December 31st, 1784, and February 4th, 1785, Arneth, p. 64, _et seq._
+
+[6] "J'ai été réellement touchée, de la raison et de la fermeté que le roi
+a mises dans cette rude séance."--_Marie Antoinette to Joseph II._, August
+22d, 1785, Arneth, p. 93.
+
+[7] "La calomnie s'est attachée à poursuivre la reine, même avant cette
+époque où l'esprit de parti a fait disparaître la vérité de la terre."--
+Madame de Staël, _Procès de la Reine_, p. 2
+
+[8] Madame de Campan, "Éclaircissements Historiques," p. 461; "Marie
+Antoinette et le Procès du Collier," par M. Émile Campardon, p. 144,
+_seq._
+
+[9] "Permet au Cardinal de Rohan et au dit de Cagliostro de faire imprimer
+et afficher le présent arrêt partout où bon leur semblera."--Campardon, p.
+152.
+
+[10] "Sans doute le cardinal avait les mains pures de toute fraude; sans
+doute il n'était pour rien dans l'escroquerie commise par les époux de La
+Mothe."--Campardon, p. 155.
+
+[11] Campardon, p. 153, quoting Madame de Campan.
+
+[12] The most recent French historian, M.H. Martin, sees in this trial a
+proof of the general demoralization of the whole French nation.
+"L'impression qui en résulte pour nous est l'impossibilité que la reine
+ait été coupable. Mais plus les imputations dirigées contre elle étaient
+vraisemblables, plus la créance accordée à ces imputations était
+caractéristique, et attestait la ruine morale de la monarchie. C'était
+l'ombre du Parc aux Cerfs qui couvrait toujours Versailles."--_Histoire de
+France_, xvi., p. 559, ed. 1860.
+
+[13] Feuillet de Conches, i., p. 161.
+
+[14] Feuillet de Conches, i., p. 162. Some of the critics of M.F. de
+Conches's collection have questioned without sufficient reason the
+probability of there having been any correspondence between the queen and
+her elder sister. But the genuineness of this letter is strongly
+corroborated by a mistake into which no forger would have fallen. The
+queen speaks as if the cardinal had alleged that he had given her a rose;
+while his statement really was that Oliva, personating the queen, had
+dropped a rose at his feet. A forger would have made the letter Correspond
+with the evidence and the fact. The queen, in her agitation, might easily
+make a mistake.
+
+[15] "Il se retira dans son évêché de l'autre côté du Rhin. Là sa noble
+conduite fit oublier les torts de sa vie passée," etc.--Campardon, p. 156.
+
+[16] Campardon, p. 156.
+
+[17] It was from Ettenheim that the Duke d'Enghien was carried off in
+March, 1804. The cardinal died in February, 1803.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+[1] "Le duc déclarait de son côté à Mr. Elliott que ... si la reine l'eût
+mieux traité il eut peut-être mieux fait."--Chambrier, i., p.519
+
+[2] Sophie Hélène Béatrix, born July 9th, 1786, died June 9th, 1787, F. de
+Conches, i. p. 195.
+
+[3] See her letter to her brother, February, 1788, Arneth, p. 112.
+
+[4] "C'est un vrai enfant de paysan, grand frais et gros."--Arneth, pp.
+113.
+
+[5] Feuillet de Conches, i, p. 195.
+
+[6] Apparently she means the Notables and the Parliament.
+
+[7] The Duc de Guines.
+
+[8] See _ante_, ch. xviii.
+
+[9] "'Il faut,' dit-il, avec un mouvement d'impatience qui lui fit
+honneur, 'que, du moins, l'archevêque de Paris croie en Dieu.'"--
+_Souvenirs par le Duc de Levis_, p. 102.
+
+[10] The continuer of Sismondi's history, A. Renée, however, attributes
+the archbishop's appointment to the influence of the Baron de Breteuil.
+
+[11] "Son grand art consistait à parler à chacun des choses qu'il croyait
+qu'on ignorait."--De Levis, p. 100.
+
+[12] The loan he proposed in June was eighty millions (of francs); in
+October, that which he demanded was four hundred and forty millions.
+
+[13] It is worth noticing that the French people in general did not regard
+the power of arbitrary imprisonment exercised by their kings as a
+grievance. In their eyes it was one of his most natural prerogatives. A
+year or two before the time of which we are speaking, Dr. Moore, the
+author of "Zeluco," and father of Sir John Moore, who fell at Corunna, was
+traveling in France, and was present at a party of French merchants and
+others of the same rank, who asked him many questions about the English
+Constitution, When he said that the King of England could not impose a tax
+by his own authority, "they said, with some degree of satisfaction,
+'Cependant c'est assez beau cela.'"... But when he informed them "that the
+king himself had not the power to encroach upon the liberty of the meanest
+of his subjects, and that if he or the minister did so, damages were
+recoverable in a court of law, a loud and prolonged 'Diable!' issued from
+every mouth. They forgot their own situation, and turned to their natural
+bias of sympathy with the king, who, they all seemed to think, must be the
+most oppressed and injured of manhood. One of them at last, addressing
+himself to the English politician, said, 'Tout ce que je puis vous dire,
+monsieur, c'est que votre pauvre roi est bien à plaindre.'"--_A View of
+the Society and Manners in France_, etc., by Dr. John Moore, vol. i., p.
+47, ed. 1788.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+[1] Feuillet de Conches, i., p. 205.
+
+[2] M. Foulon was about this time made paymaster of the army and navy, and
+was generally credited with ability as a financier; but he was unpopular,
+as a man of ardent and cruel temper, and was brutally murdered by the mob
+in one of the first riots of the Revolution.
+
+[3] The king.
+
+[4] Necker.
+
+[5] Feuillet de Conches, i., p. 214.
+
+[6] _Ibid_., p. 217.
+
+[7] On one occasion when the Marquis de Bouillé pointed out to him the
+danger of some of his plans as placing the higher class at the mercy of
+the mob, "dirigé par les deux passions les plus actives du coeur humain,
+l'intérêt et l'amour propre, ... il me répondit froidement, en levant les
+yeux au ciel, qu'il fallait bien compter sur les vertus morales des
+hommes."--_Mémoires de M. de Bouillé_, p. 70; and Madame de Staël admits
+of her father that he was "se fiant trop, il faut l'avouer, à l'empire de
+la raison," and adds that he "étudia constamment l'esprit public, comme la
+boussole à laquelle les décisions du roi devaient se conformer."--
+_Considérations sur la Révolution Française_, i., pp. 171, 172.
+
+[8] Her exact words are "si ... il fasse reculer l'autorité du roi" (if he
+causes the king's authority to retreat before the populace or the
+Parliament).
+
+[9] "Histoire de Marie Antoinette," par M. Montjoye, p. 202.
+
+[10] Madame de Campan, p. 412.
+
+[11] This edict was registered in the "Chambre Syndicate," September 13th,
+1787.--_La Reine Marie Antoinette et la Rév. Française, Recherches
+Historiques_, par le Comte de Bel-Castel, p. 246.
+
+[12] There is at the present moment so strong a pretension set up in many
+constituencies to dictate to the members whom they send to Parliament as
+if they were delegates, and not representatives, that it is worth while to
+refer to the opinion which the greatest of philosophical statesman, Edmund
+Burke, expressed on the subject a hundred years ago, in opposition to that
+at a rival candidate who admitted and supported the claim of constituents
+to furnish the member whom they returned to Parliament with "instructions"
+of "coercive authority." He tells the citizens of Bristol plainly that
+such a claim he ought not to admit, and never will. The "opinion" of
+constituents is "a weighty and respectable opinion, which a representative
+ought always to rejoice to hear, and which he ought most seriously to
+consider; but _authoritative instruction_, mandates issued which the
+member is bound blindly and implicitly to obey, to vote, and to argue for,
+though contrary to the clearest conviction of his judgment and his
+conscience; these are things utterly unknown to the laws of this land, and
+which arise from a fundamental mistake of the whole order and tenor of our
+constitution. Parliament is not a _congress_ of embassadors from different
+and hostile interests...but Parliament is a _deliberative_ assembly of
+_one_ nation, with _one_ interest, that of the whole, where not local
+purposes, not local prejudices ought to guide, but the general good
+resulting from the general reason of the whole. You choose a member
+indeed; but when you have chosen him, he is not member of Bristol, but he
+is a member of Parliament."--_General Election Speech at the Conclusion of
+the Poll at Bristol_, November 3d, 1774, Burke's Works, vol. iii., pp. 19,
+20, ed. 1803.
+
+[13] De Tocqueville considers the feudal system in France in many points
+more oppressive than that of Germany.--_Ancien Régime_, p. 43.
+
+[14] Silence des grenouilles. Arthur Young, "Travels in France during
+1787, '88, '89," p. 537. It is singular proof how entirely research into
+the condition of the country and the people of France had been neglected
+both by its philosophers and its statesmen, that there does not seem to
+have been any publication in the language which gave information on these
+subjects. And this work of Mr. Young's is the one to which modern French
+writers, such as M. Alexis de Tocqueville, chiefly refer.
+
+[15] "The _lettres de cachet_ were carried to an excess hardly credible;
+to the length of being sold, with blanks, to be filled up with names at
+the pleasure of the purchaser, who was thus able, in the gratification of
+private revenge, to tear a man from the bosom of his family, and bury him
+in a dungeon, where he would exist forgotten and die unknown."--A. Young,
+p. 532. And in a note he gives an instance of an Englishman, named Gordon,
+who was imprisoned in the Bastile for thirty years without even knowing
+the reason of his arrest.
+
+[16] Arthur Young, writing January 10th, 1790, identifies Les Enragés with
+the club afterward so infamous as the Jacobins. "The ardent democrats who
+have the reputation of being so much republican in principle that they do
+not admit any political necessity for having even the name of the king,
+are called the Enragés. They have a meeting at the Jacobins', the
+Revolution Club which assembles every night in the very room in which the
+famous League was formed in the reign of Henry III." (p. 267).
+
+[17] M. Droz asserts that a collector of such publications bought two
+thousand five hundred in the last three months of 1788, and that his
+collection was far from complete.--_Histoire de Louis XVI_., ii., p. 180.
+
+[18] "Tout auteur s'érige en législateur."--_Memorial of the Princes to
+the King_, quoted in a note to the last chapter of Sismondi's History, p.
+551, Brussels ed., 1849.
+
+[19] In reality the numbers were even more in favor of the Commons: the
+representatives of the clergy were three hundred and eight, and those of
+the nobles two hundred and eighty-five, making only five hundred and
+ninety-three of the two superior orders, while the deputies of the Tiers-
+État were six hundred and twenty-one.--_Souvenirs de la Marquise de
+Créquy_, vii., p. 58.
+
+[20] "Se levant alors, 'Non,' dit le roi, 'ce ne peut être qu'à
+Versailles, à cause des chasses.'"--LOUIS BLANC, ii., p. 212, quoting
+Barante.
+
+[21] "La reine adopta ce dernier avis [that the States should meet forty
+or sixty leagues from the capital], et elle insista auprès du roi que l'on
+s'eloignât de l'immense population de Paris. Elle craignait dès lors que
+le peuple n'influençât les délibérations des députés."--MADAME DE CAMPAN,
+ch 83.
+
+[22] Chambrier, i., p. 562.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+[1] It was called "L'insurrection du Faubourg St. Antoine."
+
+[2] The best account of this riot is to be found in Dr. Moore's "Views of
+the Causes and Progress of the French Revolution," i., p. 189.
+
+[3] Madame de Campan specially remarks that the disloyal cry of "Vive le
+Duc d'Orléans" came from "les femmes du peuple" (ch. xiii.).
+
+[4] Afterward Louis Philippe, King of the French.
+
+[5] "View of the Causes and Progress of the French Revolution," by Dr.
+Moore, i., p. 144.
+
+[6] The dauphin was too ill to be present. The children were Madame Royale
+and the Duc de Normandie, who became dauphin the next month by the death
+of his elder brother.
+
+[7] "Aucun nom propre, excepté le sien, n'était encore célèbre dans les
+six cents députés du Tiers."--_Considérations sur la Révolution
+Française_, pp. 186, 187
+
+[8] In the first weeks of the session he told the Count de la Marck, "On
+ne sortira plus de là sans un gouvernement plus ou moins semblable à celui
+d'Angleterre."--_Correspondance entre le comte de la Marck_, i., p. 67.
+
+[9] He employed M. Malouet, a very influential member of the Assembly, as
+his agent to open his views to Necker, saying to him, "Je m'adresse donc à
+votre probité. Vous êtes lié avec MM. Necker et de Montmorin, vous devez
+savoir ce qu'ils veulent, et s'ils ont un plan; si ce plan est raisonnable
+je le défendrai."--_Correspondance de Mirabeau et La Marck_, i., p. 219.
+
+[10] There is some uncertainty about Mirabeau's motives and connections at
+this time. M. de Bacourt, the very diligent and judicious editor of that
+correspondence with De la Marck which has been already quoted, denies that
+Mirabeau ever received money from the Duc d'Orléans, or that he had any
+connection with his party or his views. The evidence on the other side
+seems much stronger, and some of the statements of the Comte de la Marck
+contained in that volume go to exculpate Mirabeau from all complicity in
+the attack on Versailles on the 9th of October, which seems established by
+abundant testimony.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+[1] A letter of Madame Roland dated the 26th of this very month, July,
+1789, declares that the people "are undone if the National Assembly does
+not proceed seriously and regularly to the trial of the illustrious heads
+[the king and queen], or if some generous Decius does not risk his life to
+take theirs."
+
+[2] This story reached even distant province. On the 24th of July Arthur
+Young, being at Colmar, was assured at the _table-d'hôte_ "That the queen
+had a plot, nearly on the point of execution, to blow up the National
+Assembly by a mine, and to march the army instantly to massacre all
+Paris." A French officer presumed but to doubt of the truth of it, and was
+immediately overpowered with numbers of tongues. A deputy had written it;
+they had seen the letter. And at Dijon, a week later, he tells us that
+"the current report at present, to which all possible credit is given, is
+that the queen has been convicted of a plot to poison the king and
+monsieur, and give the regency to the Count d'Artois, to set fire to
+Paris, and blow up the Palais Royal by a mine."--ARTHUR YOUNG'S _Travels,
+etc., in France_, pp. 143, 151.
+
+[3] "Car dès ce moment on menaçait Versailles d'une incursion de gens
+armés de Paris."--MADAME DE CAMPAN, ch. xiv.
+
+[4] Lacretelle, vol. vii., p. 105.
+
+[5] She meant to say, "Messieurs, je viens remettre entre vos mains
+l'épouse et la famille de votre souverain. Ne souffrez pas que l'on
+désunisse sur la terre ce qui a été uni dans le ciel."--MADAME DE CAMPAN,
+ch. xiv.
+
+[6] Napoleon seems to have formed this opinion of his political views:
+"Selon M. Gourgaud, Buonaparte, causant à Ste. Hélène le traitait avec
+plus de mépris [que Madame de Staël]. 'La Fayette était encore un autre
+niais. Il était nullement taillé pour le rôle qu'il avait à jouer....
+C'était un homme sans talents, ni civils, ni militaires; esprit borné,
+caractère dissimulé, dominé par des idées vagues de liberté mal digérées
+chez lui; mal conçues.'"--_Biographie Universelle_.
+
+[7] In his Memoirs he boasts of the "gaucherie de ses manières qui ne se
+plièrent jamais aux grâces de la Cour," p. 7.
+
+[8] See her letter to Mercy, without date, but, apparently written a day
+or two after the king's journey to Paris, Feuillet de Conches, i., p. 238.
+
+[9] "Souvenirs de Quarante Ans" (by Madame de Tourzel's daughter), p. 30.
+
+[10] Feuillet de Conches, i., p. 240.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+[1] "Mémoires de la Princesse de Lamballe," i., p. 342.
+
+[2] Les Gardes du Corps.
+
+[3] Louis Blanc, iii., p. 156, quoting the Procédure du Châtelet.
+
+[4] "Souvenirs de la Marquise de Créquy," vol. vii, p. 119.
+
+[5] There is some uncertainty where La Fayette slept that night.
+Lacretelle says it was at the "Maison du Prince de Foix, fort éloignée du
+château." Count Dumas, meaning to be as favorable to him as possible,
+places him at the Hôtel de Noailles, which is "not one hundred paces from
+the iron gates of the chapel" ("Memoirs of the Count Dumas," p. 159).
+However, the nearer he was to the palace, the more incomprehensible it is
+that he should not have reached the palace the next morning till nearly
+eight o'clock, two hours after the mob had forced their entrance into the
+Cour des Princes.
+
+[6] Weber, i., p. 218.
+
+[7] Le Boulanger (the king), la Boulangère (the queen), et le petit mitron
+(the dauphin).
+
+[8] "Souvenirs de la Marquise de Créquy," vii., p. 123.
+
+[9] Weber, ii, p. 226.
+
+[10] "Souvenirs de Quarante Ans," p. 47.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+[1] Madame de Campan, ch. xv.
+
+[2] F. de Conches, p. 264.
+
+[3] Madam de Campan, ch. xv.
+
+[4] See a letter from M. Huber to Lord Auckland, "Journal and
+Correspondence of Lord Auckland," ii, p. 365.
+
+[5] La Marck et Mirabeau, ii., pp. 90-93, 254.
+
+[6] "Arthur Young's Travels," etc., p. 264; date, Paris, January 4th,
+1790.
+
+[7] Feuillet de Conches, iii., p. 229.
+
+[8] Joseph died February 20th.
+
+[9] "Je me flatte que je la mériterai [l'amitié et confiance] de votre
+part lorsque ma façon de penser et mon tendre attachement pour vous, votre
+époux, vos enfants, et tout ce qui peut vous intéresser vous seront mieux
+connus."--ARNETH, p. 120. Leopold had been for many years absent from
+Germany, being at Florence as Grand Duke of Tuscany.
+
+[10] Feuillet de Conches, iii., p. 260.
+
+[11] As early as the second week in October (La Marck, p. 81, seems to
+place the conversation even before the outrages of October 5th and 6th;
+but this seems impossible, and may arise from his manifest desire to
+represent Mirabeau as unconnected with those horrors), Mirabeau said to La
+Marck, "Tout est perdu, le roi et la reine y périront et vous le verrez,
+la populace battra leurs cadavres."
+
+[12] Lèse-nation.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+[1] Arthur Young's "Journal," January 4th, 1790, p. 251.
+
+[2] Feuillet de Conches, i., p. 315.
+
+[3] "Le mal déjà fait est bien grave, et je doute que Mirabeau lui-même
+puisse réparer celui qu'on lui a laissé faire."--_Mirabeau et La Marck_,
+i., p. 100.
+
+[4] La Marck et Mirabeau, i., p. 315.
+
+[5] _Ibid._, p. 111.
+
+[6] Feuillet de Conches, i., p. 345.
+
+[7] Mirabeau et La Marck, i., p. 125.
+
+[8] He alludes to Maria Teresa's appearance at Presburg at the beginning
+of the Silesian war.
+
+[9] "Il lui [à l'Assemblée] importait de faire une épreuve sur toutes les
+Gardes Nationales de France, d'animer ce grand corps dont tous les membres
+étaient encore épars et incohérents, de leur donner une même impulsion....
+Enfin, de faire sous les yeux de l'Europe une imposante revue des force
+qu'elle pourrait un jour opposer à des rois inquiets ou courroucés."--
+LACRETELLE, vii., p. 359.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+[1] We learn from Dr. Moore that there was a leader with five subaltern
+officers and one hundred and fifty rank and file in each gallery of the
+chamber; that the wages of the latter were from two to three francs a day;
+the subaltern had ten francs, the leaders fifty. The entire expense was
+about a thousand francs a day, a sum which strengthens the suspicion that
+the pay-master (originally, at least) was the Duc d'Orléans.--DR. MOORE'S
+_View of the Causes, etc., of the French Revolution_, i., p. 425.
+
+[2] Mirabeau et La Marck, ii., p. 47.
+
+[3] Feuillet de Conches, i., p. 352.
+
+[4] Marie Antoinette to Mercy, Feuillet de Conches, i., p. 355.
+
+[5] _Ibid_., i., p. 365.
+
+[6] Arneth, p. 140.
+
+[7] It is remarkable that he, like one or two of the Girondin party,
+belonged by birth to the Huguenot persuasion, and Marat had studied
+medicine at Edinburgh.
+
+[8] The Marquise de Brinvilliers had been executed for poisoning several
+of her own relations in the reign of Louis XIV.
+
+[9] Madame de Campan, ch. xvii.; Chambrier, ii., p. 12.
+
+[10] He said to La Marck, "Aucun homme seul ne sera capable de ramener les
+Français an bon sens, le temps seul peut rétablir l'ordre dans les
+esprits," etc., etc.--_ Mirabeau et La Marck_, i., p. 147.
+
+[11] Feuillet de Conches, i., p, 376.
+
+[12] Marie Antoinette to Leopold, date December 11th, 1790, Arneth, p.
+143.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+[1] The Marshal de Bouillé, who was La Fayette's cousin, says, in October
+of this year, "L'évêque de Pamiers me fit le tableau de la situation
+malheureux de ce prince et de la famille royale ... que la rigueur et
+dureté de La Fayette, devenu leur geôlier, rendent de jour en jour plus
+insupportable."--_Mémories de De Bouillé_, pp. 175, 181. And in June he
+had remarked, "Que sa popularité (de La Fayette) dépendait plutôt de la
+captivité du roi, qu'il tenait prisonnier, et qui était sous sa garde, que
+de sa force personnelle, qui n'avait plus d'autre appui que la milice
+Parisienne."
+
+[2] _Ibid_., p. 130.
+
+[3] The letter to the King of Prussia is given by Lamartine; its date is
+December 3d, 1790.--_Histoire des Girondins_, book v., § 12.
+
+[4] Mercy to Marie Antoinette, from The Hague, December 17th, 1790,
+Feuillet de Conches, i., p. 398.
+
+[5] Feuillet de Conches, i., p. 401.
+
+[6] _Ibid., p. 403, date December 27th, 1790.
+
+[7] "Mirabeau et La Marck," ii., pp. 57--61.
+
+[8] Letter to the queen, date February 19th, 1791; "Correspondance de
+Mirabeau et La Marck," ii., p. 229.
+
+[9] "Mirabeau et La Marck," ii., pp. 153, 194, _et passim._
+
+[10] "Souvenirs de Quarante Ans," p. 54.
+
+[11] "Mirabeau aurait préféré que Louis XVI. sortit publiquement, et en
+roi, M. de Bouillé pensait de même."--_Mirabeau et La Marck_, i., p. 172.
+
+[12] 1789, see _ante_, p. 256.
+
+[13] Date February 18th, 1791, Feuillet de Conches, i., p. 465.
+
+[14] "Mirabeau et La Marck," ii., p., 216 date February 3d, 1791.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+[1] Feuillet de Conches, ii., p. 14, date March 7th.
+
+[2] Arneth, p. 146, letter of the queen to Leopold, February 27th, 1791.
+
+[3] Feuillet de Conches, ii., p. 20, date March 20th, 1791.
+
+[4] Letter of M. Simolin, the Russian embassador, April 4th, 1791,
+Feuillet de Conches, ii., p. 31.
+
+[5] "Souvenirs sur Mirabeau," par Étienne Dumont, p. 201.
+
+[6] In her letter to Mercy of August 16th, of which extracts are given in
+ch. xi., she takes credit for having encountered the dangers of the
+journey to Montmédy for the sake of "the public welfare."
+
+[7] Arneth, p. 155.
+
+[8] Letter of Leopold to Marie Antoinette, date May 2d, 1791, Arneth, p.
+162.
+
+[9] "Cette démarche est le terme extrême de réussir ou périr. Les choses
+en sont-elles au point de rendre ce risque indispensable?"--_Mercy to
+Marie Antoinette_, May 11th, 1791, Arneth, p. 163.
+
+[10] The day on which the king and she had been prevented from going to
+St. Cloud.
+
+[11] The king.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+[1] Chambrier, ii., p. 86-88.
+
+[2] Lamartine's "Histoire des Girondins," ii., p. 15.
+
+[3] Moore's "View," ii., p. 367.
+
+[4] The Palais Royal had been named the Palais National. All signs with
+the portraits of the king or queen, all emblems of royalty, had been torn
+down. A shop-keeper was even obliged to erase his name from his shop
+because it was Louis.--MOORE'S _View_, etc., ii., p. 356.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+[1] A certain set of writers in this country at one time made La Fayette a
+subject for almost unmixed eulogy, with such earnestness that it may be
+worth while to reproduce the opinion expressed of him by the greatest of
+his contemporaries--a man as acute in his penetration into character as he
+was stainless in honor--the late Duke of Wellington. In the summer of
+1815, he told Sir John Malcolm that "he had used La Fayette like a dog, as
+he merited. The old rascal," said he, "had made a false report of his
+mission to the Emperor of Russia, and I possessed complete evidence of his
+having done so. I told him, the moment he entered, of this fact; I did not
+even state it in the most delicate manner. I told him he must be sensible
+he had made a false report. He made no answer." And the duke bowed him out
+of the room with unconcealed scorn.--Kaye's _Life of Sir J. Malcolm_, ii.,
+p. 109.
+
+[2] Lamartine calls the Cordeliers the Club of Coups-de-main, as he calls
+the Jacobins the Club of Radical Theories.--_Histoire des Girondins_,
+xvi., p. 4.
+
+[3] Dr. Moore, ii., p. 372; Chambrier, ii., p. 142.
+
+[4] Mercy to Marie Antoinette, May 16th, Feuillet de Conches, ii., p. 60.
+
+[5] _Ibid._, p. 140.
+
+[6] A resolution, that is, to recognize the Constitution.
+
+[7] Arneth, p. 188; Feuillet de Conches, ii, p. 186.
+
+[8] The letter took several days to write, and was so interrupted that
+portions of it have three different dates affixed, August 16th, 21st,
+26th. Mercy's letter, which incloses Burke's memorial, is dated the 20th,
+from London, so that the first portion of the queen's letter can not be
+regarded as an intentional answer to Burke's arguments, though it is so,
+as embodying all the reasons which influenced the queen.
+
+[9] The manifesto which he left behind him when starting for Montmédy.
+
+[10] The king.
+
+[11] Feuillet de Conches, ii., p. 228; Arneth, p. 203.
+
+[12] The Emperor Leopold died March 1st, 1792.
+
+[13] The declaration of Pilnitz, drawn up by the emperor and the King of
+Prussia at a personal interview, August 21st, 1791, did not in express
+words denounce the new Constitution (which, in fact, they had not seen),
+but, after declaring "the situation of the King of France to be a matter
+of common interest to all European sovereigns," and expressing a hope that
+"the reality of that interest will be duly appreciated by the other powers
+whose assistance they invoke," they propose that those other powers "shall
+employ, in conjunction with their majesties, the most efficacious means,
+in order to enable the King of France to consolidate in the most perfect
+liberty the foundation of a monarchical government, conformable alike to
+the rights of sovereigns and the well-being of the French nation."--
+Alison, ch. ix., Section 90.
+
+[14] Arneth, p. 208.
+
+[15] _Ibid_, p. 210; Feuillet de Conches, ii., p. 325.
+
+[16] Letter, date December 3d, 1791. Feuillet de Conches, iv., p. 278.
+
+[17] Madame de Campan, ch xix.
+
+[18] "Leurs touffes de cheveux noirs volaient dans la salle, eux seuls à
+cette époque avaient quitté l'usage de poudrer les cheveux."--_Note on the
+Passage by Madame de Campan_, ch xix.
+
+[19] This first Assembly, as having framed the Constitution, is often
+called the Constituent Assembly; the second, that which was about to meet,
+being distinguished as the Legislative Assembly.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+[1] "Mémoires Particuliers," etc., par A.F. Bertrand de Moleville, i., p.
+355. Brissot, Isnard, Vergniaud, Gaudet, and an infamous ecclesiastic, the
+Abbé Fauchet, are those whom he particularly mentions, adding: "Mais M.
+de Lessart trouva que c'était les payer trop cher, et comme ils ne
+voulurent rien rabattre de leur demande, cette négociation n'eut aucune
+suite, et ne produisit d'autre effet que d'aigrir davantage ces cinq
+députés contre ce ministre."
+
+[2] Feuillet de Conches, ii., p.414, date October 4th: "Je pense qu'au
+fond le bon bourgeois et le bon peuple ont toujours été bien pour nous."
+
+[3] "Mémoires Particuliers," etc., par A.F. Bertrand de Moleville, i., p.
+10-12. It furnishes a striking proof of the general accuracy of Dr.
+Moore's information, that he, in his "View" (ii., p. 439), gives the name
+account of this conversation, his work being published above twenty years
+before that of M. Bertrand de Moleville.
+
+[4] "La reine lui répondit par un sourire de pitié, et lui demanda s'il
+était fou.... C'est par la reine elle-même que, le lendemain de cette
+étrange scène, je fus instruit de tous les détails que je viens de
+rapporter."--BERTRAND DE MOLEVILLE, i., p. 126.
+
+[5] She herself called him so on this occasion, and he belonged to the
+Jacobin Club; but he was also one of the Girondin party, of which, indeed,
+he was one of the founders, and it was as a Girondin that he was afterward
+pursued to death by Robespierre.
+
+[6] Narrative of the Comte Valentin Esterhazy, Feuillet de Conches, iv.,
+p. 40.
+
+[7] The queen spoke plainly to her confidants: "M. de La Fayette will only
+be the Mayor of Paris that he may the sooner become Mayor of the Palace.
+Pétion is a Jacobin, a republican; but he is a fool, incapable of ever
+becoming the leader of a party. He would be a nullity as mayor, and,
+besides, the very interest which he knows we take in his nomination may
+bind him to the king."--Lamartine's _Histoire des Girondins_ vi., p.22.
+
+[8] "Elle [Madame d'Ossun, dame d'atours de la reine] m'a dit, il y a
+trois semaines, que le roi et la reine avaiet été neuf jours sans un sou."
+_Letter of the Prince de Nassau-Siegen to the Russian Empress Catherine_,
+Feuillet de Conches, iv., p. 316; of also Madame de Campan, ch. xxi.
+
+[9] Letter of the Princess to Madame de Bombelles, Feuillet de Conches,
+v., p.267.
+
+[10] "N'est-il pas bien gentil, mon enfant?"--_Mémoires Particuliers_, p.
+235.
+
+[11] See two most insolent letters from the Count de Provence and Count
+d'Artois to Louis XVI, Feuillet de Conches, v., pp. 260, 261.
+
+[12] Feuillet de Conches, iv., p. 291
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+[1] Letter to Madame de Polignac, March 17th, Feuillet de Conches, v., p.
+337.
+
+[2] The Monks of St. Bernard were known as Feuillants, from Feuillans, a
+village in Languedoc where their principal convent was situated.
+
+[3] Lamartine, "Histoire des Girondins," xiii., p.18.
+
+[4] The messenger was M. Goguelat: he took the name of M. Daumartin, and
+adhered to the cause of his sovereigns to the last moment of their lives.
+
+[5] Letter of the Count de Fersen, who was at Brussels, to Gustavus (who,
+however, was dead before it could reach him), dated March 24th, 1792. In
+many respects the information De Fersen sends to his king tallies
+precisely with that sent by Breteuil to the emperor; he only adds a few
+circumstances which had not reached the baron.
+
+[6] Afterward Louis Philippe, King of the French, who was himself driven
+from the throne by insurrection above half a century afterward.
+
+[7] Madame de Campan, ch. xx.
+
+[8] _Ibid._, ch. XIX.
+
+[9] "Vie de Dumouriez," ii, p. 163, quoted by Marquis de Ferrières,
+Feuillet de Conches, and several other writers.
+
+[10] Even Lamartine condemns the letter, the greater part of which he
+inserts in his history as one in which "the threat is no less evident than
+the treachery."--_Histoire des Girondins,_ xiii., p. 16.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+[1] "Gare la Lanterne," alluding to the use of the chains to which the
+street-lamps were suspended as gibbets.
+
+[2] Madame de Campan, ch. xxi.
+
+[3] Dumas, "Memoirs of his Own Time," i., p. 353.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+[1] To be issued by the foreign powers.
+
+[2] Feuillet de Conches, vi., p. 192, and Arneth, p. 265.
+
+[3] The day is not mentioned. "Lettres de la Reine Marie Antoinette à la
+Landgravine Louise," etc. p. 47.
+
+[4] The bearer was Prince George himself, but she does not venture to name
+him more explicitly.
+
+[5] Lamourette might correspond to the English name Lovekin.
+
+[6] Letter of the Princess Elizabeth, date July 16th, 1792, Feuillet de
+Conches, vi., p. 215.
+
+[7] It is remarkable, however, that, if we are to take Lamartine as a
+guide in any respect, and he certainly was not in intention unfavorable to
+La Fayette, the marquis was even now playing a double game. Speaking of
+this very proposal, he says: "La Fayette himself did not disguise his
+ambition for a protectorate under Louis XVI. At the very moment when he
+seemed devoted to the preservation of the king he wrote thus to his
+confidante, La Colombe: 'In the matter of liberty I do not trust myself
+either to the king or any other person, and if he were to assume the
+sovereign, I would fight against him as I did in 1789.'"--_Histoire des
+Girondins_, xvii., p.7 (English translation). It deserves remark, too, if
+his words are accurately reported, that the only occasion 1789 on which he
+"fought against" Louis must have been October 5th and 6th, when he
+professed to be using every exertion for his safety.
+
+[8] M. Bertrand expressly affirms the insurrection of August 10th to have
+been almost exclusively the work of the Girondin faction.--_Mémoires
+Particuliers,_ ii., p. 122.
+
+[9] _Mémoires Particuliers,_ ii., p. 132.
+
+[10] "Mémoires Particuliers," p. 111.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+[1] See _ante_.
+
+[2] "Histoire de la Terreur," par Mortimer Ternaux, ii., p. 269. For the
+transactions of this day, and of the following months, he is by far the
+most trustworthy guide, as having had access to official documents of
+which earlier writers were ignorant. But he admits the extreme difficulty
+of ascertaining the precise details and time of each event. And it is not
+easy in every instance to reconcile his account with that of Madame de
+Campan, on whom for many particulars he greatly relies. He differs from
+her especially as to the hour at which the different occurrences of this
+day took place. For instance, he says (p. 268, note 2) that Mandat left
+the Tuileries a little after five, while Madame de Campan says it was four
+o'clock when the queen told her he had been murdered. Both, however, agree
+that it was soon after eight o'clock when the king left the palace.
+
+[3] "À quatre heures la reine sortit de la chambre du roi, et vint nous
+dire qu'elle n'espérait plus rien; que M. Mandat venait d'être
+assassiné."--MADAME DE CAMPAN, ch. xxi.
+
+[4] "La Terreur," viii., p. 4.
+
+[5] It is clear that this is the opinion formed by M Mortimer Ternaux. He
+sums up the fourth chapter of his eighth book with the conclusion that "le
+palais de la royauté ne fut pas enlevé de vive force, mais abandonné par
+ordre de Louis XVI." And in a note he affirms that the entire number of
+killed and wounded on the part of the rioters did not exceed one hundred
+and sixty "en chiffres ronds."
+
+[6] Bertrand de Moleville, ch. xxvii.
+
+[7] Madame de Campan, ch. xxi.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+[1] "Dernières Années du Règne et de la Vie de Louis XVI.," par François
+Hue, p. 336.
+
+[2] For about a fortnight they had two, both men--Hue, the valet to the
+dauphin, as well as Cléry; but Hue was removed on the 2d of September. He,
+as well as Cléry, has left an account of the imprisonment till the day of
+his dismissal.
+
+[3] "Journal de ce qui s'est passé à la tour du Temple," etc. p.28, _seq._
+
+[4] "Mémoires Particuliers," par Madame la Duchesse d'Angoulême, p. 21.
+
+[5] Decius was the hero whose example was especially invoked by Madame
+Roland. The historians of his own country had never accused him of
+murdering any one; but she, in the very first month of the Revolution, had
+called, with a very curious reading of history, for "some generous Decius
+to risk his life to take theirs" (the lives of the king and queen).
+
+[6] The princess told Cléry, "La reine et moi nous nous attendons à tout,
+et nous ne nous faisons aucune illusion sur le sort qu'on prépare au roi,"
+etc.--CLÉRY, p. 106.
+
+[7] "Mémoires" de la Duchesse d'Angoulême, p. 53.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+[1] Cléry's "Journal," p. 169.
+
+[2] In March, having an opportunity of communicating with the Count de
+Provence, she sent these precious memorials to him for safer custody, with
+a joint letter from herself and her three fellow-prisoners: "Having a
+faithful person on whom we can depend, I profit by the opportunity to send
+to my brother and friend this deposit, which may not be intrusted to any
+other hands. The bearer will tell you by what a miracle we were able to
+obtain these precious pledges. I reserve the name of him who is so useful
+to us, to tell it you some day myself. The impossibility which has
+hitherto existed of sending you any intelligence of us, and the excess of
+our misfortunes, make us feel more vividly our cruel separation. May it
+not lie long. Meanwhile I embrace you as I love you, and you know that
+that is with all my heart.--M.A." A line is added by the princess royal,
+and signed by her brother, as king, as well as by herself: "I am charged
+for my brother and myself to embrace you with all my heart.--M.T. [MARIA
+TERESA], LOUIS." And another by the Princess Elizabeth: "I enjoy
+beforehand the pleasure which you will feel in receiving this pledge of
+love and confidence. To be reunited to you and to see you happy is all
+that I desire. You know if I love you. I embrace you with all my heart.--
+E." The letters were shown by the Count de Provence to Cléry, whom he
+allowed to take a copy of them.--CLÉRY'S _Journal_, p. 174.
+
+[3] "Mémoires" de la Duchesse d'Angoulême, p. 56.
+
+[4] It was burned in 1871, in the time of the Commune.
+
+[5] Feuillet de Conches, vi., p. 499. The letter is neither dated nor
+signed.
+
+[6] Lanjuinais had subsequently the singular fortune of gaining the
+confidence of both Napoleon and Lounis XVIII. The decree against him was
+reversed in 1795, and he became a professor at Rennes. Though he had
+opposed the making of Napoleon consul for life, Napoleon gave him a place
+in his Senate; and at the first restoration, in 1814, Louis XVIII named
+him a peer of France. He died in 1827.
+
+[7] Some of the apologists of the Girondins--nearly all the oldest
+criminals of the Revolution have found defenders, except perhaps Marat and
+Robespierre--have affirmed that the Girondins, though they had not courage
+to give their votes to save the life of Louis, yet hoped to save him by
+voting for an appeal to the people; but the order in which the different
+questions were put to the Convention is a complete disproof of this plea.
+The first question put was, Was Louis guilty? They all voted "Oui"
+(Lacretelle, x., p. 403). But though on the second question, whether this
+verdict should be submitted to the people for ratification, many of them
+did vote for such an appeal being made, yet after the appeal had been
+rejected by a majority of one hundred and forty-two, and the third
+question, "What penalty shall be inflicted on Louis?" (Lacretelle, x., p.
+441) was put to the Convention, they all except Lanjuinais voted for
+"death." The majorities were, on their question, 683 to 66; on the second,
+423 to 281; on the third, 387 to 334; so that on this last, the fatal
+question, it would have been easy for the Girondins to have turned the
+scale. And Lamartine himself expressly affirms (xxxv., p.5) that the
+king's life depended on the Girondin vote, and that his death was chiefly
+owing to Vergniaud.
+
+[8] Goncourt, p. 370, quoting "Fragments de Turgy."
+
+[9] "S'en défaire."--_Louis XVII., sa Vie, son Agonie, sa Mort_, par M. de
+Beauchesne, quoting Senart. See Croker's "Essays on the Revolution," p.
+266.
+
+[10] Duchesse d'Angoulême, p. 78.
+
+[11] See a letter from Miss Chowne to Lord Aukland, September 23d, 1793,
+Journal, etc., of Lord Aukland, ii., p. 517.
+
+[12] "Le peuple la reçut non seulement comme une reine adorée, mais il
+semblait aussi qu'il lui savait gré d'être charmante," p.5, ed. 1820.
+
+[13] Great interest was felt for her in England. In October Horace Walpole
+writes: "While assemblies of friends calling themselves _men_ are from day
+to day meditating torment and torture for his [Louis XVI.'s] heroic widow,
+on whom, with all their power and malice, and with every page, footman,
+and chamber-maid of hers in their reach, and with the rack in their hands,
+they have not been able to fix a speck. Nay, do they not talk of the
+inutility of evidence? What other virtue ever sustained such an ordeal?"
+Walpole's testimony in such a matter is particularly valuable, because he
+had not only been intimately acquainted with all the gossip of the French
+capital for many years, but also because his principal friends in France
+did not belong to the party which might have been expected to be most
+favorable to the queen. Had there been the very slightest foundation for
+the calumnies which had been propagated against her, we may be sure that
+such a person as Madame du Deffand would not only have heard them, but
+would have been but too willing to believe them. His denunciation of them
+is a proof that she knew their falsehood.
+
+[14] Goncourt, p. 388, quoting _La Quotidienne_ of October 17th, 18th.
+
+[15] The depositions which the little king had been compelled to sign
+contained accusations of his aunt as well as of his mother.
+
+[16] As we shall see in the close of the letter, she did not regard those
+priests who had taken the oath imposed by the Assembly, but which the Pope
+had condemned, as any longer priests.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+Abbé De Mandoux; De Sabran;
+  De Sieyés;
+  De Vermond.
+Abolition of titles of honour.
+Addresses presented from Paris and from the States of Languedoc.
+Adelaide, Princess, intrigues of;
+  afflicted with the small-pox;
+  flight of.
+Admiral de Coligny;
+  d'Orvilliers;
+  du Chaffault;
+  Keppel;
+  Rodney.
+Ailesbury, Lady.
+Alliance formed with the United States;
+  with Russia and Prussia;
+  with Spain.
+American war, the.
+Anglomania in Paris.
+_Anglomanie_, a name given to English fashions.
+Anti-Austrian feeling in Paris.
+Antoinette, Marie. See _Marie Antoinette_.
+Arbitrary powers of the sovereign of France.
+Archbishop Loménie de Brienne.
+Archduke Maximilian visits his sister.
+Arpay-de-Duc, where the king's aunts were detained.
+Arnould, Mademoiselle.
+Arrest of Cardinal Rohan.
+Assassination of Gustavus III. of Sweden.
+Assembly, parties in the, "the Right," "the Left," and "the Plain,";
+  abolishes all privileges August 4th, 1789;
+  disorders in the;
+  tyranny of the;
+  meeting of the new.
+Austria, antagonistic feeling against;
+  Emperor Joseph of, visits France _incognito_;
+  writes to his sister, the Queen of France, on European politics;
+  Austria, Maria Teresa, Empress of;
+  death of Joseph II., Emperor of;
+  influence of, in France, causes jealousy;
+  remonstrating by the Emperor Leopold with the French  Government;
+  Death of Leopold;
+  war declared against.
+Autun, Bishop of.
+Axel de Fersen, Count.
+
+Bagatelle, a house belonging to the Comte d'Artois, which was built in
+sixty days.
+Bailli de Suffrein.
+Bailly, M., and the National Guard;
+  effrontery of.
+"Baker," a name given to the king.
+Balbi, Countess de.
+Balloons introduced into France by Montgolfier.
+Banquet at the Hotel de Ville on account of the birth of the dauphin.
+Barbaroux, M.
+"Barber of Seville," play of the.
+Barnave, M. and the Constitutionalists;
+  gives advice to the queen.
+Baron de Batz;
+  de Besenval;
+  de Breteuil.
+Baroness de Staël.
+Barri, Countess du, jealous of Marie Antoinette;
+  sent to a convent.
+Bastile, attack on the, 1789;
+  and murder of the governor;
+  anniversary of the capture of.
+Battle of Brandywine.
+Batz, Baron de.
+Bavaria, affairs in;
+  at the death of the elector 1777.
+Beauharnais, General.
+Beaulieu, Marshal.
+Beaumarchais, M.
+Beauty of Marie Antoinette.
+Beauvau, M. de, and the Opposition.
+Bertrand, M..
+Besenval, Baron de;
+  and the Reveillon riot.
+Birth of Duc d'Angoulême;
+  of the Princess Marie-Thérèse Charlotte (Madame Royale);
+  of the dauphin, son of Marie Antoinette.
+Bishop Lamourette;
+  Talleyrand.
+Body-guard, ball given by the;
+  and the Versailles mob;
+  protecting the court.
+Boehmer, the court jeweler.
+Boillé, Marquis de;
+  flies from France.
+Boutourlin's, M., attacks on M. Necker.
+Brandywine, Battle of.
+Breteuil, Baron de;
+  appointed prime minister;
+  and foreign intervention.
+Breton Club.
+Brienne, Loménie de, Archbishop of Toulouse.
+Brissac, Duc de.
+Brissot, M..
+Broglie, Marshal de.
+Brunier, M..
+Brunoy, entertainment given at.
+Brunswick, Duke of.
+Brunswick, Prince Ferdinand of.
+Burke's description of the beauty of the queen.
+Buzot, M..
+
+Calonne, M. de;
+  dismissed from the office of finance minister.
+Campan, Madame de.
+Cap, red, of liberty.
+Cape St. Vincent.
+Capet, name given to the queen before the trial.
+Cardinal de Rohan.
+Carlisle, Lord, receiving a challenge from La Fayette in 1778.
+Carnival of 1777.
+Castle of Gaillon.
+Chaffault, Admiral du.
+Challenge sent by Marquis de La Fayette to Lord Carlisle.
+Châlons, and the reception of the king on his arrest.
+Champs de Mars, fête in the, in celebration of the anniversary of the
+capture of the Bastile.
+Chantilly, festivities at.
+Charity shown by Louis XVI. and the queen during the winter of 1788-9.
+Charleston, capture of.
+Chartres, Duc de and Duc d'Orléans recalled from banishment;
+  and the Comte d'Artois establish horse-racing;
+  displays cowardice as rear-admiral;
+  refused marriage with Madame Royale;
+  and the red cap of liberty.
+Chevalier d'Assas, story of the.
+Chinon, M. de.
+Choiseul, Duc de;
+  dismissal of;
+  recall from banishment.
+Choisy, private parties at.
+Clergy, oppression of the.
+Cléry, M., refused audience with the queen.
+Clinton, Sir Harry.
+Clootz, Anacharsis, heads a deputation.
+Clostercamp, the scene of the heroism displayed by the Chevalier d'Assas.
+Clotilde, Princess, marriage of the.
+Clubs, political, springing up at Paris.
+Coigny, Duc de.
+Coligny, Admiral de, and Count de Mirabeau.
+Compiègne.
+Comte d'Artois;
+  de la Marck;
+  de Mercy;
+Condorcet, Marquis de.
+Constitution, completing the, by the Assembly;
+  acceptance of the, by the king.
+Constitutional guard, dissolution of the.
+Constitutionalists, or "the Plain".
+Conti, Prince de.
+Cordeliers, the.
+Cortey, M..
+Count d'Estaing;
+  de Fersen;
+  d'Hervilly;
+  de Grasse;
+  de Luxembourg;
+  de Maurepas;
+  de Mirabeau;
+  de Narbonne;
+  de Roche-Aymer;
+  de Rosenberg;
+  de Stedingk;
+  de St. Priest;
+  de Vaudreuil;
+  Esterhazy.
+Countess de Balbi;
+  du Barri;
+  de Grammont;
+  de Monnier;
+  de la Mothe;
+  de Noailles;
+  de Polignac;
+  de Provence.
+"Coupe-têtes," the.
+Court supper-parties.
+Couthon, M.
+Craufurd, Mr.
+
+D'Agoust, Marquis.
+D'Aiguillon, Duc.
+Dames de la Halle.
+D'Angoulême, Duc, birth of.
+D'Artois, Comte, marriage of the; and;
+  the Duc de Chartres establish horse-racing;
+  his character;
+  shielding the Duc de Chartres;
+  watching at the queen's bedside during her illness;
+  shows contempt for the commercial orders;
+  flees from Paris;
+  misconduct of the;
+  refuses to return to France.
+D'Assas, Chevalier, story of the.
+Dauphin, proposal of marriage of Marie Antoinette to the;
+  early education of the;
+  introduction to;
+  married at Versailles, Mary 16th, 1770;
+  letter from Maria Teresa to the;
+  admiration of the, for his wife;
+  and the Count de Provence, characters of the;
+  birth of the, son of Louis XVI.;
+  death of the, son of Louis XVI., June 4th, 1789, and succeeded by his
+    brother;
+  and M. Bertrand.
+Deane, Silas.
+Death of Francis, Emperor of Germany;
+  of Louis XV.;
+  of Voltaire;
+  of Cardinal de Rohan, at Ettenheim;
+  of Princess Sophie, daughter of the queen;
+  of the Dauphin, son of Louis XVI., June 4th, 1789;
+  of Joseph II., Emperor of Austria;
+  of Count de Mirabeau;
+  of Leopold, Emperor of Austria.
+Debt, the queen finds herself in.
+Declaration of Pilnitz.
+Defeat of De Grasse by Admiral Rodney.
+Degraves, M.
+De Launay, M., governor of the Bastile, death of.
+Des Huttes, M.
+D'Esprémesnil, Duval.
+De Staël, Baroness.
+D'Estaing, Count.
+Destruction of the Spanish squadron by the British at Cape St. Vincent
+De Varicourt, M.
+D'Hervilly, Count.
+D'Huillier, M.
+Disorders in the Assembly.
+Dissolution of the Constitutional Guard.
+Distress and discontent in France in 1771;
+  general, caused by the severity of the winter of 1788-89.
+D'Oberkirch, Madame
+Donkey-riding;
+  horse-riding.
+D'Orléans, Duc, and the Duc de Chartres recalled from banishment;
+  and the Archduke Maximilian;
+  shows hostility to the queen;
+  and the presidency of the club "Les Enragés";
+  and the Reveillon riot;
+  and the Versailles mob;
+  leaves France for England;
+  and the red cap.
+D'Ormesson, M.
+D'Orvilliers, Admiral.
+Duc d'Aiguillon;
+  d'Angoulême;
+  de Brissac;
+  de Chartres;
+  de Choisseu;
+  de Coigny; de la Feuillade;
+  de Maine;
+  de la Vauguyon;
+  de Liancourt;
+  d'Orléans;
+  de Richelieu.
+Dugazon, Madame.
+Duke of Brunswick;
+  of Normandy;
+  Paul of Russia;
+  of Tarouka.
+Dumont, M.
+Dumouriez, General, character of;
+  and the queen;
+  resigns his position as minister, and takes command of the army.
+Duportail, M.
+Duranton, M.
+Durepaire, M.
+Durfort, Marquis de.
+Duverney, Paris.
+
+Education, the queen's views of.
+Emigrant princes, misconduct of the.
+Emigration from France repugnant to Louis XVI.
+Emperor Francis of Germany;
+  Joseph of Austria;
+  Leopold of Austria.
+Empress Catherine, of Russia;
+  Maria Teresa, of Austria.
+Encore, the first.
+Epigram of Metastasio.
+Ermenonville, the burial-place of Rousseau.
+Escape from prison by the Countess de la Mothe;
+  the royal family preparing to;
+  arrested at Varennes and brought back.
+Esterhazy, Count.
+Etiquette, strictness of court;
+  relaxation of.
+Ettenheim, Cardinal de Rohan dies at.
+Execution of M. de Favras.
+Expenses, court, retrenchment in.
+Expostulation of the Emperor Maximilian with his sister.
+
+Factious conduct of the princes of the blood.
+Fall of Turgot.
+Favras, M. de, execution of.
+Feast of the Federation.
+Federation, Feast of the.
+Ferdinand, Duke, of Brunswick.
+Fersen, Count Axel de.
+Feudal system, the, in France and its need of reform.
+Feuillade's, Duc de la, statue of Louis XIV.
+Feuillants, les.
+Figaro, the Marriage of, the play of.
+Fire at the Hôtel Dieu;
+  at the Palace of Justice.
+Fire-works, explosion of, at Paris.
+First impressions of the French Court.
+Flanders, the regiment of, arrives at Versailles.
+Fleurieu, M.
+Fleury, Joly de.
+Flight from Paris decided on.
+Fontainebleau, the peasant at;
+  grand review at.
+Fontanges, M., de.
+Forgeries of the Queen's name committed.
+Fouquier, Tinville.
+France and Germany, feelings in, regarding Marie Antoinette's marriage;
+  distress and discontent in.
+Francis, Emperor of Germany, death of.
+Frost, severe, ant the Seine frozen over.
+
+Gaillon, Castle of.
+Gambling, court.
+Garden-parties given at the Trianon.
+General Beauharnais;
+  Dumouriez.
+General rejoicings.
+Gensonné, M.
+Germany, death of Francis, emperor of;
+  and France, feelings in regarding Marie Antoinette's marriage.
+Gibraltar, siege of.
+Gifts of Le Joyeuse Avénement and La Ceinture de la Reine renounced.
+Girondins, rise of the;
+  fall of the.
+Gluck appointed to teach the harpsichord;
+  visits Paris.
+Goethe.
+Goldsmith's prediction of a French revolution.
+Grains, war of the.
+Grammont, Countess de.
+Grasse, Count de.
+Gaudet, M.
+Guimenée, Princess de.
+Guines, Duc de.
+Gustavus III., King of Sweden, at the French court.
+
+Horse-racing by Comte d' Artois.
+Hôtel de Ville, banquet at the, on account of the birth of the dauphin;
+  storming of the, by the insurgents, July 1789.
+Hôtel Dieu, great fire at.
+Hughes, Sir E., fights with M. de Suffrein.
+Hunting-field, Marie Antoinette in the.
+Huttes, M. des.
+
+Illuminations in Paris at the birth of the dauphin.
+Income, settlement of.
+Indictment drawn up against the queen.
+Inscription on a snow pyramid erected in gratitude by the Parisians for
+the charity they received from their queen in the winter of 1788-'89.
+Insolence shown to the queen by a virago.
+Insurgents, the, under Santerre.
+Insurrection in Paris, July, 1789;
+  of June 20th 1792;
+  of August 5th, 1792.
+Intrigues formed against Marie Antoinette;
+  of Madame Adelaide.
+"Iphigénie," opera of.
+
+Jacobin Club, the.
+Jarjayes, Madame de.
+Jason and Medea, tapestry representing the history of.
+Jealousy shown by the queen's favorites;
+  of the Countess du Barri;
+  of the aunts;
+  of Austrian influence.
+Jewelry and Boehmer, the court jeweler.
+Joséphine Louise, Princess of Savoy, married to the Count de Provence.
+Joseph, Emperor of Austria, visits France _incognito_;
+  writes to his sister on European politics;
+  death of.
+Jussieu, Bernard de.
+Justice, remarkable, always shown by the queen.
+
+Kaunitz, Prince.
+Keppel, Admiral.
+King Gustavus III. of Sweden visits the French court.
+Korff, Madame de.
+
+La Belle Liégeoise.
+Lacoste, M.
+Lacy, Marshal.
+Lady Ailesbury; Sutherland.
+La Fayette, Marquis de; and the National Guard;
+  and Mirabeau;
+  demands the suppression of titles;
+  offered the sword of the Constable of France, which he declines;
+  shows insolence to the royal family;
+  threatens the queen with a divorce;
+  saves the castle at Vincennes;
+  insults the nobles who come to protect the king;
+  his urgency to bring back the king, who had been arrested in his flight;
+  arrogance of;
+  shows personal animosity to the king;
+  ordered to prepare for foreign service;
+  unskillfulness of;
+  shows much deficiency in military tactics;
+  appears before the Assembly, and
+  narrowly escapes impeachment;
+  proposes a plan for the royal family to escape;
+  flies from France, and is thrown into an Austrian prison.
+Lamballe, Princess de.
+Lambel, M.
+Lambert, M.
+Lameth, Alexander.
+Lameth, Charles.
+Lamoignon, M.
+Lamourette, Bishop, makes a motion in the Assembly.
+La Muette, at Choisy, palace of.
+Lanjuinais, M.
+Leopold, Emperor of Austria, remonstrates with the French government.
+_Le Patriote Français_.
+Lepitre, M.
+Les Enragés, a political club formed under the presidency of the Duc
+d'Orléans.
+"Les Événements Imprévus".
+Lessart, M.
+Letters from Maria Teresa to her daughter. See _Maria Teresa_.
+  From Marie Antoinette to her mother.  See _Marie Antoinette_.
+Liancourt, Duc de.
+Libelous attacks on the queen.
+Liberty, Restorer of French, a title given to the king.
+Lichtenstein, Prince de, sent as envoy from Austria.
+Loménie de Brienne, Archbishop of Toulouse, appointed prime minister;
+  resigns office.
+Lord Carlisle;
+  Stormont.
+Lorraine, Prince of;
+  death of.
+Lorraine, Princess of, at the State ball.
+Louis XIV., the Duc de la Feuillade's statue of.
+Louis XV., character and life of;
+  apathy of;
+  catches the smallpox;
+  death of.
+Louis XVI, receives homage on the death
+  of his grandfather;
+  influenced by his aunts;
+  gives the pavilion of the Little Trianon to the queen;
+  compared to Louis XII. and Henry IV.;
+  crowned at Rheims;
+  concludes an alliance with the United States;
+  exempts from the poll-tax all those unable to pay on the occasion of the
+    birth of the dauphin;
+  visits Cherbourg;
+  orders the arrest of two members of Parliament, and also the closing-up
+    of the House;
+  conspicuous for his charity during the winter of 1788-89;
+  concedes the chief demands of the Commons;
+  opens the States in person, May 5th, 1789;
+  loses his eldest son, the dauphin, June 4th, 1789;
+  grants reforms to the States;
+  removes Necker;
+  withdraws the troops from Paris;
+  visits Paris, and appeals to the populace, July 17th, 1789;
+  invites Necker to return;
+  called the "Restorer of French Liberty,";
+  sends his plate to be melted down for the benefit of the starving
+    citizens;
+  adheres to his conciliatory policy before the mob at Versailles;
+  fixes his residence at Paris;
+  accepts the Constitution so far as it has been settled;
+  accepts the services of the Count de Mirabeau;
+  offers La Fayette the sword of the Constable of France, which he
+    declines;
+  appears at the fête at the Champs de Mars;
+  contemplates foreign intervention;
+  decides to remove to Montmédy;
+  report of attempted assassination of;
+  reproves the nobles for coming to his aid;
+  forbidden to remove more than twenty leagues from Paris;
+  urged to escape;
+  escapes, and is arrested and brought back;
+  acceptance of the new Constitution by the king;
+  dissolves the first constituent assembly;
+  refuses his assent to the decrees against the priests and emigrants;
+  issues a circular condemning emigration;
+  apathy of;
+  made to put on the red cap of liberty;
+  a plot to assassinate;
+  appears at the Feast of Federation;
+  holds his last ball, August 5th, 1792;
+  reviews the troops for the last time;
+  appeals to the Assembly for protection;
+  receives notice that his authority is a nullity;
+  made prisoner with his wife and family;
+  sent to the Temple;
+  trial of;
+  insults offered to;
+  condemned to death;
+  execution of.
+Louvre, visit by the dauphin and dauphiness to the.
+Luckner, Marshal.
+Luxembourg, Count de, and the military banquet at Versailles.
+Luzerne, M. de.
+
+"MADAME DEFICIT," a nickname given to the queen.
+Madame Royale refused in marriage to the Duc de Chartres.
+Maillard, M., and the insurgents of 1789.
+Mailly, Marshal de.
+Maine, Duke de.
+Malesherbes, M.
+Malouet, M.
+Mandat, M.; assassination of.
+Mandense, Abbé.
+Marat, M., denounces the queen.
+Marchioness de Tourzel.
+Marck, Count de la.
+Maria Teresa, Empress of Austria, her habits and life;
+  her feelings at the departure of her daughter;
+  letter from, to the dauphin;
+  letter of advice to her daughter;
+  appoints Comte de Mercy as Embassador to France;
+  letters from Marie Antoinette to;
+  advice to Marie Antoinette;
+  disapproval of her daughter appearing in the hunting field;
+  expresses her approval of her daughter's liberality;
+  receives a letter from her daughter on her state entrance into Paris;
+  anxieties about her daughter since her accession as queen of France;
+  cautions her daughter against extravagances;
+  admonishes her daughter;
+  solicits an alliance between France and Austria against Prussia;
+  writes about the birth of her daughter's child;
+  death of.
+Marie Antoinette, importance of, in the French Revolution of 1789;
+  estimation of her character formed from her correspondences;
+  her birth, November 2d, 1755;
+  her childhood;
+  projects for her marriage;
+  her education;
+  proposal of marriage to the dauphin;
+  leaves Vienna April 26th, 1770;
+  Strasburg, reception at;
+  at Soissons;
+  meeting the king and dauphin at Compiègne;
+  visits the Princess Louise at the Convent of St. Denis;
+  married at Versailles, May 16th, 1770;
+  difficulties in the path of;
+  courage in her conduct;
+  letter of advice from her mother;
+  her sympathy with the sufferers at the fire-work explosion at Paris and
+    with the peasant at Fontainebleau pleases the king and the people;
+  description of her physical appearance;
+  writes to her mother, giving her first impressions of the court and of
+    her own position and prospects;
+  dislike to the court etiquette;
+  intrigues formed against;
+  jealousy of the aunts;
+  addresses from Paris and the states of Languedoc;
+  gaining popularity;
+  expresses a wish to learn to ride;
+  donkey-riding;
+  settlement of income upon;
+  introduces sledging parties into France;
+  gains admiration from her husband;
+  advice of Maria Teresa;
+  growing preference of Louis XV. for;
+  becomes a horse-woman;
+  applying herself to study;
+  taste for music acquired by;
+  appears at a review at Fontainebleau;
+  in the hunting-field;
+  writes to her mother early in 1773;
+  liberality shown by, to the sufferers by the fire at the Hôtel Dieu;
+  receives approval from her mother;
+  expresses her feelings about Poland;
+  state entrance of, into Paris;
+  writes to her mother;
+  presiding at the banquet of the Dames de la Halle;
+  visiting the Parisian theatres;
+  writes to her mother on the death of Louis XV.;
+  shows her good character upon her accession as queen of France;
+  procures the recall from banishment of the Duc de Choiseul;
+  receives from the king the pavilion of the Little Trianon;
+  desires for private friendships and constant amusements;
+  accused of Austrian preferences;
+  receives increased allowance as queen;
+  visited by the Archduke Maximilian;
+  writes to her mother on the coronation of the king;
+  gives garden parties at Trianon;
+  beauty of;
+  shows her mortification at not having children;
+  speaks disparagingly of the king;
+  writes to her mother extolling the French people;
+  indulges at the play-table;
+  finds herself in debt and forgeries of her name committed;
+  receives the Duke of Dorset and others with favor;
+  receives a visit from her brother, the Emperor of Austria;
+  writes to her mother concerning the emperor's visit;
+  receives a letter of advice from her brother on his departure from
+    France;
+  inviting the king's ministers to the Little Trianon;
+  writes political letters;
+  expects to become a mother;
+  declines to receive Voltaire on his return to France;
+  gives birth to a daughter, whom she names Marie Thérèse Charlotte;
+  goes to Notre Dame Cathedral to return thanks;
+  goes in a hackney-coach to a bal d'opéra;
+  is attacked by measles;
+  writes to her mother about the war between France and England;
+  studies politics;
+  engages in private theatricals;
+  writes to her mother in the midst of her troubles;
+  exhibits great grief at the death of her mother;
+  gives birth to a son, the dauphin of France;
+  on education;
+  receives M. de Suffrein with great honor;
+  receives a letter from her brother, the Emperor of Austria, on European
+    politics, and replies to it;
+  St. Cloud is bought for;
+  gives birth to the Duke of Normandy;
+  finds that her name has been forged and misrepresentations made for
+    procuring a necklace made by Boehmer;
+  receives a visit from her sister, the Princess of Teschen;
+  is treated with hostility by the Duc d'Orléans;
+  receives the nickname of "Madame Deficit";
+  loses her second daughter, the Princess Sophie;
+  writes two political letters to the Duchess de Polignac;
+  writes to Mercy on the present political state of affairs, August 19th,
+    1788;
+  conspicuous for her charity during a severe winter;
+  has serious views about the demands of the commons;
+  refuses to accept the Duc de Chartres for husband to her daughter Madame
+    Royale;
+  attends the opening of the States;
+  loses her eldest son, the dauphin, June 4th, 1780;
+  writes to the Duchess de Polignac on the States' affairs;
+  writes to the Marchioness de Tourzel, intrusting to her the education
+    of her children;
+  rejects Barnave's overtures;
+  is remarkable for her bravery;
+  writes to Mercy about her feelings at the present aspect of affairs;
+  receives insolence from a virago;
+  feels the death of her brother, the Emperor Joseph II. of Austria;
+  writes to her brother Leopold, who succeeded Joseph II.;
+  refuses to give evidence against the mob rioters;
+  shows kind feeling toward the widowed Marchioness de Favras;
+  makes a speech to the deputies;
+  is well received at the theatre;
+  receives the services of the Count de Mirabeau;
+  interviews him;
+  shows her presence of mind at the fête at the Champ de Mars;
+  writes to Mercy about the difficulty of managing Mirabeau;
+  has to bid farewell to Mercy, who is removed to the Hague;
+  gives audience to Prince de Lichtenstein;
+  denounced by Marat;
+  attempts made to assassinate;
+  writes to the Emperor of Austria, her brother Leopold, October 22d,
+    1790;
+  refuses to quit France by herself;
+  is threatened with a divorce by La Fayette;
+  writes to the Comte d'Artois, expostulating with him;
+  writes to her  brother to send troops to intervene;
+  escapes from Paris with her family, and is arrested and brought back;
+  writes to De Fersen;
+  writes to her brother, Emperor Leopold;
+  sends a letter to Mercy about the Revolution;
+  writes to Mercy about the declaration of Pilnitz and the Constitution;
+  declares her feelings in a letter to the Empress Catherine of Russia;
+  M. Bertrand and the queen;
+  receives news of the death of her brother Leopold, the Emperor of
+    Austria;
+  direct attacks made against;
+  Dumouriez speaks his mind strongly to;
+  appears before the insurrectionists at the Tuileries, June 20th, 1793;
+  writes to Mercy, July 4th, 1792;
+  receives proposals for her escape;
+  writes to the Landgravine Louise;
+  employs her time in quilting her husband a waistcoat to resist a dagger
+    or a bullet;
+  attempt made to assassinate;
+  determines to sacrifice personal safety to loss of the crown and
+    Constitution;
+  made prisoner with her husband;
+  plans formed for the escape of, fail;
+  additional insults offered to;
+  has a trial and is sentenced;
+  writes a final letter to the Princess Elizabeth;
+  is executed;
+  her remains treated with indignity;
+  summary of the character of.
+Maritime superiority possessed by England.
+Marly, palace at.
+Marmier, Madame de.
+Marquis d'Agoust;
+  de Bouillé;
+  de Condorcet;
+  de Durfort;
+  de La Fayette;
+  de Montesquieu;
+  de Savonières;
+  de St. Huruge;
+  de Vaudreuil.
+"Marriage of Figaro." the play of the.
+Marriage of Marie Antoinette to the Dauphin of France, May 16, 1770;
+  feelings in Germany and France regarding the.
+Marsan, Madame de.
+Marseillese, the.
+Marshal Beaulieu;
+  de Broglie;
+  de Mailly;
+  Lacy;
+  Luckner;
+  Rochambeau.
+Maubourg, M. Latour.
+Maurepas, Count de.
+Maximillan, Archduke, visits his sister.
+Mazarin, Madame de.
+Measles, the queen is attacked by the.
+Mercy, Comte de, appointed as embassador to France;
+  reports to Maria Teresa;
+  position and influence of, upon the accession of Louis XVI.;
+  receives letters from the queen on the political state of affairs;
+  replies to the same;
+  introduces Count de Mirabeau to the queen;
+  receives letter from the queen about Mirabeau;
+  is removed to the Hague;
+  the queen writes urgently to.
+Metastasio, epigram of.
+Michonis, M.
+Miomandre, M.
+Mirabeau, Count de, and court etiquette;
+  and his conjugal rights;
+  his character his behavior at the opening of the States;
+  drives Necker from office, and presents a petition to the king to
+    withdraw the troops from Paris;
+  changes his views;
+  his services accepted by the court;
+  denounced by the Jacobin club;
+  interviews the queen, and is pleased with her;
+  interviews the Count de la Marck;
+  great difficulty in managing;
+  retires from office;
+  stands by the queen;
+  death of;
+  funeral of.
+Mob at Versailles.
+Moleville, M. Bertrand de.
+Monnier, Countess de, and the Count de Mirabeau.
+Montesquieu, Marquis de.
+Montgolfier's balloons introduced.
+Montmédy.
+Montmorency, Viscount Matthieu de.
+Montmorin, M..
+Montsabert, M., arrest of.
+Moreau, M..
+Mothe, Countess de la.
+Murder of Mandat;
+  of the Princess de Lamballe.
+Music, great taste for, exhibited by the dauphiness.
+Mutiny in the Marquis de Bouillé's army.
+Mutual jealousies of the queen's favorites.
+Mysore, Tippoo Sahib, sultan of.
+
+Narbonne, Count de.
+"National Assembly," the, first proposed.
+National Guard, formation of the;
+  fires on the people.
+Necker, M.;
+  retires from the ministry;
+  invited to rejoin, and declines;
+  appointed prime mister;
+  aims at popularity;
+  convokes the States-general;
+  resumes office.
+Necklace made by Boehmer, the court jeweler;
+  story of the, revived.
+Noailles, Countess de.
+Normandy, Duke of.
+Notables, the Calonne, assembles;
+  Loménie de Brienne dismisses.
+Notre Dame, public thanksgiving at, on account of the birth of Madame
+  Royale;
+  also on the occasion of the birth of the dauphin.
+
+Oliva, Mademoiselle, and the great necklace forgery case.
+Opera of "Iphigénie en Aulide" performed in Paris.
+Opinion of foreign nations.
+Outrages in the provinces in 1789.
+Overthrow of the Girondins.
+
+Paris Duverney.
+Paris, fire-work explosion at;
+  state entrance of the dauphin and Marie Antoinette into;
+  great scarcity in, September, 1789;
+  riots in;
+  and the Reveillon riot;
+  riots in, July, 1789;
+  the court removes to;
+  insurrection in, June 20th, 1792;
+  riots in, August 5th, 1792.
+Parliament, violence of the;
+  arrest of two of its members;
+  closing-up of, by the king's order;
+  recall of, by Necker.
+Pastoret, M..
+Paul, Grand Duke of Russia, visits the French court with his wife.
+Peace restored between Prussia and Austria;
+  between France and England.
+Peasant, the, at Fontainebleau.
+_People's Friend, The_, a newspaper published by the Revolutionists.
+Pétion, M..
+Pilnitz, declaration of.
+Poland, the partition of.
+Polastron, Madame de.
+Polignac, Countess de.
+Political clubs springing up in Paris.
+Poll-tax, exemptions from, made by Louis XVI..
+Popularity of Marie Antoinette, increasing.
+Prince Charles of Lorraine, death of;
+  de Conti;
+  de Lichtenstein sent as envoy from Austria;
+  Ferdinand of Brunswick;
+  Kaunitz;
+  Cardinal Louis de Rohan.
+Princess Adelaide;
+  Clotilde;
+  de Guimenée;
+  de Lamballe;
+  Joséphine Louise of Savoy;
+  of Lorraine;
+  Sophie of France;
+  of Teschen;
+  Victoire.
+Private theatricals.
+Provence, Count de, married to the Princess Joséphine Louise of Savoy.
+Provence, Countess de.
+Provinces, outrages in the.
+Prussia allies with Russia.
+  and the declaration of Pilnitz.
+Public thanksgiving at the birth of Madame Royale;
+  at the birth of the dauphin.
+
+Race-course established in the Bois de Boulogne.
+Ramond, M..
+Red cap of liberty worn.
+Reform, the necessity of, generally admitted;
+  granted by Louis XVI..
+Rejoicings, general, in France at the birth of the princess;
+  at the birth of the dauphin.
+Republic declared.
+"Restorer of French Liberty," title given to the king.
+Rétaux de Villette.
+Retrenchment in court expenditure.
+Reveillon, M., and the Paris riot.
+Revolution of 1789 commenced.
+Revolutionary tribunal;
+  trial of the queen.
+Rheims, coronation of Louis XVI. at.
+Richelieu, Duc de.
+Ride, Marie Antoinette expresses a wish to learn to;
+  donkey-riding.
+Riding, donkey;
+  horse.
+Riots, formidable in some of the provinces;
+  in Paris;
+  the Reveillon, in Paris;
+  in Paris, July, 1789;
+  in Paris, June 20th, 1792;
+  in Paris, August 5th, 1792;
+Robespierre, M.
+Rochambeau, Marshal.
+Roche-Aymer, Count de.
+Rodney, Admiral.
+Roederer, M.
+Rohan, Cardinal Prince de.
+Roland, Madame, urging secret assassinations of the king and queen;
+  and Robespierre;
+  death of.
+Romenf, M.
+"Rose of the North," a name given to the Countess de Fersen.
+Rosenburg, Count de.
+Rousseau, Jean Jacques.
+Royal family, the, preparing to escape;
+  arrested;
+  authority suspended.
+Royalists, the name first used as a reproach.
+Russia allies with Prussia;
+  Grand Duke of, visits the French court;
+  Catherine Empress of.
+
+Sabran, Abbé de.
+Sahib, Tippoo, Sultan of Mysore.
+Salis, M. de.
+Sans-culottes.
+Santerre, M., and the attack on the Bastille;
+  and the Paris insurrection;
+  and the insurgents.
+Sartines, M. de.
+Savonières, Marquis de.
+Scarcity of food in Paris in September, 1789.
+Schönbrunn, retreat at.
+Seine, water-parties on the;
+  frozen over.
+Seven Years' War, the.
+Severity of the winter of 1788-'89 much felt in France.
+Seville, the Barber of, the play of.
+Séze, M. de.
+Sieyès, Abbé.
+Simolin, M.
+Simon M., and the young king.
+Sir Edward Hughes.
+Sledging-parties.
+Small-pox caught by Louis XV.;
+  caught by Madame Adelaide.
+Snow pyramids and obelisks erected, and inscriptions made on them showing
+  the French people's gratitude for the charity displayed by the queen in
+  the winter of 1788-'89.
+Soissons.
+Songs of the Dames de la Halle on the occasion of the birth of the
+  dauphin.
+Sophie Hélène Beatrice, Princess, born July 9th, 1786, died June 9th 1787.
+Sovereign of France, arbitrary powers of the.
+Spain and France form an alliance against the British.
+Spanish squadron destroyed by the British.
+St Anthony's Day.
+St. Cloud, visit of the dauphin and dauphiness to;
+  purchased for the queen.
+St Huruge, Marquis de.
+St. Priest, Count de.
+St. Targeau, M. de.
+St Menehould, the king recognized at, while escaping from France.
+Staël, Baroness de, at the opening of the States;
+  and the queen's last days.
+States-general, need for a meeting of the;
+  opening of the, by Louis XVI., May 5th, 1789;
+  uproar in.
+Statue of Louis XIV., by the Duc de la Feuillade.
+Stedingk, Count de.
+Stormont, Lord.
+Strasburg, reception at.
+Strausse, M.
+Successes of the English in America.
+Suffrein, Bailli de, fights with Sir E. Hughes.
+Sultan of Mysore.
+Supper-parties, court.
+Sutherland, Lady, supplies clothes for the dauphin.
+Sweden, Gustavus III., King of, at the French court;
+  assassination of the King of.
+Swedish nobles received at the French court
+Swiss Guard, under Count d'Hervilly; murder of the.
+
+Taboureau des Reaux.
+Talleyrand, Bishop of Autun.
+Tarouka's, Duka of, wager.
+Taxes imposed on the accession of a king and queen renounced.
+Tea, introduction of, into France
+Temple, the
+Teresa, Maria. See _Maria Teresa_
+Tertre, Duport de.
+Teschen, peace of;
+  Princess of, visits her sister, the queen, in 1786.
+Thanksgiving, public, at the Cathedral of Notre Dame.
+"The Handsome," a name given to the Count Axel de Fersen.
+Theatre, tumult at the.
+Theatres, the dauphin and dauphiness visiting the Parisian.
+Theatricals, private.
+Tison, Madam, and the queen.
+Titles of honor, abolition of.
+Tocqueville's, M. Alexis de, opinion of the feudal system in France.
+Toulan, M., and Marie Antoinette.
+Toulouse, Loménie de Brienne, Archbishop of.
+Tourzel, Marchioness de;
+  the queens writes, intrusting her children to the care of;
+  assumes the name of Madame de Korff.
+Trial of Cardinal de Rohan and others for forgery;
+  of the king, December 11th, 1792.
+Trianon, Little, pavilion of the, given to the queen;
+  the queen at the;
+  parties at the;
+  festivities at the;
+  the queen improving the.
+Tricolor flag adopted in Paris.
+Tronchet, M.
+Tuileries, shabbiness of the, and removal of the court to the.
+Turgot, A.R.J.;
+  dismissal from office.
+Turgy, M.
+
+Usages, French and Austrian.
+
+Valenciennes, a frontier town.
+Valory, M.
+Varennes, the king is arrested at, in his flight from Paris.
+Varicourt, M. de
+Vaudreuil, Count de.
+Vaudreuil, Marquis de.
+Vauguyon, Duc de la.
+Vergennes, Count de.
+Vergniaud, M.
+Vermond, Abbé de.
+Versailles, Marie Antoinette and Louis married at, May 16th, 1770;
+  less frequented;
+  winter of 1779.
+Veto, debates on the;
+  "Monsieur" and "Madame," nicknames to the king and queen.
+Victoire, Princess.
+Vienna, Marie Antoinette, leaving, April 26th, 1770.
+_Ville de Paris_, ship.
+Villette, Marquis de.
+Vincennes, castle at, attacked by the mob.
+Violence of the Parliament.
+Viscount Matthieu de Montmorency.
+Volatile character of the queen.
+Voltaire's remark about the maritime superiority of England; return to
+  France, and his death.
+
+Walpole's, Horace, observations on the beauty of the queen.
+War of the Grains;
+  the Seven Years';
+  the American;
+  between France and England;
+  declared against Austria.
+Water-parties on the Seine.
+West Indies, French successes in the.
+Winter of 1783, severity of;
+  of 1788-89, much distress in France in the.
+
+
+The End
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life of Marie Antoinette, Queen of
+France, by Charles Duke Yonge
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10555 ***
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #10555 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10555)
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life of Marie Antoinette, Queen of
+France, by Charles Duke Yonge
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Life of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France
+
+Author: Charles Duke Yonge
+
+Release Date: January 1, 2004 [EBook #10555]
+[Date last updated: October 8, 2005]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARIE ANTOINETTE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Anne Soulard, Michigan University, Joshua Hutchinson and
+the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Marie Antoinette]
+
+THE LIFE OF MARIE ANTOINETTE, QUEEN OF FRANCE.
+
+BY CHARLES DUKE YONGE
+
+
+1876
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+The principal authorities for the following work are the four volumes of
+Correspondence published by M. Arneth, and the six volumes published by M.
+Feuillet de Conches. M. Arneth's two collections[1] contain not only a
+number of letters which passed between the queen, her mother the Empress-
+queen (Maria Teresa), and her brothers Joseph and Leopold, who
+successively became emperors after the death of their father; but also a
+regular series of letters from the imperial embassador at Paris, the Count
+Mercy d'Argenteau, which may almost be said to form a complete history of
+the court of France, especially in all the transactions in which Marie
+Antoinette, whether as dauphiness or queen, was concerned, till the death
+of Maria Teresa, at Christmas, 1780. The correspondence with her two
+brothers, the emperors Joseph and Leopold, only ceases with the death of
+the latter in March, 1792.
+
+The collection published by M. Feuillet de Conches[2] has been vehemently
+attacked, as containing a series of clever forgeries rather than of
+genuine letters. And there does seem reason to believe that in a few
+instances, chiefly in the earlier portion of the correspondence, the
+critical acuteness of the editor was imposed upon, and that some of the
+letters inserted were not written by the persons alleged to be the
+authors. But of the majority of the letters there seems no solid ground
+for questioning the authenticity. Indeed, in the later and more important
+portion of the correspondence, that which belongs to the period after the
+death of the Empress-queen, the genuineness of the Queen's letters is
+continually supported by the collection of M. Arneth, who has himself
+published many of them, having found them in the archives at Vienna, where
+M.F. de Conches had previously copied them,[3] and who refers to others,
+the publication of which did not come within his own plan. M. Feuillet de
+Conches' work also contains narratives of some of the most important
+transactions after the commencement of the Revolution, which are of great
+value, as having been compiled from authentic sources.
+
+Besides these collections, the author has consulted the lives of Marie
+Antoinette by Montjoye, Lafont d'Aussonne, Chambrier, and the MM.
+Goncourt; "La Vraie Marie Antoinette" of M. Lescure; the Memoirs of Mme.
+Campan, Cléry, Hue, the Duchesse d'Angoulême, Bertrand de Moleville
+("Mémoires Particuliers"), the Comte de Tilly, the Baron de Besenval, the
+Marquis de la Fayette, the Marquise de Créquy, the Princess Lamballe; the
+"Souvenirs de Quarante Ans," by Mlle. de Tourzel; the "Diary" of M. de
+Viel Castel; the correspondence of Mme. du Deffand; the account of the
+affair of the necklace by M. de Campardon; the very valuable
+correspondence between the Count de la Marck and Mirabeau, which also
+contains a narrative by the Count de la Marck of many very important
+incidents; Dumont's "Souvenirs sur Mirabeau;" "Beaumarchais et son Temps,"
+by M. de Loménie; "Gustavus III. et la Cour de Paris," by M. Geoffroy;
+the first seven volumes of the Histoire de la Terreur, by M. Mortimer
+Ternaux; Dr. Moore's journal of his visit to France, and view of the
+French Revolution; and a great number of other works in which there is
+cursory mention of different incidents, especially in the earlier part of
+the Revolution; such as the journals of Arthur Young, Madame de Staël's
+elaborate treatise on the Revolution; several articles in the last series
+of the "Causeries de Lundi," by Sainte-Beuve, and others in the _Revue des
+Deux Mondes_, etc., etc., and to those may of course be added the regular
+histories of Lacretelle, Sismondi, Martin, and Lamartine's "History of the
+Girondins."
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+Importance of Marie Antoinette in the Revolution.--Value of her
+Correspondence as a Means of estimating her Character.--Her Birth,
+November 2d, 1755.--Epigram of Metastasio.--Habits of the Imperial
+Family.--Schönbrunn.--Death of the Emperor.--Projects for the Marriage of
+the Archduchess.--Her Education.--The Abbé de Vermond.--Metastasio.--
+Gluck.
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+Proposal for the Marriage of Marie Antoinette to the Dauphin.--Early
+Education of the Dauphin.--The Archduchess leaves Vienna in April, 1770.--
+Her Reception at Strasburg.--She meets the King at Compiègne.--The
+Marriage takes place May 16th, 1770.
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+Feelings in Germany and France on the Subject of the Marriage.--Letter of
+Maria Teresa to the Dauphin.--Characters of the Different Members of the
+Royal Family.--Difficulties which beset Marie Antoinette.--Maria Teresa's
+Letter of Advice.--The Comte de Mercy is sent as Embassador to France
+to act as the Adviser of the Dauphiness.--The Princesse de Lorraine at
+the State Ball.--A Great Disaster takes place at the Fire-works in Paris.
+--The Peasant at Fontainebleau.--Marie Antoinette pleases the King.--
+Description of her Personal Appearance.--Mercy's Report of the Impression
+she made on her First Arrival.
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+Marie Antoinette gives her Mother her First Impressions of the Court and
+of her own Position and Prospects.--Court Life at Versailles.--Marie
+Antoinette shows her Dislike of Etiquette.--Character of the Duc
+d'Aiguillon.--Cabals against the Dauphiness.--Jealousy of Mme. du Barri.--
+The Aunts, too, are Jealous of Her.--She becomes more and more Popular.--
+Parties for Donkey-riding.--Scantiness of the Dauphiness's Income.--Her
+Influence over the King.--The Duc de Choiseul is dismissed.--She begins
+to have Great Influence over the Dauphin.
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+Mercy's Correspondence with the Empress.--Distress and Discontent pervade
+France.--Goldsmith predicts a Revolution.--Apathy of the King.--The
+Aunts mislead Marie Antoinette.--Maria Teresa hears that the Dauphiness
+neglects her German Visitors.--Marriage of the Count de Provence.--Growing
+Preference of Louis XV. for the Dauphiness.--The Dauphiness applies
+herself to Study.--Marie Antoinette becomes a Horsewoman.--Her Kindness
+to all beneath her.--Cabals of the Adherents of the Mistress.--The
+Royal Family become united.--Concerts in the Apartments of the Dauphiness.
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+Marie Antoinette wishes to see Paris.--Intrigues of Madame Adelaide.--
+Characters of the Dauphin and the Count de Provence.--Grand Review at
+Fontainebleau.--Marie Antoinette in the Hunting Field.--Letter from her to
+the Empress. Mischievous Influence of the Dauphin's Aunts on her
+Character.--Letter of Marie Antoinette to the Empress.--Her Affection for
+her Old Home.--The Princes are recalled from Exile.--Lord Stormont.--Great
+Fire at the Hôtel-Dieu.--Liberality of Charity of Marie Antoinette.--She
+goes to the Bal d'Opéra.--Her Feelings about the Partition of Poland.--The
+King discusses Politics with her, and thinks highly of her Ability.
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+Marie Antoinette is anxious for the Maintenance of the Alliance between
+France and Austria.--She, with the Dauphin, makes a State Entry into
+Paris.--The "Dames de la Halle."--She praises the Courtesy of the
+Dauphin.--Her Delight at the Enthusiasm of the Citizens.--She, with the
+Dauphin, goes to the Theatre, and to the Fair of St. Ovide, and to St.
+Cloud.--Is enthusiastically received everywhere.--She learns to drive.
+--She makes some Relaxations in Etiquette.--Marriage of the Comte
+d'Artois.--The King's Health grows Bad.--Visit of Marshal Lacy to
+Versailles.--The King catches the Small-pox.--Madame du Barri quits
+Versailles.--The King dies.
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+The Court leaves Versailles for La Muette.--Feelings of the New
+Sovereigns.--Madame du Barri is sent to a Convent.--Marie Antoinette
+writes to Maria Teresa.--The Good Intentions of the New Sovereigns.--
+Madame Adelaide has the Small-pox.--Anxieties of Maria Teresa.--
+Mischievous Influence of the Aunts.--Position and Influence of the Count
+de Mercy.--Louis consults the Queen on Matters of Policy.--Her Prudence.--
+She begins to Purify the Court, and to relax the Rules of Etiquette.--Her
+Care of her Pages.--The King and she renounce the Gifts of Le Joyeux
+Avénement, and La Ceinture de la Reine.--She procures the Pardon of the
+Duc de Choiseul.
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+The Comte de Provence intrigues against the Queen.--The King gives her the
+Little Trianon.--She lays out an English Garden.--Maria Teresa cautions
+her against Expense.--The King and Queen abolish some of the Old Forms.--
+The Queen endeavors to establish Friendships with some of her Younger
+Ladies.--They abuse her Favor.--Her Eagerness for Amusement.--Louis
+enters into her Views.--Etiquette is abridged.--Private Parties at
+Choisy.--Supper Parties.--Opposition of the Princesses.--Some of the
+Courtiers are dissatisfied at the Relaxation of Etiquette.--Marie
+Antoinette is accused of Austrian Preferences.
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+Settlement of the Queen's Allowance.--Character and Views of Turgot.--She
+induces Gluck to visit Paris.--Performance of his Opera of "Iphigénie
+en Aulide."--The First Encore.--Marie Antoinette advocates the
+Re-establishment of the Parliaments, and receives an Address from them.--
+English Visitors at the Court.--The King is compared to Louis XII. and
+Henri IV.--The Archduke Maximilian visits his Sister.--Factious Conduct of
+the Princes of the Blood.--Anti-Austrian Feeling in Paris.--The War of
+Grains.--The King is crowned at Rheims.--Feelings of Marie Antoinette.--
+Her Improvements at the Trianon.--Her Garden Parties there.--Description
+of her Beauty by Burke, and by Horace Walpole.
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+Tea is introduced.--Horse-racing of Count d'Artois.--Marie Antoinette goes
+to see it.--The Queen's Submissiveness to the Reproofs of the Empress.--
+Birth of the Duc d'Angoulême.--She at times speaks lightly of the King.--
+The Emperor remonstrates with her.--Character of some of the Queen's
+Friends.--The Princess de Lamballe.--The Countess Jules de Polignac.--They
+set the Queen against Turgot.--She procures his Dismissal.--She
+gratifies Madame Polignac's Friends.--Her Regard for the French People.--
+Water Parties on the Seine.--Her Health is Delicate.--Gambling at
+the Palace.
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+Marie Antoinette finds herself in Debt.--Forgeries of her Name are
+committed.--The Queen devotes herself too much to Madame de Polignac and
+others.--Versailles is less frequented.--Remonstrances of the Empress.--
+Volatile Character of the Queen.--She goes to the Bals d'Opéra at Paris.--
+She receives the Duke of Dorset and other English Nobles with Favor.--
+Grand Entertainment given her by the Count de Provence.--Character of
+the Emperor Joseph.--He visits Paris and Versailles.--His Feelings toward
+and Conversations with the King and Queen.--He goes to the Opera.--His
+Opinion of the Queen's Friends.--Marie Antoinette's Letter to the
+Empress on his Departure.--The Emperor leaves her a Letter of Advice.
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+Impressions made on the Queen by the Emperor's Visit.--Mutual Jealousies
+of her Favorites.--The Story of the Chevalier d'Assas.--The Terrace
+Concerts at Versailles.--More Inroads on Etiquette.--Insolence and
+Unpopularity of the Count d'Artois.--Marie Antoinette takes Interest in
+Politics.--France concludes an Alliance with the United States.--Affairs
+of Bavaria.--Character of the Queen's Letters on Politics.--The Queen
+expects to become a Mother.--Voltaire returns to Paris.--The Queen
+declines to receive him.--Misconduct of the Duke of Orléans in the Action
+off Ushant.--The Queen uses her Influence in his Favor.
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+Birth of Madame Royale.--Festivities of Thanksgiving.--The Dames de la
+Halle at the Theatre.--Thanksgiving at Notre Dame.--The King goes to a Bal
+d'Opéra.--The Queen's Carriage breaks down.--Marie Antoinette has the
+Measles.--Her Anxiety about the War.--Retrenchments of Expense.
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+Anglomania in Paris.--The Winter at Versailles.--Hunting.--Private
+Theatricals.--Death of Prince Charles of Lorraine.--Successes of the
+English in America.--Education of the Duc d'Angoulême.--Libelous Attacks
+on the Queen.--Death of the Empress.--Favor shown some of the Swedish
+Nobles.--The Count de Fersen.--Necker retires from Office.--His Character.
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+The Queen expects to be confined again.--Increasing Unpopularity of the
+King's Brothers.--Birth of the Dauphin.--Festivities.--Deputations from
+the Different Trades.--Songs of the Dames de la Halle.--Ball given by the
+Body-guard,--Unwavering Fidelity of the Regiment.--The Queen offers up
+her Thanksgiving at Notre Dame.--Banquet at the Hôtel de Ville.--
+Rejoicings in Paris.
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+Madame de Guimenée resigns the Office of Governess of the Royal
+Children.--Madame de Polignac succeeds her.--Marie Antoinette's Views of
+Education.--Character of Madame Royale.--The Grand Duke Paul and his Grand
+Duchess visit the French Court.--Their Characters.--Entertainments given
+in their Honor.--Insolence of the Cardinal de Rohan.--His Character and
+previous Life.--Grand Festivities at Chantilly.--Events of the War.--
+Rodney defeats De Grasse.--The Siege of Gibraltar fails.--M. de Suffrein
+fights five Drawn Battles with Sir E. Hughes in the Indian Seas.--The
+Queen receives him with Great Honor on his Return.
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+Peace is re-established.--Embarrassments of the Ministry.--Distress of the
+Kingdom.--M. de Calonne becomes Finance Minister.--The Winter of
+1783-'84 is very Severe.--The Queen devotes Large Sums to Charity.--Her
+Political Influence increases.--Correspondence between the Emperor and
+her on European Politics.--The State of France.--The Baron de Breteuil.--
+Her Description of the Character of the King.
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+"The Marriage of Figaro."--Previous History and Character of
+Beaumarchais.--The Performance of the Play is forbidden.--It is said to be
+a little altered.--It is licensed.--Displeasure of the Queen.--Visit of
+Gustavus III. of Sweden.--Fête at the Trianon.--Balloon Ascent.
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+St. Cloud is purchased for the Queen.--Libelous Attacks on her.--Birth of
+the Duc de Normandie.--Joseph presses her to make France support his
+Views in the Low Countries.--The Affair of the Necklace.--Share which the
+Cardinal de Rohan had in it.--The Queen's Indignation at his Acquittal.—
+Subsequent Career of the Cardinal.
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+The King visits Cherbourg.--Rarity of Royal Journeys.--The Princess
+Christine visits the Queen.--Hostility of the Duc d'Orléans to the Queen.
+--Libels on her.--She is called Madame Deficit.--She has a Second
+Daughter, who dies.--Ill Health of the Dauphin.--Unskillfulness and
+Extravagance of Calonne's System of Finance.--Distress of the Kingdom.--He
+assembles the Notables.--They oppose his Plans.--Letters of Marie
+Antoinette on the Subject.--Her Ideas of the English Parliament.--
+Dismissal of Calonne.--Character of Archbishop Loménie de Brienne.--
+Obstinacy of Necker.--The Archbishop is appointed Minister.--The Distress
+increases.--The Notables are dissolved.--Violent Opposition of the
+Parliament.--Resemblance of the French Revolution to the English Rebellion
+of 1642.--Arrest of D'Esprémesnil and Montsabert.
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+Formidable Riots take place in some Provinces.--The Archbishop invites
+Necker to join his Ministry.--Letter of Marie Antoinette describing her
+Interview with the Archbishop, and her Views.--Necker refuses.--The
+Queen sends Messages to Necker.--The Archbishop resigns, and Necker
+becomes Minister.--The Queen's View of his Character.--General Rejoicing.
+--Defects in Necker's Character.--He recalls the Parliament.--Riots in
+Paris.--Severe Winter.--General Distress.--Charities of the King and
+Queen.--Gratitude of the Citizens.--The Princes are concerned in the
+Libels published against the Queen.--Preparations for the Meeting of the
+States-general.--Long Disuse of that Assembly.--Need of Reform.--Vices
+of the Old Feudal System.--Necker's Blunders in the Arrangements for the
+Meeting of the States.--An Edict of the King concedes the Chief Demands
+of the Commons.--Views of the Queen.
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+The Réveillon Riot.--Opening of the States-general.--The Queen is insulted
+by the Partisans of the Duc d'Orléans.--Discussions as to the Number of
+Chambers.--Career and Character of Mirabeau.--Necker rejects his Support.
+--He determines to revenge himself.--Death of the Dauphin.
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+Troops are brought up from the Frontier.--The Assembly petitions the King
+to withdraw them.--He refuses.--Ho dismisses Necker.--The Baron de
+Breteuil is appointed Prime Minister.--Terrible Riots in Paris.--The
+Tricolor Flag is adopted.--Storming of the Bastile and Murder of the
+Governor.--The Count d'Artois and other Princes fly from the Kingdom.--The
+King recalls Necker.--Withdraws the Soldiers and visits Paris.--Formation
+of the National Guard.--Insolence of La Fayette and Bailly.--Madame
+de Tourzel becomes Governess of the Royal Children.--Letters of Marie
+Antoinette on their Character, and on her own Views of Education.
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+Necker resumes Office.--Outrages in the Provinces.--Pusillanimity of the
+Body of the Nation.--Parties in the Assembly.--Views of the
+Constitutionalists or "Plain."--Barnave makes Overtures to the Court.--The
+Queen rejects them.--The Assembly abolishes all Privileges, August
+4th.--Debates on the Veto.--An Attack on Versailles is threatened.--Great
+Scarcity in Paris.--The King sends his Plate to be melted down.--The
+Regiment of Flanders is brought up to Versailles.--A Military Banquet
+is held in the Opera-house.--October 5th, a Mob from Paris marches
+on Versailles.--Blunders of La Fayette.--Ferocity of the Mob on the 5th.
+--Attack on the Palace on the 6th.--Danger and Heroism of the Queen.--The
+Royal Family remove to Paris.--Their Reception at the Barrier and
+at the Hôtel de Ville.--Shabbiness of the Tuileries.--The King fixes his
+Residence there.
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+Feelings of Marie Antoinette on coming to the Tuileries.--Her Tact in
+winning the Hearts of the Common People.--Mirabeau changes his Views.--
+Quarrel between La Fayette and the Duc d'Orléans.--Mirabeau desires to
+offer his Services to the Queen.--Riots in Paris.--Murder of François.--
+The Assembly pass a Vote prohibiting any Member from taking Office.--The
+Emigration.--Death of the Emperor Joseph II.--Investigation into
+the Riots of October.--The Queen refuses to give Evidence.--Violent
+Proceedings in the Assembly.--Execution of the Marquis de Favras.
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+The King accepts the Constitution so far as it has been settled.--The
+Queen makes a Speech to the Deputies.--She is well received at the
+Theatre.--Negotiations with Mirabeau.--The Queen's Views of the Position
+of Affairs.--The Jacobin Club denounces Mirabeau.--Deputation of
+Anacharsis Clootz.--Demolition of the Statue of Louis XIV.--Abolition of
+Titles of Honor.--The Queen admits Mirabeau to an Audience.--His
+Admiration of her Courage and Talents.--Anniversary of the Capture of the
+Bastile.--Fête of the Champ de Mars.--Presence of Mind of the Queen.
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+Great Tumults in the Provinces.--Mutiny in the Marquis de Bouillé's Army.
+--Disorder of the Assembly.--Difficulty of managing Mirabeau.--Mercy is
+removed to The Hague.--Marie Antoinette sees constant Changes in the
+Aspect of Affairs.--Marat denounces Her.--Attempts are made to assassinate
+Her.--Resignation of Mirabeau.--Misconduct of the Emigrant Princes.
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+Louis and Marie Antoinette contemplate Foreign Intervention.--The Assembly
+passes Laws to subordinate the Church to the Civil Power.--Insolence
+of La Fayette.--Marie Antoinette refuses to quit France by Herself.--The
+Jacobins and La Fayette try to revive the Story of the Necklace.--Marie
+Antoinette with her Family.--Flight from Paris is decided on.--The Queen's
+Preparations and Views.--An Oath to observe the new Ecclesiastical
+Constitution is imposed on the Clergy.--The King's Aunts leave France.
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+The Mob attacks the Castle at Vincennes.--La Fayette saves it.--He insults
+the Nobles who come to protect the King.--Perverseness of the Count
+d'Artois and the Emigrants.--Mirabeau dies.--General Sorrow for his
+Death.--He would probably not have been able to arrest the Revolution.--
+The Mob prevent the King from visiting St. Cloud.--The Assembly passes a
+Vote to forbid him to go more than twenty Leagues from Paris.
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+Plans for the Escape of the Royal Family.--Dangers of Discovery.--
+Resolution of the Queen.--The Royal Family leave the Palace.--They are
+recognized at Ste. Menehould.--Are arrested at Varennes.--Tumult in the
+City, and in the Assembly.--The King and Queen are brought back to Paris.
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+Marie Antoinette's Feelings on her Return.--She sees Hopes of
+Improvement.--The 17th of July.--The Assembly inquire into the King's
+Conduct on leaving Paris.--They resolve that there is no Reason for taking
+Proceedings.--Excitement in Foreign Countries.--The Assembly proceeds to
+complete the Constitution.--It declares all the Members Incapable of
+Election to the New Assembly.--Letters of Marie Antoinette to the Emperor
+and to Mercy.--The Declaration of Pilnitz.--The King accepts the
+Constitution.--Insults offered to him at the Festival of the Champ de
+Mars.--And to the Queen at the Theatre.--The First or Constituent Assembly
+is dissolved.
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+Composition of the New Assembly.--Rise of the Girondins.--Their Corruption
+and Eventual Fate.--Vergniaud's Motions against the King.--Favorable
+Reception of the King at the Assembly, and at the Opera.--Changes
+in the Ministry.--The King's and Queen's Language to M. Bertrand de
+Moleville.--The Count de Narbonne.--Pétion is elected Mayor of Paris.--
+Scarcity of Money, and Great Hardships of the Royal  Family.--Presents
+arrive from Tippoo Sahib.--The Dauphin.--The Assembly passes Decrees
+against the Priests and the Emigrants.--Misconduct of the Emigrants.--
+Louis refuses his Assent to the Decrees.--He issues a Circular condemning
+Emigration.
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+Death of Leopold.--Murder of Gustavus of Sweden--Violence of Vergniaud.--
+The Ministers resign.--A Girondin Ministry is appointed.--Character of
+Dumouriez.--Origin of the Name Sans-culottes.--Union of Different Parties
+against the Queen.--War is declared against the Empire.--Operations in
+the Netherlands.--Unskillfulness of La Fayette.--The King falls into a
+State of Torpor.--Fresh Libels on the Queen.--Barnave's Advice.--Dumouriez
+has an Audience of the Queen.--Dissolution of the Constitutional
+Guard.--Formation of a Camp near Paris.--Louis adheres to his Refusal
+to assent to the Decree against the Priests.--Dumouriez resigns his
+Office, and takes command of the Army.
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+The Insurrection of June 20th.
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+Feelings of Marie Antoinette.--Different Plans are formed for her Escape.
+--She hopes for Aid from Austria and Prussia.--La Fayette comes to Paris.
+--His Mismanagement--An Attempt is made to assassinate the Queen.--The
+Motion of Bishop Lamourette.--The Feast of the Federation.--La Fayette
+proposes a Plan for the King's Escape.--Bertrand proposes Another.--Both
+are rejected by the Queen.
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+Preparation for a New Insurrection.--Barbaroux brings up a Gang from
+Marseilles.--The King's last Levee.--The Assembly rejects a Motion for the
+Impeachment of La Fayette.--It removes some Regiments from Paris.--
+Preparations of the Court for Defense.--The 10th of August.--The City
+is in Insurrection.--Murder of Mandat.--Louis reviews the Guards.--He
+takes Refuge with the Assembly.--Massacre of the Swiss Guards.--Sack
+of the Tuileries.--Discussions in the Assembly.--The Royal Authority is
+suspended.
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+Indignities to which the Royal Family are subjected.--They are removed to
+the Temple.--Divisions in the Assembly.--Flight of La Fayette.--Advance
+of the Prussians.--Lady Sutherland supplies the Dauphin with Clothes.--
+Mode of Life in the Temple.--The Massacres of September.--The Death of
+the Princess de Lamballe.--Insults are heaped on the King and Queen.--The
+Trial of the King.--His Last Interview with his Family.--His Death.
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+The Queen is refused Leave to see Cléry.--Madame Royale is taken Ill.--
+Plans are formed for the Queen's Escape by MM. Jarjayes, Toulan, and by
+the Baron de Batz.--Marie Antoinette refuses to leave her Son.--Illness
+of the young King.--Overthrow of the Girondins.--Insanity of the Woman
+Tison.--Kindness of the Queen to her.--Her Son is taken from her, and
+intrusted to Simon.--His Ill-treatment.--The Queen is removed to the
+Conciergerie.--She is tried before the Revolutionary Tribunal.--She is
+condemned.--Her last Letter to the Princess Elizabeth.--Her Death and
+Character.
+
+INDEX
+
+
+
+
+LIFE OF MARIE ANTOINETTE.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+Importance of Marie Antoinette in the Revolution.--Value of her
+Correspondence as a Means of estimating her Character.--Her Birth,
+November 2d, 1755.--Epigram of Metastasio.--Habits of the Imperial
+Family.--Schönbrunn.--Death of the Emperor.--Projects for the Marriage of
+the Archduchess.--Her Education.--The Abbé de Vermond.--Metastasio.--
+Gluck.
+
+
+The most striking event in the annals of modern Europe is unquestionably
+the French Revolution of 1789--a Revolution which, in one sense, may be
+said to be still in progress, but which, is a more limited view, may be
+regarded as having been, consummated by the deposition and murder of the
+sovereign of the country. It is equally undeniable that, during its first
+period, the person who most attracts and rivets attention is the queen.
+One of the moat brilliant of modern French writers[1] has recently
+remarked that, in spite of the number of years which have elapsed since
+the grave closed over the sorrows of Marie Antoinette, and of the almost
+unbroken series of exciting events which have marked the annals of France
+in the interval, the interest excited by her story is as fresh and
+engrossing as ever; that such as Hecuba and Andromache were to the
+ancients, objects never named to inattentive ears, never contemplated
+without lively sympathy, such still is their hapless queen to all honest
+and intelligent Frenchmen. It may even be said that that interest has
+increased of late years. The respectful and remorseful pity which her fate
+could not fail to awaken has been quickened by the publication of her
+correspondence with her family and intimate friends, which has laid bare,
+without disguise, all her inmost thoughts and feelings, her errors as well
+as her good deeds, her weaknesses equally with her virtues. Few, indeed,
+even of those whom the world regards with its highest favor and esteem,
+could endure such an ordeal without some diminution of their fame. Yet it
+is but recording the general verdict of all whose judgment is of value, to
+affirm that Marie Antoinette has triumphantly surmounted it; and that the
+result of a scrutiny as minute and severe as any to which a human being
+has ever been subjected, has been greatly to raise her reputation.
+
+Not that she was one of those paragons whom painters of model heroines
+have delighted to imagine to themselves; one who from childhood gave
+manifest indications of excellence and greatness, and whose whole life was
+but a steady progressive development of its early promise. She was rather
+one in whom adversity brought forth great qualities, her possession of
+which, had her life been one of that unbroken sunshine which is regarded
+by many as the natural and inseparable attendant of royalty, might never
+have been even suspected. We meet with her first, at an age scarcely
+advanced beyond childhood, transported from her school-room to a foreign
+court, as wife to the heir of one of the noblest kingdoms of Europe. And
+in that situation we see her for a while a light-hearted, merry girl,
+annoyed rather than elated by her new magnificence; thoughtless, if not
+frivolous, in her pursuits; fond of dress; eager in her appetite for
+amusement, tempered only by an innate purity of feeling which never
+deserted her; the brightest features of her character being apparently a
+frank affability, and a genuine and active kindness and humanity which
+were displayed to all classes and on all occasions. We see her presently
+as queen, hardly yet arrived at womanhood, little changed in disposition
+or in outward demeanor, though profiting to the utmost by the
+opportunities which her increased power afforded her of proving the
+genuine tenderness of her heart, by munificent and judicious works of
+charity and benevolence; and exerting her authority, if possible, still
+more beneficially by protecting virtue, discountenancing vice, and
+purifying a court whose shameless profligacy had for many generations been
+the scandal of Christendom. It is probable, indeed, that much of her early
+levity was prompted by a desire to drive from her mind disappointments and
+mortifications of which few suspected the existence, but which were only
+the more keenly felt because she was compelled to keep them to herself;
+but it is certain that during the first eight or ten years of her
+residence in France there was little in her habits and conduct, however
+amiable and attractive, which could have led her warmest friends to
+discern in her the high qualities which she was destined to exhibit before
+its close.
+
+Presently, however, she becomes a mother; and in this new relation we
+begin to perceive glimpses of a loftier nature. From the moment of the
+birth of her first child, she performed those new duties which, perhaps
+more than any others, call forth all the best and most peculiar virtues of
+the female heart in such a manner as to add esteem and respect to the
+good-will which her affability and courtesy had already inspired;
+recognizing to the full the claims which the nation had upon her, that
+she should, in person, superintend the education of her children, and
+especially of her son as its future ruler; and discharging that sacred
+duty, not only with the most affectionate solicitude, but also with the
+most admirable judgment.
+
+But years so spent were years of happiness; and, though such may suffice
+to display the amiable virtues, it is by adversity that the grander
+qualities of the head and heart are more strikingly drawn forth. To the
+trials of that stern inquisitress, Marie Antoinette was fully exposed in
+her later years; and not only did she rise above them, but the more
+terrible and unexampled they were, the more conspicuous was the
+superiority of her mind to fortune. It is no exaggeration to say that the
+history of the whole world has preserved no record of greater heroism, in
+either sex, than was shown by Marie Antoinette during the closing years of
+her life. No courage was ever put to the proof by such a variety and such
+an accumulation of dangers and miseries; and no one ever came out of an
+encounter with even far inferior calamities with greater glory. Her moral
+courage and her physical courage were equally tried. It was not only that
+her own life, and lives far dearer to her than her own, were exposed to
+daily and hourly peril, or that to this danger were added repeated
+vexations of hopes baffled and trusts betrayed; but these griefs were
+largely aggravated by the character and conduct of those nearest to her.
+Instead of meeting with counsel and support from her husband and his
+brothers, she had to guide and support Louis himself, and even to find him
+so incurably weak as to be incapable of being kept in the path of wisdom
+by her sagacity, or of deriving vigor from her fortitude; while the
+princes were acting in selfish and disloyal opposition to him, and so, in
+a great degree, sacrificing him and her to their perverse conceit, if we
+may not say to their faithless ambition. She had to think for all, to act
+for all, to struggle for all; and to beat up against the conviction that
+her thoughts, and actions, and struggles were being balked of their effect
+by the very persona for whom she was exerting herself; that she was but
+laboring to save those who would not be saved. Yet, throughout that
+protracted agony of more than four years she bore herself with an
+unswerving righteousness of purpose and an unfaltering fearlessness of
+resolution which could not have been exceeded had she been encouraged by
+the most constant success. And in the last terrible hours, when the
+monsters who had already murdered her husband were preparing the same fate
+for herself, she met their hatred and ferocity with a loftiness of spirit
+which even hopelessness could not subdue. Long before, she had declared
+that she had learned, from the example of her mother, not to fear death;
+and she showed that this was no empty boast when she rose in the last
+scenes of her life as much even above her earlier displays of courage and
+magnanimity as she also rose above the utmost malice of her vile enemies.
+
+    *    *    *    *    *
+
+Marie Antoinette Josèphe Jeanne was the youngest daughter of Francis,
+originally Duke of Lorraine, afterward Grand Duke of Tuscany, and
+eventually Emperor of Germany, and of Maria Teresa, Archduchess of
+Austria, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, more generally known, after the
+attainment of the imperial dignity by her husband in 1745, as the Empress-
+queen. Of her brothers, two, Joseph and Leopold, succeeded in turn to the
+imperial dignity; and one of her sisters, Caroline, became the wife of the
+King of Naples. She was born on the 2d of November, 1755, a day which,
+when her later years were darkened by misfortune, was often referred to as
+having foreshadowed it by its evil omens, since it was that on which the
+terrible earthquake which laid Lisbon in ruins reached its height. But, at
+the time, the Viennese rejoiced too sincerely at every event which could
+contribute to their sovereign's happiness to pay any regard to the
+calamities of another capital, and the courtly poet was but giving
+utterance to the unanimous feeling of her subjects when he spoke of the
+princess's birth as calculated to diffuse universal joy. Daughters had
+been by far the larger part of Maria Teresa's family, so that she was,
+consequently, anxious for another son; and, knowing her wishes, the Duke
+of Tarouka, one of the nobles whom she admitted to her intimacy, laid her
+a small wager that they would be realized by the sex of the expected
+infant. He lost his bet, but felt some embarrassment, in devising a
+graceful mode of paying it. In his perplexity, he sought the advice of the
+celebrated Metastasio, who had been for some time established at Vienna as
+the favorite poet of the court, and the Italian, with the ready wit of his
+country, at once supplied him with a quatrain, which, in her
+disappointment itself, could mid ground for compliment:
+
+  "Io perdei; l' augusta figlia
+  A pagar m' ha condannato;
+  Ma s'è ver che a voi somiglia,
+  Tutto il mondo ha guadagnato."
+
+The customs of the imperial court had undergone a great change since the
+death of Charles VI. It had been pre-eminent for pompous ceremony, which
+was thought to become the dignity of the sovereign who boasted of being
+the representative of the Roman Caesars. But the Lorraine princes had been
+bred up in a simpler fashion; and Francis had an innate dislike to all
+ostentation, while Maria Teresa had her attention too constantly fixed on
+matters of solid importance to have much leisure to spare for the
+consideration of trifles. Both husband and wife greatly preferred to their
+gorgeous palace at Vienna a smaller house which they possessed in the
+neighborhood, called Schönbrunn, where they could lay aside their state,
+and enjoy the unpretending pleasures of domestic and rural life,
+cultivating their garden, and, as far as the imperious calls of public
+affairs would allow them time, watching over the education of their
+children, to whom the example of their own tastes and habits was
+imperceptibly affording the best of all lessons, a preference for simple
+and innocent pleasures.
+
+In this tranquil retreat, the childhood of Marie Antoinette was happily
+passed; her bright looks, which already gave promise of future loveliness,
+her quick intelligence, and her affectionate disposition combining to make
+her the special favorite of her parents. It was she whom Francis, when
+quitting his family in the summer of 1764 for that journey to Innspruck
+which proved his last, specially ordered to be brought to him, saying, as
+if he felt some foreboding of his approaching illness, that he must
+embrace her once more before he departed; and his death, which took place
+before she was nine years old, was the first sorrow which ever brought a
+tear into her eyes.
+
+The superintendence of her vast empire occupied a greater share of Maria
+Teresa's attention than the management of her family. But as Marie
+Antoinette grew up, the Empress-queen's ambition, ever on the watch to
+maintain and augment the prosperity of her country, perceived in her
+child's increasing attractions a prospect of cementing more closely an
+alliance which she had contracted some years before, and on which she
+prided herself the more because it had terminated an enmity of two
+centuries and a half. From the day on which Charles V, prevailed over
+Francis I. in the competition for the imperial crown, the attitude of the
+Emperor of Germany and of the King of France to each other had been one of
+mutual hostility, which, with but rare exceptions, had been greatly in
+favor of the latter country. The very first years of Maria Teresa's own
+reign had been imbittered by the union of France with Prussia in a war
+which had deprived her of an extensive province; and she regarded it as
+one of the great triumphs of Austrian diplomacy to have subsequently won
+over the French ministry to exchange the friendship of Frederick of
+Prussia for her own, and to engage as her ally in a war which had for its
+object the recovery of the lost Silesia. Silesia was not recovered. But
+she still clung to the French alliance as fondly as if the objects which
+she had originally hoped to gain by it had been fully accomplished; and,
+as the heir to the French monarchy was very nearly of the same age as the
+young archduchess, she began to entertain hopes of uniting the two royal
+families by a marriage which should render the union between the two
+nations indissoluble. She mentioned the project to some of the French
+visitors at her court, whom she thought likely to repeat her conversation
+on their return to their own country. She took care that reports of her
+daughter's beauty should from time to time reach the ears of Louis XV. She
+had her picture painted by French artists. She made a proficiency in the
+French language the principal object of her education; bringing over some
+French actors to Vienna to instruct her in the graces of elocution, and
+subsequently establishing as her chief tutor a French ecclesiastic, the
+Abbé de Vermond, a man of extensive learning, of excellent judgment, and
+of most conscientious integrity. The appointment would have been in every
+respect a most fortunate one, had it not been suggested by Loménie de
+Brienne, Archbishop of Toulouse, who thus laid the abbé under an
+obligation which was requited, to the great injury of France, nearly
+twenty years afterward, when M. de Vermond, who still remained about the
+person of his royal mistress, had an opportunity of exerting his influence
+to make the archbishop prime minister.
+
+Not that her studies were confined to French. Metastasio taught her
+Italian; Gluck, whose recently published opera of "Orfeo" had, established
+for him a reputation as one of the greatest musicians of the age, gave her
+lessons on the harpsichord. But we fear it can not be said that she
+obtained any high degree of excellence in these or in any other
+accomplishments. She was not inclined to study; and, with the exception of
+the abbé, her masters and mistresses were too courtly to be peremptory
+with an archduchess. Their favorable reports to the Empress-queen were
+indeed neutralized by the frankness with which their pupil herself
+confessed her idleness and failure to improve. But Maria Teresa was too
+much absorbed in politics to give much heed to the confession, or to
+insist on greater diligence; though at a later day Marie Antoinette
+herself repented of her neglect, and did her best to repair it, taking
+lessons in more than one accomplishment with great perseverance during the
+first years of her residence at Versailles, because, as she expressed
+herself, the dauphiness was bound to take care of the character of the
+archduchess.
+
+There are, however, lessons of greater importance to a child than any
+which are given by even the most accomplished masters--those which flow
+from the example of a virtuous and sensible mother; and those the young
+archduchess showed a greater aptitude for learning. Maria Teresa had set
+an example not only to her own family, but to all sovereigns, among whom
+principles and practices such as hers had hitherto been little recognized,
+of regarding an attention to the personal welfare of all her subjects,
+even of those of the lowest class, as among the most imperative of her
+duties. She had been accessible to all. She had accustomed the peasantry
+to accost her in her walks; she had visited their cottages to inquire into
+and relieve their wants. And the little Antoinette, who, more than any
+other of her children, seems to have taken her for an especial model, had
+thus, from her very earliest childhood, learned to feel a friendly
+interest in the well-doing of the people in general; to think no one too
+lowly for her notice, to sympathize with sorrow, to be indignant at
+injustice and ingratitude, to succor misfortune and distress. And these
+were habits which, as being implanted in her heart, she was not likely to
+forget; but which might be expected rather to gain strength by indulgence,
+and to make her both welcome and useful to any people among whom her lot
+might be cast.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+Proposal for the Marriage of Marie Antoinette to the Dauphin.--Early
+Education of the Dauphin.--The Archduchess leaves Vienna in April, 1770.--
+Her Reception at Strasburg.--She meets the King at Compiègne.--The
+Marriage takes place May 16th, 1770.
+
+
+Royal marriages had been so constantly regarded as affairs of state, to be
+arranged for political reasons, that it had become usual on the Continent
+to betroth princes and princesses to each other at a very early age; and
+it was therefore not considered as denoting any premature impatience on
+the part of either the Empress-queen or the King of France, Louis XV.,
+when, at the beginning of 1769, when Marie Antoinette had but just
+completed her thirteenth year, the Duc de Choiseul, the French Minister
+for Foreign Affairs, who was himself a native of Lorraine, instructed the
+Marquis de Durfort, the French embassador at Vienna, to negotiate with the
+celebrated Austrian prime minister, the Prince de Kaunitz, for her
+marriage to the heir of the French throne, who was not quite fifteen
+months older. Louis XV. had had several daughters, but only one son. That
+son, born in 1729, had been married at the age of fifteen to a Spanish
+infanta, who, within a year of her marriage, died in her confinement, and
+whom he replaced in a few months by a daughter of Augustus III., King of
+Saxony. His second wife bore him four sons and two daughters. The eldest
+son, the Duc de Bourgogne, who was born in 1750, and was generally
+regarded as a child of great promise, died in his eleventh year; and when
+he himself died in 1765, his second son, previously known as the Duc de
+Berri, succeeded him in his title of dauphin. This prince, now the suitor
+of the archduchess, had been born on the 23d of August, 1754, and was
+therefore not quite fifteen. As yet but little was known of him. Very
+little pains had been taken with his education; his governor, the Duc de
+la Vauguyon, was a man who had been appointed to that most important post
+by the cabals of the infamous mistress and parasites who formed the court
+of Louis XV., without one qualification for the discharge of its duties. A
+servile, intriguing spirit had alone recommended him to his patrons, while
+his frivolous indolence was in harmony with the inclinations of the king
+himself, who, worn out with a long course of profligacy, had no longer
+sufficient energy even for vice. Under such a governor, the young prince
+had but little chance of receiving a wholesome education, even if there
+was not a settled design to enfeeble his mind by neglect.
+
+His father had been a man of a character very different from that of the
+king. By a sort of natural reaction or silent protest against the infamies
+which he saw around him, he had cherished a serious and devout
+disposition, and had observed a conduct of the most rigorous virtue. He
+was even suspected of regarding the Jesuits with especial favor, and was
+believed to have formed plans for the reformation of morals, and perhaps
+of the State. It was not strange that, on the first news of the illness
+which proved fatal to him, the people flocked to the churches with prayers
+for his recovery, and that his death was regarded by all the right-
+thinking portion of the community as a national calamity. But the
+courtiers, who had regarded his approaching reign with not unnatural
+alarm, hailed his removal with joy, and were, above all things, anxious to
+prevent his son, who had now become the heir to the crown, from following
+such a path as the father had marked out for himself. The negligence of
+some, thus combining with the deliberate malice of others, and aided by
+peculiarities in the constitution and disposition of the young prince
+himself, which became more and more marked as he grew up, exercised a
+pernicious influence on his boyhood. Not only was his education in the
+ordinary branches of youthful knowledge neglected, but no care was even
+taken to cultivate his taste or to polish his manners, though a certain
+delicacy of taste and refinement of manners were regarded by the
+courtiers, and by Louis XV. himself, as the pre-eminent distinction of his
+reign. He was kept studiously in the background, discountenanced and
+depressed, till he contracted an awkward timidity and reserve which
+throughout his life he could never shake off; while a still more
+unfortunate defect, which was another result of this system, was an
+inability to think or decide for himself, or even to act steadily on the
+advice of others after he had professed to adopt it.
+
+But these deficiencies in his character had as yet hardly had time to
+display themselves; and, had they been ever so notorious, they were not of
+a nature to divert Maria Teresa from her purpose. For her political
+objects, it would not, perhaps, have seemed to her altogether undesirable
+that the future sovereign of France should be likely to rely on the
+judgment and to submit to the influence of another, so long as the person
+who should have the best opportunity of influencing him was her own
+daughter. A negotiation for the success of which both parties were equally
+anxious did not require a long time for its conclusion; and by the
+beginning of July, 1769, all the preliminaries were arranged; the French
+newspapers were authorized to allude to the marriage, and to speak of the
+diligence with which preparations for it were being made in both
+countries; those in which the French king took the greatest interest being
+the building of some carriages of extraordinary magnificence, to receive
+the archduchess as soon as she should have arrived on French ground; while
+those which were being made in Germany indicated a more elementary state
+of civilization, as the first requisite appeared to be to put the roads
+between Vienna and the frontier in a state of repair, to prevent the
+journey from being too fatiguing.
+
+By the spring of the next year all the necessary preparations had been
+completed; and on the evening of the 10th of April, 1770, a grand court
+was held in the Palace of Vienna. Through a double row of guards of the
+palace, of body-guards, and of a still more select guard, composed wholly
+of nobles, M. de Durfort was conducted into the presence of the Emperor
+Joseph II., and of his widowed mother, the Empress-queen, still, though
+only dowager-empress, the independent sovereign of her own hereditary
+dominions; and to both he proffered, on the part of the King of France, a
+formal request for the hand of the Archduchess Marie Antoinette for the
+dauphin. When the Emperor and Empress had given their gracious consent to
+the demand, the archduchess herself was summoned to the hall and informed
+of the proposal which had been made, and of the approval which her mother
+and her brother had announced; while, to incline her also to regard it
+with equal favor, the embassador presented her with a letter from her
+intended husband, and with his miniature, which she at once hung round her
+neck. After which, the whole party adjourned to the private theatre of the
+palace to witness the performance of a French play, "The Confident Mother"
+of Marivaux, the title of which, so emblematic of the feelings of Maria
+Teresa, may probably have procured it the honor of selection.
+
+The next day the young princess executed a formal renunciation of all
+right of succession to any part of her mother's dominions which might at
+any time devolve on her; though the number of her brothers and elder
+sisters rendered any such occurrence in the highest degree improbable, and
+though one conspicuous precedent in the history of both countries had,
+within the memory of persons still living, proved the worthlessness of
+such renunciations.[1] A few days were then devoted to appropriate
+festivities. That which is most especially mentioned by the chroniclers of
+the court being, in accordance with the prevailing taste of the time, a
+grand masked ball,[2] for which a saloon four hundred feet long had been
+expressly constructed. And on the 26th of April the young bride quit her
+home, the mother from whom she had never been separated, and the friends
+and playmates among whom her whole life had been hitherto passed, for a
+country which was wholly strange to her, and in which she had not as yet a
+single acquaintance. Her very husband, to whom she was to be confided, she
+had never seen.
+
+Though both mother and daughter felt the most entire confidence that the
+new position, on which she was about to enter, would be full of nothing
+but glory and happiness, it was inevitable that they should be, as they
+were, deeply agitated at so complete a separation. And, if we may believe
+the testimony of witnesses who were at Vienna at the time,[3] the grief of
+the mother, who was never to see her child again, was shared not only by
+the members of the imperial household, whom constant intercourse had
+enabled to know and appreciate her amiable qualities, but by the
+population of the capital and the surrounding districts, all of whom had
+heard of her numerous acts of kindness and benevolence, which, young as
+she was, many of them had also experienced, and who thronged the streets
+along which she passed on her departure, mingling tears of genuine sorrow
+with their acclamations, and following her carriage to the outermost gate
+of the city that they might gaze their last on the darling of many hearts.
+
+Kehl was the last German town through which she was to pass, Strasburg was
+the first French city which was to receive her, and, as the islands which
+dot the Rhine at that portion of the noble boundary river were regarded as
+a kind of neutral ground, the French monarch had selected the principal
+one to be occupied by a pavilion built for the purpose and decorated with
+great magnificence, that it might serve for another stage of the wedding
+ceremony. In this pavilion she was to cease to be German, and was to
+become French; she was to bid farewell to her Austrian attendants, and to
+receive into her service the French officers of her household, male and
+female, who were to replace them. She was even to divest herself of every
+article of her German attire, and to apparel herself anew in garments of
+French manufacture sent from Paris. The pavilion was divided into two
+compartments. In the chief apartment of the German division, the Austrian
+officials who had escorted her so far formally resigned their charge, and
+surrendered her to the Comte de Noailles, who had been appointed
+embassador extraordinary to receive her; and, when all the deeds necessary
+to release from their responsibly the German nobles whose duties were now
+terminated had been duly signed, the doors were thrown open, and Marie
+Antoinette passed into the French division, as a French princess, to
+receive the homage of a splendid train of French courtiers, who were
+waiting in loyal eagerness to offer their first salutations to their new
+mistress. Yet, as if at every period of her life she was to be beset with
+omens, the celebrated German writer, Goethe, who was at that time pursuing
+his studies at Strasburg, perceived one which he regarded as of most
+inauspicious significance in the tapestry which decorated the walls of the
+chief saloon. It represented the history of Jason and Medea. On one side
+was portrayed the king's bride in the agonies of death; on the other, the
+royal father was bewailing his murdered children. Above them both, Medea
+was fleeing away in a car drawn by fire-breathing dragons, and driven by
+the Furies; and the youthful poet could not avoid reflecting that a record
+of the most miserable union that even the ancient mythology had recorded
+was a singularly inappropriate and ill-omened ornament for nuptial
+festivities.[4]
+
+A bridge reached from the island to the left bank of the river; and, on
+quitting the pavilion, the archduchess found the carriages, which had been
+built for her in Paris, ready to receive her, that she might make her
+state entry into Strasburg. They were marvels of the coach-maker's art.
+The prime minister himself had furnished the designs, and they had
+attracted the curiosity of the fashionable world in Paris throughout the
+winter. One was covered with crimson velvet, having pictures, emblematical
+of the four seasons, embroidered in gold on the principal panels; on the
+other the velvet was blue, and the elements took the place of the seasons;
+while the roof of each was surmounted by nosegays of flowers, carved in
+gold, enameled in appropriate colors, and wrought with such exquisite
+delicacy that every movement of the carriage, or even the lightest breeze,
+caused them to wave as if they were the natural produce of the garden.[5]
+
+In this superb conveyance Marie Antoinette passed on under a succession of
+triumphal arches to the gates of Strasburg, which, on this auspicious
+occasion, seemed as if it desired to put itself forward as the
+representative of the joy of the whole nation by the splendid cordiality
+of its welcome. Whole regiments of cavalry, drawn up in line of battle,
+received her with a grand salute as she advanced. Battery after battery
+pealed forth along the whole extent of the vast ramparts; the bells of
+every church rang out a festive peal; fountains ran with wine in the Grand
+Square. She proceeded to the episcopal palace, where the archbishop, the
+Cardinal de Rohan, with his coadjutor, the Prince Louis de Rohan (a man
+afterward rendered unhappily notorious by his complicity in a vile
+conspiracy against her) received her at the head of the most august
+chapter that the whole land could produce, the counts of the cathedral, as
+they were styled; the Prince of Lorraine being the grand dean, the
+Archbishop of Bordeaux the grand provost, and not one post in the chapter
+being filled by any one below the rank of count. She held a court for the
+reception of all the female nobility of the province. She dined publicly
+in state; a procession of the municipal magistrates presented her a sample
+of the wines of the district; and, as she tasted the luscious offering,
+the coopers celebrated what they called a feast of Bacchus, waving their
+hoops as they danced round the room in grotesque figures.
+
+It was a busy day for her, that first day of her arrival on French soil.
+From the dinner-table she went to the theatre; on quitting the theatre,
+she was driven through the streets to see the illuminations, which made
+every part of the city as bright as at midday, the great square in front
+of the episcopal palace being converted into a complete garden of
+fire-works; and at midnight she attended a ball which the governor of the
+province, the Maréchal de Contades, gave in her honor to all the principal
+inhabitants of the city and district. Quitting Strasburg the next day,
+after a grand reception of the clergy, the nobles, and the magistrates of
+the province, she proceeded by easy stages through Nancy, Châlons, Rheims,
+and Soissons, the whole population of every town through which she passed
+collecting on the road to gaze on her beauty, the renown of which had
+readied the least curious ears; and to receive marks of her affability,
+reports of which were at least as widely spread, in the cheerful eagerness
+with which she threw down the windows of her carriage, and the frank,
+smiling recognition and genuine pleasure with which she replied to their
+enthusiastic acclamations. It was long remembered that, when the students
+of the college at Soissons presented her with a Latin address, she replied
+to them in a sentence or two in the same language.
+
+Soissons was her last resting-place before she was introduced to her new
+family. On the afternoon of Monday, the 14th of May, she quit it for
+Compiègne, which the king and all the court had reached in the course of
+the morning. As she approached the town she was met by the minister, the
+Duc de Choiseul, and he was the precursor of Louis himself, who,
+accompanied by the dauphin and his daughters, and escorted by his gorgeous
+company of the guards of the household,[6] had driven out to receive her.
+She and all her train dismounted from their carriages. Her master of the
+horse and her "knight of honor[7]" took her by the hand and conducted her
+to the royal coach. She sunk on her knee in the performance of her
+respectful homage; but Louis promptly raised her up, and, having embraced
+her with a tenderness which gracefully combined royal dignity with
+paternal affection, and having addressed her in a brief speech,[8] which
+was specially acceptable to her, as containing a well-timed compliment to
+her mother, introduced her to the dauphin; and, when they reached the
+palace, he also presented to her his more distant relatives, the princes
+and princesses of the blood,[9] the Duc d'Orléans and his son, the Duc de
+Chartres, destined hereafter to prove one of the foulest and most
+mischievous of her enemies; the Duc de Bourbon, the Princes of Condé and
+Conti, and one lady whose connection with royalty was Italian rather than
+French, but to whom the acquaintance, commenced on this day, proved the
+cause of a miserable and horrible death, the beautiful Princesse de
+Lamballe.
+
+Compiègne, however, was not to be honored by the marriage ceremony. The
+next morning the whole party started for Versailles, turning out of the
+road, at the express request of the archduchess herself, to pay a brief
+visit to the king's youngest daughter, the Princess Louise, who had taken
+on herself the Carmelite vows, and resided in the Convent of St. Denis.
+The request had been suggested by Choiseul, who was well aware that the
+princess shared the dislike entertained by her more worldly sisters to the
+house of Austria; but it was accepted as a personal compliment by the king
+himself, who was already fascinated by her charms, which, as he affirmed,
+surpassed those of her portrait, and was predisposed to view all her words
+and actions in the most favorable light. Avoiding Paris, which Louis, ever
+since the riots of 1750, had constantly refused to enter, they reached the
+hunting-lodge of La Muette, in the Bois de Boulogne, for supper. Here she
+made the acquaintance of the brothers and sisters of her future husband,
+the Counts of Provence and Artois, both destined, in their turn, to
+succeed him on the throne; of the Princess Clotilde, who may be regarded
+as the most fortunate of her race, in being saved by a foreign marriage
+and an early death from witnessing the worst calamities of her family and
+her native land; of the Princess Elizabeth, who was fated to share them in
+all their bitterness and horror; and (a strangely incongruous sequel to
+the morning visit to the Carmelite convent), the Countess du Barri also
+came into her presence, and was admitted to sup at the royal table; as if,
+even at the very moment when he might have been expected to conduct
+himself with some degree of respectful decency to the pure-minded young
+girl whom he was receiving into his family, Louis XV. was bent on
+exhibiting to the whole world his incurable shamelessness in its most
+offensive form.
+
+At midnight he, with the dauphin, proceeded to Versailles, whither, the
+next morning, the archduchess followed them. And at one o'clock on the
+16th, in the chapel of the palace, the Primate of France, the Archbishop
+of Rheims, performed the marriage ceremony. A canopy of cloth of silver
+was held over the heads of the youthful pair by the bishops of Senlis and
+Chartres. The dauphin, after he had placed the wedding-ring on his bride's
+finger, added, as a token that he endowed her with his worldly wealth, a
+gift of thirteen pieces of gold, which, as well as the ring, had received
+the episcopal benediction, and Marie Antoinette was dauphiness of France.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+Feelings in Germany and France on the Subject of the Marriage.--Letter of
+Maria Teresa to the Dauphin--Characters of the Different Members of the
+Royal Family.--Difficulties which beset Marie Antoinette.--Maria Teresa's
+Letter of Advice.--The Comte de Mercy is sent as Embassador to France
+to act as the Adviser of the Dauphiness.--The Princesse de Lorraine at
+the State Ball.--A Great Disaster takes place at the Fire-works in Paris.
+--The Peasant at Fontainebleau.--Marie Antoinette pleases the King.--
+Description of her Personal Appearance.--Mercy's Report of the Impression
+she made on her First Arrival.
+
+
+The marriage which was thus accomplished was regarded with unmodified
+pleasure by the family of the bride, and with almost equal satisfaction by
+the French king. In spite of the public rejoicings in both countries with
+which it was accompanied, it can not be said to have been equally
+acceptable to the majority of the people of either nation. There was still
+a strong anti-French party at Vienna,[1] and (a circumstance of far
+greater influence on the fortunes of the young couple) there was a strong
+anti-Austrian party in France, which was not without its supporters even
+in the king's palace. That the marriage should have been so earnestly
+desired at the imperial court is a strange instance of the extent to which
+political motives overpowered every other consideration in the mind of the
+great Empress-queen, for she was not ignorant of the real character of the
+French court, of the degree in which it was divided by factions, of the
+base and unworthy intrigues which were its sole business, and of the
+sagacity and address which were requisite for any one who would steer his
+way with safety and honor through its complicated mazes.
+
+Judgment and prudence were not the qualities most naturally to be expected
+in a young princess not yet fifteen years old. The best prospect which
+Marie Antoinette had of surmounting the numerous and varied difficulties
+which beset her lay in the affection which she speedily conceived for her
+husband, and in the sincerity, we can hardly say warmth, with which he
+returned her love. Maria Teresa had bespoken his tenderness for her in a
+letter which she wrote to him on the day on which her daughter left
+Vienna, and which has often been quoted as a composition worthy of her
+alike as a mother and as a Christian sovereign; and as admirably
+calculated to impress the heart of her new son-in-law by claiming his
+attachment for his bride, on the ground of the pains which she had taken
+to make her worthy of her fortune.
+
+"Your bride, my dear dauphin, has just left me. I do hope that she will
+cause your happiness. I have brought her up with the design that she
+should do so, because I have for some time forseen that she would share
+your destiny.
+
+"I have inspired her with an eager desire to do her duty to you, with a
+tender attachment to your person, with a resolution to be attentive to
+think and do every thing which may please you. I have also been most
+careful to enjoin her a tender devotion toward the Master of all
+Sovereigns, being thoroughly persuaded that we are but badly providing for
+the welfare of the nations which are intrusted to us when we fail in our
+duty to Him who breaks sceptres and overthrows thrones according to his
+pleasure.
+
+"I say, then, to you, my dear dauphin, as I say to my daughter: 'Cultivate
+your duties toward God. Seek to cause the happiness of the people over
+whom you will reign (it will be too soon, come when it may). Love the
+king, your grandfather; be humane like him; be always accessible to the
+unfortunate. If you behave in this manner, it is impossible that happiness
+can fail to be your lot.' My daughter will love you, I am certain, because
+I know her. But the more that I answer to you for her affection, and for
+her anxiety to please you, the more earnestly do I entreat you to vow to
+her the most sincere attachment.
+
+"Farewell, my dear dauphin. May you be happy. I am bathed in tears.[2]"
+
+The dauphin did not falsify the hopes thus expressed by the Empress-queen.
+But his was not the character to afford his wife either the advice or
+support which she needed, while, strange to say, he was the only member of
+the royal family to whom she could look for either. The king was not only
+utterly worthless and shameless, but weak and irresolute in the most
+ordinary matters. Even when in the flower and vigor of his age, he had
+never been able to summon courage to give verbal orders or reproofs to his
+own children,[3] but had intimated his pleasure or displeasure by letters.
+He had been gradually falling lower and lower, both in his own vices and
+in the estimation of the world; and was now, still more than when Lord
+Chesterfield first drew his picture,[4] both hated and despised. The
+dauphin's brothers, for such mere boys, were singularly selfish and
+unamiable; and the only female relations of her husband, his aunts, to
+whom, as such, it would have been natural that a young foreigner should
+look for friendship and advice, were not only narrow-minded, intriguing,
+and malicious, but were predisposed to regard her with jealousy as likely
+to interfere with the influence which they had hoped to exert over their
+nephew when he should become their sovereign.
+
+Marie Antoinette had, therefore, difficulties and enemies to contend with
+from the very first commencement of her residence in France. And many even
+of her own virtues were unfavorable to her chances of happiness,
+calculated as they were to lay her at the mercy of her ill-wishers, and to
+deprive her of some of the defenses which might have been found in a
+different temperament. Full of health and spirits, she was naturally eager
+in the pursuit of enjoyment, and anxious to please every one, from feeling
+nothing but kindness toward every one; she was frank, open, and sincere;
+and, being perfectly guileless herself, she was, as through her whole life
+she continued to be, entirely unsuspicious of unfriendliness, much more of
+treachery in others. Her affability and condescension combined with this
+trustful disposition to make her too often the tool of designing and
+grasping courtiers, who sought to gain their own ends at her expense, and
+who presumed on her good-nature and inexperience to make requests which,
+as they well knew, should never have been made, but which they also
+reckoned that she would be unwilling to refuse.
+
+But lest this general amiability and desire to give pleasure to those
+around her might seem to impart a prevailing tinge of weakness to her
+character, it is fair to add that she united to these softer feelings,
+robuster virtues calculated to deserve and to win universal admiration;
+though some of them, never having yet been called forth by circumstances,
+were for a long time unsuspected by the world at large. She had pride--
+pride of birth, pride of rank--though never did that feeling show itself
+more nobly or more beneficially. It never led her to think herself above
+the very meanest of her subjects. It never made her indifferent to the
+interests, to the joys or sorrows, of a single individual. The idea with
+which it inspired her was, that a princess of her race was never to commit
+an unworthy act, was never to fail in purity of virtue, in truth, in
+courage; that she was to be careful to set an example of these virtues to
+those who would naturally look up to her; and that she herself was to keep
+constantly in her mind the example of her illustrious mother, and never,
+by act, or word, or thought, to discredit her mother's name. And as she
+thus regarded courage as her birthright, so she possessed it in abundance
+and in variety. She had courage to plan, and courage to act; courage to
+resolve, and courage to adhere to the resolution once deliberately formed;
+and, above all, courage to endure and to suffer, and, in the very
+extremity of misery, to animate and support others less royally endowed.
+
+Such, then, as she was, with both her manifest and her latent
+excellencies, as well as with those more mixed qualities which had some
+defects mingled with their sweetness, Marie Antoinette, at the age of
+fourteen years and a half, was thrown into a world wholly new to her, to
+guide herself so far by her own discretion that there was no one who had
+both judgment and authority to control her in her line of conduct or in
+any single action. She had, indeed, an adviser whom her mother had
+provided for her, though without allowing her to suspect the nature or
+full extent of the duties which she had imposed upon him. Maria Teresa had
+been in some respects a strict mother, one whom her children in general
+feared almost as much as they loved her; and the rigorous superintendence
+on some points of conduct which she had exercised over Marie Antoinette
+while at home, she was not inclined wholly to resign, even after she had
+made her apparently independent. At the moment of her departure from
+Vienna, she gave her a letter of advice which she entreated her to read
+over every month, and in which the most affectionate and judicious counsel
+is more than once couched in a tone of very authoritative command; the
+whole letter showing not only the most experienced wisdom and the most
+affectionate interest in her daughter's happiness, but likewise a thorough
+insight into her character, so precisely are some of the errors against
+which the letter most emphatically warns her those into which she most
+frequently fell. And she appointed a statesman in whom she deservedly
+placed great confidence, the Count de Mercy-Argenteau, her embassador to
+the court at Versailles, with the express design that he should always be
+at hand to afford the dauphiness his advice in all the difficulties which
+she could not avoid foreseeing for her; and who should also keep the
+Empress-queen herself fully informed of every particular of her conduct,
+and of every transaction by which she was in any way affected. This part
+of his commission was wholly unsuspected by the young princess; but the
+count discharged such portions of the delicate duty thus imposed upon him
+with rare discretion, contriving in its performance to combine the
+strictest fidelity to his imperial mistress with the most entire devotion
+to the interests of his pupil, and to preserve the unqualified regard and
+esteem of both mother and daughter to the end of their lives. Toward the
+latter, as dauphiness, and even as queen, he stood for some years in a
+position very similar to that which Baron Stockmar fills in the history of
+the late Prince Consort of England, being, however, more frequent in his
+admonitions, and occasionally more severe in his reproofs, as the youth
+and inexperience of Marie Antoinette not unnaturally led her into greater
+mistakes than the scrupulous conscientiousness and almost premature
+prudence of the prince consort ever suffered him to commit; and his
+diligent reports to the Empress-queen, amounting at times to a diary of
+the proceedings of the French court, have a lasting and inestimable value,
+since they furnish us with so trustworthy a record of the whole life of
+Marie Antoinette for the first ten years of her residence in France,[5] of
+her actions, her language, and her very thoughts (for she ever scorned to
+give a reason or to make an excuse which was not absolutely and strictly
+true), that there is perhaps no person of historical importance whose
+conduct in every transaction of gravity or interest is more minutely
+known, or whose character there are fuller materials for appreciating.
+
+The very day of her marriage did not pass without her receiving a strange
+specimen of the factious spirit which prevailed at the court, and of the
+hollowness of the welcome with which the chief nobles had greeted her
+arrival. A state ball was given at the palace to celebrate the wedding,
+and as the Princess of Lorraine, a cousin of the Emperor Francis, was the
+only blood-relation of Marie Antoinette who was at Versailles at the time,
+the king assigned her a place in the first quadrille, giving her
+precedence for that occasion, next to the princes of the blood. It did not
+seem a great stretch of courtesy to show to a foreigner, even had she not
+been related to the princess in whose honor the ball was given; but the
+dukes and peers fired up at the arrangement, as if an insult had been
+offered them. They held a meeting at which they resolved that no member of
+their families should attend, and carried out their resolution so
+obstinately that at five o'clock, when the dancing was to commence, except
+the royal princesses there were only three ladies in the room. The king,
+who, following the example of Louis XIV., acted on these occasions as his
+own master of ceremonies, was forced to send special and personal orders
+to some of those who had absented themselves to attend without delay. And
+so by seven o'clock twelve or fourteen couples were collected[6] (the
+number of persons admitted to such entertainments was always extremely
+small), and the rude disloyalty of the protest was to outward appearance
+effaced by the submission of the recusants.
+
+But all the troubles which arose out of the wedding festivities were not
+so easily terminated. Little as was the good-will which subsisted between
+Louis XV. and the Parisians, the civic authorities thought their own
+credit at stake in doing appropriate honor to an occasion so important as
+the marriage of the heir of the monarchy, and on the 30th of May they
+closed a succession of balls and banquets by a display of fire-works, in
+which the ingenuity of the most celebrated artists had been exhausted to
+outshine all previous displays of the sort. Three sides of the Place Louis
+XV. were filled up with pyramids and colonnades. Here dolphins darted out
+many-colored flames from their ever-open mouths. There, rivers of fire
+poured forth cascades spangled with all the variegated brilliancy with
+which the chemist's art can embellish the work of the pyrotechnist. The
+centre was occupied with a gorgeous Temple of Hymen, which seemed to lean
+for support on the well-known statue of the king, in front of which it was
+constructed; and which was, as it were, to be carried up to the skies by
+above three thousand rockets and fire-balls into which it was intended to
+dissolve. The whole square was packed with spectators, the pedestrians in
+front, the carriages in the rear, when one of the explosions set fire to a
+portion of the platforms on which the different figures had been
+constructed. At first the increase of the blaze was regarded only as an
+ingenious surprise on the part of the artist. But soon it became clear
+that the conflagration was undesigned and real; panic-succeeded to
+delight, and the terror-stricken crowd, seeing themselves surrounded with
+flames, began to make frantic efforts to escape from the danger; but there
+was only one side of the square uninclosed, and that was blocked up by
+carriages. The uproar and the glare made the horses unmanageable, and in a
+few moments the whole mass, human beings and animals, was mingled in
+helpless confusion, making flight impossible by their very eagerness to
+fly, and trampling one another underfoot in bewildered misery. Of those
+who did succeed in extricating themselves from the square, half made their
+way to the road which runs along the bank of the river, and found that
+they had only exchanged one danger for another, which, though of an
+opposite character, was equally destructive. Still overwhelmed with
+terror, though the first peril was over, the fugitives pushed one another
+into the stream, in which great numbers were drowned. The number of the
+killed could never be accurately ascertained: but no calculation estimated
+the number of those who perished at less than six hundred, while those who
+were grievously injured were at least as many more.
+
+The dauphin and dauphiness were deeply shocked by a disaster so painfully
+at variance with their own happiness, which, in one sense, had caused it.
+Their first thought was, as far as they might be able, to mitigate it.
+Most of the victims were of the poorer class, the grief of whose surviving
+relatives was, in many instances, aggravated by the loss of the means of
+livelihood which the labors of those who had been cut off had hitherto
+supplied; and, to give temporary succor to this distress, the dauphin and
+dauphiness at once drew out from the royal treasury the sums allowed to
+them for their private expenses for the month, and sent the money to the
+municipal authorities to be applied to the relief of the sufferers. But
+Marie Antoinette did more. She felt that to give money only was but cold
+benevolence; and she made personal visits to many of those families which
+had been most grievously afflicted, showing the sincerity of her sympathy
+by the touching kindness of her language, and by the tears which she
+mingled with those of the widow and the orphan.[7] Such unmerited kindness
+made a deep impression on the citizens. Since the time of Henry IV. no
+prince had ever shown the slightest interest in the happiness or misery of
+the lower classes; and the feeling of affectionate gratitude which this
+unprecedented recognition of their claims to be sympathized with as
+fellow-creatures awakened was fixed still more deeply in their hearts a
+short time afterward, when, at one of the hunting-parties which took place
+at Fontainebleau, the stag charged a crowd of the spectators and severely
+wounded a peasant with his horns. Marie Antoinette sprung to the ground at
+the sight, helped to bind up the wound, and had the man driven in her own
+carriage to his cabin, whither she followed him herself to see that every
+proper attention was paid to him.[8] And the affection which she thus
+inspired among the poor was fully shared by the chief personage in the
+kingdom, the sovereign himself. A life of profligacy had not rendered
+Louis wholly insensible to the superior attractions of innocence and
+virtue. Perhaps a secret sense of shame at the slavery in which his vices
+held him, and which, as he well knew, excited the contempt of even his
+most dissolute courtiers, though he had not sufficient energy to shake it
+off, may have for a moment quickened his better feelings; and the fresh
+beauty of the young princess, who, from the first moment of her arrival at
+the court, treated him with the most affectionate and caressing respect,
+awakened in him a genuine admiration and good-will. He praised her beauty
+and her grace to all his nobles with a warmth that excited the jealousy of
+his infamous mistress, the Countess du Barri. He made allowance for some
+childishness of manner as natural at her age,[9] showed an anxiety for
+every thing which could amuse or gratify her, which afforded a marked
+contrast to his ordinary apathy. And, though in so young a girl it was
+rather the promise of future beauty than its developed perfection that her
+feat-* as yet presented, they already exhibited sufficient charms to
+exempt those who extolled them from the suspicion of flattery. A clear and
+open forehead, a delicately cut nose, a complexion of dazzling brilliancy,
+with bright blue eyes, whose ever-varying lustre seemed equally calculated
+to show every feeling which could move her heart; which could, at times
+seem almost fierce with anger, indignation, or contempt, but whose
+prevailing expression was that of kindly benevolence or light-hearted
+mirth were united with a figure of exquisite proportions, sufficiently
+tall for dignity, though as yet, of course, slight and unformed, and every
+movement of which was directed by a grace that could neither be taught nor
+imitated. If any defect could be discovered in her face, it consisted in a
+somewhat undue thickness of the lips, especially of the lower lip, which
+had for some generations been the prevailing characteristic of her family.
+
+Accordingly, a month after her marriage, Mercy could report to Maria
+Teresa that she had had complete success, and was a universal favorite;
+that, besides the king, who openly expressed his satisfaction, she had won
+the heart of the dauphin, who had been very unqualified in the language in
+which he had praised both her beauty and her agreeable qualities to his
+aunts; and that even those princesses were "enchanted" with her. The whole
+court, and the people in general, extolled her affability, and the
+graciousness with which she said kind things to all who approached her.
+Though the well-informed embassador had already discovered signs of the
+cabals which the mistress and her partisans were forming against her, and
+had been rendered a little uneasy by the handle which she had more than
+once afforded to her secret enemies, when, "in gayety of heart and without
+the slightest ill-will," she had allowed herself to jest on some persons
+and circumstances which struck her as ridiculous, her jests being seasoned
+with a wit and piquancy which rendered them keener to those who were their
+objects, and more so mischievous to herself. He especially praised the
+unaffected dignity with which she had received the mistress who had
+attended in her apartments to pay her court, though in no respect deceived
+as to the lady's disposition, her penetration into the characters of all
+with whom she had been brought into contact, denoting, as it struck him,
+"a sagacity" which, at her age, was "truly astonishing.[10]"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+Marie Antoinette gives her Mother her First Impressions of the Court and
+of her own Position and Prospects.--Court Life at Versailles.--Marie
+Antoinette shows her Dislike of Etiquette.--Character of the Duc
+d'Aiguillon.--Cabals against the Dauphiness.--Jealousy of Mme. du Barri.--
+The Aunts, too, are Jealous of Her.--She becomes more and more Popular.--
+Parties for Donkey-riding.--Scantiness of the Dauphiness's Income.--Her
+Influence over the King.--The Duc de Choiseul is dismissed.--She begins
+to have Great Influence over the Dauphin.
+
+
+Marie Antoinette herself was inclined to be delighted with all that befell
+her, and to make light of what she could hardly regard as pleasant or
+becoming; and two of her first letters to her mother, written in the early
+part of July,[1] give us an insight into the feelings with which she
+regarded her new family and her own position, as well as a picture of her
+daily occupations and of the singular customs of the French court,
+strangely inconsistent in what it permitted and in what it disallowed,
+and, in the publicity in which its princes lived, curiously incompatible
+with ordinary ideas of comfort and even delicacy.
+
+"The king," she says, "is full of kindnesses toward me, and I love him
+tenderly. But it is pitiable to see his weakness for Madame du Barri, who
+is the silliest and most impertinent creature that it is possible to
+conceive. She has played with us every evening at Marly,[2] and she has
+twice been seated next to me; but she has not spoken to me, and I have not
+attempted to engage in conversation with her; but, when it was necessary,
+I have said a word or two to her.
+
+"As for my dear husband, he is greatly changed, and in a most advantageous
+manner. He shows a great deal of affection for me, and is even beginning
+to treat me with great confidence. He certainly does not like M. de la,
+Vauguyon; but he is afraid of him. A curious thing happened about the duke
+the other day. I was alone with my husband, when M. de la Vauguyon stole
+hurriedly up to the doors to listen. A servant, who was either a fool or a
+very honest man, opened the door, and there stood his grace the duke
+planted like a sentinel, without being able to retreat. I pointed out to
+my husband the inconvenience that there was in having people listening at
+the doors, and he took my remark very well."
+
+She did not tell the empress the whole of this occurrence; she had been
+too indignant at the duke's meanness to suppress her feelings, and she
+reproved the duke himself with a severity which can hardly be said to have
+been misplaced.
+
+"Duke de la Vauguyon," she said, "my lord the dauphin is now of an age to
+dispense with a governor; and I have no need of a spy. I beg you not to
+appear again in my presence.[3]"
+
+Between the writing of her first and second letters she had heard from
+Maria Teresa; and she "can not describe how the affection her mother
+expresses for her has gone to her heart. Every letter which she has
+received has filled her eyes with tears of regret at being separated from
+so tender and loving a mother, and, happy as she is in France, she would
+give the world to see her family again, if it were but for a moment. As
+her mother wishes to know how the days are passed; she gets up between
+nine and ten, and, having dressed herself and said her morning prayers,
+she breakfasts, and then she goes to the apartments of her aunts, whose
+she usually finds the king. That lasts till half-past ten; then at eleven
+she has her hair dressed.
+
+"At twelve," she proceeds to say, "what is called the Chamber is held, and
+there every one who does not belong to the common people may enter. I put
+on my rouge and wash my hands before all the world; the men go out, and
+the women remain; and then I dress myself in their presence. Then comes
+mass. If the king is at Versailles, I go to mass with him, my husband, and
+my aunts; if he is not there, I go alone with the dauphin, but always at
+the same hour. After mass we two dine by ourselves in the presence of all
+the world; but dinner is over by half-past one, as we both eat very fast.
+From the dinner-table I go to the dauphin's apartments, and if he has
+business, I return to my own rooms, where I read, write, or work; for I am
+making a waistcoat for the king, which gets on but slowly, though, I
+trust, with God's grace, it will be finished before many years are over.
+At three o'clock I go again to visit my aunts, and the king comes to them
+at the same hour. At four the abbé[4] comes to me, and at five I have
+every day either my harpsichord-master or my singing-master till six. At
+half-past six I go almost every day to my aunts, except when I go out
+walking. And you must understand that when I go to visit my aunts, my
+husband almost always goes with me. At seven we play cards till nine
+o'clock; but when the weather is fine I go out walking, and then there is
+no play in my apartments, but it is held at my aunts'. At nine we sup; and
+when the king is not there, my aunts come to sup with us; but when the
+king is there, we go after supper to their rooms, waiting there for the
+king, who usually comes about a quarter to eleven; and I lie down on a
+grand sofa and go to sleep till he comes. But when he is not there, we go
+to bed at eleven o'clock."
+
+The play-table which is alluded to in these letters was one of the most
+curious and mischievous institutions of the court. Gambling had been one
+of its established vices ever since the time of Henry IV., whose enormous
+losses at play had formed the subject of Sully's most incessant
+remonstrances. And from the beginning of the reign of Louis XIV., a
+gaming-table had formed a regular part of the evening's amusement. It was
+the one thing which was allowed to break down the barrier of etiquette. On
+all other occasions, the rules which regulated who might and who might not
+be admitted to the royal presence were as precise and strict as in many
+cases they were unreasonable and unintelligible. But at the gaming-table
+every one who could make the slightest pretensions to gentle birth was
+allowed to present himself and stake his money; [5] and the leveling
+influence of play was almost as fully exemplified in the king's palace as
+in the ordinary gaming-houses, since, though the presence of royalty so
+far acted as a restraint on the gamblers as to prevent any open explosion,
+accusations of foul play and dishonest tricks were as rife as in the most
+vulgar company.
+
+Marie Antoinette was winning many hearts by her loveliness and affability;
+but she could not scatter her kind speeches and friendly smiles among all
+with whom she came into contact without running counter to the prejudices
+of some of the old courtiers who had been formed on a different system; to
+whom the maintenance of a rigid etiquette was as the very breath of their
+nostrils, and in whose eyes its very first rule and principle was that
+princes should keep all the world at a distance. Foremost among these
+sticklers for old ideas was the Countess de Noailles, her principal "lady
+of honor," whose uneasiness on the subject speedily became so notorious as
+to give rise to numerous court squibs and satirical odes, the authors of
+which seemed glad to compliment the dauphin and to vex her ladyship at the
+same time, but who could not be deterred by these effusions from lecturing
+Marie Antoinette on her disregard of her rank, and on the danger of making
+herself too familiar, till she provoked the young princess into giving her
+the nickname of Madame Etiquette; and, no doubt, in her childish
+playfulness, to utter many a speech and do many an act whose principle
+object was to excite the astonishment or provoke the frowns of the too
+prim lady of honor.
+
+There can be no doubt that, though she often pushed her strictness too
+far, Madame de Noailles to some extent had reason on her side; and that a
+certain degree of ceremony and stately reserve is indispensable in court
+life. It is a penalty which those born in the purple must pay for their
+dignity, that they can have no friend on a perfect equality with
+themselves; and those who in different ages and countries have tried to
+emancipate themselves from this law of their rank have not generally won
+even the respect of those to whom they have condescended, and still less
+the approbation of the outer world, whose members have perhaps a secret
+dislike to see those whom they regard as their own equals lifted above
+them by the familiarity of princes.
+
+This, however, was a matter of comparatively slight importance. An excess
+of condescension is at the worst a venial and an amiable error; but even
+at the early period plots were being contrived against the young princess,
+which, if successful, would have been wholly destructive of her happiness,
+and which, though she was fully aware of them, she had not means by
+herself to disconcert or defeat. They were the more formidable because
+they were partly political, embracing a scheme for the removal of a
+minister, and consequently conciliated more supporters and insured greater
+perseverance than if they had merely aimed at securing a preponderance of
+court favor for the plotters. Like all the other mistresses who had
+successfully reigned in the French courts, Madame du Barri had a party of
+adherents who hoped to rise by her patronage. The Duc de Choiseul himself
+had owed his promotion to her predecessor, Madame de Pompadour, and those
+who hoped to supplant him saw in a similar influence the best prospect of
+attaining their end. One of the least respectable of the French nobles was
+the Duc d'Aiguillon. As Governor of Brittany, he had behaved with
+notorious cowardice in the Seven Years' War. He had since been, if
+possible, still more dishonored by charges of oppression, peculation, and
+subornation, on which the authorities of the province had prosecuted him,
+and which the Parisian Parliament had pronounced to be established. But no
+kind of infamy was a barrier to the favor of Louis XV. He cancelled the
+resolution of the Parliament, and showed such countenance to the culprit
+that d'Aiguillon, who was both ambitious and covetous, conceived the idea
+of supplanting Choiseul in the Government. As one of Choiseul's principal
+measures had been the negotiation of the dauphin's marriage, Marie
+Antoinette was known to regard him with a good-will which was founded on
+gratitude. But, unfortunately, her feelings on this point were not shared
+by her husband; for Choiseul had had notorious differences with his
+father, the late dauphin, and, though it was perfectly certain that that
+prince had died of natural disease, people had been found to whisper in
+his son's ear suspicions that he had been poisoned, and that the minister
+to whom he was unfriendly had been concerned in his death.
+
+The two plots, therefore, to overthrow the minister and to weaken the
+influence of the dauphiness, went hand-in-hand, and, as might have been
+expected from the character of the patroness of both, no means were too
+vile or wicked for the intriguers who had set them on foot. Madame du
+Barri was, indeed, seriously alarmed for the maintenance of her own
+ascendency. The king took such undisguised pleasure in his new
+granddaughter's company, that some of the most experienced courtiers began
+to anticipate that she would soon gain entire influence over him[6]. The
+mistress began, therefore, to disparage her personal charms, never
+speaking of her to Louis ("France," as she generally called him), except
+as "the little blowsy,[7]" while her ally, De la Vauguyon, endeavored to
+further her views by exerting the influence which he mistakenly flattered
+himself that he still retained over the dauphin, to surround her with his
+own creatures. He tried to procure the dismissal of the Abbé de Vermond,
+who, having been, as we have seen, the tutor of Marie Antoinette at
+Vienna, still remained attached to her person as her reader; and whose
+complete knowledge of all the ways of the court, joined to a thorough
+honesty and devoted fidelity to her best interests, rendered his services
+most valuable to his mistress in her new sphere. He sought to recommend a
+creature of his own as her confessor; to obtain for his own daughter the
+appointment of one of her chief ladies; and, with a wickedness peculiar to
+the French court, he even endeavored to imitate the vile arts by which the
+Duc de Richelieu had deprived Marie Leczinska of the affections of the
+king, to alienate the dauphin from his young wife, and to induce him to
+commit himself to the guidance of Madame du Barri. But this part of the
+scheme failed. The dauphin was strangely insensible to the personal charms
+of Marie Antoinette herself, and was wholly inaccessible to any inferior
+temptations; and, as far as the arrangements of the court were concerned,
+the success of the mistress's cabal was limited to procuring the dismissal
+of the mistress of the robes, the Countess de Grammont, for refusing to
+cede to Madame du Barri and some of her friends the place which belonged
+to her office at some private theatricals which were held in the palace.
+
+Louis XIV. had taught his nobles the pernicious notion that an order to
+withdraw from the court was a penal banishment, and his successor now
+banished Madame de Grammont fourteen leagues from Versailles, and for some
+time refused to recall his sentence, though Marie Antoinette herself wrote
+to him to complain of one of her servants being so treated for such a
+cause. She had not, as she reported to her mother, been very willing to
+write, knowing that Madame du Barri read all the king's letters; but Mercy
+had urged her to take the step, thinking it very important that she should
+establish the practice of communicating directly with Louis on all matters
+relating to her own household, and that she should avoid the blunder of
+his daughters, her aunts, whose conduct toward their father had, in his
+opinion, been mischievously timid, and to follow whose example would be
+prejudicial both to her dignity and to her comfort.
+
+The aunts too, and especially the eldest, Madame Adelaide, had schemes of
+their own, which, they also sought to carry out by underhand methods. The
+more conscious they were that they themselves had no influence over their
+father, the less could they endure the chance of their niece acquiring
+any, though it could not have been said to have been established at their
+expense. On the other hand, they had before his marriage had considerable
+power with the dauphin, which they had now but little hope of retaining.
+They saw also that Marie Antoinette had in a few weeks gained a general
+popularity such as they had never won in their whole lives, and on all
+these accounts they were painfully jealous of her. They put ideas and
+plans into her head which they expected to grate upon their father's taste
+or indolence, and then contrived to have them represented or
+misrepresented to him, though he disappointed their malice by regarding
+such things as childish ebullitions natural to a girl of her age, and was
+far more inclined to humor than to reprove her. With the same object, they
+tried to induce her to interfere in appointments in which she had no
+concern; but she remembered her mother's advice, and on this point kept
+steadily in the path which that affectionate adviser had marked out for
+her. They even ventured to make disparaging observations on her manners,
+as inexperienced and unformed, to the dauphin himself, till he silenced
+them by the warmth of his praises alike of her beauty and of her
+disposition; and they were so afraid of any addition to her popularity
+with the nation at large, that, when the city of Paris and the states of
+Languedoc presented her with an address, they recommended her to make no
+reply, assuring her that on similar occasions they themselves had never
+given any answers. Luckily, she had a better adviser, who on this occasion
+was the Abbé de Vermond. He told her truly that in this matter the conduct
+which the older princesses had pursued was a warning, not a pattern: that
+they had made all France discontented; and at his suggestion Marie
+Antoinette gave to each address "an answer full of graciousness, with
+which the public was enchanted."
+
+Thus in the first year of her marriage, by her kindness of heart, guided
+by the advice of Mercy and the abbé, to which she listened with the
+greatest docility, she had won general affection, and had made no enemies
+but those whose enmity was an honor. She was, as she wrote to her mother,
+perfectly happy, though, had she not wished to make the best of matters,
+she was not, in fact, wholly free from disappointments and vexations, some
+of which continued for years to cause her uneasiness and anxiety, though
+others were comparatively trivial or temporary, while one was of an almost
+comical nature.
+
+She had conceived a great desire to learn to ride. Her mother had been a
+great horsewoman; and, as the dauphin, like the king, was passionately
+addicted to hunting, which hitherto she had only witnessed from a
+carriage, Marie Antoinette not unnaturally desired to be mistress of an
+accomplishment which would enable her to give him more of her
+companionship. Unluckily Mercy disapproved of the idea. It is impossible
+to read his correspondence with the empress, and in subsequent years with
+Marie Antoinette herself, without being forcibly impressed with respect
+for his consummate prudence, his sound judgment in matters of public
+policy, and his unswerving fidelity to the interests of both mother and
+daughter. But at the same time it is difficult to avoid seeing that he was
+too little inclined to make allowance for the youthful eagerness for
+amusements which was natural to her age, and that at times he carried his
+supervision into matters on which his statesman-like experience and
+sagacity had hardly qualified him to form an opinion. He was proud of his
+princess's beauty; and, considering himself in charge of her figure as
+well as of her conduct, he had made himself very uneasy by the fancied
+discovery that she was becoming crooked. He was sure that one shoulder was
+growing higher than the other; he earnestly recommended stays, and was
+very much displeased with her aunts for setting her against them, because
+they were not fashionable in Paris. And when the horse exercise was
+proposed, he set his face against it; he wrote to Maria Teresa, who agreed
+with him in thinking it ruinous to the complexion, injurious to the shape,
+and not to be safely indulged in under thirty years of age[8]; and, lest
+distance should weaken the authority of the empress, he enlisted Madame de
+Noailles and Choiseul on his side, and Choiseul persuaded the king that it
+was a very objectionable pastime for a young bride.
+
+There was not as yet the slightest prospect of the dauphiness becoming a
+mother (a circumstance which was, in fact, the most serious of her
+vexations, and that which lasted longest): but the king on this point
+agreed with his minister, and after some discussion a compromise was hit
+upon, and it was decided that she might ride a donkey. The whole country
+was immediately ransacked for a stud of quiet donkeys.[9] In September the
+court moved to Compiègne, and day after day, while the king and the
+dauphin were shooting in one part of the woods, on the other side a
+cavalcade of donkey-riders, the aunts and the king's brothers all swelling
+Marie Antoinette's train, trotted up and down the glades, and sought out
+shady spots for rural luncheons out-of-doors; and, though even this
+pastime was occasionally found liable to as much danger as an expedition
+on nobler steeds, the merry dauphiness contrived to extract amusement for
+herself and her followers from her very disasters. It was long a standing
+joke that on one occasion, when her donkey and herself came down in a soft
+place, her royal highness, before she would allow her attendants to
+extricate her from the mud, bid them go to Madame de Noailles, and ask her
+what the rules of etiquette prescribed when a dauphiness of France failed
+to keep her seat upon a donkey.
+
+She had also another annoyance which was even of a less royal character
+than being doomed to ride on a donkey. She had absolutely no pocket-money.
+For many generations the princes of the country had been accustomed to dip
+their hands so unrestrainedly into the national treasury, that their
+legitimate appointments had been fixed on a very moderate, if not scanty,
+scale; so that any one who, like the dauphin and dauphiness, might be
+scrupulous not to exceed their income (though that scruple had probably
+affected no one before) could not fail to be greatly straitened. The
+allowance of Marie Antoinette was fixed at no higher amount than six
+thousand francs a month; and of this small sum, according to a report
+which, in the course of the autumn, Mercy made to the empress, not a
+single crown really reached the princess for her private use.[10] Nearly
+half of the money was stopped to pay some pensions granted Marie
+Leczinska, with which the dauphiness could by no possibility have the
+slightest concern. Almost as much more was intrusted to the gentlemen of
+her chamber for the expenses of the play table, at which she was expected
+to preside, since there was no queen to discharge that duty; and whether
+her royal highness's cards won or lost, the money equally disappeared,[11]
+and the remainder was distributed in presents to her ladies, at the
+discretion of Madame de Noailles. Had not Maria Teresa, when she first
+quit Vienna, intrusted Mercy with a thousand pounds for her use, and had
+she not herself been singularly economical in her ideas, she would have
+been in the humiliating position of being unable to provide for her own
+most ordinary wants, and, a matter about which she was even more anxious,
+for her constant charities. Yet so inveterate was the mismanagement in
+both the court and the government, that it was some time before Mercy
+could succeed, by the strongest remonstrances supported by clear proofs of
+the real situation of her royal highness, in getting her affairs and her
+resources placed upon a proper footing.
+
+In spite of all the efforts of the cabal, the king's regard for her
+increased daily. He had not for many years been used to being treated with
+respect, and she, not from any artfulness, but from her native propriety
+of feeling, which forbade her ever to forget that he was her husband's
+grandfather and her king, united a tone of the most loyal respect with her
+filial caresses. She called him papa, and even paid him the tacit
+compliment of grounding occasional requests on considerations of humanity
+and justice, little as such motives had ever influenced Louis, and rarely
+as their names had of late been heard in the precincts of the palace. She
+even induced him to pardon Madame de Grammont; insisting on such a
+concession as due to herself, when she demanded it for one of her own
+retinue, till he laughed, and replied, "Madame, your orders shall be
+executed." And the steadiness she thus showed in protecting her own
+servants won her many hearts among the courtiers, at the same time that it
+filled her aunts with astonishment, who, while commending her firmness,
+could not avoid adding that "it was easy to see that she did not belong to
+their race.[12]" And how strong as well as how general was of respect and
+good-will which she had thus diffused was seen in a remarkable manner at
+some of the private theatricals, which were a frequent diversion of the
+king, when the actor, at the end of one of his songs, introduced some
+verses which he had composed in her honor, and the whole body of courtiers
+who were present showed their approbation by a vehement clapping of their
+hands, in defiance of a standing order of the court, which prohibited any
+such demonstrations being made in the sovereign's presence.[13]
+
+It, however, more than counterbalanced these triumphs that, before the end
+of the year, the cabal of the mistress succeeded in procuring the
+dismissal of the Choiseul, and the appointment of the Duc d'Aiguillon as
+minister. For Choiseul had been not only a faithful, but a most judicious,
+friend to her. If others showed too often that they regarded her as a
+foreigner, he only remembered it as a reason for giving her hints as to
+the feelings of the nation or of individuals which a native would not have
+required. And she thankfully acknowledged that his suggestions had always
+been both kind and useful, and expressed her sense of her obligations to
+him, and her concern at his dismissal to her mother, who fully shared her
+feelings on the subject.
+
+And, encouraged by this victory over her most powerful adherent, the cabal
+began to venture to attack Marie Antoinette herself. They surrounded her
+with spies; they even spread a report that Louis had begun to see through
+and to distrust her, in the hope that, when it should reach the king's own
+ears, it might perhaps lay the foundation of the alienation which it
+pretended to assert; and they grew the bolder because the king's next
+brother was about to be married to a Savoyard princess, of whose favor De
+la Vauguyon flattered himself that he was already assured. Under these
+circumstances Marie Antoinette behaved with consummate prudence, as far at
+least as her enemies were concerned. She despised the efforts made to
+lower her in the general estimation so completely that she seemed wholly
+unconscious of them. She did not even allow herself to be provoked into
+treating the authors of the calumnies with additional coldness; but gave
+no handle to any of them to complain of her, so that the critical and
+anxious eyes of Mercy himself found nothing to wish altered in her conduct
+toward them.[14] And throughout the winter she pursued the even tenor of
+her way, making herself chiefly remarkable by almost countless acts of
+charity, which she dispensed with such judgment as showed that they
+proceeded, not from a heedless disregard of money, but from a thoughtful
+and vigilant kindness, which did not think the feelings any more than the
+necessities of the poor beneath her notice.
+
+Circumstances to which she contributed only indirectly enhanced her
+popularity and weakened the effects of the mistress's hostility.
+Versailles had not been so gay for many winters, and the votaries of mere
+amusement, always a strong party at every court, rejoiced at the addition
+to the royal family to whom the gayety was owing. Louis roused himself to
+gratify the young princess, who enlivened his place with the first
+respectable pleasures which it or he had known for years. When he saw that
+she liked dramatic performances, he opened the private theatre of the
+palace twice a week. Because she was fond of dancing, he encouraged her to
+have a weekly ball in her own apartments, at which she herself was the
+principal attraction, not solely by the elegance of her every movement,
+but still more by the graciousness with which she received and treated her
+guests, having a kind smile and an affable word for all, apparently
+forgetting her rank in the frankness of her condescension, yet at the same
+time bearing herself with an innate dignity which prevented the most
+forward from presuming on her kindness or venturing on any undue
+familiarity.[15]
+
+The winter of 1770 was one of unusual severity; and she found resources
+for a further enlivenment of the court in the frost itself. Sledging on
+the snow was an habitual pastime at Vienna, where the cold is more severe
+than at Paris; nor in former years had sledges been wholly unknown in the
+Bois de Boulogne. And now Marie Antoinette, whose hardy habits made
+exercise in the fresh air almost a necessity for her, had sledges built
+for herself and her attendants; and the inhabitants of Versailles and the
+neighborhood, as fond of novelty as all their countrymen, were delighted
+at the merry sledging-parties which, as long as the snow lasted, explored
+the surrounding country, while the woods rang with the horses' bells, and,
+almost as loudly and still more cheerfully, with the laughter of the
+company.
+
+Her liveliness had, as it were, given a new tone to the whole court; and
+though the dauphin held out longer against the genial influence of his
+wife's disposition than most people, it at last in some degree thawed even
+his frigidity. She ascribed his apathy and apparent dislike to female
+society rather to the neglect or malice of his early tutors than to any
+natural defect of capacity or perversity of disposition; and often
+lectured him on his deficiencies, and even on some of his favorite
+pursuits, which she looked upon as contributing to strengthen his shyness
+with ladies. She was not unacquainted with English literature, in which
+the rusticity and coarseness of the fox-hunting squires formed a piquant
+subject for the mirth of dramatists and novelists; and if Squire Western
+had been the type of sportsmen in all countries, she could not have
+inveighed more vigorously than she did against her husband's addiction to
+hunting. One evening, when he did not return from the field till the play
+in the theatre was half over, she not only frowned upon him all the rest
+of the entertainment, but when, after the company had retired, he began to
+enter into an explanation of the cause of his delay, a scene ensued which
+it will be best to give in the very words of Mercy's report to the
+empress.
+
+"The dauphiness made him a short but very energetic sermon, in which she
+represented to him with vivacity all the evils of the uncivilized kind of
+life he was leading. She showed him that no one of his attendants could
+stand that kind of life, and that they would like it the less that his own
+air and rude manners made no amends to those who were attached to his
+train; and that, by following this plan of life, he would end by ruining
+his health and making himself detested. The dauphin received this lecture
+with gentleness and submission, confessed that he was wrong, promised to
+amend, and formally begged her pardon. This circumstance is certainly very
+remarkable, and the more so because the next day people observed that he
+paid the dauphiness much more attention, and behaved toward her with a
+much more lively affection than usual.[16]"
+
+We do not, however, find in reality that the severity of her admonitions
+produced any permanent diminution of his fondness for hunting and
+shooting; but the gentleness of her general manners, and the delight which
+he saw that all around her took in her graciousness, so far excited his
+admiration that he began to follow her example. He said that "she had such
+native grace that every thing which she did succeeded to perfection; that
+it must be admitted that she was charming." And before the end of the
+winter he had come to take an active part both in her Monday balls, and in
+those which her ladies occasionally gave in her honor; "dancing himself
+the whole of the evening, and conversing with all the company with an air
+of cheerfulness and good-nature of which no one before had ever thought
+him capable.[17]" The happy change in his demeanor was universally
+attributed to the dauphiness; and, as the character of their future king
+was naturally watched with anxiety as a matter of the highest importance,
+it greatly increased the attachment of all who had the welfare of the
+nation at heart to the princess, whose general example had produced so
+beneficial an effect.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+Mercy's Correspondence with Empress.--Distress and Discontent pervade
+France.--Goldsmith predicts a Revolution.--Apathy of the King.--The
+Aunts mislead Marie Antoinette.--Maria Teresa hears that the Dauphiness
+neglects her German Visitors.--Marriage of the Count de Provence.--Growing
+Preference of Louis XV. for the Dauphiness.--The Dauphiness applies
+herself to Study.--Marie Antoinette becomes a Horsewoman.--Her Kindness
+to all beneath her.--Cabals of the Adherents of the Mistress.--The
+Royal Family become united.--Concerts in the Apartments of the Dauphiness.
+
+
+Marie Antoinette was not a very zealous or copious letter-writer. Her only
+correspondent In her earlier years was her mother, and even to her her
+letters are less effusive and less full of details than might have been
+expected, one reason for their brevity arising out of the intrigues of the
+court, since she had cause to believe herself so watched and spied upon
+that her very desk was not safe; and, consequently, she never ventured to
+begin a letter to the empress before the morning on which it was to be
+sent, lest it should be read by those for whose eyes it was not intended.
+For our knowledge, therefore, of her acts and feelings at this period of
+her life, we still have to rely principally on Mercy's correspondence,
+which is, however, a sufficiently trustworthy guide, so accurate was his
+information, and so entire the frankness with which she opened herself to
+him on all occasions and on all subjects.
+
+The spring of 1771 opened very unfavorably for the new administration;
+omens of impending dangers were to be seen on all sides. Ten or twelve
+years before, Goldsmith, whose occasional silliness of manner prevented
+him from always obtaining the attention to which his sagacity entitled
+him, had named the growing audacity of the French parliaments as not only
+an indication of the approach of great changes in that country, but as
+likely also to be their moving cause.[1] And they had recently shown such
+determined resistance to the royal authority, that, though in the most
+conspicuous instance of it, their assertion of their right to pronounce an
+independent judgment on the charges brought against the Duc d'Aiguillon,
+they were unquestionably in the right; and though their pretensions were
+supported by almost the whole body of the princes of the blood, some of
+whom were immediately banished for their contumacy, Louis had been
+persuaded to abolish them altogether. And Marie Antoinette, though she
+carefully avoided mixing herself up with politics, was, as she reported to
+her mother,[2] astonished beyond measure at their conduct, which she
+looked upon as arising out of the grossest disloyalty, and which certainly
+indicated the existence of a feeling very dangerous to the maintenance of
+the royal authority on the part of those very men who were most bound to
+uphold it. There was also great and general distress. For a moment in the
+autumn it had been relieved by a fall in the price of bread, which the
+unreasoning gratitude of the populace had attributed to the benevolence of
+the dauphiness; but the severity of the winter had brought it back with
+aggravated intensity till it reached even to the palace, and compelled a
+curtailment of some of the festivities with which it had been intended to
+celebrate the marriage of the Count de Provence, which was fixed for the
+approaching May.
+
+Distress is the sure parent of discontent, unless the people have a very
+complete confidence in their government. And this was so far from being
+the case in France at this time, that the distrust of and contempt for
+those in the highest places increased daily more and more. The influence
+which Madame du Barri exerted over the king became more rooted as he
+became more used to submit to it, and more notorious as he grew more
+shameless in his avowal of it. She felt her power, and her intrigues
+became in the same proportion more busy and more diversified in their
+objects. In the vigorous description of Mercy, Versailles was wholly
+occupied by treachery, hatred, and vengeance; not one feeling of honesty
+or decency remained; while the people, ever quick-witted to perceive the
+vices of their rulers, especially when they are indulged at their expense,
+revenged themselves by bitter and seditious language, and by satires and
+pasquinades in which neither respect nor mercy was shown even to the
+sacred person of the sovereign himself. He was callous to all marks of
+contempt displayed for himself; but was, or was induced to profess
+himself, deeply annoyed at the conduct of the dauphin, who showed a fixed
+aversion for the mistress, which, however, his grandfather did not regard
+as dictated by his own feelings. Louis rather believed that it was
+fostered by Marie Antoinette, and that she, in encouraging her husband,
+was but following the advice of her aunts; and he threatened to
+remonstrate with the dauphiness on the subject, though, as Mercy correctly
+divined, he could not nerve himself to the necessary resolution.
+
+It was true that Marie Antoinette did often allow herself to be far too
+much influenced by those princesses. She confessed to Mercy that she was
+afraid to displease or thwart them; a feeling which he regarded as the
+more unfortunate because, when she was not actuated by that consideration,
+her own judgment and her own impulses would always guide her aright; and
+because, too, the elder princesses were the most unsafe of all advisers.
+They were notoriously jealous of one another, and each at times tried to
+inspire her niece with her feelings toward the other two; and they often,
+without meaning it, played into the hands of the mistress's cabal,
+intriguing for selfish objects of their own with as much malice and
+meanness as could be practiced by Madame du Barri herself.
+
+Still, in spite of these drawbacks, it was almost inevitable that they
+should have great influence over their niece. Their experience might well
+be presumed by her to have given them a correct insight into the ways of
+the court, and the best mode of behaving to their own father; and she, a
+foreigner and almost a child, was not only in need of counsel and
+guidance, but had no one else of her own sex to whom she could so
+naturally look for information or advice. They were, as she explained to
+Mercy, her only society; and, though she was too clear-sighted not to see
+their faults, and not at times to be aware that she was suffering from
+their perverseness, she, like other people, was often compelled to
+tolerate what she could not mend, and to shut her eyes to disagreeable
+qualities when forced to live on terms of intimacy with the possessors.
+
+On this point Maria Teresa was, perhaps, hardly inclined to make
+sufficient allowance for her difficulties, and insisted over and over
+again on the mischief which would arise to her from the habit of
+surrendering her judgment to these princesses. She told her that, though
+far from being devoid of virtues and real merit, "they had never succeeded
+in making themselves loved or esteemed by either their father or the
+public;[3]" and she added other admonitions which, as they were avowedly
+suggested by reports that had reached her, may be taken as indicating some
+errors into which her daughter's lightness of heart had occasionally
+betrayed her. She entreated her not to show an exclusive preference for
+the more youthful portion of her society, to the neglect of those who were
+older, and commonly of higher consideration; never to laugh at people or
+turn them into ridicule--no habit could be more injurious to herself, and
+indulgence in it would give reason to doubt her good-nature; it might gain
+her the applause of a few young people, but it would alienate a much
+greater number, and those the people of the most real weight and
+respectability. "This is not," said the experienced and wise empress, "a
+trivial matter in a princess. We live on the stage of the great world, and
+it is above all things essential that people should entertain a high idea
+of us. If you will only not allow others to lead you astray, you are sure
+of success; a kind Providence has endowed you so liberally with beauty,
+and with so many charms, that all hearts are yours if you are but
+prudent.[4]"
+
+The empress would have had her exhibit this prudence in her conduct also
+to Madame du Barri. She pressed upon her that she was justified in
+appearing ignorant of that lady's real position and character; that she
+need only be aware that she was received at court, and that respect for
+the king should prevent her from suspecting him of countenancing
+undeserving people.
+
+One other detail in the accounts of Marie Antoinette's conduct, which from
+time to time reached Vienna, had also vexed the empress, and it should be
+kept in mind by any one who would fairly estimate the truth of the charge
+brought against her, and urged with such rancor after she had become
+queen--of postponing the interests of France to those of her native land,
+of being Austrian at heart. Maria Teresa had heard, on the contrary, that
+she had given those Austrians who had presented themselves at Versailles
+but a cold reception, and she did not attempt to conceal her discontent.
+With a natural and becoming pride in and jealousy for her own loyal and
+devoted subjects, she entreated her daughter never to feel ashamed of
+them, or ashamed of being German herself, even if, comparatively speaking,
+the name should imply some deficiency in polish. "The French themselves
+would esteem her more if they saw in her something of German solidity and
+frankness.[5]"
+
+The daughter answered the mother with some adroitness. She took no notice
+of the advice about her behavior to Madame du Barri. It was the one topic
+on which her own feelings of propriety, as well as those of the dauphin,
+coincided with the suggestions of the aunts, and she did not desire to vex
+or provoke the empress by a prolonged discussion of the question; but the
+charge of coldness to her own countrymen she denied earnestly. "She should
+always glory in being a German. Some of those nobles whom the empress had
+expressly named she had treated with careful distinction, and had even
+danced with them, though they were not men of the very highest character.
+She well knew that the Germans had many good qualities which she could
+wish that the French shared with them;" and she promised that, whenever
+any of her mother's subjects of such standing and merit as to be worthy of
+her attention came to the court, they should have no cause to complain of
+her reception of them. Her language on the subject is so measured and
+careful as to lead us almost inevitably to the inference that the reports
+which had excited such dissatisfaction at Vienna were not without
+foundation, but that the French gayety, even if often descending to
+frivolity, was more to her taste than the German solidity which her mother
+so highly esteemed, and that she had been at no great pains to hide a
+preference which must naturally he acceptable to those among whom her
+future life was to be spent.
+
+In the middle of May, the Count de Provence was married to the Princess
+Joséphine Louise of Savoy, and the court went to Fontainebleau to receive
+the bride. The necessity for leaving Madame du Barri behind threw the king
+more into the company of the dauphiness than he had been on any previous
+occasion, and her unaffected graces seemed for the moment to have made a
+complete conquest of him. He came in his dressing-gown to her apartments
+for breakfast, and spent a great portion of the day there. The courtiers
+again began to speculate on her breaking down the ascendency of the
+favorite, remarking that, though Louis was careful to pay his new relative
+the honors which, were her due as a stranger and a bride, he returned as
+speedily as he could with decency to the dauphiness as if for relief; and
+that, though she herself took care to put her new sister-in-law forward on
+all occasions, and treated her with the most marked cordiality and
+affection, every one else made the dauphiness the principal object of
+homage even in the festivities which were celebrated in honor of the
+countess. Indeed, it was evident from the very first that any attempt of
+the mistress's cabal to establish a rivalry between the two princesses
+must be out of the question. The Countess de Provence had no beauty, nor
+accomplishments, nor graciousness. Horace Walpole, who was meditating a
+visit to Paris, where he had some diligent correspondents, was told that
+he would lose his senses when he saw the dauphiness, but would be
+disenchanted by her sister; and the saying, though that of a blind old
+lady, expressed the opinion of all Frenchmen who could see.[6]
+
+Indeed, so obvious was the king's partiality for her that even Madame du
+Barri more than once sought to propitiate her by speaking in praise of her
+to Mercy, and professing an eager desire to aid in procuring the
+gratification of any of her wishes. But he was too shrewd and too
+well-informed to place the least confidence in her sincerity, though he
+did not fear half as much harm to his pupil from her enmity as from the
+pretended affection of the aunts, who, from a mixture of folly and
+treachery, were unwearied in their attempts to keep her at a distance
+from the king, by inspiring her with a fear of him, for which his
+disposition, which had as much good-nature in it as was compatible with
+weakness, gave no ground whatever. Indeed, the mischief they did was not
+confined to their influence over her, if Mercy was correct in his belief
+that it was their disagreeable tempers and manners which at this time,
+and for the remainder of the reign, prevented Louis from associating
+more with his family, which, had all been like the dauphiness, he would
+have preferred to do.
+
+It would probably have been in vain that Mercy remonstrated against her
+submitting as she did to the aunts, had he not been at all times able to
+secure the co-operation of the empress, who placed the most implicit
+confidence in his judgment in all matters relating to the French court,
+and remonstrated with her daughter energetically on the want of proper
+self-respect which was implied in her surrendering her own judgment to
+that of the aunts, as if she were a slave or a child. And Marie
+Antoinette replied to her mother in a tone of such mingled submissiveness
+and affection as showed how sincere was her desire to remove every shade
+of annoyance from the empress's mind; and which may, perhaps, lead to a
+suspicion that even her subservience to the aunts proceeded in a great
+degree from her anxiety to win the good-will of every one, and from the
+kindness which could not endure to thwart those with whom she was much
+associated; though at the same time she complained to the ambassador that
+her mother wrote without sufficient knowledge of the difficulties with
+which she was surrounded. But she had too deep an affection and reverence
+for her mother to allow her words to fall to the ground; and gradually
+Mercy began to see a difference in her conduct, and a greater inclination
+to assert her own independence, which was the feeling that above all
+others he thought most desirable to foster in her.
+
+Another topic which we find constantly urged in the empress's letters
+would seem strangely inconsistent with Marie Antoinette's position, if we
+did not remember how very young she still was. For her mother writes to
+her in many respects as if she were still at school, and continually
+inculcates on her the necessity of profiting by De Vermond's instructions,
+and applying herself to a course of solid reading in theology and history.
+And here, though her natural appetite for amusement interfered with her
+studies somewhat more than the empress, prompted by Mercy, was willing to
+make allowance for, she profited much more willingly by her mother's
+advice, having indeed a natural inclination for the works of history and
+biography, and a decided distaste for novels and romances. She could not
+have had a better guide in such matters than De Vermond, who was a man of
+extensive information and of a very correct taste; and under his guidance
+and with his assistance she studied Sully's memoirs, Madame de Sévigné's
+letters, and any other books which he recommended to her, and which gave
+her an idea of the past history of the country as well as the masterpieces
+of the great French dramatists.[7]
+
+The latter part of the year 1771 was marked by no very striking
+occurrences. Marie Antoinette had carried her point, and had begun to ride
+on horseback without either her figure or her complexion suffering from
+the exercise. On the contrary, she was admitted to have improved in
+beauty. She sent her measure to Vienna, to show Maria Teresa how much she
+had grown, adding that her husband had grown as much, and had become
+stronger and more healthy-looking, and that she had made use of her
+saddle-horses to accompany him in his hunting and shooting excursions.
+Like a true wife, she boasted to her mother of his skill as a shot: the
+very day that she wrote he had killed forty head of game. (She did not
+mention that a French sportsman's bag was not confined to the larger game,
+but that thrushes, blackbirds, and even, red-breasts, were admitted to
+swell the list.) And the increased facilities for companionship with him
+that her riding afforded increased his tenderness for her, so that she was
+happier than ever. Except that as yet she saw no prospect of presenting
+the empress with a grandchild, she had hardly a wish ungratified.
+
+Her taste for open-air exercise of this kind added also to the attachment
+felt for her by the lower classes, from the opportunities which arose out
+of it for showing her unvarying and considerate kindness. The contrast
+which her conduct afforded to that of previous princes, and indeed to that
+of all the present race except her husband, caused her actions of this
+sort to be estimated rather above their real importance. But how great was
+the impression which they did make on those who witnessed them may be seen
+in the unanimity with which the chroniclers of the time record her
+forbidding her postilions to drive over a field of corn which lay between
+her and the stag, because she would rather miss the sight of the chase
+than injure the farmer; and relate how, on one occasion, she gave up
+riding for a week or two, and sent her horses back from Compiègne to
+Versailles, because the wife of her head-groom was on the point of her
+confinement, and she wished her to have her husband near her at such a
+moment; and on another, when the horse of one of her attendants kicked
+her, and inflicted a severe bruise on her foot, she abstained from
+mentioning the hurt, lest it should bring the rider into disgrace by being
+attributed to his awkward management.
+
+Not that the intrigues of the mistress and her adherents were at all
+diminished. They were even more active than ever since the marriage of the
+Count de Provence, who, in an underhanded way, instigated his wife to show
+countenance to Madame du Barri, and who allowed, if he did not encourage,
+the mistress and her friends to speak slightingly of the dauphiness in his
+presence. But, as Marie Antoinette felt firmer in her own position, she
+could afford to disregard the malice of these caballers more than she had
+felt that she could do at first, and even to defy them. On one occasion
+that the Count de Provence was imprudent enough to discuss some of his
+schemes with the door open while she was in the next room, she told him
+frankly that she had heard all that he said, and reproached him for his
+duplicity; and the dauphin coming in at the moment, she flew to him,
+throwing her arms round his neck, and telling him how she appreciated his
+honesty and candor, and how the more she compared him with the others, the
+more she saw his superiority. Indeed, she soon began to find that the
+Countess de Provence was as little to be trusted as her husband; and the
+only member of the family whom she really liked, or of whom she had at all
+a favorable opinion, was the Count d'Artois, who, though not yet out of
+the school-room, "showed," as she told her mother, "sentiments of honesty
+which he could never have learned of his governor.[8]"
+
+Her indefatigable guardian, Mercy, reported to the empress that she
+improved every day. He had learned to conceive a very high idea of her
+abilities; and he dilated with especial satisfaction on the powers of
+conversation which she was developing; on her wit and readiness in
+repartee; on her originality, as well as facility of expression; and on
+her perfect possession of the royal art of speaking to a whole company
+with such notice of each member of it, that each thought himself the
+person to whom her remarks were principally addressed. She possessed
+another accomplishment, also, of great value to princes--a tenacious
+recollection of faces and names. And she had made herself acquainted with
+the history of all the chief nobles, so as to be able to make graceful
+allusions to facts in their family annals of which they were proud, and,
+what was perhaps even more important, to avoid unpleasant or dangerous
+topics. The king himself was not insensible to the increase of attraction
+which her charms, both of person and manner, conferred on the royal
+palace. He was perfectly satisfied with the civility of her behavior to
+Madame du Barri, who admitted that she had nothing to complain of. And
+the only point in which even Mercy, the most critical of judges, saw any
+room for alteration in her conduct was a certain remissness in bestowing
+her notice on men of real eminence, and on foreign visitors if they were
+not of the very highest rank; the remark as to the latter class being
+perhaps dictated by a somewhat excessive natural susceptibility, and by a
+laudable desire that any Germans who returned from France to their own
+country should sing her praises in her native land.
+
+Perhaps one of the strongest proofs of the regard in which, at this time,
+she was held by all parties in the court is found in the circumstance that
+the Count de Provence himself very soon found it impossible to continue
+his countenance to the intrigues against her which he had previously
+favored. He preferred ingratiating himself and the countess with her.
+Marie Antoinette was always placable, and from the first had been eager,
+as the head of the family, to place her sister-in-law at her ease; so that
+when the count evinced his desire to stand on a friendly footing with her,
+she showed every disposition to meet his wishes, and the spring and summer
+of 1772 exhibited to the courtiers, who were little accustomed to such
+scenes, a happy example of an intimate family union. Marie Antoinette had
+always been fond of music, and, as we have seen before, ever since her
+arrival in France, had devoted fixed hours to her music-master. And now,
+on almost every evening which was not otherwise preoccupied, she gave
+little concerts in her apartments to the royal family, their principal
+attendants, and a few of the chief nobles of the court; being herself
+occasionally one of the performers, and maintaining her character as a
+hostess by a combined affability and dignity which made all her guests
+pleased with themselves as with her, and set all imitation and all
+detraction alike at defiance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+Marie Antoinette wishes to see Paris.--Intrigues of Madame Adelaide.--
+Characters of the Dauphin and the Count de Provence.--Grand Review at
+Fontainebleau.--Marie Antoinette ill the Hunting Field.--Letter from her
+to the Empress.--Mischievous Influence of the Dauphin's Aunts on her
+Character.--Letter of Marie Antoinette to the Empress.--Her Affection for
+her Old House.--The Princes are recalled from Exile.--Lord Stormont.--
+Great Fire at the Hôtel-Dieu.--Liberality and Charity of Marie
+Antoinette.--She goes to the Bal d'Opéra.---Her Feelings about the
+Partition of Poland.--The King discusses Politics with her, and thinks
+highly of her Ability.
+
+
+It was a curious proof of the mischievousness as well as of the extent of
+the influence which Madame Adelaide and her sister were able to exert over
+the indolence and apathy of their father, that when Marie Antoinette had
+for more than two years been married and living within twelve miles of
+Paris, she had never yet seen it by daylight, although the universal and
+natural expectation of the citizens had been that the royal pair would pay
+the city a state visit immediately after their marriage. Her own wishes
+had not been consulted in the matter; for she was naturally anxious to see
+the beautiful city of which she had heard so much; and the delay which had
+taken place was equally at variance with Madame de Noailles' notions of
+propriety. But when the countess suggested a plan for visiting the capital
+_incognito_, proposing that the dauphiness should drive as far as the
+entrance to the suburbs, and then, having sent on her saddle-horses,
+should ride along the boulevards, Madame Adelaide, professing a desire to
+join the party, raised so many difficulties on the subject of the retinue
+which was to follow, and was so successful in creating jealousies between
+her own ladies and those in attendance on Marie Antoinette, that Madame de
+Noailles was forced to recommend the abandonment of the project. Mercy was
+far more annoyed than his young mistress; he saw that the secret object of
+Madame Adelaide was to throw as many hindrance as possible in the way of
+the dauphiness winning popularity by appearing in public, while he also
+correctly judged hat it would be consistent both with propriety and with
+her interest, as the future queen of the country, rather to seek and even
+make opportunities for enabling the people to become acquainted with her.
+But to Marie Antoinette any disappointment of that kind was a very
+trifling matter. She had vexations which, as she told the embassador, she
+could not explain even to him; and they kept alive in her a feeling of
+homesickness which, in all persons of amiable and affectionate
+disposition, must require some, time to subdue. Even when her brother, the
+Archduke Ferdinand, had quit Vienna in the preceding autumn to enter on
+the honorable post of Governor of Lombardy, she had not congratulated, but
+condoled with him, "feeling by her own experience how much it costs to be
+separated from one's family." And what she had found in her own home did
+not as yet make up to her for all she had left behind. Even her husband,
+though uniformly kind in language and behavior, was of a singularly cold
+and undemonstrative disposition; and it almost seemed as if the gayety
+which he exhibited at her balls were an effort so foreign to his nature
+that he indemnified himself by unpardonable boorishness on other
+occasions. The Count de Provence had but little more polish, and a far
+worse temper. Squabbles often took place between the two brothers. Though
+both married men, they were still in age only boys; and on more than one
+occasion they proceeded to acts of personal violence to each other in her
+presence. Luckily no one else was by, and she was able to pacify and
+reconcile them; but she could hardly avoid feeling ashamed of having been
+called on to exert herself in such a cause, or contrasting the undignified
+boisterousness (to give it no worse name) of such scenes with the decorous
+self-respect which, with all their simplicity of character, had always
+governed the conduct of her own relations.
+
+Not but that, in the opinion of Mercy,[1] the dauphin was endowed by
+nature with a more than ordinary share of good qualities. His faults were
+only such as proceeded from an excessively bad education. He had many most
+essential virtues. He was a young man of perfect integrity and
+straightforwardness; he was desirous to hear the truth; and it was never
+necessary to beat about the bush, or to have recourse to roundabout ways
+of bringing it before him. On the contrary, to speak to him with perfect
+frankness was the surest way both to win his esteem and to convince his
+reason. On one or two occasions in which he had consulted the embassador,
+Mercy had expressed his opinions without the least reserve, and had
+perceived that the young prince had liked him better for his candor.
+
+The king still kept up the habit of spending the greater part of the
+autumn at Compiègne and Fontainebleau, visits which Marie Antoinette
+welcomed as a holiday from the etiquette of Versailles. She wrote word to
+her mother that she was growing very fast, and taking asses' milk to keep
+up her strength; that that regimen, with constant exercise, was doing her
+great good; and that she had gained great praise for the excellence of her
+riding. On one occasion, when they were at Fontainebleau, she especially
+delighted the officers of her husband's regiment of cuirassiers, when the
+king reviewed it in person. The dauphin himself took the command of his
+men, and put them through their evolutions while she rode by his side; he
+then presented each of the officers to her separately, and she distributed
+cockades to the whole body. The first she gave to the dauphin himself,[2]
+who placed it in his hat. Each officer, as he received his, did the same.
+And after the king had taken his departure, she, with her husband,
+remained on the field for an hour, conversing freely with the soldiers,
+and showing the greatest interest in all that concerned the regiment.
+Throughout the day the young prince had exhibited a knowledge of the
+profession, and a readiness as well as an ease of manner, which had
+surprised all the spectators, and Mercy had the satisfaction of hearing
+every one attribute the admirable appearance which he had made on so
+important an occasion (for it was the first time of his appearing in such
+a position) to the example and hints of the dauphiness.
+
+It was scarcely less of a public appearance, while it was one in which the
+king himself probably took more interest, when, a few days afterward, on
+the occasion of a grand stag-hunt in the forest, she joined in the chase
+in a hunting uniform of her own devising. The king was so delighted that
+he scarcely left her side, and extolled her taste in dress, as well as her
+skill in horsemanship, to all whom he honored with his conversation. But
+the empress was not quite so well pleased. Her disapproval of horse
+exercise for young married women was as strong as ever. She had also
+interpreted some of her daughter's submissive replies to her admonitions
+on the subject as a promise that she would not ride, and she scolded her
+severely (no weaker word can express the asperity of her language) for
+neglect of her engagement, as well as for the risk of accidents which are
+incurred by those who follow the hounds, and some of which, as she heard,
+had befallen the dauphiness herself. Her daughter's explanation was as
+frank as it deserved to be accounted sufficient, while her letter is
+interesting also, as showing her constant eagerness to exculpate herself
+from the charge of indifference to her German countrymen, an eagerness
+which proves how firmly she believed the notion to be fixed in the
+empress's mind.
+
+"I expect, my dear mamma, that people must have told you more about my
+rides than there really was to be told. I will tell you the exact truth.
+The king and the dauphin both like to see me on horseback. I only say this
+because all the world perceives it, and especially while we were absent
+from Versailles they were delighted to see me in my riding-habit. But,
+though I own it was no great effort for me to conform myself to their
+desires, I can assure you that I never once let myself he carried away by
+too much eagerness to keep close to the hounds; and I hope that, in spite
+of all my giddiness, I shall always allow myself to be restrained by the
+experienced hunters who constantly accompany me, and I shall never thrust
+myself into the crowd. I should never have supposed any one could have
+reported to you as an accident what happened to me in Fontainebleau. Every
+now and then one finds in the forest large stepping stones; and as we were
+going on very gently my horse stumbled on one covered with sand, which he
+did not see; but I easily held him up, and we went on.... Esterhazy was at
+our ball yesterday. Every one was greatly pleased with his dignified
+manner and with his style of dancing. I ought to have spoken to him when
+he was presented to me, and my silence only proceeded from embarrassment,
+as I did not know him. It would be doing me great injustice to think that
+I have any feeling of indifference to my country; I have more reason than
+any one to feel, every day of my life, the value of the blood which flows
+in my veins, and it is only from prudence that at times I abstain from
+showing how proud I am of it.... I never neglect any mode of paying
+attention to the king, and of anticipating his wishes as far as I can. I
+hope that he is pleased with me. It is my duty to please him, my duty and
+also my glory, if by such means I can contribute to maintain the alliance
+of the two houses....[3]"
+
+The empress was but half pacified about the riding and hunting. She owned
+that, if both the king and the dauphin approved of it, she had nothing
+more to say, though she still blamed the dauphiness for forgetting a
+promise which she understood to have been made to herself. At the same
+time, no language could be kinder than that in which she asked "whether
+her daughter could believe that she would wish to deprive her of so
+innocent a pleasure, she who would give her very life to procure her one,
+if she were not apprehensive of mischievous consequences;" her
+apprehensions being solely dictated by her anxiety to see her daughter
+bear an heir to the throne. But she would by no means admit her excuses
+for giving the Hungarian prince a cold reception. "How," she said, "could
+she forget that her little Antoinette, when not above twelve or thirteen
+years old, knew how to receive people publicly, and say something polite
+and gracious to every one, and how could she suppose that the same
+daughter, now that she was dauphiness, could feel embarrassment?
+Embarrassment was a mere chimera."
+
+But the truth was that it was not a mere chimera. Mercy had more than once
+deplored, as one among the mischievous effects of Madame Adelaide's
+constant interference and domineering influence, that it had bred in Marie
+Antoinette a timidity which was wholly foreign to her nature. And indeed
+it was hardly possible for one still so young to be aware that she was
+surrounded by unfriendly intriguers and spies, and to preserve that
+uniform presence of mind which her rank and position made so desirable for
+her, and which was in truth so natural to her that she at once recovered
+it the moment that her circumstances changed.
+
+And a probability of an early change was already apparent. During the last
+months of 1772 there was a general idea that the king's health and mental
+faculties were both giving away; and all the different parties about
+Versailles began to show their sense of her approaching authority. It was
+remarked that both the ministers and the mistress had become very guarded
+in their language, and in their behavior to her and her husband. The Count
+de Provence took a curious way of showing his expectation of a change, by
+delivering her a long paper of counsels for her guidance, the chief object
+of which was to warn her against holding such frequent conversations with
+Mercy. She apparently thought that the writer's desire was to remove the
+embassador from her confidence that he himself might occupy the vacant
+place, and she showed her opinion of the value of the advice by reading it
+to Mercy and then putting it into the fire.
+
+Some extracts from the first letter which she wrote to her mother in 1773
+will serve to give us a fair idea of her feelings at this time, both from
+what it does and from what it does not mention. The intelligence which has
+reached her about her sister recalls to her mind her own anxiety to become
+a mother, her disappointment in this matter being, indeed, one of the most
+constant topics of lamentation in the letters of both daughter and mother,
+till it was removed by the birth of the princess royal. But that is her
+only vexation. In every other respect she seems perfectly contented with
+the course which affairs are taking; while we see how thoroughly unspoiled
+she is both in the warmth of the affection with which she speaks of her
+family and greets the little memorials of home which have been sent her;
+and still more in the continuance of her acts of charity, and in her
+design that her benevolence should be unknown.
+
+"I hear that the queen[4] is expecting to be confined. I hope her child
+will be a son. When shall I be able to say the same of myself? They tell
+me, too, that the grand duke[5] and his wife are going into Spain. I
+greatly wish that they would conceive a dread of the sea-voyage, and take
+this place in their way. The journey would be a little longer; but they
+would be well received here, for my brother is very highly thought of;
+and, besides, I am somewhat jealous at being the only one of my family
+unacquainted with my sister-in-law.
+
+"The pictures of my little brothers which you have sent me have given me
+great pleasure. I have had them set in a ring, and wear it every day.
+Those who have seen my brothers at Vienna pronounce the pictures very
+like, and every one thinks them very good-looking. New-year's-day here is
+a day of a great crowd and grand ceremony. There was nothing either to
+blame or to praise in the degree in which I adopted my dear mamma's
+advice. The Favorite came to pay her respects to me at a moment when my
+apartment was very full It was impossible for me to address myself to
+every one separately, so I spoke to the whole company in a body; and I
+have reason to believe that both the Favorite and her sister, who is her
+principal adviser, were pleased; though I have also reason to believe
+that, two days afterward, M. d'Aiguillon tried to persuade them that they
+had been ill-treated. As for the minister himself, he has never complained
+of me, and, indeed, I have always been careful to treat him equally well
+with the rest of his colleagues.
+
+"You will have learned, my dear mamma, that the Duc d'Orléans and the Duc
+de Chartres are returned from banishment. I am glad of it for the sake of
+peace, and for that of the tranquillity and comfort of the king. But, if
+she had been in the king's place, I do not think my dear mamma would have
+accepted the letter which they have dared to write, and which they have
+got printed in foreign newspapers.[6]
+
+"I was glad to see M. de Stormont.[7] I asked him all the news about my
+dear family, and it was a pleasure to him to inform me. He seems to me to
+have overcome his prejudices, and every one here thinks him a man of
+thorough high-breeding. I have desired M. de Mercy to invite him to one of
+my Monday balls. We are going to have one at, Madame de Noailles'. They
+will last till Ash-Wednesday. They will begin an hour or two later than
+they used to, that we may not be so tired as we were last year when we
+came to Lent In spite of the amusements of the carnival, I am always
+faithful to my poor harp, and they say that I make great progress with it.
+I sing, too, every week at the concert given by my sister of Provence.
+Although there are very few people there, they are very well amused; and
+my singing gives great pleasure to my two sisters.[8] I also find time to
+read a little. I have begun the 'History of England' by Mr. Hume. It seems
+to me very interesting, though it is necessary to recollect that it is a
+Protestant who has written it.
+
+"All the newspapers have spoken of the terrible fire at the Hotel-Dieu.[9]
+They were obliged to remove the patients into the cathedral and the
+archbishop's palace. There are generally from five to six thousand
+patients in the hospital. In spite of all the exertions that were made, it
+was impossible to prevent the destruction of a great part of the building;
+and, though it is now a fortnight since the accident happened, the tire is
+still smoldering in the cellars. The archbishop has enjoined a collection
+to be made for the sufferers, and I have sent him a thousand crowns. I
+said nothing of my having done so to any one, and the compliments which
+they have paid me on it have been embarrassing to me; but they have said
+it was right to let it be known that I had sent this money, for the sake
+of the example."
+
+She was on this, as on many other occasions, one of those who
+
+  "Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame."
+
+One of her sayings, with which she more than once repressed the panegyrics
+of those who, as it seemed to her, extolled her benevolence too loudly,
+was that it was not worth while to say a great deal about giving a little
+assistance; and, on this occasion, so secret had she intended to keep her
+benevolence that she had not mentioned it to De Vermond, or even to Mercy.
+But she judged rightly that the empress would enter into the feelings
+which had prompted both the act and also the silence; and she was amply
+rewarded by her mother's praise.
+
+"I have been enchanted," the empress wrote, in instant reply, "with the
+thousand crowns that you have sent to the Hôtel-Dieu, and you speak very
+properly in saying that you have been vexed at people speaking to you
+about it. Such actions ought to be known to God alone, and I am certain
+that you acted in that spirit. Still, those who published your act had
+good reasons for what they did, as you say yourself, thinking of the
+influence of your example. My dear little girl, we owe this example to the
+world, and to set such is one of the most essential and most delicate
+duties of our condition. The more frequently you can perform acts of
+benevolence and generosity without crippling your means too much, the
+better; and what would be ostentation and prodigality in another is
+becoming and necessary for those of our rank. We have no other resources
+but those of conferring benefits and showing kindness; and this is even
+more the case with a dauphiness or a queen consort, which I myself have
+not been."
+
+There could hardly be a better specimen of the principles on which the
+empress herself had governed her extensive dominions, or of the value of
+her example and instructions to her daughter, than that which is contained
+in these few lines; but it is not always that such lessons are so closely
+followed as they were by the virtuous and beneficent dauphiness. The
+winter passed on cheerfully; the ordinary amusements of the palace being
+varied by her going with the dauphin and the Count and Countess of
+Provence to one of the public masked balls of the opera-house, a diversion
+which, considering the unavoidably mixed character of the company, it is
+hard to avoid thinking somewhat unsuited to so august a party, but one
+which had been too frequently countenanced by different members of the
+royal family for several years for such a visit to cause remarks, though
+the masks of the princes and princesses could not long preserve their
+secret Another favorite amusement of the court at this time was the
+representation of proverbs, in which Marie Antoinette acted with the
+little Elizabeth; and we have a special account of one such performance,
+which was given in her honor by one of her ladies, having been originally
+devised for the Day of Saint Anthony, as her saint's day,[10] though it
+was postponed on account of her being confined to her room with a cold.
+The proverb was, "Better late than never;" and, as the most acceptable
+compliment to the dauphiness, the managers introduced a number of
+characters attired in a diversity of costumes, intended to represent the
+natives of all the countries ruled over by the Empress-queen, each of whom
+made a speech, in which the praises of Maria Teresa and Marie Antoinette
+were happily combined.
+
+The king got better, and intrigues of all kinds were revived; but, aided
+by Mercy's counsels, and supported by the dauphin's unalterable affection,
+Marie Antoinette disconcerted all that were aimed at her by the uniform
+prudence of her conduct. Happily for her, with all his defects, her
+husband was still one in whom she could feel perfect confidence. As she
+told Mercy, under any conceivable circumstances she was sure of his views
+and intentions being always right; the only difficulty was to engage him
+in a sufficiently decided course of action, which his timid and sluggish
+disposition rendered almost painful to him. And just at this moment she
+was more anxious than usual to inspire him with her own feelings and
+spirit, because she could not avoid fearing that the discontent with which
+the few people in France who deserved the name of statesmen regarded the
+recent partition of Poland might create a coolness between France and
+Austria, calculated to endanger the alliance, the continuance of which was
+so indispensable to her happiness, and, as she was firmly convinced, to
+the welfare of both countries. She conversed more than once with Mercy on
+the subject, and her reflections, both on the partition, and on the degree
+in which the mutual interest of the two nations was concerned in their
+remaining united, gave him a very good idea of her political capacity. He
+also reported to his imperial mistress that he had found out that King
+Louis had conceived the same opinion of her, and had begun to discuss
+affairs of importance with her. He trusted that his majesty would get a
+habit of doing so; since, if his life should be spared, she would thus in
+time become able to exert a very useful influence over him; and as, at all
+events, "it was absolutely certain that some day or other she would govern
+the kingdom, it was of the very greatest consequence to the success of the
+great and brilliant career which she had before her that she should
+previously accustom herself to regard affairs with such principles and
+views as were suitable to the position which she must occupy."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+Marie Antoinette is anxious for the Maintenance of the Alliance between
+France and Austria.--She, with the Dauphin, makes a State Entry into
+Paris.--The "Dames de la Halle."--She praises the Courtesy of the
+Dauphin.--Her Delight at the Enthusiasm of the Citizens.--She, with the
+Dauphin, goes to the Theatre, and to the Fair of St. Ovide, and to St.
+Cloud.--Is enthusiastically received everywhere.--She learns to drive.--
+She makes some Relaxations in Etiquette.--Marriage of the Comte d'Artois.
+--The King's Health grows Bad.--Visit of Marshal Lacy to Versailles.--The
+King catches the Small-pox.--Madame du Barri quits Versailles.--The King
+dies.
+
+
+Politics were, indeed, taking such a hold over Marie Antoinette that they
+begin to furnish some topics for her letters to her mother, one of which
+shows that she had already formed that opinion of French fickleness which
+she had afterward too abundant cause to maintain. "I do hope," she says,
+"that the good intelligence between our two nations will last. One good
+thing in this country is, that if ill-natured feelings are quick to arise,
+they disappear with equal rapidity. The King of Prussia is innately a bad
+neighbor, but the English will also always be bad neighbors to France, and
+the sea has never prevented them from doing her great mischief." We might,
+firstly, demur to any actions of our statesmen being classed with the
+treacherous aggressions of Frederick of Prussia, nor did many years of her
+husband's reign pass over before the greatest of English ministers
+proposed and concluded a treaty between the two countries, which he fondly
+and wisely hoped would lay the foundations of a better understanding, if
+not of a lasting peace, between the two countries. But even before that
+treaty was framed, and before Pitt's voice had become predominant in the
+State, Marie Antoinette's complaint that the sea had never disarmed us of
+power to injure France had received the strongest exemplification that as
+yet the history of the two nations afforded in Rodney's great victory.
+However, she soon turns to more agreeable subject, and proceeds to speak
+of a pleasure to which she was looking forward, and which, as we have
+already seen, had been unaccountably deferred till this time, in defiance
+of all propriety and of all precedent. "I hope that the dauphin and I
+shall make our entry into Paris next month, which will be a great delight
+to me. I do not venture to speak of it yet, though I have the king's
+promise: it would not be the first time that they had made him change his
+mind."
+
+The most elaborate exposure of the cabals and intrigues which ever since
+her marriage had been persistently directed against Marie Antoinette could
+not paint them so forcibly as the simple fact that three years had now
+elapsed since her marriage; and that, though the state entrance of the
+heir of the crown and his bride into the metropolis of the kingdom ought
+to have been a prominent part of the marriage festivities, it had never
+yet taken place. Nor, though Louis had at last given his formal promise
+that it should be no longer delayed, did the young pair even yet feel sure
+that an influence superior to theirs might not induce him to recall it.
+However, at last the intrigues were baffled, and, on the 8th of June, the
+visit, which had been expected by the Parisians with an eagerness
+exceeding that of the dauphiness herself, was made. It was in every
+respect successful; and it is due to Marie Antoinette to let the outline
+of the proceeding be described by herself.
+
+"Versailles, June 14th.
+
+"MY DEAREST MOTHER,--I absolutely blush for your kindness to me. The day
+before yesterday Mercy sent me your precious letter, and yesterday I
+received a second. That is indeed passing one's fête day happily. On
+Tuesday I had a fête which I shall never forget all my life. We made our
+entrance into Paris. As for honors, we received all that we could possibly
+imagine; but they, though very well in their way, were not what touched me
+most. What was really affecting was the tenderness and earnestness of the
+poor people, who, in spite of the taxes with which they are overwhelmed,
+were transported with joy at seeing us. When we went to walk in the
+Tuileries, there was so vast a crowd that we were three-quarters of an
+hour without being able to move either forward or backward. The dauphin
+and I gave repeated orders to the Guards not to beat any one, which had a
+very good effect. Such excellent order was kept the whole day that, in
+spite of the enormous crowd which followed us everywhere, not a person was
+hurt. When we returned from our walk we went up to an open terrace, and
+staid there half an hour. I can not describe to you, my dear mamma, the
+transports of joy and affection which every one exhibited toward us.
+Before we withdrew we kissed our hands to the people, which gave them
+great pleasure. What a happy, thing it is for persons in our rank to gain
+the love of a whole nation so cheaply! Yet there is nothing so precious; I
+felt it thoroughly, and shall never forget it.
+
+"Another circumstance which gave great pleasure on that glorious day was
+the behavior of the dauphin. He made admirable replies to every address,
+and remarked every thing that was done in his honor, and especially the
+earnestness and delight of the people, to whom he showed great kindness.
+Of all the copies of verses which were given me on this occasion, these
+are the prettiest which I inclose to you.[1] Tomorrow we are going to
+Paris to the opera, There is great anxiety for us to do so; and I believe
+that we shall go on two other days also to visit the French and the
+Italian comedy. I feel more and more, every day of my life, how much my
+dear mamma has done for my establishment. I was the youngest of all her
+daughters, and she has treated me as if I were the eldest; so that my
+whole soul is filled with the most tender gratitude.
+
+"The king has had the kindness to procure the release of three hundred and
+twenty prisoners, for debts due to nurses who have brought up their
+children. Their release took place two days after our entrance. I wished
+to attend Divine service on my fête day; but the evening before, my
+sister, the Countess of Provence, had a party for me, a proverb with songs
+and fire-works, and this distraction forced me to put off going to church
+till the next day.
+
+"I am very glad to hear that you have such good hope of the continuance of
+peace. While the intriguers of this country are devouring one another,
+they will not harass their neighbors nor their allies."
+
+She does not enter into details; the pomp and ceremony of their reception
+by nobles and magistrates had been in her eyes as nothing in comparison
+with the cordial welcome given to them by the poorer citizens. While they,
+on their part, must have been equally gratified at perceiving the sincere
+pleasure with which she and the dauphin accepted their salutations; a
+feeling how different from that which had animated any of their princes
+for many years, we may judge from the order given to the guards to forbear
+beating the crowd which gathered round them, as no doubt, without such an
+order, the soldiers would have thought it usual and natural to do.
+
+Not that the proceedings of the day had not been magnificent and imposing
+enough to attract the admiration of any who thought less of the hearts of
+the citizens than of pomp and splendor. The royal train, conveyed from
+Versailles in six state carriages, was received at the city gate by the
+governor, the Marshal Duc de Brissac, accompanied by the head of the
+police, the provost of the merchants, and all the other municipal
+authorities. The marshal himself was the heir of the Comte de Brissac who,
+nearly two centuries before, being also Governor of Paris, had tendered to
+the victorious Henry IV. the submission of the city. But Henry was as yet
+only the chief of a party, not the accepted sovereign of the whole nation;
+and the enthusiasm with which half the citizens rained their shouts of
+exultation in his honor had its drawback in the sullen silence of the
+other half, who regarded the great Bourbon as their conqueror rather than
+their king, and his triumphant entrance as their defeat and humiliation.
+
+To-day all the citizens were but one party. As but one voice was heard, so
+but one heart gave utterance to it. The joy was as unanimous as it was
+loud. From the city gates the royal party passed on to the great national
+cathedral of Notre Dame, and from thence to the church dedicated by
+Clovis, the first Christian king, to St. Geneviève, whose recent
+restoration was the most creditable work of the present reign, and which
+subsequently, under the new name of the Pantheon, was destined to become
+the resting-place of many of the worthies whose memory the nation
+cherishes with enduring pride. At last they reached the Tuileries, their
+progress having been arrested at different points by deputations of all
+kinds with loyal and congratulatory addresses; at the Hôtel-Dieu by the
+prioress with a company of nuns; on the Quai Conti by the Provost of the
+Mint with his officers; before the college bearing the name of its
+founder, Louis le Grand, the Rector of the University, at the head of his
+students, greeted them in a Latin speech, at the close of which he secured
+the re-doubling of the acclamations of the pupils by promising them a
+holiday. Not that the cheers required any increase. The citizens in their
+ecstasy did not even think their voices sufficient. As the royal couple
+moved slowly through the gardens of the Tuileries arm-in-arm, every hand
+was employed in clapping, hats were thrown up, and every token of joy
+which enthusiasm ever devised was displayed to the equally delighted
+visitors. "Good heavens, what a crowd!" said Marie Antoinette to De
+Brissac, who had some difficulty in keeping his place at her side.
+"Madame," said the old warrior, as courtly as he was valiant, "if I may
+say so without offending my lord the dauphin, they are all so many
+lovers." When they had made the circuit of the garden and returned to the
+palace, the most curious part of the day's ceremonies awaited them. A
+banqueting-table was arranged for six hundred guests, and those guests
+were not the nobles of the nation, nor the clergy, nor the must renowned
+warriors, nor the municipal officers, but the fish-women of the city
+market. A custom so old that its origin can not be traced had established
+the right of these dames to bear an especial part in such festivities. In
+the course of the morning they had made their future queen free of their
+market, with an offering of fruits and flowers. And now, as, according to
+a singular usage of the court, no male subject was ever allowed to sit at
+table with a queen or dauphiness of France, the dinner party over which
+the youthful pair, sitting side by side, presided, consisted wholly of
+these dames whose profession is not generally considered as imparting any
+great refinement to the manners, and who, before the close of the
+entertainment, showed, in more cases than one, that they had imported some
+of the notions and fashions of their more ordinary places of resort into
+the royal palace.
+
+It was characteristic of Marie Antoinette that, in her description of the
+day to her mother, she had dwelt with special emphasis on the gracious
+deportment of her husband. It was equally natural for Mercy to assure the
+empress[2] that it had been the grace and elegance of the dauphiness
+herself which had attracted general admiration, and that it was to her
+example and instruction that every one attributed the courteous demeanor
+which, as he did not deny, the young prince had unquestionably exhibited.
+It was she whom the king, as he affirmed, had complimented on the result
+of the day; a success which she had gracefully attributed to himself,
+saying that he must be greatly beloved by the Parisians to induce them to
+give his children so splendid a reception[3]. To whomsoever it was owing,
+the embassador certainly did not exaggerate the opinion of the world
+around him when he affirmed that, in the memory of man, no one recollected
+any ceremony which had made so great a sensation, and had been attended by
+so complete a success.
+
+And it was followed up, as she expected, by several visits to the
+different Parisian theatres, which, in compliance with the king's express
+direction, were made in all the state which would have been observed had
+he himself been present. Salutes were fired from the Bastile and the Hotel
+des Invalides; companies of Royal Guards lined the vestibule and the
+passage of the theatre; sentinels stood even on the stage; but, fond as
+the French are of martial finery and parade, the spectators paid little
+attention to the soldiers, or even to the actors. All eyes were fixed on
+the dauphiness alone. At Mercy's suggestion, the dauphin and she had
+previously obtained the king's permission to allow the violation of the
+rule which forbade any clapping of hands in the presence of royalty. This
+relaxation of etiquette was hailed as a great condescension by the
+play-goers, and throughout the evening of their appearance at the Italian
+comedy the spectators had already made abundant use of their new
+privilege, when the enthusiasm was brought to a height by a chorus which
+ended with the loyal burden of "Vive le roi!" Clerval, the performer of
+the principal part, added, "Et ses chers enfants;" and the compliment was
+re-echoed from every part of the house with continued clapping and
+cheering, till it reminded Marie Antoinette of a somewhat similar scene
+which, as a child, she had witnessed in the theatre of Vienna,[4] when the
+empress, from her box, had announced to the audience that a son (the heir
+to the empire) had just been born to the Archduke Leopold.
+
+The ice being, thus, as it were, once broken, the dauphin and dauphiness
+took many opportunities of appearing in public during the following
+months, visiting the great Paris fair of St. Ovide, as it was called,
+walking up and down the alleys, and making purchases at the stalls the
+whole Place Louis XV., to which the fair had recently been removed, being
+illuminated, and the crowd greeting them with repeated and enthusiastic
+cheers. They also went in state to the exhibition of pictures at the
+Louvre, and drove to St. Cloud to walk about the park attached to that
+palace, which was one of the most favorite places of resort for the
+Parisians on the fine summer evenings; so that, while the court was at
+Versailles, scarcely a week elapsed without her giving them an opportunity
+of seeing her, in which it was evident that she fully shared their
+pleasure. To be loved was with her a necessity of her very nature; and, as
+she was constantly referring with pride to the attachment felt by the
+Austrians for her mother, she fixed her own chief wishes on inspiring with
+a similar feeling those who were to become her and her husband's subjects.
+She was, at least for the time, rewarded as she desired. This is, indeed,
+said they, the best of innovations, the best of revolutions,[5] to see the
+princes mingling with the people, and interesting themselves in their
+amusements. This was really to unite all classes; to attach the country to
+the palace and the palace to the country; and it was to the dauphiness
+that the credit of this new state of things was universally attributed.
+
+She was looking forward to a greater pleasure in a visit from her.
+brother, the emperor, which the empress hoped might be attended with
+consequences more important than those of passing pleasure; since she
+trusted to his influence, and, if opportunity should occur, to his
+remonstrances, to induce the dauphin to break through the unaccountable
+coldness with which, in some respects, he still treated his beautiful
+wife. But Joseph was forced to postpone his visit, and the fulfillment of
+the empress's anticipations was also postponed for some years.
+
+However, Marie Antoinette never allowed disappointments to dwell in her
+mind longer than she could help. She rather strove to dispel the
+recollection of them by such amusements as were within her reach. She
+learned to drive, and found great diversion in being her own charioteer
+through the glades of the forest. She began to make further inroads in the
+court etiquette, giving balls in which she broke through the custom which
+prescribed that special places should be marked out for the royal family,
+and directed that the princes and princesses should sit with the rest of
+the company during the intervals between the dances; an arrangement which
+enabled her to talk to every one, and which gained her general good-will
+from the graciousness of her manner. She did not greatly trouble herself
+at the jealousy of her popularity openly displayed by her aunts and her
+sister-in-law, who could not bear to hear her called "La bellissima.[6]"
+Nor was her influence weakened when, in November, a fresh princess, the
+sister of Madame de Provence, arrived from Italy, to be married to the
+Comte d'Artois, for the bride was even less attractive than her sister.
+According to Mercy, she was pale and thin, had a long nose and a wide
+mouth, danced badly, and was very awkward in manner. So that Louis
+himself, though usually very punctilious in his courtesies to those in her
+position, could not forbear showing how little he admired her.
+
+An incident occurred on the evening of the marriage which is worth
+remarking, from the change which subsequently took place in the taste of
+the dauphiness, who a few years afterward provoked unfavorable comments by
+the ardor with which she surrendered herself to the excitement of the
+gaming-table. As a matter of course, a grand party was invited to the
+palace to celebrate the event of the morning; and, as an invariable part
+of such entertainments, a table was set out for the then fashionable game
+of lansquenet, at which the king himself played, with the royal family and
+all the principal persons of the court. In the course of the evening Marie
+Antoinette won more than seven hundred pounds; but she was rather
+embarrassed than gratified by her good fortune. She had tried to lose the
+money back; but, as she had been unable to succeed, the next morning she
+sent the greater part of it to the curates of Versailles to be distributed
+among the poor, and gave the rest to some of her own attendants who seemed
+to her to need it, being determined, as she said, to keep none of it for
+herself.
+
+The winter revived the apprehensions concerning the king's health; he was
+manifestly sinking into the grave, while
+
+  "That which should accompany old age,
+  As love, obedience, honor, troops of friends,
+  He might not look to have."
+
+His very mistress began with great zeal than ever, though with no better
+taste, to seek to conciliate the dauphiness. She tried to purchase her
+good-will by a bribe. She was aware that the princess greatly admired
+diamonds, and, learning that a jeweler of Paris had a pair of ear-rings of
+a size and brilliancy so extraordinary that the price which he asked for
+them was 700,000 francs, she persuaded the Comte de Noailles to carry them
+to Marie Antoinette to show them, with a message from herself that if the
+dauphiness liked to keep them, she would induce the king to make her a
+present of them.[7] Whether Marie Antoinette admired them or not, she had
+far too proper a sense of dignity to allow herself to be entrapped into
+the acceptance of an obligation by one whom she so deservedly despised.
+She replied coldly that she had jewels enough, and did not desire to
+increase the number. But the overture thus made by Madame du Barri could
+not be kept secret, and more than one of her partisans followed the hint
+afforded by her example, and showed a desire to make their peace with
+their future queen. The Duc d'Aiguillon himself was among the foremost of
+her courtiers, and entreated the mediation of Mercy in his favor, making
+the ambassador his messenger to assure her that "he should impose it upon
+himself as a law to comply with her wishes in every thing;" and only
+desired that he might be allowed to know which of the requests that she
+might make were dictated by her own judgment, and which merely proceeded
+from her indulgent favor to the importunities of others. For Marie
+Antoinette had of late often broken through the rule which, in compliance
+with her mother's advice, she had at first laid down for herself, to
+abstain from recommending persons for preferment; and had pressed many a
+petition on the minister's notice as to which it was self-evident that she
+could know nothing of their merits, nor feel any personal interest in
+their success.
+
+In the spring of 1774 she had an opportunity of convincing her mother that
+any imputation of neglect of her countrymen when visiting the court was
+unfounded, by the marked honors which she paid to Marshal Lacy, one of the
+most honored veterans of the Seven Years' War. Knowing how highly he was
+esteemed by her mother, she took care to be informed beforehand of the day
+of his arrival. She gave orders that he should find invitations to her
+parties awaiting him. She made arrangements to give him a private audience
+even before he saw the king, where her reception of him showed how deep
+and ineffaceable was her love for her family and her old home, even while
+fairly recognizing the fact that her first duties and her first affections
+now belonged to France. The old warrior avowed that he had been greatly
+moved by the touching affection with which she spoke to him of her love
+and veneration for her mother; and by the tears which he saw in her eyes
+when she said that the one thing wanting to her happiness was the hope of
+being allowed one day to see that dear mother once more. She showed him
+some of the last presents which the empress had sent her, and dwelt with
+fond minuteness of observation on some views of Schönbrunn and other spots
+in the neighborhood of Vienna which were endeared to her by her early
+recollections.
+
+The return of mild weather seemed to be bringing with it same return of
+strength to the king, when, on the 28th of April, he was suddenly seized
+with illness, which was presently pronounced by the physicians to be the
+small-pox. All was consternation at Versailles, for it was soon perceived
+to be a severe if not a malignant attack; and at the same time all was
+perplexity. Thirty years before, when Louis had been supposed to be on his
+deathbed at Metz, bishops, peers, and ministers had found in the loss of
+royal favor reason to repent the precipitation with which they had
+insisted on the withdrawal of Madame de Châteauroux; and now, should he
+again recover, it was likely that Madame du Barri would he equally
+resentful, and that the confessor who should make her removal a necessary
+condition of his administering the sacraments of the Church to the king,
+and the courtiers who should support or act upon their requisition, would
+surely find reason to repent it. Accordingly, for the first few days of
+Louis's illness, she remained at Versailles; but he grew visibly worse.
+His daughters, who, though they had not had the disease themselves, tended
+his sick-bed with the most devoted and fearless affection, consulted the
+physicians, who declared it dangerous to admit of any further delay in the
+ministration of the rites of the Church. He himself gave his sanction to
+the ladies' departure, and then the royal confessor administered the
+sacraments, and drew up a declaration to be published in the royal name,
+that, "though he owed no account of his conduct to any but God alone, he
+nevertheless declared that he repented having given rise to scandal among
+his subjects, and only desired to live for the support of religion and the
+welfare of his people."
+
+Even this avowal the Cardinal de Roche-Aymer promised Madame du Barri to
+suppress; but the royal confessor, the Abbé Mandoux, overruled him, and
+compelled its publication, in spite of the Duc de Richelieu, the chief
+confidant of the mistress, and long the chief minister and promoter of the
+king's debaucheries, who insulted the cardinal with the grossest abuse for
+his breach of promise.[8] It may be doubted whether such a compromise with
+profligacy, and such a profanation of the most solemn rites of the Church
+by its ministers, were not the greatest scandal of all; but it was in too
+complete harmony with their conduct throughout the whole of the reign.
+And, as it was impossible but that religion itself should suffer in the
+estimation of worldly men from such an open disregard of all but its mere
+outward forms, it can hardly be denied that the French cardinals and
+prelates about the court had almost as great a share in bringing about
+that general feeling of contempt for all religion which led to that formal
+disavowal of God himself which was witnessed twenty years later, as the
+scoffers who were now uniting against it, or the professed infidels who
+then, renounced it. Such as it was, the king's act of penitence was not
+performed too soon. At the end of the first week of May all prospect of
+his recovery vanished. Mortification set in, and on the 10th of May he
+died.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+The Court leaves Versailles for La Muette.--Feelings of the New
+Sovereigns.--Madame du Barri is sent to a Convent.--Marie Antoinette
+writes to Maria Teresa.--The Good Intentions of the New Sovereigns.--
+Madame Adelaide has the Small-pox.--Anxieties of Maria Teresa.--
+Mischievous Influence of the Aunts.--Position and Influence of the Count
+de Mercy.--Louis consults the Queen on Matters of Policy.--Her Prudence.--
+She begins to Purify the Court, and to relax the Rules of Etiquette.--Her
+Care of her Pages.--The King and the renounce the Gifts of Le Joyeux
+Avénement and La Ceinture de la Reine.---She procures the Pardon of the
+Due de Choiseul.
+
+
+Throughout the morning of the 10th of May there was great confusion and
+agitation at Versailles. The physicians declared that the king could not
+live out the day; and the dauphin had decided on removing his household to
+the smaller palace of La Muette at Choisy, to spend in that comparative
+retirement the first week or two after his grandfather's death, during
+which it would hardly be decorous for the royal family to be seen in
+public. But, as it was not thought seemly to appear to anticipate the
+event by quitting Versailles while Louis was still alive, a lighted candle
+was placed in the window of the sick-room, which, the moment that the king
+had expired, was to be extinguished, as a signal to the equerries to
+prepare the carriages. The dauphin and dauphiness were in an adjoining
+room awaiting the intelligence, when, at about three o'clock in the
+afternoon, a sudden trampling of feet was heard, and Madame de Noailles
+entered the apartment to entreat them to advance into the saloon to
+receive the homage of the princes and principal officers of the court, who
+were waiting to pay their respects to their new sovereigns. They came
+forward arm-in-arm; and in tears, in which sincere sorrow was mingled with
+not unnatural nervousness, received the salutations of the courtiers, and
+immediately afterward left Versailles with all the family.
+
+Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette had now reached the pinnacle of human
+greatness, as sovereigns of one of the noblest empires in the world. Yet
+the first feelings which their elevation had excited in both, and
+especially in the queen, were rather those of dismay and perplexity than
+of exultation. In the preceding autumn, Mercy[1] had remarked to the
+empress, with surprise and vexation, that, though the dauphiness exhibited
+singular readiness and acuteness in comprehending political questions, she
+was very unwilling, and, as it seemed to him, afraid of dealing with them,
+and that she shrunk from the thought that the day would come when she must
+possess power and authority. And the continuance of this feeling is
+visible in her first letter to her mother, some passages of which show a
+sobriety of mind under such a change of circumstances, which, almost as
+much as the benevolence which the letter also displays, augured well for
+the happiness of the people over whom she was to reign, so far at least as
+that happiness depended on the virtues of the sovereign.
+
+"Choisy, May 14th.
+
+"My Dearest Mother,--Mercy will have informed you of the circumstances of
+our misfortune. Happily his cruel disease left the king in possession of
+his senses till the last moment, and his end was very edifying. The new
+king seems to have the affection of his people. Two days before the death
+of his grandfather, he sent two hundred thousand[2] francs to the poor,
+which has produced a great effect. Since he has been here, he has been
+working unceasingly, answering with his own hand the letters of the
+ministers, whom as yet he can not see, and many others likewise. One thing
+is certain, and that is that he has a taste for economy, and the greatest
+desire possible to make his people happy. In every thing he has as great a
+desire to be rightly instructed as he has need to be. I trust that God
+will bless his good intentions.
+
+"The public expected great changes in a moment. The king has limited
+himself to sending away the creature[3] to a convent, and to driving from
+the court every thing which is connected with that scandal. The king even
+owed this example to the people of Versailles, who, at the very moment of
+his grandfather's death, insulted Madame do Mazarin,[4] one of the
+humblest servants of the favorite. I am earnestly entreated to exhort the
+king to mercy toward a number of corrupt souls who had done much mischief
+for many years; and I am strongly inclined to comply with the request.
+
+    *    *    *    *    *
+
+"A messenger has just arrived to forbid my going to see my Aunt Adelaide,
+who has a great deal of fever. They are afraid of the small-pox for her. I
+am horrified, and can not bring myself to think of the consequences. It is
+a terrible thing for her to pay so immediately for the sacrifice which she
+made.
+
+"I am very glad that Marshal Lacy was pleased with me. I confess, my dear
+mamma, that I was greatly affected when he took leave of me, at thinking
+how rarely it happens to me to see any of my countrymen, and especially of
+those who have the happiness to approach you. A little time back I saw
+Madame de Marmier, which was a great pleasure to me, since I know how
+highly you value her.
+
+"The king has allowed me myself to name the ladies who are to have places
+in my household, now that I am queen; and I have had the satisfaction of
+giving the Lorrainers[5] a proof of my regard, in taking for my chief
+almoner the Abbé de Sabran, a man of excellent character, of noble birth,
+and already named for the bishopric about to be established at Nancy.
+
+"Although it pleased God that I should be born in the rank which I this
+day occupy, still I can not forbear admiring the bounty of Providence in
+choosing me, the youngest of your daughters, for the noblest kingdom in
+Europe. I feel more than ever what I owe to the tenderness of my august
+mother, who expended such pains and labor in procuring for me this
+splendid establishment. I have never so greatly longed to throw myself at
+her feet, to embrace her, to lay open my whole soul to her, and to show
+her how entirely it is filled with respect and tenderness and gratitude."
+
+It is impossible to read these glowing words, so full of the joy and hope
+of youth, and breathing a confidence of happiness apparently so
+well-founded, since it was built on a resolution to use the power placed
+in the writer's hands for the welfare of the people over whom it was to
+be exerted, without reflecting how painful a contrast to the hopes now
+expressed is presented by the reality of the destiny in store for her
+and her husband. At the moment he was as little disturbed by forebodings
+of evil as his queen, and willingly yielded to her request to add a few
+lines with his own hand to the empress, that, on so momentous an
+occasion as his accession she might not be left to gather his feelings
+solely from her report of them. The postscript of the letter is
+accordingly their joint performance, he evidently desiring to gratify
+Maria Teresa by praise of her daughter; and she, while pleased at his
+acquiescence, not concealing her amusement at the clumsiness, or, to say
+the least, the rusticity, of some of his expressions.
+
+P.S. in the king's hand: "I am very glad, my dear mamma, to find an
+occasion to prove to you my tenderness and my attachment. I should be very
+glad to have your advice at this time, which is so embarrassing. I should
+be enchanted to be able to please you, and to show by my conduct all my
+attachment and the gratitude which I feel for your kindness in giving me
+your daughter, with whom I am as well satisfied as possible."
+
+P.S. by the queen: "The king would not let my letter go without adding a
+word from himself. I am quite aware that it would not have been too much
+for him to do to write an entire letter. But I must beg my dear mamma to
+excuse him, in consideration of the mass of business with which he is
+occupied, and also a little on account of his timidity and the embarrassed
+manner which is natural to him. You see, my dear mamma, by his compliment
+at the end, that, though he has great affection for me, he does not spoil
+me by insipid flatteries."
+
+It is almost equally remarkable that the empress herself, though thus to
+see her favorite daughter on the throne of France had been her most ardent
+wish, was far from regarding the consummation of her desires with
+unalloyed pleasure. She was so completely a politician above all things,
+that, though she was well aware that Louis XV. had been one of the most
+infamous kings that ever dishonored a throne, she looked upon him solely
+as an ally; described him to her daughter as "that good and tender
+prince;" declared that she should never cease to regret him, and that she
+would wear mourning for him all the rest of her life. At the same time,
+she did not conceal from herself that he had left his kingdom in a most
+deplorable condition. She had, as she declared, herself experienced how
+heavy is the burden of an empire; she reflected how young her daughter
+was; and expressed a sad fear that "her days of happiness were over." "She
+was now in a position in which there was no half-way between complete
+greatness and great misery.[6]" The best hopes for her future the empress
+saw in the character for purity and kindness which Marie Antoinette had
+already established and in the esteem and affection of the people which
+those qualities had won for her; and she entreated her, taking it for
+granted that in advising her she was advising the king also, to be prudent
+and cautious, to avoid making any sudden changes, and above all things to
+maintain the alliance between the two countries, and to listen to the
+experienced and faithful advice of her embassador.
+
+Maria Teresa was mistaken when she thought that her daughter would at all
+times be able to lead her husband. Though slow in action, Louis was not
+deficient in perception. On many subjects he had views of his own, which,
+in some cases, were clear and sound enough, and to which, even when they
+were not so, he adhered with considerable tenacity. At the same time,
+though he had but little affection for his aunts, and still less respect
+for their judgment, he had been so long accustomed to listen to their
+advice while he had no authority, that he could not as yet wholly shake
+off all feeling of deference for it, and their influence was exerted with
+most mischievous effect in the first week of his reign. Indeed, it had
+been exhibited even before the reign began, though the form which it took
+greatly interfered with the personal comfort of the young sovereigns. It
+had been settled that the king and queen should go by themselves to La
+Muette, and that the rest of the royal family should remove to the
+Trianon. But Madame Adelaide had no inclination for a plan which would
+separate her from her nephew at a moment when so many matters of
+importance would come before her for decision. At the last moment she
+prevailed upon him to consent that the whole family should go to Choisy
+together; and the very next day she induced him to dismiss his ministers,
+and to place the Comte de Maurepas at the head of the Government, though
+Louis himself had selected another-statesman for the office, M. Machault,
+who, as finance minister twenty-five years before, had shown both ability
+and integrity, and who had enjoyed the confidence of the king's father,
+and though Maurepas had never been supposed to be either able or honest,
+and might well have been regarded as superannuated, since he had begun his
+official life under Louis XIV.
+
+With the change in the position of Marie Antoinette, Mercy's position had
+also been changed, and likewise his view of the line of conduct which it
+was desirable for her to adopt. Hitherto he had been the counselor of a
+princess who, without wary walking, was liable every moment to be
+overwhelmed by the intrigues with which she was surrounded; and his chief
+object had been to enable his royal pupil to escape the snares and dangers
+which encompassed her. Now, as far as his duties could be determined by
+the wish of the empress, in which her daughter fully acquiesced, he was
+elevated to the post of confidential adviser to a great queen, who, in his
+opinion, was inevitably destined to be the real ruler of the kingdom. It
+was a strange position for so experienced a politician as the empress to
+desire for him, and for so prudent a statesman to accept. Yet, anomalous
+as it was, and dangerous as it would usually be for a foreign embassador
+to interfere in the internal politics of the kingdom to which he is sent,
+his correspondence bears ample testimony to both his sagacity and his
+disinterestedness. And it would have been well for both his royal pupil
+and her adopted country had his advice more frequently and more steadily
+guided the course of both.
+
+On one point of primary importance his advice to the queen differed from
+that which he had been wont to give to the dauphiness. While dauphiness,
+he had urged her to abstain from any interference in public affairs. He
+now, on the contrary, desired to see her take an active part in them,
+explaining to the empress that the reason which actuated him was the
+character of the new king, who, as he regarded him, was never likely to
+exert the authority which belonged to him with independence or steadiness,
+but was certain to be led by some one or other, while it would in the
+highest degree endanger the maintenance of the alliance between France and
+Austria (which, coinciding with the judgment of his imperial mistress, he
+regarded as the most important of all political objects), and be most
+injurious to the welfare of France and to her own personal comfort, if
+that leader should be any one but the queen.[7]
+
+But, as we have seen, he could not prevent Louis from yielding at times to
+other influences. Taking the same view of the situation as the empress, if
+indeed Maria Teresa had not adopted it from him, he had urged Marie
+Antoinette to prevent any change in the ministry being made at first, in
+which it is highly probable that she did not coincide with him, though
+equally likely that Maurepas was not the minister whom she would have
+preferred. Another piece of advice which he gave was, however, taken, and
+with the happiest effect The poorer classes in Paris and its neighborhood
+were suffering from a scarcity which almost amounted to a famine; and,
+before the death of Louis XV., Mercy had recommended that the first
+measure of the new reign should be one which should lower the price of
+bread. That counsel was too entirely in harmony with the active
+benevolence of the new monarch to be neglected. The necessary edicts were
+issued. In twenty-four hours the price of the loaf was reduced by
+two-fifths, and Mercy had the satisfaction of hearing the relief
+generally attributed to the influence of the new queen.
+
+It can not he supposed that the king knew either the opinion which the
+empress and the embassador had formed of his capacity and disposition, or
+the advice which they had consequently given to the queen. But he very
+early began to show that he himself also appreciated his wife's quickness
+of intelligence and correctness of judgment. Maria Teresa, in pressing on
+her daughter her opinion of the general character of the policy which the
+interest of France required, explained her view of her daughter's position
+to be that she was "the friend and confidante of the king.[8]" And June
+had hardly arrived before he began to discuss all his plans and
+difficulties with her; while she spared his pride and won his further
+confidence by avoiding all appearances of pressing for it, as if her
+advice were necessary to him, but at the same time showing with what
+satisfaction she received it. To those who solicited her intervention, her
+language was most carefully guarded. "She did not," she said, "interfere
+in any affair of state; she only coincided in all the wishes and
+intentions of the king."
+
+There were, however, matters which were strictly and exclusively within
+her own province; and in them she at once began to exert her authority
+most beneficially. Her first desire was to purify the court where
+licentiousness in either sex had long been the surest road to royal favor.
+She began by making a regulation, that she would receive no lady who was
+separated from her husband; and she abolished a senseless and inexplicable
+rule of etiquette which had hitherto prohibited the queen and princesses
+from dining or supping in company with their husbands.[9] Such an
+exclusion from the king's table of those who were its most natural and
+becoming ornaments had notoriously facilitated and augmented the disorders
+of the last reign; and it was obvious that its maintenance must at least
+have a tendency to lead to a repetition of the old irregularities.
+Fortunately, the king was as little inclined to approve of it as the
+queen. All his tastes were domestic, and he gladly assented to her
+proposal to abolish the custom. Throughout the reign, at all ordinary
+meals, at his suppers when he came in late from hunting, when he had
+perhaps invited some of his fellow-sportsmen to share his repast, and at
+State banquets, Marie Antoinette took her seat at his side, not only
+adding grace and liveliness to the entertainment, but effectually
+preventing license, and even the suspicion of scandal; and, as she desired
+that her household as well as her family should set an example of
+regularity and propriety to the nation, she exercised a careful
+superintendence over the behavior of those who had hitherto been among the
+least-considered members of the royal establishment. Even the king's
+confessor had thought the morals of the royal pages either beneath his
+notice or beyond his control; but Marie Antoinette took a higher view of
+her duties. She considered her pages[10] as placed under her charge, and
+herself as bound to extend what one of themselves calls a maternal care
+and kindness to them, restraining as far as she could, and when she could
+not restrain, reproving their boyish excesses, softening their hearts and
+winning their affections by the gentle dignity of her admonitions, and by
+the condescending and hopeful indulgence with which she accepted their
+expressions of contrition and their promises of amendment. In one matter,
+too, which, if not exactly political, was at all events of public
+interest, she acted in a manner of which none of her predecessors had set
+an example. By a custom of immemorial antiquity, at the accession of a new
+sovereign, a tax had been levied on the whole kingdom as an offering to
+the king, known as "the gift of the happy accession;[11]" when there was a
+queen, a similar tax was imposed upon the Parisians, to provide what was
+called "the girdle of the queen.[12]" It has already been mentioned that
+the distress which existed in Paris at this time was so severe that, just
+before the death of the late king, Louis and Marie Antoinette had relieved
+it by a munificent gift from their private purse; and to lay additional
+burdens on the people at such a time was not only repugnant to their
+feelings, but seemed especially inconsistent with their recent generosity.
+Accordingly, the very first edict of the new reign announced that neither
+tax would be imposed. The people felt the kindness which dictated such a
+relief more than even the relief itself, and repaid it with expressions of
+gratitude such as no French sovereign had heard for above a century; but
+Marie Antoinette, with the humility natural to her on such subjects, made
+light of her own share in the act of benevolence, turning off the
+compliments which were paid to her with a playful jest, that it was
+impossible for a queen to affix a purse to her girdle, now that girdles
+had gone out of fashion.[13]
+
+On another subject, also, not wholly unconnected with politics, Since the
+nobleman concerned had once been the chief minister, but in which Marie
+Antoinette's interest was personal, she broke through her usual rule of
+not beginning the discussion with the king, and requested the recall from
+banishment of the Due de Choiseul. An unfounded prejudice based upon
+calumnies set on foot by the cabal of Madame du Barri, had envenomed
+Louis's mind against the duke. He bad been led to suspect that his own
+father, the late dauphin, had been poisoned, and that Choiseul had been
+accessory to the crime. There was nothing more certain than that the
+dauphin's death had been natural; but a dislike of the accused duke
+lingered in the king's mind, and he eluded compliance with his wife's
+request till she put it on entirely personal grounds, by declaring it to
+be humiliating to herself that one to whom she was under the deepest
+obligations as the negotiator of her own happy marriage should be under
+the king's displeasure without her being able to procure his pardon. Louis
+felt the force of the appeal thus made to him. "If she used that argument,
+he could deny her nothing," and the duke's sentence was remitted, though
+his royal patroness was unable to procure his re-admission to office. Nor
+did Maria Teresa regret that she failed in that object; since she feared
+his restless character, and felt the alliance between the two countries
+safer in the hands of the new foreign secretary, the Count de Vergennes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+The Comte de Provence intrigues against the Queen.--The King gives her the
+Little Trianon,--She lays out an English Garden.--Maria Teresa cautions
+her against Expense.--The King and Queen abolish some of the Old Forms.--
+The Queen endeavors to establish Friendships with some of her Younger
+Ladies.--They abuse her Favor.--Her Eagerness for Amusement.--Louis enters
+into her Views.--Etiquette is abridged.--Private Parties at Choisy.--
+Supper Parties.--Opposition of the Princesses.--Some of the Courtiers are
+dissatisfied at the Relaxation of Etiquette.--Marie Antoinette is accused
+of Austrian Preferences.
+
+
+Her accession to the throne, however, had not entirely delivered Marie
+Antoinette from intrigues. It had only changed their direction and object,
+and also the persona of the intriguers. Her chief enemy now was the prince
+who ought to have been her best friend, the next brother of her husband,
+the Comte de Provence. Among the papers of Louis XV. the king had found
+proofs, in letters from both count and countess, that they had both been
+actively employed in trying to make mischief, and to poison the mind of
+their grandfather against the dauphiness. They became still more busy now,
+since each day seemed to diminish the probability of Marie Antoinette
+becoming a mother; while, if she should leave no children, the Comte de
+Provence would be heir to the throne. He scarcely made any secret that he
+was already contemplating the probability of his succession; and, as there
+were not wanting courtiers to speculate also on the chance, it soon became
+known that there was no such sure road to the favor of monsieur[1] as that
+of disparaging and vilifying the queen. There might have been some safety
+for her in being put on her guard against her enemy; and the king himself,
+who called his brother Tartuffe, did, in consequence of his discovery, use
+great caution and circumspection in his behavior toward him; but Marie
+Antoinette was of a temper as singularly forgiving as it was open: she
+could not bear to regard with suspicion even those of whose unfriendliness
+and treachery she had had proofs; and after a few days she resumed her old
+familiarity with the pair, as if she had no reason to distrust them,
+slighting on this subject the remonstrances of Mercy, who pointed out to
+her in vain that she was putting weapons into their hands which they would
+be sure to turn against herself.
+
+At this moment she was especially happy with a new pastime. Amidst the
+stately halls of Versailles she had often longed for a villa on a smaller
+scale, which she might call her own; and the wish was now gratified. On
+one side of the park of Versailles, and about a mile from the palace, the
+late king had built an exquisite little pavilion for his mistress, which
+was known as the Little Trianon. There had been a building of one kind or
+another on the same spot for above a century. Louis XIV. had erected there
+a cottage of porcelain for his imperious favorite, Madame de Montespan;
+and it was the more sumptuous palace with which, after her death, he
+replaced it, that gave rise to the strange quarrel between the haughty
+monarch and his equally haughty minister, Louvois, of which St. Simon has
+left us so curious an account.[2] This had been allowed to fall into a
+state of decay; and a few years before his death, Louis XV. had pulled
+down what remained of it, and had built a third on its foundations, which
+had been the most favorite abode of Madame du Barri during his life, but
+which was now rendered vacant by her dismissal. The house was decorated
+with an exquisite delicacy of taste, in which Louis XV. had far surpassed
+his predecessor; but the chief charm of the place was generally accounted
+to be the garden, which had been laid out by Le Notre, an artist, whose
+original genius as a landscape gardener was regarded by many of his
+contemporaries as greatly superior to his more technical skill as an
+architect.[3]
+
+A few hundred yards off was another palace, the Great Trianon; but it was
+the Little Trianon which caught the queen's fancy; and, on her expression
+of a wish to have it for her own, the king at once made it over to her;
+and, pleased with her new toy, Marie Antoinette, still a girl in her
+impulsive eagerness for a fresh pleasure (she was not yet nineteen), began
+to busy herself with remodeling the pleasure-grounds with which it was
+surrounded. Before the time of Le Notre, the finest gardens in the country
+had been laid out on what was called the Italian plan. He was too good a
+patriot to copy the foreigners: he drove out the Italians, and introduced
+a new arrangement, known as the French style, which was, in fact, but an
+imitation of the stiff, formal Dutch mode. But of late the English
+gardeners had established that supremacy in the art which they have ever
+since maintained; and the present aim of every fashionable horticulturist
+in France was to copy the effects produced on the banks of the Thames by
+Wise and Browne.
+
+Marie Antoinette fell in with the prevailing taste. She imported English
+drawings and hired English, gardeners. She visited in person the Count de
+Caraman, and one or two other nobles, who had already done something by
+their example to inoculate the Parisians with the new fashion. And
+presently lawns and shrubberies, widening invariably simple flower-beds,
+supplanted the stately uniformity of terraces, alleys converging on
+central fountains, or on alcoves as solid and stiff as the palace itself,
+and trees cut into all kinds of fantastic shapes, which had previously
+been regarded as the masterpieces of the gardeners' invention. Her
+happiness was at its height when, at the end of a few months, all was
+completed to her liking, and she could invite her husband to an
+entertainment in a retreat which was wholly her own, and the chief
+beauties of which were her own work.
+
+As yet, therefore, all was happiness, and prospect of happiness. Even
+Maria Teresa, whose unceasing anxiety for her daughter often induced her
+to see the worst side of things, was rendered for a moment almost playful
+by the reports which reached Vienna of the universal popularity of "Louis
+XVI. and his little queen!" "She blushed," she said, "to think that in
+thirty-three years of her reign she had not done as much as Louis had done
+in thirty-three days.[4]" But she still warned her daughter that every
+thing depended on keeping up the happy impression already made; that much
+still remained to be done. And the queen's answer showed that her new
+authority had brought with it some cares. "It is true," she writes, "that
+the praises of the king resound everywhere. He deserves it well by the
+uprightness of his heart, and the desire which he has to act rightly; but
+this French enthusiasm disquiets me for the future. The little that I
+understand of business shows me that some matters are full of difficulty
+and embarrassment. All agree that the late king has left his affairs in a
+very bad state. Men's minds are divided; and it will be impossible to
+please all the world in a country where the vivacity of the people wants
+every thing to be done in a moment. My dear mamma is quite right when she
+says we must lay down principles, and not depart from them. The king will
+not have the same weakness as his grandfather. I hope that he will have no
+favorites; but I am afraid that he is too mild and too easy. You may
+depend upon it that I will not draw the king into any great expenses."
+(The empress had expressed a fear lest the Trianon might prove a cause of
+extravagance.) "On the contrary, I, of my own accord, have refused to make
+demands on him for money which some have recommended me to make."
+
+Some relaxations, too, of the formality which had previously been
+maintained between the sovereign and the subordinate members of the royal
+family, and especially an order of the king that his brothers and sisters
+were not in private intercourse to address him as his majesty, had grated
+on the empress's sense of the distance always to be preserved between a
+monarch and the very highest of his subjects. And she had complained that
+reports had reached her that "there was no distinction between the queen
+and the other princesses; and that the familiarity subsisting in the court
+was extreme." But Marie Antoinette replied, in defense of the king and
+herself, that there was "great exaggeration in these reports, as indeed
+there was about every thing that went on at the court; that the
+familiarity spoken of was seen but by very few. It is not for me," she
+said, "to judge; but it seems to me that what exists among us is only the
+air of kindly affection and gayety which is suitable to our age. It is
+true that the Count d'Artois" (who had been the special subject of some of
+the empress's unfavorable comments) "is very lively and very giddy, but I
+can always keep him in order. As for my aunts, no one can any longer say
+that they lead me; and as for monsieur and madame, I am very far from
+placing entire confidence in them.
+
+"I must confess that I am fond of amusement, and am not very greatly
+inclined to grave subjects. I hope, however, to improve by degrees; and,
+without ever mixing myself up in intrigues, to qualify myself gradually to
+be of service to the king when he makes me his confidante, since he treats
+me at all times with the most perfect affection."
+
+Her reflections on the impulsiveness and impatience of the French
+character, and of the difficulties which those qualities placed in the
+path of their rulers, justify the praises which Mercy had lavished on her
+sagacity, for it is evident that to them the chief troubles of her later
+years may be clearly traced. And it is difficult to avoid agreeing with
+her rather than with her mother, and thinking the most entire freedom of
+intercourse between the king and his nearest relations as desirable as it
+was natural. Royalty is, as the empress herself described it, a burden
+sufficiently heavy, without its weight being augmented by observances and
+restrictions which would leave the rulers without a single friend even
+among the members of their own family. And probably the empress herself
+might have seen less reason for her admonitions on the subject, had it not
+been for the circumstance, which was no doubt unfortunate, that the royal
+family at this time contained no member of a graver age and a settled
+respectability of character who might, by his example, have tempered the
+exuberance natural to the extreme youth of the sovereigns and their
+brothers.
+
+Not that Marie Antoinette was content to limit the number of those whom
+she admitted to familiarity to her husband's kinsmen and kinswomen. Still
+fretting in secret over the want of any object on whom to lavish a
+mother's tenderness, she sought for friendship as a substitute, shutting
+her eyes to the fact that persons in her rank, as having no equals, can
+have no friends, in the true sense of the word. Nor, had such a thing been
+possible anywhere, was France the country in which to find it. There
+disinterestedness and integrity had long been banished from her own sex
+almost as completely as from the other; and most of those whom she took
+into favor made it their first object to render that favor profitable to
+themselves. If she professed in their society to forget for a few hours
+that she was queen, they never forgot it; they never lost sight of the
+fact that she could confer places and pensions, and they often discarded
+moderation and decency in the extravagance of their solicitations; while
+she frequently, with an overamiable facility, surrendering her own
+judgment to their importunities, not only granted their requests, but at
+times even adopted their prejudices, and yielded herself as an instrument
+to gratify their antipathies or resentments.
+
+And the same feeling of vacancy in her heart, of which she was ever
+painfully conscious, produced in her also a constant restlessness, and a
+craving for excitement which exhibited itself in an insatiable appetite
+for amusement (as she confessed to her mother), and led her to seek
+distraction even in pastimes for which naturally she had but little
+inclination. In these respects it can not be said that, during the first
+year of her reign, she was as uniformly prudent as she had been while
+dauphiness. The restraint in which she had lived for those four years had
+not been unwholesome for one so young; but it had no doubt been irksome to
+her. And the feeling of complete liberty and independence which had
+succeeded it had, by a sort of natural reaction, sharpened the energy with
+which she now pursued her various diversions. It is possible, too, that
+the zest with which she indulged herself may have derived additional
+keenness from the knowledge that her ill-wishers found in it pretext for
+misconstruction and calumny; and that, being conscious of entire purity in
+thought, word, and deed, she looked on it as due to her own character to
+show that she set all such detraction and detractors at defiance. To all
+cavilers, as also to her mother, whose uneasiness was frequently aroused
+by gossip which reached Vienna from Paris, her invariable reply was that
+her way of life had the king her husband's entire approbation. And while
+he felt a conjugal satisfaction in the contemplation of his queen's
+attractions and graces, the qualities in which, as he was well aware, he
+himself was most deficient, Louis might well also cherish the most
+absolute reliance on her unswerving rectitude, knowing the pride with
+which she was wont to refer to her mother's example, and to boast that the
+lesson which, above all others, she had learned from it was that to
+princes of her birth and rank wickedness and baseness were unpardonable.
+
+Indeed, many of the amusements Louis not only approved, but shared with
+her, while she associated herself with those in which he delighted, as far
+as she could, joining his hunting parties twice a week, either on
+horseback or in her carriage, and at all times exhibiting a pattern of
+domestic union of which the whole previous history of the nation afforded
+no similar example. The citizens of Paris could hardly believe their eyes
+when they saw their king and queen walk arm-in-arm along the boulevards;
+and the courtiers received a lesson, if they had been disposed to profit
+by it, when on each Sunday morning they saw the royal pair repair to the
+parish church for divine service, the day being closed by their public
+supper in the queen's apartment.
+
+And this appearance of domestic felicity was augmented by the introduction
+of what may be called private parties, with which, at the queen's
+instigation, Louis consented to vary the cold formality of the ordinary
+entertainments of the court. In the autumn they followed the example of
+Louis XV. by exchanging for a few weeks the grandeur of Versailles for the
+comparative quiet of some of their smaller palaces; and, while they were
+at Choisy, they issued invitations once or twice a week to several of the
+Parisian ladies to come out and spend the day at the palace, when, as the
+principal officers of the household were not on duty, they themselves did
+the honors to their guests, the queen conversing with every one with her
+habitual graciousness, while the king also threw off his ordinary reserve,
+and seemed to enter into the pleasures of the day with a gayety and
+cordiality which surprised the party, and which, from the contrast that it
+presented to his manner when he was by himself, was very generally
+attributed to the influence of the queen's example.
+
+And these quiet festivities were so much to his taste that afterward, when
+the court moved to Fontainebleau, and when they settled at Versailles for
+the winter, he cheerfully agreed to a proposal of Marie Antoinette to have
+a weekly supper party; adopting also another suggestion of hers which was
+indispensable to render such reunions agreeable, or even, it may be said,
+practicable. At her request he abolished the ridiculous rule which, under
+the last two kings, had forbidden gentlemen to be admitted to sit at table
+with any princess of the royal family. But natural as the idea seemed, it
+was not carried out without opposition on the part of Madame Adelaide and
+her sisters, who remonstrated against it as an infraction of all the old
+observances of the court, till it became a contest for superiority between
+the queen and themselves. Marie Antoinette took counsel with Mercy, and,
+by his advice, pointed out to her husband that to abandon the plan after
+it had been announced, in submission to an opposition which the princesses
+had no right to make, would be to humiliate her in the eyes of the whole
+court. Louis had not yet shaken off all fear of his aunts; but they were
+luckily absent, so he yielded to the influence which was nearest. The
+suppers took place. He and the queen themselves made out the lists of the
+guests to be invited, the men being named by him, and the ladies being
+selected by the queen. They were a great success; and, as the history of
+the affair became known, the court and the Parisians generally rejoiced in
+the queen's triumph, and were grateful to her for this as for every other
+innovation which had a tendency to break down the haughty barrier which,
+during the last two reigns, had been established between the sovereign and
+his subjects. Nor were these pleasant informal parties the only instances
+in which, great inroads were made on the old etiquette. The Comte de
+Mirabeau, a man fatally connected in subsequent years with some of the
+most terrible of the insults which were offered to the royal family, about
+this time described etiquette as a system invented for the express purpose
+of blunting the capacity of the French princes, and fixing them in
+position of complete dependence. And Marie Antoinette seems to have
+regarded it with similar eyes; her dislike of it being quickened by the
+expectations which its partisans and champions entertained that her every
+movement was to be regulated by it. And its requirements were sufficiently
+burdensome to tax a far better-trained patience that was natural to one
+who though a queen, was not yet nineteen. Not only was no guest of the
+male sex, except the king, allowed to sit at table with her, but no
+man-servant, no male officer of her household, might be present when the
+king and she dined together, as indeed usually happened; even his
+presence could not sanction the introduction of any other man. The lady
+of honor, on her knees, though in full dress, presented him the napkin
+to wipe his fingers and filled his glass; ladies in waiting in the same
+grand attire changed the plates of the royal pair; and after dinner, as
+indeed throughout the day, the queen could not quit one room in the
+palace for another, unless some of her ladies were at hand in complete
+court dress to attend upon her.[5] These usages, which were in reality
+so many chains to restrain all freedom, and to render comfort
+impossible, were abolished in the first few months of the new reign;
+but, little as was the foundation which they had in common sense, and
+equally little as was the addition which they made to the royal dignity,
+it is certain that many of the courtiers, besides Madame de Noailles,
+were greatly disconcerted at their extinction. They regarded the queen's
+orders on the subject as a proof of a settled preference for Austrian
+over French fashions. They began to speak of her as "the Austrian," a
+name which, though Madame Adelaide had more than once chosen it to
+describe her during the first year of her marriage, had since that time
+been almost forgotten, but which was now revived, and was continually
+reproduced by a certain party to cast odium on many of her most simple
+tastes and most innocent actions. Her enemies oven affirmed that in
+private she was wont to call the Trianon her "little Vienna,[6]" as if
+the garden, which she was laying out with a taste that long made it the
+admiration of all the visitors to Versailles, were dear to her, not as
+affording a healthful and becoming occupation, nor for the sale of the
+giver, but only because it recalled to her memory the gardens of
+Schönbrunn, to which, as their malice suggested, she never ceased to
+look back with unpatriotic regret.
+
+In one point of view they were unquestionably correct. The queen did
+undoubtedly desire to establish in the French court the customs and the
+feelings which, during her childhood, had prevailed at Vienna; but they
+were wholly wrong in thinking them Austrian usages. They were Lorrainese
+in their origin; they had been imported to Vienna for the first time by
+her own father, the Emperor Francis; when she referred to them, it was as
+"the patriarchal manners of the House of Lorraine[7]" that she spoke of
+them; and her preference for them was founded on the conviction that it
+was to them that her mother and her mother's family were indebted for the
+love and reverence of the people which all the trials and distresses of
+the struggle against Frederic had never been able to impair.
+
+Nor was it only the old stiffness and formality, which had been compatible
+with the grossest license, that was now discountenanced. A wholly new
+spirit was introduced to animate the conversation with which those royal
+entertainments were enlivened. Under Louis XV., and indeed before his
+reign, intrigue and faction had been the real rulers of the court,
+spiteful detraction and scandal had been its sole language. But, to the
+dispositions, as benevolent as they were pure, of the young queen and her
+husband, malice and calumny were almost as hateful as profligacy itself.
+She held, with the great English dramatist, her contemporary, that true
+wit was nearly allied to good-nature;[8] and she showed herself more
+decided in nothing than in discouraging and checking every tendency to
+disparagement of the absent, and diffusing a tone of friendly kindness
+over society. On one occasion, when she heard some of her ladies laughing
+over a spiteful story, she reproved them plainly for their mirth as "bad
+taste." On another she asked some who were thus amusing themselves, "How
+they would like any one to speak thus of themselves in their absence, and
+before her?" and her precept, fortified by example (for no unkind comment
+on any one was ever heard to pass her lips), so effectually extinguished
+the habit of detraction that in a very short time it was remarked that no
+courtier ventured on an ill-natured word in her presence, and that even
+the Comte de Provence, who especially aimed at the reputation of a sayer
+of good things, and affected a character for cynical sharpness, learned at
+last to restrain his sarcastic tongue, and at least to pretend a
+disposition to look at people's characters and actions with as much
+indulgence as herself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+Settlement of the Queen's Allowance.--Character and Views of Turgot.--She
+induces Gluck to visit Paris.--Performance of his Opera of "Iphigénie
+en Aulide."--The First Encore.--Marie Antoinette advocates the
+Re-establishment of the Parliaments, and receives an Address from them.--
+English Visitors at the Court.--The King is compared to Louis XII. and
+Henri IV.--The Archduke Maximilian visits his Sister.--Factious Conduct of
+the Princes of the Blood.--Anti-Austrian Feeling in Paris.--The War of
+Grains.--The King is crowned at Rheims.--Feelings of Marie Antoinette.--
+Her Improvements at the Trianon.--Her Garden Parties there.--Description
+of her Beauty by Burke, and by Horace Walpole.
+
+
+Maria Teresa had warned her daughter against extravagance, a warning which
+would have been regarded as wholly misplaced by any other of the French
+princes, who were accustomed to treat the national treasury as a fund
+intended to supply the means for their utmost profusion, but which
+certainly coincided with the views of Marie Antoinette herself, who, as we
+have seen, vindicated herself from the charge of prodigality, and declared
+that she took great care that her improvements at the Trianon should not
+be beyond her means. Yet it would not have been surprising if they had
+been found to be so, since, even after she became queen, her income
+continued to be far too narrow for her rank. The nominal allowance of all
+former kings and queens had been fixed at an unreasonably low rate, from
+the pernicious custom of drawing on the treasury for all deficiencies; but
+this mode of proceeding was inconsistent with the notions of propriety
+entertained by the new sovereigns, and with those of the new finance
+minister.
+
+Maurepas himself had never been distinguished for ability, but he was
+sufficiently clear-sighted to be aware that the principal difficulties of
+the State arose from the disorder into which the profligacy and
+prodigality of the late reign, ever since the death of the wise Fleury,
+had thrown its finances; and he had made a most happy choice for the
+office of comptroller-general of finance, appointing to it a man named
+Turgot, who, as Intendant of the Limousin, had brought that province into
+a condition of prosperity which had made it a model for the rest of the
+kingdom. In his new and more enlarged sphere of action, Turgot's abilities
+expanded; or, perhaps it should rather be said, had a fairer field for
+their display. He showed himself equally capable in every department of
+his duties; as a financial reformer, as an administrator, and as a
+legislator. No minister in the history of the nation had ever so united
+large-minded genius with disinterested integrity. He had not accepted
+office without a full perception of its difficulties. He saw all that had
+to be done, and applied himself to putting the finances of the nation on a
+healthy footing, as an indispensable preface to other reforms equally
+necessary. He easily secured the co-operation of the king and queen, Louis
+cheerfully adopting the retrenchments which he recommended, though some of
+them, such as the reduction in the hunting establishment, touched his
+personal tastes. But at the same time, as there was no illiberality in his
+economy, or, rather, as he saw that real economy could only be practiced
+if the sovereigns had a fixed income really adequate to the call upon it,
+he placed their allowances on a more satisfactory footing than had ever
+been fixed for them before, the queen's privy purse being settled at a sum
+which Mercy agreed with him would prove sufficient for all her expenses,
+though it was but 200,000 francs a year.
+
+And so it was generally found to be; for, with the exception of an
+occasional fancy for some splendid jewel, Marie Antoinette had no
+expensive tastes. Her economy was even far greater than her attendants
+approved, extending to details which they would have wished her to regard
+as beneath the dignity of a sovereign;[1] and so judiciously did she
+manage her resources that she was able to defray out of her privy purse
+the pensions which she occasionally conferred on men eminent in arts or
+literature, whom she rightly judged it a royal duty to encourage.
+
+One of her first acts of liberality of this kind was exercised in favor of
+a countryman of her own, the celebrated Gluck. Music was one of her most
+favorite accomplishments. She still devoted a portion of almost every day
+in taking lessons on the harp; but the French music was not to her taste;
+while, since the death of Handel, Gluck's superiority to all his other
+musical contemporaries had been generally acknowledged in all countries.
+She now, by the gift of a pension of 6000 francs, induced him to visit
+Paris. It was at the French opera that many of his most celebrated works
+were first given to the world; and an incident which took place at the
+performance of one of them showed that, if the frequenters of Versailles
+were dissatisfied at the inroads lately made on the old etiquette, the
+queen had a compensation in the warm attachment with which she had
+inspired the Parisians. Instead of conveying the performers to Versailles,
+as had been the extravagant practice of the late reign, Louis and Marie
+Antoinette went into Paris when they desired to visit the theatre. The
+citizens, delighted at the contrast which their frequent visits to the
+capital afforded to the marked dislike of it shown by the late king,
+crowded the theatre on every night on which they were expected; and on one
+of these occasions Gluck's "Iphigénie" was the opera selected for
+performance. It contains a chorus in which, according to the design of the
+dramatist, Achilles was directed to turn to his followers with the words
+
+  "Chantez, célébrez votre reine."
+
+But the French opera-singers were a courtly race. The French opera had
+been established a century before as a Royal Academy of Music by Louis
+XIV., who had issued letters patent which declared the profession of an
+opera-singer one that might be followed even by a nobleman; and it seemed,
+therefore, quite consistent with the rank thus conferred on them that they
+should take the lead in paying loyal compliments to their princes.
+Accordingly, when the performer who represented the invincible son of
+Thetis, the popular tenor singer, Le Gros, came to the chorus in question,
+he was found to have prepared a slight change in his part. He did not
+address himself to the myrmidons behind him, but he came forward, and,
+with a bow to the boxes and pit, substituted the following,
+
+  "Chantons, célébrons notre reine,
+  L'hymen, que sous ses lois l'enchaîne,
+  Va nous rendre à jamais heureux."
+
+The audience was taken by surprise, but it was a surprise of delight. The
+whole house rose to its feet, cheering and clapping their hands. For the
+first time in theatrical history, the repetition of a song was demanded.
+The now familiar term of "Encore!" was heard and obeyed. The queen herself
+was affected to tears by the enthusiastic affection displayed toward her,
+nor at such a moment did she suffer her feeling of the evanescent
+character of popularity among so light-minded a people to dwell in her
+mind, or to mar the pleasure which such a reception was well calculated to
+impart.
+
+Popularity at this moment seemed doubly valuable to her, because she was
+not ignorant that the feeling of disappointment at the unproductiveness of
+her marriage had recently been increased by the knowledge that the young
+Countess d'Artois was about to become a mother. And the attachment which
+she inspired was not confined to the play-goers; it was shared by a body
+so little inclined to exhibitions of impulsive loyalty as the Parliament.
+It has been seen that Louis XV. had abolished that body; but one of the
+first proposals made by Maurepas to the new king had had its
+re-establishment for its object. The question had been discussed in the
+king's council, and also in the royal family, with great eagerness. The
+ablest of the ministers protested against the restoration of an assembly
+which had invariably shown itself turbulent and usurping, and the king
+himself was generally understood to share their views. But Marie
+Antoinette, led by the advice of Choiseul, was eager in her support of
+Maurepas, and it was believed that her influence decided Louis. If it was
+so, it was an exertion of her power that she had ample cause to repent at
+a subsequent period; but at the time she thought of nothing but showing
+her sense of the general superiority of Choiseul, and so requiting some of
+the obligations under which she considered that she lay to him for
+arranging her marriage; and she received a deputation from the
+re-established Parliament with marked pleasure, and replied to their
+address with a graciousness which seemed intended to show that she
+sincerely rejoiced at the event which had given cause for it.
+
+It was not till Christmas that the royal family went out of mourning; but,
+as soon as it was left off, the court returned to its accustomed gayety--
+balls, concerts, and private theatricals occupying the evenings; though
+the people remarked with undisguised satisfaction that the expenses of
+former years had been greatly retrenched. It was also noticed that many
+foreigners of distinction, and especially some English ladies of high
+rank, gladly accepted invitations to the balls, which they certainly would
+not have done while their presence was likely to bring them into contact
+with Madame du Barri. Lady Ailesbury is especially mentioned as having
+been received with marked distinction by the queen, and also by the king,
+who was careful to show his approval of her entertainments by the share
+which he took in them; and, as he paraded the saloons arm-in-arm with her,
+to distinguish those whom she noticed, so that, to quote the words of one
+of the most lively chroniclers of the day, their example seemed to be fast
+bringing conjugal love and fidelity into fashion. She even persuaded him
+to depart still further from his usual reserve, so as to appear in costume
+at more than one fancy ball; the dress which he chose being that of the
+only predecessor of his own house whom he could in any point have desired
+to resemble, Henry IV. He had already been indirectly compared to that
+monarch, the first Bourbon king, by the ingenious flattery of a print-
+*seller. In the long list of sovereigns who had reigned over France in the
+five hundred years which had passed by since the warrior-saint of the
+Crusades had laid down his life on the sands of Tunis, there had been but
+two to whom their countrymen could look back with affection or respect--
+Louis XII., to whom his subjects had given the title of The Good, and
+Henry, to whom more than one memorial still preserved the surname of The
+Great. And the courtly picture-dealer, eager to make his market of the
+gratitude with which his fellow-citizens greeted the reforms with which
+the reigning sovereign had already inaugurated his reign, contrived to
+extract a compliment to him even out of the severe prose of the
+multiplication-table; publishing a joint portrait of the three kings,
+Louis XII., Henry IV., and Louis XVI., with an inscription beneath to
+testify that 12 and 4 made 16.
+
+In the spring of 1775, Marie Antoinette received a great pleasure in a
+visit from her younger brother, Maximilian. He was the only member of her
+family whom she had seen in the five years that had elapsed since she left
+Vienna. But, eagerly as she had looked forward to his visit, it did not
+bring her unmixed satisfaction, being marred by the ill-breeding of the
+princes of the blood, and still more by the approval of their conduct
+displayed by the citizens of Paris, which seemed to afford a convincing
+evidence of the small effect which even the queen's virtues and graces had
+produced in softening the old national feeling of enmity to the house of
+Austria. The archduke, who was still but a youth, did not assert his royal
+rank while on his travels, but preserved such an _incognito_ as princes on
+such occasions are wont to assume, and took the title of Count de Burgau.
+The king's brothers, however, like the king himself, paid no regard to his
+disguise, but visited him at the first instant of his arrival; but the
+princes of the blood stood on their dignity, refused to acknowledge a rank
+which was not publicly avowed, or to recollect that the visitor was a
+foreigner and brother to their queen, and insisted on receiving the
+attention of the first visit from him. The excitement which the question
+caused in the palace, and the queen's indignation at the slight thus
+offered, as she conceived, to her brother, were great. High words passed
+between her and the Duc d'Orléans, the chief of the recusants, on the
+subject; and one part of her remonstrance throws a curious additional
+light on the strange distance which, as has been already pointed out, the
+etiquette of the French court had established between the sovereigns and
+the very highest of their subjects, even the nearest of their relations.
+The duke had insisted on the _incognito_ as debarring Maximilian from all
+claim to attention from a prince like himself whose rank was not
+concealed. She urged that the king and his brothers had not regarded it in
+that light. "The duke knew," she said, "that the king had treated
+Maximilian as a brother; that he even invited him to sup in private with
+himself and her, an honor to which no prince of the blood had ever
+pretended." And, finally, warming with her subject, she told him that,
+though her brother would be sorry not to make the acquaintance of the
+princes of the blood, he had many other things in Paris to see, and would
+manage to do without it.[2] Her expostulation was fruitless. The princes
+adhered to their resolution, and she to hers. They were not admitted to
+any of the festivities of the palace during the archduke's stay, and were
+even excluded from all the private entertainments which were given in his
+honor, since she made it known that the king and she would refuse to
+attend any to which they were invited. But, though their conduct was
+surely both discourteous to a foreigner and disrespectful to their
+sovereign, the Parisian populace took their part; and some of them who
+showed themselves ostentatiously in the streets of the city on days on
+which there were parties at Versailles were loudly applauded by a crowd
+which was not entirely drawn from the lower classes. It was noticed that
+the Duc de Chartres, the son of the Duc d'Orléans, was one of the foremost
+in exciting this anti-Austrian feeling, the outbreak of which was
+especially remarkable as the first instance in which the enthusiasm of the
+citizens for Marie Antoinette seemed to have cooled, or at least to have
+been interrupted. And this change in their feelings produced so painful an
+impression on her mind, that, after her brother's departure, she abandoned
+her intention of going to the opera, though Gluck's "Orfeo" was to be
+performed, lest she should meet with a reception less cordial than that to
+which she had hitherto been accustomed.
+
+This ebullition against the house of Austria, however, was at the moment
+dictated rather by discontent with the Home Government than by any settled
+feeling on the subject of foreign politics. Corn had been at a rather high
+price in Paris and its neighborhood throughout the winter; and the
+dearness was taken advantage of by the enemies of Turgot, and employed by
+them as an argument to prove the impolicy of his measures to introduce
+freedom of trade. They even organized[3] formidable riots at Paris and
+Versailles, which, however, Turgot, whose resolution was equal to his
+capacity, prevailed on the king to repress by acts of vigor very unusual
+to him, and very foreign to his disposition. The troops were called out;
+the Parliament was summoned to a Bed of Justice, and enjoined to put the
+law in force against the guilty; two of the most violent revolters were
+executed; order was restored, and the wholly factitious character of the
+outbreak was proved by the tranquillity which ensued, though the price of
+bread remained unaltered till the commencement of the harvest, the
+citizens themselves presently making a jest of their sedition, and
+nicknaming it The War of the Grains.[4]
+
+In France, one excitement soon drives out another, and the whole attention
+of the nation was now fixed on the coronation, which had been appointed to
+take place in June. After some discussion, it had been settled that Louis
+should be crowned alone. There had not been many precedents for the
+coronation of a queen in France; and the last instance, that of Marie de
+Medicis, as having been followed by the assassination of her husband, was
+regarded by many as a bad omen. If Marie Antoinette had herself expressed
+any wish to be her husband's partner in the solemnity, it would certainly
+have been complied with, and their subsequent fate would have been
+regarded as a confirmation of the evil augury. But she was indifferent on
+the subject, and quite contented to behold it as a spectator. It took
+place on Sunday, the 11th of June, in the grand Cathedral at Rheims. The
+progress of the royal family, which had quit Versailles for that city on
+the preceding Monday, had resembled a triumphant procession, so
+enthusiastic had been the acclamations which had greeted the king and
+queen at each town through which they had passed; and all the previous
+displays of joy were outdone by the demonstrations afforded by the
+citizens of Rheims itself. It was midnight, on the 8th of June, when the
+queen reached the gates; but the road outside and the streets inside were
+thronged with a crowd as dense as midday could have produced, which
+followed her to the archbishop's palace, making the whole city resound
+with their loyal cheers; and which, the next morning, awaited her
+coming-forth after holding a grand reception of all the nobles of the
+province, to meet the king when he made his solemn entry in the
+afternoon. The ceremony in the cathedral was one of great magnificence;
+but, in the account of the day which, after her return to Versailles,
+she wrote to her mother, she does not enter into details, as being
+necessarily known to the empress in their general character; confining
+herself rather to a description of the impression which the manifest
+cordiality with which the whole people had entered into the spirit of
+the solemnity had made upon her own mind and heart.[5]
+
+"The coronation was perfect in every respect. It was made plain that every
+one was highly delighted with the king, and so he deserves that all his
+subjects should be. Great and small, all displayed the greatest interest
+in him; and at the moment of placing the crown on his head the ceremonies
+of the church were interrupted by the most touching acclamations. I could
+not restrain myself; my tears flowed in spite of all my efforts, and the
+people were pleased to see them. During the whole time of our journey I
+did my best to correspond to the earnestness of the people; and although
+the heat was great, and the crowd immense, I do not regret my fatigue,
+which, moreover, has not injured my health. It is a very astonishing
+circumstance, but at the same time a very pleasant one, to be so well
+received only two months after the revolt, and in spite of the high price
+of bread, which unhappily still continues. It is a strange peculiarity in
+the French character to allow themselves to be so easily led away by
+mischievous suggestions, and then immediately to return to good behavior.
+It is very certain that when we see people, even in times of distress,
+treating us so well, we are the more bound to labor for their happiness.
+The king seems to me penetrated with this truth. As for me, I feel that
+all my life, even if I were to live a hundred years, I shall never forget
+the coronation day."
+
+But all the tumultuous pomp and exultation only made her return with
+renewed pleasure to her quiet retreat of the Trianon, which, with the
+assistance of the illustrious Buffon, then superintendent of the king's
+gardens, and of Bernard de Jussieu, Director of the Jardin des Plantes,
+and celebrated as one of the first botanists of Europe, she was laying out
+with a delicate taste that long rendered it one of the chief attractions
+to all the inhabitants of the district. For the sentiment which she
+expressed in the letter to the empress, which has just been quoted, was
+not the mere formal utterance of a barren philanthropy, but was dictated
+and carried out by an active benevolence. She felt in her inmost heart the
+duty which she there professed, of exerting herself to promote the
+happiness of the people, and was far too unselfish to desire to keep to
+herself the whole of the delight her gardens were calculated to afford.
+The Trianon was a possession exactly calculated to gratify her taste for
+innocent rural pleasure. As she said herself, at Versailles she was a
+queen; here she was a plain country lady, superintending not only her
+flowers, but her farm-yard and her dairy, taking pride in her stock and
+her produce. She would invite the king and the rest of the royal family to
+garden parties, where, at a table set out under a bower of honeysuckle,
+she would pour out their coffee with her own hands, boasting of the
+thickness of her cream, the freshness of her eggs, the ruddiness and
+flavor of her strawberries, as so many proofs of her skill in managing her
+establishment; and would not fear to shock her aunts by tempting one of
+her sisters-in-law to a game at ball, or battledoor and shuttlecock. But
+she probably enjoyed still more the power of gratifying the inhabitants of
+Versailles and the neighborhood. The moment that her improvements were
+completed, she opened the gardens to the public to walk in, and gave
+out-of-door parties and children's dances, to which all the inhabitants of
+Versailles who presented themselves in decent apparel were admitted. She
+would even open the dance herself with some well-conducted boy, and
+afterward stroll among the crowd, talking affably to all the company, even
+to the governesses and nurses, and delighting the parents with the
+interest which she exhibited in the characters, the growth, and even the
+names of the children.
+
+There were some who, startled at the unwonted sight of a sovereign so
+treating her subjects as fellow-creatures, confessed a fear that such
+familiarity was not without its dangers;[6] but the objects of her
+condescension worshiped her for it; and for a time at least the great
+majority of the nation forgot that she was Austrian. She was now nearly
+twenty years of age. Her form had developed into a rare perfection of
+elegance. Her features had added to the original brilliancy of her girlish
+loveliness something of that higher beauty which judgment and sagacity
+inspire, and which dignity renders only the more imposing; while the same
+benevolence and purity beamed in every look which were remarked as her
+most sterling characteristics on her first arrival in the country. And it
+is not to her French or German admirers alone that we are reduced to trust
+for the impression which at this time she made on all beholders. We have
+seen that English gentlemen and ladies of rank were frequent visitors to
+the French court; and from two of these, men of widely different
+characters, talents, and turns of mind, we have a striking concurrence of
+testimony as to the power of the fascination which she exerted on all who
+came within the sphere of her influence. Burke was the earlier visitor.
+Indeed, it was in the last months of the preceding reign, while she was
+still dauphiness, that she had excited in his enthusiastic imagination
+those emotions which he afterward described in words which will live as
+long as the English language. It was in the spring of 1774 that it seemed
+to him that "surely never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to
+touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon,
+decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she just began to move in--
+glittering like the morning-star, full of life, and splendor, and joy." No
+one could be less like Burke than Horace Walpole, a cynical observer, who
+piqued himself on indifference, and especially on a superiority to the
+vulgar belief in the merits and attractions of kings and princes. Yet his
+report of the charms of Marie Antoinette, as he saw them in the autumn of
+this year, 1775, reveals an admiration of them as vivid as that of the
+warm-hearted and more poetical Irishman. He saw her, as he reports to Lady
+Ossory, first at a state court hall,[7] given on the occasion of the
+marriage of the Princess Clotilde, in the theatre of the palace; and he
+would have desired to give his correspondent some description of the
+beauty of the building; "the bravest in the universe, and yet one in which
+taste predominates over expense;" but he was absorbed by the still more
+powerful attractions of the princess whom he had seen in it: "What I have
+to say I can tell your ladyship in a word, for it was impossible to see
+any thing but the queen. Hebes, and Floras, and Helens, and Graces are
+street-walkers to her. She is a statue and beauty when standing or
+sitting; grace itself when she moves." As he is writing to a lady, he
+proceeds to describe her dress, which to ladies of the present day may
+still have its interest: "She was dressed in silver, scattered over with
+_laurier_ roses; few diamonds; and feathers, much lower than the
+monument." He proceeds to describe the ball itself, and some of the
+company, which was, however, very select; but at every sentence or two he
+comes back to the queen, so deep and so real was the impression which she
+had made on him. "Monsieur is very handsome. The Comte d'Artois is a
+better figure and a better dancer. Their characters approach to those of
+two other royal dukes.[8] There were but eight minuets, and, except the
+queen and princesses, only eight lady dancers; I was not so much struck
+with the dancing as I expected. For beauty I saw none, or the queen
+effaced all the rest. After the minuets were French country-dances, much
+incumbered by the long trains, longer tresses, and hoops. In the intervals
+of dancing, baskets of peaches, china oranges (a little out of season),
+biscuits, ices, and wine-and-water were presented to the royal family and
+dancers. The ball lasted just two hours. The monarch did not dance, but
+for the first two rounds of the minuet even the queen does not turn her
+back to him. Yet her behavior is as easy as divine."
+
+Such was a French court ball on days of most special ceremony, a somewhat
+solemn affair, which required graciousness such as that of Marie
+Antoinette to make admission to every one a very enviable privilege; even
+though its stiffness had been in some degree relieved by a new regulation
+of the queen, that the invitations, which had hitherto been confined to
+matrons, should be extended to unmarried girls. Scarcely any change
+produced greater consternation among the admirers of old customs. The
+dowagers searched all the registers of those who had been admitted to the
+court balls since the beginning of the century to fortify their
+objections. But, to their dismay, some of the early festivities in the
+time of Marie Leczinska proved to have been shared by one or two noble
+maidens. The discovery was of little importance, since Marie Antoinette
+had shown that she was not afraid of making precedents. But still it in
+some degree silenced the grumblers, and for the rest of the reign no one
+contested the queen's right to decide who should, and who should not, be
+admitted to her society.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+Tea is introduced.--Horse-racing of Count d'Artois.--Marie Antoinette goes
+to see it--The Queen's Submissiveness to the Reproofs of the Empress.--
+Birth of the Duc d'Angoulême.--She at times speaks lightly of the King.--
+The Emperor remonstrates with her.--Character of some of the Queen's
+Friends.--The Princess de Lamballe.--The Countess Jules de Polignac.--
+They set the Queen against Turgot.--She procures his Dismissal.--She
+gratifies Madame Polignac's Friends.--Her Regard for the French People.--
+Water Parties on the Seine.--Her Health is Delicate.--Gambling at the
+Palace.
+
+
+Nor were these the only innovations which marked the age. A rage for
+adopting English fashions--_Anglomanie_, as it was called--began to
+prevail; and, among the different modes in which it exhibited itself, it
+is especially noticed that tea[1] was now introduced, and began to share
+with coffee the privileges of affording sober refreshment to those who
+aspired in their different ways to give the tone to French society.
+
+A less innocent novelty was a passion for horse-racing, in which the Comte
+d'Artois and the Duc de Chartres set the example of indulging,
+establishing a race-course in the Bois de Boulogne. The count had but
+little difficulty in persuading the queen to attend it, and she soon
+showed so decided a fancy for the sport, and became so regular a visitor
+of it, that a small stand was built for her, which in subsequent years
+provoked some unfavorable comments, when the princess obtained her leave
+to give luncheon in it to some of their racing friends, who were not in
+all instances of a character deserving to be brought into a royal
+presence.
+
+She pursued this, as she pursued every other amusement which she took up,
+with great keenness for a while, so much so as to provoke earnest
+remonstrances from her mother, whose letters were commonly dictated by
+Mercy's reports and suggestions. Nor, if she felt uneasiness, did Maria
+Teresa spare her daughter, or take any great care to moderate her language
+of reproof. At times her tone is so severe as to excite a feeling of
+wonder at the submissiveness with which her letters were received. No
+express eulogy of her admirers could give so great an idea of Marie
+Antoinette's amiability, good-nature, genuine modesty, and sincere
+affection for her mother, as the ingenuousness with which she admits
+errors, or the temper with which she urges excuses. To that venerated
+parent she is just as patient of admonition, now that she is seated on a
+throne, as she could have been in her schoolroom at Schönbrunn; and, in
+reply to the scoldings (no milder word can do justice to the earnest
+vehemence of the letters which at this time she received from Vienna), she
+pleads not only that an appetite for amusement is natural to her age, but
+that she enters into none of which the king does not fully approve, and
+none which are ever allowed to interfere with her giving him full
+enjoyment of her society whenever he has leisure or inclination for it.
+
+But her replies to her mother hint also at the continuance of the old
+causes for her restlessness, and for her eager pursuit of new diversions
+to distract her thoughts. Her natural desire for children of her own was
+greatly increased when, on the 12th of August, her sister-in-law, the
+Countess d'Artois, presented her husband with a son.[2] She treated the
+young mother with a sisterly kindness suited to the occasion, which
+extorted the unqualified praise of Mercy himself; but she could not
+restrain her feelings on the subject to her mother, and she expressed to
+her frankly the extreme pain "which she suffered at thus seeing an heir to
+the throne who was not her own child." Nor is it strange that at such
+moments she should feel hurt at the coldness with which her husband
+continued to behave toward her, or that she should ran eagerly after any
+excitement which might aid in diverting her mind from a comparison of her
+own position with that of her happier sister-in-law.[3]
+
+It would have been well if she had confined her expressions of
+disappointment to her mother. But since we may not disguise her occasional
+acts of imprudence, it must be confessed that at times her mortification
+led her to speak of her husband to strangers in a tone of disparagement
+which was highly unbecoming. Maximilian had been accompanied by the Count
+de Rosenburg, who had in consequence been admitted to the intimate society
+of the court during the archduke's visit, and who had inspired Marie
+Antoinette with so favorable an opinion of his character and judgment that
+after his return to Vienna she more than once sent him an account of the
+proceedings at the palace since her brother's departure. She describes to
+him a series of concerts, at which she had sung herself with some of her
+ladies. She gives him a list of the guests, remarking, with a
+particularity which seems to show that she expects her words to be
+reported to the empress, that the gentlemen, though amiable and well bred,
+were not young. But she also complains that the king's tastes do not
+resemble hers, that he cares for nothing but hunting and mechanical
+employments; and, indulging in an unwonted bit of sarcasm, she proceeds:
+"You will allow that I should not look well beside a forge. I could never
+become a Vulcan; and the part of Venus would displease him more than my
+real tastes, which he does not disapprove." In another letter she mentions
+him in a tone of contemptuous pity, almost equally unbecoming, speaking of
+him as "the poor man" whom she had made a tool of to further some views of
+her own, though Mercy assured the empress that her assertion of having so
+treated him was a mere fiction of her imagination, to impart a sort of
+lively tone to her letter; that, in spite of occasional outbursts of
+levity, she had in reality the firmest affection and esteem for Louis; and
+that nothing could be more irreproachable than her conduct toward him in
+every respect. He added that the people in general did her full justice on
+this head; that if her popularity with the Parisians had for a moment
+suffered any diminution through the artifices of faction, the cloud had
+been blown away; and that she had been recently received at the different
+theatres with as fervent a loyalty as had greeted even her first
+appearance.
+
+The empress, however, was so uneasy that she induced her son, the Emperor
+Joseph, to add his expostulations to hers; and he, who was a prince of
+considerable shrewdness, as well as of a high idea of the proprieties of
+his rank, wrote her a long letter of remonstrance; imputing with great
+truth the failings, which he pointed out with sufficient plainness, to a
+facility of disposition which made her indulgent to the manoeuvres of
+those whom she admitted to her friendship, but who did not deserve such an
+honor. He even spoke of the society which she had gathered round her, as
+calculated to prevent him from performing his promise of paying her a
+visit; "for what should he do in a court of frivolous intriguers?" And he
+concluded by urging her to prevent these false friends from making a tool
+of her for the gratification of their own selfishness and rapacity; and to
+be solicitous for no friendship or confidence but that of her husband; the
+study of whose wishes was to her not only a state duty, but the only one
+which would make her permanently happy, and secure to her the lasting
+affection of the people.
+
+There was, however, no subject on which Marie Antoinette was so little
+amenable to advice as the choice of her friends, and none on which she
+more required it. Above all the frequenters of the court, two ladies were
+distinguished by her especial favor--the Princess de Lamballe and the
+Countess de Polignac. The princess, a daughter of the Prince de Carignan
+in Savoy, having been married to the son of the Duc de Penthièvre, was
+left a widow before she was twenty years of age. She had been originally
+recommended to Mario Antoinette in the first year of her residence in
+France, partly by her royal birth, and partly by her misfortunes; and the
+attachment which the dauphiness at once conceived for her was cemented by
+the ardor with which it was returned. In many respects the princess well
+deserved the favor with which she was regarded. Her temper was sweet and
+amiable; her character singularly truthful and sincere; and, that she
+might never be separated from her friend, the place of superintendent of
+the queen's household was revived for her. Some cavilers were disposed to
+grumble at the re-establishment of an office which had been suppressed as
+useless and costly; but no one could allege that Madame de Lamballe abused
+the royal favor, and her share in the calamities of later days justified
+the queen's choice by the proof it afforded of the princess's unalterable
+fidelity and devotion.
+
+But the countess was a very different character. She had, indeed, a
+well-bred air of good humor, but that, with her youth (she was but
+twenty years of age), was her only qualification; for her capacity was
+narrow, her disposition selfish and grasping, and she was so inveterate
+a manoeuvrer, that, when she had no intrigues of her own on foot, she
+was always ready to lend herself to the plots of others. What was worse,
+she did not enjoy an untainted character. The name of the Comte de
+Vaudreuil was often coupled with hers in the scandals of the court. And
+the queen, since she could hardly be ignorant of the reports which were
+circulated, incurred, by the marked favor which she showed to the
+countess, the imputation of shutting her eyes to the frailties of her
+friends, and thus showing that dissoluteness was not an insuperable
+barrier to her partiality. It was only the earnest remonstrance of Mercy
+which prevented her from conferring the place of lady of honor on the
+countess; but she allowed her to exert a pernicious influence over her
+in many ways, for the countess was unwearied in soliciting appointments
+and pensions for her relatives; at times making demands in such numbers,
+and of so exorbitant a character, that the queen herself was forced to
+admit the impossibility of granting them all, though she still sought to
+gratify her to far too great an extent, and would not allow the proved
+insatiability of her and her family to open her eyes to her real
+character.
+
+It was, however, a far more mischievous submission to the influence of the
+countess and her coterie, when she permitted them to prejudice her against
+Turgot, whom she had more than once described to her mother as an upright
+statesman, and who had constantly shown, so far as he could make
+compliance consistent with his duty to the State, a sincere desire to
+consult her wishes. But as the Polignac party saw in his prudence,
+integrity, and firmness the most formidable obstacle to their project of
+using the queen's favor to enrich themselves, she now yielded up her
+judgment to their calumnies. Forgetting her former praises of the
+minister's integrity, she began to disparage him as one whose measures
+caused general dissatisfaction, and at last she pushed her hostility to
+him so far that she actually tried to induce Louis not to be content with
+dismissing him from office, but to send him as a prisoner to the
+Bastille.[4] That she could not avoid feeling some shame at the part which
+she had acted may be inferred from the pains which she took to conceal it
+from her mother, whom she assured that, though she was not sorry for his
+dismissal, she had in no degree interfered in the matter; but "her conduct
+and even her intentions were well known, and known to be far removed from
+all manoeuvres and intrigues.[5]"
+
+Unfortunately the ambassador's letters tell a different story. As a
+sincere friend as well as a loyal servant of Marie Antoinette, he
+expresses to the empress his deep feeling that, "as the comptroller-
+general enjoyed a great reputation for integrity, and was beloved by the
+people, it was a melancholy thing that his dismissal should be in part the
+queen's work,[6]" and his fear that her conduct in the affair may
+"hereafter bring upon her the reproaches of the king her husband, and even
+of the entire nation." The foreboding thus uttered was but too sadly
+realized. She had driven from her husband's councils the only man who
+combined with the penetration to perceive the absolute necessity of a
+large reform and the character of the changes required, the genius to
+devise them and the firmness to carry them out.
+
+Thirteen years later, a variety of causes, some of which will be unfolded
+in the course of this narrative, had contributed to irritate the
+impatience of the nation, while the unskillfulness of the existing
+minister had disarmed the royal authority. And the very same reforms which
+would now have been accepted with general thankfulness were then only used
+by demagogues as a pretext for further inflaming the minds of the
+multitude against every thing which bore the slightest appearance of
+authority, even against the very sovereign who had granted them. France
+and all Europe to this day feel the sad effects of Marie Antoinette's
+interference.
+
+She had given fatal proof of the truth of the words wrung from her by
+nervous excitement at the moment of the late king's death, when she
+declared that Louis and she were too young to reign; and the best excuse
+that can be found for her is that she was not yet one-and-twenty. It was
+not, however, wholly from submission to the interested malevolence of
+others that she had shown herself the enemy of the great financier and
+statesman. She had a spontaneous dislike to the retrenchments which
+necessarily formed a great portion of his economical measures; not as
+interfering with the indulgence of any extravagant tastes of her own, but
+as restraining her power of gratifying her friends. For she was entirely
+impressed with the idea that no person or body could have any right to
+call in question the king's disposal of the national revenue; and that
+there was no prerogative of the crown of which the exercise was more
+becoming to the royal dignity than that of granting pensions or creating
+sinecures with no limitations but such as might be imposed by his own will
+or discretion. And on this point her husband fully shared her feelings.
+"What," said he, on one occasion to Turgot, who was urging him to refuse
+an utterly unwarrantable application for a pension. "What are a thousand
+crowns a year?" "Sire," replied the minister, "they are the taxation of a
+village." The king acquiesced for the moment, but probably not without
+some secret wincing at the control to which he seemed to be subjected; and
+we may, perhaps, suppose that even the queen's disapproval of the minister
+would have been less effectual had it not been re-enforced by the king's
+own feelings.
+
+In fact, that the part which she took against the great minister was the
+fruit of mere inconsiderateness and ignorance of the feelings and
+necessities of the nation, and that, if she had known the depth of the
+people's distress, and the degree in which it was caused by the
+viciousness of the whole existing system of government, she would gladly
+have promoted every measure which could tend to their relief, we may find
+abundant proof in a letter which she had written to her mother, a few
+weeks earlier. Maria Teresa had spoken with some harshness of the French
+fickleness. Marie Antoinette replies:[7]
+
+"You are quite right in all you say about French levity, but I am truly
+grieved that on that account you should conceive an aversion for the
+nation. The disposition of the people is very inconsistent, but it is not
+bad. Pens and tongues utter a great many things which are not in their
+heart. The proof that they do not cherish hatred is that on the very
+slightest occasion they speak well of one, and even praise one much more
+than one deserves. I have just this moment myself had experience of this.
+There had been a terrible fire in Paris in the Palace of Justice, and the
+same day I was to have gone to the opera, so I did not go, but sent two
+hundred louis to relieve the most pressing cases of distress;[8] and ever
+since the fire, the very same people who had been circulating libels and
+songs against me[9] have been extolling me to the skies."
+
+These revelations of her inmost thoughts to her mother show how real and
+warm was her affection for the French as a nation, as well as how little
+she claimed any merit for her endeavors to benefit them; though a
+subsequent passage in the same letter also shows that she had been so much
+annoyed by some pasquinades and libels, of which she had been the subject,
+that she had become careful not to furnish fresh opportunities to her
+enemies: "We have had here such a quantity of snow as has not been seen
+for many years, so that people are going about in sledges, as they do at
+Vienna. We were out in them yesterday about this place; and to-day there
+is to be a grand procession of them through Paris. I should greatly have
+liked to be able to go; but, as a queen has never been seen at such
+things, people might have made up stories if I had gone, and I preferred
+giving up the pleasure to being worried by fresh libels."
+
+She was still as eager as ever in the pursuit of amusement, and especially
+of novelties in that way, when not restrained by considerations such as
+those which she here mentions. When at Choisy, she gave water parties on
+the river in boats with awnings, which she called gondolas, rowing down as
+far as the very entrance to the city. It was not quite a prudent diversion
+for her, for at this time her health was not very strong. She easily
+caught cold, and the reports of such attacks often caused great uneasiness
+at Vienna; but the watermen were highly delighted, looking on her act in
+putting herself under their care as a compliment to their craft; and some
+of them, to increase her pleasure, jumped overboard and swam about. Their
+well-meant gallantry, however, was nearly having an unfavorable effect;
+unaware that it was not an accident, she thought that their lives were in
+danger, and the fear for them turned her sick, while Madame de Lamballe
+fainted away. But when she perceived the truth, the qualm passed away, and
+she rewarded them handsomely for their ducking; begging, however, that it
+might not be repeated, and assuring them that she needed no such proof to
+convince her of their dutiful and faithful loyalty.
+
+But the craving for excitement which was bred and nourished by the
+continuance of her unnatural position with respect to her husband in some
+parts of his treatment of her, was threatening to produce a very
+pernicious effect by leading her to become a gambler. Some of those ladies
+whom she admitted to her intimacy were deeply infected with this fatal
+passion; and one of the most mischievous and intriguing of the whole
+company, the Princess de Guimenée, introduced a play-table at some of her
+balls, which she induced Marie Antoinette to attend. At first the queen
+took no share in the play; as she had hitherto borne none, or only a
+formal part, in the gaming which, as we have seen, had long been a
+recognized feature in court entertainments; but gradually the hope of
+banishing vexation, if only by the substitution of a heavier care, got
+dominion over her, and in the autumn of 1776 we find Mercy commenting on
+her losses at lansquenet and faro, at that time the two most fashionable
+round games, the stakes at which often rose to a very considerable amount.
+Though she continued to indulge in this unhealthy pastime for some time,
+in Mercy's opinion she never took any real interest in it. She practiced
+it only because she wished to pass the time, and to drive away thought;
+and because the one accomplishment she wanted was the art of refusing. She
+even carried her complaisance so far as to allow professed gaming-table
+keepers to be brought from Paris to manage a faro-bank in her apartments,
+where the play was often continued long after midnight. It was not the
+least evil of this habit that it unavoidably left the king, who never quit
+his own apartments in the evening, to pass a great deal of time by
+himself; but, as if to make up for his coldness in one way, he was most
+indulgent in every other, and seemed to have made it a rule never to
+discountenance any thing which could amuse her. His behavior to her, in
+Mercy's eyes, seemed to resemble servility; "it was that of the most
+attentive courtier," and was carried so far as to treat with marked
+distinction persons whose character he was known to disapprove, solely
+because she regarded them with favor.[10]
+
+In cases such as these the defects in the king's character contributed
+very injuriously to aggravate those in hers. She required control, and he
+was too young to exercise it. He had too little liveliness to enter into
+her amusements; too little penetration to see that, though many of them--
+it may be said all, except the gaming-table--were innocent if he partook
+of them, indulgence in them, when he did not share them, could hardly fail
+to lead to unfriendly comments and misconstruction; though even his
+presence could hardly have saved his queen's dignity from some humiliation
+when wrangles took place, and accusations of cheating were made in her
+presence. The gaming-table is a notorious leveler of distinctions, and the
+worst-behaved of the guests were too frequently the king's own brothers;
+they were rude, overbearing, and ill-tempered. The Count de Provence on
+one occasion so wholly forgot the respect due to her, that he assaulted a
+gentleman in her presence; and the Count d'Artois, who played for very
+high stakes, invariably lost his temper when he lost his money. Indeed,
+the queen seems to have felt the discredit of such scenes; and it is
+probable that it was their frequent occurrence which led to a temporary
+suspension of the faro-bank; as a violent quarrel on the race-course
+between d'Artois and his cousin, the Duke de Chartres, whom he openly
+accused of cheating him, for a while disgusted her with horse-races, and
+led her to propose a substitution of some of the old exercises of
+chivalry, such as running at the ring; a proposal which had a great
+element of popularity in it, as being calculated to lead to a renewal of
+the old French pastimes, which seemed greatly preferable to the existing
+rage for copying, and copying badly, the fashions and pursuits of England.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+Marie Antoinette finds herself in Debt.--Forgeries of her Name are
+committed.--The Queen devotes herself too much to Madame de Polignac and
+others.--Versailles is less frequented.--Remonstrances of the Empress.--
+Volatile Character of the Queen.--She goes to the Bals d'Opéra at Paris.--
+She receives the Duke of Dorset and other English Nobles with Favor.--
+Grand Entertainment given her by the Count de Provence.--Character of the
+Emperor Joseph.--He visits Paris and Versailles.--His Feelings toward and
+Conversations with the King and Queen.--He goes to the Opera.--His Opinion
+of the Queen's Friends.--Marie Antoinette's Letter to the Empress on his
+Departure.--The Emperor leaves her a Letter of Advice.
+
+
+But this addiction to play, though it was that consequence of the
+influence of the society to which Marie Antoinette was at this time so
+devoted, which would have seemed the most objectionable in the eyes of
+rigid moralists, was not that which excited the greatest dissatisfaction
+in the neighborhood of the court. Excessive gambling had so long been a
+notorious vice of the French princes, that her letting herself down to
+join the gaming-table was not regarded as indicating any peculiar laxity
+of principle; while the stakes which she permitted herself, and the losses
+she incurred, though they seemed heavy to her anxious German friends, were
+as nothing when compared with those of the king's brothers. Even when it
+became known that she was involved in debt, that again was regarded as an
+ordinary occurrence, apparently even by the king himself, who paid the
+amount (about £20,000) without a word of remonstrance, merely remarking
+that he did not wonder at her funds being exhausted since she had such a
+passion for diamonds. For a great portion of the debts had been incurred
+for some diamond ear-rings which the queen herself did not wish for, and
+had only bought to gratify Madame de Polignac, who had promised her custom
+to the jeweler who had them for sale. Marie Antoinette had evidently
+become less careful in regulating her expenses, till she was awakened by
+the discovery of a crime which she herself imputed to her own carelessness
+in such matters. The wife of the king's treasurer had borrowed money in
+her name, and had forged her handwriting to letters of acknowledgment of
+the loans. The fraud was only discovered through Mercy's vigilance, and
+the criminal was at seized and punished, but it proved a wholesome lesson
+to the queen, who never forgot it, though, as we shall see hereafter, if
+others remembered it, the recollection only served to induce them to try
+and enrich themselves by similar knaveries.
+
+And this devotion of the queen to the society of the Polignacs and
+Guimenées, "her society," as she sometimes called it,[1] had also a
+mischievous effect in diminishing her popularity with the great body of
+the nobles. The custom of former sovereigns had been to hold receptions
+several evenings in each week, to which the men and women of the highest
+rank were proud to repair to pay their court. But now the royal apartments
+were generally empty, the king being alone in his private cabinet, while
+the queen was passing her time at some small private party of young
+people, by her presence often seeming to countenance intrigues of which
+she did not in her heart approve, and giddy conversation which was hardly
+consistent with her royal position; though Mercy, in reporting these
+habits to the empress, adds that the queen's own demeanor, even in the
+moments of apparently unrestrained familiarity, was marked by such uniform
+self-possession and dignity, that no one ever ventured to take liberties
+with her, or to approach her without the most entire respect.[2]
+
+It was hardly strange, then, that those who were not members of this
+society should feel offended at finding the court, as it were, closed
+against them, and should cease to frequent the palace when they had no
+certainty of meeting any thing but empty rooms. They even absented
+themselves from the queen's balls, which in consequence were so thinly
+attended that sometimes there were scarcely a dozen dancers of each sex,
+so that it was universally remarked that never within the memory of the
+oldest courtiers had Versailles been so deserted as it was this winter;
+the difference between the scene which the palace presented now from what
+had been witnessed in previous seasons striking the queen herself, and
+inclining her to listen more readily to the remonstrances which, at
+Mercy's instigation, the empress addressed to her. Her mother pointed out
+to her, with all the weight of her own long experience, the
+incompatibility of a private mode of life, such as is suitable for
+subjects, with the state befitting a great sovereign; and urged her to
+recollect that all the king's subjects, so long as their rank and
+characters were such as to entitle them to admission at court, had an
+equal right to her attention; and that the system of exclusiveness which
+she had adopted was a dereliction of her duty, not only to those who were
+thus deprived of the honors of the reception to which they were entitled,
+but also to the king, her husband, who was injured by any line of conduct
+which tended to discourage the nobles of the land from paying their
+respects to him.
+
+In the midst of all her giddiness, Marie Antoinette always listened with
+good humor, it may even be said with docility, to honest advice. No one
+ever in her rank was so unspoiled by authority; and more than one
+conversation which she held with the ambassador on the subject showed that
+these remonstrances, re-enforced as they were by the undeniable fact of
+the thinness of the company at the palace, had made an impression on her
+mind; though such impressions were as yet too apt to be fleeting, and too
+liable to be overborne by fresh temptations; for in volatile impulsiveness
+she resembled the French themselves, and the good resolutions she made one
+day were always liable to be forgotten the next. Nothing as yet was steady
+and unalterable in her character but her kindness of heart and
+graciousness of manner; they never changed; and it was on her genuine
+goodness of disposition and righteousness of intention that her German
+friends relied for producing an amendment as she grew older, far more than
+on any regrets for the past, or intentions of improvement for the future,
+which might be wrung from her by any momentary reflection or vexation.
+
+If Versailles was less lively than usual, Paris, on the other hand, had
+never been so gay as during the carnival of 1777. The queen went to
+several of the masked balls at the opera with one or other of her
+brothers-in-law and their wives; the king expressing his perfect
+willingness that she should so amuse herself, but never being able to
+overcome his own indolence and shyness so far as to accompany her. It
+could not have been a very lively amusement. She did not dance, but sat in
+an arm-chair surveying the dancers, or walked down the saloon attended by
+an officer of the bodyguard and one lady in waiting, both masked like
+herself. Occasionally she would grant to some noble of high rank the honor
+of walking at her side; but it was remarked that those whom she thus
+distinguished were often foreigners; some English noblemen, such as the
+Duke of Dorset and Lord Strathavon being especially favored, for a reason
+which, as given by Mercy, shows that that insular stiffness which, with
+national self-complacency, Britons sometimes confess as a not unbecoming
+characteristic, was not at that time attributed to them by others; since
+the ambassador explains the queen's preference by the self-evident fact
+that the English gentlemen were the best dancers, and made the best figure
+in the ball-room.
+
+But all the other festivities of this winter were thrown into the shade by
+an entertainment of extraordinary magnificence, which was given in the
+queen's honor by the Count de Provence at his villa at Brunoy.[3] The
+count was an admirer of Spenser, and appeared to desire to embody the
+spirit of that poet of the ancient chivalry in the scene which he
+presented to the view of his illustrious guest when she entered his
+grounds. Every one seemed asleep. Groups of cavaliers, armed _cap-a-pie_,
+and surrounded by a splendid retinue of squires and pages, were seen
+slumbering on the ground; their lances lying by their sides, their shields
+hanging on the trees which overshadowed them; their very horses reposing
+idly on the grass on which they cared not to browse. All seemed under the
+influence of a spell as powerful as that under which Merlin had bound the
+pitiless daughter of Arthur; but the moment that Marie Antoinette passed
+within the gates the enchantment was dissolved; the pages sprung to their
+feet, and brought the easily roused steeds to their awakened masters.
+Twenty-five challengers, with scarfs of green, the queen's favorite color,
+on snow-white chargers, overthrew an equal number of antagonists; but no
+deadly wounds were given. The victory of her champions having been
+decided, both parties of combatants mingled as spectators at a play, and
+afterward as dancers at a grand ball which was wound up by a display of
+fire-works and a superb illumination, of which the principal ornament was
+a gorgeous bouquet of flowers, in many-colored fire, lighting up the
+inscription "Vive Louis! Vive Marie Antoinette!"
+
+At last, however, the carnival came to an end. Not too soon for the
+queen's good, since hunts and long rides by day, and balls kept up till a
+late hour by night, had been too much for her strength,[4] so that even
+indifferent observers remarked that she looked ill and had grown thin. But
+even had Lent not interrupted her amusements, she would have ceased for a
+while to regard them, her whole mind being now devoted to preparing for
+the reception of her brother, the Emperor Joseph, whose visit, which had
+been promised in the previous year, was at last fixed for the month of
+April. It was anticipated with anxiety by the Empress and Mercy, as well
+as by Marie Antoinette. He was a prince of a peculiar disposition and
+habits. Before his accession to the imperial throne, he had been kept,
+apparently not greatly against his will, in the background. Nor, while his
+father lived, did he give any indications of a desire for power, or of any
+capacity for exercising it; but since he had been placed on the throne he
+had displayed great activity and energy, though he was still, in the
+opinion of many, more of a philosopher--a detractor might said more of a
+pedant--than of a statesman. He studied theories of government, and was
+extremely fond of giving advice; and as both Louis and Marie Antoinette
+were persons who in many respects stood in need of friendly counsel, Mercy
+and Maria Teresa had both looked forward to his visit to the French court
+as an event likely to be of material service to both, while his sister
+regarded it with a mixed feeling of hope and fear, in which, however, the
+pleasurable emotions predominated.
+
+She was not insensible to the probability that he would disapprove of some
+of her habits; indeed, we have already seen that he had expressed his
+disapproval of them, and of some of her friends, in the preceding year;
+and she dreaded his lectures; but, on the other hand, she felt confident
+that a personal acquaintance with the court would prove to him that many
+of the tales to her prejudice which had readied him had been mischievous
+exaggerations, and that thus he would be able to disabuse their mother,
+and to tranquilize her mind on many points. She hoped, too, that a
+personal knowledge of each other by him and her own husband would tend to
+cement a real friendship between them; and that his stronger mind would
+obtain an influence over Louis, which might induce him to rouse himself
+from his ordinary apathy and reserve, and make him more of a man of the
+world and more of a companion for her. Lastly, but probably above all, she
+thirsted with sisterly affection for the sight of her brother, and
+anticipated with pride the opportunity of presenting to her new countrymen
+a relation of whom she was proud on account of his personal endowments and
+character, and whose imperial rank made his visit wear the appearance of a
+marked compliment to the whole French nation.
+
+High-strung expectations often insure their own disappointment, but it was
+not so in this instance; though the august visitor's first act displayed
+an eccentricity of disposition which must have led more people than one to
+entertain secret misgivings as to the consequences which might flow from a
+visit which had such a commencement. Like his brother Maximilian, he too
+traveled incognito, under the title of the Count Falkenstein; and he
+persisted in maintaining his disguise so absolutely that he refused to
+occupy the apartments which the queen had prepared for him in the palace,
+and insisted on taking up his quarters with Mercy in Paris, and at a
+hotel, for the few days which he passed at Versailles.
+
+However, though by his conduct in this matter he to some extent
+disappointed the hope which his sister had conceived of an uninterrupted
+intercourse with him during his stay in France, in every other respect the
+visit passed off to the satisfaction of all the parties principally
+concerned. Fortunately, at their first interview Marie Antoinette herself
+made a most favorable impression on him. She had been but a child when he
+had last seen her. She was now a woman, and he was wholly unprepared for
+the matured and queenly beauty at which she had arrived. He was not a man
+to flatter any one, but almost his first words to her were that, had she
+not been his sister, he could not have refrained from seeking her hand
+that he might secure to himself so lovely a partner; and each succeeding
+meeting strengthened his admiration of her personal graces. She, always
+eager to please, was gratified at the feeling she had inspired; and thus
+an affectionate tone was from the first established between them, and all
+reserve was banished from their conversation. It was not diminished by the
+admonitions which, as he conceived, his age and greater experience
+entitled him to address to her, though sometimes they took the form of
+banter and ridicule, sometimes that of serious reproof;[5] but she bore
+all his lectures with unvarying good humor, promising him that the time
+should come when she would make the amendment which he desired; never
+attempting to conceal from him, and scarcely to excuse, the faults of
+which she was not unconscious, nor the vexations which in some particulars
+continually disquieted her.
+
+It was, at least, equally fortunate that the king also conceived a great
+liking for his brother-in-law at first sight. His character disposed him
+to receive with eagerness advice from one who had himself occupied a
+throne for several years, and whose relationship seemed a sufficient
+warrant that his counsels would be honest and disinterested. Accordingly
+those about him soon remarked that Louis treated the emperor with a
+cordiality that he had never shown to any one else. They had many long and
+interesting conversations, sometimes with Marie Antoinette as a third
+party, sometimes by themselves. Louis discussed with the emperor his
+anxiety to have a family, and his hopes of such a result; and Joseph
+expressed his opinion freely on all subjects, even volunteering
+suggestions of a change in the king's habits; as when he recommended him,
+as a part of his kingly duty, to visit the different provinces, sea-ports,
+cities, and manufacturing towns of his kingdom, so as to acquaint himself
+generally with the feelings and resources of the people. Louis listened
+with attention. If there was any case in which the emperor's advice was
+thrown away, it was, if the queen's suspicions were correct, when he
+recommended to the king a line of conduct adverse to her influence.
+
+Mercy had told the emperor that Louis was devotedly attached to the queen,
+but that he feared her at least as much as he loved her; and Joseph would
+have desired to see some of this fear transferred to and felt by her; and
+showed his wish that the king should exert his legitimate authority as a
+husband to check those habits of his wife of which they both disapproved,
+and which she herself did not defend. But, even if Louis did for a moment
+make up his mind to adopt a tone of authority, his resolution faded away
+in his wife's presence before her superior resolution; and to the end of
+their days she continued to be the leader, and he to follow her guidance.
+
+It need hardly be told that so august a visitor had entertainments given
+in his honor. The king gave banquets at Versailles, the queen less formal
+parties at her Little Trianon, though gayeties were not much to Joseph's
+taste; and, at a visit which his sister compelled him to pay to the opera,
+he remained ensconced at the back of her box till she dragged him forward,
+and, as if by main force, presented him to the audience. The whole theatre
+resounded with applause, expressed in such a way as to mark that it was to
+the queen's brother, fully as much as to the emperor, that the homage was
+paid. The opera was "Iphigénie," the chorus in which, "_Chantons,
+célébrons notre reine_," had by this time been almost as fully adopted, as
+the expression of the national loyalty, as "God save the Queen" is in
+England. But even on its first performance it had not been hailed with
+more rapturous cheering than shook the whole house on this occasion; and
+Joseph had the satisfaction of believing that his sister's hold on the
+affection and on the respect of the Parisians was securely established.
+
+He was less pleased at the races in the Bois de Boulogne, which he visited
+the next day. No inconsiderable part of Mercy's disapproval of such
+gatherings had been founded on the impropriety of gentlemen appearing in
+the queen's presence in top-boots and leather breeches, instead of in
+court dress; and the emperor's displeasure appears to have been chiefly
+excited by the hurry and want of stately order which were inseparable from
+the excitement of a race-course, and which, indifferent as he was to many
+points of etiquette, seemed even to him derogatory to the majesty of a
+queen to witness so closely. But he was far more dissatisfied with the
+company at the Princess de Guimenée's, to which the queen, with not quite
+her usual judgment, persuaded him one evening to accompany her. He saw not
+only gambling for much higher stakes than could be right for any lady to
+venture (the queen did not play herself), but he saw those who took part
+in the play lose their tempers over their cards and quarrel with one
+another; while he heard the hostess herself accused of cheating, the
+gamesters forgetting the respect due to their queen in their excitement
+and intemperance. He spoke strongly on the subject to Marie Antoinette,
+declaring that the apartment was no better than a common gaming-house; but
+was greatly mortified to see that his reproofs on this subject were
+received with less than the usual attention, and that she allowed her
+partiality for those whom she called her friends to outweigh her feeling
+of the impropriety of disorders of which she could not deny the existence.
+
+But entertainments and amusements were not permitted to engross much of
+his time. If he visited the king and queen as a brother, he was visiting
+France and Paris as a sovereign and a statesman, and as such he made a
+careful inspection of all that Paris had most worthy of his attention--of
+the barracks, the arsenals, the hospitals, the manufactories. And he
+acquired a very high idea of the capabilities and resources of the
+country, though, at the same time, a very low opinion of the talents and
+integrity of the existing ministers. Of the king himself he conceived a
+favorable estimate. Of his desire to do his duty to his people he had
+always been convinced, but, in a long conversation which he had held with
+him on the character of the French people,[6] and of the best mode of
+governing them, in which Louis entered into many details, he found his
+correctness of judgment and general knowledge of sound principles of
+policy far superior to his anticipations, though at the same time he felt
+convinced that his want of readiness and decision, and his timidity in
+action, would always render and keep him very inferior to the queen,
+especially whenever it should be necessary to come to a prompt decision on
+matters of moment.
+
+After a visit of six weeks, he quit Paris for his dominions in the
+Netherlands at the end of May, and a letter of the queen to her mother is
+very expressive of the pleasure which she had received from his visit, and
+of the lasting benefits which she hoped to derive from it.
+
+"Versailles, June 14th.
+
+"MY DEAREST MOTHER,--It is plain truth that the departure of the emperor
+has left a void in my heart from which I can not recover. I was so happy
+during the short time of his visit that at this moment it all seems like a
+dream. But one thing will never be a dream to me, and that is, the good
+advice and counsel which he gave me, and which is forever engraven in my
+heart.
+
+"I must tell my dear mamma that he gave me one thing which I earnestly
+begged of him, and which causes me the greatest pleasure: it is a packet
+of advice, which he has left me in writing. At this moment it constitutes
+my chief reading; and, if ever I could forget what he said to me, which I
+do not believe I ever could, I should still have this paper always before
+me, which would soon recall me to my duty. My dear mamma will have learned
+by the courier, who started yesterday, how well the king behaved during
+the last moments of my brother's visit. I can assure you that I thoroughly
+understand him, and that he was really affected at the emperor's
+departure. As he does not always recollect to pay attention to forms, he
+does not at all times show his feelings to the outer world, but all that I
+see proves to me that he is truly attached to my brother, and that he has
+the greatest regard for him; and at the moment of my brother's departure,
+when I was in the deepest distress, he showed an attention to, and a
+tenderness for, me which all my life I shall never forget, and which would
+attach me to him, if I had not been attached to him already.
+
+"It is impossible that my brother should not have been pleased with this
+nation. For one who, like him, knows how to estimate men, must have seen
+that, in spite of the exceeding levity which is inveterate in the people,
+there is a manliness and cleverness in them, and, speaking generally, an
+excellent heart, and a desire to do right. The only thing is to manage
+them properly.... I have this moment received your dear letter by the
+post. What goodness yours is, at a moment when you have so much business
+to think of, to recollect my name day! It overwhelms me. You offer up
+prayers for my happiness. The greatest happiness that I can have is to
+know that you are pleased with me, to deserve your kindness, and to
+convince you that no one in the world feels greater affection or greater
+respect for you than I."
+
+It is a letter very characteristic of the writer, as showing that neither
+time nor distance could chill her affection for her family; and that the
+attainment of royal authority had in no degree extinguished her habitual
+feeling of duty: that it had even strengthened it by making its
+performance of importance not only to herself, but to others. Nor is the
+jealousy for the reputation of the French people, and the desire so warmly
+professed that they should have won her brother's favorable opinion, less
+becoming in a queen of France; while, to descend to minor points, the
+neatness and felicity of the language may be admitted to prove, if her
+education had been incomplete when she left Austria, with how much pains,
+since her progress had depended on herself, she had labored to make up for
+its deficiencies. That she should have asked her brother, as she here
+mentions, to leave her his advice in writing, is a practical proof that
+her expression of an earnest desire to do her duty was not a mere form of
+words; while the resolution which she avows never to forget his
+admonitions shows a genuine humility and candor, a sincere desire to be
+told of and to amend her faults, which one is hardly prepared to meet with
+in a queen of one-and-twenty. For Joseph did not spare her, nor forbear to
+set before her in the plainest light those parts of her conduct which he
+disapproved. He told her plainly that if in France people paid her respect
+and observance, it was only as the wife of their king that they honored
+her; and that the tone of superiority in which she sometimes allowed
+herself to speak of him was as ill-judged as it was unbecoming. He hinted
+his dissatisfaction at her conduct toward him as her husband in a series
+of questions which, unless she could answer as he wished, must, even in
+her own judgment, convict her of some failure in her duties to him. Did
+she show him that she was wholly occupied with him, that her study was to
+make him shine in the opinion of his subjects without any thought of
+herself? Did she stifle every wish to shine at his expense, to be affable
+when he was not so, to seem to attend to matters which he neglected? Did
+she preserve a discreet silence as to his faults and weaknesses, and make
+others keep silence about them also? Did she make excuses for him, and
+keep secret the fact of her acting as his adviser? Did, she study his
+character, his wishes? Did she take care never to seem cold or weary when
+with him, never indifferent to his conversation or his caresses?
+
+The other matters on which the emperor chiefly dwells were those on which
+Mercy, and, by Mercy's advice, Maria Teresa also, had repeatedly pressed
+her. But those questions of Joseph's set plainly before us some of his
+young sister's difficulties and temptations, and, it must be confessed,
+some points in which her conduct was not wholly unimpeachable in
+discretion, even though her solid affection for her husband never wavered
+for a moment. In some respects they were an ill-assorted couple. He was
+slow, reserved, and awkward. She was clever, graceful, lively, and looking
+for liveliness. Both were thoroughly upright and conscientious; but he was
+indifferent to the opinions formed of him, while she was eager to please,
+to be applauded, to be loved. The temptation was great, to one so young,
+at times to put her graces in contrast to his uncouthness; to be seen to
+lead him who had a right to lead her; and, though we may regret, we can
+not greatly wonder, that she had not always steadiness to resist it. One
+tie was still wanting to bind her to him more closely; and happily the day
+was not far distant when that was added to complete and rivet their union.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+Impressions made on the Queen by the Emperor's Visit.--Mutual Jealousies
+of her Favorites.--The Story of the Chevalier d'Assas.--The Terrace
+Concerts at Versailles--More Inroads on Etiquette.--Insolence and
+Unpopularity of the Count d'Artois.--Marie Antoinette takes Interest in
+Politics.--France concludes an Alliance with the United States.--Affairs
+of Bavaria.--Character of the Queen's Letters on Politics.--The Queen
+expects to become a Mother.--Voltaire returns to Paris.--The Queen
+declines to receive him.--Misconduct of the Duke of Orléans in the Action
+off Ushant.--The Queen uses her Influence in his Favor.
+
+
+The emperor's admonitions and counsels had not been altogether unfruitful.
+If they had not at once entirely extinguished his sister's taste for the
+practices which he condemned, they had evidently weakened it; even though,
+as the first impression wore off, and her fear of being overwhelmed with
+_ennui_[1] resumed its empire, she relapsed for a while into her old
+habits, it was no longer with the same eagerness as before, and not
+without frequent avowals that they had lost their attraction. She visibly
+drew off from the entanglements of the coterie with which she had
+surrounded herself. The members had grown jealous of one another. Madame
+de Polignac feared the influence of the superior disinterestedness of the
+Princess de Lamballe; Madame de Guimenée, who was suspected of a want of
+even common honesty, grudged every favor that was bestowed on Madame de
+Polignac; and their rivalry, which was not always suppressed even in the
+queen's presence, was not only felt by her to be degrading to herself, but
+was also wearisome.
+
+Throughout the autumn her occupations and amusements were of a simpler
+kind. She read more, and agreeably surprised De Vermond by the soundness
+of her reflections on many incidents and characters in history. Accounts
+of chivalrous deeds had an especial charm for her. Hume was still her
+favorite author. And it happened that, while the gallantry of the loyal
+champions of Charles I. was fresh in her memory, a casual conversation
+threw in her way an opportunity of doing honor to the self-devoted heroism
+of a French soldier whom the proudest of the British cavaliers might have
+welcomed as a brother, but whose valiant and self-sacrificing fidelity had
+been left unnoticed by the worthless sovereign in whose service he had
+perished, and by his ministers, who thought only of securing the favor of
+the reigning mistress--favor to be won by actions of a very different
+complexion.
+
+In the Seven Years' War, when the French army, under the Marshal De
+Broglie, and the Prussians, under Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, were
+watching one another in the neighborhood of Wesel, the Chevalier d'Assas,
+a captain in the regiment of Auvergne, was in command of an outpost on a
+dark night of October. He had strolled a little in advance of his sentries
+into the wood which fronted his position, when suddenly he found himself
+surrounded and seized by a body of armed enemies. They were the advanced
+guard of the prince's army, who was marching to surprise De Broglie by a
+night attack, and they threatened him with instant death if he made the
+slightest noise. If he were but silent, he was safe as a prisoner of war;
+but his safety would have been the ruin of the whole French army, which
+had no suspicion of its danger. He did not for even a moment hesitate.
+With all the strength of his voice he shouted to his men, who were within
+hearing, that the enemy were upon them, and fell, bayoneted to death,
+almost before the words had passed his lips. He had saved his comrades and
+his commander, and had influenced the issue of the whole campaign. The
+enemy, whose well-planned enterprise his self-devotion had baffled, paid a
+cordial tribute of praise to his heroism, Ferdinand himself publicly
+expressing his regret at the fate of one whose valor had shed honor on
+every brother-soldier; but not the slightest notice had been taken of him
+by those in authority in France till his exploit was accidentally
+mentioned in the queen's apartments. It filled her with admiration. She
+asked what had been done to commemorate so noble a deed. She was told
+"nothing;" the man and his gallantry had been alike forgotten. "Had he
+left descendants or kinsmen?" "He had a brother and two nephews; the
+brother a retired veteran of the same regiment, the nephews officers in
+different corps of the army." The dead hero was forgotten no longer. Marie
+Antoinette never rested till she had procured an adequate pension for the
+brother, which was settled in perpetuity on the family; and promotion for
+both the nephews; and, as a further compliment, Clostercamp, the name of
+the village which was the scene of the brave deed, was added forever to
+their family name. The pension is paid to this day. For a time, indeed, it
+was suspended while France was under the sway of the rapacious and
+insensible murderers of the king who had granted it; but Napoleon restored
+it; and, amidst all the changes that have since taken place in the
+government of the country, every succeeding ruler has felt it equally
+honorable and politic to recognize the eternal claims which patriotic
+virtue has on the gratitude of the country.
+
+Marie Antoinette had thus the honor of setting an example to the
+Government and the nation. Her heart was getting lighter as the vexations
+under which she had so long fretted began to disappear. The late
+card-parties were often superseded, throughout the autumn, by concerts on
+the terrace at Versailles, where the regimental bands were the performers,
+and to which all the well-dressed towns-people were admitted, while the
+queen, attended by the princesses and her ladies, and occasionally
+escorted by Louis himself, strolled up and down and among the crowd,
+diffusing even greater pleasure than they themselves enjoyed; Marie
+Antoinette, as usual, being the central object of attraction, and greeting
+all with a teaming brightness of expression, and an affability as cordial
+as it was dignified, which deserved to win all hearts. One of the
+entertainments which she gave to the king at the Little Trianon may he
+recorded, not for any unusual sumptuousness of the spectacle, but as
+having been the occasion on which she made one more inroad on the
+established etiquette of the court in one of its most unaccountable
+restrictions: to such royal parties the king's ministers had never been
+regarded as admissible, but on this night Marie Antoinette commanded the
+company of the Count and Countess de Maurepas. And the innovation was
+regarded not only by them as a singular favor, but by all their colleagues
+as a marked compliment to the whole body of ministers, and served to
+increase their desire to consult her inclinations in every matter in which
+she took an interest.
+
+And the esteem which she thus conciliated was at this time not destitute
+of real importance, since the conduct of the other members of the royal
+family excited very different feelings. The Count de Provence was
+generally distrusted as intriguing and insincere. And the Count d'Artois,
+whose bad qualities were of a more conspicuous character, was becoming an
+object of general dislike, not so much from his dissipated mode of life as
+from the overbearing arrogance which he imparted into his pleasures. No
+rank was high enough to protect the objects of his displeasure from his
+insolence; even ladies were not safe from it;[2] while his extravagance
+was beyond all bounds since he considered himself entitled to claim from,
+the national treasury whatever he might require in addition to his stated
+income. He was at the same time repairing one castle, that of St. Germain,
+which the king had given him; rebuilding another large house which he had
+purchased in the same neighborhood; and pulling down and rebuilding a
+third, named Bagatelle, in the Bois de Boulogne, which he had just bought,
+and as to which he had laid an enormous wager that it should be completed
+and furnished in sixty days. To win his bet nearly a thousand workmen were
+employed day and night, and, as the requisite materials could not be
+provided at so short a notice, he sent patrols of his regiment to scour
+the roads, and seize every cart loaded with stones or timber for other
+employers, which he thus appropriated to his own use. He did, indeed, pay
+for the goods thus seized, and he won his bet, but when the princes of the
+land made so open a parade of their disregard of all law and all decency,
+one can hardly wonder that men in secret began, to talk of a revolution,
+or that all the graces and gentleness of the queen should be needed to
+outweigh such grave causes of discontent and indignation.
+
+As the new year opened, affairs of a very different kind began to occupy
+the queen's attention. On political questions, the advice which the
+empress gave her differed in some degree from that of her embassador.
+Maria Teresa was an earnest politician, but she was also a mother; and, as
+being eager above all things for her daughter's happiness, while she
+entreated Marie Antoinette to study politics, history, and such other
+subjects as might qualify her to be an intelligent companion of the king,
+and so far as or whenever he might require it, his chief confidante, she
+warned her also against ever wishing to rule him. But Mercy was a
+statesman above every thing, and, feeling secure of being able to guide
+the queen, he desired to instill into her mind an ambition to govern the
+king. On one most important question she proved wholly unable to do so,
+since the decision taken was not even in accordance with the judgment or
+inclination of Louis himself; but he allowed himself to be persuaded by
+two of his ministers to adopt a course against which Joseph had earnestly
+warned him in the preceding year, and which, as he had been then
+convinced, was inconsistent alike with his position as a king and with his
+interests as King of France.
+
+England had been for some years engaged in a civil war with her colonies
+in North America, and from the commencement of the contest a strong
+sympathy for the colonists had been evinced by a considerable party in
+France. Louis, who, for several reasons disliked England and English
+ideas, was at first inclined to coincide in this feeling as a development
+of anti-English principles: he was far from suspecting that its source was
+rather a revolutionary and republican sentiment. But he had conversed with
+his brother-in-law on the possibility of advantages which might accrue to
+France from the weakening of her old foe, if French aid should enable the
+Americans to establish their independence. Joseph's opinion was clear and
+unhesitating: "I am a king; it is my business to be royalist." And he
+easily convinced Louis that for one sovereign to assist the subjects of
+another monarch who were in open revolt, was to set a mischievous example
+which might in time be turned against himself. But since his return to
+Vienna, unprecedented disasters had befallen England; a whole army had
+laid down its arms; the ultimate success of the Americans seemed to every
+statesman in Europe to be assured, and the prospect gave such
+encouragement to the war party in the French cabinet that Louis could
+resist it no longer. In February, 1778, a treaty was concluded with the
+United States, as the insurgents called themselves; and France plunged
+into a war from which she had nothing to gain, which involved her in
+enormous expenses, which brought on her overwhelming defeats, and which,
+from its effects upon the troops sent to serve with the American army, who
+thus became infected with republican principles, had no slight influence
+in bringing about the calamities which, a few years later, overwhelmed
+both king and people.
+
+All Marie Antoinette's language on the subject shows that she viewed the
+quarrel with England with even greater repugnance than her husband; but it
+is curious to see that her chief fear was lest the war should be waged by
+land, and that she felt much greater confidence in the French navy than in
+the army;[3] though it was just at this time that Voltaire was pointing
+out to his countrymen that England had always enjoyed and always would
+possess a maritime superiority which different inquirers might attribute
+to various causes, but which none could deny.[4]
+
+Even before the conclusion of this treaty, however, the Americans had
+found sympathizers in France, to one of whom some of the circumstances of
+the war which they were now waging gave a subsequent importance to which
+no talents or virtues of his own entitled him. The Marquis de La Fayette
+was a young man of ancient family, and of fair but not excessive fortune.
+He was awkward in appearance and manner, gawky, red-haired, and singularly
+deficient in the accomplishments which were cultivated by other youths of
+his age and rank.[5] But he was deeply imbued with the doctrines of the
+new philosophy which saw virtue in the mere fact of resistance to
+authority; and when the colonists took up arms, he became eager to afford
+them such aid as he could give. He made the acquaintance of Silas Deane,
+one of the most unscrupulous of the American agents, who promised him,
+though he was only twenty years of age, the rank of major-general. As he
+was at all times the slave of a most overweening conceit, he was tempted
+by that bait; and, though he could not leave France without incurring the
+forfeiture of his military rank in the army of his own country, in April,
+1777, he crossed over to America to serve as a volunteer under Washington,
+who naturally received with special distinction a recruit of such
+political importance. He was present at more than one battle, and was
+wounded at Brandywine; but the exploit which made him most conspicuous was
+a ridiculous act of bravado in sending a challenge to Lord Carlisle, the
+chief of the English Commissioners who in 1778 were dispatched to America
+to endeavor to re-establish peace. However, the close of the war, which
+ended, as is well known, in the humiliation of Great Britain and the
+establishment of the independence of the colonies, made him seem a hero to
+his countrymen on his return. The queen, always eager to encourage and
+reward feats of warlike enterprise, treated him with marked distinction,
+and procured him from her husband not only the restoration of his
+commission, but promotion to the command of a regiment;[6] kindness which,
+as will be seen, he afterward requited with the foulest ingratitude.
+
+Nor was this most imprudent war with England the only question of foreign
+politics which at this time interested Marie Antoinette. Her native land,
+her mother's hereditary dominions, were also threatened with war. On the
+death of the Elector of Bavaria at the end of 1777, Joseph, who had been
+married to his sister, claimed a portion of his territories; and Frederick
+of Prussia, that "bad neighbor," as Marie Antoinette was wont to call him,
+announced his resolution to resist that claim, by force of arms if
+necessary. If he should carry out the resolution which he had announced,
+and if war should in consequence break out, much would depend on the
+attitude which France would assume on her fidelity to or disregard of the
+alliance which had now subsisted more than twenty years. So all-important
+to Austria was her decision, that Maria Teresa forgot the line which, as a
+general rule of conduct, she had recommended to her daughter, and wrote to
+her with the most extreme earnestness to entreat her to lose no
+opportunity of influencing the King's council. If it depended upon Maria
+Teresa, the claim would probably not have been advanced; but Joseph had
+made it on the part of the empire, and, when it was once made, the empress
+could not withhold her support from her son. She therefore threw herself
+into the quarrel with as much earnestness as if it had been her own.
+Indeed, since Joseph had as yet no authority over her hereditary
+possessions, it was only by her armies that it could be maintained; and in
+her letters to her daughter she declared that Marie Antoinette had her
+happiness, the welfare of her house, and of the whole Austrian nation in
+her hands; that all depended on her activity and affection. She knew that
+the French ministers were inclined to favor the views of Frederick, but if
+the alliance should be dissolved it would kill her.[7] Marie Antoinette
+grew pale at reading so ominous a denunciation. It required no art to
+inflame her against Frederick. The Seven Years' War had begun when she was
+but a year old; and all her life she had heard of nothing more frequently
+than of the rapacity and dishonesty of that unprincipled aggressor. She
+now entered with eagerness into her mother's views, and pressed them on
+Louis with unremitting diligence and considerable fertility of argument,
+though she was greatly dismayed at finding that not only his ministers,
+but he himself, regarded Austria as actuated by an aggressive ambition,
+and compared her claim to a portion of Bavaria to the partition of Poland,
+which, six years before, had drawn forth unwonted expressions of honorable
+indignation from even his unworthy grandfather. The idea that the alliance
+between France and the empire was itself at stake on the question, made
+her so anxious that she sent for the ministers themselves, pressing her
+views on both Maurepas and Vergennes with great earnestness. But they,
+though still faithful to the maintenance of the alliance, sympathized with
+the king rather than with her in his view of the character of the claim
+which the emperor had put forward; and they also urged another argument
+for abstaining from any active intervention, that the finances of the
+country were in so deplorable a state that France could not afford to go
+to war. It was plain, as she told them, that this consideration should at
+least equally have prevented their quarreling with England. But, in spite
+of all her persistence, they were not to be moved from this view of the
+true interest of France in the conjuncture that had arisen; and,
+accordingly, in the brief war which ensued between the empire and Prussia,
+France took no part, though it is more than probable that her mediation
+between the belligerents, which had no little share in bringing about the
+peace of Teschen,[8] was in a great degree owing to the queen's influence.
+
+For she was not discouraged by her first failure, but renewed her
+importunities from time to time; and at last did succeed in wringing a
+promise from her husband that if Prussia should invade the Flemish
+provinces of Austria, France would arm on the empress's side. So fully did
+the affair absorb her attention that it made her indifferent to the
+gayeties which the carnival always brought round. She did, indeed, as a
+matter of duty, give one or two grand state balls, one of which, in which
+the dancers of the quadrilles were masked, and in which their dresses
+represented the male and female costumes of India, was long talked of for
+both the magnificence and the novelty of the spectacle; and she attended
+one or two of the opera-balls, under the escort of her brothers-in-law and
+their countesses; but they had begun to pall upon her, and she made
+repeated offers to the king to give them up and to spend her evenings in
+quiet with him. But he was more inclined to prompt her to seek amusement
+than to allow her to sacrifice any,[9] even such as he did not care to
+partake of; nevertheless, he was pleased with the offer, and it was
+observed by the courtiers that the mutual confidence of the husband and
+wife in each other was more marked and more firmly established than ever.
+He showed her all the dispatches, consulted her on all points, and
+explained his reasons when he could not adopt all her views. As Marie
+Antoinette wrote to her brother, "If it were possible to reckon wholly on
+any man, the king was the one on whom she could thoroughly rely.[10]"
+
+So greatly, indeed, did the quarrel between Austria and Prussia engross
+her, that it even occupied the greater part of letters whose ostensible
+object is to announce prospects of personal happiness which might have
+been expected to extinguished every other consideration. In one, after
+touching briefly on her health and hopes, she proceeds:
+
+"How kind my dear mamma is, to express her approval of the way in which I
+have conducted myself in these affairs up to the present time! Alas! there
+is no need for you to feel obliged to me; it was my heart that acted in
+the whole matter. I am only vexed at not being able to enter myself into
+the feelings of all these ministers, so as to be able to make them
+comprehend how every thing which has been done and demanded by the
+authorities at Vienna is just and reasonable. But unluckily none are more
+deaf than those who will not hear; and, besides, they have such a number
+of terms and phrases which mean nothing, that they bewilder themselves
+before they come to say a single reasonable thing. I will try one plan,
+and that is to speak to them both in the king's presence, to induce them,
+at least, to hold language suitable to the occasion to the King of
+Prussia; and in good truth it is for the interest and glory of the
+king[11] himself that I am anxious to see this done; for he can not but
+gain by supporting allies who on every account ought to be so dear to him.
+
+"In other respects, and especially in my present conditions, he behaves
+most admirably, and is most attentive to me. I protest to you, my dear
+mamma, that my heart would be torn by the idea that you could for a moment
+suspect his good-will in what has been done. No; it is the terrible
+weakness of his ministers, and tis own great want of self-reliance, which
+does all the mischief; and I am sure that if he would never act but on his
+own judgment, every one would see his honesty, his correctness of feeling,
+and his tact, which at present they are far from appreciating.[12]"
+
+And at the end of the month she writes again:
+
+"I saw Mercy a day or two ago: he showed me the articles which the King of
+Prussia sent to my brother. I think it is impossible to see any thing more
+absurd than his proposals. In fact, they are so ridiculous that they must
+strike every one here; I can answer for their appearing so to the king. I
+have not been able to see the ministers. M. de Vergennes has not been here
+[she is writing from Marly]; he is not well, so that I must wait till we
+return to Versailles.
+
+"I had seen before the correspondence of the King of Prussia with my
+brother. It is most abominable of the former to have sent it here, and the
+more so since, in truth, he has not much to boast of. His imprudence, his
+bad faith, and his malignant temper are visible in every line. I have been
+enchanted with my brother's answers. It is impossible to put into letters
+more grace, more moderation, and at the same time more force. I am going
+to say something which is very vain; but I do believe that there is not in
+the whole world any one but the emperor, the son of my dearest mother, who
+has the happiness of seeing her every day, who could write in such a
+manner."
+
+There is no trace in these letters of the levity and giddiness of which
+Mercy so often complains, and which she at times did not deny. On the
+contrary, they display an earnestness as well as a good sense and an
+energy which are gracefully set off by the affection for her mother, and
+the pride in her brother's firmness and address which they also express.
+With respect to the conduct of Louis at this crisis we may perhaps differ
+from her; and may think that he rarely showed so much self-reliance, the
+general want of which was in truth his greatest defect, as when he
+preferred the arguments of Vergennes to her entreaties. But if her praises
+of the emperor are, as she herself terms them, vanity, it is the vanity of
+sisterly and patriotic affection, which can not but be regarded with
+approval; and we may see in it an additional proof of the correctness of
+an assertion, repeated over and over again in Mercy's correspondence,
+that, whenever Marie Antoinette gave the rein to her own natural impulses,
+she invariably both thought and acted rightly.
+
+In one of the extracts which have just been quoted, the queen alludes to
+her own condition; and that, in any one less unselfish, might well have
+driven all other thoughts from her head. For the event to which she had so
+long looked forward as that which was wanted to crown her happiness, and
+which had been so long deferred that at times she had ceased to hope for
+it at all, was at last about to take place--she was about to become a
+mother. Her own joy at the prospect was shared to its full extent by both
+the king and the empress. Louis, roused out of his usual reserve, wrote
+with his own hand to both the empress and the emperor, to give the
+intelligence; and Maria Teresa declared that she had nothing left to wish
+for, and that she could now close her eyes in peace. And the news was
+received with almost equal pleasure by the citizens of Paris, who had long
+desired to see an heir born to the crown; and by those of Vienna, who had
+not yet forgotten the fair young princess, the flower of her mother's
+flock, as they had fondly called her, whom they had sent to fill a foreign
+throne. Her own happiness exhibited itself, as usual, in acts of
+benevolence, in the distribution of liberal gifts to the poor of Paris and
+Versailles, and a foundation of a hospital for those in a similar
+condition with herself.[13]
+
+In the course of the spring, Paris was for a moment excited even more than
+by the declaration of war against England, or than by the expectation of
+the queen's confinement, by the return of Voltaire, who had long been in
+disgrace with the court, and had been for many years living in a sort of
+tacit exile on the borders of the Lake of Geneva. He was now in extreme
+old age, and, believing himself to have but a short time to live, he
+wished to see Paris once more, putting forward as his principal motive his
+desire to superintend the performance of his tragedy of "Irene." His
+admirers could easily secure him a brilliant reception at the theatre; but
+they were anxious above all things to obtain for him admission to the
+court, or at least a private interview with the queen. She felt in a
+dilemma. Joseph, a year before, had warned her against giving
+encouragement to a man whose principles deserved the reprobation of all
+sovereigns. He himself, though on his return to Vienna he had passed
+through Geneva, had avoided an interview with him, while the empress had
+been far more explicit in her condemnation of his character. On the other
+hand, Marie Antoinette had not yet learned the art of refusing, when those
+who solicited a favor had personal access to her; and she had also some
+curiosity to see a man whose literary fame was accounted one of the chief
+glories of the nation and the age. She consulted the king, but found
+Louis, on this subject, in entire agreement with her mother and her
+brother. He had no literary curiosity, and he disapproved equally the
+lessons which Voltaire had throughout his life sought to inculcate upon
+others, and the licentious habits with which he had exemplified his own
+principles in action. She yielded to his objections, and Voltaire, deeply
+mortified at the refusal,[14] was left to console himself as best he could
+with the enthusiastic acclamations of the play-goers of the capital, who
+crowned his bust on the stage, while he sat exultingly in his box, and
+escorted him back in triumph to his house; those who could approach near
+enough even kissing his garments as he passed, till he asked them whether
+they designed to kill him with delight; as, indeed, in some sense, they
+may be said to have done, for the excitement of the homage thus paid to
+him day after day, whenever he was seen in public, proved too much for his
+feeble frame. He was seized with illness, which, however, was but a
+natural decay, and in a few weeks after his arrival in Paris he died.
+
+As the year wore on, Marie Antoinette was fully occupied in making
+arrangements for the child whose coming was expected with such impatience.
+Her mother is of course her chief confidante. She is to be the child's
+godmother; her name shall be the first its tongue is to learn to
+pronounce; while for its early management the advice of so experienced a
+parent is naturally sought with unhesitating deference. Still, Marie
+Antoinette is far from being always joyful. Russia has made an alliance
+with Prussia; Frederick has invaded Bohemia, and she is so overwhelmed
+with anxiety that she cancels invitations for parties which she was about
+to give at the Trianon, and would absent herself from the theatre and from
+all public places, did not Mercy persuade her that such a withdrawal would
+seem to be the effect, not of a natural anxiety, but of a despondency
+which would be both unroyal and unworthy of the reliance which she ought
+to feel on the proved valor of the Austrian armies.
+
+The war with England, also, was an additional cause of solicitude and
+vexation. The sailors in whom she had expressed such confidence were not
+better able than before to contend with British antagonists. In an
+undecisive skirmish which took place in July between two fleets of the
+first magnitude, the French admiral, D'Orvilliers, had made a practical
+acknowledgment of his inferiority by retreating in the night, and eluding
+all the exertions of the English admiral, Keppel, to renew the action. The
+discontent in Paris was great; the populace was severe on one or two of
+the captains, who were thought to have taken undue care of their ships and
+of themselves, and especially bitter against the Duke de Chartres, who had
+had a rear-admiral's command in the fleet, and who, after having made
+himself conspicuous before D'Orvilliers sailed, by his boasts of the
+prowess which he intended to exhibit, had made himself equally notorious
+in the action itself by the pains he took to keep himself out of danger.
+On his return to Paris, shameless as he was, he scarcely dared show his
+face, till the Comte d'Artois persuaded the queen to throw her shield over
+him. It was impossible for him to remain in the navy; but, to soften his
+fall, the count proposed that the king should create a new appointment for
+him, as colonel-general of the light cavalry. Louis saw the impropriety of
+such a step: truly it was but a questionable compliment to pay to his
+hussars, to place in authority over them a man under whom no sailor would
+willingly serve. Marie Antoinette in her heart was as indignant as any
+one. Constitutionally an admirer of bravery, she had taken especial
+interest in the affairs of the fleet and in the details of this action.
+She had honored with the most marked eulogy the gallantry of Admiral du
+Chaffault, who had been severely wounded; but now she allowed herself to
+be persuaded that the duke's public disgrace would reflect on the whole
+royal family, and pressed the request so earnestly on the king that at
+last he yielded. In outward appearance the duke's honor was saved; but the
+public, whose judgment on such matter is generally sound, and who had
+revived against him some of the jests with which the comrades of Luxemburg
+had shown their scorn of the Duke de Maine, blamed her interference; and
+the duke himself, by the vile ingratitude with which he subsequently
+repaid her protection, gave but too sad proof that of all offenders
+against honor the most unworthy of royal indulgence is a coward.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+Birth of Madame Royale.--Festivities of Thanksgiving.--The Dames de la
+Halle at the Theatre.--Thanksgiving at Notre Dame.--The King goes to a Bal
+d'Opéra.--The Queen's Carriage breaks down.--Marie Antoinette has the
+Measles.--Her Anxiety about the War.--Retrenchments of Expense.
+
+
+Mercy, while deploring the occasional levity of the queen's conduct, and
+her immoderate thirst for amusement, had constantly looked forward to the
+birth of a child as the event which, by the fresh and engrossing
+occupation it would afford to her mind, would be the surest remedy for her
+juvenile heedlessness. And, as we have seen, the absence of any prospect
+of becoming a mother had, till recently, been a constant source of anxiety
+and vexation to the queen herself--the one drop of bitterness in her cup,
+which, but for that, would have been filled with delights. But this
+disappointment was now to pass away. From the moment that it was publicly
+announced that the queen was in the way to become a mother, one general
+desire seemed to prevail to show how deep an interest the whole nation
+felt in the event. In cathedrals, monasteries, abbeys, universities, and
+parish churches, masses were celebrated and prayers offered for her safe
+delivery. In many instances, private individuals even gave extraordinary
+alms to bring down the blessing of Heaven on the nation, so interested in
+the expected event. And on the 19th of December, 1778, the prayers were
+answered, and the hopes of the country in great measure realized by the
+birth of a princess, who was instantly christened Maria Thérèse Charlotte,
+in compliment to the empress, her godmother.
+
+The labor was long, and had nearly proved fatal to the mother, from the
+strange and senseless custom which made the queen's bed-chamber on such an
+occasion a reception-room for every one, of whatever rank or station, who
+could force his way in.[1] In most countries, perhaps in all, the
+genuineness of a royal infant is assured by the presence of a few great
+officers of state; but on this occasion not only all the ministers, with
+all the members of the king's or of the queen's household, were present in
+the chamber, but a promiscuous rabble filled the adjacent saloon and
+gallery, and, the moment that it was announced that the birth was about to
+take place, rushed in disorderly tumult into the apartment, some climbing
+on the chairs and sofas, and even on the tables and wardrobes, to obtain a
+better sight of the patient. The uproar was great. The heat became
+intense; the queen fainted. The king himself dashed at the windows, which
+were firmly closed, and by an unusual effort of strength tore down the
+fastenings and admitted air into the room. The crowd was driven out, but
+Marie Antoinette continued insensible; and the moment was so critical that
+the physician had recourse to his lancet, and opened a vein in her foot.
+As the blood came she revived. The king himself came to her side, and
+announced to her that she was the mother of a daughter.
+
+It can hardly be said that the hopes of the nation, or of the king
+himself, had been fully realized, since an heir to the throne, a dauphin,
+that had been universally hoped for. But in the general joy that was felt
+at the queen's safety the disappointment of this hope was disregarded, and
+the little princess, Madame Royale, as she was called from her birth, was
+received by the still loyal people in the same spirit as that in which
+Anne Boleyn's lady in waiting had announced to Henry VIII. the birth of
+her "fair young maid:"
+
+  "_King Henry_. Now by thy looks
+  I guess thy message. Is the queen delivered?
+  Say ay; and of a boy.
+
+  "_Lady_. Ay, ay, my liege,
+  And of a lovely boy. The God of Heaven
+  Both now and ever bless her. 'Tis a girl,
+  Promises boys hereafter."
+
+And a month before the empress had expressed a similar sentiment: "I
+trust," she wrote to her daughter in November, "that God will grant me the
+comfort of knowing that you are safely delivered. Every thing else is a
+matter of indifference. Boys will come after girls.[2]" And the same
+feeling was shared by the Parisians in general, and embodied by M. Imbert,
+a courtly poet, whose odes were greatly in vogue in the fashionable
+circles, in an epigram which was set to music and sung in the theatres.
+
+  "Pour toi, France, un dauphin doit naître,
+    Une Princesse vient pour en être témoin,
+  Sitôt qu'on voit une grâce paraître,
+    Croyez que l'amour n'est pas loin.[3]"
+
+Marie Antoinette herself was scarcely disappointed at all. When the
+attendants brought her her babe, she pressed it to her bosom. "Poor little
+thing," said she, "you are not what was desired, but you shall not be the
+less dear to me. A son would have belonged to the State; you will be my
+own: you shall have all my care, you shall share my happiness and sweeten
+my vexations.[4]"
+
+The Count de Provence made no secret of his joy. He was still heir
+presumptive to the throne. And, though no one shared his feelings on the
+subject, for the next few weeks the whole kingdom, and especially the
+capital, was absorbed in public rejoicings. Her own thankfullness was
+displayed by Marie Antoinette in her usual way, by acts of benevolence.
+She sent large sums of money to the prisons to release poor debtors; she
+gave dowries to a hundred poor maidens; she applied to the chief officers
+of both army and navy to recommend her veterans worthy of especial reward;
+and to the curates of the metropolitan parishes to point out to her any
+deserving objects of charity; and she also settled pensions on a number of
+poor children who were born on the same day as the princess; one of whom,
+who owed her education to this grateful and royal liberality, became
+afterward known to every visitor of Paris as Madame Mars, the most
+accomplished of comic actresses.[5]
+
+One portion of the rejoicings was marked by a curious incident, in which
+the same body whose right to a special place of honor at ceremonies
+connected with the personal happiness of the royal family we have already
+seen admitted--the ladies of the fish-market--again asserted their
+pretensions with triumphant success. On Christmas-eve the theatres were
+opened gratuitously, but these ladies, who, with their friends, the
+coal-heavers, selected the most aristocratic theatre, La Comédie
+Française, for the honor of their visit, arrived with aristocratic
+unpunctuality, so late that the guards stopped them at the doors,
+declaring that the house was full, and that there was not a seat vacant.
+They declared that in any event room must be made for them. "Who were in
+the boxes of the king and queen? for on such occasions those places were
+theirs of right." Even they, however, were full, and the guards demurred
+to the ladies' claim to be considered, though for this night only, as the
+representatives of royalty, and to have the existing occupants of the
+seats demanded turned out to make room for them. The box-keeper and the
+manager were sent for. The registers of the house confirmed the validity
+of the claim by former precedents, and a compromise was at last effected.
+Rows of benches were placed on each side of the stage itself. Those on the
+right were allotted to the coal-heavers as representatives of Louis; the
+ladies of the fish-market sat on the left as the deputies of Marie
+Antoinette. Before the play was allowed to begin, his majesty the king of
+the coal-heavers read the bulletin of the day announcing the rapid
+progress of the queen toward recovery; and then, giving his hand to the
+queen of the fish-wives, the august pair, followed by their respective
+suites, executed a dance expressive of their delight at the good news, and
+then resumed their seats, and listened to Voltaire's "Zaire" with the most
+edifying gravity.[6] It was evident that in some things there was already
+enough, and rather more than enough, of that equality the unreasonable and
+unpractical passion for which proved, a few years later, the most pregnant
+cause of immeasurable misery to the whole nation.
+
+But the demonstration most in accordance with the queen's own taste was
+that which took place a few weeks later, when she went in a state
+procession to the great national cathedral of Notre Dame to return thanks;
+one most interesting part of the ceremony being the weddings of the
+hundred young couples to whom she had given dowries, who also received a
+silver medal to commemorate the day. The gayety of the spectacle, since
+they, with the formal witnesses of their marriage, filled a great part of
+the antechapel; and the blessings invoked on the queen's head as she left
+the cathedral by the prisoners whom she had released, and by the poor
+whose destitution she had relieved, made so great an impression on the
+spectators, that even the highest dignitaries of the court added their
+cheers and applause to those of the populace who escorted her coach to the
+gates on its return to Versailles.
+
+She was now, for the first time since her arrival in France, really and
+entirely happy, without one vexation or one foreboding of evil. The king's
+attachment to her was rendered, if not deeper than before, at least far
+more lively and demonstrative by the birth of his daughter; his delight
+carrying him at times to most unaccustomed ebullitions of gayety. On the
+last Sunday of the carnival, he even went alone with the queen to the
+masked opera ball, and was highly amused at finding that not one of the
+company recognized either him or her. He even proposed to repeat his visit
+on Shrove-Tuesday; but when the evening came he changed his mind, and
+insisted on the queen's going by herself with one of her ladies, and the
+change of plan led to an incident which at the time afforded great
+amusement to Marie Antoinette, though it afterward proved a great
+annoyance, as furnishing a pretext for malicious stories and scandal. To
+preserve her _incognito_, a private carriage was hired for her, which
+broke down in the street close by a silk-mercer's shop. As the queen was
+already masked, the shop-men did not know her, and, at the request of the
+lady who attended her, stopped for her the first hackney-coach which
+passed, and in that unroyal vehicle, such as certainly no sovereign of
+France had ever set foot in before, she at last reached the theatre. As
+before, no one recognized her, and she might have enjoyed the scene and
+returned to Versailles in the most absolute secrecy, had not her sense of
+the fun of a queen using such a conveyance overpowered her wish for
+concealment, so that when, in the course of the evening, she met one or
+two persons of distinction whom she knew, she could not forbear telling
+them who she was, and that she had come in a hackney-coach.
+
+Her health seemed less delicate than it had been before her confinement.
+But in the spring she was attacked by the measles, and her illness, slight
+as it was, gave occasion to a curious passage in court history. The fear
+of infection was always great at Versailles, and, as the king himself and
+some of the ladies had never had the complaint, they were excluded from
+her room. But that she might not be left without attendants, four nobles
+of the court, the Duke de Coigny, the Duke de Guines, the Count Esterhazy,
+and the Baron de Besenval, in something of the old spirit of chivalry,
+devoted themselves to her service, and solicited permission to watch by
+her bedside till she recovered. As has been already seen, the bed-chamber
+and dressing-room of a queen of France had never been guarded from
+intrusion with the jealousy which protects the apartments of ladies in
+other countries, so that the proposal was less startling than it would
+have been considered elsewhere, while the number of nurses removed all
+pretext for scandal. Louis willingly gave the required permission, being
+apparently flattered by the solicitude exhibited for his queen's health.
+And each morning at seven the sick-watchers[7] took their seats in the
+queen's chamber, sharing with the Countess of Provence, the Princesse de
+Lamballe, and the Count d'Artois the task of keeping order and quiet in
+the sick-room till eleven at night. Though there was no scandal, there was
+plenty of jesting at so novel an arrangement. Wags proposed that in the
+case of the king being taken ill, a list should be prepared of the ladies
+who should tend his sick-bed. However, the champions were not long on
+duty: at the end of little more than a week their patient was
+convalescent. She herself took off the sentence of banishment which she
+had pronounced against the king in a brief and affectionate note, which
+said "that she had suffered a great deal, but what she had felt most was
+to be for so many days deprived of the pleasure of embracing him." And the
+temporary separation seemed to have but increased their mutual affection
+for each other.
+
+The Trianon was now more than ever delightful to her. The new plantations,
+which contained no fewer than eight hundred different kinds of trees, rich
+with every variety of foliage, were beginning, by their effectiveness, to
+give evidence of the taste with which they had been laid out; while with a
+charity which could not bear to keep her blessings wholly to herself, she
+had set apart one corner of the grounds for a row of picturesque cottages,
+in which she had established a number of pensioners whom age or infirmity
+had rendered destitute, and whom she constantly visited with presents from
+her dairy or her fruit-trees. Roaming about the lawns and walks, which she
+had made herself, in a muslin gown and a plain straw hat, she could forget
+that she was a queen. She did not suspect that the intriguers, who from
+time to time maligned her most innocent actions, were misrepresenting even
+these simple and natural pleasures, and whispering in their secret cabals
+that her very dress was a proof that she still clung as resolutely as ever
+to her Austrian preferences; that she discarded her silk gowns because
+they were the work of French manufacturers, while they were her brother's
+Flemish subjects who supplied her with muslins.
+
+But, far beyond her plantations and her flowers, her child was to her a
+source of unceasing delight. She could be carried by her side about the
+garden a great part of the day. For, as in her anticipations and
+preparations she had told her mother long before, French parents kept
+their children as much as possible in the open air,[8] a fashion which
+fully accorded with her own notions of what was best calculated to give an
+infant health and strength. And before the babe was five months old,[9]
+she flattered herself that it already distinguished her from its nurses.
+That nothing might be wanting to her comfort, peace was re-established
+between Austria and Prussia; and if at this time the war with England did
+make her in some degree uneasy, she yet felt a sanguine anticipation of
+triumph for the French arms, in the event of a battle between the hostile
+fleets; a result of which, when the antagonists did come within sight of
+each other, it appeared that the French and Spanish admirals felt far less
+confident. Her anxieties and hopes are vividly set forth in a letter
+which, in the course of the summer, she wrote to her mother, which is also
+singularly interesting from its self-examination, and from the substantial
+proof it supplies of the correctness of those anticipations which were
+based on the salutary effect which her novel position as a mother might be
+expected to have upon her character.
+
+"Versailles, August 16th.
+
+"My Dearest Mother,--I can not find language to express to my dear mamma
+my thanks for her two letters, and for the kindness with which she
+expresses her willingness to exert herself to the utmost to procure us
+peace.[10] It is true that that would be a great happiness, and my heart
+desires it more than any thing in the world; but, unhappily, I do not see
+any appearance of it at present. Every thing depends on the moment. Our
+fleets, the French and Spanish, being now united, we have a considerable
+superiority.[11]
+
+"They are now in the Channel; and I can not without great agitation
+reflect that at any instant the whole fate of the war may be decided. I am
+also terrified at the approach of September, when the sea is no longer
+practicable. In short, it is only on the bosom of my dearest mamma that I
+lay aside all my disquiet God grant that it may be groundless, but her
+kindness encourages me to speak to her as I think. The king is touched,
+quite as he should be, with all the service you so kindly propose to
+render him; and I do not doubt that he will be always eager to profit by
+it, rather than to deliver himself up to the intrigues of those who have
+so frequently deceived France, and whom we must regard as our natural
+enemies.
+
+"My health is completely re-established. I am going to resume my ordinary
+way of life, and consequently I hope soon to be able to announce to my
+dearest mother fresh news such as that of last year. She may feel quite
+re-assured now as to my behavior. I feel too strongly the necessity of
+having more children to be careless in that. If I have formerly done
+amiss, it was my youth and my levity; but now my head is thoroughly
+steadied, and you may reckon confidently on my properly feeling all my
+duties. Besides that, I owe such conduct to the king as a reward for his
+tenderness, and, I will venture to say it, his confidence in me, for which
+I can only praise him more find more.
+
+"... I venture to send my dear mamma the picture of my daughter: it is
+very like her. The dear little thing begins to walk very well in her
+leading-strings. She has been able to say "papa" for some days. Her teeth
+have not yet come through, but we can feel them all. I am very glad that
+her first word has been her father's name. It is one more tie for him. He
+behaves to me most admirably, and nothing could be wanting to make me love
+him more. My dear mamma will forgive my twaddling about the little one;
+but she is so kind that sometimes I abuse her kindness."
+
+It was well for Marie Antoinette's happiness that her husband was one in
+whom, as we have seen that she told her mother, she could feel entire
+confidence, for during her seclusion in the measles the intriguers of the
+court had ventured to try and work upon him. Mercy had reason to suspect
+that some were even wicked enough to desire to influence him against his
+wife by the same means by which the Duke de Richelieu had formerly
+alienated his grandfather from Marie Leczinska; and the queen herself
+received proof positive that Maurepas, in spite of her civilities to him
+and his countess, had become jealous of her political influence, and had
+endeavored to prevent his consulting her on public affairs. But all
+manoeuvres intended to disturb the conjugal felicity of the royal pair
+were harmless against the honest fidelity of the king, the graceful
+affection of the queen, and the firm confidence of each in the other. The
+people generally felt that the influence which it was now notorious that
+the queen did exert on public affairs was a salutary one; and great
+satisfaction was expressed when it became known in the autumn that the
+usual visit to Fontainebleau was given up, partly as being costly, and
+therefore undesirable while the nation had need to concentrate all its
+resources on the effective prosecution of the war, and partly that the
+king might be always within reach of his ministers in the event of any
+intelligence of importance arriving which required prompt decision.
+
+Her letters to her mother at this time show how entirely her whole
+attention was engrossed by the war; and, at the same time, with what wise
+earnestness she desired the re-establishment of peace. Even some gleams of
+success which had attended the French arms in the West Indies, where the
+Marquis de Bouillé, the most skillful soldier of whom France at that time
+could boast, took one or two of the British islands, and the Count
+d'Estaing, whose fleet of thirty-six sail was for a short time far
+superior to the English force in that quarter, captured one or two more,
+did not diminish her eagerness for a cessation of the war. Though it is
+curious to see that she had become so deeply imbued with the principles of
+statesmanship with which M. Necker, the present financial minister, was
+seeking to inspire the nation, that her objections to the continuance of
+the war turned chiefly on the degree in which it affected the revenue and
+expenditure of the kingdom. She evidently sympathizes in the
+disappointment which, as she reports to the empress, is generally felt by
+the public at the mismanagement of the admiral, M. d'Orvilliers, who, with
+forces so superior to those of the English, has neither been able to fall
+in with them so as to give them battle, nor to hinder any of their
+merchantmen from reaching their harbors in safety. As it is, he will have
+spent a great deal of money in doing nothing.[12] And a month later she
+repeats the complaints.[13] The king and she have renounced the journey
+to Fontainebleau because of the expenses of the war; and also that they
+may be in the way to receive earlier intelligence from the army. But the
+fleet has not been able to fall in with the English, and has done nothing
+at all. It is a campaign lost, and which has cost a great deal of money.
+What is still more afflicting is, that disease has broken out on board the
+ships, and has caused great havoc; and the dysentery, which is raging as
+an epidemic in Brittany and Normandy, has attacked the land force also,
+which was intended to embark for England ... "I greatly fear," she
+proceeds, "that these misfortunes of ours will render the English
+difficult to treat with, and may prevent proposals of peace, of which I
+see no immediate prospect. I am constantly persuaded that if the king
+should require a mediation, the intrigues of the King of Prussia will
+fail, and will not prevent the king from availing himself of the offers of
+my dear mamma. I shall take care never to lose sight of this object, which
+is of such interest to the whole happiness of my life." So full is her
+mind of the war, that four or five words in each letter to report that
+"her daughter is in perfect health," or that "she has cut four teeth," are
+all that she can spare for that subject, generally of such engrossing
+interest to herself and the empress; while, before the end of the year, we
+find her taking even the domestic troubles of England into her
+calculations,[14] and speculating on the degree in which the aspect of
+affairs in Ireland may affect the great preparations which the English
+ministers are making for the next campaign.
+
+The mere habit of devoting so much consideration to affairs of this kind
+was beneficial as tending to mature and develop her capacity. She was
+rapidly learning to take large views of political questions, even if they
+were not always correct. And the acuteness and earnestness of her comments
+on them daily increased her influence over both the king and the
+ministers, so that in the course of the autumn Mercy could assure the
+empress[15] that "the king's complaisance toward her increased every day,"
+that "he made it his study to anticipate all her wishes, and that this
+attention showed itself in every kind of detail," while Maurepas also was
+unable to conceal from himself that her voice always prevailed "in every
+case in which she chose to exert a decisive will," and accordingly "bent
+himself very prudently" before a power which he had no means of resisting.
+So solicitous indeed did the whole council show itself to please her, that
+when the king, who was aware that her allowance, in spite of its recent
+increase was insufficient to defray the charges to which she was liable,
+proposed to double it, Necker himself, with all his zeal for economy and
+retrenchment, eagerly embraced the suggestion; and its adoption gave the
+queen a fresh opportunity of strengthening the esteem and affection of the
+nation, by declaring that while the war lasted she would only accept half
+the sum thus placed at her disposal.
+
+The continuance of the war was not without its effect on the gayety of the
+court, from the number of officers whom their military duties detained
+with their regiments; but the quiet was beneficial to Marie Antoinette,
+whose health was again becoming delicate, so much so, that after a grand
+drawing-room which she held on New-year's-eve, and which was attended by
+nearly two hundred of the chief ladies of the city, she was completely
+knocked up, and forced to put herself under the care of her physician.
+
+Meanwhile the war became more formidable. The English admiral, Rodney, the
+greatest sailor who, as yet, had ever commanded a British fleet, in the
+middle of January utterly destroyed a strong Spanish squadron off Cape St.
+Vincent; and as from the coast of Spain he proceeded to the West Indies,
+the French ministry had ample reason to be alarmed for the safety of the
+force which they had in those regions. It was evident that it would
+require every effort that could be made to enable their sailors to
+maintain the contest against an antagonist so brave and so skillful And,
+as one of the first steps toward such a result, Necker obtained the king's
+consent to a great reform in the expenditure of the court and in the civil
+service; and to the abolition of a great number of costly sinecures. We
+may be able to form some idea of the prodigality which had hitherto wasted
+the revenues of the country, from the circumstance that a single edict
+suppressed above four hundred offices; and Marie Antoinette was so sincere
+in her desire to promote such measures, that she speaks warmly in their
+praise to her mother, even though they greatly curtailed her power of
+gratifying her own favorites.
+
+"The king," she says, "has just issued an edict which is as yet only the
+forerunner of a reform which he designs, to make both in his own household
+and in mine. If it be carried out, it will be a great benefit, not only
+for the economy which it will introduce, but still more for its agreement
+with public opinion, and for the satisfaction it will give the nation." It
+is impossible for any language to show more completely how, above all
+things, she made the good of the country her first object. And she was the
+more inclined to approve of all that was being done in this way from her
+conviction that Necker was both honest and able; an opinion which she
+shared with, if she had not learned it from, her mother and her brother,
+and which was to some extent justified by the comparative order which he
+had re-established in the finance of the country, and by the degree in
+which he had revived public credit. She was not aware that the real
+dangers of the situation had a source deeper than any financial
+difficulty, a fact which Necker himself was unable to comprehend. And she
+could not foresee, when it became necessary to grapple with those dangers,
+how unequal to the struggle the great banker would be found.
+
+It may, perhaps, be inferred that she did suspect Necker of some
+deficiency in the higher qualities of statesmanship when, in the spring of
+1780, she told her mother that "she would give every thing in the world to
+have a Prince Kaunitz in the ministry;[16] but that such men were rare,
+and were only to be found by those who, like the empress herself, had the
+sagacity to discover and the judgment to appreciate such merit." She was,
+however, shutting her eyes to the fact that her husband had had a minister
+far superior to Kaunitz; and that she herself had lent her aid to drive
+him from his service.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+Anglomania in Paris.--The Winter at Versailles.--Hunting.--Private
+Theatricals.--Death of Prince Charles of Lorraine.--Successes of the
+English in America.--Education of the Duc d'Angoulême.--Libelous Attacks
+on the Queen.--Death of the Empress.--Favor shown to some of the Swedish
+Nobles.--The Count de Fersen.--Necker retires from Office.--His Character.
+
+
+It is curious, while the resources of the kingdom were so severely taxed
+to maintain the war against England, of which every succeeding dispatch
+from the seat of war showed more and more the imprudence, to read in
+Mercy's correspondence accounts of the Anglomania, which still subsisted
+in Paris; surpassing that which the letters of the empress describe as
+reigning in Vienna, though it did not show itself now in quite the same
+manner as a year or two before, in the aping of English vices, gambling at
+races, and hard drinking, but rather in a copying of the fashions of men's
+dress; in the introduction of top-boots; and, very wholesomely, in the
+adoption of a country life by many of the great nobles, in imitation of
+the English gentry; so that, for the first time since the coronation of
+Louis XIV., the great territorial lords began to spend a considerable part
+of the year on their estates, and no longer to think the interests and
+requirements of their tenants and dependents beneath their notice.
+
+The winter of 1779 and the spring of 1780 passed very happily. If
+Versailles, from the reasons mentioned above, was not as crowded as in
+former years, it was very lively. The season was unusually mild; the
+hunting was scarcely ever interrupted, and Marie Antoinette, who now made
+it a rule to accompany her husband on every possible occasion, sometimes
+did not return from the hunt till the night was far advanced, and found
+her health much benefited by the habit of spending the greater part of
+even a winter's day in the open air. Her garden, too, which daily occupied
+more and more of her attention, as it increased in beauty, had the same
+tendency; and her anxiety to profit by the experience of others on one
+occasion inflicted a whimsical disappointment of the free-thinkers of the
+court. The profligate and sentimental infidel Rousseau had died a couple
+of years before, and had been buried at Ermenonville, in the park of the
+Count de Girardin. In the course of the summer the queen drove over to
+Ermenonville, and the admirers of the versatile writer flattered
+themselves that her object was to pay a visit of homage to the shrine of
+their idol; but they wore greatly mortified to find that, though his tomb
+was pointed out to her, she took no further notice of it than such as
+consisted of a passing remark that it was very neat, and very prettily
+placed; and that what had attracted her curiosity was the English garden
+which the count had recently laid out at a great expense, and from which
+she had been led to expect that she might derive some hints for the
+further improvement of her own Little Trianon.
+
+She had not yet entirely given up her desire for novelty in her
+amusements; and she began now to establish private theatricals at
+Versailles, choosing light comedies interspersed with song, and with but
+few characters, the male parts being filled by the Count d'Artois and some
+of the most distinguished officers of the household, while she herself
+took one of the female parts; the spectators being confined to the royal
+family and those nobles whose posts entitled them to immediate attendance
+on the king and queen. She was so anxious to perform her own part well,
+though she did not take any of the principal characters, but preferred to
+act the waiting-woman rather than the mistress, that she placed herself
+under the tuition of Michu, a professional actor of reputation from one of
+the Parisian theatres; but, though the audience was far too courtly to
+greet her appearance on the stage without vociferous applause, the
+preponderance of evidence must lead us to believe that her majesty was not
+a good actress.[1] And perhaps we may think that as the parts which she
+selected required rather an arch pertness than the grace and majesty which
+were more natural to her, so, also, they were not altogether in keeping
+with the stately dignity which queens should never wholly lay aside.
+
+It was well, however, that she should have amusements to cheer her, for
+the year was destined to bring her heavy troubles before its close: losses
+in her own family, which would be felt with terrible heaviness by her
+affectionate disposition, were impending over her; while the news from
+America, where the English army at this time was achieving triumphs which
+seemed likely to have a decisive influence on the result of the war,
+caused her great anxiety. How great, a letter which she wrote to her
+mother in July affords a striking proof. In June, when she heard of the
+dangerous illness of her uncle, Prince Charles of Lorraine, now Governor
+of the Low Countries, formerly the gallant antagonist of Frederick of
+Prussia, she declared that "the intelligence overwhelmed her with an
+agitation and grief such as she had never before experienced," and she
+lamented with evidently deep and genuine distress the threatened
+extinction of the male line of the house of Lorraine. But before she wrote
+again, the news of Sir Henry Clinton's exploits in Carolina had arrived,
+and, though almost the same post informed her of the prince's death, the
+sorrow which that bereavement awakened in her mind was scarcely allowed,
+even in its first freshness, an equal share of her lamentations with the
+more absorbing importance of the events of the campaign beyond the
+Atlantic.
+
+"MY DEAREST MOTHER,--I wrote to you the moment that I received the sad
+intelligence of my uncle's death; though, as the Brussels courier had
+already started, I fear my letter may have arrived rather late. I will not
+venture to say more on the subject, lest I should be reopening a sorrow
+for which you have so much cause to grieve.... The capture of
+Charleston[2] is a most disastrous event, both for the facilities it will
+afford the English and for the encouragement which it will give to their
+pride. It is perhaps still more serious because of the miserable defense
+made by the Americans. One can hope nothing from such bad troops."
+
+It is curious to contrast the angry jealousy which she here betrays of our
+disposition and policy as a nation, with the partiality which, as we have
+seen, she showed for the agreeable qualities of individual Englishmen. But
+her uneasiness on this subject led to practical results, by inducing her
+to add her influence to that of a party which was discontented with the
+ministry; and was especially laboring to persuade the king to make a
+change in the War Department, and to dismiss the Prince de Montbarey,
+whose sole recommendation for the office of secretary of state seemed to
+be that he was a friend of the prime minister, and to give his place to
+the Count de Ségur. The change was made, as any change was sure to be made
+in favor of which she personally exerted herself; even the partisans of M.
+de Maurepas himself were forced to allow that the new minister was in
+every respect far superior to his predecessor; and Mercy was desirous that
+she should procure the dismissal of Maurepas also, thinking it of great
+importance to her own comfort that the prime minister should be bound to
+her interests.
+
+But she was far more anxious on other subjects. Nearly two years had now
+elapsed since the birth of the princess royal; and there was as yet no
+prospect of a companion to her, so that the Count d'Artois began to make
+arrangements for the education of his infant son, the Duc d'Angoulême,
+with a premature solicitude, which was evidently designed to point the
+child out to the nation as its future sovereign.[3] The queen was greatly
+annoyed; and, to add to her vexation, one of the teething illnesses to
+which children are subject at this time threw the little princess into
+convulsions, which, to a mother's anxiety, seemed even dangerous to her
+life; though in a day or two that apprehension passed away.
+
+But these hopes of D'Artois and his flatterers again filled the court with
+intrigues. In the course of the summer she was made highly indignant by
+finding that news from the court, with malicious comments, were sent from
+Paris across the frontier to be printed at Deux-Ponts or Düsseldorf, and
+then circulated in Paris and in Vienna; and it was difficult to avoid
+connecting these libels with those who in the palace itself were
+manifestly building hopes on the diminution of her influence and the
+disparagement of her character.
+
+But this and all other vexations were presently thrown into the shade by a
+great grief, the more difficult to bear because it was wholly unexpected
+by her--the death of her mother. In reality, Maria Teresa had been unwell
+for some time; but the suspicions of the serious character of her
+complaint, which she secretly entertained, she had never revealed to Marie
+Antoinette; and at last the end followed too quickly on the first
+appearance of danger to allow time for any preparatory warnings to be
+received at Versailles before the fatal intelligence arrived. On the 24th
+of November she was taken ill in a manner which excited the alarm of her
+physicians, but her family felt no apprehensions. Even on the 27th, the
+emperor felt so sanguine that the cough which seemed her most distressing
+symptom was but temporary, that it was with the greatest unwillingness
+that he consented to her receiving the communion, as the physicians
+recommended; but the next day even he was forced to acquiesce in the
+hopeless view which they took of their patient; and on the 29th she died,
+after having borne sufferings, which for the last three days had been of
+the most painful character, with the same heroism with which, in her
+earlier life, she had struggled against griefs of a different kind.
+
+The dispatch announcing her death was brought to the king; and it is
+characteristic of his timid disposition that he could not nerve himself to
+communicate it to his wife, but suppressed all mention of it during the
+evening; and in the morning summoned the Abbé de Vermond, and employed him
+to break the news to her, reserving for himself the less painful task of
+approaching her with words of affectionate consolation after the first
+shock was over. For a time, however, she was almost overwhelmed with
+sorrow. She attempted to write to her brother, but after a few lines she
+closed the letter, declaring that her tears prevented her from seeing the
+paper; and those about her found that for some time she could bear no
+other topic of conversation than the courage, the wisdom, the greatness of
+her mother, and, above all, her warm affection for herself and for all her
+other children.[4]
+
+With the death of the empress we lose the aid of Mercy's correspondence,
+which has afforded such invaluable service in the light it has thrown on
+the peculiarities of Marie Antoinette's position, and the gradual
+development of her character during the earlier years of her residence in
+France. We shall again obtain light from the same source of almost greater
+importance, when the still more terrible dangers of the Revolution
+rendered the queen more dependent than ever on his counsels. But for the
+next few years we shall be compelled to content ourselves with scantier
+materials than have been furnished by the empress's unceasing interest in
+her daughter's welfare, and the embassador's faithful and candid reports.
+
+The death of Maria Teresa naturally closed the court of her daughter
+against all gayeties during the spring of 1781. Still, one of the taxes
+which princes pay for their grandeur is the force which, at times, they
+are compelled to put upon their inclinations, when they dispense with that
+retirement which their own feelings would render acceptable; and, after a
+few weeks of seclusion, a few guests began to be admitted to the royal
+supper-table, among whom, as a very extraordinary favor, were some Swedish
+nobles;[5] one of whom, the Count de Stedingk, had established a claim to
+the royal favor by serving, with several of his countrymen, as a volunteer
+in the Count d'Estaing's fleet in the West Indies. Such service was highly
+esteemed by both king and queen, since Louis, though he had been
+unwillingly dragged into the war by the ambition of the Count de Vergennes
+and the popular enthusiasm, naturally, when once engaged in it, took as
+vivid an interest in the prowess of his forces as if he had never been
+troubled with any misgivings as to the policy which had set them in
+motion; and Marie Antoinette was at all times excited to enthusiasm by any
+deed of valor, and, as we have seen, took an especial interest in the
+achievements of the navy.
+
+The King of Sweden, the chivalrous Gustavus III., had already made the
+acquaintance of Louis and Marie Antoinette in a short visit which he had
+paid to France the year after their marriage; and the queen now wrote to
+him in warm praise of M. de Stedingk, and all his countrymen who had come
+under her notice, while the king rewarded the count's valor and the wounds
+which had been incurred in its exhibition by an order of knighthood,[6]
+and the more substantial gift of a pension. But the Swede who soon outran
+all his compatriots in the race for the royal favor of both king and queen
+was the Count Axel de Fersen, a descendant, it was believed, of one of the
+Scotch officers of the great Macpherson clan, who, in the stormy times of
+the Thirty Years' War, had sought fame and fortune under the banner of
+Gustavus Adolphus. The beauty of his countess was celebrated throughout
+both Sweden and France, and his own was but little inferior to it. If she
+was known as "The Rose of the North," his name was rarely mentioned
+without the addition of "The handsome." He was a perfect master of all
+noble and knightly accomplishments, and was also distinguished for a
+certain high-souled and romantic[7] enthusiasm, which lent a tinge to all
+his conversation and demeanor; and this combination won for him the marked
+favor of Marie Antoinette. The calumniators, whom the condition and
+prospects of the royal family made more busy than ever at this time,
+insinuated that he had touched her heart; but those who knew best the
+manners of life and characters of both denounced it as the vilest of
+libels. The count's was a loyal attachment, doing nothing but honor to him
+who felt it, and to the queen who inspired it; and it was marked by a
+permanence which distinguishes no devotion but that which is pure and
+noble, as he showed ten years later by the well-planned and courageous,
+though unsuccessful, efforts which he made for the deliverance of the
+queen and all her family.
+
+That Marie Antoinette, who from early youth had shown an intuitive
+accuracy of judgment in her estimate of character, should, from the very
+first, honorably distinguish a man capable of such devotion to her service
+was not unnatural; but there was another circumstance in his favor, which
+he shared with the other foreign nobles, English and German, who in these
+years were well received by the queen. Their disinterestedness presented a
+striking contrast to the rapacity of the French. Every French noble valued
+the court only for what he could obtain from it. Even Madame de Polignac,
+whom the queen specially honored with the title of her friend, exhibited
+an all-grasping covetousness, of which, with all her efforts to shut her
+eyes to it, Marie Antoinette could not be unconscious; and her perception
+of the difference between her French and her foreign courtiers was marked
+by herself in a few words, when the Comte de la Marck, who was himself of
+foreign extraction, ventured once to recommend to her greater caution in
+her display of liking for the foreign nobles, as what might excite the
+jealousy of the French;[8] and she replied that "he might be right, but
+the foreigners were the only people who asked her for nothing."
+
+Meanwhile, the war went on in America; the colonists themselves were
+making but little, if any, progress, and the French contingent were
+certainly reaping no honor, M. de La Fayette, the only officer who came in
+contact with a British force, showing no military skill or capacity, and
+not even much courage. But in the course of the spring France sustained a
+far heavier loss than even the defeat of an army could have inflicted on
+her, in the retirement of Necker from the ministry. As a statesman, he was
+certainly not entitled to any very high rank. He had neither extensive
+knowledge, nor large views, nor firmness; the only project of
+constitutional reform which he had brought forward had been but a
+mutilated and imperfect copy of the system devised by the original and
+statesman-like daring of Turgot. At a subsequent period he proved himself
+incapable of discerning the true character of the circumstances which
+surrounded him, and wholly ignorant of the feelings of the nation, and of
+the principles and objects of those who aspired to take a lead in its
+councils. But as yet his financial policy had undoubtedly been successful.
+He had greatly relieved the general distress, he had maintained the public
+credit, and he had inspired the nation with confidence in itself, and
+other countries also with confidence in its resources; but he had made
+many and powerful enemies by the retrenchments which had been a necessary
+part of his system. As early as the spring of 1780, Mercy had reported to
+the empress that both the king's brothers and the Duc d'Orléans complained
+that some of his measures infringed upon their established rights; that
+the Count d'Artois had had a very stormy discussion with Necker himself,
+and, when he could neither convince nor overbear him, had tried, though
+unsuccessfully, to enlist the queen against him. The count had since
+employed the controller of his own household, M. Boutourlin, to write
+pamphlets against him, and, in point of fact, many of the most elaborate
+details of a financial statement which Necker had recently published were
+very ill-calculated to endure a strict scrutiny; but M. Boutourlin did his
+work so badly that Necker had no difficulty in repelling him, and for a
+moment seemed the stronger for the attack that had been made upon him.
+
+He had been so far right in his estimate of his position that he could
+rely on the support of the queen, who was aware that both her mother and
+her brother had a high opinion of his integrity; but though the king also
+had from time to time given his cordial sanction to his different
+measures, it was not in the nature of Louis to withstand repeated pressure
+and solicitation. Necker, too, himself unintentionally played into the
+hands of his enemies. He had nominally only a subordinate position in the
+ministry. As he was a Protestant, Louis had feared to offend the clergy by
+giving him a seat in the council, or the title of comptroller-general; but
+had conferred that post on M. Taboureau des Reaux, making Necker director
+of the treasury under him. The real management of the exchequer was,
+however, placed wholly in his hands; and, as he was one of the vainest of
+men, he had gradually assumed a tone of importance as if his were the
+paramount influence in the Government; going so far as even to open
+negotiations with foreign statesmen to which none of his colleagues were
+privy.[9] It was not strange that he was not very well satisfied with a
+position which seemed as if it had been contrived in order to keep him out
+of sight, and to deprive him of the credit belonging to his financial
+successes; but hitherto he had been satisfied to bide his time. Now,
+however, his triumph over M. Boutourlin seemed to him so to have
+established his supremacy as to entitle him to insist on a promotion which
+should be a public recognition of his position as the real minister of
+finance, and as entitled to a preponderating voice in all matters of
+general policy. He accordingly demanded admission to the council, and, on
+its being refused, at once resigned his office.
+
+The consternation was universal; the general public had gradually learned
+to place such confidence in him that they looked on his loss as
+irreparable. Some even of the princes who had originally striven to
+prepossess the king against him either changed their minds or feared to
+show their disagreement with the common feeling. And Marie Antoinette, who
+fully shared his views as to the primary importance of finance in all
+questions of government, condescended to admit him to an interview;
+requested him, as a personal favor to herself, to recall his resignation,
+urging upon him that patience would surely in time procure him all that he
+asked; and, in her honest earnestness for the welfare of the nation, wept
+when he withdrew without having yielded to her solicitations. It was late
+in the evening and dark when he took his leave, and afterward, when he was
+told that he had drawn tears from her eyes by his refusal, he said that,
+had he seen them, he should have submitted to a wish so enforced, even at
+the sacrifice of his own comfort and reputation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+The Queen expects to be confined again.--Increasing Unpopularity of the
+King's Brothers.--Birth of the Dauphin.--Festivities.--Deputations from
+the Different Trades.--Songs of the Dames de la Halle.--Ball given by the
+Body-guard.--Unwavering Fidelity of the Regiment.--The Queen offers up her
+Thanksgiving at Notre Dame.--Banquet at the Hôtel de Ville.--Rejoicing in
+Paris.
+
+
+How irreparable his loss was, was shown by the rapid succession of finance
+ministers who, in the course of the next seven years, successively held
+the office of comptroller-general. All were equally incompetent, and under
+their administration, sometimes merely incapable, sometimes combining
+recklessness and corruption with incapacity, the treasury again became
+exhausted, the resources of the nation dwindled away, and the distress of
+all but the wealthiest classes became more and more insupportable. But for
+a time the attention of Marie Antoinette was drawn off from political
+embarrassments by the event which alone seemed wanting to complete her
+personal happiness, and to place her position and popularity on an
+impregnable foundation.
+
+In the spring she discovered that she was again about to become a mother.
+The whole nation expected the result with an intense anxiety. The king's
+brothers were daily becoming more and more deservedly unpopular. The Count
+d'Artois, who as the father of a son, occupied more of the general
+attention than his elder brother, seemed to take pains to parade his
+contempt for the commercial class, and still more for the lower orders,
+and his disapproval of every proposal which had for its object to
+conciliate the traders or to relieve the sufferings of the poor; while the
+Count de Provence openly established a mistress, the Countess de Balbi, at
+the Luxembourg Palace, his residence in the capital, where she presided
+over the receptions which he took upon himself to hold, to the exclusion
+of his lawful princess. The Countess de Provence was not well calculated
+to excite admiration or sympathy, since she was plain and ungracious. But
+Madame de Balbi, whose character had been disgracefully notorious even
+before her connection with the count, was not more attractive in
+appearance or manner than the Savoy princess; and the citizens of Paris,
+who in this instance faithfully represented the feelings of the entire
+nation, did not disguise their anxiety that the child about to be born
+should be a prince, who might extinguish the hopes and projects of both
+his uncles.
+
+Their wishes were gratified. On the morning of the 22d of October the king
+was starting from the palace on a hunting expedition with his brothers,
+when it was announced to him that the queen was taken ill.[1] He at once
+returned to her room, and, mindful of the danger which she had incurred on
+the occasion of the birth of Madame Royale from the greatness and disorder
+of the crowd, he broke through the ancient custom, and ordered that the
+doors should be closed, and that no one should be admitted beyond a very
+small number of the great officers, male and female, of the household. His
+cares were rewarded by a comparatively easy birth; and his anxiety to
+protect his wife from agitation was further shown by a second arrangement,
+which was perhaps hardly so easy to carry out, but which was also
+perfectly successful. As was most natural, the queen and himself fully
+shared the ardent wishes of the nation that the expected child should
+prove an heir to the throne; and he consequently feared that, should it
+not be so, the disappointment might produce an injurious effect on the
+mother's health; or, should their hopes be realized, that the excessive
+joy might be equally dangerous. With a desire, therefore, to avoid
+exposing her to either shock in the first moments of weakness, he forbade
+any announcement of the sex of the child being made to any one but
+himself. The instant that the child was born, he hastened to the bedside
+to judge for himself whether she could bear the news. Presently she came
+to herself; and it seemed to her that the general silence indicated that
+she had become the mother of a second daughter. But she desired to be
+assured of the fact. "See," said she to Louis, "how reasonable I am. I ask
+no questions.[2]" And Louis, who from joy was scarcely able to contain
+himself, seeing her freedom from agitation, thought he might safely reveal
+to her the whole extent of their happiness. He called out, so as to be
+heard by the Princess de Guimenée, who still held the post of governess to
+the royal children, and who had already exhibited the child to the
+witnesses in the antechamber, and was now awaiting his summons at the open
+door, "My lord the dauphin begs to be admitted." The Princess de Guimenée
+brought "my lord the dauphin" to his mother's arms, and for a few minutes
+the small company in the room gazed in respectful silence while the father
+and mother mingled tears of joy with broken words of thanksgiving.
+
+Yet even in this moment of exultation Marie Antoinette could not forget
+her first-born, nor the feelings which had made her rejoice at the birth
+of a daughter, who still had, as it were, no rival in her eyes, because no
+rival claim to her own could be set up with respect to a princess. She
+kissed the long-wished-for infant over and over again; pressed him fondly
+to her heart; and then, after she had perused each feature with anxious
+scrutiny, and pointed out some resemblances, such as mothers see, to his
+father, "Take him," said she, to Madame de Guimenée; "he belongs to the
+State; but my daughter is still mine.[3]"
+
+Presently the chamber was cleared; and in a few minutes the glad tidings
+were carried to every corner of the palace and town of Versailles, and, as
+speedily as expresses could gallop, to the anxious city of Paris. By a
+somewhat whimsical coincidence, the Count de Stedingk, who, from having
+been one of the intended hunting-party, had been admitted into the
+antechamber, rushing down-stairs in his haste to spread the intelligence,
+met the Countess de Provence on the staircase. "It is a dauphin, madame,"
+he cried; "what a happy event!" The countess made him no reply. Nor did
+she or her husband pretend to disguise their mortification. The Count
+d'Artois was a little less open in the display of his discontent, which
+was, however, sufficiently notorious. But, with these exceptions, all
+France, or at least all France sufficiently near the court to feel any
+personal interest in its concerns, was unanimous in its exultation.
+
+As soon as the new-born child was dressed, his father took him in his
+arms, and, carrying him to the window, showed him to the crowd[4] which,
+on the first news of the queen's illness, had thronged the court-yard, and
+was waiting in breathless expectation the result. A rumor had already
+begun to penetrate the throng that the child was a son, and the moment
+that the happy tidings were confirmed, and the infant--their future king,
+as they undoubtingly hailed him--was presented to their view, their joy
+broke forth in such vociferous acclamations that it became necessary to
+silence them by an appeal to them to show consideration for the mother's
+weakness.
+
+For the next three months all was joy and festivity. When the little Duc
+d'Angoulême, now a sprightly boy of six years old, was taken into the
+nursery to see, or, in the court language, to pay his homage to, the heir
+to the throne, he said to his father, as he left the room, "Papa, how
+little my cousin is!" "The day will come, my boy," replied the count,
+"when you will find him quite great enough." And it seemed as if the whole
+nation, and especially the city of Paris, thought no celebration of the
+birth of its future king could be too sumptuous for his greatness. It was
+a real heart-felt joy that was awakened in the people. On the day
+following the birth, chroniclers of the time remarked that no other
+subject was spoken of; that even strangers stopped one another in the
+streets to exchange congratulations.[5]
+
+The different trades and guilds led the way in the expression of these
+loyal felicitations. When his royal highness was a week old, he held a
+grand reception. Deputations from different bodies of artisans, each with
+a band of music at its head, and each carrying some emblem of its
+occupation, marched in a long procession to Versailles. The chimney-sweeps
+bore aloft a chimney entwined with garlands, on the top of which was
+perched one of the smallest of their boys; the chairmen carried a chair
+superbly gilt, on which sat in state a representative of the royal nurse,
+with a child in her arms in royal robes; the butchers drove a fat ox; the
+pastry-cooks bore on a splendid tray a variety of pastry and sweetmeats
+such as might tempt children of a larger growth than the little prince
+they had come to honor; the blacksmiths beat an anvil in time to their
+cheers; the shoe-makers brought a pair of miniature boots; the tailors had
+devoted elaborate and minute pains to the embroidering of a uniform of the
+dauphin's regiment, such as might even now fit its young colonel, if his
+parents would permit him to be attired in it. The crowd was too great to
+be received in even the largest saloon of the palace; but it filled the
+court-yard beneath; and, as the weather was luckily favorable, the dauphin
+was brought to the balcony and displayed to the people, while they greeted
+him with cheers, which were renewed from time to time, even after he had
+been withdrawn, till the shouting seemed as if it would have no end.
+
+One deputation, consisting of members of the fairer sex, received even
+higher honors. Fifty ladies of the fish-market vindicated the
+long-acknowledged claims of their body by forming a separate procession.
+Each dame was dressed in a gown of rich black silk, their established
+court-dress, and nearly every one had diamond ornaments. To them, the
+celebrated antechamber, from the oval window at the end known as the
+Bull's Eye, was opened;[6] and three of their body were admitted even into
+the queen's room, and to the side of the bed. The popular poet La Harpe,
+whom the partiality of Voltaire had designated as the heir of his genius,
+had composed an address, which the spokeswoman of the party had written
+out on the back of her fan, and now read with a sweet voice, which had
+procured her the honor of being so selected,[7] and with very appropriate
+delivery. The queen made a brief but most gracious answer, and then, on
+their retirement, the whole company, with a train of fish-women of the
+lower class, was entertained at a grand banquet, which they enlivened with
+songs composed for the occasion. One of them so hit the fancy of the king
+and queen that they quoted it more than once in their letters to their
+correspondents, and Marie Antoinette even sung it occasionally to her
+harp:
+
+  "Ne craignez pas,
+  Cher papa,
+  D' voir augmenter vot' famille,
+  Le Bon Dieu z'y pourvoira:
+  Fait's en tant qu' Versailles en fourmille
+  Y eut-il cent Bourbons chez nous,
+  Y a du pain, du laurier pour tous."
+
+The body-guard celebrated the auspicious event by giving a grand ball in
+the concert-room of the palace to the queen on her recovery; it was
+attended by the whole court, and Marie Antoinette opened it herself,
+dancing a minuet with one of the troop, whom his comrades had selected for
+the honor, and whom the king promoted, as a memorial of the occasion and
+as a testimony of his approval of the loyalty of that gallant regiment.
+
+Amidst all the troubles of later years, the fidelity of those noble troops
+never wavered. They had even in one hour of terrible danger the honor, in
+the same palace, of saving the life of their queen. But it is a melancholy
+proof of the fleeting character and instability of popular favor which is
+supplied by the recollection that these very artisans who were now so
+vociferous, and undoubtedly at this moment so sincere in their profession
+of loyalty, were afterward her foul and ferocious enemies. And yet between
+1781 and 1789 there had been no change in the character or conduct of the
+king and queen, or rather, it may be said, the intervening years had been
+a period during which a countless series of acts of beneficence had
+displayed their unceasing affection for their subjects.
+
+The festivities were crowned in the most appropriate manner by a public
+thanksgiving, offered by the queen herself to Heaven for the gift of a
+son, and for her own recovery. But that celebration was necessarily
+postponed till her strength was entirely re-established; and it was not
+till the 21st of January that the physicians would allow her to encounter
+the excitement of so interesting but fatiguing a day. The court had quit
+Versailles for La Muette the day before, to be nearer the city; and on the
+appointed morning, which the watchers for omens delightedly remarked as
+one of midsummer brilliancy,[8] the most superb procession that even Paris
+had ever witnessed issued from the gates of the old hunting-lodge, whose
+earlier occupants had been animated by a very different spirit.[9]
+
+That the honors of the day might be wholly the queen's, Louis himself did
+not accompany her, but followed her three hours later, to meet her at the
+Hôtel de Ville. Nineteen coaches, glittering with burnished gold, and
+every panel of which was embellished with crowns, wreaths, or allegorical
+pictures, marching on at a stately walk toward the city gate, conveyed the
+queen, radiant with beauty and happiness, the sisters and aunts of the
+king, the long train of her and their ladies, and all the great officers
+of her household. Squadrons of the body-guard furnished the escort, riding
+in front of the queen's carriage and behind it, but not on either side,
+she herself having forbidden any arrangement which might intercept the
+full sight of herself from a single citizen. Companies of other regiments
+awaited the procession at different points, and closed up behind it as it
+passed, swelling the vast train which thus grew at every step. An
+additional escort, almost an army in itself, in double rank, lined the
+whole road from the barrier of the Champs Élysées of the great cathedral;
+and, as the royal coach passed through the city gate, a herald proclaimed
+that "The king wishing to consecrate by fresh acts of kindness the happy
+moment when God showered his mercies on him by the birth of a dauphin, and
+at the same time to give to the inhabitants of his good city of Paris some
+special mark of his beneficence, granted an exemption from the poll-tax to
+all the burgesses, traders, and artisans who were not in such
+circumstances as made the payment easy."
+
+The proclamation was received with all the thankfulness of surprise; the
+cheers, which had never censed from the moment that the procession first
+came in sight, were redoubled, and it was amidst shouts of congratulation
+both to themselves and to her that the queen proceeded onward to Notre
+Dame. Having paid her vows and made her offerings in the cathedral of the
+nation, she passed on to the Church of Ste. Geneviève, the especial
+patroness of the city, and repeated her thanksgiving before the tomb of
+Clovis, the founder of the monarchy. At the Hôtel de Ville she was met by
+the king, with the princess, his brothers, the great officers of his
+household, and the ministers; and there (after having first come forward
+on the balcony to afford the multitude, who completely filled the vast
+square in front of the building, a sight of their sovereigns), the royal
+pair, sitting side by side, presided at a banquet of unsurpassed
+magnificence and luxury. In compliance with the strictest laws of the old
+etiquette, none but ladies were admitted to the king's table, but other
+tables were provided for the male guests. The most renowned musicians
+performed the sweetest airs, but the melodies of Gluck and Grétry were
+drowned in the cheers of the multitude outside, who thus relieved their
+impatience for the re-appearance of their queen.
+
+The banquet was succeeded by a grand reception, with its singular but
+invariable accompaniment of a gaming-table,[10] and the whole was
+concluded by a grand illumination and display of fireworks, in which the
+pyrotechnists had exhausted their allegorical ingenuity. A Temple of Hymen
+occupied the centre, and the God of Marriage--never, so far as present
+appearances indicated, more auspiciously employed--presented to France the
+precious infant who was the most recent fruit of his favor; while the
+flame upon his altar, which never had burned with a brighter light, was
+fed by the thank-offerings of the whole French people. As each new feature
+of the display burst upon their eyes, the acclamations of the populace
+redoubled, and their enthusiasm was kindled to the utmost pitch when Louis
+and Marie Antoinette descended the stairs, and, arm-in-arm, walked out
+among the crowd, ostensibly to see the illuminations from the different
+points which presented the most imposing spectacle; but really, as the
+citizens perceived, to show their sympathy with the joy of the people by
+mingling with the multitude, and thus allowing all to approach and even to
+accost them; while they, and especially the queen, replied to every loyal
+cheer or homely word of congratulation by a cordial smile or expression of
+approval or thanks, which long dwelt in the memory of those to whom they
+were addressed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+Madame de Guimenée resigns the Office of Governess of the Royal Children.
+--Madame de Polignac succeeds her.--Marie Antoinette's Views of
+Education.--Character of Madame Royale.--The Grand Duke Paul and his Grand
+Duchess visit the French Court.--Their Characters.--Entertainments given
+in their Honor.--Insolence of the Cardinal de Rohan.--His Character and
+previous Life.--Grand Festivities at Chantilly.--Events of the War.--
+Rodney defeats de Grasse.--The Siege of Gilbralter fails.--M. de Suffrein
+fights five Drawn Battles with Sir E. Hughes in the Indian Seas.--The
+Queen receives him with great Honor on his Return.
+
+
+The post of governess to the royal children was one which was conferred
+for life, and did not even cease on the accession of a new sovereign, and
+the birth of a new royal family. Madame de Guimenée, therefore, having
+been appointed to that office on the birth of the first child of the late
+dauphin, the father of Louis XVI., still retained it, and on the birth of
+Madame Royale transferred her services to that princess. The arrangement
+had been far from acceptable to Marie Antoinette, who had no great liking
+for the lady, though, with her habitual kindness of disposition, she had
+accepted her attentions, and had often condescended to appear as a guest
+at her evening parties, taking only the precaution of ascertaining
+beforehand whom she was likely to meet there.[1] But, in the spring of
+1782, the Prince de Guimenée became involved in pecuniary difficulties
+that compelled him to retire from the court, and his princess to resign
+her appointment, which Marie Antoinette at once bestowed on Madame de
+Polignac. Her attachment to that lady affords a striking exemplification
+of one feature in her character, a steady adherence to friendships once
+formed, which can never be otherwise than amiable, even when, as it may be
+thought was the case in this and one or two other instances, she carried
+it to excess; for she could hardly fail to be aware that Madame de
+Polignac was most unpopular with all classes, and that her unpopularity
+was not undeserved. She was covetous for herself, and she had a number of
+relations, equally rapacious, who regarded her court favor solely as a
+means of enriching the whole family. She had procured a valuable reversion
+for her husband; and subsequently the rare favor of an hereditary dukedom;
+and it was characteristic of her disposition that she might have attained
+the rank of duchess for herself at an earlier date, but that she preferred
+to it the chance of other favors of a more practically useful nature; nor
+was it till she had received such sums of money that nothing more could
+well be asked, that she turned her ambition to titles, and to the
+much-coveted dignity of a stool to sit upon in the presence of royalty.[2]
+
+But the more people spoke ill of her, the more the queen protected her;
+and if she received the resignation of Madame de Guimenée with pleasure,
+much of her joy seemed to be owing to the opportunity which it afforded
+her of promoting the new duchess to the vacant place, while Madame de
+Polignac had even the address to persuade her that she accepted the post
+unwillingly, and, in undertaking it, was making a sacrifice to loyalty and
+friendship. But if the queen was duped on that point, she was not deceived
+on others. She knew that the duchess had no qualifications for the office;
+that she was neither clever nor accomplished. But her absence of any
+special qualifications was, in fact, her best recommendation in the eyes
+of her patroness; for Marie Antoinette had high ideas of the duty which a
+mother owes to her children. She thought herself bound to take upon
+herself the real superintendence of their education, and, having this
+view, she preferred a governess who would be content that her children's
+minds should receive their color from herself. Her own idea of education,
+as we shall see it hereafter described by herself,[3] was that example was
+more powerful than precept, and that love was a better teacher than fear;
+and, acting on this principle, from the moment that her little daughter
+was old enough to comprehend her intentions and wishes, she began to make
+her her companion; abandoning, or at least relaxing, her pursuit of other
+pleasures for that which was now her chief delight, as well as in her eyes
+her chief duty--the task of watching over the early promise, the opening
+talents and virtues of those who were destined, as she hoped, to have a
+predominant influence on the future welfare of the nation. Especially she
+made a rule of taking the little princess with her on the different
+errands of humanity and benevolence, which, wherever she might be, and
+more particularly while she was at Versailles, formed an almost habitual
+part of her occupations. She saw that much of the distress which now
+seemed to be the normal condition of the humbler classes, and much of the
+discontent, which was felt by all classes but the highest, were caused by
+the pride of the princes and nobles, who, in France, drew a far more
+rigorous and unbending line of demarkation between themselves and their
+inferiors than prevailed in other countries; and she desired from their
+earliest infancy to imbue her children with a different principle, and to
+teach them by her own example that none could be so lowly as to be beneath
+the notice even of a sovereign; and that, on the contrary, the greater the
+depression of the poor, the greater claim did it give them on the
+solicitude and protection of their princes and rulers.
+
+Nor were these lessons, which even worldly policy might have dictated, the
+only ones which she sought to inculcate on the little princess before the
+more exciting pursuits of society should have rendered her less
+susceptible to good impressions. Unfriendly as her husband's aunts had
+always been to herself, and little as there was that was really amiable in
+their characters, there was yet one, the Princess Louise, the Nun of St.
+Denis, whose renunciation of the world seemed to point her out to her
+family as a model of holiness and devotion; and as, above all things,
+Marie Antoinette desired to inspire her little daughter with a deep sense
+of religious obligation, she soon began to take her with her in all her
+visits to the convent, and to encourage her to converse with the other
+Sisters of the house. Nor did she abandon the practice even when it was
+suggested to her that such an intercourse with those who were notoriously
+always on the watch to attract recruits of rank or consideration, might
+have the result of inclining the child to follow her great-aunt's example;
+and perhaps, by renouncing the world, to counteract plans which her
+parents might have preferred for her establishment in life. Marie
+Antoinette declared that should the princess express such a desire, far
+from being annoyed, "she should feel flattered by it;[4]" she would, it
+may be presumed, have regarded it as a convincing testimony of the
+soundness of her own system of education, and of the purity of the
+instruction which she had given.
+
+But such was not to be the destiny of her whose life at this moment seemed
+to beam with prospects of happiness which it would have been cruel to
+allow her to exchange for the gloom of a convent, though, even before she
+arrived at womanhood, the most austere seclusion of such an abode would
+have seemed a welcome asylum from dangers yet undreamed of. Her destiny
+was indeed to be one of trials and afflictions even to the end; trials
+very different in their kind from those which the gates of the Carmelite
+sisterhood would have opened to her. But her mother's early lessons of
+humility and piety, and still more her mother's virtuous and heroic
+example, never ceased to bear their fruit in their influence on her
+character, amidst all the vicissitudes of fortune. The unhappy
+daughter,[5] as she was styled by the faithful and eloquent champion of
+her race, lived to win the respect even of its enemies,[6] supplying, at
+more than one critical moment, a courage and decision of which her male
+relatives were destitute; and, in the second and final ruin of her house,
+her fortitude and resignation still commanded the loyal adherence of a
+large party among her countrymen, and the esteem of foreign statesmen, who
+gladly recognized in her no small portion of the nobility of her female
+ancestors.
+
+In the spring of 1782 the attention of the Parisians was occupied for a
+while by the arrival of two visitors from a nation which as yet had sent
+forth but few of its sons to mingle in society with those of other
+countries. The Grand Duke of Russia, who had indeed been its rightful
+emperor ever since the murder of his father twenty years before, but who
+had been compelled to postpone his claims to those of his ambitious and
+unscrupulous mother, Catherine II., had conceived a desire so far to
+imitate the example of his great ancestor, the founder of the Russian
+empire, Peter the Great, as to make a personal investigation of the
+manners of other people besides his own. To use the language in which the
+empress communicated to Louis XVI. her son's wish to pay him a visit, he
+sought, in the first instance, "to take lessons in courtesy and nobility
+from the most elegant court in the world." And as Louis had responded with
+a cordial invitation to Versailles, at the end of May he, with his grand
+duchess, a princess of Würtemberg, arrived at the palace.
+
+Paul had not as yet given any indications of the brutal and ferocious
+disposition which distinguished him in his later years, till it gradually
+developed into a savage insanity which neither his nobles nor even his
+sons could endure. He appeared rather a young man of frank and open
+temper, somewhat more unguarded in his language, especially concerning his
+own affairs and position, than was quite prudent or becoming; but kind in
+intention, sometimes even courteous in manner, shrewd in discerning what
+things and what persons were most worthy of his notice, and showing no
+deficiency of judgment in the observations which he made upon them. The
+grand duchess, however, was generally regarded as greatly superior to her
+husband in every respect. He was almost repulsive in his ugliness. She was
+extremely handsome in feature, though disfigured by a stoutness
+extraordinary in one so young. She had also a high reputation for
+accomplishments and general ability, though that too was disguised by a
+coldness or ungraciousness of manner that gave strangers a disagreeable
+impression of her; which, however, a more intimate acquaintance greatly
+removed.
+
+Their characters had preceded them, and Marie Antoinette, for perhaps the
+first time in her life, felt very uneasy as to her own power of receiving
+them with the dignity which became both her and them. As she afterward
+explained her feelings to Madame de Campan, "she found the part of a
+queen much move difficult to play in the presence of other sovereigns, or
+of princes who were born to become sovereigns, than before ordinary
+courtiers.[7]" She even fortified her courage before dinner with a glass
+of water, and the medicine proved effectual. Even if it cost her an effort
+to preserve her habitual gayety, her difficulty was unperceived, and
+indeed, after the few first moments, ceased to be a difficulty. Paul
+himself cared but little for female attractions or graces; but the
+archduchess was charmed with her union of liveliness and dignity, which
+surpassed all her previous experiences of courts; and one of her ladies,
+Madame d'Oberkirch, who has left behind her some memoirs, to which all
+succeeding writers have been indebted for many particulars of this visit,
+could scarcely find words to describe the impression the queen's beauty
+had made upon her and all her fellow-travelers. "The queen was marvelously
+beautiful; she fascinated every eye. It was absolutely impossible for any
+one to display a greater grace and nobility of demeanor.[8]" Madame
+d'Oberkirch, like herself, was German by birth; and Marie Antoinette
+begged her to speak German to her, that she might refresh her recollection
+of her native language; but she found that she had almost forgotten it.
+"Ah," said she, "German is a fine language; but French, in the mouths of
+my children, seems to me the finest language in the world." And in the
+same spirit of entire adoption of French feelings, and even of French
+prejudices, she declared to the baroness that though the Rhine and the
+Danube were both noble rivers, the Seine was so much more beautiful that
+it had made her forget them both.
+
+But her preference for every thing French did not make her neglect the
+duties of hospitality to her foreign visitors; she wished rather that they
+should carry with them as fixed an idea as she herself entertained of the
+superiority of France to their own country, in this as in every other
+particular. And she gave two magnificent entertainments in their honor at
+the Little Trianon, displaying the beauties of her garden by day, and also
+by night, by an illumination of extraordinary splendor. They were highly
+delighted with the beauty and the novelty of a scene such as they had
+never before witnessed; but her pleasure was in a great degree marred by
+the indecent boldness of one whose sacred profession, as well as his
+ancient lineage, ought to have restrained him from such misconduct, though
+it was but too completely in harmony with his previous life. Prince Louis
+de Rohan was a descendant of the great Duke de Sully, and a member of a
+family which, during the last reign, had possessed an influence at court
+which was surpassed by that of no other house among the French nobles.[9]
+He himself had reaped the full advantage of its interest. As we have
+already seen, he had been coadjutor of Strasburg when Marie Antoinette
+passed through that city on her way to France in 1770. He had subsequently
+been promoted to the rank of cardinal; and, though he was notoriously
+devoid of capacity, yet through the influence of his relations, and that
+of Madame du Barri, with whom they maintained an intimate connection, he
+had obtained the post of embassador to the court of Vienna, where he had
+made himself conspicuous for every species of disorder. His whole life in
+the Austrian capital had been a round of shameless profligacy and
+extravagance. The conduct of the inferior members of the embassy,
+stimulated by his example, and protected by his official character, had
+been equally scandalous, till at last Maria Teresa had felt herself bound,
+in justice to her subjects, to insist on his recall. The moment that he
+became aware that his position was in danger, he began to write abusive
+letters against the Empress-queen, and to circulate libels at Vienna
+against both her and Marie Antoinette, on whom he openly threatened to
+avenge himself, if his pleasures or his prospects should in any way be
+interfered with.[10]
+
+Since his return to France he had had the address to conciliate Maurepas,
+who, adding the authority of his ministerial office to the solicitations
+of the cardinal's sister, Madame de Marsan, had succeeded in wringing from
+the unwilling king his appointment to the honorable and lucrative
+preferment of grand almoner. But even that post, though it made him one of
+the great officers of the court, did not weaken his desire to annoy the
+queen, for having, as he believed, used her influence to deprive him of
+his embassy, and for having by her marked coldness since his return from
+Vienna, showed her disapproval of his profligate character, and of his
+insolence to her mother.
+
+And, unhappily, there were not wanting persons base enough to co-operate
+with him, generally discredited as he was, as instruments of their own
+secret malice. The birth of the dauphin had been a fatal blow to the hopes
+which had been founded on the possible succession of the king's brothers;
+and from this time forth the whisperers of detraction and calumny were
+more than ever busy, sometimes venturing to forge her handwriting, and
+sometimes daring, with still fouler audacity, to invent stories designed
+to tarnish her reputation by throwing doubts on her conjugal fidelity. At
+such a moment the presence of such a man as the cardinal on the stage was
+an evil omen. His audacity, it seemed, could hardly be purposeless, and
+his purpose could not be innocent.
+
+He had been most anxious to obtain admission to one of the entertainments
+which the queen gave to the Russian princes; and, when he was
+disappointed, he had the silly audacity to bribe the porter of the Trianon
+to admit him into the garden, where, as the royal party passed down the
+different walks, he thrust himself ostentatiously at different points into
+their sight, professing to disguise himself by throwing a mantle over his
+shoulders, but taking care that his scarlet stockings should prevent any
+uncertainty from being felt as to his identity. That he should have
+presumed to intrude into the queen's presence in her own palace without
+permission was in itself an insult; but those behind the scenes believed
+that he had a deeper design, and that he wished to diffuse a belief that
+Marie Antoinette secretly regarded him with a favor which she was
+unwilling to show openly, and that he had not obtained admission to her
+garden without her connivance.
+
+The princes of the blood, too, the Prince de Condé and the Duke de
+Bourbon, invited Paul and his archduchess to an entertainment at
+Chantilly, which far surpassed in splendor the display at Trianon. But the
+queen was willing, on such an occasion, to be eclipsed by her subjects.
+"The princes," she said, "might well give festivities of vast cost,
+because they defrayed the charges out of their private revenues; but the
+expenses of entertainments given by the king or by herself fell on the
+national treasury, of which they were bound to be the guardians in the
+interest of the poor tax-payers."
+
+Not that, in all probability, Paul and his archduchess noticed the
+inferiority. Court festivities at St. Petersburg were as yet neither
+numerous nor magnificent, and they soon showed themselves so wearied with
+the round of gayety which had been forced upon them, that some of the
+diversions which had been projected at other royal palaces besides
+Versailles were given up to avoid distressing them.[11] The sight which
+pleased them most was the play, to which, at their own special request,
+the queen accompanied them, and where they were greatly struck by the
+magnificence of the theatre and every thing connected with the
+performance, as well as with the reception which the audience gave the
+queen. Much as they had admired what they had seen, it was her grace and
+kind solicitude for their gratification which made the greatest impression
+on them; and the archduchess kept up a correspondence with her during the
+rest of their travels, especially dwelling on the scenes which pleased her
+most in Germany, and on the persons she met who were known to and regarded
+by the queen.
+
+Political affairs were at this time causing Marie Antoinette great
+anxiety. One of her most frequently expressed wishes had been that the
+French fleet should have an opportunity of engaging that of England in a
+pitched battle, when the judicious care which M. de Sartines had bestowed
+on the marine would be seen to bear its fruit. But when the battle did
+take place, the result was such as to confound instead of justifying her
+patriotic expectations. In April, the English Admiral Rodney inflicted on
+the Count de Grasse a crushing defeat off the coast of Jamaica. In
+September, the combined forces of France and Spain were beaten off with
+still heavier loss from the impregnable fortress of Gibraltar; and the
+only region in which a French admiral escaped disaster was the Indian Sea,
+where the Bailli de Suffrein, an officer of rare energy and ability,
+encountered the British admiral, Sir Edward Hughes, in a series of severe
+actions, and, except on one occasion in which he lost a few transports,
+never permitted his antagonist to claim any advantage over him; the single
+loss which he sustained in his first combat being more than
+counterbalanced by his success on land, where, by the aid of Hyder Ali's
+son, the celebrated Tippoo, be made himself master of Cuddalore; and then,
+dropping down to the Cingalese coast, recaptured Trincomalee, the conquest
+of which had been one of Hughes's most recent achievements.[12] The queen
+felt the reverses keenly. She even curtailed some of her own expenses in
+order to contribute to the building of new ships to replace those which
+had been lost; and she received M. de Suffrein, on his return from India
+at the conclusion of the war, with the most sincere and marked
+congratulations. She invited him to the palace, and, when he arrived, she
+caused Madame de Polignac to bring both her children into the room. "My
+children," said she, "and especially you, my son, know that this M. de
+Suffrein. We are all under the greatest obligations to him. Look well at
+him, and ever remember his name. It is one of the first that all my
+children must learn to pronounce, and one which they must never
+forgot.[13]"
+
+She was acting up to her mother's example, than whom no sovereign had
+better known how to give their due honor to bravery and loyalty. Such a
+queen deserved to have faithful friends; and Suffrein was a man who, had
+his life been spared, might, like the Marquis de Bouillé, have shown that
+even in France the feelings of chivalry and devotion to kings and ladies
+were not yet extinguished. But he died before either his country or his
+queen had again need of his services, or before he had any opportunity of
+proving by fresh achievements his gratitude to a sovereign who knew so
+well how to appreciate and to honor merit.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+Peace is re-established.--Embarrassments of the Ministry.--Distress of the
+Kingdom.--M. de Calonne becomes Finance Minister.--The Winter of 1783-'84
+is very Severe.--The Queen devotes Large Sums to Charity.--Her Political
+Influence increases--Correspondence between the Emperor and her on
+European Politics.--The State of France.--The Baron de Breteuil.--Her
+Description of the Character of the King.
+
+
+The conclusion of peace between France and England was one of the earliest
+events of the year 1783, but it brought no strength to the ministry; or,
+rather, it placed its weakness in a more conspicuous light. Maurepas had
+died at the end of 1781, and, since his death, the Count de Vergennes had
+been the chief adviser of the king; but his attention was almost
+exclusively directed to the conduct of the diplomacy of the kingdom, and
+to its foreign affairs, and he made no pretensions to financial knowledge.
+Unluckily the professed ministers of finance, Joly de Fleury and his
+successor, D'Ormesson, were as ignorant of that great subject as himself,
+and, within two years after Necker's retirement, their mismanagement had
+brought the kingdom to the very verge of bankruptcy. D'Ormesson was
+dismissed, and for many days it was anxiously deliberated in the palace by
+whom he should be replaced. Some proposed that Necker should he recalled,
+but the king had felt himself personally offended by some circumstances
+which had attended the resignation of that minister two years before. The
+queen inclined to favor the pretensions of Loménie de Brienne, Archbishop
+of Toulouse; not because he had any official experience, but because
+fifteen years before he had recommended the Abbé de Vermond to Maria
+Teresa; and the abbé, seeing in the present embarrassment an opportunity
+of repaying the obligation, now spoke highly to her of the archbishop's
+talents. But Madame de Polignac and her party persuaded her majesty to
+acquiesce in the appointment of M. de Calonne, a man who, like Turgot, had
+already distinguished himself as intendant of a province, though he had
+not inspired those who watched his career with as high an opinion of his
+uprightness as of his talents. He had also secured the support of the
+Count d'Artois by promising to pay his debts; and Louis himself was won to
+think well of him by the confidence which he expressed in his own capacity
+to grapple with the existing, or even with still greater difficulties.
+
+Nor, indeed, had he been possessed of steadiness, prudence, and principle,
+was he very unfit for such a post at such a time. For he was very fertile
+in resources, and well-endowed with both physical and moral courage; but
+these faculties were combined with, were indeed the parents of, a
+mischievous defect. He had such reliance on his own ingenuity and ability
+to deal with each difficulty or danger as it should arise, that he was
+indifferent to precautions which might prevent it from arising. The spirit
+in which he took office was exemplified in one of his first speeches to
+the queen. Knowing that he was not the minister whom she would have
+preferred, he made it his especial business to win her confidence; and he
+had not been long installed in office when she expressed to him her wish
+that he would find means of accomplishing some object which she desired to
+promote. "Madame," was his courtly reply, "if it is possible, it is done
+already. If it is impossible, I will take care and manage it." But being
+very unscrupulous himself, he overshot his mark when he sought to
+propitiate her further by offering to represent as hers acts of charity
+which she had not performed. The winter of 1783 was one of unusual
+severity. The thermometer at Paris was, for some weeks, scarcely above
+zero; scarcity, with its inevitable companion, clearness of price, reduced
+the poor of the northern provinces, and especially of the capital and its
+neighborhood, to the verge of starvation. The king, queen, and princesses
+gave large sums from their privy purses for their relief; but as such
+supplies were manifestly inadequate, Louis ordered the minister to draw
+three millions of francs from the treasury, and to apply them for the
+alleviation of the universal distress. Calonne cheerfully received and
+executed the beneficent command. He was perhaps not sorry, at his first
+entrance on his duties, to show how easy it was for him to meet even an
+unforeseen demand of so heavy an amount; and he fancied he saw in it a
+means of ingratiating himself with Marie Antoinette. He proposed to her
+that he should pay one of the millions to her treasurer, that that officer
+might distribute it, in her name, as a gift from her own allowance; but
+Marie Antoinette disdained such unworthy artifice. She would have felt
+ashamed to receive praise or gratitude to which she was not entitled. She
+rejected the proposal, insisting that the king's gift should be attributed
+to himself alone, and expressing her intention to add to it by curtailing
+her personal expenditure, by abridging her entertainments so long as the
+distress should last, and by dedicating the sums usually appropriated to
+pleasure and festivity to the relief of those whose very existence seemed
+to depend on the aid which it was her duty and that of the king to
+furnish. For there was this especial characteristic in Marie Antoinette's
+charity, that it did not proceed solely from kindness of heart and
+tenderness of disposition, though these were never wanting, but also from
+a settled principle of duty, which, in her opinion, imposed upon
+sovereigns, as a primary obligation, the task of watching over the welfare
+of their subjects as persons intrusted by Providence to their care; and
+such a feeling was obviously more to be depended upon as a constant motive
+for action than the most vivid emotion of the moment, which, if easily
+excited, is not unfrequently as easily overpowered by some fresh object.
+
+Meanwhile events were gradually compelling her to take a more active part
+in politics. Maurepas had been jealous of her influence, and, while that
+old minister lived, Louis, who from his childhood had been accustomed to
+see him in office, committed almost every thing to his guidance. But, as
+he always required some one of stronger mind than himself to lean upon, as
+soon as Maurepas was gone he turned to the queen. It was to her that he
+now chiefly confided his anxieties and perplexities; from her that he
+sought counsel and strength; and the ministers naturally came to regard
+her as the real ruler of the State. Accordingly, we find from her
+correspondence of this period that even such matters as the appointment of
+the embassadors to foreign states were often referred to her decision; and
+how greatly the habit of considering affairs of importance expanded her
+capacity we may learn from the opinion which her brother, the emperor, who
+was never disposed to flatter, or even to spare her, had evidently come to
+entertain of her judgment. In one long letter, written in September of the
+year 1783, he discussed with her the attitude which France had assumed
+toward Austria ever since the dismissal of Choiseul; the willingness of
+her ministers to listen to Prussian calumnies; the encouragement which
+they had given to the opposition in the empire; and their obsequiousness
+to Prussia; while Austria had not retaliated, as she had had many
+opportunities of doing, by any complaisance toward England, though the
+English statesmen had made many advances toward her. It is a curious
+instance of fears being realized in a sense very different from that which
+troubled the writer at the moment, that among the acts of France of which,
+had he been inclined to be captious, he might justly have complained, he
+enumerates her recent acquisition of Corsica, as one which, "for a number
+of reasons, might be very prejudicial to the possessions of the house of
+Austria and its branches in Italy." It did indeed prove an acquisition
+which largely influenced the future history, not only of Austria, but of
+the whole world, when the little island, which hitherto had been but a
+hot-bed of disorder, and a battle-field of faction burdensome to its
+Genoese masters, gave a general to the armies of France whose most
+brilliant exploits were a succession of triumphs over the Austrian
+commanders in every part of the emperor's dominion. His letter concludes
+with warnings drawn from the present condition and views of the different
+states of Europe, and especially of France, whose "finances and resources,
+to speak with moderation, have been greatly strained" in the recent war;
+embracing in their scope even the designs of Russia on the independence of
+Turkey; and with a request that his sister would inform him frankly what
+he is to believe as to the opinions of the king; and in what light he is
+to regard the recent letters of Vergennes, which, to his apprehension,
+show an indifference to the maintenance of the alliance between the two
+countries.[1]
+
+It is altogether a letter such as might pass between statesmen, and proves
+clearly that Joseph regarded his sister now as one fully capable of taking
+large views of the situation of both countries. And her answer shows that
+she fully enters into all the different questions which he has raised,
+though it also shows that she is guided by her heart as well as by her
+judgment; still looks on the continuance of the friendship between her
+native and her adopted country as essential not only to her comfort, but
+even in some degree to her honor, and also that on that account she is
+desirous at times of exerting a greater influence than is always allowed
+her.
+
+"Versailles, September 29th, 1783.
+
+"Shall I tell you, my dear brother, that your letter has delighted me by
+its energy and nobleness of thought and why should I not tell you so? I am
+sure that you will never confound your sister and your friend with the
+tricks and manoeuvres of politicians.
+
+"I have read your letter to the king. You may be sure that it, like all
+your other letters, shall never go out of my hands. The king was struck
+with many of your reflections, and has even corroborated them himself.
+
+"He has said to me that he both desired and hoped always to maintain a
+friendship and a good understanding with the empire; but yet that it was
+impossible to answer for it that the difference of interests might not at
+times lead to a difference in the way of looking at and judging of
+affairs. This idea appeared to me to come from himself alone, and from the
+distrust with which people have been inspiring him for a long time. For,
+when I spoke to him, I believe it to be certain that he had not seen M. de
+Vergennes since the arrival of your courier. M. de Mercy will have
+reported to you the quietness and gentleness with which this minister has
+spoken to him. I have had occasion to see that the heads of the other
+ministers, which were a little heated, have since cooled again. I trust,
+that this quiet spirit will last, and in that case the firmness of your
+reply ought to lead to the rudeness of style which the people here adopted
+being forgotten. You know the ground and the characters, so you can not be
+surprised if the king sometimes allows answers to pass which he would not
+have given of his own accord.
+
+"My health, considering my present condition,[2] is perfect. I had a
+slight accident after my last letter; but it produced no bad consequences:
+it only made a little more care necessary. Accordingly I shall go from
+Choisy to Fontainebleau by water. My children are quite well. My boy will
+spend his time at La Muette while we are absent. It is just a piece of
+stupidity of the doctors, who do not like him to take so long a journey at
+his age, though he has two teeth and is very strong. I should be perfectly
+happy if I were but assured of the general tranquillity, and, above all,
+of the happiness of my much-loved brother, whom I love with all my
+heart.[3]"
+
+Another letter, written three months later, explains to the emperor the
+object of some of the new arrangements which Calonne had introduced,
+having for one object, among others, the facilitation of a commercial
+intercourse, especially in tobacco, with the United States. She hopes that
+another consequence of them will be the abolition of the whole system of
+farmers-general of the revenue; and she explains to him both the
+advantages of such a measure, and at the same time the difficulties of
+carrying it out immediately after so costly a war, since it would involve
+the instant repayment of large sums to the farmers, with all the clearness
+of a practiced financier. She mentions also the appointment of the Baron
+de Breteuil as the new minister of the king's household,[4] and her
+estimate of his character is rendered important by his promotion, six
+years later, to the post of prime minister. The emperor also had ample
+means of judging of it himself, since the baron had succeeded the Cardinal
+de Rohan as embassador at Vienna. "I think, with you, that he requires to
+be kept within bounds; and he will be so more than other ministers by the
+nature of his office, which is very limited, and entirely under the eyes
+of the king and of his colleagues, who will be glad of any opportunities
+of mortifying his vanity. However, his activity will be very useful in a
+thousand details of a department which has been neglected and badly
+managed for the last sixty years." And though it is a slight anticipation
+of the order of our narrative, it will not be inconvenient to give here
+some extracts from a third letter to the same brother, written in the
+autumn of the following year, in which she describes the king's character,
+and points out the difficulties which it often interposes to her desire of
+influencing his views and measures.
+
+It may perhaps be thought that she unconsciously underrates her influence
+over her husband, though there can be no doubt that he was one of those
+men whom it is hardest to manage; wholly without self-reliance, yet with a
+scrupulous wish to do right that made him distrustful of others, even, of
+those whose advice he sought, or whose judgment he most highly valued.
+
+"September 22d, 1784.
+
+"I will not contradict you, my dear brother, on what you say about the
+short-sightedness of our ministry. I have long ago made some of the
+reflections which you express in your letter. I have spoken on the subject
+more than once to the king; but one must know him thoroughly to be able to
+judge of the extent to which, his character and prejudices cripple my
+resources and means of influencing him. He is by nature very taciturn; and
+it often happens that he does not speak to me about matters of importance
+even when he has not the least wish to conceal them from me. He answers me
+when I speak to him about them, but he scarcely ever opens the subject;
+and when I have learned a quarter of the business, I am then forced to use
+some address to make the ministers tell me the rest, by letting them think
+that the king has told me every thing. When I reproach him for not having
+spoken to me of such and such matters, he is not annoyed, but only seems a
+little embarrassed, and sometimes answers, in an off-hand way, that he had
+never thought of it. This distrust, which is natural to him, was at first
+strengthened by his govern--or before my marriage. M. de Vauguyon had
+alarmed him about the authority which his wife would desire to assume over
+him, and the duke's black disposition delighted in terrifying his pupil
+with all the phantom stories invented against the house of Austria. M. de
+Maurepas, though less obstinate and less malicious, still thought it
+advantageous to his own credit to keep up the same notions in the king's
+mind. M. de Vergennes follows the same plan, and perhaps avails himself of
+his correspondence on foreign affairs to propagate falsehoods. I have
+spoken plainly about this to the king more than once. He has sometimes
+answered me rather peevishly, and, as he is never fond of discussion, I
+have not been able to persuade him that his minister was deceived, or was
+deceiving him. I do not blind myself as to the extent of my own influence.
+I know that I have no great ascendency over the king's mind, especially in
+politics; and would it be prudent in me to have scenes with his ministers
+on such subjects, on which it is almost certain that the king would not
+support me? Without ever boasting or saying a word that is not true, I,
+however, let the public believe that I have more influence than I really
+have, because, if they did not think so, I should have still less. The
+avowals which I am making to you, my dear brother, are not very flattering
+to my self-love; but I do not like to hide any thing from you, in order
+that you may be able to judge of my conduct as correctly as is possible at
+this terrible distance from you, at which my destiny has placed me.[5]"
+
+A melancholy interest attunes to sentences such as these, from the
+influence which the defects in her husband's character, when joined to
+those of his minister, had on the future destinies of both, and of the
+nation over which he ruled. It was natural that she should explain them to
+a brother; and though, as a general rule, it is clearly undesirable for
+queens consort to interfere in politics, it is clear that with such a
+husband, and with the nation and court in such a condition as then existed
+in France, it was indispensable that Marie Antoinette should covet, and,
+so far as she was able, exert, influence over the king, if she were not
+prepared to see him the victim or the tool of caballers and intriguers who
+cared far more for their own interests than for those of either king or
+kingdom. But as yet, though, as we see, these deficiencies of Louis
+occasionally caused her annoyance, she had no foreboding of evil. Her
+general feeling was one of entire happiness; her children were growing and
+thriving, her own health was far stronger than it had been, and she
+entered with as keen a relish as ever into the excitements and amusements
+becoming her position, and what we may still call her youth, since she was
+even now only eight-and-twenty.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+"The Marriage of Figaro"--Previous History and Character of Beaumarchais.
+--The Performance of the Play is forbidden.--It is said to be a little
+altered.--It is licensed.--Displeasure of the Queen.--Visit of Gustavus
+III. of Sweden.--Fête at the Trianon.--Balloon Ascent.
+
+
+In the spring of 1784, the court and capital wore wrought up to a high
+pitch of excitement by an incident which was in reality of so ordinary and
+trivial a character, that it would be hard to find a more striking proof
+how thoroughly unhealthy the whole condition and feeling of the nation
+must have been, when such a matter could have been regarded as important.
+It was simply a question whether a play, which had been recently accepted
+by the manager of the principal theatre in Paris, should receive the
+license from the theatrical censor which was necessary to its being
+performed.
+
+The play was entitled "The Marriage of Figaro." The history of the author,
+M. Beaumarchais, is curious, as that of a rare specimen of the literary
+adventurer of his time. He was born in the year 1732. His father was a
+watch-maker named Caron, and he himself followed that trade till he was
+three or four and twenty, and attained considerable skill in it. But he
+was ambitious. He was conscious of a handsome face and figure, and knew
+their value in such a court as that of Louis XV. He gave up his trade as a
+watch-maker, and bought successively different places about the court, the
+last of which was sold at a price sufficient to entitle him to claim
+gentility; so that, in one of his subsequent railings against the nobles,
+he declared that his nobility was more incontestable than that of most of
+the body, since he could produce the stamped receipt for it. Following the
+example of Molière and Voltaire, he changed his name, and called himself
+Beaumarchais. He married two rich widows. He formed a connection with the
+celebrated financier, Paris Duverney, who initiated him in the mysteries
+of stock-jobbing. Being a good musician, he obtained the protection of the
+king's daughters, taught them the harp, and conducted the weekly concerts
+which, during the life of Marie Leczinska, they gave to the king and the
+royal family. He wrote two or three plays, none of which had any great
+success, while one was a decided failure. He became involved in lawsuits,
+one of which he conducted himself against the best ability of the Parisian
+bar, and displayed such wit and readiness that he not only gained his
+cause, but established a notoriety which throughout life was apparently
+his dearest object. He crossed over to England, where he made the
+acquaintance of Wilkes, and one or two agents of the American colonies,
+then just commencing their insurrection; and, partly from political
+sympathy with their views of freedom, partly, as he declared, to retaliate
+on England for the injuries which France had suffered at her hands in the
+Seven Years' War, he became a political agent himself, procuring arms and
+ships to be sent across the Atlantic, and also a great quantity of stores
+of a more peaceful character, out of which he had hoped to make a handsome
+profit. But the Americans gave him credit for greater disinterestedness;
+the President of Congress wrote him a letter thanking him for his zeal,
+but refused to pay for his stores, for which he demanded nearly a hundred
+and fifty thousand francs. He commenced an action for the money in the
+American courts, but, as he could not conduct it himself, he did not
+obtain an early decision; indeed, the matter imbittered all his closing
+days, and was not settled when he died.
+
+But while he was in the full flush of self-congratulation at the degree in
+which, as he flattered himself, he had contributed to the downfall of
+England, the exuberance of his spirits prompted him to try his hand at a
+fourth play, a sort of sequel to one of his earlier performances--"The
+Barber of Seville." He finished it about the end of the year 1781, and, as
+the manager of the theatre was willing to act it, he at once applied for
+the necessary license. But it had already been talked about: if one party
+had pronounced it lively, witty, and the cleverest play that had been seen
+since the death of Molière, another set of readers declared it full of
+immoral and dangerous satire on the institutions of the country. It is
+almost inseparable from the very nature of comedy that it should be to
+some extent satirical. The offense which those who complained of "The
+Marriage of Figaro" on that account really found in it was, that it
+satirized classes and institutions which could not bear such attacks, and
+had not been used to them. Molière had ridiculed the lower middle class;
+the newly rich; the tradesman who, because he had made a fortune, thought
+himself a gentleman; but, as one whose father was in the employ of
+royalty, he laid no hand on any pillar of the throne. But Beaumarchais, in
+"The Marriage of Figaro," singled out especially what were called the
+privileged classes; he attacked the licentiousness of the nobles; the
+pretentious imbecility of ministers and diplomatists; the cruel injustice
+of wanton arrests and imprisonments of protracted severity against which
+there was no appeal nor remedy; and the privileged classes in consequence
+denounced his work, and their complaints of its character and tendency
+made such an impression that the court resolved that the license should
+not he granted.
+
+The refusal, however, was not at first pronounced in a straightforward
+way; but was deferred, as if those who had resolved on it feared to
+pronounce it. For a long time the censor gave no reply at all, till
+Beaumarchais complained of the delay as more injurious to him than a
+direct denial. When at last his application was formally rejected, he
+induced his friends to raise such a clamor in his favor, that Louis
+determined to judge for himself, and caused Madame de Campan to read it to
+himself and the queen. He fully agreed with the censor. Many passages he
+pronounced to be in extremely bad taste. When the reader came to the
+allusions to secret arrests, protracted imprisonments, and the tedious
+formalities of the law and lawyers, he declared that it would be necessary
+to pull down the Bastile before it could be acted with safety, as
+Beaumarchais was ridiculing every thing which ought to be respected. "It
+is not to be performed, then?" said the queen. "No," replied the king,
+"you may depend upon that."
+
+Similar refusals of a license had been common enough, so that there was no
+reason in the world why this decision should have attracted any notice
+whatever. But Beaumarchais was the fashion. He had influential patrons
+even in the palace: the Count d'Artois and Madame de Polignac, with the
+coterie which met in her apartments, being among them; and the mere idea
+that the court or the Government was afraid to let the play be acted
+caused thousands to desire to see it, who, without such a temptation,
+would have been wholly indifferent to its fate. The censor could not
+prevent its being read at private parties, and such readings became so
+popular that, in 1782, one was got up for the amusement of the Russian
+prince, who was greatly pleased by the liveliness of the dramatic
+situations, and, probably, not sufficiently aware of the prevalence of
+discontent in many circles of French society to sympathize with those who
+saw danger in its satire.
+
+The praises lavished on it gave the author greater boldness, which was
+quite unnecessary. He even meditated an evasion of the law by getting it
+acted in a place which was not a theatre, and tickets were actually issued
+for the performance in a saloon which was often used for rehearsals, when
+a royal warrant[1] peremptorily forbidding such a proceeding was sent down
+from the palace. A clamor was at once raised by the friends of
+Beaumarchais, as if "sealed letters" had never been issued before. They
+talked in a loud voice of "oppression" and "tyranny;" and any one who knew
+the king's disposition might have divined that such an act of vigor was
+sure to be followed by one of weakness. Presently Beaumarchais changed his
+tone. He gave out that he had retrenched the passages which had excited
+the royal disapproval, and requested that the play might be re-examined. A
+new censor of high literary reputation reported to the head of the
+police[2] that if one or two passages were corrected, and one or two
+expressions, which were liable to be misinterpreted, were suppressed, he
+foresaw no danger in allowing the representation. Beaumarchais at once
+promised to make the required corrections, and one of Madame de Polignac's
+friends, the Count de Vaudreuil, the very nobleman with whom that lady's
+name was by many discreditably connected, obtained the king's leave to
+perform it at his country house, that thus an opportunity might be
+afforded for judging whether or not the alterations which had been made
+were sufficient to render its performance innocent.
+
+The king was assured that the passages which he had regarded as
+mischievous were suppressed or divested of their sting. Marie Antoinette
+apparently had her suspicions; but Louis could never long withstand
+repeated solicitations, and, as he had not, when Madame de Campan read it,
+formed any very high opinion of its literary merits, he thought that, now
+that it was deprived of its venom, it would be looked upon as heavy, and
+would fail accordingly. Some good judges, such as the Marquis de
+Montesquieu, were of the same opinion. The actors thought differently. "It
+is my belief," said a man of fashion to the witty Mademoiselle Arnould,
+using the technical language of the theatre, "that your play will be
+'damned.'" "Yes," she replied, "it will, fifty nights running." But, even
+if Louis had heard of her prophecy, he would have disregarded it. He gave
+his permission for the performance to take place, and on the 27th April,
+1784, "The Marriage of Figaro" was accordingly acted to an audience which
+filled the house to the very ceiling; and which the long uncertainty as to
+whether it would ever be seen or not had disposed to applaud every scene
+and every repartee, and even to see wit where none existed. To an
+impartial critic, removed both by time and country from the agitation
+which had taken place, it will probably seem that the play thus obtained a
+reception far beyond its merits. It was undoubtedly what managers would
+call a good acting play. Its plot was complicated without being confused.
+It contained many striking situations; the dialogue was lively, but there
+was more humor in the surprises and discoveries than verbal wit in the
+repartees. Some strokes of satire were leveled at the grasping disposition
+of the existing race of courtiers, whose whole trade was represented as
+consisting of getting all they could, and asking for more; and others at
+the tricks of modern politicians, feigning to be ignorant of what they
+knew; to know what they were ignorant of; to keep secrets which had no
+existence; to lock the door to mend a pen; to appear deep when they were
+shallow; to set spies in motion, and to intercept letters; to try to
+ennoble the poverty of their means by the grandeur of their objects. The
+censorship, of course, did not escape. The scene being laid in Spain,
+Figaro affirmed that at Madrid the liberty of the press meant that, so
+long as an author spoke neither of authority, nor of public worship, nor
+of politics, nor of morality, nor of men in power, nor of the opera, nor
+of any other exhibition, nor of any one who was concerned in any thing, he
+might print what be pleased. The lawyers were reproached with a scrupulous
+adherence to forms, and a connivance at needless delays, which put money
+into their pockets; and the nobles, with thinking that, as long as they
+gave themselves the trouble to be born, society had no right to expect
+from them any further useful action. But such satire was too general, it
+might have been thought, to cause uneasiness, much more to do specific
+injury to any particular individual, or to any company or profession.
+Figaro himself is represented as saying that none but little men feared
+little writings.[3] And one of the advisers whom King Louis consulted as
+to the possibility of any mischief arising from the performance of the
+play, is said to have expressed his opinion in the form of an apothegm,
+that "none but dead men were killed by jests." The author might even have
+argued that his keenest satire had been poured upon those national
+enemies, the English, when he declared what has been sometimes regarded as
+the national oath to be the pith and marrow of the English language, the
+open sesame to English society, the key to unlock the English heart, and
+to obtain the judicious swearer all that he could desire.[4]
+
+And an English writer, with English notions of the liberty of the press,
+would hardly have thought it worth while to notice such an affair at all,
+did he not feel bound to submit his judgment to that of the French
+themselves. And if their view be correct, almost every institution in
+France must have been a dead man past all hopes of recovery, since the
+French historical writers, to whatever party they belong, are unanimous in
+declaring that it was from this play that many of the oldest institutions
+in the country received their death-blow, and that Beaumarchais was at
+once the herald and the pioneer of the approaching Revolution.
+
+Paris had scarcely cooled down after this excitement, when its attention
+was more agreeably attracted by the arrival of a king, Gustavus III. of
+Sweden. He had paid a visit to France in 1771, which had been cut short by
+the sudden death of his father, necessitating his immediate return to his
+own country to take possession of his throne; but the brief acquaintance
+which Marie Antoinette had then made with him had inspired her with a
+great admiration of his chivalrous character; and in the preceding year,
+hearing that he was contemplating a tour in Southern Europe, she had
+written to him to express a hope that he would repeat his visit to
+Versailles, promising him "such a reception as was due to an ancient ally
+of France;[5]" and adding that "she should personally have great pleasure
+in testifying to him how greatly she valued his friendship."
+
+Her mention of the ancient alliance between the two countries, which,
+indeed, had subsisted ever since the days of Francis I., was very welcome
+to Gustavus, since the object of his journey was purely political, and he
+desired to negotiate a fresh treaty. But those matters he, of course,
+arranged with the ministers. The queen was only concerned in the
+entertainments due from royal hosts to so distinguished a guest. Most of
+them were of the ordinary character, there being a sort of established
+routine of festivity for such occasions. And it may be taken as a proof
+that the court had abated somewhat of its alarm at Beaumarchais's play
+that "The Marriage of Figaro" was allowed to be acted on one of the king's
+visits to the theatre. She also gave him an entertainment of more than
+usual splendor at the Trianon, at which all the ladies present, and the
+invitations were very numerous, were required to be dressed in white,
+while all the walks and shrubberies of the garden were illuminated, so
+that the whole scene presented a spectacle which he described in one of
+his letters as "a complete fairy-land; a sight worthy of the Elysian
+Fields themselves.[6]" But, as usual, the queen herself was the chief
+ornament of the whole, as she moved graciously among her guests, laying
+aside the character of queen to assume that of the cordial hostess; and
+not even taking her place at the banquet, but devoting herself wholly to
+the pleasurable duty of doing honor to her guests.
+
+One of the displays was of a novel character, from which its inventors and
+patrons expected scientific results of importance, which, though nearly a
+century has since elapsed, have not yet been realized. In the preceding
+year, Montgolfier had for the first time sent up a balloon, and the new
+invention was now exhibited in the Court of Versailles: the queen allowed
+the balloon to be called by her name; and, to the great admiration of
+Gustavus, who had a decided taste for matters which were in any way
+connected with practical science, the "Marie Antoinette" made a successful
+voyage to Chantilly. The date of another invention, if, indeed, it
+deserves so respectable a title, is also fixed by this royal visit. Mesmer
+had recently begun to astonish or bewilder the Parisians with his theory
+of animal magnetism; and Gustavus spent some time in discussing the
+question with him, and seems for a moment to have flattered himself that
+he comprehended his principles. But the only durable result which arose
+from his stay in France was the sincere regard and esteem which he and the
+queen mutually conceived for each other. They established a
+correspondence, in which Marie Antoinette repeatedly showed her eagerness
+to gratify his wishes and to attend to his recommendations; and when, at a
+later period, unexpected troubles fell on her and her husband, there was
+no one whom their troubles inspired with greater eagerness to serve them
+than Gustavus, whose last projects, before he fell by the hand of an
+assassin, were directed to their deliverance from the dangers which,
+though neither he nor they were as yet fully alive to their magnitude,
+were on the point of overwhelming them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+St. Cloud is purchased for the Queen.--Libelous Attacks on her.--Birth of
+the Duc de Normandie.--Joseph presses her to support his Views in the Low
+Countries.---The Affair of the Necklace.--Share which the Cardinal de
+Rohan had in it.--The Queen's Indignation at his Acquittal.--Subsequent
+Career of the Cardinal.
+
+
+Marie Antoinette had long since completed her gardens at the Trianon, but
+the gradual change in the arrangements of the court had made a number of
+alterations requisite at Versailles, with which the difficulty of finding
+money rendered it desirable to proceed slowly. It was reckoned that it
+would be necessary to give up the greater part of the palace to workmen
+for ten years; and as the other palaces which the king possessed in the
+neighborhood of Paris were hardly suited for the permanent residence of
+the court, the queen proposed to her husband to obtain St. Cloud from the
+Duc d'Orléans, giving him in exchange La Muette, the Castle of Choisy, and
+a small adjacent forest. Such an arrangement would have produced a
+considerable saving by the reduction of the establishments kept up at
+those places, at which the court only spent a few days in each year. And
+as the duke was disposed to think that he should be a gainer by the
+exchange, it is not very easy to explain how it was that the original
+project was given up, and that St. Cloud was eventually sold to the crown
+for a sum of money, Choisy and La Muette being also retained.
+
+St. Cloud was bought; and Marie Antoinette, still eager to prevent her own
+acquisition from being too costly, proposed to the king that it should he
+bought in her name, and called her property; since an establishment for
+her would naturally lie framed on a more moderate scale than that of any
+palace belonging to the king, which was held always to require the
+appointment of a governor and deputy-governors, with a corresponding staff
+of underlings, while she should only require a porter at the outer gate.
+The advantage of such a plan was so obvious that it was at once adopted.
+The porters and servants wore the queen's livery; and all notices of the
+regulations to be observed were signed "In the queen's name.[1]" Yet so
+busy were her enemies at this time, that even this simple arrangement,
+devised solely for the benefit of the people who were intimately concerned
+in every thing that tended to diminish the royal expenditure, gave rise to
+numberless cavils. Some affirmed that the issue of such notices in the
+name of the queen instead of in that of the king was an infringement on
+his authority. One most able and influential counselor of the Parliament,
+Duval d'Esprémesnil, who in more than one discussion in subsequent years
+showed that in general he fully appreciated the principles of
+constitutional government, but who at this time seems to have been
+animated by no other feeling than that of hatred for the existing
+ministers, even went the length of affirming that there was "something not
+only impolitic but immoral in the idea of any palace belonging to a queen
+of France.[2]" But when the arrangements had once been made, Marie
+Antoinette not unnaturally thought her honor concerned in not abandoning
+it in deference to clamor so absurd, as well as so disrespectful to
+herself; and St. Cloud, to which she had always been partial, continued
+hers, and for the next five years divided her attention with the Trianon.
+
+But though she herself disregarded all such attacks with the calm dignity
+which belonged to her character, her friends were not free from serious
+apprehensions as to the power of persistent detraction and calumny. It was
+one of the penalties which the nation had to pay for the infamies which
+had stained the crown during the last three centuries, that the people had
+learned to think that nothing was too bad to say and to believe of their
+kings; and Marie Antoinette seemed as yet a fairer mark than usual for
+slanderous attack, because her position was weaker than that of a King.[3]
+It depended on the life of her husband and of a single son, who was
+already beginning to show signs of weakness of constitution. It was
+therefore with exceeding satisfaction that in the autumn of 1784 her
+friends learned that she was again about to become a mother. They prayed
+with inexpressible anxiety that the expected child should prove a son; and
+on the 27th of March, 1785, their prayers were granted. A son was born,
+whom his delighted father at once took in his arms, calling him "his
+little Norman," and, saying "that the name alone would bring him
+happiness," created Duke of Normandy. No prophecy was ever so sadly
+falsified; no king's son had ever so miserable a lot; but no forebodings
+of evil as yet disturbed his parents. Their delight was fully shared by
+the body of the people; for the cabals against the queen were as yet
+confined to the immediate precincts of the court, and had not descended to
+infect the middle classes. It was with difficulty when, after her
+confinement, she paid her visit to Paris to return thanks at Notre Dame
+and St. Geneviève, that the citizens could he prevented from unharnessing
+her horses and dragging her coach in triumph through the streets.[4] And
+their exultation was fully shared by the better-intentioned class of
+courtiers, and by all Marie Antoinette's real friends, who felt assured
+that the birth of this second son had given her the security which had
+hitherto been wanting to her position.
+
+Meanwhile, she was again led to interest herself greatly in foreign
+politics, though in truth she hardly regarded any thing in which her
+brother's empire was interested as foreign, so deep was her conviction
+that the interests of France and Austria were identical and inseparable,
+and so unwearied were her endeavors to make her husband's ministers see
+all questions that concerned her brother's dominions with her eyes.
+Throughout the latter part of 1784, and the earlier months of 1785,
+Joseph, who was always restless in his ambition, was full of schemes of
+aggrandizement which he desired to carry out through the favor and
+co-operation of France. At one moment he projected obtaining Bavaria in
+exchange for the Netherlands, at another he aimed at procuring the opening
+of the Scheldt by threatening the Dutch with instant war if they resisted.
+But, as all these schemes were eventually abandoned, they would hardly
+require to be mentioned here, were it not for the proofs which his
+correspondence with his sister affords of his increasing esteem for her
+capacity, and his evident conviction of her growing influence in the
+French Government, and for the light which some of her answers to his
+letters throw on her relations with the ministers, which had perhaps some
+share in increasing the annoyance that the affair of "the necklace," as
+will be presently mentioned, caused her before the end of the year. Her
+difficulties with Louis himself were the same as she had already described
+to her brother on former occasions. "It was impossible to induce him to
+take a strong line, so as to speak resolutely to M. de Vergennes in her
+presence, and equally so to prevent his changing his mind afterward;[5]"
+while she distrusted the good faith of the minister so much that, though
+she resolved to speak to him strongly on the subject, she would not do so
+till she could discuss the question with him "in the presence of the king,
+that he might not be able to disfigure or to exaggerate what she said."
+Yet she did not always find her precautions effectual. Louis's judgment
+was always at the mercy of the last speaker. She assured her brother that
+"he had abundant reason to be contented with the king's personal feelings
+on the subject. When he received the emperor's letter, he spoke to her
+about it in a way that delighted her. He regarded Joseph's demands as
+just, and his motives as most reasonable. Yet--she blushed to own it even
+to her brother--after he had seen his minister, his tone was no longer the
+same; he was embarrassed; he shunned the subject with her, and often found
+some new objection to weaken the effect of his previous admissions."
+
+At one time she even feared a rupture between the two countries. Vergennes
+was urging the king to send an army of observation to the frontier; and,
+if it were sent, the proximity of such a force to the Austrian troops in
+the Netherlands would, to her apprehension, be full of danger. There was
+sound political acuteness in her remark that the dispatch of an army of
+observation was not "in itself a declaration of war, but that when two
+armies are so near to one another an order to advance is very soon
+executed;" and, with a shrewd perception of the argument which was most
+likely to influence the humane disposition of her husband, she pressed
+upon him that "the delays and shuffling of his ministers might very
+probably involve him in war, in spite of his own intentions." However,
+eventually the clouds which had caused her anxiety were dissipated; the
+mediation of France had even some share in leading to a conclusion of
+these disputes in a manner in which Joseph himself acquiesced; and the
+good understanding between the two crowns, on which, as Marie Antoinette
+often declared, her happiness greatly depended, was preserved, or, as she
+hoped, even strengthened, by the result of these negotiations.
+
+But on one occasion of real moment to the personal comfort and credit of
+the queen, Louis behaved with a clear good sense, and, what was equally
+important, with a firmness which she gratefully acknowledged,[6] and
+contrasted remarkably with the pusillanimous advice that had been given by
+more than one of the ministers. That the affair in which he exhibited
+these qualities should for a moment have been regarded as one of political
+importance, is another testimony to the diseased state of the public mind
+at the time; and that it should have been possible so to use it as to
+attach the slightest degree of discredit to the queen, is a proof as
+strange as melancholy how greatly the secret intrigues of the basest cabal
+that ever disgraced a court had succeeded in undermining her reputation,
+and poisoning the very hearts of the people against her.[7]
+
+Boehmer, the court jeweler, had collected a large number of diamonds of
+unusual size and brilliancy, which he had formed into a necklace, in the
+hope of selling it to the queen, whose fancy for such jewels had some
+years before been very great. She had at one time spent sums on diamond
+ornaments, large enough to provoke warm remonstrances from her mother,
+though certainly not excessive for her rank; and Louis, knowing her
+partiality for them, had more than once made her costly gifts of the kind.
+But her taste for them had cooled; her children now engrossed far more of
+her attention than her dress, and she was keenly alive to the distress
+which still prevailed in many parts of the kingdom, and to the
+embarrassments of the revenue, which the ingenuity of Calonne did not
+relieve half so rapidly as his rashness encumbered it. Accordingly, her
+reply to Boehmer's application that she would purchase his necklace was
+that her jewel-case was sufficiently full, and that she had almost given
+up wearing diamonds; and that if such a sum as he asked, which was nearly
+seventy thousand pounds, were available, she should greatly prefer its
+being spent on a ship for the nation, to replace the _Ville de Paris_,
+whose loss still rankled in her breast.
+
+The king, who thought that she must secretly wish for a jewel of such
+unequalled splendor, offered to make her a present of the necklace, but
+she adhered to her refusal. Boehmer was greatly disappointed; he had
+exhausted his resources and his credit in collecting the stones in the
+hope of making a grand profit, and declared loudly to his patrons that he
+should be ruined if the queen could not be induced to change her mind. His
+complaints were so unrestrained that they reached the ears of those who
+saw in his despair a possibility of enriching themselves at his expense.
+There was in Paris at the time a Countess de la Mothe, who, as claiming
+descent from a natural son of Henri II., had added Valois to her name, and
+had her claim to royal birth so far allowed that, as she was in very
+destitute circumstances, she had obtained a small pension from the crown.
+Her pension and her pretensions had perhaps united to procure her the hand
+of the Count de la Mothe, who had for some time been discreditably known
+as one of the most worthless and dangerous adventurers who infested the
+capital. But her marriage had been no restraint on a life of unconcealed
+profligacy, and among her lovers she reckoned the Cardinal de Rohan, who,
+as we have already seen, was as little scrupulous or decent as herself.
+
+As, however, the cardinal's extravagance had left him with little means of
+supplying her necessities, Madame La Mothe conceived the idea of swindling
+Boehmer out of his necklace, and of making de Rohan an accomplice in the
+fraud. The one thing which in the transaction is difficult to determine is
+whether the cardinal was her willing and conscious assistant, or her dupe.
+That his capacity was of the very lowest order was notorious, but he was a
+man who had been bred in courts; he knew the manner in which princes
+transacted their business, and in which queens signed their names. He had
+long been acquainted with Marie Antoinette's figure and gestures and
+voice; while, unhappily, there was nothing in his character which was
+incompatible with his becoming an accomplice in any act of baseness.
+
+What followed was a drama of surprises. It was with as much astonishment
+as indignation that Marie Antoinette learned that Boehmer believed that
+she had secretly bought the necklace, which openly and formally she had
+refused, and that he was looking to her for the payment of its price. And
+about a fortnight later it was like a thunder-clap that a summons came
+upon the Cardinal de Rohan, who had just been performing mass before the
+king and queen, to appear before them in Louis's private cabinet, and that
+he found himself subjected to an examination by Louis himself, who
+demanded of him with great indignation an explanation of the circumstances
+that had led him to represent himself to Boehmer as authorized to buy a
+necklace for the queen. Terrified and confused, he gave an explanation
+which was half a confession; but which was too complicated to be
+thoroughly intelligible. He was ordered to retire into the next room and
+write out his statement. His written narrative proved more obscure than
+his spoken words. In spite of his prayers that he might be spared the
+degradation of being arrested while still clad in his pontifical habits,
+he was at once sent to the Bastile. A day or two afterward Madame La Mothe
+was apprehended in the provinces, and Louis directed that a prosecution
+should be instantly commenced against all who had been concerned in the
+transaction.
+
+For the queen's name had been forged. The cardinal did not deny that he
+had represented himself to Boehmer as employed by her for the purchase of
+the jewel which, as he said, she secretly coveted, and for the payment of
+its price by installments. But, as his justification, he produced a letter
+desiring him to undertake the business, and signed "Marie Antoinette de
+France." He declared that he had never suspected the genuineness of this
+letter, though it was notorious that such an addition to their Christian
+names was used by none but the sons and daughters of the reigning
+sovereign, and never by a queen. And eventually his whole story was found
+to be that Madame La Mothe had induced him to believe that she was in the
+queen's confidence, and also that the queen coveted the necklace and was
+resolved to obtain it; but that she was unable at once to pay for it; and
+that, being desirous to make amends to the cardinal for the neglect with
+which she had hitherto treated him, she had resolved on employing him to
+make arrangements with Boehmer for the instant delivery of the ornament,
+and for her payment of the price by installments.
+
+This was strange enough to have excited the suspicions of most men. What
+followed was stranger still. Not content with forging the queen's
+handwriting, Madame La Mothe had even, if one may say so, forged the queen
+herself. She had assured the cardinal that Marie Antoinette had consented
+to grant him a secret interview; and at midnight, in the gardens of
+Versailles, had introduced him to a woman of notoriously bad character
+named Oliva, who in height resembled the queen, and who, in a conference
+of half a minute, gave him a letter and a rose with the words, "You know
+what this means." She had hardly uttered the words when Madame La Mothe
+interrupted the pair with the warning the Countesses of Provence and
+Artois were approaching. The mock queen retired in haste. The cardinal
+pressed the rose to his heart; acted on the letter; and protested that he
+had never doubted that he had seen the queen, and had been acting on her
+commands in obtaining the necklace from Boehmer and delivering it to
+Madame La Mothe, though he now acknowledged that he had been imposed upon,
+and offered to pay the jeweler for his property.
+
+There were not wanting those who advised that this offer should be
+accepted, and that the matter should be hushed up, rather than that a
+prince of the Church should be publicly disgraced by a prosecution for
+fraud. But Louis and Marie Antoinette both rightly judged that their duty
+as sovereigns of the kingdom forbade them to compromise justice by
+screening dishonesty. It was but two years before that a great noble, the
+most eloquent of all French orators, had singled out Marie Antoinette's
+love of justice as one of her most conspicuous, as it was one of her most
+noble, qualities; and the words deserve especially to be remembered from
+the melancholy contrast which his subsequent conduct presents to the
+voluntary tribute which he now paid to her excellence. In 1783, the young
+Count de Mirabeau, pleading for the restitution of his conjugal rights,
+put the question to the judges at Aix before whom he was arguing, "Which
+of you, if he desired to consecrate a living personification of justice,
+and to embellish it with all the charms of beauty, would not set up the
+august image of our queen?"
+
+She and her husband might well have felt they were bound to act up to such
+a eulogy. Some of their advisers also, and especially the Baron de
+Breteuil and the Abbé de Yermond, fortified their decision with their
+advice; being, in truth, greatly influenced by a reason which they forbore
+to mention, namely, by their suspicion that the untiring malice of the
+queen's enemies would not have failed to represent that the suppression of
+the slightest particle of the truth could only have been dictated by a
+guilty consciousness which felt that it could not bear the light; and that
+the queen had forborne to bring the cardinal into court solely because she
+knew that he was in a situation to prove facts which would deservedly
+damage her reputation.
+
+It is impossible to doubt that the resolution which was adopted was the
+only one consistent with either propriety or common sense. However
+plausible may be the arguments which in this or that case may be adduced
+for concealment, the common instinct of mankind, which rarely errs in such
+matters, always conceives a suspicion that it is dictated by secret and
+discreditable motives; and that he who screens manifest guilt from
+exposure and punishment makes himself an accomplice in the wrong-doing, if
+he was not so before. But, though Louis judged rightly for his own and his
+queen's character in bringing those who were guilty of forgery and robbery
+to a public trial, the result inflicted an irremediable wound on one great
+institution, furnishing an additional proof how incurably rotten the whole
+system of the Government must have been, when corruption without shame or
+disguise was allowed to sway the highest judicial tribunal in the country.
+
+The Parliament of Paris, constantly endeavoring throughout its whole
+history to encroach upon the royal prerogative, had always founded its
+pretensions on its purity and disinterestedness. Since its
+re-establishment at the beginning of the present reign, it had advanced
+its claim to the possession of those virtues more loudly than ever; yet
+now, in the very first case which came before it in which a noble of the
+highest rank was concerned, it was made apparent not only that it was
+wholly destitute of every quality which ought to belong to a judicial
+bench, of a regard for truth and justice, and even of a knowledge of the
+law; but that no one gave it credit for them, and that every one regarded
+the decision to be given as one which would depend, not on the merits of
+the case, but on the interest which the culprits might be able to make
+with the judges.[8]
+
+The trial took place in May of the following year. We need not enter into
+its details; the denials, the admissions, the mutual recriminations of the
+persons accused. In the fate of the La Mothes and Mademoiselle Oliva no
+one professed to be concerned; but the friends of the cardinal were
+numerous, rich, and powerful; and for months had been and still were
+indefatigable in his cause. Some days before the trial, the attorney-
+general had become aware that nearly the whole of the Parliament had been
+gained by them; he even furnished the queen with a list of the names of
+those judges who had promised their verdict beforehand, and of the means
+by which they had been won over. And on the decisive morning the cardinal
+and his friends made a theatrical display which was evidently intended to
+overawe those members of the Parliament who were yet unconvinced, and to
+enlist the sympathies of the public in general. He himself appeared at the
+bar in a long violet cloak, the mourning robe of cardinals; and all the
+passages leading to the hall of justice were lined by his partisans, also
+in deep mourning; and they were not solely his own relations, the nobles
+of the different branches of his family, the Soubises, the Rohans, the
+Guimenées; but though, as princes of the blood, the Condés were nearly
+allied to the king and queen, they also were not ashamed to swell the
+company assembled, and to solicit the judges as they passed into the court
+to disregard alike justice and their own oaths, and to acquit the
+cardinal, whatever the evidence might be which had been, or was to be,
+produced against him. They were only asking what they had already assured
+themselves of obtaining. The queen's signature was indeed declared to be a
+forgery, and the La Mothes, Mademoiselle Oliva, and a man named Retaux de
+Villette, who had been the actual writer of the forged letters, were
+convicted and sentenced to the punishment which the counsel for the crown
+had demanded. But the cardinal was acquitted, as well as a notorious
+juggler and impostor of the day, called Cagliostro, who had apparently
+been so entirely unconnected with the transaction that it is not easy to
+see how he became included in the prosecution; and permission was given to
+the cardinal to make his acquittal public in any manner and to any extent
+which he might desire.[9]
+
+The subsequent history of the La Mothes was singular and characteristic.
+The countess, who had been sentenced to be flogged, branded, and
+imprisoned for life, after a time contrived, it is believed by the aid of
+some of the Rohan family, to escape from prison. She fled to London, where
+for some time she and her husband lived on the proceeds of the necklace,
+which they had broken up and sold piecemeal to jewelers in London and
+other cities; but they were soon reduced to great distress. After the
+Revolution had broken out in Paris, they tried to make money by publishing
+libels on the queen, in which they are believed to have obtained the aid
+of some who in former times had been under great personal obligations to
+Marie Antoinette. But the scheme failed: they were overwhelmed with debt;
+writs were issued against them, and in trying to escape from the sheriff's
+officers, the countess fell from a window at the top of a house, and
+received injuries which proved fatal.
+
+A most accomplished writer of the present day, who has devoted much care
+and ability to the examination of the case, has pronounced an opinion that
+the cardinal was innocent of dishonesty,[10] and limits his offense to
+that of insulting the queen by the mere suspicion that she could place her
+confidence in such an unworthy agent as Madame La Mothe, or that he
+himself could be allowed to recover her favor by such means as he had
+employed. But his absolute ignorance of the countess's schemes is not
+entirely consistent with the admitted fact that, when he was arrested, his
+first act was to send orders to his secretary to burn all the letters
+which he had received from her on the subject; and unquestionably neither
+Louis nor Marie Antoinette doubted his full complicity in the conspiracy.
+Louis at once deprived him of his office of grand almoner, and banished
+him from the court, declaring that "he knew too well the usages of the
+court to have believed that Madame La Mothe had really been admitted to
+the queen's presence and intrusted with such a commission.[11]" And Marie
+Antoinette gave open expression to her indignation at the acquittal "of an
+intriguer who had sought to ruin her, or to procure money for himself, by
+abusing her name and forging her signature," adding, with undeniable
+truth, that still more to be pitied than herself was a "nation which had
+for its supreme tribunal a body of men who consulted nothing but their
+passions; and of whom some were full of corruption, and others were
+inspired with a boldness which always vented itself in opposition to those
+who were clothed with lawful authority.[12]"
+
+But her magnanimity and her sincere affection for the whole people were
+never more manifest than now even in her first moments of indignation.
+Even while writing to Madame de Polignac that she is "bathed in tears of
+grief and despair," and that she can "hope for nothing good when
+perverseness is so busy in seeking means to chill her very soul," she yet
+adds that "she shall triumph over her enemies by doing more good than
+ever, and that it will be easier for them to afflict her than to drive her
+to avenging herself on them.[13]" And she uses the same language to her
+sister Christine, even while expressing still more strongly her
+indignation at being "sacrificed to a perjured priest and a shameless
+intriguer." She demands her sister's "pity, as one who had never deserved
+such injurious treatment;[14] but who had only recollected that she was
+the daughter of Maria Teresa--to fulfill her mother's exhortations, always
+to show herself French to the very bottom of her heart;" but she concludes
+by repeating the declaration that "nothing shall tempt her to any conduct
+unworthy of herself, and that the only revenge that she will take shall he
+to redouble her acts of kindness."
+
+It is pleasing to be able to close so odious a subject by the statement
+that the disgrace which the cardinal had thus brought upon himself may be
+supposed in some respects to have served as a lesson to him, and that his
+conduct in the latter days of his life was such as to do no discredit to
+the noble race from which he sprung.
+
+A great part of his diocese as Bishop of Strasburg lay on the German side
+of the Rhine; and thither,[15] when the French Revolution began to assume
+the blood-thirsty character which has made it a warning to all future
+ages, he was fortunate to escape in safety from the fury of the assassins
+who ruled France. And though he was no longer rich, his less fortunate
+countrymen, and especially his clerical brethren, found in him a liberal
+protector and supporter.[16] He even levied a body of troops to re-enforce
+the royalist army. But, when the First Consul wrung from the Pope a
+concordat of which he disapproved, he resigned his bishopric, and shortly
+afterward died at Ettenheim,[17] where, had he remained but a short time
+longer, he, like the Duke d'Enghien, might have found that a residence in
+a foreign land was no protection against the ever-suspicious enmity of
+Bonaparte.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+The King visits Cherbourg.--Rarity of Royal Journeys.--The Princess
+Christine visits the Queen--Hostility of the Duc d'Orléans to the Queen.--
+Libels on her.--She is called Madame Deficit.--She has a Second Daughter,
+who dies.--Ill Health of the Dauphin.--Unskillfulness and Extravagance of
+Calonne's System of Finance.--Distress of the Kingdom.--He assembles the
+Notables.--They oppose his Plans.--Letters of Marie Antoinette on the
+Subject.--Her Ideas of the English Parliament.--Dismissal of Calonne.--
+Character of Archbishop Loménie de Brienne.--Obstinacy of Necker.--The
+Archbishop is appointed Minister.--The Distress increases.--The Notables
+are dissolved.--Violent Opposition of the Parliament--Resemblance of the
+French Revolution to the English Rebellion of 1642.--Arrest of
+d'Esprémesnil and Montsabert.
+
+
+It was owing to Marie Antoinette's influence that Louis himself in the
+following year began to enter on a line of conduct which, if circumstances
+had not prevented him from persevering in it, might have tended, more
+perhaps than any thing else that he could have done, to make him also
+popular with the main body of the people. The emperor, while at
+Versailles, had strongly pressed upon him that it was his duty, as king of
+the nation, to make himself personally acquainted with every part of his
+kingdom, to visit the agricultural districts, the manufacturing towns, the
+fortresses, arsenals, and harbors of the country. Joseph himself had
+practiced what he preached. No corner of his dominions was unknown to him;
+and it is plain that there can be no nation which must not be benefited by
+its sovereign thus obtaining a personal knowledge of all the various
+interests and resources of his subjects. But such personal investigations
+were not yet understood to be a part of a monarch's duties. Louis's
+contemporary, our own sovereign, George III., than whom, if rectitude of
+intention and benevolence of heart be the principal standards by which
+princes should be judged, no one ever better deserved to be called the
+father of his country, scarcely ever went a hundred miles from Windsor,
+and never once visited even those Midland Counties which before the end of
+his reign had begun to give undeniable tokens of the contribution which
+their industry was to furnish to the growing greatness of his empire; and
+the last two kings of France, though in the course of their long reigns
+they had once or twice visited their armies while waging war on the
+Flemish or German frontier, had never seen their western or southern
+provinces.
+
+But now Marie Antoinette suggested to her husband that it was time that he
+should extend his travels, which, except when he had gone to Rheims for
+his coronation, had never yet carried him beyond Compiègne in one
+direction and Fontainebleau in another; and, as of all the departments of
+Government, that which was concerned with the marine of the nation
+interested her most (we fear that she was secretly looking forward to a
+renewal of war with England), she persuaded him to select for the object
+of his first visit the fort of Cherbourg in Normandy, where those great
+works had been recently begun which have since been constantly augmented
+and improved, till they have made it a worthy rival to our own harbors on
+the opposite side of the Channel. He was received in all the towns through
+which he passed with real joy. The Normans had never seen their king since
+Henry IV. had made their province his battle-field; and the queen, who
+would gladly have accompanied him, had it not been that such a journey
+undertaken by both would have resembled a state procession, and therefore
+have been tedious and comparatively useless, exulted in the reception
+which he had met with, and began to plan other expeditions of the same
+kind for him, feeling assured that his presence would be equally welcomed
+in other provinces--at Bourdeaux, at Lyons, or at Toulon. And a series of
+such visits would undoubtedly have been calculated to strengthen the
+attachment of the people everywhere to the royal authority; which,
+already, to some far-seeing judges, seemed likely soon to need all the
+re-enforcement which it could obtain in any quarter.
+
+In the summer of 1786 she had a visit from her sister Christine, the
+Princess of Teschen, who, with her husband, had been joint governor of
+Hungary, and since the death of her uncle, Charles of Lorraine, had been
+removed to the Netherlands. She had never seen her sister since her own
+marriage, and the month which they spent together at Versailles may be
+almost described as the last month of perfect enjoyment that Marie
+Antoinette ever knew; for troubles were thickening fast around the
+Government, and were being taken wicked advantage of by her enemies, at
+the head of whom the Duc d'Orléans now began openly to range himself. He
+was a man notorious, as has been already seen, for every kind of infamy;
+and though he well knew the disapproval with which Marie Antoinette
+regarded his way of life and his character, it is believed that he had had
+the insolence to approach her with the language of gallantry; that he had
+been rejected with merited indignation; and that he ever afterward
+regarded her noble disdain as a provocation which it should be the chief
+object of his life to revenge. In fact, on one occasion he did not scruple
+to avow his resentment at the way in which, as he said, she had treated
+him; though he did not mention the reason.[1]
+
+Calumny was the only weapon which could be employed against her; but in
+that he and his partisans had long been adept. Every old libel and pretext
+for detraction was diligently revived. The old nickname of "The Austrian"
+was repeated with pertinacity as spiteful as causeless; even the king's
+aunts lending their aid to swell the clamor on that ground, and often
+saying, with all the malice of their inveterate jealousy, that it was not
+to be expected that she should have the same feelings as their father or
+Louis XIV., since she was not of their blood, though it was plain that the
+same remark would have applied to every Queen of France since Anne of
+Brittany. Even the embarrassments of the revenue were imputed to her; and
+she, who had curtailed her private expenses, even those which seemed
+almost necessary to her position, that she might minister more largely to
+the necessities of the poor--who had declined to buy jewels that the money
+might be applied to the service of the State--was now held up to the
+populace as being by her extravagance the prime cause of the national
+distress. Pamphlets and caricatures gave her a new nickname of "Madame
+Deficit;" and such an impression to her disfavor was thus made on the
+minds of the lower classes, that a painter, who had just finished an
+engaging portrait of her surrounded by her children, feared to send it to
+the exhibition, lest it should be made a pretext for insult and violence.
+Her unpopularity did not, indeed, last long at this time, but was
+superseded, as we shall presently see, by fresh feelings of gratitude for
+fresh labors of charity; nevertheless, the outcry now raised left its seed
+behind it, to grow hereafter into a more enduring harvest of distrust and
+hatred.
+
+She had troubles, too, of another kind which touched her more nearly. A
+second daughter, Sophie[2], had been born to her in the summer of 1786;
+but she was a sickly child, and died, before she was a year old, of one of
+the illnesses to which children are subject, and for some months the
+mother mourned bitterly over her "little angel," as she called her. Her
+eldest boy, too, was getting rapidly and visibly weaker in health: his
+spine seemed to diseased, Marie Antoinette's only hope of saving him
+rested on the fact that his father had also been delicate at the same age.
+Luckily his brother gave her no cause for uneasiness; as she wrote to the
+emperor[3]--"he had all that his elder wanted; he was a thorough peasant's
+child, tall, stout, and ruddy.[4]" She had also another comfort, which, as
+her troubles thickened, became more and more precious to her, in the warm
+affection that had sprung up between her and her sister-in-law, the
+Princess Elizabeth. A letter[5] has been preserved in which the princess
+describes the death of the little Sophie to one of her friends, which it
+is impossible to read without being struck by the sincerity of the
+sympathy with which she enters into the grief of the bereaved mother. In
+these moments of anguish she showed herself indeed a true sister, and, the
+two clinging to one another the more the greater their dangers and
+distresses became, a true sister she continued to the end.
+
+Meanwhile the embarrassments of the Government were daily assuming a more
+formidable appearance. Calonne had for some time endeavored to meet the
+deficiency of the revenue by raising fresh loans, till he had completely
+exhausted the national credit; and at last had been forced to admit that
+the scheme originally propounded by Turgot, and subsequently in a more
+modified degree by Necker, of abolishing the exemptions from taxation
+which were enjoyed by the nobles--the privileged classes, as they were
+often called--was the only expedient to save the nation from the disgrace
+and ruin of total bankruptcy. But, as it seemed probable that the nobles
+would resist such a measure, and that their resistance would prove too
+strong for him, as it had already been found to be for his predecessors,
+he proposed to the king to revive an old assembly which had been known by
+the title of the Notables; trusting that, if he succeeded in obtaining the
+sanction of that body to his plans, the nobles would hardly venture to
+insist on maintaining their privileges in defiance of the recorded
+judgment of so respectable a council. His hopes were disappointed. He
+might fairly have reckoned on obtaining their concurrence, since it was
+the unquestioned prerogative of the king to nominate all the members; but,
+even when he was most deliberate and resolute, his rashness and
+carelessness were incurable. He took no pains whatever to select members
+favorable to his views; and the consequence was that, in March, 1787, in
+the very first month of the session of the Notables, the whole body
+protested against one of the taxes which he desired to impose; and his
+enemies at once urged the king to dismiss him, basing their recommendation
+on the practice of England, where, as they affirmed, a minister who found
+himself in a minority on an important question immediately retired from
+office.
+
+Marie Antoinette, who, as we have seen, had been a diligent reader of
+Hume, had also been led to compare the proceedings of the refractory
+Notables with the conduct of our English parliamentary parties, and to an
+English reader some of her comments can not fail to be as interesting as
+they are curious. The Duchess de Polignac was drinking the waters at Bath,
+which at that time was a favorite resort of French valetudinarians, and,
+while she was still in that most beautiful of English cities, the queen
+kept up an occasional correspondence with her. We have two letters which
+Marie Antoinette wrote to her in April; one on the 9th, the very day on
+which Calonne was dismissed; the second, two days latter; and even the
+passages which do not relate to politics have their interest as specimens
+of the writer's character, and of the sincere frankness with which she
+laid aside her rank and believed in the possibility of a friendship of
+complete equality.
+
+"April 9th, 1787.
+
+"I thank you, my dear heart, for your letter, which has done me good. I
+was anxious about you. It is true, then, that you have not suffered much
+from your journey. Take care of yourself, I insist on it, I beg of you;
+and be sure and derive benefit from the waters, else I should repent of
+the privation I have inflicted on myself without your health being
+benefited. When you are near I feel how much I love you; and I feel it
+much more when you are far away. I am greatly taken up with you and yours,
+and you would be very ungrateful if you did not love me, for I can not
+change toward you.
+
+"Where you are you can at least enjoy the comfort of never hearing of
+business. Although you are in the country of an Upper and a Lower House,
+you can stop your ears and let people talk. But here it is a noise that
+deafens one in spite of all I can do. The words 'opposition' and 'motions'
+are established here as in the English Parliament, with this difference,
+that in London, when people go into opposition, they begin by denuding
+themselves of the favors of the king; instead of which, here numbers
+oppose all the wise and beneficent views of the most virtuous of masters,
+and still keep all he has given them. It may be a cleverer way of
+managing, but it is not so gentleman-like. The time of illusion is past,
+and we are tasting cruel experience. We are paying dearly to-day for our
+zeal and enthusiasm for the American war. The voice of honest men is
+stifled by members and cabals. Men disregard principles to bind themselves
+to words, and to multiply attacks on individuals. The seditious will drag
+the State to its ruin rather than renounce their intrigues."
+
+And in her second letter she specifies some of the Opposition by name; one
+of whom, as will be seen hereafter, contributed greatly to her subsequent
+miseries.... "The repugnance which you know that I have always had to
+interfering in business is today put cruelly to the proof; and you would
+be as tired as I am of all that goes on. I have already spoken to you of
+our Upper and Lower House,[6] and of all the absurdities which take place
+there, and of the nonsense which is talked. To be loaded with benefits by
+the king, like M. de Beauvau, to join the Opposition, and to surrender
+none of them, is what is called having spirit and courage. It is, in
+truth, the courage of infamy. I am wholly surrounded with folks who have
+revolted from him. A duke,[7] a great maker of motions, a man who has
+always a tear in his eye when he speaks, is one of the number. M. de La
+Fayette always founds the opinions he expresses on what is done at
+Philadelphia.... Even bishops and archbishops belong to the Opposition,
+and a great many of the clergy are the very soul of the cabal. You may
+judge, after this, of all the resources which they employ to overturn the
+plans of the king and his ministers."
+
+Calonne, however, as has already been intimated, had been dismissed from
+office before this last letter was written. There had been a trial of
+strength between him and his enemies; which he, believing that he had won
+the confidence of Louis himself, reckoned on turning to his own advantage,
+by inducing the king to dismiss those of his opponents who were in office.
+To his astonishment, he found that Louis preferred dispensing with his own
+services, and the general voice was probably correct when it, affirmed
+that it was the queen who had induced him to come to that decision.
+
+Loménie de Brienne, Archbishop of Toulouse, was again a candidate for the
+vacant post, and De Vermond was as diligent as on the previous occasion[8]
+in laboring to return the obligations under which that prelate had
+formerly laid him, by extolling his abilities and virtues to the queen,
+and recommending him as a worthy successor to Calonne, whom she had never
+trusted or liked. In reality, the archbishop was wholly destitute of
+either abilities or virtues. He was notorious both for open profligacy and
+for avowed infidelity, so much so that Louis had refused to transfer him
+to the diocese of Paris, on the ground that "at least the archbishop of
+the metropolis ought to believe in God.[9]" But Marie Antoinette was
+ignorant of his character, and believed De Vermond's assurance that the
+appointment of so high an ecclesiastic would propitiate the clergy, whose
+opposition, as many of her letters prove, she thought specially
+formidable, and for whose support she knew her husband to be nervously
+anxious. Some of Calonne's colleagues strongly urged the king to
+re-appoint Necker, whose recall would have been highly popular with the
+nation. But Necker had recently given Louis personal offense by publishing
+a reply to some of Calonne's statements, in defiance of the king's express
+prohibition, and had been banished from Paris for the act; and the queen,
+recollecting how he had formerly refused to withdraw his resignation at
+her entreaty, felt that she had no reason to expect any great
+consideration for the opinions or wishes of either herself or the king
+from one so conceited and self-willed, who would be likely to attribute
+his re-appointment, not to the king's voluntary choice, but to his
+necessities: she therefore strongly pressed that the archbishop should be
+preferred. In an unhappy moment she prevailed;[10] and on the 1st of May,
+1787, Loménie de Brienne was installed in office with the title of Chief
+of the Council of Finance.
+
+A more unhappy choice could not possibly have been made. The new minister
+was soon seen to be as devoid of information and ability as he was known
+to be of honesty. He had a certain gravity of outward demeanor which
+imposed upon many, and he had also the address to lead the conversation to
+points which, his hearers understood still less than himself; dilating on
+finance and the money market even to the ladies of the court, who had had
+some share in persuading the queen of his fitness for office.[11] But his
+disposition was in reality as rash as that of Calonne; and it was a
+curious proof of his temerity, as well as of his ignorance of the feeling
+of parties in Paris, that though he knew the Notables to be friendly to
+him, as indeed they would have been to any one who might have superseded
+Calonne, he dismissed them before the end of the month. And the language
+held on their dissolution both by the ministers and by the President of
+the Notables, and which was cheerfully accepted by the people, is
+remarkable from the contrast which it affords to the feelings which swayed
+the national council exactly two years afterward. Some measures of
+retrenchment which the Notables had recommended had been adopted; some
+reductions had been made in the royal households; some costly ceremonies
+had been abolished; and one or two imposts, which had pressed with great
+severity on the poorer classes, had been extinguished or modified. And not
+only did M. Lamoignon, the Keeper of the Seals, in the speech in which he
+dismissed them, venture to affirm that these reductions would be found to
+have effected all that was needed to restore universal prosperity to the
+kingdom; but the President of the Assembly, in his reply, thanked God "for
+having caused him to be born in such an age, under such a government, and
+for having made him the subject of a king whom he was constrained to
+love," and the thanksgiving was re-echoed by the whole Assembly. But this
+contentment did not last long. The embarrassments of the Treasury were too
+serious to be dissipated by soft speeches. The Notables were hardly
+dissolved before the archbishop proposed a new loan of an enormous amount;
+and, as he might have foreseen, their dissolution revived the pretensions
+of the Parliament. The queen's description of the rise of a French
+opposition at once received a practical commentary. The debates in the
+Parliament became warmer than they had ever been since the days of the
+Fronde: the citizens, sharing in the excitement, thronged the palace of
+the Parliament, expressing their approval or disapproval of the different
+speakers by disorderly and unprecedented clamor; the great majority
+hooting down the minister and his supporters, and cheering those who spoke
+against him. The Duc d'Orléans, by open bribes, gained over many of the
+councilors to oppose the court in every thing. The registration of several
+of the edicts which the minister had sent down was refused; and one member
+of the Orleanist party even demanded the convocation of the States-
+general, formerly and constitutionally the great council of the nation,
+but which had never been assembled since the time of Richelieu.
+
+The archbishop was sometimes angry, and sometimes terrified, and as weak
+in his anger as in his terror. He persuaded the king to hold a bed of
+justice to compel the registration of the edicts. When the Parliament
+protested, he banished it to Troyes. In less than a month he became
+alarmed at his own vigor, and recalled it. Encouraged by his
+pusillanimity, and more secure than ever of the support of the citizens
+who had been thrown into consternation by his demand of a second loan,
+nearly[12] six times as large as the first, it became more audacious and
+defiant than ever, D'Orléans openly placing himself at the head of the
+malcontents. Loménie persuaded the king to banish the duke, and to arrest
+one or two of his most vehement partisans; and again in a few weeks
+repented of this act of decision also, released the prisoners, and
+recalled the duke.
+
+As a matter of course, the Parliament grew bolder still. Every measure
+which the minister proposed was rejected; and under the guidance of one of
+their members, Duval d'Esprémesnil, the councilors at last proceeded so
+far as to take the initiative in new legislation into their own hands. In
+the first week in May, 1788, they passed a series of resolutions affirming
+that to be the law which indeed ought to have been so, but which had
+certainly never been regarded as such at any period of French history. One
+declared that magistrates were irremovable, except in cases of misconduct;
+another, that the individual liberty and property of every citizen were
+inviolable; others insisted on the necessity of convoking the States-
+general as the only assembly entitled to impose taxes; and the councilors
+hoped to secure the royal acceptance of these resolutions by some previous
+votes which asserted that, of those laws which were the very foundation of
+the Constitution, the first was that which assured the "crown to the
+reigning house and to its descendants in the male line, in the order of
+primogeniture.[13]"
+
+But Louis, or rather his rash minister, was not to be so conciliated; and
+a scene ensued which is the first of the striking parallels which this
+period in France affords to the events which had taken place in England a
+century and a half before. As in 1642 Charles I. had attempted to arrest
+members of the English Parliament in the very House of Commons, so the
+archbishop now persuaded Louis to send down the captain of the guard, the
+Marquis d'Agoust, to the palace of the Parliament, to seize D'Esprémesnil,
+and another councilor named Montsabert, who had been one of his foremost
+supporters in the recent discussions. They behaved with admirable dignity.
+Marie Antoinette was not one to betray her husband's counsels, as
+Henrietta Maria had betrayed those of Charles. D'Esprémesnil and his
+friend, wholly taken by surprise, had had no warning of what was designed,
+no time to withdraw, nor in all probability would they have done so in any
+case. When M. d'Agoust entered the council hall and demanded his
+prisoners, there was a great uproar. The whole Assembly made common cause
+with their two brethren who were thus threatened. "We are all
+d'Esprémesnils and Montsaberts," was their unanimous cry; while the tumult
+at the doors, where a vast multitude was collected, many of whom had arms
+in their hands and seemed prepared to use them, was more formidable still.
+But D'Agoust, though courteous in the discharge of his duty, was intrepid
+and firm; and the two members voluntarily surrendered themselves and
+retired in custody, while the archbishop was so elated with his triumph
+that a few days afterwards he induced the king to venture on another
+imitation of the history of England, though now it was not Charles, but
+the more tyrannical Cromwell, whose conduct was copied. Before the end of
+the month the Governor of Paris entered the palace of the Parliament,
+seized all the registers and documents of every kind, locked the doors,
+and closed them with the king's seal; and a royal edict was issued
+suspending all the parliaments both in the capital and the provinces.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+Formidable Riots take place in some Provinces.--The Archbishop invites
+Necker to join his Ministry.--Letter of Marie Antoinette describing her
+Interview with the Archbishop, and her Views.--Necker refuses.--The Queen
+sends Messages to Necker.--The Archbishop resigns, and Necker becomes
+Minister.--The Queen's View of his Character.--General Rejoicing.--Defects
+in Necker's Character.--He recalls the Parliament.--Riots in Paris.--
+Severe Winter.--General Distress.--Charities of the King and Queen.--
+Gratitude of the Citizens.--The Princes are concerned in the Libels
+published against the Queen.--Preparations for the Meeting of the States-
+general.--Long Disuse of that Assembly.--Need of Reform.--Vices Of the Old
+Feudal System.--Necker's Blunders in the Arrangements for the Meeting of
+the States.--An Edict of the King concedes the Chief Demands of the
+Commons.--Views of the Queen.
+
+
+The whole kingdom was thrown into great and dangerous excitement by these
+transactions. Little as were the benefits which the people had ever
+derived from the conduct of the Parliament, their opposition to the
+archbishop, who had already had time to make himself generally hated and
+despised, caused the councilors to be very generally regarded as champions
+of liberty; and in the most distant provinces, in Béarn, in Isère, and in
+Brittany, public meetings (a thing hitherto unknown in the history of the
+nation) were held, remonstrances were drawn up, confederacies were formed,
+and oaths were administered by which those who took them bound themselves
+never to surrender what they affirmed to be the ancient privileges of the
+nation.
+
+The archbishop became alarmed; a little, perhaps, for the nation and the
+king, but far more for his own place, which he had already contrived to
+render profitable to himself by the preferments which it had enabled him
+to engross. And, in the hope of saving it, he now entreated Necker to join
+the Government, proposing to yield up the management of the finances to
+him, and to retain only the post of prime minister.
+
+A letter from the queen to Mercy shows that she acquiesced in the scheme.
+Her disapproval of Necker's past conduct was outweighed by her sense of
+the need which the State had of his financial talents; though, for reasons
+which she explains, she was unwilling wholly to sacrifice the archbishop;
+and the letter has a further interest as displaying some of the
+difficulties which arose from the peculiar disposition of the king, while
+every one was daily more and more learning to look upon her as the more
+important person in the Government. On the 19th of August, 1783, she
+writes to Mercy,[1] whom the archbishop had employed as his agent to
+conciliate the stubborn Swiss Banker:
+
+"The archbishop came to me this morning, immediately after he had seen
+you, to report to me the conversation which he had had with you. I spoke
+to him very frankly, and was touched by what he said. He is at this moment
+with the king, to try and get him to decide; but I very much fear that M.
+Necker will not accept while the archbishop remains. The animosity of the
+public against him is pushed so far that M. Necker will be afraid of being
+compromised, and, indeed, perhaps it might injure his credit; but, at the
+same time, what is to be done? In truth and conscience we can not
+sacrifice a man who has made for as all these sacrifices of his
+reputation, of his position in the world, perhaps even of his life; for I
+fear they would kill him. There is yet M. Foulon, if M. Necker refuses
+absolutely.[2] But I suspect him of being a very dishonest man; and
+confidence would not be established with him for comptroller. I fear, too,
+that the public is pressing us to take a part much more humiliating for
+the ministers, and much more vexatious for ourselves, inasmuch as we shall
+have done nothing of our own will. I am very unhappy. I will close my
+letter after I know the result of this evening's conference. I greatly
+fear the archbishop will be forced to retire altogether, and then what man
+are we to take to place at the head of the whole? For we must have one,
+especially with M. Necker. He must have a bridle; and the person who is
+above me[3] is not able to be such; and I, whatever people may say, and
+whatever happens, am never any thing but second; and, in spite of the
+confidence which the first has in me, he often makes me feel it.... The
+archbishop has just gone. The king is very unwilling; and could only be
+brought to make up his mind by a promise that the person[4] should only be
+sounded; and that no positive engagement should be made."
+
+Necker refused. The next day Mercy reported to the queen that, though the
+excitement was great, it confined itself to denunciations of the
+archbishop and of the keeper of the seals; and that "the name of the queen
+had never once been mentioned;" and on the 22d, Marie Antoinette,[5] from
+a conviction of the greatness of the emergency, determined to see Necker
+herself; and employed the embassador and De Vermond to let him know that
+her own wish for his restoration to the direction of the finances was
+sincere and earnest, and to promise him that the archbishop should not
+interfere in that department in any way whatever. Two days later,[6] she
+wrote again to mention that the king had vanquished his repugnance to
+Necker, and had come wholly over to her opinion. "Time pressed, and it was
+more essential than ever that Necker should accept;" and on the 25th she
+writes a final letter to report to Mercy that the archbishop has resigned,
+and that she has just summoned Necker to come to her the next morning.
+Though she felt that she had done what was both right and indispensable,
+she was not without misgivings. "If," she writes, in a strain of anxious
+despondency very foreign to her usual tone, and which shows how deeply she
+felt the importance of the crisis, and of every step that might be taken--
+"if he will but undertake the task, it is the best thing that can be done;
+but I tremble (excuse my weakness) at the fact that it is I who have
+brought him back. It is my fate to bring misfortune, and, if infernal
+machinations should cause him once more to fail, or if he should lower the
+authority of the king, they will hate me still more."
+
+In one point of view she need not have trembled at being known to have
+caused Necker's re-appointment, since it is plain that no other nomination
+was possible. Vergennes had died a few months before, and the whole
+kingdom did not supply a single statesman of reputation except Necker. Nor
+could any choice have for the moment been more universally popular. The
+citizens illuminated Paris; the mob burned the archbishop in effigy; and
+the leading merchants and bankers showed their approval in a far more
+practical way. The funds rose; loans to any amount were freely offered to
+the Treasury; the national credit revived; as if the solvency or
+insolvency of the nation depended on a single man, and him a foreigner.
+
+Yet, if regarded in any point of view except that of a financier, he was
+extremely unfit to be the minister at such a crisis; and the queen's
+acuteness had, in the extract from her letter which has been, quoted
+above, correctly pointed out the danger to be apprehended, namely, that he
+might lower the authority of the king.[7] It was, in fact, to his uniform
+and persistent degradation of the king's authority that the greater part,
+if not the whole, of the evils which ensued may be clearly traced, and the
+cause that led him to adopt this fatal system was thoroughly visible to
+one gifted with such intuitive penetration into character as Marie
+Antoinette. For he had two great defects or weaknesses; an overweening
+vanity, which, as it is valued applause above every thing, led him to
+regard the popularity which they might win for him as the natural motive
+and the surest test of his actions; and an abstract belief in human
+perfection and in the submission of all classes to strict reason, which
+could only proceed from a total ignorance of mankind.[8] Yet, greatly as
+financial skill was needed, if the kingdom was to be saved from the
+bankruptcy which seemed to be imminent, it was plain that a faculty for
+organization and legislation was no less indispensable if the vessel of
+the State was to be steered safely along the course on which it was
+entering; for the archbishop's last act had been to induce the king to
+promise to convoke the States-general. The 1st of May of the ensuing year
+was fixed for their meeting; and the arrangements for and the management
+of an assembly, which, as not having met for nearly two hundred years,
+could not fail to present many of the features of an entire novelty, were
+a task which would have severely tested the most statesman-like capacity.
+
+But, unhappily, Necker's very first acts showed him equally void of
+resolution and of sagacity. He was not only unable to estimate the
+probable conduct of the people in future, but he showed himself incapable
+of profiting by the experience of the past; and, in spite of the
+insubordinate spirit which the Parliament had at all times displayed, he
+at once recalled them in deference to the clamor of the Parisian citizens,
+and allowed them to enter Paris in a triumphal procession, as if his very
+object had been to parade their victory over the king's authority. Their
+return was the signal for a renewal of riots, which assumed a more
+formidable character than ever. The police, and even the guardhouses, were
+attacked in open day, and the Government had reason to suspect that the
+money which was employed in fomenting the tumults was supplied by the Duc
+d'Orléans. A fierce mob traversed the streets at night, terrifying the
+peaceable inhabitants with shouts of triumph over the king as having been
+compelled to recall the Parliament against his will; while those who were
+supposed to be adverse to the pretensions of the councilors were insulted
+in the streets, and branded as Royalists, the first time in the history of
+the nation that ever that name had been used as a term of reproach.
+
+Yet, presently the whole body of citizens, with their habitual impulsive
+facility of temper, again, for a while, became Royalists. The winter was
+one of unprecedented severity. By the beginning of December the Seine was
+frozen over, and the whole adjacent country was buried in deep snow.
+Wolves from the neighboring forests, desperate with hunger, were said to
+have made their way into the suburbs, and to have attacked people in the
+streets. Food of every kind became scarce, and of the poorer classes many
+were believed to have died of actual starvation. Necker, as head of the
+Government, made energetic and judicious efforts to relieve the universal
+distress, forming magazines in different districts, facilitating the means
+of transport, finding employment for vast numbers of laborers and
+artisans, and purchasing large quantities of grain in foreign countries;
+and, not only were Louis and Marie Antoinette conspicuous for the
+unstinting liberality with which they devoted their own funds to the
+supply of the necessities of the destitute, but the queen, in many cases
+of unusual or pressing suffering that were reported to her in Versailles
+and the neighboring villages, sent trustworthy persons to investigate
+them, and in numerous instances went herself to the cottages, making
+personal inquiries into the condition of the occupants, and showing not
+only a feeling heart, but a considerate and active kindness, which doubled
+the value of her benefactions by the gracious, thoughtful manner in which
+they were bestowed.
+
+She would willingly have done the good she did in secret, partly from her
+constant feeling that charity was not charity if it were boasted of,
+partly from a fear that those ready to misconstrue all her acts would find
+pretexts for evil and calumny even in her bounty. One of her good deeds
+struck Necker as of so remarkable a character that he pressed her to allow
+him to make it known. "Be sure, on the contrary," she replied, "that you
+never mention it. What good could it do? they would not believe you;[9]"
+but in this she was mistaken. Her charities were too widely spread to
+escape the knowledge even of those who did not profit by them; and they
+had their reward, though it was but a short-lived one. Though the majority
+of her acts of personal kindness were performed in Versailles rather than
+in Paris, the Parisians were as vehement in their gratitude as the
+Versaillese; and it found a somewhat fantastic vent in the erection of
+pyramids and obelisks of snow in different quarters of the city, all
+bearing inscriptions testifying the citizens' sense of her benevolence.
+One, which far exceeded all its fellows in size--the chief beauty of works
+of that sort--since it was fifteen feet high, and each of the four faces
+was twelve feet wide at the base, was decorated with a medallion of the
+royal pair, and bore a poetical inscription commemorating the cause of its
+erection:
+
+  "Reine, dont la beauté surpasse les appas
+  Près d'un roi bienfaisant occupe ici la place.
+  Si ce monument frêle est de neige et de glace,
+    Nos coeurs pour toi ne le sont pas.
+    De ce monument sans exemple,
+  Couple auguste, l'aspect bien doux pur votre coeur
+  Sans doute vous plaira plus qu'un palais, qu'un temple
+   Que vous élèverait un peuple adulateur.[10]"
+
+Neither the queen's feelings nor her conduct had been in any way altered;
+but six months later the same populace who raised this monument and
+applauded these verses were, with ferocious and obscene threats, clamoring
+for her blood. And there is hardly any thing more strange or more grievous
+in the history of the nation, hardly any greater proof of that incurable
+levity which was one great cause of the long series of miseries which soon
+fell upon it, than that the impressions of gratitude which were so vivid
+at the moment, and so constantly revived by the queen's untiring
+benevolence, could yet be so easily effaced by the acts of demagogues and
+libelers, whom the people thoroughly despised even while suffering
+themselves to be led by them. How great a part in these libels was borne
+by those who were bound by every tie of blood to the king to be his
+warmest supporters, we have a remarkable proof in an Edict of Council
+which was issued during the ministry of the archbishop, and which deprived
+the palaces of the Count de Provence, the Count d'Artois, and the Duc
+d'Orléans of their usual exemption from the investigation of the syndics
+of the library, as those officers were called whose duty it was to search
+all suspected places for libelous or seditious pamphlets; the reason
+publicly given for this edict being that the dwellings of these three
+princes were a perfect arsenal for the issue of publications contrary to
+the laws, to morality, and to religion.[11]
+
+With the return of spring, the severity of the distress began to pass
+away. But, even while it lasted, it scarcely diverted the attention of the
+middle classes from the preparations for the approaching meeting of the
+States-general, from which the whole people, with few exceptions, promised
+themselves great advantages, though comparatively few had formed any
+precise notion of the benefits which they expected, or of the mode in
+which they were to be attained. The States-general had been originally
+established in the same age which saw the organization of our own
+Parliament, with very nearly the same powers, though the members had more
+of the narrower character of delegates of their constituents than was the
+case in England, where they were more wisely regarded as representatives
+of the entire nation.[12] And it was an acknowledged principle of their
+constitution that they could neither propose any measure nor ask for the
+redress of any grievance which was not expressly mentioned in the
+instructions with which their constituents furnished them at the time of
+their election.
+
+In England, the two Houses of Parliament, by a vigilant and systematic
+perseverance, had gradually extorted from the sovereign a great and
+progressive enlargement of their original powers, till they had almost
+engrossed the entire legislative authority in the kingdom. But in France,
+a variety of circumstances had prevented the States-general from arriving
+at a similar development. And, consequently, as in human affairs very
+little is stationary, their authority had steadily diminished, instead of
+increasing, till they had become so powerless and utterly insignificant
+that, since the year 1615, they had never once been convened. Not only had
+they been wholly disused, but they seemed to have been wholly forgotten.
+During the last two reigns no one had ever mentioned their name; much less
+had any wish been expressed for their resuscitation, till the financial
+difficulties of the Government, and the general and growing discontent of
+the great majority of the nation, with which, since the death of Turgot,
+every successive minister had been manifestly incompetent to deal, had, as
+we have seen, led some ardent reformers to demand their restoration, as
+the one expedient which had not been tried, and which, therefore, had this
+in its favor, that it was not condemned by previous failure.
+
+That great reforms were indispensable was admitted in every quarter. There
+was no country in Europe where the feudal system had received so little
+modification.[13] Every law seemed to have been made, and every custom to
+have been established for the exclusive benefit of the nobles. They were
+even exempted from many of the taxes, an exemption which was the more
+intolerable from the vast number of persons who were included in the list.
+Practically it may be said that there were two classes of nobles--the old
+historic houses, as they were sometimes called, such as the Grammonts or
+Montmorencies, which were not numerous, and many of which had greatly
+decayed in wealth and influence; and an inferior class whose nobility was
+derived from their possession of office under the crown in any part of the
+kingdom. Even tax-gatherers and surveyors, if appointed by royal warrant,
+could claim the rank; and new offices were continually being created and
+sold which conferred the same title. Those so ennobled were not reckoned
+the equals of the higher class. They could not even be received at court
+until their patents were four hundred years old, but they had a right to
+vote as nobles at elections to any representative body. Those whose
+patents were twenty-four years old could be elected as representatives;
+and from the moment of their creation they all enjoyed great exemptions;
+so that, as the lowest estimate reckoned their numbers at a hundred
+thousand, it is a matter for some wonder how the taxes to which they did
+not contribute produced any thing worth collecting. It was, of course,
+manifest that the exemptions enormously increased the burden to be borne
+by the classes which did not enjoy such privileges.
+
+But, heavy as the grievance of these exemptions was, it was as nothing
+when compared with the feudal rights claimed by the greater nobles. The
+peasants on their estates were forced to grind their corn at the lord's
+mill, to press their grapes at his wine-press, paying for such act
+whatever price he might think fit to exact, and often having their crops
+wholly wasted or spoiled by the delays which such a system engendered. The
+game-laws forbade them to weed their fields lest they should disturb the
+young partridges or leverets; to manure the soil with any thing which
+might injure their flavor; or even to mow or reap till the grass or corn
+was no longer required as shelter for the young coveys. Some of the rights
+of seigniory, as it was called, were such as can hardly be mentioned in
+this more decorous age; some were so ridiculous that it is inconceivable
+how their very absurdity had not led to their abolition. In the marshy
+districts of Brittany, one right enjoyed by the great nobles was "the
+silence of the frogs,[14]" which, whenever the lady was confined, bound
+the peasants to spend their days and nights in beating the swamps with
+long poles to save her from being disturbed by their inharmonious
+croaking. And if this or any other feudal right was dispensed with, it was
+only commuted for a money payment, which was little less burdensome.
+
+The powers exercised by the crown were more intolerable still. The
+sovereign was absolute master of the liberties of his subjects. Without
+alleging the commission of any crime, he could issue warrants--letters
+under seal, as they were called--which consigned the person named in them
+to imprisonment, which was often perpetual. The unhappy prisoner had no
+power of appeal. No judge could inquire into his case, much less release
+him. The arrests were often made with such secrecy and rapidity that his
+nearest relations knew not what had become of him, but he was cut off from
+the outer world, for the rest of his life, as completely as if he had at
+once been handed over to the executioner.[15]
+
+It was impossible but that such customs should produce general discontent,
+and a resolute demand for a complete reformation of the system. And one of
+the problems which the minister had to determine was, how to organize the
+States-general so that they should be disposed to promote such measures as
+reform as should be adequate without being excessive; as should give due
+protection to the middle and lower classes without depriving the nobles of
+that dignity and authority which were not only desirable for themselves,
+but useful to their dependents; and, lastly, such as should carefully
+preserve the rightful prerogatives of the crown, while putting an end to
+those arbitrary powers, the existence of which was incompatible with the
+very name of freedom.
+
+In making the necessary arrangements, the long disuse of the Assembly was
+a circumstance greatly in favor of the Government, if Necker had had skill
+to avail himself of it, since it wholly freed him from the obligation of
+being guided by former precedents. Those arrangements were long and warmly
+debated in the king's council. Though the records of former sessions had
+been so carelessly preserved that little was known of their proceedings,
+it seemed to be established that the representatives of the Commons had
+usually amounted to about four-tenths of the whole body, those of the
+clergy and of the nobles being each about three-tenths; and that they had
+almost invariably deliberated and voted in separate chambers; and the
+princes and the chief nobles presented memorials to the king, in which
+they almost unanimously recommended an adherence to these ancient forms;
+while, with patriotic prudence, they sought to obviate all jealousy of
+their own pretensions or views which might be entertained or feigned in
+any quarter, by announcing their willingness to abandon all the exclusive
+privileges and exemptions which they had hitherto possessed, and which
+were notoriously one chief cause of the generally prevailing discontent.
+
+But the party which had originated the clamor for the States-general, now,
+encouraged by their success, put forward two fresh demands; the first,
+that the number of the representatives of the Commons should equal that of
+both the other orders put together, which they called "the duplication of
+the Third Estate;" the second, that the three orders should meet and vote
+as one united body in one chamber; the two proposition taken together
+being manifestly calculated and designed to throw the whole power into the
+hands of the Commons.
+
+Necker had great doubts about the propriety and safety of the first
+proposal, and no doubt at all of the danger of the second. His own
+judgment was that the wisest plan would be to order the clergy and nobles
+to unite in an Upper Chamber, so as in some degree to resemble the British
+House of Lords; while the Third Estate, in a Lower Chamber, would be a
+tolerably faithful copy of our House of Commons. But he could never bring
+himself to risk his popularity by opposing what he regarded as the opinion
+of the masses. He was alarmed by the political clubs which were springing
+up in Paris; one, whose president was the Duc d'Orléans, assuming the
+significant and menacing title of Les Enragés;[16] and by the vast number
+of pamphlets which were circulated both in the capital and the chief towns
+of the provinces by thousands,[17] every writer of which put himself
+forward as a legislator,[18] and of which the vast majority advocated what
+they called the rights of the Third Estate, in most violent language; and,
+finally, he adopted the course which is a great favorite with vain and
+weak men, and which he probably represented to himself as a compromise
+between unqualified concession and unyielding resistance, though, every
+one possessed of the slightest penetration could see that it practically
+surrendered both points: he advised the king to issue his edict that the
+number of representatives to be returned to the States-general should be
+twelve hundred, half of whom were to be returned by the Commons, a quarter
+by the clergy, and a quarter by the nobles;[19] and to postpone the
+decision as to the number of the chambers till the Assembly should meet,
+when he proposed to allow the States themselves to determine it; trusting,
+against all probability, that, after having thus given the Commons the
+power to enforce their own views, he should be able to persuade them to
+abandon the same in deference to his judgment.
+
+Louis, as a matter of course, adopted his advice; and, after several
+different towns--Blois, Tours, Cambrai, and Compiègne among them--had been
+proposed as the place of meeting, he himself decided in favor of
+Versailles,[20] as that which would afford him the best hunting while the
+session lasted. The queen in her heart disapproved of every one of these
+resolutions. She saw that Necker had, as she had foreboded, sacrificed the
+king's authority by his advice on the two first questions; and she
+perceived more clearly than any one the danger of fixing the States-
+general so near to Paris that the turbulent population of the city should
+be able to overawe the members. She pressed these considerations earnestly
+on the king,[21] but it was characteristic of the course which she
+prescribed to herself from, the beginning, and from which she never
+swerved, that when her advice was overruled she invariably defended the
+course which had been taken. Her language, when any one spoke to her
+either of her own opinions and wishes, or of the feelings with which the
+different classes of the nation regarded her, was invariably the same.
+"You are not to think of me for a moment. All that I desire of you is to
+take care that the respect which is due to the king shall not be
+weakened;[22]" and it was only her most intimate friends who knew how
+unwise she thought the different decisions that had been adopted, or how
+deep were her forebodings of evil.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+The Reveillon Riot.--Opening of the States-general.--The Queen is insulted
+by the Partisans of the Duc d'Orléans.--Discussions as to the Number of
+Chambers.--Career and Character of Mirabeau.--Necker rejects his Support.
+--He determines to revenge himself.--Death of the Dauphin.
+
+
+The meeting of the States-general, as has been already seen, was fixed for
+the 4th of May, 1789; and, as if it were fated that the bloody character
+of the period now to be inaugurated should be displayed from the very
+outset, the elections for the city of Paris, which were only held in the
+preceding week, were stained with a riot so formidable as to be commonly
+spoken of in the records of the time as an insurrection.[1]
+
+One of the candidates for the representation of the Third Estate was a
+paper-maker of the name of Reveillon, a man eminent for his charity and
+general liberality, but one who was believed to regard the views of the
+extreme reformers with disfavor. He was so popular with his own workmen,
+who were very numerous, and with their friends, who knew his character
+from them, that he was generally expected to succeed. The opposite party,
+who had candidates of their own, and had the support of the purse of the
+Duc d'Orléans, were determined that he should not; and no way seemed so
+sure as to murder him. Bands of ferocious-looking ruffians were brought in
+from the country districts, armed with heavy bludgeons, and, as was
+afterward learned, well supplied with money; and on the morning of the
+28th of April news was brought to the Baron de Besenval, the commander of
+the Royal Guards, that a mob of several thousand men had collected in the
+streets, who had read a mock sentence, professing to have been passed by
+the Third Estate, which condemned Reveillon to be hanged, after which they
+had burned him in effigy, and then attacked his house, which they were
+sacking and destroying. They even ventured to attack the first company of
+soldiers whom De Besenval sent to the rescue; and it was not till he
+dispatched a battalion with a couple of field-pieces to the spot that the
+plunderers were expelled from the house and the riot was quelled. Nearly
+five hundred of the mob were killed, but when the Parliament proceeded to
+set on foot a judicial inquiry into the cause of the tumult, Necker
+prevailed on the secretary of state to suppress the investigation, as he
+feared to exasperate D'Orléans further by giving publicity to his
+machinations, which he did not yet suspect either the extent or the
+object.[2]
+
+A momentary tranquility was, however, restored at Paris; and all eyes were
+turned from the capital to Versailles, where the first few days of May
+were devoted to the receptions of the States-general by the king and
+queen, ceremonies which might have had a good effect, since the bitterest
+adversaries of the court were favorably impressed by the grace and
+affability of the queen; but which many shrewd judges afterward believed
+to have had a contrary influence, from the offense taken by the
+representatives of the Commons at some of the details of the ancient
+etiquette, which on so solemn an occasion was revived in all its stately
+strictness. The dignitaries of the Church wore their most sumptuous robes.
+The Nobles glittered with silk and gold lace; jeweled clasps fastened
+plumes of feathers in their hats; orders glittered on their breasts; and
+many a precious stone sparkled in the hilts of their swords. The
+representatives of the Commons were allowed neither feathers, nor
+embroidery, nor swords; but were forced to content themselves with plain
+black cloaks, and an unadorned homeliness of attire, which seemed as if
+intended to exclude all idea of their being the equals of those other
+orders of which they had for a moment become the colleagues. And, in a
+similar spirit it was arranged that, after the folding-doors of the saloon
+in which the sovereigns were awaiting them were thrown wide open to admit
+the representatives of the higher orders, the Commons were let in through
+a side door. And though in the eyes of persons habituated to the
+ceremonious niceties of court life these distinctions seemed matters of
+course, and, as such, unworthy of notice, it can hardly be wondered at if
+they were galling to men accustomed only to the simpler manners of a
+provincial town; and who, proud of their new position and deeply impressed
+with its importance, fancied they saw in them a settled intention to
+degrade both them and their constituents by thus stamping them with a
+badge of inferiority before all the spectators.
+
+The opening of the States-general was fixed for the 5th of May, and on the
+day before, which was Sunday, a solemn mass was performed at the principal
+church in Versailles, that of Notre Dame; after which the congregation
+proceeded to another church,  that of St. Louis, to hear a sermon from the
+Bishop of Nancy. It was a stately procession that moved from one church to
+the other, and it was afterward remembered as the very last in which the
+royal pair appeared before their subjects with the undiminished
+magnificence of ancient ceremony. First, after a splendid escort of
+troops, came the members of the States in their several orders; then the
+king marched by himself; the queen followed; and behind her came the
+princes and princesses of the royal family of the blood, the officers of
+state and of the household, and companies of the Body-guard brought up the
+rear. The acclamations of the spectators were loud as the deputies of the
+States, and especially as the representatives of the Commons, passed on;
+loud, too, as the king; moved forward, bearing himself with unusual
+dignity; but, when the queen advanced, though still the main body of the
+people cheered with sincere respect, a gang of ruffians, among whom were
+several women,[3] shouted out "Long live the Duke of Orléans!" in her ear,
+with so menacing an accent that, she nearly fainted with terror. By a
+strong mastery over herself she shook off the agitation, which was only
+perceived by her immediate attendants; but the disloyal feeling thus shown
+toward her at the outset was a sad omen of the spirit in which one party
+at least was prepared to view the measures of the Government; and, so far
+as she was concerned, of the degree in which her enemies had succeeded in
+poisoning the minds of the people against her, as the person whose
+resistance to their meditated encroachments on the royal authority was
+likely to prove the most formidable.
+
+It was a significant hint, too, of the projects already formed by the
+worthless prince whose adherents these ruffians proclaimed themselves. The
+Duc d'Orléans conceived himself to have lately received a fresh
+provocation, and an additional motive for revenge. His eldest son, the Duc
+de Chartres,[4] was now a boy of sixteen, and he had proposed to the king
+to give him Madame Royale in marriage; an idea which the queen, who held
+his character in deserved abhorrence, had rejected with very decided marks
+of displeasure. He was also stimulated by views of personal ambition. The
+history of England had been recently studied by many persons in France
+besides the king and queen; and there were not wanting advisers to point
+out to the duke that the revolution which had taken place in England
+exactly a century before had owed its success to the dethronement of the
+reigning sovereign and the substitution of another member of the royal
+family in his place. As William of Orange was, after the king's own
+children, the next heir to James II., so was the Duc d'Orléans now the
+next heir, after the king's children and brothers, to Louis XVI.; and for
+the next five months there can be no doubt that he and his partisans, who
+numbered in their body some of the most influential members of the States-
+general, kept constantly in view the hope of placing him on the throne
+from which they were to depose his cousin.
+
+The next day the States were formally opened by Louis in person. The place
+of meeting was a spacious hall which, two years before, had been used for
+the meeting of the Notables. It had been the scene of many a splendid
+spectacle in times past, but had never before witnessed so imposing or
+momentous a ceremony. The town itself had not risen into notice till the
+memory of the preceding States-general had almost passed away. And now,
+after all the deputies had ranged themselves to receive their sovereign,
+the representatives of the clergy on the right of the throne, the Nobles
+on the left, the Commons in denser masses at the bottom of the hall;[5] as
+the king, accompanied by the queen, leading two of her children[6] by the
+hand, and attended by all the princes of the royal family and of the
+blood, by the dukes and peers of the kingdom, the ministers and great
+officers of state, entered and took his seat on the throne, the most
+unimpassioned spectator must have felt that he was beholding a scene at
+once magnificent and solemn; and one, from long desuetude, as novel as if
+it had been wholly unprecedented, such as might well inaugurate a new
+policy or a new constitution.
+
+Could those who beheld it as spectators, could those who bore a part in
+the solemnity, have looked into futurity; could they have divined that no
+other hall would ever again see that virtuous and beneficent king
+surrounded with that pomp, or received with that reverential homage which
+was now paid to him as as unquestioned right; nay, that the end, of which
+this day was the beginning, scarcely one single person of all those now
+present, whether men in the flower of their strength, women in the pride
+of their beauty, or even children in their infantine innocence and grace,
+would live to behold; but that sovereigns and subjects were destined,
+almost without exception, to perish with circumstances of unutterable,
+unimaginable horror and misery, as the direct consequence of this day's
+pageant; we may well believe that the most sanguine of those who now
+greeted it with eager hope and exultation would rather have averted his
+eyes from the ill-omened spectacle, and would have preferred to bear the
+worst evils of which he was anticipating the abolition, to bringing on his
+country the calamities which were about to fall upon it.
+
+A large state arm-chair, a little lower than the throne, had been set
+beside it for the queen; the princes and princesses were ranged on each
+side on a row of chairs without arms; and, when all had taken their
+places, the king opened the session with a short speech, leaving the real
+business to be unfolded at greater length by his ministers. In order to
+feel assured of the proper emphasis and expression, he had rehearsed his
+speech frequently to the queen; and, as he now delivered it with unusual
+dignity and gracefulness, it was received with frequent acclamations,
+though some of those who were watching all that passed with the greatest
+anxiety fancied that one or two compliments to the queen which it
+contained met with a colder response; while, at its close, the
+representatives of the Third Estate gave an indication of their feeling
+toward the other orders, and provoked a display on their part which
+promised little cordiality to their deliberations. The king, who had
+uncovered himself while speaking, on resuming his seat replaced his hat.
+The Nobles, according to the ancient etiquette, replaced theirs; and many
+of the Commons at once asserted their equality with them by also covering
+themselves. Such an assumption was a breach of all established custom. The
+Nobles were indignant, and with angry shouts demanded the removal of the
+Commons' hats. They were met with louder clamor by the Commons, and in a
+moment the whole hall was in an uproar, which was only allayed by the
+presence of mind of Louis himself, who, as if oppressed by the heat, laid
+aside his own hat, when, as a matter of course, the Nobles followed his
+example. The deputies of the Commons did the same, and peace was restored.
+
+The king's speech was followed by another short one from the keeper of the
+seals, which received but little attention; and by one of prodigious
+length from Necker, which was equally injudicious and unacceptable to his
+hearers, both in what it said and in what it omitted. He never mentioned
+the question of constitutional reform. He said nothing of what the
+Commons, at least, thought still more important--the number of chambers in
+which the members were to meet; and, though he dilated at the most profuse
+length on the condition of the finances, and on his own success in
+re-establishing public credit, they were by no means pleased to hear him
+assert that success had removed any absolute necessity for their meeting
+at all, and that they had only been called together in fulfillment of the
+king's promise, that so the sovereign might establish a better harmony
+between the different parts of the Constitution.
+
+Before any business could be proceeded with, it was necessary for the
+members to have the writs of their elections properly certified and
+registered, for which they were to meet on the following day. We need not
+here detail the artifices and assumptions by which the members of the
+Third Estate put forward pretensions which were designed to make them
+masters of the whole Assembly; nor is it necessary to unfold at length the
+combination of audacity and craft, aided by the culpable weakness of
+Necker, by which they ultimately carried the point they contended for,
+providing that the three orders should deliberate and vote together as one
+united body in one chamber. Emboldened by their success, they even
+proceeded to a step which probably not one among them had originally
+contemplated; and, as if one of their principal objects had been to disown
+the authority of the king by which they had been called together, they
+repudiated the title of States-general, and invented for themselves a new
+name, that of "The National Assembly," which, as it had never been heard
+of before, seemed to mark that they owed their existence to the nation,
+and not to the sovereign.
+
+But the discussions that took place before all these points were settled,
+presented, besides the importance of the conclusion which was adopted,
+another feature of powerful interest, since it was in them that the
+members first heard the voice of the Count de Mirabeau, who, more than any
+other deputy, was supposed during the ensuing year to be able to sway the
+whole Assembly, and to hold the destinies of the nation in his hands.
+
+Necker's daughter, the celebrated Baroness de Staël, wife of the Swedish
+embassador, who was present at the opening of the States, which, as her
+father's daughter, she regarded with exulting confidence as the body of
+legislators who were to regenerate the nation, remarked, as the long
+procession passed before her eyes, that of the six hundred deputies of the
+Commons[7], the Count de Mirabeau alone bore a name which was previously
+known; and he was manifestly out of his place as a representative of the
+Commons. His history was a strange one. He was the eldest son of a
+Provençal noble, of Italian origin, great wealth, and a ferocious
+eccentricity of character, which made him one of the worst possible
+instructors for a youth of brilliant talents, unbridled passions, and a
+disposition equally impetuous in its pursuit of good and of evil. Even
+before he arrived at manhood he had become notorious for every kind of
+profligacy; while his father, in an almost equal degree, provoked the
+censure of those who interested themselves in the career of a youth of
+undeniable ability, by punishments of such severity as wore the appearance
+of vengeance rather than of fatherly correction. In six or seven years he
+obtained no fewer than fifteen warrants, or letters under seal, for the
+imprisonment of his son in different jails or fortresses, while the young
+man seemed to take a wanton pleasure in showing how completely all efforts
+for his reformation were thrown away. Though unusually ugly (he himself
+compared his face to that of a tiger who had had the small-pox), he was
+irresistible among women. While one of the youngest subalterns in the
+army, he made love, rarely without success, to the mistresses or wives of
+his superior officers, and fought duel after duel with those who took
+offense at his gallantries, From one castle in which he was imprisoned he
+was aided to escape by the wife of an officer of the garrison, who
+accompanied his flight. From another he was delivered by the love of a
+lady of the highest rank, the Marchioness de Monnier, whom he had met at
+the governor's table.
+
+When, after some years of misery, the marchioness terminated them by
+suicide, he seduced a nun of exquisite beauty to leave her convent for his
+sake; and as France was no longer a safe residence for them, he fled to
+Frederick of Prussia, who, equally glad to welcome him as a Frenchman, a
+genius, and a profligate, received him for a while into high favor. But he
+was penniless; and Frederick was never liberal of his money. Debt soon
+drove him from Prussia, and he retired to England, where he made
+acquaintance with Fox, Fitzpatrick, and other men of mark in the political
+circles of the day. He was at all times and amidst all his excesses both
+observant and studious; and while witnessing in person the strife of
+parties in this country, he learned to appreciate the excellencies of our
+Constitution, both in its theory and in its practical working. But
+presently debt drove him from London as it had driven him from Berlin;
+and, after taking refuge for a short time in Holland and Switzerland, he
+was hesitating whither next to betake himself, when, hearing of the
+elections for the States-general, he resolved to offer himself as a
+candidate; and returned to Provence to seek the suffrages of the Nobles of
+his own county.
+
+Unluckily, his character was too well known in his native district; and
+the Nobles, unwilling to countenance the ambition of one who had obtained
+so evil a notoriety, rejected him. Full of indignation, he turned to the
+Third Estate, offering himself as a representative of the Commons. In his
+speeches to the citizens of Aix and Marseilles--for he canvassed both
+towns--he inveighed against Necker and the Government with an eloquence
+which electrified his audience, who had never before been addressed in the
+language of independence. He was returned for both towns, and hastened to
+Versailles, eager to avenge on the Nobles, the body which, as he felt, he
+had a right to have represented, the affront which had driven him, against
+his will, to seek the votes of a class with which he had scarcely a
+feeling in common; for in the whole Assembly there was no man less of a
+democrat in his heart, or prouder of his ancestry and aristocratic
+privileges.
+
+He differed from most of his colleagues, inasmuch as he, from the first,
+had distinct views of the policy desirable for the nation, which he
+conceived to be the establishment of a limited constitutional monarchy,
+such as he had seen in England.[8] But no man in the whole Assembly was
+more inconsistent, as he was ever changing his views, or at least his
+conduct and language, at the dictates of interest or wounded pride;
+sometimes, as it might seem, in the mere wantonness of genius, as if he
+wished to show that he could lead the Assembly with equal ease to take a
+course, or to retrace its steps--that it rested with him alone alike to do
+or to undo. The only object from which he never departed was that of
+making all parties feel and bow to his influence. And it is this very
+inconsistency which so especially connects his career for the rest of his
+life with the fortunes of the queen, since, while he misunderstood her
+character, and feared her power with the king and ministers as likely to
+be exerted in opposition to his own views, he was the most ferocious and
+most foul of her enemies: when he saw that she was willing to accept his
+aid, and when he therefore began to conceive a hope of making her useful
+to himself in the prosecution of his designs, no man was louder in her
+praise, nor, it must be admitted, more energetic or more judicious in the
+advice which he gave her.
+
+His language on the first occasion on which he made his voice heard in the
+Assembly was eminently characteristic of him, so manifestly was it
+directed to the attainment of his own object--that of making himself
+necessary to the court, and obtaining either office or some pension which
+might enable him to live, since his own resources had long been exhausted
+by his extravagance. D'Espresménil had strongly advocated the doctrine
+that the meeting of the three orders in separate chambers was a
+fundamental principle of the monarchy; and Mirabeau, in opposition to him,
+moved an address to the king, which represented the Third Estate as
+desirous to ally itself with the throne, so as to enable it to resist the
+pretensions of the clergy and the nobles; and, as this speech of his
+produced no overture from the minister, in the middle of June he made a
+direct offer to Necker to support the Government, if Necker had any plan
+at all which was in the least reasonable;[9] and he gave proof of his
+sincerity by vigorously opposing some proposals of the extreme reformers.
+But, with incredible folly, Necker rejected his support, treating his
+arguments to his face as insignificant, and affirming that their views
+were irreconcilable, since Mirabeau wished to govern by policy, while he
+himself preferred morality.
+
+He at once resolved to revenge himself on the minister who had thus
+slighted him,[10] and he was not long in finding an opportunity. On the
+23d of June, after the States had assumed their new form, and Louis at a
+royal sitting had announced the reforms he had resolved to grant, and
+which were so complete that the most extreme reformers admitted that they
+could have wished for nothing more, except that they should themselves
+have taken them, and that the king should not have given them, Mirabeau
+took the lead in throwing down a defiance to his sovereign; refusing to
+consent to the adjournment of the Assembly, as was natural on the
+withdrawal of the king, and declaring that they, the members of the
+Commons, would not quit the hall unless they were expelled by bayonets.
+
+But, violently as Versailles and Paris were agitated throughout May and
+June, Marie Antoinette took no part in the discussion which these
+questions excited. She had a still graver trouble at home. Her eldest son,
+the dauphin, whose birth had been greeted so enthusiastically by all
+classes, had, as we have seen, long been sickly. Since the beginning of
+the year his health had been growing worse, and on the 4th of June he
+died; and, though his bereaved mother bore up bravely under his loss, she
+felt it deeply, and for a time was almost incapacitated from turning her
+attention to any other subject.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+Troops are brought up from the Frontier.--The Assembly petitions the King
+to withdraw them.--He refuses.--He dismisses Necker.---The Baron de
+Breteuil is appointed Prime Minister.--Terrible Riots in Paris.--The
+Tri-color Flag is adopted.--Storming of the Bastile and Murder of the
+Governor.--The Count d'Artois and other Princes fly from the Kingdom.--The
+King recalls Necker.--Withdraws the Soldiers and visits Paris.--Formation
+of the National Guard.-Insolence of La Fayette and Bailly.--Madame de
+Tourzel becomes Governess of the Royal Children--Letters of Marie
+Antoinette on their Character, and on her own Views of Education.
+
+
+But even so solemn, a grief as that for a dead child she was not suffered
+to indulge long. Even for such a purpose royalty is not always allowed the
+respite which would be conceded to those in a more moderate station; and
+affairs in Paris began to assume so menacing a character that she was
+forced to rouse herself to support her husband. Demagogues in Paris
+excited the lower classes of the citizens to formidable tumults. The
+troops were tampered with; they mutinied; and when the Assembly so
+violated its duty as to take the mutineers under its protection, and to
+intercede with the king for their pardon, Louis, or, as we should probably
+say, Necker, did not venture to refuse, though it was plain that the
+condign punishment of such an offense was indispensable to the maintenance
+of discipline for the future. And Louis felt the humiliation so deeply
+that some of those about him, the Count d'Artois taking the lead in that
+party, were able to induce him to bring up from the frontier some German
+and Swiss regiments, which, as not having been exposed to the contagion of
+the capital, were free from the prevailing taint of disloyalty. But Louis
+was incapable of carrying out any plan resolutely. He selected the
+commander with judgment, placing the troops under the orders of a veteran
+of the Seven Years' War, the old Marshal de Broglie, who, though more than
+seventy years of age, gladly brought once more his tried skill and valor
+to the service of his sovereign. But the king, even while intrusting him
+with this command, disarmed him at the same moment by a strict order to
+avoid all bloodshed and violence; though nothing could be more obvious
+than that such outbreaks as the marshal was likely to be called on to
+suppress could not be quelled by gentle means.
+
+The Orleanists and Mirabeau probably knew nothing of this humane or rather
+pusillanimous order, though most of the secrets of the court were betrayed
+to them; but Mirabeau saw in the arrival of the soldiers a fresh
+opportunity of making the king feel the folly of the minister in rejecting
+his advances; and in a speech of unusual power he thundered against those
+who had advised the bringing-up of troops, as he declared, to overawe the
+Assembly; though, in fact, nothing but their presence and active exertions
+could prevent the Assembly from being overawed by the mob. But,
+undoubtedly, at this time his own first object was to use the populace of
+Paris to terrify the members into obedience to himself. In one of his ends
+he succeeded; he drove Necker from office. He carried the address which he
+proposed, to entreat the king to withdraw the troops; but Louis had for
+the moment resolved on adopting bolder counsels than those of Necker. He
+declined to comply with the petition, declaring that it was his duty to
+keep in Paris a force sufficient to preserve the public tranquillity,
+though, if the Assembly were disquieted by their neighborhood, he
+expressed his unwillingness to remove their session to some more distant
+town. And at the same time he dismissed Necker from office, banishing him
+from France, but ordering him to keep his departure secret.
+
+The queen had evidently had great influence in bringing him to this
+decision; but how cordially she approved of all the concessions which the
+king had already made, and how clearly she saw that more still remained to
+be done before the necessary reformation could be pronounced complete, the
+letter which on the evening of Necker's dismissal she wrote to Madame de
+Polignac convincingly proves. She had high ideas of the authority which a
+king was legitimately entitled to exercise; and to what she regarded as
+undue restrictions on it, injurious to his dignity, she would never
+consent. She probably regarded them as abstract questions which had but
+little bearing on the substantial welfare of the people in general; but of
+all measures to increase the happiness of all classes, even of the very
+lowest, she was throughout the warmest advocate.
+
+"July 11th, 1789.
+
+"I can not sleep, my dear heart, without letting you know that M. Necker
+is gone. MM. de Breteuil and de la Vauguyon will be summoned to the
+council to-morrow. God grant that we may at last be able to do all the
+good with which we are wholly occupied. The moment will be terrible; but I
+have courage, and, provided that the honest folks support us without
+exposing themselves needlessly, I think that I have vigor enough in myself
+to impart some to others. But it is more than ever necessary to bear in
+mind that all classes of men, so long as they are honest, are equally our
+subjects, and to know how to distinguish those who are right-thinking in
+every district and in every rank. My God! if people could only believe
+that these are my real thoughts, perhaps they would love me a little. But
+I must not think of myself. The glory of the king, that of his son, and
+the happiness of this ungrateful nation, are all that I can, all that I
+ought to, wish for; for as for your friendship, my dear heart, I reckon on
+that always..."
+
+Such language and sentiments were worthy of a sovereign. That the feelings
+here expressed were genuine and sincere, the whole life of the writer is a
+standing proof; and yet already fierce, wicked spirits, even of women (for
+never was it more clearly seen than in France at this time how far, when
+women are cruel, they exceed the worst of men in ferocity), were thirsting
+for her blood. Already a woman in education and ability far above the
+lowest class, one whose energy afterward raised her to be, if not the
+avowed head, at least the moving spirit, of a numerous party (Madame
+Roland), was urging the public prosecution, or, if the nation were not
+ripe for such a formal outrage, the secret assassination, of both king and
+queen.[1] But, however benevolent and patriotic were the queen's
+intentions, it became instantly evident that those who had counseled the
+dismissal of Necker had given their advice in entire ignorance of the hold
+which he had established on the affections of the Parisians; while the new
+prime minister, the Baron de Breteuil, whose previous office had connected
+him with the police, was, on that account, very unpopular with a class
+which is very numerous in all large cities. The populace of Paris broke
+out at once in riots which amounted to insurrection. Thousands of
+citizens, not all of the lowest class, decorated with green cockades, the
+color of Necker's livery, and armed with every variety of weapon, paraded
+the streets, bearing aloft busts of Necker and the Duc d'Orléans, without
+stopping, in their madness, to consider how incongruous a combination they
+were presenting. The most ridiculous stories were circulated about the
+queen: it was affirmed that she had caused the Hall of the Assembly to be
+undermined, that she might blow it up with gunpowder;[2] and, by way of
+averting or avenging so atrocious an act, the mob began to set fire to
+houses in different quarters of the city. Growing bolder at the sight of
+their own violence, they broke open the prisons, and thus obtained a
+re-enforcement of hundreds of desperadoes, ripe for any wickedness. The
+troops were paralyzed by Louis's imbecile order to avoid bloodshed, and in
+the same proportion the rioters were encouraged by their inaction and
+evident helplessness. They attacked the great armory, and equipped
+themselves with its contents, applying to the basest uses time-honored
+weapons, monuments of ancient valor and patriotism. The spear with which
+Dunois had cleared his country of the British invaders; the sword with
+which the first Bourbon king had routed Egmont's cavalry at Ivry, were
+torn down from the walls to arm the vilest of mankind for rapine and
+slaughter. They stormed the Hôtel de Ville, and got possession of the
+municipal chest, containing three millions of francs; and now, more and
+more intoxicated with their triumph, and with the evidence which all these
+exploits afforded that the whole city was at their mercy, they proceeded
+to give their riot a regular organization, by establishing a committee to
+sit in the Guildhall and direct their future proceedings. Lawless and
+ferocious as was the main body of the rioters, there were shrewd heads to
+guide their fury; and the very first order issued by this committee was
+marked by such acute foresight, and such a skillful adaptation to the
+requirements of the moment and the humor of the people, that it remains in
+force to this day. It was hardly strange that men in open insurrection
+against the king's authority should turn their wrath against one of its
+conspicuous emblems, consecrated though it was by usage of immemorial
+antiquity and by many a heroic achievement--the snow-white banner bearing
+the golden lilies. But that glorious ensign could not be laid aside till
+another was substituted for it; and the colors of the city, red and blue,
+and white, the color of the army, were now blended together to form the
+tricolor flag which has since won for itself a wider renown than even the
+deeds of Bayard or Turenne had shed upon the lilies, and with which, under
+every form of government, the nation has permanently identified itself.
+
+They demanded more men, and a committee with three millions of francs
+could easily command recruits. They stormed the Hôtel des Invalides, where
+thousands of muskets were kept fit for instant use; one division of
+regular troops, whose commander, the Baron de Besenval, was a resolute
+man, determined to do his duty, mutinying against his orders, and refusing
+to fire on the mob. They took possession of the city gates, and, thinking
+themselves now strong enough for any exploit, on the third day of the
+insurrection, the 14th of July, they marched in overpowering force to
+attack the Bastile.
+
+In former times the Bastile had been the great fortress of the city; and,
+as such, it had been fortified with all the resources of the engineer's
+art. Massive well-armed towers rose at numerous points above walls of
+great height and solidity. A deep fosse surrounded it, and, when well
+supplied and garrisoned, it had been regarded with pride by the citizens,
+as a bulwark capable of defying the utmost efforts of a foreign enemy, and
+not the less to be admired because they never expected it to be exposed to
+such a test; but as a warlike fortress it had long been disused. In recent
+times it had only been known as the State-prison, identified more than any
+other with the worst acts of despotism and barbarity. As such it was now
+as much detested as it had formerly been respected; and it had nothing but
+the outward appearance of strength to resist an attack. Evidently the
+military authorities had never anticipated the possibility that the mob
+would rise to such a height of audacity. But the rioters were now
+encouraged by two days of unbroken success, and those who spurred them on
+were well-informed as well as fearless. They knew that the castle was in
+such a state that its apparent strength was its real weakness; that its
+entire garrison consisted of little more than a hundred soldiers, most of
+whom were superannuated veterans, a force inadequate to man one-tenth of
+the defenses; and that the governor, De Launay, though personally brave,
+was a man devoid of presence of mind, and nervous under responsibility.
+
+Led by a brewer, named Santerre, who for the next three years bore a
+conspicuous part in all the worst deeds of ferocity and horror, they
+assailed the gates in vast numbers. While the attention of the scanty
+garrison was fully occupied by this assault, another party scaled the
+walls at a point where there was not even a sentinel to give the alarm,
+and let down one draw-bridge across the fosse, while another was loosened,
+as is believed, by traitors in the garrison itself. Swarming across the
+passage thus opened to them, thousands of the assailants rushed in;
+murdered the governor, officers, and almost every one of the garrison; and
+with a savage ferocity, as yet unexampled, though but a faint omen of
+their future crimes, they cut off the head and hands of De Launay and
+several of their chief victims, and, sticking them on pikes, bore them as
+trophies of their victory through the streets of the city.
+
+The news of what had been done came swiftly to Versailles, where it
+excited feelings in the Assembly which, had the king or his advisers been
+capable of availing themselves of it with skill and firmness, might have
+led to a salutary change in the policy of that body; for the greater part
+of the deputies were thoroughly alarmed at the violence of Santerre and
+his companions, and would in all probability have supported the king in
+taking strong measures for the restoration of order. But Louis could not
+be roused, even by the murder of his own faithful servant, to employ force
+to save those who might be similarly menaced. The only expedient which
+occurred to his mind was to concede all that the rioters required; and at
+midday on the 15th he repaired to the Assembly, and announced that he had
+ordered the removal of the troops from Paris and from Versailles;
+declaring that he trusted himself to the Assembly, and wished to identify
+himself with the nation. The Assembly could hardly have avoided feeling
+that it was a strange time to select for withdrawing the troops, when an
+armed mob was in possession of the capital; but, as they had formerly
+requested that measure, they thought themselves bound    now to applaud
+it, and, being for the moment touched by the compliment paid to
+themselves, when he quit the Hall they unanimously rose and followed him,
+escorting him back to the palace with vehement cheers. A vast crowd filled
+the outer courts, who caught the contagion, and shouted out a demand for a
+sight of the whole royal family; and presently, when the queen brought out
+on the balcony her only remaining boy, whom the death of his brother had
+raised to the rank of dauphin, and saluted them, with a graceful bow, the
+whole mass burst out in one vociferous acclamation.
+
+Yet even in that moment of congratulation there were base and malignant
+spirits in the crowd, full of bitterness against the royal family, and
+especially against the queen, whom they had evidently been taught to
+regard as the chief obstacle to the reforms which they desired. Her
+faithful waiting-woman, Madame de Campan, had gone down into the
+court-yard and mingled with the crowd, to be the better able to judge of
+their real feelings. She could see that many were disguised; and one
+woman, whose veil of black lace, with which she concealed her features,
+showed that she did not belong to the lowest class, seized her violently
+by the arm, calling her by her name, and bid her "go and tell her queen
+not to interfere any more in the Government, but to leave her husband and
+the good States-general to work out the happiness of the people." Others
+she heard uttering threats of vengeance against Madame de Polignac. And
+one, while pouring forth "a thousand invectives" against both king and
+queen, declared that it should soon be impossible to find even a fragment
+of the throne on which they were now seated.
+
+Marie Antoinette was greatly alarmed, not for herself, but for her
+husband; and, now that he had determined on withdrawing the soldiers from
+the capital, she earnestly entreated him to accompany them, taking the not
+unreasonable view that the violence of the Parisian mob would be to some
+extent quelled, and the well-intentioned portion of the Assembly would
+have greater boldness to support their opinions, if the king were thus
+placed out of the reach of danger from any fresh outbreak; and it was
+generally understood that an attack on Versailles itself was
+anticipated.[3] She felt so certain of the wisdom of such a course, and so
+sanguine of prevailing, that she packed up her diamonds, burned many of
+her papers, and drew up a set of orders for the arrangement of the details
+of the journey. But on the morning of the 16th she was compelled to inform
+Madame Campan that the plan was given up. Large portions of the Parisian
+mob, and among them one deputation of the fish-women, who in this, as well
+as on more festive occasions, claimed equally to take the lead, had come
+out to demand that the king should visit Paris; and the Ministerial
+Council thought it safer for him to comply with that petition than to
+throw himself into the arms of the soldiers, a step which might not
+improbably lead to a civil war.
+
+To the queen this seemed the most dangerous course of all. She knew that
+both at Versailles and at Paris the agents of the Duke of Orléans had been
+scattering money with a lavish hand; and she scarcely doubted that either
+on his road, or in the city, her husband would be assassinated, or at the
+least detained by the mob as a prisoner and a hostage.
+
+Had she not feared to increase his danger, she would have accompanied him;
+but at such a crisis it required more courage and fortitude to separate
+herself from him; and the most courageous part was ever that which was
+most natural to her. But, though she took no precautions for herself, she
+was as thoughtful as ever for her friends; and, knowing how obnoxious the
+Duchess de Polignac was to the multitude, she insisted on her departing
+with her family. The duchess fled, not unwillingly; and at the same time
+others also quit Versailles who had not the same plea of delicacy of sex
+to excuse their terrors, and who were bound by every principle of duty to
+remain by the king's side the more steadily the greater might be the
+danger. The Prince de Condé, who certainly at one time had been a brave
+man, and had won an honorable name, worthy of his intrepid ancestor, in
+the Seven Years' War; his brother, the Prince de Conti; the Count
+d'Artois, who, having always been the advocate of the most violent
+measures, was doubly bound to stand forward in defense of his king and
+brother, all fled, setting the first example of that base emigration which
+eventually left the king defenseless in the midst of his enemies. The
+Baron de Breteuil and some of the ministers made similar provision for
+their own safety; though it may be said, as some extenuation of their
+ignoble flight, that they had no longer any official duties to detain
+them, since the king had already dismissed them, and on the evening of the
+16th had written to Necker to beg him to return without delay and resume
+his office, claiming his instant obedience as a proof of the attachment
+and fidelity which he had promised when departing five days before.
+
+On the morning of the 17th, Louis set out for Paris in a single carriage,
+escorted by a very slender guard and accompanied by a party of the
+deputies. He was fully alive to the danger he was incurring. He knew that
+threats had been openly uttered that he should not reach Paris alive;[4]
+and he had prepared for his journey as for death, burning his papers,
+taking the sacrament, and making arrangements for a regency. Marie
+Antoinette was almost hopeless of his safety. She sat with her children in
+her private room, shedding no tears, lest the knowledge of her grief
+should increase the alarm of her attendants; but her carriages were kept
+harnessed, and she had prepared and learned by heart a short speech, with
+which, if the worst news which she apprehended should arrive, she intended
+to repair to the Assembly, and claim its protection for the wife and
+children of their sovereign.[5] But often, as she rehearsed it, her voice,
+in spite of all her efforts, was broken by sobs, and her reiterated
+exclamation, "They will never let him return!" but too truly expressed the
+deep forebodings of her heart.
+
+They were not yet fated to be realized; the Insurrection Committee had
+already organized a force which they had entitled the National Guard, and
+of which they had conferred the command on the Marquis de La Fayette, And
+at the gates of the city the king was met by him and the mayor, a man
+named Bailly, who had achieved a considerable reputation as a
+mathematician and an astronomer, but who was thoroughly imbued with the
+leveling and irreligious doctrines of the school of the Encyclopedists. No
+men in Paris were less likely to treat their sovereign with due respect.
+
+Since his return from America, La Fayette had been living in retirement on
+his estate, till at the recent election he had been returned to the
+States-general as one of the representatives of the nobles for his native
+province of Auvergne. He had taken no part in the debates, being entirely
+destitute of political abilities;[6] and he had apparently no very
+distinct political views, but wavered between a desire for a republic,
+such, as that of which he had witnessed the establishment in America, and
+a feeling in favor of a limited monarchy such as he understood to exist in
+Great Britain, though he had no accurate comprehension of its most
+essential principles. But his ruling passion was a desire for popularity;
+and as he had always been vain of his unbending ill-manners as a proof of
+his liberal sentiments,[7] and as his vanity made him regard kings and
+queens with a general dislike, as being of a rank superior to his own, he
+looked on the present occurrence as a favorable opportunity for gaining
+the good-will of the mob, by showing marked disrespect to Louis. He would
+not even pay him the ordinary compliment of appearing in uniform, but
+headed his new troops in plain clothes; and even those were not such as
+belonged to his rank, but were the ordinary dress of a plain citizen;
+while Bailly's address, as Louis entered the gates, was marked with the
+most studied and gratuitous insolence. "Sire," said he, "I present to your
+majesty the keys of your good city of Paris. They are the same which were
+presented to Henri IV. He had conquered his people: to-day the people have
+conquered their king."
+
+Louis proceeded onward to the Hôtel de Ville, in a strange procession,
+headed by a numerous band of fish-women, always prominent, and recruited
+at every step by a crowd of rough peasant-looking men, armed with
+bludgeons, scythes, and every variety of rustic weapons, evidently on the
+watch for some opportunity to create a tumult, and seeking to provoke one
+by raising from time to time vociferous shouts of "Vive la nation!" and
+uttering ferocious threats against any one who might chance to exclaim,
+"Vive le roi!" But they were disconcerted by the perfect calmness of the
+king, on whom danger to himself seemed the only thing incapable of making
+an impression. On Bailly's insolent speech he had made no comment,
+remarking, in a whisper to his principal attendant, that he had better
+appear not to have heard it. And now at the Hôtel de Ville his demeanor
+was as unruffled as if every thing that had happened had been in perfect
+accordance with his wishes. He made a short speech, in which he confirmed
+all the concessions and promises which he had previously made. He even
+placed in his hat a tricolor cockade, which the mayor had the effrontery
+to present to him, though it was the emblem of the revolt of his subjects
+and of the defeat of his troops. And at last such an effect had his
+fearless dignity on even the fiercest of his enemies, that when he
+afterward came out on the balcony to show himself to the crowd beneath,
+the whole mass raised the shout of "Vive le roi!" with as much enthusiasm
+as had ever greeted the most feared or the most beloved of his
+predecessors.
+
+His return to the barrier resembled a triumphal procession. Yet, happy as
+it seemed that outrage had thus been averted and unanimity restored, the
+result of the day can not, perhaps, be deemed entirely fortunate, since it
+probably contributed to fix more deeply in the king's mind the belief that
+concession to clamor was the course most likely to be successful. Nor did
+the queen, though for the moment her despondency was changed to thankful
+exultation, at all conceal from herself that the perils which had been
+escaped were certain to recur; and that vigilance and firmness would
+surely again be called for to repel them--qualities which she could find
+in herself, but which she might well doubt her ability to impart to
+others.[8]
+
+Her own attention was for a moment occupied by the necessary work of
+selecting a new governess for her children in the place of Madame de
+Polignac; and after some deliberation her choice fell on the Marchioness
+de Tourzel, a lady of the most spotless character, who seems to have been
+in every respect well fitted for so important an office. As Marie
+Antoinette had scarcely any previous acquaintance with her, it was by her
+character alone that she had been recommended to her; as was gracefully
+expressed in the brief speech with which Marie Antoinette delivered her
+little charges into her hands. "Madame," said she, "I formerly intrusted
+my children to friendship; to-day I intrust them to virtue;[9]" and, a day
+or two afterward, to make easier the task which the marchioness had not
+undertaken without some unwillingness, she addressed her a letter in which
+she describes the character of her son, and her own principles and method
+of education, with an impartiality and soundness of judgment which could
+not have been surpassed by one who had devoted her whole attention to the
+subject:
+
+"July 25th, 1789.
+
+"My son is four years and four months old, all but two days. I say nothing
+of his size nor of his general appearance; it is only necessary to see
+him. His health has always been good, but even in his cradle we perceived
+that his nerves were very delicate.... This delicacy of his nerves is such
+that any noise to which he is not accustomed frightens him. For instance,
+he is afraid of dogs because he once heard one bark close to him; and I
+have never obliged him to see one, because I believe that, as his reason
+grows stronger, his fears will pass away. Like all children who are strong
+and healthy, he is very giddy, very volatile, and violent in his passions;
+but he is a good child, tender, and even caressing, when his giddiness
+does not run away with him. He has a great sense of what is due to
+himself, which, if he be well managed, one may some day turn to his good.
+Till he is entirely at his ease with any one, he can restrain himself,
+and even stifle his impatience and his inclination to anger, in order to
+appear gentle and amiable. He is admirably faithful when once he has
+promised any thing, but he is very indiscreet; he is thoughtless in
+repeating any thing that he has heard; and often, without in the least
+intending to tell stories, he adds circumstances which his own imagination
+has put into his head. This is his greatest fault, and it is one for which
+he must be corrected. However, taken altogether, I say again, he is a good
+child; and by treating him with allowance, and at the same time with
+firmness, which must be kept clear of severity, we shall always be able to
+do all that we can wish with him. But severity would revolt him, for he
+has a great deal of resolution for his age. To give you an instance: from
+his very earliest childhood the word _pardon_ has always offended him. He
+will say and do all that you can wish when he is wrong, but as for the
+word _pardon_, he never pronounces it without tears and infinite
+difficulty.
+
+"I have always accustomed my children to have great confidence in me, and,
+when they have done wrong, to tell me themselves; and then, when I scold
+them, this enables me to appear pained and afflicted at what they have
+done rather than angry. I have accustomed them all to regard 'yes' or
+'no,' once uttered by me, as irrevocable; but I always give them reasons
+for my decision, suitable to their ages, to prevent their thinking that my
+decision comes from ill-humor. My son can not read, and he is very slow at
+learning; but he is too giddy to apply. He has no pride in his heart, and
+I am very anxious that he should continue to feel so. Our children always
+learn soon enough what they are. He is very fond of his sister, and has a
+good heart. Whenever any thing gives him pleasure, whether it be the going
+anywhere, or that any one gives him any thing, his first movement always
+is to ask that his sister may have the same. He is light-hearted by
+nature. It is necessary for his health that he should be a great deal in
+the open air; and I think it is better to let him play and work in the
+garden on the terrace, than to take him longer walks. The exercise which
+children take in running about and playing in the open air is much more
+healthy than forcing them to walk, which often makes their backs
+ache.[10]"
+
+Some of these last recommendations may seem to show that the governess
+was, to some extent, regarded as a nurse as well as a teacher; and when we
+find Marie Antoinette complaining of want of discretion in a child of four
+years old, it may perhaps be thought that she is expecting rather more of
+such tender years than is often found in them; that she is inclined to be
+overexacting rather than overindulgent; an error the more venial, since it
+is probable that the educators of princes are more likely to go astray in
+the opposite direction. But it is impossible to avoid being struck with
+the candor with which she judges her boy's character, and with the
+judiciousness of her system of education; and equally impossible to resist
+the conviction that a boy of good disposition, trained by such a mother,
+had every chance of becoming a blessing to his subjects, if fate had only
+allowed him to succeed to the throne which she had still a right to look
+forward to for him as his assured inheritance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+Necker resumes Office.--Outrages in the Provinces.--Pusillanimity of the
+Body of the Nation.--Parties in the Assembly.--Views of the
+Constitutionalists or "Plain."--Barnave makes Overtures to the Court.--The
+Queen rejects them.--The Assembly abolishes all Privileges, August 4th.--
+Debates on the Veto.--An Attack on Versailles is threatened.--Great
+Scarcity in Paris.--The King sends his Plate to be melted down.--The
+Regiment of Flanders is brought up to Versailles.--A Military Banquet is
+held in the Opera-house.--October 5th, a Mob from Paris marches on
+Versailles.--Blunders of La Fayette--Ferocity of the Mob on the 5th.--
+Attack on the Palace on the 6th.--Danger and Heroism of the Queen.--The
+Royal Family remove to Paris.--Their Reception at the Barrier and at the
+Hôtel de Ville.--Shabbiness of the Tuileries.--The King fixes his
+Residence there.
+
+
+Necker had obeyed the king's summons the moment that he received it, and
+before the end of the month he returned to Versailles and resumed his
+office. But, even before the king's dispatch reached him, Paris had
+witnessed terrible proofs that the tranquillity which the king's visit to
+the capital was supposed to have re-established was but temporary. The
+populace had broken out into fresh tumults, murdering some of Breteuil's
+colleagues with circumstances of frightful barbarity; while intelligence
+of similar disturbances in the provinces was constantly arriving. In
+Normandy, in Alsace, and in Provence, in the towns, and in the rural
+districts, the towns-people and the peasants rose against their wealthier
+neighbors or their landlords, burning their houses, and commonly murdering
+the owners with the most revolting barbarity. Some were torn into pieces;
+some were roasted alive; some had actually portions of their flesh cut off
+and eaten by their murderers in their own sight, before the blow was given
+which terminated their agonies. Their sex did not save ladies from being
+victims of the same cruelties, nor did it prevent women from being actors
+in them.
+
+Yet the horror of these scenes was scarcely stranger than the
+pusillanimity of those who endured them unresistingly; for there were not
+wanting instances of magistrates honest enough to detest, and courageous
+enough to chastise, such outrages; and wherever the effort was made it
+succeeded so completely as to fix no slight criminality on those who
+submitted to them. In Dauphiny, the States of the province raised a small
+guard, which quelled the first attempts to cause riots there, and hanged
+the ringleaders. In Mâcon, a similar force, though not three hundred
+strong, encountered a band of brigands, six thousand in number, and
+brought back two hundred prisoners, the chiefs of whom were instantly
+executed, and by their prompt punishment tranquillity was restored.
+Similar firmness would have saved other districts, which now allowed
+themselves to be the victims of ravage and murder; as afterward it would
+have preserved the whole country, even when the madness and wickedness of
+subsequent years were at their height; for in no part of the kingdom did
+those who perpetrated or sympathized with the crimes which have made the
+Revolution a by-word, approach the number of those who loathed them, but
+who had not the courage or foresight to withstand them. It seemed as if a
+long course of misgovernment, and the example of the profligacy and
+impiety set by the higher classes for many generations, had demoralized
+the entire people, some in their excesses discarding the ordinary
+instincts of human beings; while the bulk of the nation had lost even that
+courage which had once been among its most shining qualities, and had no
+longer the manliness to resist outrages which they abhorred, even when
+their own safety was staked upon their repression.
+
+And similar weakness was exhibited in the Assembly itself; for,
+unquestionably, the party which at last prevailed was not that which was
+originally the strongest. Like most assemblies of the kind, it was divided
+into three parties--the extreme Royalists, or "the Right;" the extreme
+Reformers (who were subdivided into several sections), or "the Left;" and
+between them the moderate Constitutionalists, or "the Plain," as they were
+called, from occupying seats in the middle of the hall, between the raised
+benches on either side. And to the last party belonged all the men most
+distinguished either for statesman-like perceptions or for eloquence,
+Mirabeau himself agreeing with them in all their leading principles,
+though he never formally enrolled himself in the ranks of any party.
+
+The majority of the Constitutionalists were as loyal to the king's person
+and dignity as the extreme Royalists; their most eloquent speaker, a young
+lawyer named Barnave, at the first opening of the States had even sought
+to open a direct communication with the court, begging Madame de
+Lamballe[1] to assure the queen of the wish of himself and all his friends
+to maintain the king in the full enjoyment and exercise of what he called
+a Constitutional authority, borrowing the idea and expression from the
+English Government. But though Marie Antoinette had no objection to the
+king of his own accord renouncing portions of the power which had been
+claimed and exerted by his predecessors, she would not hear of the States
+taking upon themselves to impose such sacrifices on him, or to curtail his
+authority by any exercise of their own; and she rejected with something
+like disdain the support of those whose alliance was only to be purchased
+on such conditions. Barnave, like Mirabeau, felt insulted; determined to
+revenge himself, and for a while united himself to the fiercest of the
+Republicans; while the Right, with incredible folly, often played into his
+hand, joining the Left, of which many members avowedly aimed at the
+abolition of royalty, and with none of whom they had one opinion or
+sentiment in common to defeat the Constitutionalists, with whom they
+practically had but very slight differences. And thus, as with a base
+pusillanimity, many, both of the Right and of the Plain, fled from the
+country after the tumults of October, the mastery of the Assembly
+gradually fell into the hands of that party which contained by far fewer
+men of ability or honesty than either of the others, but which surpassed
+them both in distinctness of object, and in unscrupulous resolution to
+carry out its views.
+
+But the events of July, the mutiny of the troops, the successful
+insurrection of the mob, the destruction of the Bastile, and the visit of
+Louis to Paris, had been a series of damaging blows to the Government; and
+as each successive exploit gave encouragement to the movement party,
+events proceeded with extreme rapidity. Necker, who returned to Versailles
+on the 27th of July, showed more clearly than ever his unfitness for the
+chief post in the administration at such a crisis, by devoting himself
+solely to financial arrangements, and omitting to take, on the part of the
+crown, the initiative in any one of the reforms which the king had
+promised. Those he permitted to be intrusted to a committee of the
+Assembly; and the committee had scarcely met when the Assembly took the
+matter into its own hands; and in a strange panic, and at a single
+sitting, swept away the privileges of both Nobles and clergy, those who
+seemed personally most concerned in their maintenance being the foremost
+in urging their suppression. A member of the oldest nobility proposed the
+abolition of the privileges of the Nobles. A bishop moved the extinction
+of tithes; Bretons, Burgundians, Provençals, renounced for their fellow-
+citizens the old distinctions and immunities to which each province had
+hitherto clung with an unyielding if somewhat unreasoning attachment; and
+the whole was crowned by the Archbishop of Paris proposing a celebration
+of the _Te Deum_, as an expression of gratitude to God for having inspired
+a series of actions calculated to confer so much happiness on the nation.
+
+Though he could not avoid seeing the mischievous character of many of the
+resolutions thus tumultuously passed, and though his royal assent to them
+was asked in language unceremonious and almost peremptory in its curtness,
+Louis could not bring himself, or perhaps did not venture, to refuse his
+sanction to them. He had laid down a rule for himself to refuse no
+concession except such as on religious grounds his conscience might revolt
+from; and on the 18th he signified his formal acceptance of the
+resolutions, and of the title of "Restorer of French Liberty." It was an
+act of great weakness, and was rewarded, as such acts generally are, by
+further encroachments on his authority. The progress of the Left was not
+even arrested by a quarrel between some of its members (who, being
+clergymen, were not inclined to be reduced to beggary by the extinction of
+their incomes), and Mirabeau, who, not unnaturally, bore the priests
+especial ill-will. Before the end of the month, the Assembly even deprived
+the king of the power of withholding his assent from measures which it
+might pass, enacting that he should no longer possess an absolute "veto,"
+as it was called, and Necker, exhibiting on this question an incapacity
+more glaring than even his former conduct had displayed, induced the king
+to yield this point also; and to express his own preference for what its
+contrivers called a suspensive veto--a power, that is, of withholding his
+assent to any measure till it had been passed by two successive
+Assemblies. The discussions on this most momentous point had been very
+vehement in the Assembly itself; and, besides the greatness of the
+principle involved in the decision, they have a peculiar importance as
+showing that Mirabeau had not the absolute power over the minds of the
+members which he believed himself to possess; since he contended with all
+the energy of his temper, and with irresistible force of argument, against
+a vote which, as he declared, could only take the power from the king to
+vest it in the Assembly, and yet was wholly unable to carry more than a
+small minority with him in his opposition.
+
+And this defeat may have had some share in prompting him to countenance
+and aid, if indeed he was not the original contriver of, a plot which was
+undoubtedly intended to produce a change in the whole frame-work of the
+Government. The harvest had been bad, and at the beginning of September
+Paris was suffering under a scarcity almost as severe as had ever been
+felt in the depth of winter. The emergency was so great that the king sent
+all his plate to the Mint to be melted down, to procure money to purchase
+food for the starving citizens; and many patriotic individuals, Necker
+himself being among the most munificent, gave their plate and jewels for
+the same benevolent object. But relief procured from such sources was
+unavoidably of too limited a character to last long. Though Necker
+proposed and the Assembly voted taxes of prodigious amount, they could not
+at once be made available, and some of the lower classes were said to have
+died of actual famine. In their distress the citizens looked to the king,
+and attributed their misery in a great degree to his ignorance of their
+situation, which was caused by his living at Versailles. They nicknamed
+him the "Baker," as if he could supply them with bread, and began to
+clamor for him at least to take up an occasional residence among them in
+in his capital. From raising a cry, the step was easy to organize a riot
+to compel him to do so. And to this object the partisans of the Duke of
+Orleans, assisted, if not prompted, by Mirabeau, now began to apply
+themselves, hoping that the result would be the deposition of Louis and
+the enthronement of the duke, who might be glad to take the great orator
+for his prime minister.
+
+So certain did the conspirators feel of success, that they took no pains
+to keep their machinations secret. As early as the middle of September
+intelligence was received at Versailles that the Parisians would march
+upon that town in force, on the 5th of October; and the Assembly was
+greatly alarmed, believing, not without reason, that the object of the
+intended attack was to overawe and overbear them. The magistrates of the
+town were even more terrified, and besought the king to bring up at least
+one regiment for their protection. And, prudent and reasonable as the
+request was, the compliance with it furnished the agents of sedition with
+pretexts for further violence.
+
+A regiment, known as that of Flanders, was sent for from the frontiers,
+and speedily arrived at Versailles, when, according to their old and
+hospitable fashion, the Body-guard,[2] who regarded Versailles as their
+home, invited the officers, and with them the officers of the Swiss Guard,
+and those of the town militia also, to a banquet on the 1st of October.
+The opera-house, as had often been done in similar instances, was lent for
+the occasion; and the boxes were filled with the chief ladies of the court
+and of the town, and also with many members of the Assembly, as
+spectators. So enthusiastic were the acclamations that greeted the toast
+of the king's health, that, though Marie Antoinette had previously desired
+that the royal family should not appear to have any connection with the
+entertainment, the captain of the guard, the Count de Luxembourg, had no
+difficulty in persuading her that it would but be a graceful recognition
+of such spontaneous and sincere loyalty at such a time if she were to
+honor the banquet with her presence, though but by the briefest visit.
+Louis, too, accepted the proposal with greater warmth than usual, and when
+the royal pair with their children--the queen, as was her custom, leading
+one in each hand--descended from their apartments and walked through the
+banquet-hall, the enthusiasm was redoubled. The spectators, among whom
+were many members of the Assembly, caught the contagion. Loyal cheers
+resounded from every part of the theatre, and the feelings excited became
+so fervid that some officers of the National Guard, who were among the
+guests, reversed their new tricolor cockade, and, displaying the white
+side outermost, seemed to have resumed the time-honored badge under which
+the army had reaped all its old glories. The band struck up a favorite air
+from one of the new operas, "Peut-on affliger ce qu'on aime?" which those
+who saw the anxiety which recent events had already stamped upon the
+queen's majestic brow could hardly avoid applying to their royal mistress;
+and when it followed it up by Blondel's lamentation for Richard, "O
+Richard, O mon roi, l'univers t'abandonne," the first notes of the
+well-known song touched a chord in every heart, and the whole company,
+courtiers, ladies, soldiers, and deputies, were all carried away in a
+perfect delirium of loyal rapture. The whole company escorted the royal
+family back to their apartments; though it was remarked afterward that
+some of the soldiers, who on this occasion were the most vociferous in
+their exultation, were, before the end of the same week, among the most
+furious threateners and assailants of the palace.
+
+But a demonstration such as this, in which the whole number of the
+soldiers concerned did not exceed fifteen hundred men, could not deter the
+organizers of the impending riot from carrying out their plan: if it did
+not even aid them by the opportunities which it afforded for spreading
+abroad exaggerated accounts of what had taken place, as an additional
+proof of the settled hatred and contempt which the court entertained for
+the people. Mirabeau had suggested that the best chance of success for an
+insurrection in Paris lay in placing women at its head; and, in compliance
+with his hint, at day-break on the appointed morning a woman of notorious
+infamy of character moved toward the chief market-place of Paris, beating
+a drum, and calling on all who heard her to follow her.[3] She soon
+gathered round her a troop of followers worthy of such a leader, market-
+women, fish-women, and men in women's clothes, whose deep voices, and the
+power with which they brandished their weapons, betrayed their sex through
+their disguise.
+
+One man, Maillard, who had been conspicuous as one of the fiercest of the
+stormers of the Bastile, disdained any concealment or dress but his own;
+they chose him for their leader, mingling with their cries for bread
+horrid threats against the queen and the aristocrats. Their numbers
+increased till they felt themselves strong enough to attack the Hôtel de
+Ville. A detachment of the National Guard who were on duty offered them no
+resistance, pleading that they had received no orders from La Fayette; and
+the rioters, now amounting to many thousands, having armed themselves from
+the store of muskets and swords which they found in the armory, passed on
+to the barrier and took the road to Versailles.
+
+The riot had lasted four hours, and the very last of the rioters had
+already passed through the gates before La Fayette reached the Hôtel de
+Ville, though his office of Commander of the National Guard made the
+preservation of tranquillity one of his most especial duties. He had
+evidently feared to risk his popularity by resisting the mob, and even now
+he refused to act at all till be had received a written order from the
+Municipal Council; and, when he had obtained that, he did not obey it; but
+preferred complying with the demands of his own soldiers, who insisted on
+following the rioters to Versailles, where they would exterminate the
+regiment of Flanders; bring the king back to Paris; and perhaps depose him
+and appoint a Regent. Yet even this open avowal of their treasonable views
+did not deter their unworthy general from submitting to their dictates. He
+had indeed no desire for the success of their designs; for he had no
+connection with the Duc d'Orléans, and no inclination to co-operate with
+Mirabeau, who he knew was in the habit of speaking of him with contempt;
+but he had not firmness to resist their demand. His vanity, too, always
+his most predominant feeling, was flattered by the desire they expressed
+to retain him as their commander, and at last he procured from the
+magistrates a fresh order, authorizing him to comply with the soldiers'
+clamor, and to lead them to Versailles.
+
+When before the magistrates he had professed an expectation that he should
+be able to induce the king to comply with the wishes of the Assembly, and
+a determination to restrain the excesses of the mob; but the whole day had
+been so wasted by his irresolution that when he at last put his regiment
+in motion it was seven o'clock in the evening--full four hours after
+Maillard and his fish-women had reached Versailles. The news of their
+approach and of their designs had been brought to the palace by Monsieur
+de Chinon, the eldest son of the Duc de Richelieu, who, at great personal
+risk, had disguised himself as an artisan, and had marched some way with
+the crowd to learn their object. He reported that even the women and
+children were armed, that the great majority were drunk; that they were
+beguiling the way with the most ferocious threats, and that they had been
+joined by a gang of men who gave themselves the name of "Coupe-têtes," and
+boasted that they should have ample opportunity of proving their title to
+it.
+
+In addition to the warnings previously received, a rumor had reached the
+palace on the preceding evening that the Duc d'Orléans had come down to
+Versailles in disguise,[4] a movement which could hardly have an innocent
+object; but so little heed had been given to the intelligence, or, it may
+perhaps be said, so little was it supposed that, if such an attack was
+really meditated, any warning would have been given, that Monsieur de
+Chinon found the palace empty. Louis had gone to hunt in the Bois de
+Meudon; Marie Antoinette was at the Little Trianon. But messengers easily
+found them. The queen came in with speed from her garden, which she was
+destined never to behold again; the king hastened hack from his coverts;
+and by the time that they returned, the Count de St. Priest, the Minister
+of the Household, had their carriages ready for them to retire to
+Rambouillet, and he earnestly pressed the adoption of such a course.
+Louis, as usual, could not make up his mind. He sat in his chair,
+repeating that it was a moment to think seriously. "Rather," said Marie
+Antoinette, "say that it is a time to act promptly." He would gladly have
+had her depart with her children, but she refused to leave him, declaring
+that her place was by his side; that, as the daughter of Maria Teresa, she
+did not fear death; and after a time he changed his mind and ceased to
+wish even her to retire, clinging to his old conviction that conciliation
+was always possible. He believed that he had won over even the worst of
+the mob, and that all danger was past.
+
+Versailles witnessed a strange scene that morning. The moment that the mob
+reached the town, they forced their way into the Assembly Hall, where
+Maillard, as their spokesman, after terrifying the members with ferocious
+threats against the whole body of the Nobles, demanded that the Assembly
+should send a deputation to the king to represent to him the distress of
+the people, and that a party of the women should accompany it. Louis
+consented to receive them, and when they reached the palace, the women,
+disorderly and ferocious as they were, were so awed by the magnificence
+and pomp which they beheld, and by the actual presence of the king and
+queen, that they could only summon up a few modest and humble words of
+petition, and one, a young and pretty girl of seventeen, fainted with the
+excitement. One of the princesses brought her a glass of water: she
+recovered, and, as she knelt to kiss the king's hand, Louis kissed her
+himself, and, transported by his affability, she and her companions quit
+the apartment, uttering loud cheers for the king and queen. But this had
+not been the impression which their leaders had intended them to receive;
+and, when they reached the streets, their new-born loyalty so exasperated
+their comrades that the soldiers had some difficulty in saving them from
+their fury.
+
+Meanwhile, the mob increased every hour. They occupied the court-yard of
+the palace, roaring out ferocious threats, the most sanguinary of which
+were directed against the queen. The President of the Assembly moved that
+the members should adjourn and repair to the palace for the protection of
+the royal family, but Mirabeau resisted the proposal, and procured its
+rejection; and when a large party of the members went, as individuals, to
+place their services at the king's disposal, he mingled with the rioters,
+tampering with the soldiers, and urging them to espouse what he called the
+cause of the people. As it grew dark, the crowd grew more and more
+tumultuous and violent. The Body-guard, who were all gentlemen, were
+faithful and fearless; but it began to be seen that none of the other
+troops, not even the regiment of Flanders, could be trusted. Some of them
+even fired on the Body-guard, and mortally wounded its commander, the
+Marquis de Savonières; while Louis, adhering to his unhappy policy of
+conciliation even at such a moment, sent down orders to the officer who
+succeeded to the command that the men were not to use their weapons, and
+that all bloodshed was to be avoided. "Tell the king," replied M.
+d'Huillier, "that his orders shall be obeyed; but that we shall all be
+assassinated."
+
+The mob grew fiercer when it became known that La Fayette and his regiment
+were approaching. No one knew what course he might take, but the
+ringleaders of the rioters resolved on a strenuous effort to render his
+arrival useless by their previous success. Guns were fired, heavy blows
+were dealt on the railings of the inner court-yard and on the gates; and
+the danger seemed so imminent that the mob might force its way into the
+palace, that the deputies themselves besought the king to delay no longer,
+but to retire to Rambouillet. He was still irresolute, and still trusting
+to his plan of conciliating by non-resistance. The queen, though more
+earnest than ever that he should depart, still nobly adhered to her own
+view of duty, and refused to leave him; but, hoping that he might change
+his mind, she gave a written order to keep the carriages harnessed, and to
+prepare to force a passage for them if the life of the king should appear
+to be in danger; but, she added, they were not to be used if she alone
+were threatened.
+
+At last, when it was nearly midnight, La Fayette arrived. With a singular
+perverseness of folly, at a time when every moment was of consequence, he
+had halted his men a mile out of the town to make them a speech in praise
+of himself and his own loyalty, and to administer to them an oath to be
+faithful to the nation, to the law, and to the king; an oath needless if
+they were inclined to keep it; useless, if they were not; and in the state
+of feeling then common, mischievous in the order in which he ranged the
+powers to which he required them to profess allegiance. At last he reached
+the palace. Leaving his men below, he ascended to the king's apartments,
+and, laying his hand on his heart, assured the king that he had no more
+loyal servant than himself. Louis was not given to sarcasm: yet some of
+the bystanders fancied that there was a tone of irony in his voice when in
+reply he expressed his conviction of the marquis's sincerity; and perhaps
+La Fayette thought so too, for he proceeded to harangue his majesty on his
+favorite subject of his own courage; describing the dangers which, as he
+affirmed, he had incurred in the course of the day. After which he
+descended into the court-yard to assure the soldiers that the king had
+promised to accede to their wishes; and then returned to the royal
+apartments to inform the king that contentment was restored, and that he
+himself would be responsible for the tranquillity of the night.
+
+The royal family, exhausted with the fatigues of so terrible a day,
+retired to rest, the queen expressly enjoining her ladies to follow her
+example. Fortunately they were too anxious for her safety to obey her,
+and, with their own attendants, kept watch in the room outside her
+bed-chamber. But La Fayette, in spite of the responsibility which he had
+taken upon himself, felt no such anxiety. He declared himself tired and
+sleepy; and, leaving the palace, went to a friend's house to ask for a
+bed.[5] Yet he well knew that the crowd was still assembled around the
+palace, and was increasing in violence. Though the night was stormy and
+wet, the rioters sought no shelter except such as was afforded by a
+hurried resort to the wine-shops in the neighborhood, where they inflamed
+their intoxication, and from which they soon returned to renew their
+savage clamor and threats, increasing the disorder by keeping up a
+frequent fire of their muskets. Throughout the night the Duc d'Orléans was
+briskly going to and fro, his emissaries scattering money among the
+rioters, who seemed to have no definite purpose or plan, till, as day
+began to break, one of the gates leading into the Princes' Court was seen
+to be open. It had been intrusted to some of La Fayette's soldiers, and
+could not have been opened without treachery. The crowd poured in,
+uttering fiercer threats than ever, from the belief that their prey was
+within their reach. There was, in truth, nothing between them and the
+staircase which led to the royal apartments except two gallant gentlemen,
+M. des Huttes and M. Moreau, the sentries of the detachment of the Body-
+guard on duty, whose quarters were at the head of the staircase in a
+saloon opposite to the queen's chamber. But these brave men were worthy of
+the best days of the French army. The more formidable the mob, and the
+greater the danger, the more imperative to their loyal hearts was the duty
+to defend those whose safety was intrusted to their vigilance; and with so
+dauntless a front did they stand to their posts that for a moment the
+ruffians recoiled and shrunk from attacking them, till D'Orléans himself
+came forward, waving to them with his hand a signal to force the way in,
+and pointing out to them which way to take.
+
+What, then, could two men effect against such a multitude? Des Huttes
+perished, pierced by a hundred pikes, and torn into pieces by his blood-
+thirsty assailants. Moreau, with equal valor, but with better fortune,
+backed up the stairs, fighting so desperately as he retreated that he gave
+his comrades time to barricade the doors leading to the queen's
+apartments, and to come to his assistance. As they drew him back, terribly
+wounded, into the guardroom, De Varicourt and Durepaire took his place. De
+Varicourt was soon slain, but Durepaire, a man of prodigious strength and
+prowess, held the assassins at bay for some time, till he too fell,
+reduced to helplessness by a score of deep wounds; when he, in his turn,
+was replaced by Miomandre. His devotion and intrepidity equaled that of
+his comrades; he was eminently skillful also in the use of his weapons,
+and with his own hand he struck down many of his assailants, till he was
+gradually forced back by numbers, when he placed his musket as a barrier
+across the door-way, and thus still kept his enemies at bay, while he
+shouted to the queen's ladies, now separated from him by but a single
+partition, to save the queen, for "the tigers with whom he was struggling
+were aiming at her life."
+
+In the annals of the ancient chivalry of the nation it had been recorded
+as the most brilliant feat of Bayard, that, on a bridge of the Garigliano,
+he had for a while, with his single arm, stemmed the onset of two hundred
+Spaniards; and that glorious exploit of the model hero of the nation had
+never been more faithfully copied and more nobly rivaled than it was on
+this morning of shame and danger by Miomandre and his intrepid comrades,
+as they successively stepped into the breach to fight against those whom
+he truly called, not men, but tigers. It was but a brief moment before he
+too was struck down; but he had gained for the ladies a respite sufficient
+to enable them to secure the safety of their royal mistress. They roused
+her from her bed, for her fatigue had been so great that she had hitherto
+slept soundly through the uproar, and hurried her off to the apartments of
+the king, who, having in been just similarly awakened, was coming to seek
+her; and in a few minutes the whole family was collected in his
+antechamber; while the Body-guard occupied the queen's bedroom, and the
+rioters, balked of their intended victim, were pillaging the different
+rooms into which they had been able to make their way. Luckily, La Fayette
+was still absent: he was having his hair dressed with great composure,
+while the mob, for whose contentment and orderly behavior he had vouched,
+was plundering the royal palace and seeking its owners to murder them; and
+in his absence the Marquis de Vaudreuil and a body of nobles took upon
+themselves the office of defenders of the crown, and, going down to the
+court-yard, reproached the National Guard with their inaction at such a
+moment of danger, and with their manifest sympathy with the rioters. At
+first, out of mere shame, the National Guard attempted to justify
+themselves: "they had been told," they said, "that the Body-guard were the
+aggressors; that they had attacked the people." "Do you pretend to
+believe," said the gallant marquis, "that two hundred men have been mad
+enough to attack thirty thousand?" The argument was irresistible; they
+declared that if the Body-guard would assume the tricolor, they would
+stand by them as brothers. And, by a reaction not uncommon at such times
+of excitement, the two regiments became reconciled in a moment. As no
+tricolor cockades could be procured, they exchanged shakos, and, in many
+cases, arms. And presently, when the Coup-têtes, after mutilating the
+bodies of two of the Body-guard who had been killed on the previous
+evening, were preparing to murder two or three more who had fallen into
+their hands, the National Guard dashed to their rescue, shouting out, with
+a curious identification of their force with the old French army, that
+"they would save the Body-guard who saved them at Fontenoy," and brought
+them off unhurt.
+
+Balked of their expected prey, the rioters grew more furious than ever; in
+useless wrath they kept firing against the walls of the palace, and
+shouting out a demand for the queen to show herself. She, with her
+children, was still in the king's apartment, where the princesses, the
+ministers, and a few courtiers were also assembled. Necker, in an agony of
+terror and distress, sat with his face buried in his hands, unable to
+offer any advice; La Fayette, who had just arrived, dwelt upon the dangers
+which he had run, though no one else knew what they were, and assured the
+king of the power which he still possessed to allay the tumult, if the
+reasonable demands of the people (as he called them) were granted. Marie
+Antoinette alone was undaunted and calm; or, at least, if in the depths of
+her woman's heart she felt terror at the sanguinary and obscene threats of
+her ruffianly enemies, she scorned to show it. When the firing began, M.
+de Luzerne, one of the ministers, had quietly placed himself between her
+and the window; but, while she thanked him for his devotion, she begged
+him to retire, saying, with her habitually gracious courtesy, that it was
+her place to be there,[6] not his, since the king could not afford to have
+so faithful a servant endangered. And now, holding her little son and
+daughter, one in each hand, she stepped out on the balcony, to confront
+those who were shouting for her blood. "No children!" was their cry. She
+led the dauphin and his sister back into the room, and, returning to the
+balcony, stood before them alone, with her hands crossed and her eyes
+looking up to heaven, as one who expected instant death, with a firmness
+as far removed from defiance as from supplication. Even those ruthless
+miscreants were awed by her magnanimous fearlessness; not a shot was
+fired; for a moment it seemed as if her enemies had become her partisans.
+Loud shouts of "Bravo!" and "Long live the queen!" were heard on all
+sides; and one ruffian, who raised his gun to take aim at her, had his
+weapon beaten down by those who stood near him, and ran some risk of being
+himself sacrificed to their indignation. But this impulse of respect, like
+other impulses of such a people, was short-lived, and presently the
+multitude began to raise a shout, which expressed the original purpose
+which had led the majority to march upon Versailles. "To Paris!" was the
+cry, and again La Fayette volunteered his advice, urging the king to
+comply with the request. By this time Louis had learned the value of the
+marquis's loyalty. But he had no alternative. It was evident that the
+rioters had the power of compelling compliance with their demand. And
+accordingly he authorized the marquis to promise that he would remove his
+family to Paris, and a few minutes afterward he himself went out on the
+balcony with the queen, and himself announced his intention, with the view
+of giving his act a greater appearance of being voluntarily resolved upon.
+
+Soon after midday he set out, accompanied by the queen, his brother the
+Count de Provence, his sister the Princess Elizabeth, and his children. It
+was a strange and shameful retinue that escorted the King of France to his
+capital. One party of the rioters, with Maillard and another ruffian named
+Jourdan, the chief of the Coupe-têtes, at their head, had started two
+hours before, bearing aloft in triumph the heads of the mangled
+Body-guards, and combining such hideous mockery with their barbarity that
+they halted at Sèvres to compel a barber to dress the hair on the lifeless
+skulls. And now the royal carriage was surrounded by a vast and confused
+medley; market-women and the rest of the female rabble, with drunken gangs
+of the ruffians who had stormed the palace in the morning, still
+brandishing their weapons, or bearing loaves of bread on their pike-heads,
+and singing out that they should all have enough of bread now, since they
+were bringing the baker, the bakeress, and the baker's boy to Paris.[7]
+The only part of the procession that bore even a decent appearance was a
+small escort of 'different regiments--the Guards, the National Guards, and
+the Body-guards; many of the latter still bleeding from the wounds which
+they had received in the conflict and tumult of the morning. A train of
+carriages containing a deputation of the members of the Assembly also
+followed; Mirabeau himself having just earned a motion that the Assembly
+was inseparable from the king, and that wherever he was there must be the
+place of meeting for the great council of the nation. Yet, in spite of the
+confidence which their presence might have been expected to diffuse among
+the mob, and in spite of the hopes of coming plenty which the rioters
+themselves announced, the royal party was not even yet safe from further
+attacks. Some ruffians stabbed at the royal carriage as it passed with
+their pikes, and several shots were fired at it, though fortunately they
+missed their aim and no one was injured.[8]
+
+To the queen the journey was more painful than to any one else. A few
+weeks before she had congratulated Mademoiselle de Lamballe on not being a
+mother--perhaps the bitterest exclamation that grief and anxiety ever
+wrung from her lips; and now the keenest anxieties of a mother were indeed
+added to those of a queen. The procession moved with painful slowness. No
+provisions had been taken in the carriage, and the little dauphin was
+suffering from hunger and begging for some food. Tears, which her own
+danger could not bring to her eyes, flowed plentifully as she witnessed
+the suffering of her child. She could only beg him to bear his privations
+with patience; and she had the reward of the pains she had always taken to
+inspire him with confident in her, in the fortitude with which, for the
+rest of the day, he bore what to children of his age is probably the
+severest hardship to which they can be exposed.[9]
+
+So vast and disorderly was the procession that it was nine o'clock at
+night before it reached Paris. Bailly again met the royal carriage at the
+barrier, and, re-assuming the tone of coarse insult which he had adopted
+on the king's previous visit, had the effrontery to describe the day so
+full of horror to every one, and of humiliation and agony to those whom he
+was addressing, as a glorious day. It was at such moments as these that
+Louis's impassibility assumed the character of dignity. He disdained to
+notice the mayor's insolence, and briefly answered that it was always with
+pleasure and with confidence that he found himself among the inhabitants
+of his good city of Paris. He proceeded to the Hôtel de Ville, where the
+council of civic magistrates was sitting; and where the president
+addressed him in language which afforded a marked contrast to that of the
+mayor, calling him "an adored father who had come to visit the place where
+he could meet with the greatest number of his children." And it seemed as
+if Bailly himself had become in some degree ashamed of his insolence; for
+now, when Louis desired him, in reply to the president's address, to
+repeat the answer which he had made to him at the barrier, he merely said
+that the king had come with pleasure among the Parisians. "The king, sir,"
+interrupted the queen, "added, 'and with confidence.'" "Gentlemen," said
+Bailly, "you hear her majesty's words. You are happier in doing so than if
+I myself had uttered them." The whole company burst into one rapturous
+cheer, and at their request the king and queen showed themselves for a few
+minutes at the windows, beneath which, late as the hour was, a vast
+multitude was still collected, which received them with vociferous cheers.
+And then the royal family, quitting the Hotel, drove to the Tuileries,
+where their attendants had been hastily making such preparations as a few
+hours allowed for their reception.
+
+Since the completion of the Palace at Versailles the Tuileries had been
+almost deserted.[10] The paint and gilding were tarnished, the curtains
+were faded, many most necessary articles of furniture were altogether
+wanting; and the whole was so shabby that it attracted the notice of even
+the little dauphin. "How bad, mamma," said he, "every thing looks here."
+"My boy," she replied, "Louis XIV. lived here comfortably enough." But
+they had not yet decided on making it their permanent residence. La
+Fayette, who had tried to induce the king to promise to do so, had been
+distinctly refused; and for some days Louis did not make up his mind. But,
+after a time, the fear, if he should propose to return, to Versailles, of
+being met by an opposition on the part of the Assembly or the civic
+magistrates, which he might be unable to surmount, or, if he should again
+settle there, of his absence from the city furnishing a pretext for fresh
+tumults, caused him to announce his intention of making Paris his
+principal abode for the future. He gave orders for the removal of some
+furniture and of the queen's library to the Tuileries; and, with something
+of the apathy of despair, began to reconcile himself to his new abode and
+his changed position.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+Feelings of Marie Antoinette on coming to the Tuileries.--Her Tact in
+winning the Hearts of the Common People.--Mirabeau changes his Views.--
+Quarrel between La Fayette and the Duc d'Orléans.--Mirabeau desires to
+offer his Services to the Queen.--Riots in Paris.--Murder of François.--
+The Assembly pass a Vote prohibiting any Member from taking Office.--The
+Emigration.--Death of the Emperor Joseph II.--Investigation into the Riots
+of October.--The Queen refuses to give Evidence.--Violent Proceedings in
+the Assembly.--Execution of the Marquis de Favras.
+
+
+The comment made by Marie Antoinette on quitting Versailles was that "they
+were undone; they were being dragged off, perhaps to death, which was
+never far removed from captive sovereigns;[1]" and such henceforward was
+her prevailing feeling. She may occasionally, prompted by her own innate
+courage and sanguineness of disposition, have cherished a short-lived
+hope, founded on a consciousness of the king's and her own purity of
+intention, or on a belief, which she never wholly discarded, in the
+natural goodness of heart of the French people when not led astray by
+demagogues; and of their impulsive levity of disposition, which seemed to
+make no change of temper on their part impossible; but her general feeling
+was one of humiliation for the past and despair for the future. Not only
+did the example of Charles I., whose fate was ever before her eyes, fill
+her with dread for her husband's life (to her own danger she never gave a
+thought), but she felt also that the cause and principle of royalty had
+been degraded by the shameful scenes through which she had lately passed;
+and we shall fail to do justice to the patience, fortitude, and energy of
+her conduct during the remainder of her life, if we allow ourselves to
+forget that these high qualities were maintained and exerted in spite of
+the most depressing circumstances and the most discouraging convictions;
+that she was struggling because it was her duty to struggle for her
+husband's honor and her child's inheritance; but that she was never long
+sustained by that incentive which, with so many, is absolutely
+indispensable to steady and useful exertion--the anticipation of eventual
+success.
+
+A letter which the very next morning she wrote to Mercy, who fortunately
+still retained his old post as embassador, shows the courage with which
+she still caught at every circumstance which seemed in the least hopeful;
+and with what unfaltering tact she sought every opportunity of acting on
+the impulsiveness which she regarded as one chief characteristic of the
+French people.
+
+"October 7th, 1789.
+
+"I am quite well. You may be easy about me. If we could only forget where
+we are and how we came here, we ought to be satisfied with the feelings of
+the people, especially this morning. I hope, if bread does not fall short,
+that many things will return to their proper order. I speak to the people,
+militia, fish-women, and all: all offer me their hands; I give them mine.
+In the Hôtel de Ville I was personally well received. The people this
+morning begged us to remain here. I answered them, speaking for the king,
+who was by my side, that it depended on themselves whether we remained;
+that we desired nothing better; that all animosities must be laid aside;
+that the slightest renewal of bloodshed would make us flee, with horror.
+Those who were nearest to me swore that all that was over. I told the
+fish-women to go and tell others all that we had just said to one
+another.[2]"
+
+And a day or two later, on the 10th, even while giving fuller expression
+to her feelings of unhappiness, and of disgust at the events of the past
+week, as to which she assures Mercy that "no description could be
+exaggerated; on the contrary, that any account must fall far short of what
+the king and she had seen and experienced," she yet repeats that "she
+hopes to bring back to a right feeling the honest and sound portion of the
+citizens and people. Unhappily, however," as she adds, "they are not the
+most numerous body. Still, with gentleness and unwearied patience, she may
+hope that at least she shall succeed in doing away with the horrible
+distrust which occupies every mind, and which has dragged the king and
+herself into the gulf in which they are at present." So keen at this time
+was her feeling that one principal cause of their miseries was the unjust
+distrust which the citizens in general conceived of the views and designs
+of the court, that she desires Mercy not to try to see her; and, while she
+describes the scantiness of the accommodation which her attendants had as
+yet been able to provide for her, so that Madame Royale had a bed in her
+dressing-room, and the little dauphin was in her own room, she finds
+advantage in these arrangements, inconvenient as they were, since they
+prevented any suspicion from arising that she was giving audiences which
+she desired to keep secret.
+
+She did not overrate the impression which she had made on the people; and
+her faithful attendant, Madame Campan, has preserved more minute details
+of the events of the 7th than she herself reported to the embassador. She
+was hardly dressed when a huge crowd collected on the terrace under her
+window, shouting for her to show herself; and, when she came forward, they
+began to accost her in a mingled tone of expostulation and menace. "She
+must drive away the courtiers who were the ruin of kings. She must love
+the inhabitants of her good city." She replied "that she had always felt
+so toward them; she had loved them while at Versailles; she should
+continue to love them at Paris." "Ah," interrupted a virago, hardier than
+her companions, "but on the 14th of July you would have besieged and
+bombarded the city; and on the 6th of October you wanted to flee to the
+frontier." She answered, in the gentlest tone, that "these were idle
+stories, which they were wrong to believe; tales like these were what
+caused at once the misery of the people and that of the best of kings."
+Another woman addressed her in German. Marie Antoinette declared that "she
+did not understand what she said; that she had become so completely French
+that she had forgotten her native language;" and the compliment to their
+country fairly vanquished them. They received it with shouts of "Bravo,"
+and with loud clapping of their hands. They begged the ribbons and flowers
+of her bonnet. She took them off with her own hand and distributed them
+among them; and they divided the spoils with thankful exultation, smiling,
+waving their hands, and crying out, "Long live Marie Antoinette! Long live
+our good queen![3]"
+
+For a time it seemed as if the fortunes of the king and country were being
+weighed in an uncertain balance. One day some circumstances seemed to hold
+out a prospect of the re-establishment of tranquillity, and of the return
+of the masses to a better feeling. The next day these favorable
+appearances were more than counterbalanced by fresh evidences of the
+increasing power of the factious and unscrupulous demagogues. It was
+greatly in favor of the crown that the triumph of the mob on the 6th of
+October had led to violent quarrels between the Duc d'Orléans, La Fayette,
+and Mirabeau. La Fayette had charged the duke with having entered into a
+plot to assassinate him, and threatened to impeach him formally if he did
+not at once quit the kingdom.[4] The duke trembled and consented, easily
+procuring from the ministers, who were glad to get rid of him, a
+diplomatic mission to England as a pretext for his departure; and
+Mirabeau, who despised both the duke and the marquis, full of contempt for
+the pusillanimity which the former had shown in the quarrel, abandoned all
+idea of placing him on his cousin's throne. "Make him my king!" he
+exclaimed; "I would not have him for my valet."
+
+Emboldened by his success with the duke, La Fayette, who had great
+confidence in his own address, next tried to win over or to get rid of
+Mirabeau himself. He proposed to obtain an embassy for him also. The
+suggestion of what was clearly an honorable exile in disguise was at once
+declined.[5] He then offered him a large sum of money, for at that moment
+he had the entire disposal of the civil list; but he found that the
+great orator was disinclined to connect himself with him in any way, much
+more to lay himself under any obligation to him. In fact, Mirabeau was at
+this moment hoping to obtain a post in the home administration, where, if
+he could once succeed in procuring a footing, he had no doubt of soon
+obtaining the entire mastery; and the royal family was hardly settled at
+the Tuileries before he applied to his friend, the Count de la Marck, whom
+he rightly believed to enjoy the queen's good opinion, begging him to
+express to her his ardent wish to serve her. He even drew up a long
+memorial on the existing state of affairs, indicating the line of conduct
+which, in his opinion, the king ought to pursue; the leading feature of
+which was an early departure from Paris to some city at no great distance,
+that he might be safe and free; while in the capital it was evident that
+he was neither. And the step which he thus recommended at the outset
+deserves attention as being also that on which a year later he still
+insisted as the indispensable preliminary to whatever line of conduct
+might be decided on.
+
+But at this moment his advice never reached those for whom it was
+intended. La Marck, with all his good-will both to his friend and to the
+court, could not venture to bring before the queen's notice the name of
+one who, only a few days before, had denounced her in the foulest manner
+in the Assembly for having appeared at the soldiers' banquet, and whom she
+with her own eyes had beheld uniting with the assailants of the palace. He
+thought it more politic, even for the eventual attainment of his friend's
+objects, to content himself for the time with giving the memorial and
+stating the views of the writer to the Count de Provence; and that prince
+declared that it would be useless to bring it to the knowledge of either
+king or queen: "that the queen had not sufficient influence over her
+husband to induce him to adopt such a plan;" and he even hinted that at
+times Louis was disposed to be jealous of her appearing to influence him.
+
+But if these circumstances--the quarrel between the enemies of the court,
+and the conversion of one more able and formidable than either--were in
+the king's favor, other events which took place in the same few weeks were
+full of mischief and danger. Before the end of the month fresh riots broke
+out in Paris. Bread, the supply of which Marie Antoinette, as we have
+seen, rightly regarded as a matter of the first importance to the
+tranquillity of the city, continued scarce and dear; and the mob broke
+open the bakers' shops, and murdered one baker, a man named François, with
+a ferocity more terrible than they had even shown toward De Launay, or the
+guards at Versailles. They tore his body to pieces, and, having cut off
+his head, compelled his wife to kiss the scarcely cold lips, and then left
+her fainting on the pavement still covered with his blood. Even La Fayette
+was horror-stricken at such brutality. It was the only occasion on which
+he did his duty during the whole progress of the Revolution. He came down
+with a company of the National Guard, dispersed the rioters, seized the
+ruffian who was bearing aloft, the head of the murdered man on a pole, and
+caused him to be hanged the next day. And during the next few weeks he
+more than once brought his soldiers to the support of the civil power, and
+inflicted summary punishment on gangs of miscreants, whose idea of reform
+was a state of things which should afford impunity to crime.
+
+But in the next month the Assembly dealt a heavier blow on the king's
+authority than could be inflicted by the worst excesses of an informal
+mob--they passed a resolution prohibiting any of its members from
+accepting any office in the administration: it was an imitation of the
+self-denying ordinance into which Cromwell had tricked the English
+Parliament; and, though bearing an appearance of disinterestedness in
+closing the access to official emoluments and honors against themselves,
+was in reality an injury to the king, as depriving him of his right to
+select his ministers from the entire body of the nation; and to the nation
+itself, as preventing it from obtaining the services of those who might be
+presumed to be its ablest citizens, as having been already selected as its
+representatives.
+
+But a far more irreparable injury than any that could be inflicted on the
+court by either populace or Assembly came from its friends. We have seen
+that the Count d'Artois, with some nobles who had especial reason to fear
+the enmity of the Parisians, had fled from the country in July; and now
+their example was followed by a vast number of the higher classes, several
+of them having hitherto been prominent as the leaders of the Moderate or
+Constitutional section of the Assembly--men who had no grounds for
+complaining that, except in one or two instances, at moments of
+extraordinary excitement, their influence had been overborne, but who now
+yielded to an infectious panic. Before the end of the year more than three
+hundred deputies had resigned their seats and quit the country; salving
+over to themselves the dereliction of the duties which a few months before
+they had voluntarily sought, and their performance of which was now a more
+imperative duty than ever, by denunciations of the crimes which had been
+committed, and which they had found themselves unable to prevent. They did
+not see that their pusillanimous flight must lead to a continuance of such
+atrocities, leaving, as it did, the undisputed sway in the Assembly to
+those very men who had been the authors of the outrages of which they
+complained. They were, in fact, insuring the ruin of all that they most
+wished to preserve; for, in the progress of the debates in the Assembly
+during the winter, many questions of the most vital importance were
+decided by very small majorities, which their presence would have turned
+into minorities. The greater the danger was, the more irresistible they
+ought to have felt the obligation to stand to the last by the cause of
+which they were the legitimate champions; and the final triumph of the
+Jacobin party owed hardly more to the energy of its leaders than to the
+cowardly and inglorious flight of the princes and nobles who left the
+field open without resistance to their wickedness and audacity.
+
+It was a melancholy winter that the queen now passed. So far as she was
+able, she diverted her mind from political anxieties by devoting much of
+her time to the education of her children. A little plot of ground was
+railed off in the garden of the Tuileries for the dauphin's[6] amusement;
+and one of her favorite relaxations was to watch him working at the
+flower-beds himself with his little hoe and rake; though, as if to mark
+that they were in fact prisoners, both she and he were followed wherever
+they went by grenadiers of the city-guard, and were not allowed to
+dispense with their attendance for a single moment. Marie Antoinette had
+reason to complain that she was watched as a criminal[7]. Sad as she was
+at heart, she was not allowed the comfort of privacy and retirement. She
+was forced to hold receptions for the nobles and chief citizens, and as
+the court was now formally established at the Tuileries, she dined every
+week in public with the king; but she steadily resisted the entreaties of
+some of the ministers and courtiers to visit the theatres, thinking, with
+great justice, that an attendance at public spectacles of that character
+would have had an appearance of gayety, as unbecoming at such a period of
+anxiety, as it was inconsistent with her feelings; and before the end of
+the winter she sustained a fresh affliction in the loss of her brother the
+emperor[8]; whose death bore with it the additional aggravation of
+depriving her of a counselor whose advice she valued, and of an ally on
+whose active aid she believed that she could rely far more than she could
+on that of their brother Leopold, who now succeeded to the imperial
+throne.
+
+Not that Leopold can be charged with indifference to his sister's welfare.
+In the very week of his accession to the throne he wrote to her with great
+affection, assuring her of his devotion to her interests, and expressing
+his desire to correspond with her in the most unreserved confidence. But
+the same letter shows that  as yet he knew but very little of her;[9] and
+that he regarded the difficulties in which some of Joseph's recent
+measures had involved the Imperial Government as sufficiently serious to
+engross his attention. A few extracts from her reply are worth preserving,
+as proving how steadily in her conduct and language to every one she
+adhered to her rule of concealing her husband's defects, and putting him
+forward as the first person on whose wishes and directions her own conduct
+most depend. It also shows what advances she was herself making in the
+perception of the true character of the crisis, so far as the objects of
+the few honest members who still remained in the Assembly were concerned,
+and the extent to which she was trying to reconcile herself to some
+curtailment of her husband's former authority.
+
+Thanking him for the assurance of his friendship, she says: "Believe me,
+my dear brother, we shall always be worthy of it. I say we, because I do
+not separate the king from myself. He was touched by your letter, as I was
+myself, and bids me assure you of this. His heart is loyalty and honesty
+itself; and if ever again we become, I do not say what we have been, but
+at least what we ought to be, you may then depend on the entire fidelity
+of a good ally.
+
+"I do not say any thing to you of our actual position: it is too heart-
+rending. It ought to afflict every sovereign in the universe, and still
+more an affectionate relation like you. It is only time and patience that
+can bring back men's minds to a healthy state. It is a war of opinions,
+and one which is still far from being terminated. It is only the justice
+of our cause and the feeling of a good conscience that can support us ...
+My most sincere wish is that you may never meet with ingratitude. My own
+melancholy experience proves to me that, of all evils, that is the most
+terrible."
+
+Yet no indignation at the thanklessness of the Parisians could chill her
+constant benevolence toward them; and amidst all the anxieties which
+filled her mind for herself, her husband, and her child, she founded an
+asylum for the education of a number of orphan daughters of old soldiers,
+and found time to give her careful attention to a code of regulations for
+its management.[10]
+
+Meanwhile circumstances were gradually paving the way for her accepting
+the help of him who, during the earliest discussions of the Assembly, had
+been, not so much through his own malice as through Necker's folly, her
+worst enemy. We have seen how, immediately after the attack on Versailles,
+Mirabeau had once more endeavored to find an opening through which to
+place himself at her service. He alone, perhaps, of all men in the
+kingdom, perceived the reality and greatness of the danger which
+threatened even the lives of the sovereigns;[11] and, as amidst all the
+errors into which his regard for his own interests, his vindictiveness, or
+his caprice impelled him, he always preserved the perceptions and
+instincts of a genuine statesman, many of the transactions of the winter
+increased his conviction of the peril in which every interest in the whole
+kingdom was placed, if the headlong folly of the Assembly could not be
+restrained, and if even, proverbially difficult as such a course is, some
+of its acts could not be rescinded; while one transaction, which, more
+than any other that had yet taken place, showed the greatness of the
+queen's heart, much sharpened his eagerness to prove himself a worthy
+servant of so noble-minded a mistress.
+
+Some of the magistrates who still desired to discharge their duty had
+instituted an investigation into the conspiracy which had originated the
+attack on Versailles, and all its multiplied horrors. They had examined a
+great body of witnesses, whose evidence left no doubt of the active part
+taken in it by the Duc d'Orléans and his partisans, and by Mirabeau,
+whether he were to be included among that prince's adherents or not; but
+they conceived it specially important to procure the testimony of the
+queen herself. However, it was in vain that they applied to her for the
+slightest information. Appeals to her indignation, to her pride, and to
+her danger, were equally disregarded by her. No denunciation of those who,
+whatever had been their crimes, were still the subjects of her husband,
+could, in her eyes, be becoming to her as queen; and when those who hoped
+to make a tool of her to crush their political rivals urged that no
+evidence would be accepted as equally conclusive with hers, since no one
+had seen so much of what had taken place, or had in so great a degree
+preserved that coolness which was indispensable to a clear account of it,
+and to the identification of the guilty, her reply was a dignified and
+magnanimous pardon of the outrages beneath which she had so nearly
+perished. "I have seen every thing; I have known every thing; I have
+forgotten every thing;" and Mirabeau, not unthankful for the protection
+which her magnanimity thus throw around him, was eager to make atonement
+for his past insults and injuries.
+
+And many of the recent events had convinced him that there was no time to
+lose. The vote of November, debarring him, in common with all other
+members of the Assembly, from office, was a severe blow to the most
+important of his projects, so far as his own interests were concerned.
+Within a month it had been followed by another, proposed by the Abbé
+Siéyes, a busy priest who boasted that he had made himself master of the
+whole science of politics, but who was in fact a mere slave of abstract
+theories, the safety or even the practicability of which he was utterly
+unable to estimate. On his motion, the Assembly, in a single evening,
+abolished all the ancient territorial divisions of the kingdom, and the
+very names of the provinces; dividing the country anew into eighty-three
+departments, and coupling with this new arrangement a number of details
+which were evidently calculated to wrest the whole executive authority of
+the kingdom from the crown and to vest it in the populace. At another
+sitting, the whole property of the Church was confiscated. On another
+night, the Parliaments were abolished; and on a fourth, the party which
+had carried these measures made a still more direct and audacious attack
+on the royal prerogative, by passing a resolution which deprived the crown
+of all power of revising the sentences of the judicial tribunals, and of
+pardoning or mitigating the punishment of those who might have been
+condemned. And, if to bring home to the tender-hearted monarch the full
+effect of this last inroad upon his legitimate power, they at the same
+time created a new crime to which they gave the name of treason against
+the nation,[12] without either defining it, or specifying the kind of
+evidence which should he required to prove it; and they proceeded at once
+to put it in force to procure the condemnation of a nobleman of decayed
+fortune, but of the highest character, the Marquis de Favras, in a manner
+which showed that their real object was to strike terror into the whole
+Royalist party. The charges on which he was brought to trial were not
+merely unfounded, but ridiculous. He was charged with designing to raise
+an army of thirty thousand men, with the object of carrying off the king
+from Paris, of dissolving the Assembly by force, and putting La Fayette
+and Bailly to death. The evidence with which it was pretended to support
+these charges broke down on every point, and its failure of itself
+established the prisoner's innocence, even without the aid of his own
+defense, which was lucid and eloquent. But the marquis was known to be a
+Royalist in feeling, and, though very poor, to stand high in the
+confidence of the princes. The demagogues collected mobs round the
+courthouse to intimidate the judges, and the judges proved as base as the
+accusers themselves. They professed, indeed, to fear not so much for their
+own lives as for the public tranquillity, but they pronounced him guilty.
+One of them had even the effrontery to acknowledge his innocence to Favras
+himself, and to affirm that his life was a necessary sacrifice to the
+public peace.
+
+No event since the attack on Versailles had caused Marie Antoinette equal
+anguish. It showed that attachment to the king and herself was in itself
+regarded as an inexpiable crime, and her distress was greatly augmented
+when, on the Sunday following the execution of the marquis, some of his
+friends brought to the table where, as usual, she was dining in public
+with the king, the widowed marchioness and her orphaned son in deep
+mourning, and presented them to their majesties. Their introducers
+evidently expected that the king, or at least the queen, by the
+distinguished reception which she would accord to them, would mark their
+sense of the merits of their late husband and father, and of the indignity
+of the sentence under which he had suffered.
+
+Marie Antoinette was sadly embarrassed and distressed: she was taken
+wholly by surprise; and it happened by a cruel perverseness of fortune
+that Santerre, the brewer, whose ruffianly and ferocious enmity to the
+whole royal family, and especially to herself, had been conspicuous
+throughout the worst outrages of the past summer and autumn, was on the
+same day on duty at the palace as commander of one of the battalions of
+the Parisian Guard, and was standing behind her chair when the marchioness
+and her son were introduced. Her embarrassment and all her feelings on the
+occasion were described by herself in the course of the afternoon to
+Madame Campan.
+
+After the dinner was over, she went up to her attendant's room, saying
+that it was a relief to find herself where she could weep at her ease; for
+weep she must at the folly of the ultra-Royalists. "We can not but be
+destroyed," she continued, "when we are attacked by people who unite every
+kind of talent to every kind of wickedness; and when we are defended by
+folks who are indeed very estimable, but who have no just notion of our
+position. They have now compromised me with both parties, in their
+presenting to me the widow and son of Favras. If I had been free to do as
+I would, I should have taken the child of a man who had just been
+sacrificed for us, and have placed him at table between the king and
+myself; but surrounded as I was by the very murderers who had caused his
+father's death, I could not venture even to bestow a glance upon him. Yet
+the Royalists will blame me for not having seemed to be interested in the
+poor child; while the Revolutionists will be furious, thinking that those
+who presented him to me knew that it would please me." And all that she
+could venture to do she did. She knew that the marchioness was very poor,
+and she sent her by a trusty agent a few hundred louis, and with it a kind
+message, assuring the unhappy widow that she would always watch over her
+and her son's interests.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+The King accepts the Constitution so far as it has been settled.--The
+Queen makes a Speech to the Deputies.--She is well received at the
+Theatre.--Negotiations with Mirabeau.--The Queen's Views of the Position
+of Affairs.--The Jacobin Club denounces Mirabeau.--Deputation of
+Anacharsis Clootz.--Demolition of the Statue of Louis XIV.--Abolition of
+Titles of Honor.--The Queen admits Mirabeau to an Audience.--His
+Admiration of her Courage and Talents.--Anniversary of the Capture of the
+Bastile.--Fête of the Champ de Mars.--Presence of Mind of the Queen.
+
+
+What was probably as painful to Marie Antoinette as these occurrences
+themselves was the apathy with which the king regarded them. The English
+traveler to whose journal we have more than once referred, and who, in the
+first week of the year, saw the royal pair waiting in the gardens of the
+Tuileries, remarked that though the queen did not appear in good health,
+but showed melancholy and anxiety in her face, the king, on the other
+hand, "was as plump as ease could render him.[1]" And in the course of
+February, in spite of all her remonstrances, Necker succeeded in
+persuading him to go down to the Assembly, and to address the members in a
+long speech, in which, though some of his expressions were clearly
+intended as a reproof of the Assembly itself for the precipitation and
+violence of some of its measures, he nevertheless declared his cordial
+assent to the new Constitution, so far as they had yet settled it, and
+promised to co-operate in a spirit of affection and confidence in the
+labors which still remained to be achieved.
+
+The greater part of the speech is believed to have been his own
+composition; and it is characteristic of the fidelity with which, on every
+occasion, Marie Antoinette adhered to her rule of strengthening her
+husband's position by her own cordial and conspicuous support, that,
+strongly as she had objected to the step before it was taken, now that it
+was decided on, she professed a decided approval of it; and when a
+deputation of the Assembly, which had been appointed to escort the king
+with honor back to the palace, solicited an audience of herself to pay
+their respects, she assured the deputies that "she partook of all the
+sentiments of the king; that she united with all her heart and mind in the
+measure which his love for his people had just dictated to him." And then,
+bringing the dauphin forward, she added: "Behold my son. I shall
+unceasingly speak to him of the virtues of his most excellent father. I
+shall teach him from the earliest age to cherish public liberty, and I
+hope that he will be its firmest bulwark."
+
+For a moment the step seemed to have succeeded, though the proofs of its
+success were still more strongly proofs of the utter want of sense that
+marked all the proceedings of the Assembly. As Louis had expressed his
+assent to the Constitution so far as it was settled, it was proposed, as a
+fitting compliment to him, that the Assembly and the whole body of the
+citizens of Paris should take an oath of fidelity to the Constitution
+without any such reservation. But in the course of the next few weeks the
+Assembly showed how little his reproof of its former precipitation and
+violence had been heeded, since, among the first measures with which it
+proceeded to the completion of the Constitution, one deprived him of the
+right of deciding on peace and war, a power which all wise statesmen
+regard as inseparable from the executive government; another extinguished
+the right of primogeniture; and a third confiscated all the property of
+the monastic establishments.
+
+However, those who took the lead in the management of affairs (for Necker
+and the ministers had long ceased to exert the slightest authority) were
+blinded by their own fury to the absurdity and inconsistency of their
+conduct. Their exultation was unbounded, and, adhering to the line of
+conduct which she had marked out for herself, Marie Antoinette now yielded
+to their entreaties that she would show herself to the citizens at the
+theatre. Even in the days of her earliest popularity she had never met a
+more enthusiastic reception. The greater part of the house rose at her
+entrance, clapping their hands and cheering, and the disloyalty of a few
+malcontents only made her triumph more conspicuous, so roughly were they
+treated by the rest of the audience. Marie Antoinette was herself touched
+at the cordiality with which she was greeted, and saw in it another proof
+that "the people and citizens were good at heart if left to themselves;
+but," she added to the Princess de Lamballe, to whom she described the
+scene, "all this enthusiasm is but a gleam of light, a cry of conscience
+which weakness will soon stifle.[2]"
+
+It is probably doing no injustice to Mirabeau to believe that the crimes
+which had made the greatest impression on the queen were not the events
+which affected him the most strongly. But he was not only a statesman in
+intellect, but an aristocrat in every feeling of his heart. No man was
+fonder of referring to his illustrious ancestors; or of claiming kindred
+with men of old renown, such as the Admiral de Coligny, of whom he more
+than once boasted in the Assembly as his cousin; and each blow dealt at
+the consideration of the Nobles was an additional incentive to him to seek
+to arrest the progress of a revolution which had already gone far beyond
+his wishes or his expectations. And as he was always energetic in the
+pursuit of his plans, he had, by some means or other, in spite of the
+discouragement derived from the language and conduct of the Count de
+Provence, contrived to get information of his willingness to enlist in the
+Royalist party conveyed to the queen. The Count de la Marck, who was still
+his chief confidant, was at Brussels at the beginning of the spring, when
+he received a letter from Mercy, begging him to return without delay to
+Paris. He lost no time in obeying the summons, when he learned, to his
+great delight, though his pleasure was alloyed by some misgiving, that the
+king and queen had resolved to avail themselves of Mirabeau's services,
+and that he himself was selected as the intermediate agent in the
+negotiation. La Marck's misgiving,[3] as he frankly told the embassador at
+the outset, was caused by the fear that Mirabeau had done more harm than
+he could repair; but he gladly undertook the commission, though its
+difficulty was increased by a stipulation which showed at once the
+weakness of the king, and the extraordinary difficulties which it placed
+in the way of his friends. The count was especially warned to keep all
+that was passing a secret from Necker. He was startled, as he well might
+be, at such an injunction. But he did not think it became his position to
+start a difficulty; and, as he was fully impressed with the importance of
+not losing time, the negotiation proceeded rapidly. He introduced Mirabeau
+to Mercy, and he himself was admitted to an interview with the queen, when
+he learned that her greatest objections to accepting Mirabeau's services
+were of a personal nature, founded partly on the general badness of his
+character, partly on the share he had borne in the events of the 5th and
+6th of October. By the count's own account, he went rather beyond the
+truth in his endeavors to exculpate his friend on this point; and he
+probably deceived himself when he believed that he had convinced the queen
+of his innocence. But both she and Louis, who was present at a part of the
+interview, had evidently made up their minds to forget the past, if they
+could trust his promises for the future. And the interview ended in the
+further conduct of the necessary arrangements being left by Louis to the
+queen.
+
+In a subsequent conversation with the count, she explained her own views
+of the existing situation of affairs, describing them, indeed, according
+to her custom, as the ideas of the king, in a manner which shows how much
+she was willing that the king should abate of his old prerogatives,
+provided only that the concessions were made voluntarily by himself, and
+not imposed by violent and illegal resolutions of the Assembly. Mirabeau
+had drawn up an elaborate memorial for the consideration of the king, in
+which he pointed out in general terms his sense of the state of "utter
+anarchy" into which France had fallen, his shame and indignation at
+feeling "that he himself had contributed to bring affairs into such a bad
+state." and his "profound conviction of the necessity, in the interests of
+the whole nation, of re-establishing the legitimate authority of the
+king.[4]" And Marie Antoinette, commenting on this expression, assured La
+Marck that "the king had no desire to recover the full extent of the
+authority which he had formerly possessed; and that he was far from
+thinking it necessary for his own personal happiness any more than for the
+welfare of his people.[5]" And it seemed to the count that she placed
+unlimited confidence in Mirabeau's ability to re-establish her husband's
+power on a sufficient and satisfactory basis; so full was her
+conversation, during the latter part of the interview, of the good which
+she expected to be again able to do, and of the warm affection with which
+she regarded the people.
+
+The benefits of this new alliance were not to be all on one side. Mirabeau
+was overwhelmed with debt; and though his father had died in the preceding
+summer, he had not yet entered into his inheritance, but was in a state
+little short of absolute destitution. From this condition he was to be
+relieved, and the arrangements for the discharge of his debts, and the
+securing to him the enjoyment of a sufficient though by no means excessive
+income, were intrusted to Marie Antoinette by the king, and by her to her
+almoner, M. de Fontanges, who, when Loménie de Brienne was promoted to the
+archbishopric of Sens, had succeeded him at Toulouse. The archbishop, who
+was sincerely devoted to his royal mistress, carried out the necessary
+arrangements with great skill, but they could not be managed with such
+secrecy as entirely to escape notice. Among the clubs which had been set
+on foot at the beginning of the previous year the most violent had been
+that known as the Breton Club, from being founded by some of the deputies
+from the great province of Brittany; but, when the court removed to Paris,
+and the Assembly was established in a large building close to the garden
+of the Tuileries, the Bretons obtained the use of an apartment in an old
+convent of Dominican or Jacobin friars (as they were called), the same
+which two centuries before had been the council-room of the League, and
+they changed their own designation also, and called themselves the
+Jacobins; and, canceling the rule which limited the right of membership to
+deputies, they now admitted every one who, by application for election,
+avowed his adherence to their principles. Their leaders at this time were
+Barnave; a young noble named Alexander Lameth, whose mother, having been
+left in necessitous circumstances, owed to the bounty of the king and
+queen the means of educating her children, a benefit which they repaid
+with the most unremitting hostility to the whole royal family; and a
+lawyer named Duport. Mirabeau was in the habit of ridiculing them as the
+triumvirate; but they were crafty and unscrupulous men, skillful in
+procuring information; and, having obtained intelligence of his
+negotiations with the court, they retaliated on him by hiring pamphleteers
+and journalists to attack him, and narratives of the treason of the Count
+de Mirabeau were hawked about the streets.
+
+To apply such language to the adherence of a French noble to the crown was
+the most open avowal of disloyalty on which the revolutionary party had
+yet ventured; and in the next four weeks it received a practical
+development in a series of measures, some of which were so ridiculous as
+only to deserve notice from the additional evidence which they furnished
+of the extreme folly of those who now had the lead in the Assembly, and of
+the strange excitement in which the whole nation, or at least the whole
+population of Paris, must have been wrought up before they could mistake
+their acts for those of sagacity or patriotism; but others of which,
+though not less unwise, were of greater importance as being irrevocable
+steps in the downward course of destruction along which the whole country
+was being dragged.
+
+The leaders of the revolutionary party had already selected two days in
+the past year as especially memorable for the triumphs won over the crown:
+one was the 20th of June, on which, in the Tennis Court at Versailles, the
+members of the Assembly had bound themselves to effect the regeneration of
+the kingdom; the other the 14th of July, on which, as they boasted, they
+had forever established freedom by the destruction of the Bastile; and
+they determined this year to celebrate both these anniversaries in a
+becoming manner. Accordingly, on the 20th of June, a crack-brained member
+of the Jacobin Club, a Prussian of noble birth, named Clootz, who, to show
+his affinity with the philosophers of old, had assumed the name of
+Anacharsis, hired a band of vagrants and idlers, and, dressing them up in
+a variety of costumes to represent Arabs, red Indians, Turks, Chinese,
+Laplanders, and other tribes, savage and civilized, led them into the
+Assembly as a deputation from all the nations of the earth to announce the
+resurrection of the whole world from slavery; and demanded permission for
+them to attend the festival of the ensuing month, that each, on behalf of
+his country, might give in his adhesion to the principles of liberty as
+expounded by the Assembly. The president of the day replied with an
+oration thanking M. Clootz for the honor done to France by such an
+embassy; and Alexander Lameth followed up the president's harangue by
+fresh praises of the deputation as holy pilgrims who had thrown off the
+shackles of superstition. Nor was he content with a barren panegyric. He
+had devised an appropriate sacrifice with which to commemorate such
+exalted virtue. In the finest square of the city, the Place des Victoires,
+the Duke de la Feuillade had erected a statue of Louis XIV. to celebrate
+his royal master's triumphs, the pedestal of which was decorated with
+allegorical representations of the nations which had been conquered by the
+French marshals. It was generally regarded as the finest work of art in
+the city, and as such it had long been an object of admiration and pride
+to the citizens. But M. Lameth, in his new-born enthusiasm, regarded it
+with other eyes, and closed his speech by proposing that, as monuments of
+despotism and flattery could not fail to be shocking to so enlightened a
+body, the Assembly should order its instant demolition. His proposal was
+received with enthusiastic cheers, and the noble monument was instantly
+overthrown in a fit of blind fury more resembling the orgies of drunken
+Bacchanals, or the thirst for desolation which had animated the Goths and
+Huns, than the conduct of the chosen legislators of a polite and
+accomplished people.
+
+But even this was not all. The insult to the memory of a king who, little
+as he deserved it, had a century before been the object of the unanimous
+admiration of his subjects, was but a prelude to other resolutions of far
+greater moment, as giving an indelible character to the future of the
+nation. A deputy, M. Lambel, whose very name was previously unknown to the
+majority of his colleagues, rose and made a speech of three lines, as if
+the proposal which it contained only required to be mentioned to command
+instant and universal assent "This day," said he, "is the tomb of vanity.
+I demand the suppression of the titles of duke, count, marquis, viscount,
+baron, and knight." La Fayette and Alexander Lameth's brother, Charles,
+supported the demand with almost equal brevity; a representative of one of
+the most ancient families in the kingdom, the Viscount Matthieu de
+Montmorency moved a prohibition of the use of armorial bearings; another
+noble, M. de St. Targeau, proposed that the use of names derived from the
+estates of the owners should be abolished. Every proposal was carried by
+acclamation. Louder and louder cheers followed each suggestion of a new
+abolition; a member who ventured to propose an amendment to one proposal
+was hooted down; and in little more than an hour the whole series of
+resolutions, which struck at once at the recollections and glories of the
+past and at the dignity of the future, was made the law of the land.
+
+Every one of these attacks on the nobles was a fresh provocation to
+Mirabeau, and increased his eagerness to complete his reconciliation with
+the crown. He pronounced the abolition of titles a torch to kindle civil
+war, and pressed more earnestly than ever for an interview with the queen,
+in which he might both learn her views and explain his own. Marie
+Antoinette had foreseen that she should be forced to admit him to her
+presence, but there was nothing to which she felt a stronger repugnance.
+His profligate character excited a feeling of perfect disgust in her mind;
+but for the public good she overcame it, and, having in the course of June
+removed to St. Cloud for change of air, on the 3d of July she, accompanied
+by the king, received him in the garden of that palace. The account which
+she sent her brother of the interview shows with what a mixture of
+feelings she had been agitated. She speaks of herself as "shivering with
+horror" as the moment drew near, and can not bring herself to describe him
+except as a "monster," though, she admits that his language speedily
+removed her agitation, which, when he was first presented to her, had
+nearly made her ill. "He seemed to be actuated by entire good faith, and
+to be altogether devoted to the king; and Louis was highly pleased with
+him, so that they now thought every thing was safe.[6]"
+
+She, on her part, had made an equally favorable impression on him. She had
+adroitly flattered his high opinion of himself by saying that "if she had
+been speaking to persons of a different class and character she should
+have felt the necessity of being guarded in her language, but that in
+dealing with a Mirabeau there could be no need of such caution;" and he
+told his confidant, La Marck, that till he knew "the soul and thoughts of
+the daughter of Maria Teresa, and learned how fully he could reckon on
+that august ally, he had seen nothing of the court but its weakness; but
+now confidence had raised his courage, and gratitude had made the
+prosecution of his principles a duty;[7]" and in some subsequent letters
+he speaks of every thing as depending on the queen, and describes in brief
+but forcible language his appreciation of the dangers which surrounded
+her, and of the magnanimous courage with which he sees that she is
+prepared to confront them. "The king," he says, "has but one man about
+him, and that is his wife. There is no safety for her but in the
+reestablishment of the royal authority. I love to believe that she would
+not desire to preserve life without the crown. What I am quite certain of
+is, that she will not preserve her life unless she preserves her crown."
+
+In his interview with her, as she reported it to the emperor, he had
+recommended, as the first step to be adopted by the king and herself, a
+departure from Paris; and, in reference to that plan, which he at all
+times regarded as the foundation of every other, he tells La Marck: "The
+moment will soon come when it will be necessary to try what can be done by
+a woman and a child on horseback. For her it is but the adoption of an
+hereditary mode of action.[8] But she must be prepared for it, and must
+not suppose that one can extricate one's self from an extraordinary crisis
+by mere chance or by the combinations of an ordinary man."
+
+The hopes with which the acquisition of such an ally inspired the queen at
+this time nerved her to bear her part in the festival with which the
+Assembly had decided on celebrating the demolition of the Bastile. The
+arrangements for it were of a gigantic character. Round the sides of the
+Champ de Mars a vast embankment was raised, so as to give the plain the
+appearance of an amphitheatre, and to afford accommodation to three
+hundred thousand spectators. At the entrance a magnificent arch of triumph
+was erected. The centre was occupied by a grand altar; and on one side a
+gorgeous pavilion was appropriated to the king, his family, and retinue,
+the members of the Assembly, and the municipal magistrates. They were all
+to be performers in the grand ceremony which was to be the distinguishing
+feature of the day. The Constitution was scarcely more complete than it
+had been when Louis signified his acceptance of it five months before; but
+now, not only were he, the deputies, and municipal authorities of Paris to
+swear to its maintenance, but the same oath was to be taken by the
+National Guard, and by a deputation from every regiment in the army; and
+it was to bind the soldiers throughout the kingdom to the new order of
+things that the ceremony was originally designed.[9]
+
+As a spectacle few have been more successful, and perhaps none has ever
+been so imposing. Before midnight on the 13th of July, the whole of the
+vast amphitheatre was filled with a dense crowd, in its gayest holiday
+attire--a marvelous and magnificent sight from its mere numbers; and early
+the next morning the heads of the procession began to defile under the
+arch at the entrance of the plain--La Fayette, at the head of the National
+Guard, leading the way. It was a curious proof of the king's weakness, and
+of the tenacity with which he clung to his policy of conciliation, that,
+in spite of his knowledge of the general's bitter animosity to his
+authority and to himself, and of his recent vote for the suppression of
+all titles of honor, Louis had offered him the sword of the Constable of
+France, a dignity which had been disused for many years; and it was an
+equally striking evidence of La Fayette's inveterate disloyalty that,
+gratifying as the succession to Duguesclin and Montmorency would have been
+to his vanity, he nevertheless refused the honor, and contented himself
+with the dignity which the enrollment of the detachments from the
+different departments under his banner conferred on him, by giving him the
+appearance of being the commander-in-chief of the National Guard
+throughout the kingdom. The National Guard was followed by regiment after
+regiment, and deputation after deputation, of the regular army; and, to
+show the subordination to the law which they were expected to acknowledge
+for the future, their swords were all sheathed, while the deputies, the
+municipal magistrates, and other peaceful citizens who bore a part in the
+procession had their swords drawn. Sailors from the fleet, magistrates and
+deputations from every department, and from every city or town of
+importance in the kingdom, followed; and after them came two hundred
+priests, with Talleyrand, Bishop of Autun, in his episcopal vestments at
+their head, their white robes somewhat uncanonically decorated with
+tricolor ribbons, who passed on into the centre of the plain and ranged
+themselves on the steps of the altar. So vast was the procession that it
+was half-past three in the afternoon before the detachment of Royal Guards
+which closed it took up their position.
+
+When at last all were in their places, Louis, accompanied by the queen and
+other members of his family, entered the royal pavilion. He was known by
+sight to the deputations from the most distant provinces, for he had
+reviewed them in a body the day before, when several of them had been
+separately presented to him, toward whom he had for once laid aside his
+habitual reserve, assuring them of his fatherly regard for all his
+subjects with warmth and manifest sincerity. The queen, too, as she always
+did, had made a most favorable impression on those members whom she had
+seen by her judicious and cordial affability. Louis wore no robes, but
+only the ordinary dress of a French noble. Marie Antoinette was in full
+evening costume, and her hair was dressed with a plume of tricolor
+feathers. Yet even on this day, which was intended to be one of universal
+joy and friendliness, evil signs were not wanting to show how powerful
+were the enemies of both king and queen; for no seat whatever had been
+provided for her, while by the aide of that constructed for the king
+another on very nearly the same level had been placed for the President of
+the Assembly.
+
+But these refinements of discourtesy were lost on the spectators. They
+cheered the royal pair joyously the moment that they appeared. Before the
+shouts had died away, Bishop Talleyrand began the service of the mass;
+and, on its termination, administered the oath "of fidelity to the nation,
+the law, the king, and the Constitution as decreed by the Assembly and
+accepted by the king." La Fayette took the oath first in the name of the
+army. Talleyrand followed on behalf of the clergy. Bailly came next, as
+the representative of the citizens of Paris. It was a stormy day; and when
+the moment arrived for the king to set the seal to the universal
+acceptance of the constitution by swearing to exert all his own power for
+its maintenance, the rain came down so heavily as to render it impossible
+for him to leave the shelter of his own pavilion. As it happened, the
+momentary disappointment gave a greater effect to his act. With more than
+usual presence of mind, he advanced to the front of the pavilion, so as to
+be seen by the whole of the assembled multitude, and took the oath with a
+loud voice and perfect dignity of manner. As he resumed his seat, the rain
+cleared away, the sun burst through the clouds; and the queen, as if by a
+sudden inspiration, brought forward the little dauphin, and, lifting him
+up in her arms, showed him to the people. Those whom the king's voice
+could not reach saw the graceful action; and from every side of the plain
+one universal acclamation burst forth, which seemed to bear out Marie
+Antoinette's favorite assertion that the people were good at heart, and
+that it was not without great perseverance in artifice and malignity that
+they could be excited to disloyalty and treason.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+Great Tumults in the Provinces.--Mutiny in the Marquis de Bouillé's Army.
+--Disorder of the Assembly.--Difficulty of managing Mirabeau.--Mercy is
+removed to The Hague.--Marie Antoinette sees constant Changes in the
+Aspect of Affairs.--Marat denounces Her.--Attempts are made to assassinate
+Her.--Resignation of Mirabeau.--Misconduct of the Emigrant Princes.
+
+
+But men less blinded by the feverish excitement of revolutionary
+enthusiasm would have seen but little in the state of France at this time
+to regard as matter for exultation. Many of the recent measures of the
+Assembly, and especially the extinction of the old provinces, had created
+great discontent in the rural districts. Formidable riots had broken out
+in many quarters, especially in the great southern cities, in some of
+which the mob had rivaled the worst excesses of its Parisian brethren;
+massacring the magistrates, tearing their bodies into pieces, and
+terrifying the peaceable inhabitants by processions, in which the mangled
+remains of their victims formed the most conspicuous feature. At Brest and
+at Toulon the sailors showed that they fully shared the general
+dissatisfaction; while in the army a formidable mutiny broke out among the
+troops which were under the command of the Marquis de Bouillé, in
+Lorraine. That, indeed, had a different object, since it had been excited
+by Jacobin emissaries, who were aware that the marquis, the soldier who,
+of the whole French army at that time, enjoyed the highest reputation, was
+firmly attached to the king; though he was not one of the nobles who had
+opposed all reform, nor had he hesitated to follow his royal master's
+example and to declare his acceptance of the new Constitution. Fortunately
+he had subalterns worthy of him, and faithful to their oaths; and as he
+was a man of great promptitude and decision, he, with their aid, quelled
+the mutiny, though not without a sanguinary conflict, in which he himself
+lost above four hundred men, while the loss which he inflicted on the
+mutineers was far heavier. But he had set a noble example, and had given
+an undeniable proof of the possibility of quelling the most formidable
+tumults; and it may be said that his quarters were the only spot in all
+France which was not wholly given up to anarchy and disorder.
+
+For even the Assembly itself was a prey to tumult and violence. From the
+time of its assuming that title admission had been given to every one who
+could force his way into the chamber, whether he was a member or not; nor
+was any order preserved among those who thus obtained admission; but they
+were allowed to express their opinion of every speaker and of every speech
+by friendly or unfriendly clamor: a practice which, as may well be
+supposed, materially influenced many votes. And presently attendance for
+that purpose became a trade; some of the most violent deputies hiring a
+regularly appointed troop to take their station in the galleries, and
+paying them daily wages to applaud or hiss in accordance with the signs
+which they themselves made from the body of the hall.[1] And if the
+populace was thus the master of the Assembly while at Versailles, this was
+far more the case after its removal to Paris, where the number of the idle
+portion of the population furnished the Jacobins with far greater means of
+intimidating their adversaries.
+
+It was remarkable that La Marck himself, as has been already intimated,
+did not fully share the hopes which the king and queen founded on the
+adhesion of Mirabeau. It was not only that on one point he had sounder
+views than Mirabeau himself--doubting, as he did, whether the mischief
+which his vehement friend had formerly done could now be undone by the
+same person, merely because he had changed his mind--but he also felt
+doubts of Mirabeau's steadiness in his new path, and feared lest eagerness
+for popularity, or an innate levity of disposition, might still lead him
+astray. As he described him in a letter to Mercy, "he was sometimes very
+great and sometimes very little; he could be very useful, and he could be
+very mischievous: in a word, he was often above, and sometimes greatly
+below, any other man." At another time he speaks of him as "by turns
+imprudent through excess of confidence, and lukewarm from distrust;" and
+this estimate of the great demagogue, which was not very incorrect, shows,
+too, how high an opinion La Marck had formed of the queen's ability and
+force of character, for he looks to her "to put a curb on his
+inconstancy,[2]" trusting for that result not so much to her power of
+fascination as to her clearness of view and resolution.
+
+And she herself was never so misled by her high estimate of Mirabeau's
+abilities and influence as to think his judgment unerring. On the
+contrary, her comment to Mercy on one of the earliest letters which he
+addressed to the king was that it was "full of madness from one end to the
+other," and she asked "how he, or any one else, could expect that at such
+a moment the king and she could be induced to provoke a civil war?"
+alluding, apparently, to his urgent advice that the royal family should
+leave Paris, a step of the necessity for which she was not yet convinced.
+Her hope evidently was that he would bring forward some motions in the
+Assembly which might at least arrest the progress of mischief, and perhaps
+even pave the way for the repair of some of the evil already done.
+
+On one point she partly agreed with him, but not wholly. He insisted on
+the necessity of dismissing the ministers; but she, though thinking them,
+both as a body and individually, unequal to the crisis, saw great
+difficulty in replacing them, since the vote of the preceding winter
+forbade the king to select their successors from the members of the
+Assembly;[3] and she feared also lest, if he should dismiss them, the
+Assembly would carry out a plan which, as it seemed to her, it already
+showed great inclination to adopt, of managing every thing by means of
+committees, and preventing the appointment of any new administration. Her
+view of the situation, and of the king's and her position, varied from
+time to time, as indeed their circumstances and the views of the Assembly
+appeared to alter. In August she is in great distress, caused by a
+decision of the emperor to remove Mercy to the Hague. "I am," she writes
+to the embassador, "in despair at your departure, especially at a moment
+when affairs are becoming every day more embarrassing and more painful,
+and when I have therefore the greater need of an attachment as sincere and
+enlightened as yours. But I feel that all the powers, under different
+pretexts, will withdraw their ministers one after another. It is
+impossible to leave them incessantly exposed to this disorder and license;
+but such is my destiny, and I am forced to endure the horror of it to the
+very end.[4]" But a fortnight later she tells Madame de Polignac that "for
+some days things have been wearing a better complexion. She can not feel
+very sanguine, the mischievous folks having such an interest in perverting
+every thing, and in hindering every thing which, is reasonable, and such
+means of doing so; but at the moment the number of ill-intentioned people
+is diminished, or at least the right-thinking of all classes and of all
+ranks are more united ... You may depend upon it," she adds, "that
+misfortunes have not diminished my resolution or my courage: I shall not
+lose any of that; they will only give me more prudence.[5]" Indeed, her
+own strength of mind, fortitude, and benevolence were the only things in
+France which were not constantly changing at this time; and she derived
+one lesson from the continued vicissitudes to which she was exposed,
+which, if partly grievous, was also in part full of comfort and
+encouragement to so warm a heart. "It is in moments such as these that one
+learns to know men, and to see who are truly attached to one, and who are
+not. I gain every day fresh experiences in this point; sometimes cruel,
+sometimes pleasant; for I am continually finding that some people are
+truly and sincerely attached to us, to whom I never gave a thought."
+
+Another of her old vexations was revived in the renewed jealousy of
+Austrian influence with which the Jacobin leaders at this time inspired
+the mob, and which was so great that, when in the autumn Leopold sent the
+young Prince de Lichtenstein as his envoy to notify his accession, Marie
+Antoinette could only venture to give him a single audience; and, greatly
+as she enjoyed the opportunity of gathering from him news of Vienna and of
+the old friends of the childhood of whom she still cherished an
+affectionate recollection, she was yet forced to dismiss him after a few
+minutes' conversation, and to beg him to accelerate his departure from
+Paris, lest even that short interview should be made a pretext for fresh
+calumnies. "The kindest thing that any Austrian of mark could do for her,"
+she told her brother, "was to keep away from Paris at present.[6]" She
+would gladly have seen the Assembly interest itself a little in the
+politics of the empire, where Leopold's own situation was full of
+difficulties; but the French had not yet come to consider themselves as
+justified in interfering in the internal government of other countries. As
+she describes their feelings to the emperor, "They feel their own
+individual troubles, but those of their neighbors do not yet affect them;
+and the names of Liberty and Despotism are so deeply engraved in their
+heads, even though they do not clearly define them, that they are
+everlastingly passing from the love of the former to the dread of the
+latter;" and then she adds a sketch of her own ideas and expectations, and
+of the objects which she conceives it her duty to keep in view, in which
+it is affecting to see that her utter despair of any future happiness for
+the king and herself in no degree weakens her desire to promote the
+happiness of the very people who have caused her suffering. "Our task is
+to watch skillfully for the moment when men's heads have returned to
+proper ideas sufficiently to make them enjoy a reasonable and honest
+freedom, such as the king has himself always desired for the happiness of
+his people; but far from that license and anarchy which have precipitated
+the fairest of kingdoms into all possible miseries. Our health continues
+good, but it would be better if we could only perceive the least gleam of
+happiness around us; as for ourselves, that is at an end forever, happen
+what will. I know that it is the duty of a king to suffer for others; and
+it is one which we are discharging thoroughly."
+
+She had indeed at this time sufferings to which it is characteristic of
+her undaunted courage that she never makes the slightest allusion in her
+letters. Of all the Jacobin party, one of the most blood-thirsty was a
+wretch named Marat.[7] At the very outset of the Revolution he had
+established a newspaper to which he gave the name of _The People's
+Friend_, and the staple topic of which was the desirableness of bloodshed
+and massacre. He had been exasperated at the receptions given to the royal
+family at the festival of July; and for some weeks afterward his efforts
+were directed to inflame the populace to a new riot, in which the king and
+queen should be dragged into Paris from St. Cloud, as in 1789 they had
+been dragged in from Versailles, and which should end in the murder of the
+queen, the ministers, and several hundreds of other innocent persons; and
+his denunciations very nearly bore a part of their intended fruit. The
+royal family had hardly returned to St. Cloud, when a man named Rotondo
+was apprehended in the inner garden, who confessed that he had made his
+way into it with the express design of assassinating Marie Antoinette, a
+design which was only balked by the fortunate accident of a heavy shower
+which prevented her from leaving the house; and a week or two afterward a
+second plot was discovered, the contrivers of which designed to poison
+her. Her attendants were greatly alarmed; and her physician furnished
+Madame Campan with an antidote for such poisons as seemed most likely to
+be employed. But Marie Antoinette herself cared little for such
+precautions. Assassination was not the end which she anticipated. On one
+occasion, when she found Madame Campan changing some powdered sugar which,
+it was suspected, might have been tampered with, she thanked her, and
+praised M. Vicq-d'Azyr, the physician by whose instructions Madame Campan
+was acting, but told her that she was giving herself needless trouble.
+"Depend upon it," she added, "they will not employ a grain of poison
+against me. The Brinvilliers[8] do not belong to this age; people now use
+calumny, which is much more effectual for killing people; and it is by
+calumny that they will work my destruction.[9] But even thus, if my death
+only secures the throne to my son, I shall willingly die."
+
+One of the measures which Mirabeau strongly urged, and as to which Marie
+Antoinette hesitated, balancing the difficulties to which it was not
+unlikely to give rise against the advantages which were more obvious, was
+arranged without her intervention. Necker had but one panacea for all the
+ills of a defective constitution or an ill-regulated government--the
+re-establishment of the finances of the country; and, as public confidence
+is indispensable to national credit, the troubles of the last year had
+largely increased the embarrassments of the Treasury. He was also but
+scantily endowed with personal courage. In the denunciations of Marat he
+had not been spared, and by the beginning of September fear had so
+predominated over every other feeling in his mind that he resolved to quit
+a country which, as he was not one of her sons, seemed to him to have no
+such claim on his allegiance that he should imperil his life for her sake.
+But in carrying out his determination, he exhibited a strange
+forgetfulness, not only of the respect due to his royal master as king,
+but also of all the ordinary rules of propriety; for he did not resign his
+office into the hands of the sovereign from whom he had received it, but
+he announced his retirement to the Assembly, sending the president of the
+week a letter in which he attributed his reasons for the step partly to
+his health, which he described as weak, and partly to the "mortal
+anxieties of his wife, as virtuous as she was dear to his heart." It was
+hardly to be wondered at that the members present were moved rather to
+laughter than to sympathy by this sentimental effusion. They took no
+notice of the letter, and passed to the order of the day; and certainly,
+if it afforded evidence of his amiable disposition, it supplied proof at
+least equally strong of the weakness of his character, and of his
+consequent unfitness for any post of responsibility at such a time.
+
+It was more to his credit that he at the same time placed in the treasury
+a sum of two millions of francs to cover any incorrectness which might be
+discovered or suspected in his accounts, and any loss which might be
+sustained from the depreciation of the paper money lately issued under his
+administration, though not with his approbation. All the rest of his
+colleagues retired at the same time, except the foreign secretary, M.
+Montmorin. They had recently been attacked with great violence in the
+Assembly by a combination of the most extreme democrats and the most
+extreme Royalists, the latter of whom accused them of having betrayed the
+royal authority by unworthy accessions. But, though, in the division which
+had taken place they had been supported by a considerable majority, they
+feared a repetition of the attack, and resigned their offices; in some
+degree undoubtedly weakening their royal master by their retirement, since
+those by whom he found himself compelled to replace them had still less of
+his confidence. Two--Duport de Tertre, Keeper of the Seals, and Duportail,
+Minister of War--were creatures of La Fayette, and the first mentioned was
+notoriously unfriendly to the queen. Two others--Lambert, the successor of
+Necker, and Fleurieu, the Minister of Marine--were under the influence of
+Barnave and the Jacobins. The only member of the new ministry who was in
+the least degree acceptable to Louis was M. de Lessart, the Minister of
+the Interior; but he, though loyal in purpose, was of too moderate talents
+for his appointment to add any real strength to the royal cause.
+
+Marie Antoinette, however, paid but little attention to these ministerial
+changes; she disregarded them--and her view was not unsound--as but the
+displacement of one set of weak men by another set equally weak; and she
+saw, too, that the Assembly had established so complete a mastery over the
+Government, that even men of far greater ability and force of character
+would have been impotent for good. Her whole dependence was on Mirabeau;
+and his course at this time was so capricious and erratic that it often
+caused her more perplexity and alarm than pleasure or confidence. He
+regarded himself as having a very difficult part to play. He could not
+conceal from himself that he was no longer able to lead the Assembly as he
+had done at first, except when he was urging it along a road which it
+desired to take. In spite of one of his most brilliant efforts of
+eloquence, he had recently been defeated in an endeavor to preserve to the
+king the right of peace and war; and, to regain his ascendency, he more
+than once in the course of the autumn supported measures to which the king
+and queen had the greatest repugnance, and made speeches so inflammatory
+that even his own friend, La Marck, was indignant at his language, and
+expostulated with him with great earnestness. He justified himself by
+explaining his view[10] that no man in the country could at present bring
+the people back to reasonable notions; that they could only at this moment
+be governed by flattering their prejudices; that the king must trust to
+time alone; and that his own sole prospect of being of use to the crown
+lay in his preservation of his popularity till the favorable moment should
+arrive, even if, to preserve that popularity, it were necessary for him at
+times still to appear a supporter of revolutionary principles. It is not
+impossible that the motives which he thus described did really influence
+him; but it was not strange that Marie Antoinette should fail to
+appreciate such refined subtlety. She had looked forward to his taking a
+bold, straightforward course in defense of Royalist principles; and she
+could hardly believe in the honesty of a man who for any object whatever
+could seem to disregard or to despise them. Her feelings may be shown by
+some extracts from one of her letters to the emperor written just after
+one of Mirabeau's most violent outbursts, apparently his speech in support
+of a motion that the fleet should be ordered to hoist the tricolor flag.
+
+"October 22d, 1790.
+
+"We are again fallen back into chaos and all our old distrust. Mirabeau
+had sent the king some notes, a little violent in language, but well
+argued, on the necessity of preventing the usurpations of the Assembly ...
+when, on a question concerning the fleet, he delivered a speech suited
+only to a violent demagogue, enough to frighten all honest men. Here,
+again, all our hopes from that quarter are overthrown. The king is
+indignant, and I am in despair. He has written to one of his friends, in
+whom I have great confidence, a man of courage and devoted to us, an
+explanatory letter, which seems to me neither an explanation nor an
+excuse. The man is a volcano which would set an empire on fire; and we are
+to trust to him to put out the conflagration which is devouring us. He
+will have a great deal to do before we can feel confidence in him again.
+La Marck defends Mirabeau, and maintains that if at times he breaks away,
+he is still in reality faithful to the monarchy ... The king will not
+believe this. He was greatly irritated yesterday. La Marck says that he
+has no doubt that Mirabeau thought that he was acting well in speaking as
+he did, to throw dust in the eyes of the Assembly, and so to obtain
+greater credit when circumstances still more grave should arise. O my God!
+if we have committed faults, we have sadly expiated them.[11]"
+
+And before the end of the year, the royal cause had fresh difficulties
+thrown in its way by the perverse and selfish wrongheadedness of the
+emigrant princes, who were already evincing an inclination to pursue
+objects of their own, and to disown all obedience to the king, on the plea
+that he was no longer master of his policy or of his actions. They showed
+such open disregard of his remonstrances that, in December, as Marie
+Antoinette told the emperor, Louis had written both to the Count d'Artois
+and to the King of Sardinia (in whose dominions the count was at the
+time), that, if his brothers persisted in their designs, "he should be
+compelled to disavow them peremptorily, and summon all his subjects who
+were still faithful to him to return to their obedience. She hoped," she
+said, "that that would make them pause. It seemed certain to her that no
+one but those on the spot, no one but themselves, could judge what moments
+and what circumstances were favorable for action, so as to put an end to
+their own miseries and to those of France. And it will be then," she
+concludes, "my dear brother, that I shall reckon on your friendship, and
+that I shall address myself to you with the confidence with which I am
+inspired by the feelings of your heart, which are well known to me, and by
+the good-will which you have shown us on all occasions.[12]"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+Louis and Marie Antoinette contemplate Foreign Intervention.--The Assembly
+passes Laws to subordinate the Church to the Civil Power.--Insolence of La
+Fayette.--Marie Antoinette refuses to quit France by Herself.--The
+Jacobins and La Fayette try to revive the Story of the Necklace.--Marie
+Antoinette with her Family.--Flight from Paris is decided on.--The Queen's
+Preparations and Views.--An Oath to observe the new Ecclesiastical
+Constitution is imposed on the Clergy.--The King's Aunts leave France.
+
+
+The last sentence of the letter just quoted points to a new hope which the
+king and she had begun to entertain of obtaining aid from foreign princes.
+As it can hardly have been suggested to them by any other advisers, we may
+probably attribute the origination of the idea to the queen, who was
+naturally inclined to rate the influence of the empire highly, and to rely
+on her brother's zeal to assist her confidently. And Louis caught at it,
+as the only means of extricating him from a religious difficulty which was
+causing him great distress, and which appeared to him insurmountable by
+any means which he could command in his own country. As has been already
+seen, he had had no hesitation in yielding up his own prerogatives, and in
+making any concessions or surrenders which the Assembly required, so long
+as they touched nothing but his own authority. He had even (which was a
+far greater sacrifice in his eyes) sanctioned the votes which had deprived
+the Church of its property; but, in the course of the autumn the Assembly
+passed other measures also, which appeared to him absolutely inconsistent
+with religion. They framed a new ecclesiastical constitution which not
+only reduced the number of bishops (which, indeed, in France, as in all
+other Roman Catholic countries, had been unreasonably excessive), but
+which also vested the whole patronage of the Church in the municipal
+authorities, and generally subordinated the Church to the civil law. And
+having completed these arrangements, which to a conscientious Roman
+Catholic bore the character of sacrilege, they required the whole body of
+the clergy to accept them, and to take an oath to observe them faithfully.
+
+Louis was in a great strait. Many of the chief prelates appealed to him
+for protection, which he thought his duty as a Christian man bound him to
+afford them. But the protection which they implored could only be given by
+refusal of the royal assent to the bill. And he could not disguise from
+himself that such an exercise of his veto would furnish a pretext to his
+enemies for more violent denunciations of himself and the queen than had
+yet been heard. He had also, though his personal safety was at all times
+very slightly regarded by him, begun to feel himself a prisoner, at the
+mercy of his enemies. La Fayette, as Commander-in-chief of the National
+Guard of Paris, had the protection of the royal palace intrusted to him;
+and he availed himself of this charge, not as the guardian of the royal
+family, but rather as their jailer,[1] placing his sentries so as to be
+spies and a restraint upon all their movements, and seeking every
+opportunity to gain an ignoble popularity by an ostentatious disregard of
+all their wishes, and of all courtesy, not to say decency, in his behavior
+to them.[2] And these considerations led the king, not only to authorize
+the Baron de Breteuil, who, as we have seen, had fled from the country in
+the previous year, to treat with any foreign princes who might he willing
+to exert themselves in his cause, but even to write, with his own hand, to
+the principal sovereigns, informing them that "in spite of his acceptance
+of the Constitution, the factious portion of his subjects openly
+manifested their intention of destroying the monarchy," and suggesting the
+idea of "an armed congress of the principal powers of Europe, supported by
+an armed force, as the best measure to arrest the progress of factions, to
+re-establish order in France, and to prevent the evils which were
+devouring his country from seizing on the other states of Europe.[3]"
+
+The historians of the democratic party have denounced with great severity
+the conduct of Louis in thus appealing to foreign aid, as a proof that, in
+spite of his acceptance of the Constitution, he was meditating a counter-
+revolution. The whole tenor of his and the queen's correspondence proves
+that this charge is groundless; but it is equally certain that it was an
+impolitic step, one wholly opposed to every idea of Constitutional
+principles, of which the very foundation must always be perfect freedom
+from foreign influence, and from foreign connection in the internal
+government of the country.
+
+Fortunately, his secret was well kept, so that no knowledge of this step
+reached the leaders of the popular party; and, however great may have been
+the queen's secret anxieties and fears, she kept them bravely to herself,
+displaying outwardly a serenity and a patience which won the admiration of
+all those who, in foreign countries, were watching the course of events in
+France with interest.[4] When she wept, she wept by herself. Her one
+comfort was that her children were always with her; and though the dauphin
+could only witness without understanding her grief, "remarking on one
+occasion, when in one of his childish books he met the expression 'as
+happy as a queen,' that all queens are not happy, for his mamma wept from
+morning till night." Her daughter was old enough to enter into her
+sorrows; and, as she writes to Madame de Polignac, mingles her own tears
+with hers. She had also the society of her sister-in-law Elizabeth, whom
+she had learned to love with an affection which could not be exceeded even
+by that which she bore her own sister, and which was cordially returned.
+She tells Madame de Polignac that Elizabeth's calmness is one great relief
+and support to them all; and Elizabeth can not find adequate words to
+express to one of her correspondents her admiration for the queen's "piety
+and resignation, which alone enable her to bear up against troubles such
+as no one before has ever known."
+
+But amidst all her grief she cherishes hope--hope that the people (the
+"good people," as she invariably terms them) will return to their senses;
+and her other habitual feeling of benevolence, though she can now only
+exert it in forming projects for conferring further benefits on them when
+tranquillity should be restored. The feeling shows itself even in letters
+which have no reference to her own position. There had been discontent and
+signs of insurrection in the Netherlands which Mercy's recent letters led
+her to believe were passing away; and her congratulations to her brother
+on this peaceful result dwell on the happiness "which it is to be able to
+pardon one's subjects without shedding one drop of blood, of which
+sovereigns are bound to be always careful.[5]"
+
+Her brother, and many of her friends in France, were at this time pressing
+her to quit the country, professing to believe that if her enemies knew
+that she was out of their reach, they would be less vehement in their
+hostility to the king; but she felt that such a course would be both
+unworthy of her, as timid and selfish, and in every way injurious rather
+than beneficial to her husband. It could not save his authority, which was
+what the Jacobins made it their first object to destroy; and it would
+deprive him of the support of her affection and advice, which he
+constantly needed.
+
+"Pardon me, I beg of you," she replied to Leopold, "if I continue to
+reject your advice to leave Paris. Consider that I do not belong to
+myself. My duty is to remain where Providence has placed me, and to oppose
+my body, if the necessity should arise, to the knives of the assassins who
+would fain reach the king. I should be unworthy of the name of our mother,
+which is as dear to you as to me, if danger could make me desert the king
+and my children.[6]"
+
+We have seen that Marie Antoinette dreaded calumny more than the knife or
+poison of the assassin; and there could hardly have been a greater proof
+how well founded her apprehensions were, and how unscrupulous her enemies,
+than is afforded by the fact that, in the latter part of this year, they
+actually brought back Madame La Mothe to Paris with the purpose of making
+a demand for a re-investigation of the whole story of the fraud on the
+jeweler--a pretense for reviving the libelous stories to the disparagement
+of the queen, the utter falsehood and absurdity of which had been
+demonstrated to the satisfaction of the whole world four years before. Nor
+was it wholly a Jacobin plot. La Fayette himself was, to a certain extent,
+an accomplice in it. As commander of the National Guard of the city, it
+was his duty to apprehend one who was an escaped convict; but instead of
+doing so he preferred identifying himself with her, and on one occasion
+had what Mirabeau rightly called the inconceivable insolence to threaten
+the queen with a divorce on the ground of unfaithfulness to her husband.
+She treated his insinuations with the dignity which became herself, and
+the scorn which they and their utterers deserved; and he found that his
+conduct had created such general disgust among all people who made the
+slightest pretense to decency, that he feared to lose his popularity if he
+did not disconnect himself from the plotters. Accordingly, he separated
+himself from the lady, though he still forbore to arrest her, and for some
+time confined himself to his old course of heaping on the royal family
+these petty annoyances and insults, which he could inflict with impunity
+because they were unobserved except by his victims. It is remarkable,
+however, that Mirabeau, who held him in a contempt which, however
+deserved, had in it some touch of rivalry and envy, believed that the
+queen was not really so much the object of his animosity as the king. In
+his eyes "all the manoeuvres of La Fayette were so many attacks on the
+queen; and his attacks on the queen were so many steps to bring him within
+reach of the king. It was the king whom he really wanted to strike; and he
+saw that the individual safety of one of the royal pair was as inseparable
+from that of the other as the king was from his crown.[7]" And this
+opinion of Mirabeau is strongly corroborated by the Count de la Marck,
+who, a few weeks later, had occasion to go to Alsace, and who took great
+pains to ascertain the general state of public feeling in the districts
+through which he passed. During his absence he was in constant
+correspondence with those whom he had left behind, and he reports with
+great satisfaction that in no part of the country had he found the very
+slightest ill-feeling toward the queen. It was in Paris alone that the
+different libels against her were forged, and there alone that they found
+acceptance; and, manifestly referring to the projected departure from
+Paris, he expresses his firm conviction that the moment that she is at
+liberty, and able to show herself in the provinces, she will win the
+confidence of all classes.[8]
+
+However greatly Mirabeau would, on other grounds, have preferred personal
+intercourse with the court, he thought that his power of usefulness
+depended so entirely on his connection with it being unsuspected, that he
+did not think it prudent to solicit interviews with the queen. But he kept
+up a constant communication with the court, sometimes by notes and
+elaborate memorials, addressed indeed to Louis, but intended for Marie
+Antoinette's perusal and consideration; and sometimes by conversations
+with La Marck, which the count was expected to repeat to her. But, in all
+the counsels thus given, the thing most to be remarked is the high opinion
+which they invariably display of the queen's resolution and ability. Every
+thing depends on her; it is from her alone that he wishes to receive
+instructions; it is her resolution that must supply the deficiencies of
+all around her. When he urges that a line of conduct should be adopted
+calculated to render their majesties more popular; that they should show
+themselves more in public; that they should walk in the most frequented
+places; that they should visit the hospitals, the artisans' workshops, and
+make themselves friends by acts of charity and generosity, it is to her
+that he looks to carry out his suggestions, and to her affability and
+presence of mind that he trusts for the success which is to result from
+them;[9] and La Marck is equally convinced that "her ability and
+resolution are equal to the conduct of affairs of the first importance."
+
+Meantime her health continued good. It showed her strength of mind that
+she never intermitted the recreations which contributed to her strength,
+about which she was especially anxious, that she might at all times be
+ready to act on any emergency; but rode with Elizabeth with great
+regularity in the Bois de Boulogne, even in the depth of the winter; and,
+while watching with her habitual vigilance of affection over the education
+of her children, she found a pleasant relaxation for herself in providing
+them with amusement also; often arranging parties, to which other children
+of the same age were invited, and finding amusement herself from watching
+their gambols in the long corridor of the Tuileries, their blindman's-buff
+and hide-and-seek.[10]
+
+The new year opened with grave plans for their extrication from their
+troubles--plans requiring the utmost forethought, ingenuity, and secrecy
+to bring them to a successful issue; and also with fresh injuries and
+insults from the Assembly and the municipal authorities, which every week
+made the necessity of promptitude in carrying such plans out more
+manifest. Mirabeau, as we have seen, had from the very first recommended
+that the king and his family should withdraw from Paris. In his eyes such
+a step was the indispensable preliminary to all other measures; and some
+of the earliest of the queen's letters in 1791 show that the resolution to
+leave the turbulent city had at last been taken. But though what he
+recommended was to be done, it was not to be done as he recommended; yet
+there was a manliness about the course of action which he proposed which
+would of itself have won the queen's preference, if she had not been
+forced to consider not what was best and fittest, but what it was most
+easy to induce him on whom the final choice must impend, the king, to
+adopt. Mirabeau advised that the king should depart publicly, in open day,
+"like a king," as he expressed himself,[11] and he affirmed his conviction
+that it would in all probability be quite unnecessary to remove farther
+than Compiègne; but that the moment that it should be known that the king
+was out of Paris, petitions demanding the re-establishment of order would
+flock in from every quarter of the kingdom, and public opinion, which was
+for the most part royalist, would compel the Assembly to modify the
+Constitution which it had framed, or, if it should prove refractory, would
+support the king in dissolving it and convoking another.
+
+But this was too bold a step for Louis to decide on. He anticipated that
+the Assembly or the mob might endeavor to prevent such a movement by
+force, which could only be repelled by force; and force he was resolved
+never to employ. The only alternative was to flee secretly; and in the
+course of January, Mercy learns that that plan has been adopted, and that
+Compiègne is not considered sufficiently distant from Paris, but that some
+fortified place will be selected; Valenciennes being the most likely, as
+he himself imagined, since, if farther flight should become necessary, it
+would be easy from thence to cross the frontier into the Belgian dominions
+of the queen's brother. But if Valenciennes had ever been thought of, it
+was rejected on that very account; for Louis had learned from English
+history that the withdrawal of James II. from his kingdom had been alleged
+as one reason for declaring the throne vacant; and he was resolved not to
+give his enemies any plea for passing a similar resolution with respect to
+himself. Valenciennes was so celebrated as a frontier town, that the mere
+fact of his fixing himself there might easily be represented as an
+evidence of his intention to quit the kingdom. But there was a small town
+of considerable strength named Montmédy, in the district under the command
+of the Marquis de Bouillé, which afforded all the advantages of
+Valenciennes, and did not appear equally liable to the same objections.
+Montmédy, therefore, was fixed upon; and, in the very first week of
+February, Marie Antoinette announced the decision to Mercy; and began her
+own preparations by sending him a jewel-case full of those diamonds which
+were her private property. She explained to him at considerable length the
+reasons which had dictated the choice. The very smallness of Montmédy was
+in itself a recommendation, since it would prevent any one from thinking
+it likely to be selected as a refuge. It was also so near Luxembourg that,
+in the present temper of the nation, which regarded the Austrian power
+with "a panic fear," any addition which M. de Bouillé might make to either
+the garrison or to his supplies would seem only a wise precaution against
+the much-dreaded foreigner. Moreover, the troops in that district were
+among the most loyal and well-disposed in the whole army; and if the king
+should find it unsafe to remain long at Montmédy, he would have a
+trustworthy escort to retreat to Alsace.
+
+She also explained the reasons which had led them to decide on quitting
+Paris secretly by night. If they started in the daytime, it would be
+necessary to have detachments of troops planted at different spots on
+their road to protect them. But M. de Bouillé could not rely on all his
+own regiments for such a service, and still less on the National Guards in
+the different towns; while to bring up fresh forces from distant quarters
+would attract attention, and awaken suspicions beforehand which might be
+fatal to the enterprise. Montmédy, therefore, had been decided on, and the
+plans were already so far settled that she could tell Mercy that they
+should take Madame de Tourzel with them, and travel in one single
+carriage, which they had never been seen to use before.
+
+Their preparations had even gone beyond these details, minute as they
+were. The king was already collecting materials for a manifesto which he
+designed to publish the moment that he found himself safely out of Paris.
+It would explain the reasons for his flight; it would declare an amnesty
+to the people in general, to whom it would impute no worse fault than that
+of being misled (none being excepted but the chief leaders of the disloyal
+factions; the city of Paris, unless it should at once return to its
+ancient tranquillity; and any persons or bodies who might persist in
+remaining in arms). To the nation in general the manifesto would breathe
+nothing but affection. The Parliaments would be re-established, but only
+as judicial tribunals, which should have no pretense to meddle with the
+affairs of administration or finance. In short, the king and she had
+determined to take his declaration of the 23d of June[12] as the basis of
+the Constitution, with such modifications as subsequent circumstances
+might have suggested. Religion would be one of the matters placed in the
+foreground.
+
+So sanguine were they, or rather was she, of success, that she had even
+taken into consideration the principles on which future ministries should
+be constituted; and here for the first time she speaks of herself as
+chiefly concerned in planning the future arrangements. "In private we
+occupy ourselves with discussing the very difficult choice which we shall
+have to make of the persons whom we shall desire to call around us when we
+are at liberty. I think that it will be best to place a single man at the
+head of affairs, as M. Maurepas was formerly; and if it be settled in this
+way, the king would thus escape having to transact business with each
+individual minister separately, and affairs would proceed more uniformly
+and more steadily. Tell me what you think of this idea. The fit man is not
+easy to find, and the more I look for him, the greater inconveniences do I
+see in all that occur to me."
+
+She proceeds to discuss foreign affairs, the probable views and future
+conduct of almost every power in Europe--of Holland, Prussia, Spain,
+Sweden, England; still showing the lingering jealousy which she
+entertained of the British Government, which she suspected of wishing to
+detach the chivalrous Gustavus from the alliance of France by the offer of
+a subsidy. But she is sanguine that, "though some may he glad to see the
+influence of France diminished, no wise statesman in any country can
+desire her ruin or dismemberment. What is going on in France would be an
+example too dangerous to other countries, if it were left unpunished.
+Their cause is the cause of all kings, and not a simple political
+difficulty.[13]"
+
+The whole letter is a most remarkable one, and fully bears out the
+eulogies which all who had an opportunity of judging pronounced on her
+ability. But the most striking reflection which it suggests is with what
+admirable sagacity the whole of the arrangements for the flight of the
+royal family had been concerted, and with what judgment the agents had
+been chosen, since, though the enterprise was not attempted till more than
+four months after this letter was written, the secret was kept through the
+whole of that time without the slightest hint of it having been given, or
+the slightest suspicion of it having been conceived, by the most watchful
+or the most malignant of the king's enemies.
+
+Yet during the winter and early spring the conduct of the Jacobin party in
+the Assembly, and of the Parisian mob whom they were keeping in a constant
+state of excitement, increased in violence; while one occurrence which
+took place was, in Mirabeau's opinion, especially calculated to prompt a
+suspicion of the king's intentions. Louis had at, last, and with extreme
+reluctance, sanctioned, the bill which required the clergy to take an oath
+to comply with the new ecclesiastical arrangements, in the vain hope that
+the framers of it would be content with their triumph, and would forbear
+to enforce it by fixing any precise date for administering the oath. But,
+at the end of January, Barnave obtained from the Assembly a decree that it
+should be taken within twenty-four hours, under the penalty of deprivation
+of all their preferments to all who should refuse it; the clerical members
+of the Assembly were even threatened by the mob in the galleries with
+instant death if they declined or even delayed to swear. And as very few
+of any rank complied, the main body of the clergy was instantly stripped
+of all their appointments and reduced to beggary, and a large proportion
+of them fled at once from the kingdom. Those who took the oath, and who in
+consequence were appointed to the offices thus vacated, were immediately
+condemned and denounced by the pope; and the consequence was that a great
+number of their flocks fled with their old priests, not being able to
+reconcile to their consciences to stay and receive the sacrament and rites
+of the Church from ministers under the ban of its head.
+
+Among those who thus fled were the king's two aunts, the Princesses
+Adelaide and Victoire. Bigotry was their only virtue; and they determined
+to seek shelter in Rome. Louis highly disapproved of the step, which, as
+Mirabeau,[14] in a very elaborate and forcible memorial which he drew up
+and submitted to him, pointed out, might be very dangerous for the king
+and queen as well as for themselves, since it could be easily represented
+by the evil-minded as a certain proof that they also were designing to
+flee. And he even recommended that Louis should formally notify to the
+Assembly that he disapproved of his aunts' journey, and should make it a
+pretext for demanding a law which should give him the power of regulating
+the movements of the members of his family.
+
+The flight of the princesses, however, did not, as it turned out, cause
+any inconvenience to the king or queen, though it did endanger themselves;
+for, though they were furnished with passports, the municipal authorities
+tried to stop them at Moret; and at Arnay-le-Duc the mob unharnessed their
+horses and detained them by force They appealed to the Assembly by letter;
+Alexander Lameth, on this occasion uniting with the most violent Jacobins,
+was not ashamed to move that orders should be dispatched to send them back
+to Paris: but the body of the Assembly had not yet descended to the
+baseness of warring with women; and Mirabeau, who treated the proposal as
+ridiculous, and overwhelmed the mover with his wit, had no difficulty in
+procuring an order that the fugitives, "two princesses of advanced age and
+timorous consciences," as he called them, should be allowed to proceed on
+their journey.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+The Mob attacks the Castle at Vincennes.--La Fayette saves it.--He insults
+the Nobles who come to protect the King.--Perverseness of the Count
+d'Artois and the Emigrants.--Mirabeau dies.--General Sorrow for his
+death.--He would probably not have been able to arrest the Revolution.--
+The Mob prevent the King from visiting St. Cloud.--The Assembly passes a
+Vote to forbid him to go more than twenty Leagues from Paris.
+
+
+The mob, however, was more completely under Jacobin influence; and, at the
+end of February, Santerre collected his ruffians for a fresh tumult; the
+object now being the destruction of the old castle of Vincennes, which for
+some time had been almost unoccupied. La Fayette, whose object at this
+time was apparently regulated by a desire to make all parties acknowledge
+his influence, in a momentary fit of resolution marched a body of his
+National Guard down to save the old fortress, in which he succeeded,
+though not without much difficulty, and even some danger. He found he had
+greatly miscalculated his influence, not only over the populace, but over
+his own soldiers. The rioters fired on him, wounding some of his staff;
+and at first many of the soldiers refused to act against the people. His
+officers, however, full of indignation, easily quelled the spirit of
+mutiny; and, when subordination was restored, proposed to the general to
+follow up his success by marching at once back into the city and seizing
+the Jacobin demagogues who had caused the riot. There was little doubt
+that the great majority of the citizens, in their fear of Santerre and his
+gang, would joyfully have supported him in such a measure; but La
+Fayette's resolution was never very consistent nor very durable. He became
+terrified, not, indeed, so much at the risk to his life which he had
+incurred, as at the symptom that to resist the mob might cost him his
+popularity; and to appease those whom he might have offended, he proceeded
+to insult the king. A report had got abroad, which was not improbably well
+founded, that Louis's life had been in danger, and that an assassin had
+been detected while endeavoring to make his way into the Tuileries; and
+the report had reached a number of nobles, among whom D'Esprémesnil, once
+so vehement a leader of the Opposition in Parliament, was conspicuous, who
+at once hastened to the palace to defend their sovereign. It was not
+strange that he and Marie Antoinette should receive them graciously; they
+had not of late been used to such warm-hearted and prompt displays of
+attachment. But the National Guards who were on duty were jealous of the
+cordial and honorable reception which those Nobles met with; they declared
+that to them alone belonged the task of defending the king; though they
+took so little care to perform it that they had allowed a gang of drunken
+desperadoes to get possession of the outer court of the palace, where they
+were menacing all aristocrats with death. Louis became alarmed for the
+safety of his friends, and begged them to lay aside their arms; and they
+had hardly done so when La Fayette arrived. He knew that the mob was
+exasperated with him for his repression of their outrages in the morning,
+and that some of his soldiers had not been well pleased at being compelled
+to act against the rioters. So now, to recover their good-will, he handed
+over the weapons of the Nobles, which were only pistols, rapiers, and
+daggers, to the National Guard; and after reproaching D'Esprémesnil and
+his companions for interfering with the duties of his troops, he drove
+them down the stairs, unarmed and defenseless as they were, among the
+drunken and infuriated mob. They were hooted and ill-treated; but not only
+did he make no attempt to protect them, but the next day he offered them a
+gratuitous insult by the publication of a general order, addressed to his
+own National Guard, in which he stigmatized their conduct as indecent,
+their professed zeal as suspicious, and enjoined all the officials of the
+palace to take care that such persons were not admitted in future. "The
+king of the Constitution," he said, "ought to be surrounded by no
+defenders but the soldiers of liberty."
+
+Marie Antoinette had good reason to speak as she did the next week to
+Mercy; though we can hardly fail to remark, as a singular proof of the
+strength of her political prejudices, and of the degree in which she
+allowed them to blind her to the objects and the worth of the few honest
+or able men whom the Assembly contained, that she still regards the
+Constitutionalists as only one degree less unfavorable to the king's
+legitimate authority than the Jacobins. And we shall hereafter see that to
+this mistaken estimate she adhered almost to the end. "Mischief," she
+says, "is making progress so rapid that there is reason to fear a speedy
+explosion, which can not fail to be dangerous to us, if we ourselves do
+not guide it There is no middle way; either we must remain under the sword
+of the factions, and consequently be reduced to nothing, if they get the
+upper hand, or we must submit to be fettered under the despotism of men
+who profess to be well-intentioned, but who always have done, and always
+will do us harm. This is what is before us, and perhaps the moment is
+nearer than we think, if we can not ourselves take a decided line, or lead
+men's opinions by our own vigor and energetic action. What I here say is
+not dictated by any exaggerated notions, nor by any disgust at our
+position, nor by any restless desire to be doing something. I perfectly
+feel all the dangers and risks to which we are exposed at this moment. But
+I see that all around us affairs are so full of terror that it is better
+to perish in trying to save ourselves than to allow ourselves to be
+utterly crushed in a state of absolute inaction.[1]"
+
+And she held the same language to her brother, the emperor, assuring him
+that "the king and herself were both convinced of the necessity of acting
+with prudence, but there were cases in which dilatoriness might ruin every
+thing; and that the factious and disloyal were prosecuting their objects
+with such celerity, aiming at nothing less than the utter subversion of
+the kingly power, that it would be extremely dangerous not to offer a
+resistance to their plans.[2]" And referring to her project of foreign
+aid, she reported to him that she had promises of assistance from both
+Spain and Switzerland, if they could depend on the co-operation of the
+empire.
+
+And still the emigrant princes were adding to her perplexity by their
+perverseness. She wrote herself to the Count d'Artois to expostulate with
+him, and to entreat him "not to abandon himself to projects of which the
+success, to say the least, was doubtful, and which would expose himself to
+danger without the possibility of serving the king.[3]" No description of
+the relative influence of the king and queen at this time can be so
+forcible as the fact that it was she who conducted all the correspondence
+of the court, even with the king's brothers. But her remonstrances had no
+influence. We may not impute to the king's brothers any intention to
+injure him; but unhappily they had both not only a mean idea of his
+capacity, but a very high one, much worse founded, of their own; and full
+of self-confidence and self-conceit, they took their own line, perfectly
+regardless of the suspicions to which their perverse and untractable
+conduct exposed the king, carrying their obstinacy so far that it was not
+without difficulty, that the emperor himself, though they were in his
+dominions, was able to restrain their machinations.
+
+Meanwhile, the queen was steadily carrying on the necessary arrangements
+for flight. Money had to be provided, for which trustworthy agents were
+negotiating in Switzerland and Holland, while some the emperor might be
+expected to furnish. Mirabeau marked out for himself what he regarded as a
+most important share in the enterprise, undertaking to defend and justify
+their departure to the Assembly, and nothing doubting that he should be
+able to bring over the majority of the members to his view of that
+subject, as he had before prevailed upon them to sanction the journey of
+the princesses. But in the first days of April all the hopes of success
+which had been founded on his cooperation and support were suddenly
+extinguished by his death. Though he had hardly entered upon middle age, a
+constant course of excess had made him an old man before his time. In the
+latter part of March he was attacked by an illness which his physicians
+soon pronounced mortal, and on the 2d of April he died. He had borne the
+approach of death with firmness, professing to regret it more for the sake
+of his country than for his own. He was leaving behind him no one, as he
+affirmed, who would he able to arrest the Revolution as he could have
+done; and there can be no doubt that the great bulk of the nation did
+place confidence in his power to offer effectual resistance to the designs
+of the Jacobins. The various parties in the State showed this feeling
+equally by the different manner in which they received the intelligence.
+The court and the Royalists openly lamented him. The Jacobins, the
+followers of Lameth, and the partisans of the Duke of Orleans, exhibited
+the most indecent exultation.[4] But the citizens of Paris mourned for
+him, apparently, without reference to party views. They took no heed of
+the opposition with which he had of late often defeated the plots of the
+leaders whom they had followed to riot and treason. They cast aside all
+recollection of the denunciations of him as a friend to the court with
+which the streets had lately rung. In their eyes he was the
+personification of the Revolution as a whole; to him, as they viewed his
+career for the last two years, they owed the independence of the Assembly,
+the destruction of the Bastile, and of all other abuses; and through him
+they doubted not still to obtain every thing that was necessary for the
+completion of their freedom.
+
+His remains were treated with honors never before paid to a subject. He
+lay in state; he had a public funeral. His body was laid in the great
+Church of St. Geneviève, which, the very day before, had been renamed the
+Pantheon, and appropriated as a cemetery for such of her illustrious sons
+as France might hereafter think worthy of the national gratitude. Yet,
+though his great confidant and panegyrist, M. Dumont,[5] has devoted an
+elaborate argument to prove that he had not overestimated his power to
+influence the future; and though the Russian embassador, M. Simolin, a
+diplomatist of extreme acuteness, seems to imply the same opinion by his
+pithy saying that "he ought to have lived two years longer, or died two
+years earlier," we can hardly agree with them. La Marck, as has been seen,
+even when first opening the negotiation for his connection with the court,
+doubted whether he would be able to undo the mischief which he had
+acquiesced in, measures not of reform nor of reconstruction, but of total
+abolition and destruction, are in their very nature irrevocable and
+irremediable. The nobility was gone; he had not resisted its suppression.
+The Church was gone; he had himself been among the foremost of its
+assailants. How, even if he had wished it, could he have undone these
+acts? and if he could not, how, without those indispensable pillars and
+supports, could any monarchy endure? That he was now fully alive to the
+magnitude of the dangers which encompassed both throne and people, and
+that he would have labored vigorously to avert them, we may do him the
+justice to believe. But it seems not so probable that he would have
+succeeded, as that he would have added one more to the list of these
+politicians who, having allowed their own selfish aims to carry them
+beyond the limits of prudence and justice, have afterward found it
+impossible to retrace their steps, but have learned to their shame and
+sorrow that their rashness has but led to the disappointment of their
+hopes, the permanent downfall of their own reputations, and the ruin of
+what they would gladly have defended and preserved. And, on the whole, it
+is well that from time to time such lessons should be impressed upon the
+world. It is well that men of lofty genius and pure patriotism should
+learn, equally with the most shallow empiric or the most self-seeking
+demagogue, that false steps in politics can rarely be retraced; that
+concessions once made can seldom, if ever, be recalled, but are usually
+the stepping-stones to others still more extensive; that what it would
+have been easy to preserve, it is commonly impossible to repair or to
+restore.
+
+He had been laid in the grave only a fortnight, when, as if on purpose to
+show how utterly defenseless the king now was, the Jacobins excited the
+mob and the assembly to inflict greater insults on him than had been
+offered even by the attack on Versailles, or by any previous vote. As
+Easter, which was unusually late this year, approached, Louis became
+anxious to spend a short time in tranquillity and holy meditation; and,
+since the tumultuousness of the city was not very favorable for such a
+purpose, he resolved to pass a fortnight at St. Cloud. But when he was
+preparing to set out, a furious mob seized the horses and unharnessed
+them; the National Guards united with the rioters, refusing to obey La
+Fayette's orders to clear the way for the royal carriage, and the king and
+queen were compelled to dismount and to return to their apartments; while,
+a day or two afterward, the Assembly came to a vote which seemed as if
+designed for an express sanction of this outrage, and which ordained that
+the king should not be permitted ever to move more than twenty leagues
+from Paris.
+
+Of all the decrees which it had yet enacted, this, in some sense, may be
+regarded as the most monstrous. It was not only passing a penal sentence
+on the royal family such as in no country or age any but convicted
+criminals had even been subjected to, but it was an insult and an injury
+to every part of the kingdom except the capital, which, by an intolerable
+assumption, it treated as if it were the whole of France. Joseph, as has
+been seen, had wisely pointed out to his brother-in-law that it was one,
+and no unimportant part, of a sovereign's duty to visit the different
+provinces and chief cities of his kingdom, and Louis had in one instance
+acted on his advice. We have seen how gladly he was received by the
+citizens of Cherbourg, and what advantages they promised themselves from
+his having thus made himself personally acquainted with their situation
+and wants and prospects; and we can not doubt that other towns and cities
+shared this feeling, nor that it was well founded, and that the
+acquisition by a king of a personal knowledge of the resources and
+capabilities and interests of the great cities, of agriculture,
+manufactures, and commerce, is a benefit to the whole community; but of
+this every province and every city but Paris was now to be deprived. It
+was to be an offense to visit Rouen, or Lyons, or Bordeaux; to examine
+Riquet's canal or Vauban's fortifications. The king was the only person in
+the kingdom to whom liberty of movement was to be denied; and the peasants
+of every province, and the citizens of every other town, were to be
+refused for a single day the presence of their sovereign, whom the
+Parisians thus claimed a right to keep as a prisoner in their own
+district.
+
+It is hardly strange that such open attacks on their liberty made a deeper
+impression on the queen, and even on the phlegmatic disposition of the
+king, than any previous act of violence, or that it increased their
+eagerness to escape with as little delay as possible. Indeed, the queen
+regarded the public welfare as equally concerned with their own in their
+safe establishment in some town to which they should also be able to
+remove the Assembly, so that that body as well as themselves should be
+protected from the fatal influence of the clubs of Paris, and of the
+populace which was under the dominion of the clubs.[6] Accordingly, on the
+20th of April, she writes to the emperor[7] that "the occurrence which has
+just taken place has confirmed them more than ever in their plans. The
+very guards who surrounded them are the persons who threaten them most.
+Their very lives are not safe; but they must appear to submit to every
+thing till the moment comes when they can act; and in the mean time their
+captivity proves that none of their actions are done by their own accord."
+And she urges her brother at once to move a strong body of troops toward
+some of his fortresses on the Belgian frontier--Arlon, Vitron, or Mons--in
+order to give M. de Bouillé a pretext for collecting troops and munitions
+of war at Montmédy. "Send me an immediate answer on this point; let me
+know, too, about the money; our position is frightful, and we must
+absolutely put an end to it next month. The king desires it even more than
+I do."
+
+As May proceeds she presses on her preparations, and urges the emperor to
+accelerate his, especially the movements of his troops; but the Count
+d'Artois and his followers are a terrible addition to her anxieties.
+Leopold had told her that the ancient minister, Calonne, always restless
+and always unscrupulous, was now with the count, and was busily stirring
+him up to undertake some enterprise or other;[8] and her reply shows how
+justly she dreads the results of such an alliance. "The prince, the Count
+d'Artois, and all those whom they have about them, seem determined to be
+doing something. They have no proper means of action, and they will ruin
+us, without our having the slightest connection with their plans. Their
+indiscretion, and the men who are guiding them, will prevent our
+communicating our secret to them till the very last moment."
+
+To Mercy she is even more explicit in her description of the imminence of
+the danger to which the king and she are now exposed than she had been to
+her brother. As the time for attempting to escape grew nearer, the
+embassador became the more painfully impressed with the danger of the
+attempt. Failure, as it seems to him, will be absolutely fatal. He asks
+her anxiously whether the necessity is such that it has become
+indispensable to risk such a result;[9] and she, in an answer of
+considerable length and admirable clearness of expression and argument,
+explains her reasons for deciding that it is absolutely unavoidable: "The
+only alternative for us, especially since the 18th of April,[10] is either
+blindly to submit to all that the factions require, or to perish by the
+sword which is forever suspended over our heads. Believe me, I am not
+exaggerating the danger; you know that my notion used to be, as long as I
+could cherish it, to trust to gentleness, to time, and to public opinion.
+But now all is changed, and we must either perish or take the only line
+which remains to us. We are far from shutting our eyes to the fact that
+this line also has its perils; but, if we must die, it will be at least
+with glory, and in having done all that we could for our duty, for honor,
+and for religion.... I believe that the provinces are less corrupted than
+the capital; but it is always Paris which gives the tone to the whole
+kingdom. We should greatly deceive ourselves if we fancied that the events
+of the 18th of April, horrible as they were, produced any excitement in
+the provinces. The clubs and the affiliations lead France where they
+please; the right-thinking people, and those who are dissatisfied with
+what is taking place, either flee from the country or hide themselves,
+because they are not the stronger party, and because they have no
+rallying-point. But when the king can show himself freely in a fortified
+place, people will be astonished to see the number of dissatisfied people
+who will then come forward, who, till that time, are groaning in silence;
+but the longer we delay, the less support we shall have....
+
+"Let us resume. You ask two questions: 1st. Is it possible or useful to
+wait? No; by the explanation of our position which I gave at the beginning
+of this letter, I have sufficiently proved the impossibility.... As to the
+usefulness, it could only be useful on the supposition that we could count
+on a new legislative body.... 2d. Admitting the necessity of acting
+promptly, are we sure of means to escape; of a place to retreat to, and of
+having a party strong enough to maintain itself for two months by its own
+resources? I have answered this question several times. It is more than
+probable that the king, once escaped from here, and in a place of safety,
+will have, and will very soon find, a very strong party. The means of
+escape depend on a flight the most immediate and the most secret. There
+are only four persons who are acquainted with our secret; and those whom
+we mean to take with us will not know it till the very moment. None of our
+own people will attend us; and at a distance of only thirty or thirty-five
+leagues we shall find some troops to protect our march, but not enough to
+cause us to be recognized till we reach the place of our destination.
+
+"....I can easily conceive the repugnance which, on political grounds, the
+emperor would feel to allowing his troops to enter France.... But if their
+movement is solicited by his brother-in-law, his ally, whose life,
+existence, and honor are in danger, I conceive the case is very different;
+and as to Brabant, that province will never be quiet till this country is
+brought back to a different state. It is, then, for himself also that my
+brother will be working in giving us this assistance, which is so much the
+more valuable to us, that his troops will serve as an example to ours, and
+will even be able to restrain them.
+
+"And it is with this view that the person[11] of whom I spoke to you in my
+letter in cipher demands their employment for a time ... We can not delay
+longer than the end of this month. By that time I hope we shall have a
+decisive answer from Spain. But till the very instant of our departure we
+must do everything that is required of us, and even appear to go to meet
+them. It is one way, perhaps the only one, to lull the mob to sleep and to
+save our lives."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+Plans for the Escape of the Royal Family.--Dangers of Discovery.--
+Resolution of the Queen.--The Royal Family leave the Palace.--They are
+recognized at Ste. Menehould.--Are arrested at Varennes.--Tumult in the
+City, and in the Assembly.--The King and Queen are brought back to Paris.
+
+
+Marie Antoinette, as we have seen, had been anxious that their departure
+from Paris should not be delayed beyond the end of May, and De Bouillé had
+agreed with her; but enterprises of so complicated a character can rarely
+be executed with the rapidity or punctuality that is desired, and it was
+not till the 20th of June that this movement, on which so much depended,
+was able to be put in execution. Often during the preceding weeks the
+queen's heart sunk within her when she reflected on the danger of
+discovery, whether from the acuteness of her enemies or the treachery of
+pretended friends; and even more when she pondered on the character of the
+king himself, so singularly unfitted for an undertaking in which it was
+not the passive courage with which he was amply endowed, but daring
+resolution, promptitude, and presence of mind, which were requisite. She
+was cheered, however, by repeated letters from the emperor, showing the
+warm and affectionate interest which he took in the result of the
+enterprise, and promising with evident sincerity "his own most cordial
+co-operation in all that could tend to her and her husband's success,
+when the time should come for him to show himself."
+
+But her main reliance was on herself; and all who were privy to the
+enterprise knew well that it was on her forethought and courage that its
+success wholly depended. Those who were privy to it were very few; and it
+is a singular proof how few Frenchmen, even of the highest rank, could be
+trusted at this time, that of these few two were foreigners--a Swede, the
+Count de Fersen, whose name has been mentioned in earlier chapters of this
+narrative, and (an English writer may be proud to add) an Englishman, Mr.
+Craufurd. In such undertakings the simplest arrangements are the safest;
+and those devised by the queen and her advisers, the chief of whom were De
+Fersen and De Bouillé, were as simple as possible. The royal fugitives
+were to pass for a traveling party of foreigners. A passport signed by M.
+Montmorin, who still held the seals of the Foreign Department, was
+provided for Madame de Tourzel, who, assuming the name of Madame de Korff,
+a Russian baroness, professed to be returning to her own country with her
+family and her ordinary equipage. The dauphin and his sister were
+described as her children, the queen as their governess; while the king
+himself, under the name of Durand, was to pass as their servant. Three of
+the old disbanded Body-guard, MM. De Valory, De Malden, and De Moustier,
+were to attend the party in the disguise of couriers; and, under the
+pretense of providing for the safe conveyance of a large sum of money
+which was required for the payment of the troops, De Bouillé undertook to
+post a detachment of soldiers at each town between Châlons and Montmédy,
+through which the travelers were to pass.
+
+Some of the other arrangements were more difficult, as more likely to lead
+to a betrayal of the design. It was, of course, impossible to use any
+royal carriage, and no ordinary vehicle was large enough to hold such a
+party. But in the preceding year De Fersen had had a carriage of unusual
+dimensions built for some friends in the South of Europe, so that he had
+no difficulty now in procuring another of similar pattern from the same
+maker; and Mr. Craufurd agreed to receive it into his stables, and at the
+proper hour to convey it outside the barrier.
+
+Yet in spite of the care displayed in these arrangements, and of the
+absolute fidelity observed by all to whom the secret was intrusted, some
+of the inferior attendants about the court suspected what was in
+agitation. The queen herself, with some degree of imprudence, sent away a
+large package to Brussels; one of her waiting-women discovered that she
+and Madame Campan had spent an evening in packing up jewels, and sent
+warning to Gouvion, an aid-de-camp of La Fayette, and to Bailly, the
+mayor, that the queen at last was preparing to flee. Luckily Bailly had
+received so many similar notices that he paid but little attention to
+this; or perhaps he was already beginning to feel the repentance, which he
+afterward exhibited, at his former insolence to his sovereign, and was not
+unwilling to contribute to their safety by his inaction; while Gouvion was
+not anxious to reveal the source from which he had obtained his
+intelligence. Still, though nothing precise was known, the attention of
+more than one person was awakened to the movements of the royal family,
+and especially that of La Fayette, who, alarmed lest his prisoners should
+escape him, redoubled his vigilance, driving down to the palace every
+night, and often visiting them in their apartments to make himself certain
+of their presence. Six hundred of the National Guard were on duty at the
+Tuileries, and sentinels were placed at the end of every passage and at
+the foot of every staircase; but fortunately a small room, with a secret
+door which led into the queen's chamber, as it had been for some time
+unoccupied, had escaped the observation of the officers on guard, and that
+passage therefore offered a prospect of their being able to reach the
+courtyard without being perceived.[1]
+
+On the morning of the day appointed for the great enterprise, all in the
+secret were vividly excited except the queen. She alone preserved her
+coolness. No one could have guessed from her demeanor that she was on the
+point of embarking in an undertaking on which, in her belief, her own life
+and the lives of all those dearest to her depended. The children, who knew
+nothing of what was going on, went to their usual occupations--the dauphin
+to his garden on the terrace, Madame Royale to her lessons; and Marie
+Antoinette herself, after giving some orders which were to be executed in
+the course of the next day or two, went out riding with her sister-in-law
+in the Bois de Boulogne. Her conversation throughout the day was light and
+cheerful. She jested with the officer on guard about the reports which she
+understood to be in circulation about some intended flight of the king,
+and was relieved to find that he totally disbelieved them. She even
+ventured on the same jest with La Fayette himself, who replied, in his
+usual surly fashion, that such a project was constantly talked of; but
+even his rudeness could not discompose her.
+
+As the hour drew near she began to prepare her children. The princess was
+old enough to be talked to reasonably, and she contented herself,
+therefore, with warning her to show no surprise at any thing that she
+might see or hear. The dauphin was to be disguised as a girl, and it was
+with great glee that he let the attendants dress him, saying that he saw
+that they were going to act a play. The royal supper usually took place
+soon after nine; at half-past ten the family separated for the night, and
+by eleven their attendants were all dismissed; and Marie Antoinette had
+fixed that hour for departing, because, even if the sentinels should get a
+glimpse of them, they would be apt to confound them with the crowd which
+usually quit the palace at that time.
+
+Accordingly, at eleven o'clock the Count de Fersen, dressed as a coachman,
+drove an ordinary job-carriage into the court-yard; and Marie Antoinette,
+who trusted nothing to others which she could do herself, conducted Madame
+de Tourzel and the children down-stairs, and seated them safely in the
+carriage. But even her nerves nearly gave way when La Fayette's coach,
+brilliantly lighted, drove by, passing close to her as he proceeded to the
+inner court to ascertain from the guard that every thing was in its usual
+condition. In an agony of fright she sheltered herself behind some
+pillars, and in a few minutes the marquis drove back, and she rejoined the
+king, who was awaiting her summons in his own apartment, while one of the
+disguised Body-guards went for the Princess Elizabeth. Even the children
+were inspired with their mother's courage. As the princess got into the
+carriage she trod on the dauphin, who was lying in concealment at the
+bottom, and the brave boy spoke not a word; while Louis himself gave a
+remarkable proof how, in spite of the want of moral and political
+resolution which had brought such miseries on himself and his country, he
+could yet preserve in the most critical moments his presence of mind and
+kind consideration for others. He was half way down-stairs when he
+returned to his room. M. Valory, who was escorting him, was dismayed when
+he saw him turn back, and ventured to remind him how precious was every
+instant. "I know that," replied the kind-hearted monarch; "but they will
+murder my servant to-morrow for having aided my escape;" and, sitting down
+at his table, he wrote a few lines declaring that the man had acted under
+his peremptory orders, and gave the note to him as a certificate to
+protect him from accusation. When all the rest were seated, the queen took
+her place. De Fersen drove them to the Porte St. Martin, where the great
+traveling-carriage was waiting, and, having transferred them to it, and
+taken a respectful leave of them, he fled at once to Brussels, which, more
+fortunate than those for whom he had risked his life, he reached in
+safety.
+
+For a hundred miles the royal fugitives proceeded rapidly and without
+interruption. One of the supposed couriers was on the box, another rode by
+the side of the carriage, and the third went on in advance to see that the
+relays were in readiness. Before midday they reached Châlons, the place
+where they were to be met by the first detachment of De Bouillé's troops;
+and, when the well-known uniforms met her eye, Marie Antoinette for the
+first time gave full expression to her feelings. "Thank God, we are
+saved!" she exclaimed, clasping her hands; the fervor of her exclamation
+bearing undesigned testimony to the greatness of the fears which, out of
+consideration for others, she had hitherto kept to herself; but in truth
+out of this employment of the troops arose all their subsequent disasters.
+
+De Bouillé had been unwilling to send his detachments so far forward,
+pointing out that the notice which their arrival in the different towns
+was sure to attract would do more harm than their presence as a protection
+could do good. But his argument had been overruled by the king himself,
+who apprehended the greatest danger from the chance of being overtaken,
+and expected it, therefore, to increase with every hour of the journey. De
+Bouillé's fears, however, were found to be the best justified by the
+event. In more than one town, even in the few hours that had elapsed since
+the arrival of the soldiers, there had been quarrels between them and the
+towns-people; in others, which was still worse, the populace had made
+friends with them and seduced them from their loyalty, so that the
+officers in command had found it necessary to withdraw them altogether;
+and anxiety at their unexpected absence caused Louis more than once to
+show himself at the carriage window. More than once he was recognized by
+people who knew him and kept his counsel; but Drouet, the postmaster at
+Ste. Menehould, a town about one hundred and seventy miles from Paris, was
+of a less loyal disposition. He had lately been in the capital, where he
+had become infected with the Jacobin doctrines. He too saw the king's
+face, and on comparing his somewhat striking features with the stamp on
+some public documents which he chanced to have in his pocket, became
+convinced of his identity. He at once reported to the magistrates what he
+had seen, and with their sanction rode forward to the next town, Clermont,
+hoping to be able to collect a force sufficient to stop the royal carriage
+on its arrival there. But the king traveled so fast that he had quit
+Clermont before Drouet reached it, and he even arrived at Varennes before
+his pursuer. Had he quit that place also he would have been in safety, for
+just beyond it De Bouillé had posted a strong division which would have
+been able to defy all resistance. But Varennes, a town on the Oise, was so
+small as to have no post-house, and by some mismanagement the royal party
+had not been informed at which end of the town they were to find the
+relay. The carriage halted while M. Valory was making the necessary
+inquiries; and, while it was standing still, Drouet rode up and forbade
+the postilions to proceed. He himself hastened on through the town,
+collected a few of the towns-people, and with their aid upset a cart or
+two on the bridge to block up the way; and, having thus made the road
+impassable, he roused the municipal authorities, for it was nearly
+midnight, and then, returning to the royal carriage, he compelled the
+royal family to dismount and follow him to the house of the mayor, a petty
+grocer, whose name was Strausse. The magistrates sounded the tocsin: the
+National Guard beat to arms: the king and queen were prisoners.
+
+How they were allowed to remain so is still, after all the explanations
+that have been given, incomprehensible. Two officers with sixty hussars,
+all well disposed and loyal, were in a side street of the town waiting for
+their arrival, of which they were not aware. Six of the troopers actually
+passed the travelers in the street as they were proceeding to the mayor's
+house, but no one, not even the queen, appealed to them for succor; or
+they could have released them without an effort, for Drouet's whole party
+consisted of no more than eight unarmed men. And when, an hour afterward,
+the officers in command learned that the king was in the town in the hands
+of his enemies, instead of at once delivering him, they were seized with a
+panic: they would not take on themselves the responsibility of acting
+without express orders, but galloped back to De Bouillé to report the
+state of affairs. In less than an hour three more detachments, amounting
+in all to above one hundred men, also reached the town; and their
+commanders did make their way to the king, and asked his orders. He could
+only reply that he was a prisoner, and had no orders to give; and not one
+of the officers had the sense to perceive that the fact of his announcing
+himself a prisoner was in itself an order to deliver him.
+
+One word of command from Louis to clear the way for him at the sword's
+point would yet have been sufficient; but he had still the same invincible
+repugnance as ever to allow blood to be shed in his quarrel. He preferred
+peaceful means, which could not but fail. With a dignity arising from his
+entire personal fearlessness, he announced his name and rank, his reasons
+for quitting Paris and proceeding to Montmédy; declaring that he had no
+thought of quitting the kingdom, and demanded to be allowed to proceed on
+his journey. While the queen, her fears for her children overpowering all
+other feelings, addressed herself with the most earnest entreaties to the
+mayor's wife, declaring that their very lives would be in danger if they
+should be taken back to Paris, and imploring her to use her influence with
+her husband to allow them to proceed. Neither Strausse nor his wife was
+ill-disposed toward the king, but had not the courage to comply with the
+request of the royal couple whom, after a little time, the mayor and his
+wife could not have allowed to proceed, however much they might have
+wished it; for the tocsin had brought up numbers of the National Guard,
+who were all disloyal; while some of the soldiers began to show a
+disinclination to act against them. And so matters stood for some hours; a
+crowd of towns-people, peasants, National Guards, and dragoons thronging
+the room; the king at times speaking quietly to his captors; the queen
+weeping, for the fatigue of the journey, and the fearful disappointment at
+being thus baffled at the last moment, after she had thought that all
+danger was passed, had broken down even her nerves. At first she had tried
+to persuade Louis to act with resolution; but when, as usual, she failed,
+she gave way to despair, and sat silent, with touching, helpless sorrow,
+gazing on her children, who had fallen asleep.
+
+At seven o'clock on the morning of the 22d a single horseman rode into the
+town. He was an aid-de-camp of La Fayette. On the morning of the 21st the
+excitement had been great in Paris when it became known that the king had
+fled. The mob rose in furious tumult. They forced their way into the
+Tuileries, plundering the palace and destroying the furniture. A
+fruit-woman took possession of the queen's bed, as a stall to range her
+cherries on, saying that to-day it was the turn of the nation; and a
+picture of the king was torn down from the walls, and, after being stuck
+up in derision outside the gates for some time, was offered for sale to
+the highest bidder.[2] In the Assembly the most violent language was used.
+An officer whose name has been preserved through the eminence which after
+his death was attained by his widow and his children, General Beauharnais,
+was the president; and as such, he announced that M. Bailly had reported
+to him that the enemies of the nation had carried off the king. The whole
+Assembly was roused to fury at the idea of his having escaped from their
+power. A decree was at once drawn up in form, commanding that Louis should
+be seized wherever he could be found, and brought back to Paris. No one
+could pretend that the Assembly had the slightest right to issue such an
+order; but La Fayette, with the alacrity which he always displayed when
+any insult was to be offered to the king or queen, at once sent it off by
+his own aid-de-camp, M. Romeuf, with instructions to see that it was
+carried out The order was now delivered to Strausse; the king, with
+scarcely an attempt at resistance, declared his willingness to obey it;
+and before eight o'clock he and his family, with their faithful
+Body-guard, now in undisguised captivity, were traveling back to Paris.
+
+When was there ever a journey so miserable as that which now brought its
+sovereigns back to that disloyal and hostile city! The National Guard of
+Varennes, and of other towns through which they passed, claimed a right to
+accompany them; and as they were all infantry, the speed of the carriage
+was limited to their walking pace. So slowly did the procession advance,
+that it was not till the fourth day that it reached the barrier; and, in
+many places on the road, a mob had collected in expectation of their
+arrival, and aggravated the misery of their situation by ferocious threats
+addressed to the queen, and even to the little dauphin. But at Châlons
+they were received with respect by the municipal authorities; the Hôtel de
+Ville had been prepared for their reception: a supper had been provided.
+The queen was even entreated to allow some of the principal ladies of the
+city to be presented to her; and, as the next day was the great Roman
+Catholic festival of the Fête Dieu, they were escorted with all honor to
+hear mass in the cathedral, before they resumed their journey. Even the
+National Guard were not all hostile or insolent. At Épernay, though a
+menacing crowd surrounded the carriage as they dismounted, the commanding
+officer took up the dauphin in his arms to carry him in safety to the door
+of the hotel; comforting the queen at the same time with a loyal whisper
+well suited to her feelings, "Despise this clamor, madame; there is a God
+above all."
+
+But, miserable as their journey was, soon after leaving Châlons it became
+more wretched still. They were no longer to be allowed the privilege of
+suffering and grieving by themselves. The Assembly had sent three of its
+members to take charge of them, selecting, as might have been expected,
+two who were known as among their bitterest enemies--Barnave, and a man
+named Pétion; the third, M. Latour Maubourg, was a plain soldier, who
+might be depended on for carrying out his orders with resolution. In one
+respect those who made the choice were disappointed. Barnave, whose
+hostility to the king and queen had been chiefly dictated by personal
+feelings, was entirely converted by the dignified resignation of the
+queen, and from this day renounced his republicanism; and, though he
+adhered to what were known as Constitutionalist views, was ever afterward
+a zealous advocate of both the monarch and the monarchy. But Pétion took
+every opportunity of insulting Louis, haranguing him on the future
+abolition of royalty, and reproaching him for many of his actions, and for
+what he believed to be his feelings and views for the future.
+
+It was the afternoon of the 25th when they came in sight of Paris. So
+great had been Marie Antoinette's mental sufferings that in those few days
+her hair had turned white; and fresh and studied humiliations were yet in
+store for her. The carriage was not allowed to take the shortest road, but
+was conducted some miles round, that it might be led in triumph down the
+Champs Élysées, where a vast mob was waiting to feast their eyes on the
+spectacle, whose display of sullen ill-will had been bespoken by a notice
+prohibiting any one from taking off his hat to the king, or uttering a
+cheer. The National Guard were forbidden to present arms to him; and it
+seemed as if they interpreted this order as a prohibition also against
+using them in his defense; for, as the carriage approached the palace, a
+gang of desperate ruffians, some of whom were recognized as among the most
+ferocious of the former assailants of Versailles, forced their way through
+their ranks, pressed up against the carriage, and even mounted on the
+steps. Barnave and Latour Maubourg, fearing that they intended to break
+open the doors, placed themselves against them; but they contented
+themselves with looking in at the window, and uttering sanguinary threats.
+Marie Antoinette became alarmed--not for herself, but for her children.
+They had so closed up every avenue of air that those within were nearly
+stifled, and the youngest, of course, suffered most. She let down a glass,
+and appealed to those who were crowding round: "For the love of God," she
+exclaimed, "retire; my children are choking!" "We will soon choke you,"
+was the only reply they vouchsafed to her. At last, however, La Fayette
+came up with an armed escort, and they were driven off; but they still
+followed the carriage up to the very gate of the palace with yells of
+insult. And it had a stranger follower still: behind the royal carriage
+came an open cabriolet, in which sat Drouet, with a laurel crown on his
+head,[3] as if the chief object of the procession wore to celebrate his
+triumph over his king.
+
+The mob was even hoping to add to its impressiveness by the slaughter of
+some immediate victims--not of the king and queen, for they believed them
+to be destined to public execution; but they were eager to massacre the
+faithful Body-guards, who had been brought back, bound, on the box of the
+carriage; and they would undoubtedly have carried out their bloody purpose
+had not the queen remembered them, and, as she was dismounting, entreated
+Barnave and La Fayette to protect them. Though during the last three days
+many things had had their names altered,[4] the Tuileries had been spared.
+It was still in name a royal palace, but those who now entered it knew it
+for their prison. The sun was setting, the emblem of the extinction of
+their royalty, as they ascended the stairs to find such rest as they
+might, and to ponder in privacy for this one night over their fatal
+disappointment, and their still more fatal future.
+
+Yet, though their return was full of ignominy and wretchedness, though
+their home had become a prison, the only exit from which was to be the
+scaffold, still, if posthumous renown can compensate for miseries endured
+in this life; if it be worth while to purchase, even by the most terrible
+and protracted sufferings, an undying, unfading memory of the most
+admirable virtues--of fidelity, of truth, of patience, of resignation, of
+disinterestedness, of fortitude, of all the qualities which most ennoble
+and sanctify the heart--it may be said, now that her agonies have long
+been terminated, and that she has been long at rest, that it was well for
+Marie Antoinette that she had failed to reach Montmédy, and that she had
+thus fallen again, without having to reproach herself in any single
+particular, into the hands of her enemies. As a prisoner to the basest of
+mankind, as victim to the most ferocious monsters that have ever disgraced
+humanity, she has ever commanded, and she will never cease to command, the
+sympathy and admiration of every generous mind. But the case would have
+been widely different had Louis and she found the refuge which they sought
+with the loyal and brave De Bouillé. Their arrival in his camp could not
+have failed to be a signal for civil war; and civil war, under such
+circumstances as those of France at that time, could have had but one
+termination--their defeat, dethronement, and expulsion from the country.
+In a foreign land they might, indeed, have found security, but they would
+have enjoyed but little happiness. Wherever he may be, the life of a
+deposed and exiled sovereign must be one of ceaseless mortification. The
+greatest of the Italian poets has well said that the recollection of
+former happiness is the bitterest aggravation of present misery; and not
+only to the fugitive monarch himself, but to those who still preserve
+their fidelity to him, and to the foreign people to whom he is indebted
+for his asylum, the recollection of his former greatness will ever be at
+hand to add still further bitterness to his present humiliation. The most
+friendly feeling his misfortunes can ever excite is a contemptuous pity,
+such as noble and proud minds must find it harder to endure than the
+utmost virulence of hatred and enmity.
+
+From such a fate, at least, Marie Antoinette was saved. During the
+remainder of her life her failure did indeed condemn her to a protraction
+of trial and agony such as no other woman has ever endured; but she always
+prized honor far above life, and it also opened to her an immortality of
+glory such as no other woman has ever achieved.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+Marie Antoinette's Feelings on her Return.--She sees Hopes of
+Improvement.--The 17th of July.--The Assembly inquire into the King's
+Conduct on leaving Paris.--They resolve that there is no Reason for taking
+Proceedings.--Excitement in Foreign Countries.--The Assembly proceeds to
+complete the Constitution.--It declares all the Members Incapable of
+Election to the New Assembly.--Letters of Marie Antoinette to the Emperor
+and to Mercy.--The Declaration of Pilnitz.--The King accepts the
+Constitution.--Insults offered to him at the Festival of the Champ de
+Mars.--And to the Queen at the Theatre.--The First or Constituent Assembly
+is dissolved.
+
+
+It was eminently characteristic of Marie Antoinette that her very first
+act, the morning after her return, was to write to De Fersen, to inform
+him that she was safe and well in health; but though she had roused
+herself for that effort of gratitude and courteous kindness, for some days
+she seemed stupefied by grief and disappointment, and unable to speak or
+think for a single moment of any thing but the narrow chance which had
+crushed her hopes, and changed success, when it had seemed to be secured,
+into ruin; and, if ever she could for a moment drive the feeling from her
+mind, her enemies took care to force it back upon her every hour. Before
+they reached the Tuileries, La Fayette had obtained from the Assembly
+authority to place guards wherever he might think fit; and no jailer ever
+took more rigorous precautions for the safe-keeping of the most desperate
+criminals than this man of noble birth, but most ignoble heart[1], now
+practiced toward his king and queen. Sentinels were placed along every
+passage of the palace, and, that they might have their prisoners
+constantly in sight, the door of every room was kept open day and night.
+The queen was not allowed even to close her bed-chamber, and a soldier was
+placed so as at all times to command a sight of the whole room; the only
+moment that the door was permitted to be shut being a short period each
+morning while she was dressing.
+
+But after a time she rallied, and even began again to think the future not
+wholly desperate. She always looked at the most promising side of affairs,
+and the first shock of the anguish felt at Varennes had scarcely passed
+away, when, with irrepressible sanguineness, she began to look around her
+and search for some foundation on which to build fresh hopes. She even
+thought that she had found it in the divisions which were becoming daily
+more conspicuous in the Assembly itself. She had yet to learn that at such
+times violence always overpowers moderation, and that the worse men are,
+the more certain are they to obtain the upper hand.
+
+The divisions among her enemies were indeed so furious as to justify at
+one time the expectation that one party would destroy the other. The
+Jacobins summoned a vast meeting, whose members they fixed beforehand at a
+hundred thousand citizens, to meet on Sunday, the 17th of July, to
+petition the Assembly to dethrone the king. On the appointed day, long
+before the hour fixed for the meeting, a fierce riot took place, the
+causes and even the circumstances of which have never been clearly
+ascertained, but which soon became marked with scenes of extraordinary
+violence. La Fayette, who tried to crush it in the bud, was pelted and
+fired at. Bailly hung out the red flag, the token of martial law being
+proclaimed, at the Hôtel de Ville, The mob pelted the National Guard. The
+National Guard, too much exasperated and alarmed to obey La Fayette's
+order to fire over the people's heads, at one volley shot down a hundred
+of the rioters. The Jacobin leaders fled in alarm. Robespierre, who had
+been one of the chief organizers of the tumult, being also one of the
+basest of cowards, was the most terrified of all, and fled for shelter to
+his admirer, of congenial spirit, Madame Roland, whose protection he
+afterward repaid by sending her to the scaffold. The riot was quelled, and
+the officers of the National Guard urged La Fayette to take advantage of
+the opportunity, and lead them on to close by force the club of the
+Jacobins, and another of equal ferocity, known as the Cordeliers[2],
+lately founded by the fiercest of the Jacobins, Danton, and a butcher
+named Legendre, who boasted of his ferocity as his only title to interfere
+in the Government. If he had been honest in his professions of a desire to
+save the monarchy, La Fayette would have adopted their advice, for it had
+already become plain to every one that the existence of these clubs was
+incompatible with the preservation of the kingly authority; but his
+imbecile love of popularity made him fear to offend even such a body of
+miscreants as the followers of Danton and Robespierre, and he professed to
+believe that he had given them a sufficient lesson, and had so convinced
+them of his power to crush them that they would be grateful to him for
+sparing them, and learn to act with more moderation in future.
+
+The decision of the Assembly also on the question, of the king's conduct
+in leaving Paris was not without its encouragement to one of the queen's
+disposition. She herself had been interrogated by commissioners appointed
+by the Assembly to inquire into the circumstances connected with the
+transaction, and her statement has been preserved. With her habitual
+anxiety to conceal from others the king's incapacity and want of
+resolution, she represented herself as acting wholly under his orders. "I
+declare," said she, "that as the king desired to quit Paris with his
+children, it would have been unnatural for me to allow any thing to
+prevent me from accompanying him. During the last two years, I have
+sufficiently proved, on several occasions, that I should never leave him;
+and what in this instance determined me most was the assurance which I
+felt that he would never wish to quit the kingdom. If he had had such a
+desire, all my influence would have been exerted to dissuade him from such
+a purpose[3]." And she proceeded further to exculpate all their
+attendants. She declared that Madame de Tourzel, who had been ill for some
+weeks, had never received her orders till the very day of the departure.
+She knew not whither she was going, and had taken no luggage, so that the
+queen herself had been forced to lend her some clothes. The three
+Body-guards were equally ignorant, and the waiting-women. Though it was
+true, she said, that the Count and Countess de Provence had gone to
+Flanders, they had only taken that course to avoid interfering with the
+relays which were required by the king, and had intended to rejoin him at
+Montmédy. The king's own statement tallied with hers in every respect,
+though it was naturally more explicit as to his motives and intentions;
+and his innocence of purpose was so irresistibly demonstrated, that,
+though Robespierre, in the most sanguinary speech which, he had ever yet
+uttered, demanded that he should be brought to trial, not concealing his
+desire that it should end in his condemnation; and though Pétion, and a
+wretch named Buzot, a warm admirer and intimate friend of Madame Roland,
+demanded his deposition and the proclamation of a republic, Barnave had no
+difficulty in carrying the Assembly with him in opposition to their
+violence; and it was finally resolved that nothing which had happened
+furnished grounds for taking proceedings against any member of the royal
+family. It was ordered at the same time that De Bouillé should be arrested
+and impeached; but when he found that nothing could be effected for the
+deliverance of the king, he had fled across the frontiers, and was safe
+from their malice.
+
+Meanwhile, the unconstitutional and unprecedented violence which had been
+offered to the king naturally created the greatest excitement and
+indignation in all foreign countries. A month before the late expedition,
+the emperor had addressed a formal note to M. Montmorin, as Secretary of
+State, declaring that he would regard any ill-treatment of his sister as
+an injury done to himself;[4] and now[5] the chivalrous Gustavus of Sweden
+proposed to address to the Assembly a joint letter of warning from all the
+sovereigns of Europe, to declare that they would all make common cause
+with the King of France if any attempt were made to offer him further
+violence. But even the Austrian ministers regarded such a declaration as
+more likely to aggravate than to diminish the dangers of those whom it was
+designed to serve; and the queen herself preferred waiting for a time, to
+see the result of the strife between the rival parties in the Assembly.
+
+The Assembly was at this time fully occupied with the completion of the
+Constitution, a work for which it had but little time left, since its own
+duration had been fixed at two years, which would expire in September; and
+also with the consideration of a question concerning the composition of
+the next Assembly which had been lately brought forward, and on which the
+queen was unfortunately misled into using her influence to procure a
+decision which was undoubtedly, in its eventual consequences, as
+disastrous to the king's fortunes as it was irreconcilable with common
+sense. Robespierre brought forward a resolution that no members of the
+existing Assembly should be eligible for a seat in that by which it was to
+be replaced. It was in reality a resolution to exclude from the new
+Assembly not only every one who had any parliamentary or legislative
+experience, but also all the adherents or friends of the throne, and to
+place the coming elections wholly in the power of the Jacobins.
+Robespierre was willing to be excluded himself from a conviction, that,
+with such an Assembly as would surely be returned, the Jacobin Club would
+practically exercise all the power of the State. But the Constitutional
+party, who saw that it was aimed at them, opposed it with great vigor; and
+would probably have been able to defeat it if the Royalist members who
+still retained their seats would have consented to join them. Unhappily
+the queen took the opposite view. With far more acuteness, penetration,
+and fertility of imagination than are usually given to women, or to men
+either, she had still in some degree the defect common to her sex, of
+being prone to confine her views to one side of a question; and to
+overrule her reason by her feelings and prejudices. Though she
+acknowledged the service which Barnave had rendered by defeating those who
+had wished to bring the king and herself to trial, she, nevertheless,
+still regarded the Constitutionalists in general with deep distrust as the
+party which desired to lower, and had lowered, the authority and dignity
+of the throne; and, viewing the whole Assembly with not unnatural
+antipathy, she fancied that one composed wholly of new members could not
+possibly be, more unfriendly to the king's person and government, and
+might probably be far better disposed toward them. She easily brought the
+king to adopt her views, and exerted the whole of her influence to secure
+the passing of the decree, sending agents to canvass those deputies who
+were opposed to it. With the Royalist members, the Extreme Right, her
+voice was law, and, by the unnatural union of them and the Jacobins, the
+resolution was carried.
+
+It is the more singular that she should have been willing thus, as it
+were, to proscribe the members of the present Assembly, because, in a very
+remarkable letter which she wrote to her brother the emperor at the end of
+July, she founds the hopes for the future, which she expresses with a
+degree of sanguineness which can hardly fail to be thought strange when
+the events of June are remembered, on the conduct of the Assembly itself.
+The letter is too long to quote at full length, but a few extracts from it
+will help us in our task of forming a proper estimate of her character,
+from the unreserved exposition which it contains of her feelings, both
+past and present, with her views and hopes for the future, even while she
+keenly appreciates the difficulties of the king's position; and from the
+unabated eagerness for the welfare of France which it displays in every
+reflection and suggestion. That she still considers the imperial alliance
+of great importance to the welfare of both nations will surprise no one.
+The suspension of the royal authority which the Assembly had decreed on
+the 26th of June had been removed on the decision that the king was not to
+be proceeded against. Yet her first sentence shows that she was still
+subjected to cruel and lawless tyranny, which even hindered her
+correspondence with her own relations. A queen might have expected to be
+able to write in security to another sovereign; a sister to a brother; but
+La Fayette and those in authority regarded the rights of neither royalty
+nor kindred.
+
+"A friend, my dear brother, has undertaken to convey this letter to you,
+for I myself have no means of giving you news of my health. I will not
+enter into details of what preceded our departure. You have already known
+all the reasons for it. During the events which befell us on our journey,
+and in the situation in which we were immediately after our return to
+Paris, I was profoundly distressed. After I recovered from the first shock
+of the agitation which they produced, I set myself to work to reflect on
+what I had seen; and I have endeavored to form a clear idea of what, in
+the actual state of affairs, the king's interests are, and what the
+conduct is which they prescribe to me. My ideas have been formed by a
+combination of motives which I will proceed to explain to you.
+
+"...The situation of affairs here has greatly changed since our journey.
+The National Assembly was divided into a multitude of parties. Far from
+order being re-established, every day seemed to diminish the power of the
+law. The king, deprived of all authority, did not even see any possibility
+of recovering it on the completion of the Constitution through the
+influence of the Assembly, since that body itself was every day losing
+more the respect of the people. In short, it was impossible to see any end
+to disorder.
+
+"To-day, circumstances present much more hope. The men who have the
+greatest influence in affairs are united together, and have openly
+declared for the preservation of the monarchy and the king, and for the
+re-establishment of order. Since their union, the efforts of the seditious
+have been defeated by a great superiority of strength. The Assembly has
+acquired a consistency and an authority in every part of the kingdom,
+which it seems disposed to use to establish the observance of the laws and
+to put an end to the Revolution. At this moment the most moderate men, who
+have never ceased to be opposed to revolutionary acts, are uniting,
+because they see in union the only prospect of enjoying in safety what the
+Revolution has left them, and of putting an end to the troubles of which
+they dread the continuance. In short, every thing seems at this moment to
+contribute to put an end to the agitations and commotions to which France
+has been given over for the last two years. This termination of them,
+however, natural and possible as it is, will not give the Government the
+degree of force and authority which I regard as necessary; but it will
+preserve us from greater misfortunes; it will place us in a situation of
+greater tranquillity, and, when men's minds have recovered from their
+present intoxication, perhaps they will see the usefulness of giving the
+royal authority a greater range.
+
+"This, in the course which matters are now taking, is what one can foresee
+for the future, and I compare this result with what we could promise
+ourselves from a line of conduct opposed to the wishes which the nation
+displays. In that ease I see an absolute impossibility of obtaining any
+thing except by the employment of a superior force; and on this last
+supposition I will say nothing of the personal dangers which the king, my
+son, and I myself may have to encounter. But what could be the
+consequences but some enterprise, the issue of which is uncertain, and the
+ultimate result of which, whatever it might be, presents disasters such as
+one can not endure to contemplate? The army is in a bad state from want of
+leaders and of subordination; but the kingdom is full of armed men, and
+their imagination is so inflamed that it is impossible to foresee what
+they might do, and the number of victims who might be sacrificed.... It is
+impossible, when one sees what is going on here, to calculate what might
+be the effects of their despair. I only see, in the events which might
+arise out of such an attempt, but very doubtful prospects of success, and
+the certainty of great miseries for every one....
+
+"If the Revolution should be terminated in the manner of which I have
+spoken, then it will be important that the king shall acquire, in a solid
+manner, the confidence and consideration which alone can give a real
+strength to the royal authority. No means are so well calculated to
+procure them for him as the influence which we might have over one of your
+resolutions[6] which would contribute to insure peace to France, and to
+dispel disquietude, which are so much the more grievous for the whole
+world, that they are among the principal obstacles to the re-establishment
+of public tranquillity. The share which in that way we should have in the
+termination of these troubles would win over to us all men of moderate
+temper, while the others, especially the chiefs of the Revolution, would
+attach themselves to us because of the sincere and efficacious inclination
+which we should have shown to conduct matters to the end, which they all
+wish for. Your own interests seem to me also to have a place in this
+system of conduct. The National Assembly, before separating, will desire,
+in concert with the king, to determine the alliances to which France is to
+continue attached; and the power of Europe which shall be the first to
+recognize the Constitution, after it has been accepted by the king, will
+undoubtedly be the one with which the Assembly will be inclined to form
+the closest alliance; and to these general views I might add the means
+which I myself have to dispose men's minds to maintain this alliance--
+means which will be extremely strengthened, if you share my view of the
+present circumstances.
+
+"I can not doubt that the chiefs of the Revolution, who have supported the
+king in the last crisis, will be desirous to assure to him the
+consideration and respect necessary to the exercise of his authority, and
+that they will see in a close alliance of France with that power with
+which he is connected by ties of blood, a means of combining his dignity
+with the interests of the nation, and in that way of consolidating and
+strengthening a Constitution of which they all agree that the majesty of
+the king is one essential foundation.
+
+"I do not know if, independently of all other reasons, the king will not
+find in that feeling and in the inclinations of the nation, when it has
+recovered its calmness, more deference, and a temper more favorable to
+him, than he could expect from the majority of those Frenchmen who are at
+present out of the kingdom.[7]"
+
+And a letter which she wrote to Mercy a fortnight later is perhaps even
+more worthy of attention, as supplying abundant proof, if proof were
+needed, of the good-will and good faith which were the leading principles
+of herself and the king in all their dealings with the Assembly. Since her
+letter to her brother, matters had been proceeding rapidly. She had found
+some means of treating more directly than on any previous occasion, not
+only with Barnave, but with the far more unscrupulous A. Lameth; and the
+Assembly had made such progress in completing the Constitution that it was
+on the point of submitting it to the king for his acceptance. We have seen
+in Marie Antoinette's letter to the emperor that she was convinced of the
+necessity of Louis signifying that acceptance, and she adhered to that
+view of the policy to be pursued, though the last touches given to the
+Constitution had rendered many of its articles far more unreasonable than
+she had anticipated, and though the great English statesman, Burke, whose
+"Reflections" of the preceding year had naturally caused him to be
+regarded as one of the ablest advisers on whom she could rely, forwarded
+to her an earnest exhortation to induce her husband to reject it. He
+implored her "to have nothing to do with traitors." Using the argument
+which, to one so sensitive for her honor as Marie Antoinette, was well
+calculated to exert an almost irresistible influence over her mind, he
+declared that "her resolution at this most critical moment was to decide
+whether her glory was to be maintained, and her distresses to cease, or
+whether" (and he begged pardon for ever mentioning such an alternative)
+"shame and affliction were to be her portion for the rest of her life;"
+and he declared that "if the king should accept the Constitution, both
+king and queen were ruined forever."
+
+The great writer was, as in more than one other instance of his career,
+too earnest in his conviction that principles were at stake in the course
+which he recommended, to consider whether that course were safe for those
+on whom he urged it, or even practicable. But Marie Antoinette, as one on
+whose decision the very lives of her husband and her child might depend,
+felt bound to consider, in the first place, how far her adoption of the
+advice thus tendered might endanger both; and, accordingly, while
+expressing to Mercy the full extent of her repugnance to the system of
+government, if indeed it deserved the name of a system, which the new
+Constitution had framed, she shows that her disapproval of it has in no
+degree led her to change her mind on the practical question of the course
+which the king should pursue. She justifies her decision to Mercy in a
+most elaborate letter, in which the whole position is surveyed with
+admirable good sense.[8]
+
+"Our position is this: We are now on the point of having the Constitution
+brought to us for acceptance. It is in itself so monstrous that it is
+impossible that it should be long maintained. But, in the position in
+which we are, can we risk refusing it? No; and I will prove it to you. I
+am not speaking of the personal dangers which we should run. We have fully
+shown by the journey which we undertook two months ago that we do not take
+our own safety into account when the public welfare is at stake. But this
+Constitution is so intrinsically bad that it can only acquire consistence
+from any resistance which we might oppose to it. Our business, therefore,
+is to take a middle course, which may save our honor, and may put us in
+such a position that the people may come back to us when once their eyes
+are opened, and they have become weary of the existing state of affairs. I
+think also that it is necessary that, when they have presented the act to
+the king, he should keep it by him a few days; for he is not supposed to
+know what it is till it has been presented to him in all legal form; and
+that then he should summon the Commissioners before him, not to make any
+comments, not to demand any alterations, which perhaps might not be
+admitted, and which would be interpreted as an admission that he approved
+of the basis, but to declare that his opinions are not changed; that, in
+his declaration of the 20th of June,[9] he proved the absolute
+impossibility of governing under the new system, and that he is still of
+the same mind; but that, for the sake of the tranquillity of his country,
+he sacrifices himself; and that, as his people and the nation stake their
+happiness on his accepting it, he does not hesitate to signify that
+acceptance; and that the sight of their happiness will speedily make him
+forget the cruel and bitter griefs which they have inflicted on him and on
+his family.
+
+"But if we take this line we must adhere to it; and, above all things, we
+must avoid any step which can create distrust, and we must move on, so to
+say, always with the law in our hand. I promise you that this is the best
+way to give them an early disgust at the Constitution. The mischief is,
+that for this we shall want an able and a trustworthy ministry.... Several
+people urge us to reject the act, and the king's brothers press upon him
+every day that it is indispensable to do so, and affirm that we shall be
+supported. By whom?" And she proceeds to examine the situation and policy
+of Spain, of the empire of England, and of Prussia, to prove that from
+none of them is there any hope of active aid, while to trust to the
+emigrants would be the worst expedient of all, because "we should then
+fall into a new slavery worse than the first, since, while we should
+appear to be in some degree indebted to them, we should not be able to
+extricate ourselves from their toils. They already prove this when they
+refuse to listen to the persons who are in our confidence, on the pretext
+that they do not trust them, while they seek to force us to give ourselves
+up to M. de Calonne, who, I fear, in all that he does is guided by nothing
+but his own ambition, his private enmities, and his habitual levity,
+thinking every thing he wishes not only possible, but already done.
+
+"... One circumstance worthy of remark is that in all these discussions on
+the Constitution the people take no interest, and concern themselves
+solely about their own affairs, limiting their wishes to having a
+Constitution and getting rid of the aristocrats... As to our acceptance of
+the Constitution, it is impossible for any thinking being to avoid seeing
+that we are not free. But it is essential that we should not awaken a
+suspicion of our feelings in the monsters who surround us. Let me know
+where the emperor's forces are and what is their present position. In
+every case the foreign powers can alone save us. The army is lost. There
+is no money. There is no bond, no curb which can restrain the populace,
+which is everywhere armed. Even the chiefs of the Revolution, when they
+wish to speak of order, are not listened to. This is the deplorable
+condition in which we are placed. Add that we have not a single friend--
+that every one betrays us, some out of hatred, others out of weakness or
+ambition. In short, I actually am reduced to dread the day when they will
+have the appearance of giving us a kind of freedom. At least, in the state
+of nullity in which we are at present, no one can reproach us.... You know
+the character of the person with whom I have to do.[10] At the last
+moment, when one seems to have convinced him, an argument, a word, will
+make him change his mind before any one suspects it. This is the reason
+why many expedients can not be even attempted."
+
+On the 21st she hears that the Charter will be presented at the end of the
+week, and she repeats her fears that the conduct of the emigrants may
+involve them in fresh troubles. "It is essential that the French, and most
+especially the brothers of the king, should keep in the background, and
+allow the foreign princes to act by themselves. But no entreaty, no
+argument from us will induce them to do so. The emperor must insist upon
+it. It is the only way in which he can serve us. You know yourself the
+mischievous wrong-headedness and evil designs of the emigrants. The
+cowards! after having abandoned us, they seek to make us expose ourselves
+alone to danger, and serve nothing but their interests. I do not accuse
+the king's brothers; I believe their hearts and their intentions to be
+pure, but they are surrounded and guided by ambitious men who will ruin
+them after having first ruined us." ... On the 26th she hears that it will
+still be a week before the Constitution is brought to the king. "It is
+impossible, considering our position, that the king should refuse to
+accept it. You may depend upon this being true, since I say it. You know
+my character sufficiently to be sure that it would incline me rather to a
+noble and bold course. We have no resource but in the foreign powers. They
+must come to our assistance; but it is the emperor who must put himself at
+the head of every thing, and manage every thing.... I declare to you that
+matters are now come to such a state that it would be better to be king of
+a single province than of a kingdom so abandoned and disordered as this. I
+shall endeavor, if I can, to send the emperor information on all these
+matters. But, in the mean time, do you tell him all that you consider
+necessary to prove to him that we have no longer any resource except in
+him, and that our happiness, our existence, and that of my child depend on
+him alone, and on his prudence and promptitude in action.[11]"
+
+And, however she from time to time caught at momentary hopes arising from
+other sources, the only one on which she placed any permanent reliance
+were the affection and power of her brother; and that hope, in the course
+of the winter, was cut from under her by his death.[12] Yet so correct was
+her judgment and appreciation of sound political principles, or, perhaps
+we might say, so keen was her sense of what was due to the independence
+and dignity of France, in spite of its present disloyalty, that a report
+that the emperor and Prussia had, by implication, claimed a right to
+dictate to France in matters of her internal government drew from her a
+warm remonstrance. As sovereign and brother she conceived that Leopold had
+a right to interfere to insure the safety of his own sister and of a
+brother sovereign; but she never desired him to interpose for any other
+object. From her childhood, as we have seen more than once, she had
+learned to regard the Prussian character and Prussian designs with
+abhorrence. And in a letter to Mercy of the 12th of September, after
+expressing an earnest hope that the emperor will not allow himself to be
+guided by "the cunning of Calonne, and the detestable policy of Prussia,"
+she adds, "It is said here that in the agreement signed at Pilnitz,[13]
+the two powers engage never to permit the new French Constitution to be
+established. There certainly are things which foreign powers have a right
+to oppose, but, as to what concerns the internal laws of a country, every
+nation has a right to adopt those which suit it. They would be wrong,
+therefore, to intervene in such a matter; and all the world would see in
+such an act a proof of the intrigues of the emigrants.[14]"
+
+She proceeds to tell him that all is settled. The king had adopted the
+line which she had marked out for him in her former letter. The
+Constitution had been presented to him on the 3d of September. He had
+taken a few days to consider it, not with the idea of proposing the
+slightest alteration, but in order to avoid the appearance of acting under
+compulsion; and, on the same day on which she wrote to Mercy, he was
+drawing up a letter to the Assembly, to announce his intention of visiting
+the Assembly to give it his royal assent in due form. But, though she
+would not have had him act otherwise, she can not announce this apparent
+termination of the contest without some natural expressions of grief and
+indignation.
+
+"At last the die is cast. All that we have now to do is to regulate the
+future progress and conduct of affairs as circumstances may permit. I only
+wish that others would regulate their conduct by mine. But even in our own
+inner circle we have great difficulties and great conflicts. Pity me: I
+assure you that it requires more courage to support the condition in which
+I am placed than to encounter a pitched battle. And the more so that I do
+not deceive myself, and that I see nothing but misery in the want of
+energy shown by some, and the evil designs of others. My God! is it
+possible that, endowed as I am with force of character, and feeling as I
+do so thoroughly the blood which runs in my veins, I should yet be
+destined to pass my days in such an age and with such men! But, for all
+this, never believe that my courage is deserting me. Not for my own sake,
+but for the sake of my child, I will support myself, and I will fulfill to
+the end my long and painful career, I can no longer see what I am writing.
+Farewell.[15]"
+
+Tears, we may suppose, were blinding her eyes, in spite of all her
+fortitude. There was no exaggeration in her declaration to the Empress
+Catherine of Russia, with whom at this time she was in frequent
+communication, that the "distrust which was shown by all around them was a
+moral and continual death, a thousand times worse than that physical death
+which was a release from all miseries.[16]" And in the same letter she
+explains that to remove this distrust was one principal object which the
+king and she had in view in all their measures. Yet, in spite of all his
+concessions, the week was not to pass without fresh insults being offered
+to the king, which shocked even his phlegmatic apathy. The letter which he
+sent to the Assembly to announce his compliance with its wishes was indeed
+received with acclamations which, if not sincere, were at least loud, and
+apparently unanimous; and, as if in reply to it, La Fayette proposed and
+carried a motion that the Assembly should pass an act of amnesty for all
+political offenses; and a magnificent festival was appointed to be held in
+the Champ de Mars on the following Sunday, in celebration of the joyful
+event. But, after the first brief excitement had passed away, the Jacobin
+faction recovered its ascendency, and contrived to make that very
+festival, which was designed to express the gratitude of the nation, an
+occasion of further humiliation to the unhappy Louis. Every arrangement
+for the day was discussed in a spirit of the bitterest disloyalty. When
+the question was raised, which in any other Assembly that ever met in the
+world would have been thought needless, what attitude the members were to
+preserve while the king was taking the prescribed oath to observe the
+Constitution, a hundred voices shouted out that they should all keep their
+seats, and that the king should swear, standing and bare-headed; and when
+one deputy of high reputation, M. Malouet, remonstrated against such a
+vote, arguing that so to treat the chief of the State would be a greater
+insult to the nation than even to himself, a deputy from Brittany cried
+out that M. Malouet and those who thought with him might receive Louis on
+their knees, if they liked, but that the rest of the Assembly should be
+seated.
+
+And, in accordance with the feeling thus shown, every mark of respect was
+studiously withheld from the unhappy monarch, and every care was taken to
+show him that every deputy considered himself his equal. Two chairs
+exactly similar were provided for him and for the president; and when,
+after taking the oath and affixing his signature to the act, the king
+resumed his seat, the president, who, having to reply to him in a short
+address, had at first risen for that purpose, on seeing that Louis
+retained his seat, sat down beside him, and finished his speech in that
+position. Louis felt the affront. He contained himself while in the hall,
+and while the members were conducting him back to the palace, which they
+presently did amidst the music of military bands and the salutes of
+artillery. But when his escort had left him, and he reached his own
+apartments, his pride gave way. The queen with the dauphin had been
+present in a box hastily fitted up for her, and had followed him back. He
+felt for her more than for himself. Bursting into tears, he said, "It is
+all over. You have seen my humiliation. Why did I ever bring you into
+France for such degradation?" And the queen, while endeavoring to console
+him, turned to Madame de Campan, who has recorded the scene, and dismissed
+her from her attendance.[17] "Leave us," she said, "leave us to
+ourselves." She could not bear that even that faithful servant should
+remain to be a witness to the despair and prostration of her sovereign.
+
+The very rejoicings were turned by the agents of the Jacobins into
+occasions for further outrages. The whole city was illuminated, and the
+sovereigns yielded to the entreaties of the popular leaders, to drive
+through the streets and the Champs Élysées to see the illumination. The
+populace, who believed the Revolution at an end and their freedom secured,
+cheered them heartily as they passed; but at every cry of "Vive le roi," a
+stentorian voice, close to the royal carriage, shouted out, "Not so: Vive
+la nation!" and the queen, though it was plain that the ruffian had been
+hired thus to outrage them, almost fainted with terror at his ferocity. A
+few days afterward, the insults were renewed even more pointedly. The
+royal family went in state to the opera, where, before their arrival, the
+Jacobins had packed the pit with a gang of their own hirelings, whose
+unpowdered hair made them conspicuous objects.[18] The opera was one of
+Grétry's, "Les Événements Imprévus," in which one of the duets contains
+the line "Ah, comme j'aime ma maïtresse." Madame Dugazon, a popular singer
+of the day, as she uttered the words, bowed toward the royal box, and
+instantly the whole pit was in a fury. "No mistress for us! no master!
+Liberty!" The whole house was in an uproar. The king's partisans and
+adherents replied with loyal cheers, "Vive le roi! Vive la reine!" The pit
+roared out, "No master! no queen!" and the Jacobins even proceeded to acts
+of violence toward all who refused to join in their cry. Blows were
+struck, and it became necessary to send for a company of the Guard to
+restore order.
+
+Yet when, on the last day of the month, the king visited the Assembly[19]
+to declare its dissolution, the president addressed him in terms of the
+most loyal gratitude, affirming that by his acceptance of the
+Constitution, he had earned the blessings of all future generations; and
+when he quitted the hall, the populace escorted the royal carriage back to
+the palace with vociferous cheers. Though, in the eyes of impartial
+observers, this display of returning good-will was more than
+counterbalanced when, as the members of the Assembly came out, some of the
+Royalists and Constitutionalists were hooted, and some of the fiercest
+Jacobins were greeted with still more enthusiastic acclamations.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+Composition of the New Assembly.--Rise of the Girondins,--Their Corruption
+and Eventual Fate.--Vergniaud's Motions against the King.--Favorable
+Reception of the King at the Assembly, and at the Opera.--Changes in the
+Ministry.--The King's and Queen's Language to M. Bertrand de Moleville.--
+The Count de Narbonne.--Pétion is elected Mayor of Paris.--Scarcity of
+Money, and Great Hardships of the Royal Family.--Presents arrive from
+Tippoo Sahib.--The Dauphin.--The Assembly passes Decrees against the
+Priests and the Emigrants.--Misconduct of the Emigrants.--Louis refuses
+his Assent to the Decrees.--He issues a Circular condemning Emigration.
+
+
+The new Assembly met on the 1st of October, and its composition afforded
+the Royalists, or even the Constitutionalists, the party that desired to
+stand by the Constitution which had just been ratified, very little
+prospect of a re-establishment of tranquillity. The mischievous effect of
+the vote which excluded members of the last Assembly from election was
+seen in the very lists of those who had been returned. In the whole number
+there were scarcely a dozen members of noble or gentle birth; the number
+of ecclesiastics was equally small; while property was as little
+represented as the nobility or the Church. It was reckoned that of the
+whole body scarcely fifty possessed two thousand francs a year. The
+general youth of the members was as conspicuous as their poverty; half of
+them had hardly attained middle age; a great many were little more than
+boys. The Jacobins themselves, who, before the elections, had reckoned on
+swaying their decisions by terror, could hardly have anticipated a result
+which would place the entire body so wholly at their mercy.
+
+But what was still move ominous of evil was the rise of a new party, known
+as that of the Girondins, from the circumstance of some of its most
+influential members coming from the Gironde, one of the departments which
+the late Assembly had carved out of the old province of Gascony. It was
+not absolutely a new party, since the foundations of it had been laid,
+during the last two months of the old Assembly, by Pétion and a low-born
+pamphleteer named Brissot, who, as editor of a newspaper to which he gave
+the name of _Le Patriote Français_, rivaled the most blood-thirsty of the
+Jacobins in exciting the worst passions of the populace. But Pétion and
+Brissot had only sown the seeds. The opening of the new Assembly at once
+gave it growth and vigor, when the deputies from the Gironde plunged into
+the arena of debate, and showed an undeniable superiority in eloquence to
+every other party. The chiefs, Vergniaud, Gensonné, and Gaudet, were
+lawyers who had never obtained any practice. Isnard, the first man to make
+an open profession of atheism in the Assembly, was the son of a perfumer
+in Provence. They were adventurers as utterly without principle as without
+resources. And their first thought appears to have been to make money of
+the king's difficulties, and to sell themselves to him. They applied to
+the Minister of the Interior, M. de Lessart, proposing to place the whole
+of their influence at the service of the Government, on condition of his
+securing each of them a pension of six thousand francs a month.[1] M. de
+Lessart would not have objected to buy them, but he thought the price
+which they set upon themselves too high; and as they adhered to their
+demand, the negotiation went off, and they resolved to revenge themselves
+on his royal master with all the malice of disappointed rapacity.
+
+As none of them had any force of character, they fell under the influence
+of the wife of one of their number, a small manufacturer, named Roland,
+the same who, as we have already seen, was the first to raise the cry of
+blood in France, and to recommend the assassination of the king and queen
+while they were still in fancied security at Versailles. Under the
+direction of this fierce woman, whose ferocity was rendered more
+formidable by her undoubted talents, the Girondins began an internecine
+war with the king, who had refused them the wages which they had asked.
+They planned and carried out the sanguinary attacks on the palace in the
+summer of the next year. They brought Louis to the scaffold by the
+unanimity of their votes. Yet it would have been more fortunate for
+themselves as well as for him had they been less exorbitant in their
+demands, and had they connected themselves with the Government as they
+desired. For though they succeeded in their treason, though Madame Roland
+saw the accomplishment of her wish in the murder of the king and queen,
+their success was equally fatal to themselves. Almost all of them perished
+on the same scaffold to which they had consigned their virtuous
+sovereigns, meeting a fate in one respect worse even than theirs, from the
+infamy of the names which they have left behind them.
+
+Yet for a few days it seemed as if their malignity would miss its aim.
+They did not wait a single day before displaying it; but, at the
+preliminary meeting of the Assembly, before it was opened for the dispatch
+of business, Vergniaud proposed to declare it illegal to speak of the king
+as his majesty, or to address him as "sire;" while another deputy, named
+Couthon, who at first belonged to the same party, though he afterward
+joined the Jacobins, carried a motion that, when Louis came to open the
+Assembly, the president should occupy the place of honor, and the second
+seat should be allotted to the sovereign.
+
+Still, for a moment it seemed as if they had overshot their mark, and as
+if the more loyal party would be able to withstand and defeat them. The
+Assembly itself was compelled to repeal its recent votes, since Louis,
+whom indignation for once inspired with greater firmness than he usually
+displayed, refused to open the new Assembly in person unless he were to be
+received with the honors to which his rank entitled him. The offensive
+resolutions were canceled; and, when he had therefore opened the session
+in a dignified and conciliatory speech which was chiefly of his own
+composition, the president, M. Pastoret, a member of the Constitutional
+party, replied in a language which was not only respectful, but
+affectionate. The Constitution, he said, had given the king friends in
+those who were formerly only styled his subjects. The Assembly and the
+nation felt the need of his love. As the Constitution had rendered him the
+greatest monarch in the world, so his attachment to it would place him
+among the kings most beloved by their people.
+
+And it seemed as if the Parisians in general shared to the full the loyal
+sentiments uttered by M. Pastoret. Writing the same week to her brother,
+Marie Antoinette, with a confidence which could only spring from a sincere
+attachment to the whole nation, reiterated her old opinion that "the good
+citizens and good people had always in their hearts been friendly to the
+king and herself;[2]" and expressed her belief that since the acceptance
+of the Constitution the people "had again learned to trust them." She was
+"far from giving herself up to a blind confidence. She knew that the
+disaffected had not abandoned their treasonable purposes; but, as the king
+and she herself were resolved to unite themselves in sincere good faith to
+the people, it was impossible but that, when their real feelings were
+known, the bulk of the people should return to them. The mischief was that
+the well-meaning knew not how to act in concert."
+
+It did seem as if she were correct in her estimate of the feelings of the
+citizens, when, in the evening of the day on which Louis had opened the
+Assembly, the whole royal family, including the two children, went to the
+opera; and, as if with express design to ratify the loyal language of the
+president of the Assembly, the whole audience greeted them with a most
+enthusiastic reception. More than once they interrupted the performance
+with loud cheers for both king and queen; and as the pleasure of children
+is always an attractive sight, they sympathized especially with the
+delight of the little dauphin, their future king, as they all then thought
+him, who, being new to such a spectacle, only took his eyes off the stage
+to imitate the gestures of the actors to his mother, and draw her
+attention to them.
+
+In more than one of her letters the queen had vehemently deplored the want
+of a stronger ministry than of late had been in the king's service. It was
+a natural complaint, though in fact the ability or want of ability
+displayed by the ministers was a matter of but slight practical
+importance, so completely had the Assembly engrossed the whole power of
+the State; but in the course of the autumn some changes were made, one of
+which for a time certainly added to the comfort of the sovereigns. M.
+Montmorin retired; M. de Lessart was transferred to his office; and M.
+Bertrand de Moleville, who was entirely new to official life, became the
+minister of marine. The whole kingdom did not contain a man more attached
+to the king and queen. But he combined statesman-like prudence with his
+loyalty; and his conduct before he took office elicited a very remarkable
+proof of the singleness of mind and purpose with which the king and queen
+had accepted the Constitution. M. Bertrand had previously refused office,
+and was very unwilling to take it now; and he frankly told Louis that he
+could not hope to be of any real service to him unless he knew the plans
+which the king might have formed with respect to the Constitution, and the
+line of conduct which he desired his ministers to observe on the subject;
+and Louis told him distinctly that though "he was far from regarding the
+Constitution as a masterpiece, and though he thought it easy to reform it
+advantageously in many particulars, yet he had sworn to observe it as it
+was, and that he was bound to be, and resolved to be, strictly faithful to
+his oath; the more so because it seemed to him that the most exact
+observance of the Constitution was the surest method to lead the nation to
+understand it in all its bearings; when the people themselves would
+perceive the character of the changes in it which it was desirable to
+make."
+
+M. Bertrand expressed his warm approval of the wisdom of such a policy,
+but thought it so important to know how far the queen coincided in her
+husband's sentiments that he ventured to put the question to his majesty.
+The king assured him that he had been speaking her sentiments as well as
+his own, and that he should hear them from her own lips; and accordingly
+the queen immediately granted the new minister an audience, in which,
+after expressing, with her habitual grace and kindness, her feeling that,
+by accepting office at such a time, he was laying both the king and
+herself under a personal obligation, she added, "The king has explained to
+you his intentions with respect to the Constitution; do not you think that
+the only plan for him to follow is to be faithful to his oath?"
+"Undoubtedly, madame." "Well, you may depend upon it that nothing will
+make us change. Have courage, M. Bertrand; I hope that, with patience,
+firmness, and consistency, all is not yet lost.[3]"
+
+Nor was M. Bertrand the only one of the ministers who received proofs of
+the resolution of the queen to adhere steadily to the Constitution. There
+was also a new minister of war, the Count de Narbonne, as firmly attached
+to the persons of the sovereigns as M. Bertrand himself, though in
+political principle more inclined to the views of the Constitutionalists
+than to those of the extreme Royalists. He was likewise a man of
+considerable capacity, eloquent and fertile in resources; but he was
+ambitious and somewhat vain; and he was so elated at the approval
+expressed by the Assembly of a report on the military resources of the
+kingdom which he laid before it soon after his appointment, that he
+obtained an audience of the queen, the object of which was to convince her
+that the only means of saving the State was to confer on a man of talent,
+energy, sagacity, and activity, who enjoyed the confidence of the Assembly
+and of the nation, the post of prime minister; and he admitted that he
+intended to designate himself by this description. Marie Antoinette,
+though fully aware of the desirableness of having a single man of ability
+and firmness at the head of the administration, was for a moment surprised
+out of her habitual courtesy. She could not forbear a smile, and in plain
+terms asked him "if he were crazy.[4]" But she proceeded with her usual
+kindness to explain to him the impracticability of the scheme which he had
+suggested, and the foundation of her argument was an explanation that such
+an appointment would be a violation of the Constitution, which forbade the
+king to create any new ministerial office. And the count deserves to have
+it mentioned to his honor that the rebuff which he had received in no
+degree cooled his attachment to the king and queen, or the zeal with which
+he labored for their service.
+
+We have no information how far the new minister coincided in a step which
+the queen took in the course of November, and which is commonly ascribed
+to her judgment alone. Before its dissolution, the late Assembly had
+broken up the National Guard of Paris into separate legions, and had
+suppressed the appointment of commander-in-chief of the forces; and La
+Fayette, whom this measure had left without employment, feeling keenly the
+diminution of his importance, and instigated by the restlessness common to
+men of moderate capacity, conceived the hope of succeeding Bailly in the
+mayoralty of Paris, which that magistrate was on the point of resigning.
+
+It had become a post of great consequence, since the extent to which the
+authority of the crown had been pared away tended to make the mayor the
+absolute dictator of the capital; and consequently the Jacobins were
+anxious to secure the office for one of the extreme Revolutionary party,
+and set up Pétion as a rival candidate. The election belonged to the
+citizens, and, as in the city the two parties possessed almost equal
+strength, it was soon seen that the court, which had by no means lost its
+influence among the tradesmen and shop-keepers, had the power of deciding
+the contest in favor of the candidate for whom it should pronounce, Marie
+Antoinette declared for Pétion. She knew him to be a Jacobin,[5] but he
+was so devoid of any reputation for ability that she did not fear him.
+Nor, except that he had behaved with boorish disrespect and ill-manners
+during their melancholy return from Varennes, had she any reason for
+suspecting him of any special enmity to the king.
+
+But La Fayette, though always loud in his professions of loyalty, had
+never lost an opportunity of offering personal insults to both the king
+and herself. It was to his shameful neglect (to put his conduct in the
+most favorable light) that she justly attributed the danger to which she
+had been exposed at Versailles, and the compulsion which had been put upon
+the king to take up his residence in Paris; and, not to mention a constant
+series of petty insults which he had heaped on both Louis and herself, and
+on the Royalists as a body, he had given unmistakable proofs of his
+personal animosity toward the king by his conduct on the 21st of June, and
+by the indecent rigor with which he treated them both after their return
+from Varennes. Even when he was loudest in the profession of his desire
+and power to influence the Assembly in the king's favor, one of his own
+friends had told him to his face that he was insincere,[6] and that Louis
+could not and ought not to trust his promises; and every part of his
+conduct toward the royal pair was stamped with duplicity as well as with
+ill-will. It was not strange, therefore, indeed it was fully consistent
+with the honest openness of Marie Antoinette's own character, that she
+should prefer an open enemy to a pretended friend. She even believed what,
+from the very commencement of the Revolution, many had suspected, that La
+Fayette cherished views of personal ambition, and aimed at reviving the
+old authority of a Maire du Palais over a Roi Fainéant[7]. She therefore
+directed her friends to throw their weight into the scale in favor of
+Pétion, who was accordingly elected by a great majority, while the
+marquis, greatly chagrined, retired for a time to his estate in Auvergne.
+
+The victory, however, was an unfortunate one for the court. It contributed
+to increase the confidence of its enemies; and, as their instinct showed
+them that it was from the resolution of the queen that they had the most
+formidable opposition to dread, it was against her that, from their first
+entrance into the Assembly, Vergniaud and his friends specially exerted
+themselves; Vergniaud openly contending that the inviolability of the
+sovereign, which was an article of the new Constitution, applied only to
+the king himself, and in no degree to his consort; while in the Jacobin
+and Cordelier Clubs the coarsest libels were poured forth against her with
+unremitting perseverance to stimulate and justify the most obscene and
+ferocious threats. The coarsest ruffians in a street quarrel never used
+fouler language of one another than these men of education applied to the
+pure-minded and magnanimous lady whose sole offense was that she was the
+wife of their kind-hearted king.
+
+And, in addition to this daily increase of their danger which such
+denunciations could not fail to augment, the royal family were now
+suffering inconveniences which even those whose measures had caused them
+had never designed. They were in the most painful want of money. The
+agitation of the last two years had rendered the treasury bankrupt. The
+paper money, which now composed almost the whole circulation of the
+country, was valueless. While, as it was in this paper money (assignats,
+as the notes were called, as being professedly secured by assignments on
+the royal domains and on the ecclesiastical property which had been
+confiscated), that the king's civil list was paid, at the latter end of
+each month it was not uncommon for him and the queen to be absolutely
+destitute. It was with great reluctance that they accepted loans from
+their loyal adherents, because they saw no prospect of being able to repay
+them; but had they not availed themselves of this resource, they would at
+times have wanted absolute necessaries.[8]
+
+The royal couple still kept their health, the king's apathy being in this
+respect as beneficial as the queen's courage: they still rode a great deal
+when the weather was favorable; and on one occasion, at the beginning of
+1792, the queen, with her sister-in-law and her daughter, went again to
+the theatre. The opera was the same which had been performed at the visit
+in October; but this time the Jacobins had not been forewarned so as to
+pack the house, and Madame du Gazon's duet was received with enthusiasm.
+Again, as she sung "Ah, que j'aime ma maîtresse!" she bowed to the royal
+box, and the audience cheered. As if in reply to one verse, "Il faut les
+rendre heureux," "Oui, oui!" with lively unanimity, came from all parts of
+the house, and the singers were compelled to repeat the duet four times.
+"It is a queer nation this of ours," says the Princess Elizabeth, in
+relating the scene to one of her correspondents, "but we must allow that
+it has very charming moments.[9]"
+
+A somewhat curious episode to divert their minds from these domestic
+anxieties was presented by an embassy from the brave and intriguing Sultan
+of Mysore, the celebrated Tippoo Sahib, who sought to engage Louis to lend
+him six thousand French troops, with whose aid he trusted to break down
+the ascendency which England was rapidly establishing in India. Tippoo
+backed his request, in the Oriental fashion, by presents, though not such
+as, in the opinion of M. Bertrand, were quite worthy of the giver or of
+the receiver. To the king he sent some diamonds, but they were yellow,
+ill-cut, and ill-set; and the rest of the offering was composed of a few
+pieces of embroidered silk, striped cloth, and cambric: while the queen's
+present consisted of nothing more valuable than a few bottles of perfume
+of no very exquisite quality, and a few boxes of powdered scents, pastils,
+and matches. The king and queen gave nearly the whole present to M.
+Bertrand for his grandchildren, the queen only reserving a bottle of attar
+of rose and a couple of pieces of cambric; and that chiefly to afford a
+pretext for seeing M. Bertrand once or twice, without his reception being
+imputed to a desire to promote some Austrian intrigue; for the Jacobins
+had lately revived the clamor against Austrian influence with greater
+vehemence than ever.
+
+As M. Bertrand had grandchildren, he could well appreciate the pleasure of
+the queen at an incident which closed one of his audiences. While he was
+thus receiving her commands, the little dauphin, "beautiful as an angel,"
+as the minister describes him, was capering about the room in high
+delight, brandishing a wooden sword, a new toy which had just been given
+him. An attendant called him to go to supper; and he bounded toward the
+door. "How is this, my boy?" said Marie Antoinette, calling him back; "are
+you going off without making M. Bertrand a bow?" "Oh, mamma," said the
+little prince, still skipping about, and smiling, "that is because I know
+well that M. Bertrand is one of our friends.... Good-evening, M.
+Bertrand." "Is not he a nice child?[10]" said the queen, after he had left
+the room. "He is very happy to be so young. He does not feel what we
+suffer, and his gayety does us good." Alas! that which was now perhaps her
+only pleasure--the contemplation of her child's opening grace and
+amiability--before long became even an addition to her affliction, as the
+probabilities increased that the madness of the people and the wickedness
+of their leaders would deprive him of the inheritance, to preserve which
+to him was the principal object of all her cares and exertions.
+
+But these moments of gratification were becoming fewer as time went on.
+Each month, each week brought fresh and increasing anxieties to engross
+all her thoughts. As the Girondin leaders began to feel their strength,
+the votes of the Assembly became more violent. One day it passed a fresh
+decree against the priests, depriving all who refused to take the oath to
+the new ecclesiastical constitution of the stipends for which their former
+preferments had been commuted, placing them under strict supervision, and
+declaring them liable to instant banishment if they should venture to
+exercise their functions in private. Another day it vented its wrath upon
+the emigrants, summoning the Count de Provence by name to return at once
+to France; and, with respect to the rest of the body, now very numerous,
+declaring their conduct in being assembled on the frontier of the kingdom
+in a state of readiness for war in itself an act of treason; and
+condemning to death and confiscation of their estates all who should fail
+to return to their native land before a stated day.
+
+But in these decrees the advocates of violence had for the moment gone too
+far--they had outrun the feelings of the nation. The emigrants, indeed,
+neither deserved nor found sympathy in any quarter. The main body of them
+was at this time settled at Coblentz, where their conduct was such that it
+is hard to say whether it were more offensive to their country, more
+injurious to their king, or more discreditable to themselves. They could
+not even act in harmony. The king's two brothers established rival courts,
+with a mistress at the head of each. Madame de Balbi still ruled the Count
+de Provence; Madame de Polastron was the presiding genius of the coterie
+of the Count d'Artois. The two ladies, regarding each other with bitter
+jealousy, agitated the whole town with their rivalries and wranglings, and
+agreed in nothing but in their endeavors to excite some foreign sovereign
+or other to make war upon their native land. It was in vain that Louis
+himself first entreated them, and, when he found his entreaties were
+disregarded, commanded his brothers to return. They positively refused
+obedience to his order, telling him, in language which can only be
+characterized as that of studied insult, that he was writing under
+coercion; that his letter did not express his real views, and that "their
+honor, their duty, even their affection for him, alike forbade them to
+obey him.[11]" The queen could not command, but she wrote to them more
+than one letter of most earnest entreaty, and, as the princes founded part
+of their hopes on the co-operation of the Northern sovereigns, she wrote
+also to the empress and to Gustavus, pressing both, and especially the
+King of Sweden,[12] to restrain them; but they were too headstrong and
+full of their own projects to listen to her entreaties any more than to
+the king's commands, and did not even take the trouble to conceal their
+negotiations with foreign powers, nor their object, which could be nothing
+but war.
+
+It was impossible that such conduct steadily pursued by the king's own
+brothers could be any thing but most pernicious to his cause. It could not
+fail to excite suspicions of his own good faith. It supplied the Jacobins
+with pretexts for putting fresh restraints on his authority; and it
+frightened even the Constitutionalists, since it was plain that civil war
+must ensue, with, very probably, the addition of foreign war also, if
+these machinations of the emigrants were not suppressed.
+
+Still, these sweeping proscriptions of entire classes were not yet to the
+taste of the nation. Petitions from the country, and even one from the
+department of the Seine, were presented to Louis, begging him to refuse
+his assent to the decree against the priests; and the feeling which they
+represented was so strong, and the reputation of some of the petitioners
+stood so high for ability and influence, that the ministers believed that
+he could safely refuse his sanction to both the votes. Even without their
+advice he would have rejected the decree against the priests, as one
+absolutely incompatible with his reverence for religion and its ministers;
+and his conduct on this subject supplies one more striking parallel to the
+history of the great English rebellion; since there can hardly be a more
+precise resemblance between events occurring in different ages and
+different countries than is afforded by the resistance made by Charles to
+the last vote of the London Parliament against the bishops, and this
+resistance of Louis to the will of the Assembly on behalf of the priests,
+and by the fatal effect which, in each case, their conscientious and
+courageous determination had upon the fortunes of the two sovereigns.
+
+Louis therefore put his veto on both the decrees, with the exception of
+that clause in the act against the emigrants which summoned his brothers
+to return to the kingdom. But, that no one might pretend to fancy that he
+either approved of the conduct of the emigrants or sympathized with their
+principles or designs, he issued a circular letter to the governors of the
+different sea-ports, in which he remonstrated most earnestly with the
+sailors, numbers of whom, as it was reported in Paris, were preparing to
+follow their example. He pointed out in it that those who thus deserted
+their country mistook their duty to that country, to him as their king,
+and to themselves; that the present aspect of the nation, desirous to
+return to order and to submission to the law, removed every pretext for
+such conduct. He set before them his own example, and bid them remain at
+their posts, as he was remaining at his; and, in language more impressive
+than that of command, he exhorted them not to turn a deaf ear to his
+prayers; and at the same time he addressed letters to the electors of
+Trèves and Mayence, and to the other petty German princes whose
+territories, bordering on the Rhine, were the principal resort of the
+emigrants, requiring them to cease to give them shelter, and announcing
+that if they should refuse to remove them from their dominions he should
+consider their refusal a sufficient ground for war; while, to show that he
+did not intend this menace to be a dead letter, he soon afterward
+announced to the Assembly that he had ordered a powerful army of a hundred
+and fifty thousand men to be moved toward the frontier, under the command
+of Marshal Luckner, Marshal Rochambeau, and General La Fayette, and he
+invited the members to vote a levy of fifty thousand more men to raise the
+force of the nation to its full complement.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+Death of Leopold.--Murder of Gustavus of Sweden.--Violence of Vergniaud.
+--The Ministers resign.--A Girondin Ministry is appointed.--Character of
+Dumouriez.--Origin of the Name Sans-culottes.--Union of Different Parties
+against the Queen.--War is declared against the Empire.--Operations in the
+Netherlands.--Unskillfulness of La Fayette.--The King falls into a State
+of Torpor.--Fresh Libels on the Queen.--Barnave's Advice.--Dumouriez has
+an Audience of the Queen.--Dissolution of the Constitutional Guard.--
+formation of a Camp near Paris.--Louis adheres to his Refusal to assent to
+the Decree against the Priests.--Dumouriez resigns his Office, and takes
+command of the Army.
+
+
+War of some kind--foreign war, civil war, or both combined--had
+apparently become inevitable; and Marie Antoinette deceived herself if she
+thought that the armed congress of sovereigns, for which she was above all
+things anxious, could lead to any other result. In any ease, a congress
+must have produced one consequence which she deprecated as much as any
+other, a waste of time, while, as she truly said, her enemies never wasted
+a moment. Nor, with the very different views of the policy to be pursued,
+which the emperor and the King of Prussia entertained (Frederick being an
+advocate of an armed intervention in the affairs of France, which Leopold
+opposed as impracticable, and, if practicable, impolitic), was it easy to
+see how a congress could have brought those monarchs to agree on any
+united system of action. But all projects of that kind necessarily fell to
+the ground in consequence of the death of the emperor, which took place,
+after a very short illness, on the 1st of March, 1792; and before the end
+of the same month the royal family lost another warm friend in Gustavus of
+Sweden, who was assassinated in the very midst of preparations which he
+confidently hoped might contribute to deliver his brother sovereign from
+his troubles.
+
+Marie Antoinette spoke truly when she said that the enemies of the crown
+never lost time. The very prospect of war increased the divisions of the
+Assembly, since the Jacobins were undisguisedly averse to it. Not one of
+their body had any reputation for skill in arms, so that in the event of
+war it was evident that the chief commands, both in army and navy, must be
+conferred on persons unconnected with them; while the Girondins, though,
+as far as was yet known, equally destitute of members possessed of any
+military ability, looked on war as favorable to their designs, whatever
+might be the issue of a campaign. They were above all things eager for the
+destruction of the monarchy, and they reckoned that if the French army
+were victorious, its success would disable those who were most willing and
+might be most able to support the throne; while, if the enemy should
+prevail, it would be easy to represent their triumph as the fruit of the
+mismanagement, if not of the treachery, of the king's generals and
+ministers; and the opposition of these two parties was at this time so
+notorious that the queen thought it favorable to the king, since each
+would be eager to preserve him as a possible ally against its adversaries.
+It is for her husband's and her child's safety that she expresses anxiety,
+never for her own. With respect to herself her uniform language is that of
+fearlessness. She does not for a moment conceal from her correspondents
+her sense of the dangers which surround her. She has not only open
+hostility to fear, but treachery, which is far worse; and she declares
+that "a perpetual imprisonment in a solitary tower on the sea-shore would
+be a less cruel fate than that which she daily endures from the wickedness
+of her enemies and the weakness of her friends. Every thing menaces an
+inevitable catastrophe; but she is prepared for every thing. She has
+learned from her mother not to fear death. That may as well come to-day as
+to-morrow. She only fears for her dear children, and for those she loves;
+and high among those whom she loves she places her sister-in-law
+Elizabeth, who is always an angel aiding her to support her sorrows, and
+who, with her poor, dear children, never quits her.[1]"
+
+A long continuance of sorrows and fears, such as had now for nearly three
+years pressed upon the writer of this letter, would so wear away and break
+down ordinary souls that, when a crisis came, they would be found wholly
+unequal to grapple with it; and we may therefore the better form some idea
+of the strength of mind and almost superhuman fortitude of this admirable
+queen, if, from time to time, we fix our attention on these not
+exaggerated complaints, for indeed the misfortunes that elicited them
+admit of no exaggeration; and then remember that, after so long a period
+of such uninterrupted suffering, her spirit was so far from being broken,
+that, as increasing dangers and horrors thickened around her, her courage
+seemed to increase also. Her faithful attendant, Madame de Campan, has
+remarked that her troubles had not even affected her temper; that no one
+ever saw her out of humor. In every respect, to the very last, she showed
+herself superior to the utmost malice of her enemies.
+
+The news of the death of Leopold, whose son and successor, Francis, was
+but three-and-twenty years of age, gave fresh encouragement to his
+sister's enemies. The intelligence had hardly reached Paris when Vergniaud
+began to prepare the way for a fresh assault on the crown by a
+denunciation of the ministers, while the Jacobins and Cordeliers made an
+open attack upon another club which the Constitutionalists had lately
+formed under the name of Les Feuillants, holding its meetings in a convent
+of the Monks of St. Bernard,[2] and closed it by main force. Though
+several soldiers, and La Fayette among them, were members of the
+Feuillants, they made no resistance; they only applied to Pétion, as mayor
+of the city, for protection; and that worthy magistrate refused them aid,
+telling them that though the law forbade them to be attacked, the voice of
+the people was against them, and to that voice he was bound to listen.
+
+The ministers fell before Vergniaud, and the unhappy king had no resource
+but to choose their successors from the party which had triumphed over
+them. The absurd law by which the last Assembly had excluded its members
+from office was still in force, so that the orator himself and his
+colleagues could obtain no personal promotion; but they were able to
+nominate the new ministers, who, with but one exception, were all men
+equally devoid of ability and reputation, and therefore were the better
+fitted to be the tools of those to whom they owed their preferment. The
+names of three were Lacoste, Degraves, and Duranton, of whom nothing
+beyond their names is known. A fourth was Roland, who was indeed known,
+though not for any abilities of his own, but as the husband of the woman
+who, as has been already mentioned, was the first person in the whole
+nation to raise the cry for the murder of the king and queen, and whose
+fierce thirst for blood so predominated over every other feeling that a
+few weeks afterward she even began to urge the assassination of the only
+one among her husband's colleagues who was possessed of the slightest
+ability because his views did not altogether coincide with her own.
+
+General Dumouriez, whom she thus honored by singling him out for her
+especial hatred, was an exception to his colleagues in several points. He
+was a man of middle age, who enjoyed a good reputation, not only for
+military skill, but also for diplomatic sagacity and address, earned as
+far back as the latter years of the preceding reign; and he was so far
+from being originally imbued with revolutionary principles that, when, in
+the summer of 1789, a mutinous spirit first appeared among the troops in
+Paris, he volunteered to place his services at the king's disposal,
+recommending measures of vigor and resolution, which, if they had been
+adopted, might have quelled the spirit of rebellion, and have changed the
+whole subsequent history of the nation. But as Necker had rejected
+Mirabeau a few weeks before, so he also rejected Dumouriez; and discontent
+at the treatment which he received from the minister, and which seemed to
+prove that active employment, of which he was desirous, could only be
+obtained through some other influence, drove the general into the ranks of
+the Revolutionary party. He now accepted the post of foreign secretary in
+the new ministry; but the connection with the enemies of the monarchy was
+uncongenial to his taste; and, after a short time, the frequent
+intercourse with Louis, which was the necessary consequence of his
+appointment, and the conviction of the king's perfect honesty and
+patriotism which this intercourse forced upon him, revived his old
+feelings of loyalty, and, so long as he remained in office, he honestly
+endeavored to avert the evils which he foresaw, and to give the advice and
+to support the policy by which, in his honest belief, it was alone
+possible for Louis to preserve his authority.
+
+Dumouriez was a gentleman in birth and manners; but his colleagues had so
+little of either the habits or appearance of decent society that the
+attendants on the royal family gave them the name of the Sans-culottes;
+and this name, meant originally to describe the absence of the ordinary
+court dress, without which no previous ministers had ever ventured to
+appear in the presence of royalty, was presently adopted as a distinctive
+title by the whole body of the extreme revolutionists, who knew the value
+of a name under which to bind their followers together.[3]
+
+The attacks on the ministry were accompanied with more direct attacks on
+the king and queen themselves than had ever been ventured on in the former
+Assembly. By this time the system of espial and treachery by which they
+were surrounded had become so systematic that they could not even send a
+messenger to their nephew, the emperor, except under a feigned name;[4]
+and the Baron de Breteuil, who announced his mission to Francis, reported
+to him at the same time that the chiefs of the Assembly were proposing to
+pass votes suspending the "king from his functions, and to separate the
+queen from him on the ground that an impeachment was to be presented
+against both, as having solicited the late emperor to form a confederacy
+among the great powers of Europe in favor of the royal prerogative." The
+queen was, in fact, now, as always, more the object of their hatred than
+her husband, and toward the end of March a reconciliation of all her
+enemies took place, that the attack upon her might be combined with a
+strength that should insure its success. The Marquis de Condorcet, a man
+of some eminence in philosophy, as the word had been understood since the
+reign of the Encyclopedists, and closely connected with the Girondins,
+though not formally enrolled in their party, gave a supper, at which the
+Duc d'Orléans formally reconciled himself to La Fayette; and both, in
+company with Brissot and the Abbé Siéyes, who of late had scarcely been
+heard of, drew up an indictment against the queen.[5] Their malignity even
+went the length of resolving to separate the dauphin from his mother, on
+the plea of providing for his education; but the means which the Girondins
+took to secure their triumph for the moment defeated them. La Fayette did
+not keep the secret. One of his friends gave information to the king of
+the plot that was in contemplation, and the next day the
+Constitutionalists mustered in the Assembly in such strength that neither
+Girondins nor Jacobins dared bring forward the infamous proposal.
+
+But Louis and Marie Antoinette reasonably regarded the attack on them as
+only postponed, not as defeated or abandoned. They began to prepare for
+the worst. They burned most of their papers, and removed into the custody
+of friends whom they could trust those which they regarded as too valuable
+to destroy; and at the same time they sent notice to their partisans to
+cease writing to them. They could neither venture to send nor to receive
+letters. They believed that at this time the plan of their enemies was to
+terrify them into repeating their attempt to escape; an attempt of which
+the espial and treachery with which they were surrounded would have
+insured the failure, but which would have given the Jacobins a pretext for
+their trial and condemnation. But this scheme they could themselves defeat
+by remaining at their posts. Patience and courage was their only possible
+defense, and with those qualities they were richly endowed.
+
+A vital difference of principle distinguished the old from the new
+ministry: the former had wished to preserve, the majority of the latter
+were resolved to destroy, the throne; and the means by which each sought
+to attain its end were as diametrically opposite as the ends themselves.
+Bertrand and De Lessart, the ministers who, in the late administration,
+had enjoyed most of the king and queen's confidence, had been studious to
+preserve peace, believing that policy to be absolutely essential for the
+safety of Louis himself. Because they entertained the same opinion, the
+new ministers were eager for war; and, unhappily Dumouriez, in spite of
+his desire to uphold the throne, was animated by the same feeling. His own
+talents and tastes were warlike, and his office enabled him to gratify
+them in this instance. For the conciliatory tone which De Lessart had
+employed toward the Imperial Government, he now substituted a language not
+only imperious, but menacing. Prince Kaunitz, who still presided over the
+administration at Vienna, attached though he was to the system of policy
+which he had inaugurated under Maria Teresa, could not avoid replying in a
+similar strain, until at last, on the 20th of April, Louis, sorely against
+his will, was compelled to announce to the Assembly that all his efforts
+for the preservation of peace had failed, and to propose an instant
+declaration of war.
+
+The declaration was voted with enthusiasm; but for some time it brought
+nothing but disaster. The campaign was opened in the Netherlands, where
+the Austrians, taken by surprise, were so weak in numbers that it seemed
+certain that they would be driven from the country without difficulty or
+delay. Marshal Beaulieu, their commander-in-chief, had scarcely twenty
+thousand men, while the Count de Narbonne had left the French army in so
+good a condition that Degraves, his successor, was able to send a hundred
+and thirty thousand men against him; and Dumouriez furnished him with a
+plan for an invasion of the Netherlands, which, if properly carried out,
+would have made the French masters of the whole country in a few days. But
+the largest division of the army, to which the execution of the most
+important portions of the intended operations was intrusted, had been
+placed under the command of La Fayette, who proved equally devoid of
+resolution and of skill. Some of his regiments showed a disorderly and
+insubordinate temper. One battalion first mutinied and murdered some of
+its officers, and then disgraced itself by cowardice in the field. Another
+displayed an almost equal want of courage; and La Fayette, disheartened
+and perplexed, though the number of his troops still more than doubled
+those opposed to him, retreated into France, and remained there in a state
+of complete inactivity.
+
+But, as has been said before, disaster was almost as favorable to the
+political views of the Girondins as success, while it added to the dangers
+of the sovereigns by encouraging the Jacobins, who were elated at the
+failure of a general so hateful to them as La Fayette. They now adopted a
+party emblem, a red cap; and the Duc d'Orléans and his son, the Duc de
+Chartres,[6] assumed it, and with studied insult paraded in it up and down
+the gardens of the palace, under the queen's windows; and if the two
+factions did not formally coalesce, they both proceeded with greater
+boldness than ever toward their desired object, not greatly differing as
+to the means by which it was to be attained.
+
+The palace was now indeed a scene of misery. The king's apathy was
+degenerating into despair. At one time he was so utterly prostrated that
+he remained for ten days absolutely silent, never uttering a word except
+to name his throws when playing at backgammon with Elizabeth. At last the
+queen roused him from his torpor, throwing herself at his feet, and
+mingling caresses with her expostulations; entreating him to remember what
+he owed to his family, and reminding him that, if they must perish, it was
+better at least to perish with honor, and be king to the last, than to
+wait passively till assassins should come and murder them in their own
+rooms. She herself was in a condition in which nothing but her indomitable
+courage prevented her from utterly breaking down. Sleep had deserted her.
+By day she rarely ventured out-of-doors. Riding she had given up, and she
+feared to walk in the garden of the Tuileries, even in the little portion
+marked off for the dauphin's playground, lest she should expose herself to
+the coarse insults which, the basest of hirelings were ever on the watch
+to offer her.[7] She could not even venture to go openly to mass at
+Easter, but was forced to arrange for one of her chaplains to perform the
+service for her before daylight. Balked of their wish to offer her
+personal insults, her enemies redoubled their diligence in inventing and
+spreading libels. The demagogues of the Palais Royal revived the stories
+of her subservience to the interests of Austria, and even sent letters
+forged in her name to different members of the Assembly, inviting them to
+private conferences with her in the apartments of Madame de Lamballe. But
+she treated all such attacks with lofty disdain, and was even greatly
+annoyed when she learned that the chief of the police, with the king's
+sanction, had bought up a life of Madame La Mothe, in which that infamous
+woman pretended to give a true account of the affair of her necklace, and
+had had it burned in the manufactory of Sèvres. She thought, with some
+reason, that to take a step which seemed to show a dread of such attacks
+was the surest way to encourage more of them, and that apparent
+indifference to them was the only line of action consistent with her
+innocence or with her dignity.
+
+The increasing dangers of her position moved the pity of some who had once
+been her enemies, and sharpened their desire to serve her. Barnave, who
+probably overrated his present influence[8] in many letters pressed his
+advice upon her; of which the substance was that she should lay aside her
+distrust of the Constitutionalist party, and, with the king, throw herself
+wholly on the Constitution, to which the nation was profoundly attached.
+He even admitted that it was not without defects; but held out a hope
+that, with the aid of the Royalists, he and his friends might be able to
+amend them, and in time to re-invest the throne with all necessary
+splendor. And the queen was so touched by his evident earnestness that she
+granted him an audience, and assured him of her esteem and confidence.
+Barnave was partly correct in his judgment, but he overlooked one
+all-essential circumstance. There is no doubt that he spoke truly when he
+declared that the nation in general was attached to the Constitution; but
+he failed to give sufficient weight to the consideration that the Jacobins
+and Girondins were agreed in seeking to overthrow it, and that for that
+object they were acting with a concert and an energy to which he and his
+party were strangers.
+
+Dumouriez too was equally earnest in his desire to serve the king and her,
+with far greater power to be useful than Barnave. He too was admitted to
+an audience, of which he has left us an account which, while it shows both
+his notions of the state of the country and of the rival parties, and also
+his own sincerity, is no less characteristic of the queen herself.
+Admitted to her presence, he found her, as he describes the interview,
+looking very red, walking up and down the room with impetuous strides, in
+an agitation which presaged a stormy discussion. The different events
+which had taken place since the king in the preceding autumn had ratified
+the Constitution, the furious language held in, and the violent measures
+carried by, the Assembly, had evidently changed her belief in the
+possibility of attempting, even for a short time, to carry on the
+Government under the conditions imposed by that act. She came toward him
+with an air which was at once majestic and yet showed irritation, and
+said:
+
+"You, sir, are all-powerful at this moment; but it is only by the favor of
+the people, which soon breaks its idols to pieces. Your existence depends
+on your conduct. You are said to have great talents. You must see that
+neither the king nor I can endure all these novelties nor the
+Constitution. I tell you this frankly. Now choose your side."
+
+To this fervid apostrophe Dumouriez replied in a tone which he intended to
+combine a sorrowful tenderness with loyal respect:
+
+"Madame," said he, "I am overwhelmed with the painful confidence which
+your majesty has reposed in me. I will not betray it; but I am placed
+between the king and the nation, and I belong to my country. Permit me to
+represent to you that the safety of the king, of yourself, and of your
+august children is bound up with the Constitution, as well as is the
+re-establishment of the king's legitimate authority. You are both
+surrounded with enemies who are sacrificing you to their own interests."
+The unfortunate queen, shocked as well as surprised at this opposition to
+her views, replied, raising her voice,  "That will not last; take care of
+yourself."  "Madame," replied he, in his turn, "I am more than fifty years
+old. My life has been passed in countless dangers, and when I took office
+I reflected deeply that its responsibility was not the greatest of its
+perils." "This was alone wanting," cried out the queen, with an accent of
+indignant grief, and as if astonished herself at her own vehemence.
+
+"This alone was wanting to calumniate me! You seem to suppose that I am
+capable of causing you to be assassinated!" and she burst into tears.
+Dumouriez was as agitated as she was. "God forbid," he replied, "that I
+should do you such an injustice!" And he added some flattering expressions
+of attachment, such as he thought calculated to soothe a mind so proud,
+yet so crushed. And presently she calmed herself, and came up to him,
+putting her hand on his arm; and he resumed: "Believe me, madame, I have
+no object in deceiving you; I abhor anarchy and crime as much as you do.
+Believe me, I have experience; I am better placed than your majesty for
+judging of events. This is not a short-lived popular movement, as you seem
+to think. It is the almost unanimous insurrection of a great nation
+against inveterate abuses. There are great factions which fan this flame.
+In all factions there are many scoundrels and many madmen. In the
+Revolution I see nothing but the king and the entire nation. Every thing
+which tends to separate them tends to their mutual ruin: I am laboring as
+much as I can to reunite them. It is for you to help me. If I am an
+obstacle to your designs, and if you persist in thinking so, tell me so.
+and I will at once send in my resignation to the king, and will retire
+into a corner to grieve over the fate of my country and of you."  And he
+concludes his narrative by expressing his belief that he had regained the
+queen's confidence by his frank explanation of his views, while he himself
+in his turn was evidently fascinated by the affability with which, after a
+brief further conversation, she dismissed him.[9] Though, if we may trust
+Madame de Campan, Marie Antoinette was not as satisfied as she had seemed
+to be, but declared that it was not possible for her to place confidence
+in his protestations when she recollected his former language and acts,
+and the party with which he was even now acting.
+
+Madame de Campan probably gives a more correct report of the queen's
+feelings than the general himself, whom the consciousness of his own
+integrity of purpose very probably misled into believing that he had
+convinced her of it. But, though, if Marie Antoinette did listen to his
+professions and advice with some degree of mistrust, she undoubtedly did
+him less than justice: she can hardly be blamed for indulging such a
+feeling, when it is remembered in what an atmosphere of treachery she had
+lived for the last three years. Undoubtedly Dumouriez, though not a
+thorough-going Royalist like M. Bertrand, was not only in intention an
+honest and friendly counselor, but was by far the ablest adviser who had
+had access to her since the death of Mirabeau, and in one respect was a
+more judicious and trustworthy adviser than even that brilliant and
+fertile statesman; since he did not fall into the error of miscalculating
+what was practical, or of overrating his own influence with the Assembly
+or the nation.
+
+Yet, had the king and queen adopted his views ever so unreservedly, it may
+well be doubted whether they would have averted or even deferred the fate
+which awaited them. The leaders of the two parties, before whose union
+they fell, had as little attachment to the new Constitution as the queen.
+The moment that they obtained the undisputed ascendency, they trampled it
+underfoot in every one of its provisions. Constitution or no Constitution,
+they were determined to overthrow the throne and to destroy those to whom
+it belonged; and to men animated with such a resolution it signified
+little what pretext might be afforded them by any actions of their
+destined victims. The wolf never yet wanted a plea for devouring the lamb.
+
+One of the first fruits of the union between the Jacobins and the
+Girondins was the preparation of an insurrection. The Assembly did not
+move fast enough for them. It might be still useful as an auxiliary, but
+the lead in the movement the clubs assumed to themselves. Their first care
+was to deprive the king of all means of resistance, and with this view to
+get rid of the Constitutional Guard, the commander of which was still the
+gallant Duke de Brissac, a noble-minded and faithful adherent of Louis
+amidst all his distresses. But it was not easy to find any ground for
+disbanding a force which was too small to be formidable to any but
+traitors; and the pretext which was put forward was so preposterous that
+it could excite no feeling but that of amusement, if the object aimed at
+were not too serious and shocking for laughter. At Easter the dauphin had
+presented the mess of the regiment with a cake, one of the ornaments of
+which was a small white flag taken from among his own toys. Pétion now
+issued orders to search the officers' quarters for this child's flag, and,
+when it was found, one of the Jacobin members was not ashamed to produce
+it to the Assembly as a proof that the court was meditating a counter-
+revolution and a massacre of the patriots, and to propose the instant
+dissolution of the Guard. The motion was carried, though some of the
+Constitutionalist party had the honesty to oppose it, as one which could
+have only regicide for its object; and Louis did not dare refuse it his
+assent.
+
+He was now wholly disarmed. To render his defeat in the impending struggle
+more certain, one of the ministers, Servan, himself proposed a levy of
+twenty thousand fresh soldiers, to be stationed permanently at Paris, and
+this motion also was passed. Again Louis could not venture to withhold his
+sanction from the bill, though he comforted himself by dismissing the
+mover, with two of his colleagues, Roland and Clavière. Roland's dismissal
+had indeed become indispensable, since, on the preceding day, he had had
+the audacity to write him an insolent letter, composed by his ferocious
+wife, which in express terms threatened him with death "if he did not give
+satisfaction to the Revolution.[10]" Nor was Madame Roland inclined to be
+satisfied with the murder of the king and queen. As has been already
+mentioned, she at the same time urged upon her submissive husband the
+assassination of Dumouriez, who, having intelligence of her enmity, began
+in self-defense to connect himself with the Jacobins. On the dismissal of
+Roland and the others, he had exchanged the foreign port-folio for that of
+war, and was practically the prime minister, being in fact the only one
+whom Louis admitted to any degree of confidence; but this arrangement
+lasted less than a single week. Louis had yielded to and adopted his
+advice on every point but one. He had sanctioned the dismissal of the
+Constitutional Guard, and the formation of the new body of troops, which,
+no one doubted, was intended to be used against himself; but he was as
+firmly convinced as ever that his religious duty bound him to refuse his
+assent to the decree against the priests, and he refused to do a violence
+to his conscience, and to commit what he regarded as a sin. But this very
+decree was the one which Dumouriez regarded as the most dangerous one for
+him to reject, as being that which the Assembly was most firmly resolved
+to make law; and, as his most vigorous remonstrances failed to shake the
+king's resolution on this point, he resigned his post as a minister, and
+repaired to the Flemish frontier to take the command of the army, which
+greatly needed an able leader.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+The Insurrection of June 20th.
+
+
+Both Jacobins and Girondins felt that the departure of Dumouriez from
+Paris had removed a formidable obstacle from their path, and they at once
+began to hurry forward the preparations for their meditated insurrection.
+The general gave in his resignation on the 15th of June, and the 20th was
+fixed for an attack on the palace, by which its contrivers designed to
+effect the overthrow of the throne, if not the destruction of the entire
+royal family. It was organized with unusual deliberation. The meetings of
+conspirators were attended not only by the Girondin leaders, to whom
+Madame Roland had recently added a new recruit, a young barrister from the
+South, named Barbaroux, remarkable for his personal beauty, and, as was
+soon seen, for a pitiless hardness of heart, and energetic delight in
+deeds of cruelty that, even in that blood-thirsty company, was equaled by
+few; with them met all those as yet most notorious for ferocity--Danton
+and Legendre, the founders of the Cordeliers; Marat, daily, in his obscene
+and blasphemous newspaper, clamoring for wholesale bloodshed; Santerre,
+odious as the sanguinary leader of the very first outbreaks of the
+Revolution; Rotondo, already, as we have seen, detected in attempting to
+assassinate the queen; and Pétion, who thus repaid her preference of him
+to La Fayette, which had placed him in the mayoralty, whose duties he was
+now betraying. Some, too, bore a part in the foul conspiracy as partisans
+of the Duc d'Orléans, who were generally understood to have instructions
+to be lavish of their master's gold, the vile prince hoping that the
+result of the outbreak would be the assassination of his cousin, and his
+own elevation to the vacant throne. In their speeches they gave Louis the
+name of Monsieur Veto, in allusion to the still legal exercise of his
+prerogative, by which he had sought to protect the priests; while the
+queen was called Madame Veto, though in fact she had finally joined
+Dumouriez in urging her husband to give his royal assent to the decree
+against them, not, as thinking it on any pretense justifiable, but as
+believing, with the general, in the impossibility of maintaining its
+rejection. Yet nothing could more completely prove the absolute innocence
+and unimpeachable good faith of both king and queen than the act of his
+enemies in giving them this nickname; so clear an evidence was it that
+they could allege nothing more odious against them than the possession by
+Louis, in a most modified degree, of a prerogative which, without any
+modification at all, has in every country been at all times regarded as
+indispensable to, and inseparable from, royalty; and the exercise of it
+for the defense of a body of men of whom none could deny the entire
+harmlessness.
+
+On the night of the 19th the appointed leaders of the different bands into
+which the insurgents were to be divided separated; the watch-word,
+"Destruction to the palace," was given out; and all Paris waited in
+anxious terror for the events of the morrow. Louis was as well aware as
+any of the citizens of the intended attack, and prepared for it as for
+death. On the afternoon of the 19th he wrote to his confessor to desire
+him to come to him at once. "He had never," he said, "had such need of his
+consolations. He had done with this world, and his thoughts were now fixed
+on Heaven alone. Great calamities were announced for the morrow; but he
+felt that he had courage to meet them." And after the holy man had left
+him, as he gazed on the setting sun he once more gave utterance to his
+forebodings. "Who can tell," said he, "whether it be not the last that I
+shall ever see?" The Royalists felt his danger almost as keenly as
+himself, but were powerless to prevent it by any means of their own. The
+Duke de Liancourt, who had some title to be listened to by the
+Revolutionary party, since no one had been more zealous in promoting the
+most violent measures of the first Assembly, pressed earnestly on Pétion
+that his duty as mayor bound him to call out the National Guards, and so
+prevent the intended outbreak, but was answered by sarcasms and insults;
+while Vergniaud, from the tribune of the Assembly itself, dared to deride
+all who apprehended danger.
+
+On the morning of the 20th, daylight had scarcely dawned when twenty
+thousand men, the greater part of whom were armed with some weapon or
+other--muskets, pikes, hatchets, crowbars, and even spits from the
+cook-shops forming part of their equipment--assembled on the place where
+the Bastile had stood. Santerre was already there on horseback as their
+appointed leader; and, when all were collected and marshaled in three
+divisions, they began their march. One division had for its chief the
+Marquis de St. Huruge, an intimate friend and adherent of the Duc
+d'Orléans; at the head of another, a woman of notorious infamy, known as
+La Belle Liégeoise, clad in male attire, rode astride upon a cannon;
+while, as it advanced, the crowd was every moment swelled by vast bodies
+of recruits, among whom were numbers of women, whose imprecations in
+ferocity and foulness surpassed even the foulest threats of the men.
+
+The ostensible object of the procession was to present petitions to the
+king and the Assembly on the dismissal of Roland and his colleagues from
+the administration, and on the refusal of the royal assent to the decree
+against the priests. The real design of those who had organized it was
+more truthfully shown by the banners and emblems borne aloft in the ranks.
+"Beware the Lamp,[1]" was the inscription on one. "Death to Veto and his
+wife," was read upon another. A gang of butchers carried a calf's heart on
+the point of a pike, with "The Heart of an Aristocrat" for a motto. A band
+of crossing-sweepers, or of men who professed to be such, though the
+fineness of their linen was inconsistent with the rags which were their
+outward garments, had for their standard a pair of ragged breeches, with
+the inscription, "Tremble, tyrants; here are the Sans-culottes." One gang
+of ruffians carried a model of a guillotine. Another bore aloft a
+miniature gallows with an effigy of the queen herself hanging from it. So
+great was the crowd that it was nearly three in the afternoon before the
+head of it reached the Assembly, where its approach had raised a debate on
+the propriety of receiving any petition at all which was to be presented
+in so menacing a guise; M. Roederer, the procurator-syndic, or chief legal
+officer of the department of Paris, recommending its rejection, on the
+ground that such a procession was illegal, not only because of its avowed
+object of forcing its way to the king, but also because it was likely to
+lead into acts of violence even if it had not premeditated them.
+
+His arguments were earnestly supported by the constitutionalists, and
+opposed and ridiculed by Vergniaud. But before the discussion was over,
+the rioters, who had now reached the hall, took the decision into their
+own hands, forced open the door, and put forward a spokesman to read what
+they called a petition, but which was in truth a sanguinary denunciation
+of those whom it proclaimed the enemies of the nation, and of whom it
+demanded that "the land should be purged." Insolent and ferocious as it
+was, it, however, coincided with the feelings of the Girondins, who were
+now the masters of the Assembly. One orator carried a motion that the
+petitioners should receive what were called the honors of the Assembly;
+or, in other words, should be allowed to enter the hall with their arms
+and defile before them. They poured in with exulting uproar. Songs, half
+blood-thirsty and half obscene, gestures indicative some of murder, some
+of debauchery, cries of "Vive la nation!" interspersed with inarticulate
+yells, were the sounds, the guillotine and the queen upon the gallows were
+the sights, which were thought in character with the legislature of a
+people which still claimed to be regarded as the pattern of civilization
+by all Europe. Evening approached before the last of the rabble had passed
+through the hall; and by that time the leading ranks were in front of the
+Tuileries.
+
+There were but scanty means of resisting them. A few companies of the
+National Guard formed the whole protection of the palace; and with them
+the agents of Orleans and the Girondins had been briskly tampering all the
+morning. Many had been seduced. A few remained firm in their loyalty; but
+those on whom the royal family had the best reason to rely were a band of
+gentlemen, with the veteran Marshal de Noailles at their head, who had
+repaired to the Tuileries in the morning to furnish to their sovereign
+such defense as could be found in their loyal and devoted gallantry. Some
+of them besides the old marshal, the Count d'Hervilly, who had commanded
+the cavalry of the Constitutional Guard, and M. d'Acloque, an officer of
+the National Guard, brought military experience to aid their valor, and
+made such arrangements as the time and character of the building rendered
+practicable to keep the rioters at bay. But the utmost bravery of such a
+handful of men, for they were no more, and even the more solid resistance
+of iron gates and barriers, were unavailing against the thousands that
+assailed them. Exasperated at finding the gates closed against them, the
+rioters began to beat upon them with sledge-hammers. Presently they were
+joined by Sergent and Panis, two of the municipal magistrates, who ordered
+the sentinels to open the gates to the sovereign people. The sentinels
+fled; the gates were opened or broken down; the mob seized one of the
+cannons which stood in the Place du Carrousel, carried it up the stairs of
+the palace, and planted it against the door of the royal apartments; and,
+while they shouted out a demand that the king should show himself, they
+began to batter the door as before they had battered the gates, and
+threatened, if it should not yield to their hatchets, to blow it down with
+cannon-shot.
+
+Fear of personal danger was not one of the king's weaknesses. The hatchets
+beat down the outer door, and, as it fell, he came forth from the room
+behind, and with unruffled countenance accosted the ruffians who were
+pouring through it. His sister, the Princess Elizabeth, was at his side.
+He had charged those around him to keep the queen back; and she, knowing
+how special an object of the popular hatred and fury she was, with a
+fortitude beyond that which defies death, remained out of sight lest she
+should add to his danger. For a moment the mob, respecting, in spite of
+themselves, the calm heroism with which they were confronted, paused in
+their onset; but those in front were pushed on by those behind, and pikes
+were leveled and blows were aimed at both the king and the princess, whom
+they mistook for the queen. At first there were but one or two attendants
+at the king's side, but they were faithful and brave men. One struck down
+a ruffian who was lifting his weapon to aim a blow at Louis himself. A
+pike was even leveled at his sister, when her equerry, M. Bousquet, too
+far off to bring her the aid of his right hand, called out, "Spare the
+princess." Delicate as were her frame and features, Elizabeth was worthy
+of her blood, and as dauntless as the rest. She turned to her preserver
+almost reproachfully: "Why did you undeceive him? it might have saved the
+queen." But after a few seconds, Acloque with some grenadiers of the
+National Guard on whom he could still rely, hastened up by a back
+staircase to defend his sovereign; and, with the aid of some of the
+gentlemen who had come with the Marshal de Noailles, drew the king back
+into a recess formed by a window; and raised a rampart of benches in front
+of him, and one still more trustworthy of their own bodies. They would
+gladly have attacked the rioters and driven them back, but were restrained
+by Louis himself. "Put up your swords," said he; "this crowd is excited
+rather than wicked." And he addressed those who had forced their way into
+the room with words of condescending conciliation. They replied with
+threats and imprecations; and sought to force their way onward, pressing
+back by their mere numbers and weight the small group of loyal champions
+who by this time had gathered in front of him.
+
+So great was the uproar that presently a report reached the main body of
+the insurgents, who were still in the garden beneath, that Louis had been
+killed; and they mingled shouts of triumph with cheers for Orleans as
+their new king, and demanded that the heads of the king and queen should
+be thrown down to them from the windows; but no actual injury was
+inflicted on Louis, though he owed his safety more to his own calmness
+than even to the devotion of his guards. One ruffian threatened him with
+instant death if he did not at once grant every prayer contained in their
+petition. He replied, as composedly as if he had been on his throne at
+Versailles, that the present was not the time for making such a demand,
+nor was this the way in which to make it. The dignity of the answer seemed
+to imply a contempt for the threateners, and the mob grew more uproarious.
+"Fear not, sire," said one of Acloque's grenadiers, "we are around you."
+The king took the man's hand and placed it on his heart, which was beating
+more calmly than that of the soldier himself. "Judge yourself," said he,
+"if I fear." Legendre, the butcher, raised his pike as if to strike him,
+while he reproached him as a traitor and the enemy of his country. "I am
+not, and never have been aught but the sincerest friend of my people," was
+the gentle but fearless answer. "If it be so, put on this red cap," and
+the butcher thrust one into his hand on the end of his pike, prepared, as
+Louis believed, to plunge the weapon itself into his breast if he refused.
+The king put it on, and so little regarded it that he forgot to remove it
+again, as he afterward repented that he had not done, thinking that his
+conduct in allowing it to remain on his head bore too strong a resemblance
+to fear or to an unworthy compromise of his dignity.
+
+But still the uproar increased, and above it rose loud cries for the
+queen, till at last she also came forward. As yet, from the motives that
+have already been mentioned, she had consented to remain out of sight; but
+each explosion of the mob increased her unwillingness to keep back. It
+was, she felt, her duty to be always at the king's side; if need be, to
+die with him; to stand aloof was infamy; and at last, as the demands for
+her appearance increased, even those around her confessed that it might be
+safer for her to show herself. The door was thrown open, and, leading
+forth her children, from whom she refused to part, and accompanied by
+Madame de Tourzel, Madame de Lamballe, and others of her ladies, the most
+timid of whom seemed as if inspired by her example, Marie Antoinette
+advanced and took her place by the side of her husband, and, with head
+erect and color heightened by the sight of her enemies, faced them
+disdainfully. As lions in their utmost rage have recoiled before a man who
+has looked them steadily in the face, so did even those miscreants quail
+before their pure and high-minded queen. At first it seemed as if her
+bitterest enemies were to be found among her own sex. The men were for a
+moment silenced; but a young girl, whose appearance was not that of the
+lowest class, came forward and abused her in coarse and furious language,
+especially reviling her as "the Austrian." The queen, astonished at
+finding such animosity in one apparently tender and gentle, condescended
+to expostulate with her. "Why do you hate me? I have never injured you."
+"You have not injured me, but it is you who cause the misery of the
+nation." "Poor child," replied Marie Antoinette, "they have deceived you.
+I am the wife of your king, the mother of your dauphin, who will be your
+king. I am a Frenchwoman in every feeling of my heart. I shall never again
+see Austria. I can only be happy or unhappy in France, and I was happy
+when you loved me." The girl was melted by her patience and gentleness.
+She burst into tears of shame, and begged pardon for her previous conduct.
+"I did not know you," she said; "I see now that you are good.[2]" Another
+asked her, "How old is your girl?" "She is old enough," replied the queen,
+"to feel acutely such scenes as these." But, while these brief
+conversations were going on, the crowd kept pressing forward. One officer
+had drawn a table in front of the queen as she advanced, so as to screen
+her from actual contact with any of the rioters, but more than one of them
+stretched across it as if to reach her. One fellow demanded that she
+should put a red cap, which he threw to her, on the head of the dauphin,
+and, as she saw the king wearing one, she consented; but it was too large
+and fell down the child's face, almost stifling him with its thickness.
+Santerre himself reached across and removed it, and, leaning with his
+hands on the table, which shook beneath his vehemence, addressed her with
+what he meant for courtesy. "Princess," said he, "do not fear. The French
+people do not wish to slay you. I promise this in their name." Marie
+Antoinette had long ago declared that her heart had become French; it was
+too much so for her to allow such a man's claim to be the spokesman of the
+nation. "It is not by such as you," she replied, with lofty scorn; "it is
+not by such as you that I judge of the French people, but by brave men
+like these;" and she pointed to the gentlemen who were standing round her
+as her champions, and to the faithful grenadiers. The well-timed and
+well-deserved compliment roused them to still greater enthusiasm, but
+already the danger was passing away.
+
+The Assembly had seen with indifference the departure of the mob to attack
+the Tuileries, and had proceeded with its ordinary business as if nothing
+were likely to happen which could call for its interference. But when the
+uproar within the palace became audible in the hall, the Count de Dumas,
+one of the very few men of noble birth who had been returned to this
+second Assembly, with a few other deputies of the better class, hastened
+to see what was taking place, and, quickly returning, reported the king's
+imminent danger to their colleagues. Dumas gave such offense by the
+boldness of his language that some of the Jacobins threatened him with
+violence, but he refused to be silenced; and his firmness prevailed, as
+firmness nearly always did prevail in an Assembly where, though there were
+many fierce and vehement blusterers, there were very few men of real
+courage. In compliance with his vehement demand for instant action, a
+deputation of members was sent to take measures for the king's safety; and
+then, at last, Pétion, who had carefully kept aloof while there seemed to
+be a chance of the king being murdered, now that he could no longer hope
+for such a consummation, repaired to the palace and presented himself
+before him. To him he had the effrontery to declare that he had only just
+become apprised of his situation. From the Assembly, at a later hour in
+the evening, he claimed the credit of having organized the riot. But Louis
+would not condescend to pretend to believe him. "It was extraordinary," he
+replied, "that Pétion should not have earlier known what had lasted so
+long." Even he could not but be for a moment abashed at the king's
+unwonted expression of indignation. But he soon recovered himself, and
+with unequaled impudence turned and thanked the crowd for the moderation
+and dignity with which they had exercised the right of petition, and bid
+them "finish the day in similar conformity with the law, and retire to
+their homes." They obeyed. The interference of the deputies had convinced
+their leaders that they could not succeed in their purpose now. Santerre,
+whose softer mood, such as it had been, had soon passed away, muttered
+with a deep oath that they had missed their blow, but must try it again
+hereafter. For the present he led off his brigands; the palace and gardens
+were restored to quiet, though the traces of the assault to which they had
+been exposed could not easily be effaced; and Louis and his family were
+left in tranquillity to thank God for their escape, but to forebode also
+that similar trials were in store for them, all of which, it was not
+likely, would have so innocent a termination.[3]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+Feelings of Marie Antoinette.--Different Plans are formed for her Escape.
+--She hopes for Aid from Austria and Prussia.--La Fayette comes to Paris.
+--His Mismanagement.--An Attempt is made to assassinate the Queen.--The
+Motion of Bishop Lamourette.--The Feast of the Federation.--La Fayette
+proposes a Plan for the King's Escape.--Bertrand proposes Another.--Both
+are rejected by the Queen.
+
+
+We can do little more than guess at the feelings of Marie Antoinette after
+such a day of horrors. She could scarcely venture to write a letter, lest
+it should fall into hands for which it was not intended, and be
+misinterpreted so as to be mischievous to herself and to her
+correspondents. And two brief notes--one on the 4th of July to Mercy, and
+one written a day or two later to the Landgravine of Hesse-Darmstadt--are
+all that, so far as we know, proceeded from her pen in the sad period
+between the two attacks on the palace. Brief as they are, they are
+characteristic as showing her unshaken resolution to perform her duty to
+her family, and proving at the same time how absolutely free she was from
+any delusion as to the certain event of the struggle in which she was
+engaged. No courage was ever more entirely founded on high and virtuous
+principle, for no one was ever less sustained by hope. To Mercy she says:
+
+"July 4th, 1792.
+
+"You know the occurrences of the 20th of June. Our position becomes every
+day more critical. There is nothing but violence and rage on one side,
+weakness and inactivity on the other. We can reckon neither on the
+National Guard nor on the army. We do not know whether to remain in Paris,
+or to throw ourselves into some other place. It is more than time for the
+powers to speak out boldly. The 14th of July and the days which will
+follow it may become days of general mourning for France, and of regret to
+the powers who will have been too slow in explaining themselves. All is
+lost if the factions are not arrested in their wickedness by fear of
+impending chastisement. They are resolved on a republic at all risks. To
+arrive at that, they have determined to assassinate the king. It would be
+necessary that any manifesto[1] should make the National Assembly and
+Paris responsible for his life and the lives of his family.
+
+"In spite of all these dangers, we will not change our resolution. You may
+depend on this as much as I depend on your attachment. It is a pleasure to
+me to believe that you allow me a share of the attachment which bound you
+to my mother. And this is a moment to give me a great proof of it, in
+saving me and mine, if there be still time.[2]"
+
+The letter to the landgravine was one of reply to a proposal which that
+princess, who had long been one of her most attached friends, had lately
+made to her, that she should allow her brother, Prince George of
+Darmstadt, to carry out a plan by which, as he conceived, he could convey
+the queen and her children safely out of Paris; the enterprise being, as
+both he and his sister flattered themselves, greatly facilitated by the
+circumstance that the prince's person was wholly unknown in the French
+capital.
+
+"July, 1792.[3]
+
+"Your friendship and your anxiety for me have touched my very inmost soul.
+The person[4] who is about to return to you will explain the reasons which
+have detained him so long. He will also tell you that at present I do not
+dare to receive him in my own apartment. Yet it would have been very
+pleasant to talk to him about you, to whom I am so tenderly attached. No,
+my princess, while I feel all the kindness of your offers, I can not
+accept them. I am vowed for life to my duties, and to those beloved
+persons whose misfortunes I share, and who, whatever people may say of
+them, deserve to be regarded with interest by all the world for the
+courage with which they support their position. The bearer of this letter
+will be able to give you a detailed account of what is going on at
+present, and of the spirit of this place where we are living. I hear that
+he has seen much, and has formed very correct ideas. May all that we are
+now doing and suffering one day make our children happy! This is the only
+wish that I allow myself. Farewell, my princess; they have taken from me
+every thing except my heart, which will always remain constant in its love
+for you. Be sure of this; the loss of your love would be an evil which I
+could not endure. I embrace you tenderly. A thousand compliments to all
+yours. I am prouder than ever of having been born a German."
+
+In her mention of the 14th of July as likely to bring fresh dangers, she
+is alluding to the announcement of an intention of the Jacobins to hold a
+fresh festival to commemorate the destruction of the Bastile on the
+anniversary of that exploit; a celebration which she had ample reason to
+expect would furnish occasion for some fresh tumult and outrage. And we
+may remark that in one of these letters she rests her whole hope on
+foreign assistance; while in the other, she rejects foreign aid to escape
+from her almost hopeless position. But the key to her feeling in both
+cases is one and the same. Above all things she was a devoted, faithful
+wife and mother. To herself and her own safety she never gave a thought.
+Her first duty, she rightly judged, was to the king, and she looked to
+such a manifesto as she desired Austria and Prussia to issue, backed by
+the movements of a powerful army, as the measure which afforded the best
+prospect of saving her husband, who could hardly be trusted to save
+himself; while, for the very same reason, she refused to fly without him,
+even though flight might have saved her children, her son and heir, as
+well as herself, because it would have increased her husband's danger. In
+each case her decision was that of a brave and devoted wife, not perhaps
+in both instances judicious; for when Prussia did mingle in the contest,
+as it did in the first week in July, it evidently increased the perils of
+Louis, if indeed they were capable of aggravation, by giving the Jacobins
+a plea for raising the cry "that the country was in danger." But in the
+second case, in her refusal to flee, and to leave her husband by himself
+to confront the existing and impending dangers, she judged rightly and
+worthily of herself; and the only circumstance that has prevented her from
+receiving the credit due for her refusal to avail herself of Prince
+George's offer is that throughout the whole period of the Revolution her
+acts of disinterestedness and heroism are so incessant that single deeds
+of the kind are lost in the contemplation of her entire career during this
+long period of trial.
+
+It was the peculiar ill-fortune of Louis that more than once the very
+efforts made by people who desired to assist him increased his perils. The
+events of the 20th of June had shocked and alarmed even La Fayette. From
+the beginning of the Revolution he had vacillated between a desire for a
+republic and for a limited monarchy on something like the English pattern,
+without being able to decide which to prefer. He had shown himself willing
+to court a base popularity with the mob by heaping uncalled-for insults on
+the king and queen. But though he had coquetted with the ultra-
+revolutionists, and allowed them to make a tool of him, he had not nerve
+for the villainies which it was now clear that they meditated. He had no
+taste for bloodshed; and, though gifted with but little acuteness, he saw
+that the success of the Jacobins and Girondins would lead neither to a
+republic nor to a limited monarchy, but to anarchy; and he had discernment
+enough to dread that. He therefore now sincerely desired to save the
+king's life, and even what remained of his authority, especially if he
+could so order matters that their preservation should be seen to be his
+own work. He was conscious also that he could reckon on many allies in any
+effort which he might make for the prevention of further outrages. The
+more respectable portion of the Parisians viewed the recent outrages with
+disgust, sharpened by personal alarm. The dominion of Santerre and his
+gangs of destitute desperadoes was manifestly fraught with destruction to
+themselves as well as to the king. The greater part of the army under his
+command shared these feelings, and would gladly have followed him to Paris
+to crush the revolutionary clubs, and to inflict condign punishment on the
+authors and chief agents in the late insurrection. If he had but had the
+skill to avail himself of this favorable state of feeling, there can be
+little doubt that it was in his power at this moment to have established
+the king in the full exercise of all the authority vested in him by the
+Constitution, or even to have induced the Assembly to enlarge that
+authority. He so mismanaged matters that he only increased the king's
+danger, and brought general contempt and imminent danger on himself
+likewise. His enemies had more than once accused him of wishing to copy
+Cromwell. His friends had boasted that he would emulate Monk. But if he
+was too scrupulous for the audacious wickedness of the one, he proved
+himself equally devoid of the well-calculating shrewdness of the other.
+If, subsequently, he had any reason to congratulate himself on the result
+of his conduct, it was that, like the stork in the fable, after be had
+thrust his head into the mouth of the wolf, he was allowed to draw it out
+again in safety.
+
+Louis's enemies had abundantly shown that they did not lack boldness. If
+they were to be defeated, it could only be by action as bold as their own.
+Unhappily, La Fayette's courage had usually found vent rather in
+blustering words than in stout deeds; and those were the only weapons he
+could bring himself to employ now. He resolved to remonstrate with the
+Assembly; but instead of bringing up his army, or even a detachment, to
+back his remonstrance, he came to Paris with a single aid-de-camp, and, on
+the 28th of June, presented himself at the bar of the Assembly and
+demanded an audience. A fortnight before he had written a letter to the
+president, in which he had denounced alike the Jacobin leaders of the
+clubs and the Girondin ministers, and had called on the Assembly to
+suppress the clubs; a letter which had produced no effect except to unite
+the two parties against whom it was aimed more closely together, and also
+to give them a warning of his hostility to them, which, till he was in a
+position to show it by deeds, it would have been wiser to have avoided.
+
+He now repeated by word of mouth the statements and arguments which he had
+previously advanced in writing, with the addition of a denunciation of the
+recent insurrection and its authors, whom, he insisted, the Assembly was
+bound instantly to prosecute. His speech was not ill received; for the
+Constitutionalists, who knew what he designed to say, had mustered in full
+force, and had packed the galleries beforehand with hired clappers; and
+many even of the Deputies who did not belong to that party cheered him, so
+obvious to all but the most desperate was the danger to the whole State,
+if Santerre and his brigands should be allowed to become its masters. But
+they cared little for a barren indignation which had no more effectual
+weapon than reproaches. He had said enough to exasperate, but had not done
+enough to intimidate; while those whom he denounced had greater boldness
+and presence of mind than he, and had the forces on which they relied for
+support at hand and available. They instantly turned the latter on
+himself, and in their turn denounced him for having left his army without
+leave. He was frightened, or at least perplexed, by such a charge. He made
+no reply, but seemed like one stupefied; and it was only through the
+eloquence of one of his friends, M. Ramond, that he was saved from the
+impeachment with which Guadet and Vergniaud openly threatened him for
+quitting the army without leave.
+
+Ramond's oratory succeeded in carrying through the Assembly a motion in
+his favor, and several companies of the National Guard and a vast
+multitude of the citizens showed their sympathy with his views by
+escorting him with acclamations to his hotel. But neither their evident
+inclination to support him, nor even the danger with which he himself had
+been threatened, could give him resolution and firmness in action. For a
+moment he made a demonstration as if he were prepared to secure the
+success of his designs by force. He proposed that the king should the next
+morning review Acloque's companies of the National Guard, after which he
+himself would harangue them on their duty to the king and Constitution.
+But the Girondins persuaded Pétion to exert his authority, as mayor, to
+prohibit the review. La Fayette was weak enough to submit to the
+prohibition; and, quickened, it is said, by intelligence that Pétion was
+preparing to arrest him, the next day retired in haste from Paris and
+rejoined the army.
+
+He had done the king nothing but harm. He had shown to all the world that
+though the Royalists and Constitutionalists might still be numerically the
+stronger party, for all purposes of action they were by far the weaker. He
+had encouraged those whom he had intended to daunt, and strengthened those
+whom he had hoped to crush; and they, in consequence, proceeded in their
+treasons with greater boldness and openness than ever. Marie Antoinette,
+as we have seen, had expressed her belief that they designed to
+assassinate Louis, and she now employed herself, as she had done once
+before, in quilting him a waistcoat of thickness sufficient to resist a
+dagger or a bullet; though so incessant was the watch which was set on all
+their movements that it was with the greatest difficulty that she could
+find an opportunity of trying it on him. But it was not the king, but she
+herself, who was the victim whom the traitors proposed to take off in such
+a manner; and in the second week of July a man was detected at the foot of
+the staircase leading to her apartments, disguised as a grenadier, and
+sufficiently equipped with murderous weapons. He was seized by the guard,
+who had previous warning of his design; but was instantly rescued by a
+gang of ruffians like himself, who were on the watch to take advantage of
+the confusion which might be expected to arise from the accomplishment of
+his crime.
+
+Meanwhile the Assembly wavered, hesitated, and did nothing; the Girondins
+and Jacobins were fertile in devising plots, and active in carrying them
+out. One day, as if seized with a panic at some report of the strength of
+the Austrian and Prussian armies, the Assembly again passed a vote
+declaring the country in danger; on another, roused by a letter which a
+Madame Gouges, a daughter of a fashionable dress-maker, a lady of more
+notoriety than reputation, but who cultivated a character for philosophy,
+took upon herself to write to them, and still more by a curiously
+sentimental speech of the Bishop of Lyons, with the appropriate name of
+Lamourette,[5] the members bound themselves to have for the future but one
+heart and one sentiment; and for some minutes Jacobins, Girondins,
+Constitutionalists, and Royalists were rushing to and fro across the floor
+of the hall in a frenzy of mutual benevolence, embracing and kissing one
+another, and swearing an eternal friendship. They even sent a message to
+Louis to beg him to come and witness this new harmony. He came at once.
+With his disposition, it was not strange that he yielded to the illusion
+of the strange spectacle which he beheld. He shed tears of joy, declared
+the complete agreement of his sentiments with theirs, and predicted that
+their union would save France. They escorted him back to the Tuileries
+with cheers, and the very same evening, after a stormy debate, which was a
+remarkable commentary on the affection which they had just vowed to one
+another, they set him at defiance, insulting him by annulling some decrees
+to which he had given his assent, and passing a vote of confidence in
+Pétion as mayor.
+
+The Feast of the Federation, as it was called, passed off quietly. The
+king again recognized the Constitution before the altar erected in the
+Champ de Mars, and, as he drove back to the palace, the populace
+accompanied him the whole way, never ceasing their acclamations of "Vivent
+le roi et la reine![6]" till they had dismounted and returned to their
+apartments. Such a close of the day had been expected by no one. La
+Fayette, who seems at last to have become really anxious to save the lives
+of the king and queen, and to have been seriously convinced that they were
+in danger, had now formally opened a communication with the court. He
+concerted his plans with Marshal Luckner, and had learned so much wisdom
+from his recent failure that he now placed no reliance on any thing but a
+display of superior force. He accordingly proposed to Louis to bring up a
+battalion of picked men from his and the marshal's armies to escort him to
+the Champ de Mars; and, judging that, even if the feast should pass off
+without any fresh danger, the king could never be considered permanently
+safe while he remained in Paris, he recommended that on the next day,
+Louis, still under the protection of the same troops, should announce to
+the Assembly his departure for Compiègne, and should at once quit the
+capital for that town, to which trusty officers would in the mean time
+have brought up other divisions of the army in sufficient strength to set
+all disaffected and seditious spirits at defiance.
+
+The plan was at all events well conceived, but it was declined. Louis did
+not apparently distrust the marquis's good faith, but he doubted his
+ability to carry out an enterprise requiring an energy and decision of
+which no part of La Fayette's career had given any indication; while the
+queen distrusted his loyalty even more than his capacity. One of those
+with whom she took counsel expressed his opinion of the marquis's real
+object by saying that he might save the monarch, but not the monarchy; and
+she replied that his head was still full of republican notions which he
+had brought from America, and refused to place the slightest confidence in
+him. We may suspect that she did not do him entire justice, and may rather
+believe, with Louis, that he was now acting in good faith; but, with a
+recollection of all that she had suffered at his hands, we can not wonder
+at her continued distrust of him.[A7]
+
+But his was not the only plan proposed for the escape of the royal family.
+Bertrand de Moleville, though no longer Louis's minister, retained his
+undiminished confidence, and he had found a place which he regarded as
+admirably suited for a temporary retreat--the Castle of Gaillon, near the
+left bank of the Seine, in Normandy, the people of which province were
+almost universally loyal. It was within the twenty leagues from Paris
+which the Assembly had fixed for the limit of the royal journeys; while
+yet, in case of the worst, it was likewise within easy distance of the
+coast. An able engineer officer had pronounced it to be thoroughly
+defensible; and the Count d'Hervilly, with other officers of proved
+courage and presence of mind, undertook the arrangement of all the
+military measures necessary for the safe escort of the entire royal
+family, which they themselves were willing to conduct, with the aid of
+some detachments of the Swiss Guards; while the necessary funds were
+provided by the loyal devotion of the Duke de Liancourt, who placed a
+million of francs at his sovereign's disposal, and of one or two other
+nobles who came forward with almost equally lavish offerings. Louis
+certainly at first regarded the plan with favor, and, in the opinion of M.
+Bertrand, it would not have been difficult to induce him to adopt it, if
+the queen could have been brought over to a similar view.
+
+Unhappily several motives combined to disincline her to it. The
+insurrection which the Girondins[8] were preparing had originally been
+fixed for the 29th of July; but, a few days before, M. Bertrand learned
+that it had been postponed till the 10th of August. This gave him time to
+mature his arrangements, all of which, as he reckoned, could be completed
+in time for the king to leave Paris on the evening of the 8th. But before
+that day arrived news had reached the court that the Duke of Brunswick,
+the Prussian commander-in-chief, had put his army in motion, and that he
+was not likely to meet any obstacle sufficient to prevent him from
+marching at once on Paris; a measure which, to quote the language of M.
+Bertrand, "the queen was too anxious to see accomplished to hesitate at
+believing in its execution.[9]" And at the same time some of the Jacobin
+leaders--Danton, Pétion, and Santerre--had opened communications with the
+Government, and had undertaken for a large bribe to prevent the threatened
+outbreak. The money had been paid to them, and Marie Antoinette more than
+once boasted to her attendants that they were now safe, as having gained
+over Danton; placing the firmer reliance on this mode of extrication
+because it coincided with her belief that the mutual jealousy of the two
+parties would dispose one of them at least eventually to embrace the cause
+of the king, as their beat ally against the other. The result seems to
+show that the Jacobins only took the bribe the more effectually to lull
+their destined victims into a false security.
+
+A third consideration, and that apparently not the weakest, was Marie
+Antoinette's rooted dislike of the Constitutionalist party. In their rants
+the Duc de Liancourt had taken his seat in the first Assembly; though, as
+he assured M. Bertrand, the king himself was aware that his object in so
+doing had been to serve his majesty in the most effectual manner; and he
+was also the statesman whose advice had mainly contributed to induce the
+king to visit Paris after the destruction of the Bastile, a step which she
+had always regarded as the forerunner and cause of some of the most
+irremediable encroachments of the Revolutionists. Even the duke's present
+devotion to the king's cause could not entirely efface from her mind the
+impression that he was not in his heart friendly to the royal authority.
+She urged these arguments on the king. The last probably weighed with him
+but little: the two former he felt as strongly as the queen herself; and
+he delayed his decision, sending word to M. Bertrand that he had resolved
+to defer his departure "till the last extremity.[10]" His faithful servant
+was in amazement. "When," he exclaimed, "was the last extremity to be
+looked for, if it had not already come?" But his astonishment was turned
+to absolute despair when the next day M. Montmorin informed him that the
+project had been entirely given up, the queen herself remarking "that M.
+Bertrand overlooked the circumstance that he was throwing them altogether
+into the hands of the Constitutionalists."
+
+She has been commonly blamed for this decision, as that which was the
+chief cause of all the subsequent calamities which overwhelmed her and the
+whole family. Yet it is not difficult to understand the motives which
+influenced her, and it is impossible to refrain from regarding them with
+sympathy. She was now at the decisive moment of a crisis which might well
+perplex the clearest head. There could be no doubt that the coming
+insurrection would be the turning-point of the long conflict which had now
+lasted three years; and it was a conflict in which her husband's throne
+was certainly at stake, perhaps even his and her own life. They had indeed
+been so for three years; and throughout the whole contest her view had
+constantly been that honor was still dearer than life; and honor she
+identified with the preservation of her husband's crown, her children's
+inheritance. Mirabeau had said that she would not care to save her life if
+she could not save the crown also; and, though she can not have decided
+without a terrible conflict of feeling, her decision was now in conformity
+with Mirabeau's judgment of her. In the preceding year the journey to
+Varennes had been treated by the Republicans as a plea for pronouncing the
+deposition of the king; and, though they were defeated then, they were
+undoubtedly stronger in the new Assembly. On the other hand, she suspected
+that they themselves had some misgivings as to the chance of a second
+attack on the palace being more successful than the former one had proved;
+and that the openness with which the preparations for it were announced
+was intended to terrify Louis and herself into a second flight; and she
+might not unreasonably infer that what their enemies desired was not the
+wisest course for them to adopt. To fly would evidently be to leave the
+whole field in both the Assembly and the city open to their enemies. It
+might save their lives, but it would almost to a certainty forfeit the
+crown. To stay and face the coming danger might indeed lose both, but it
+might also save both; and she determined rather to risk all, both crown
+and life, in the endeavor to save all, rather than to save the one by the
+deliberate sacrifice of the other. It was a gallant and unselfish
+determination: if in one point of view it was unwise, it was at least
+becoming her lofty lineage, and consistent with her heroic character.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+Preparation for a New Insurrection.--Barbaroux brings up a Gang from
+Marseilles.--The King's last Levee.--The Assembly rejects a Motion for the
+Impeachment of La Fayette.--It removes some Regiments from Paris.--
+Preparations of the Court for Defense.--The 10th of August.--The City is
+in Insurrection.--Murder of Mandat.--Louis reviews the Guards.--He takes
+Refuge with the Assembly.--Massacre of the Swiss Guards.--Sack of the
+Tuileries.--Discussions in the Assembly.--The Royal Authority is
+suspended.
+
+
+The die was cast. Nothing was left but to wait, with such patience as
+might be, for the coming explosion, which was sure not to be long
+deferred. Madame de Staël has said that there never can be a conspiracy,
+in the proper sense of the word, in Paris; and that if there could be one,
+it would be superfluous, since every one at all times follows the
+majority, and no one ever keeps a secret. But on this occasion the chief
+movers of sedition studiously discarded all appearance of concealment.
+Vergniaud, Guadet, and Gensonné wrote the king a letter couched in terms
+of the most insolent defiance, and signed with all their names, in which
+they openly announced to him that an insurrection was organized which
+should be abandoned if he replaced Roland and his colleagues in the
+ministry, but which should surely break on the palace and overwhelm it if
+he refused. And Barbaroux, who had promised Madame Roland to bring up from
+Marseilles and other towns in the south a band of men capable of any
+atrocity, had collected a gang of five hundred miscreants, the refuse of
+the galleys and the jails, and paraded them in triumph through the
+streets, which their arrival was destined and intended to deluge with
+blood.
+
+And yet Louis, or, to speak more correctly, Marie Antoinette, for it was
+with her that every decision rested, preferred to face the impending
+struggle in Paris. She still believed that the king had many friends in
+whose devotion and gallantry he could confide to the very death. On
+Sunday, the 5th of August, the very last Sunday which he was ever to
+behold as the acknowledged sovereign of the land, his levee was attended
+by a more than usually numerous and brilliant company; though the gayety
+appropriate to such a scene was on this occasion clouded over by the
+anxiety for their royal master and mistress which sobered every one's
+demeanor, and spread a gloom over every countenance. And three days later
+both the Assembly and the National Guard displayed feelings which, to so
+sanguine a temper as hers, seemed to show a disposition to make a stout
+resistance to the further progress of disorder. The Assembly, by a
+majority of more than two to one, rejected a motion made by Vergniaud for
+the impeachment of La Fayette for his conduct in June; and when the mob
+fell upon those who had voted against it, as they came out of the hall,
+the National Guard came promptly to their rescue, and inflicted severe
+chastisement on the foremost of the rioters.
+
+The vote of the Assembly may be said to have been the last it ever gave
+for any object but the promotion of anarchy. It more than neutralized its
+effect the very next day, when it passed a decree for the immediate
+removal of three regiments of the line which were quartered in Paris. It
+even at first included in its resolution the Swiss Guards also; but was
+subsequently compelled to withdraw that clause, since an old treaty with
+Switzerland expressly secured to the republic the right of always
+furnishing a regiment for the honorable service of guarding the palace.
+And at the same time, as if to punish the National Guard for its conduct
+on the previous day, another vote broke up the staff of that force;
+cashiered its finest companies, the grenadiers and the mounted troopers,
+on the plea that such distinctions were inconsistent with equality; and
+filled up the vacancies with men who were the very dregs of the city, many
+of whom were, in fact, secret agents of the Jacobins, by whose aid they
+hoped to spread disaffection through the entire force.
+
+The afternoon of the 9th was passed in anxious preparation by both the
+conspirators and those whom they were about to attack. The king and queen
+were not destitute of faithful adherents, whom their very danger only
+rendered the more zealous to place all their strength, their valor, and,
+as they truly foreboded, their lives, at the disposal of their honored and
+threatened sovereigns. The veteran Marshal de Mailly, one of those gallant
+nobles whose devoted loyalty had been so scandalously insulted by La
+Fayette[1] in the spring of the preceding year, though now eighty years of
+age, hastened to the defense of his royal master and mistress, and brought
+with him a chivalrous phalanx of above a hundred gentlemen, all animated
+with the same self-sacrificing heroism, as his own, to fight, or, if need
+should be, to die for their king and queen, though they had no arms but
+their swords. It seemed fortunate, too, that the command of the National
+Guard for the day fell by rotation to an officer named Mandat, a man of
+high professional skill, intrepid courage, and unshaken in his zeal for
+the royal cause, though in former days the constitutionalists had reckoned
+him among their adherents. His brigade numbered about two thousand four
+hundred men, on most of whom he could thoroughly rely. And it was no
+slight proof of his force of character and energy, as well as of his
+address, that, as the National Guard could not be employed out of the
+routine of their regular duty without a special authorisation from the
+civil power, he contrived to extort from Pétion, as mayor of the city, a
+formal authority to augment his brigade for the special occasion, and, if
+force should be used against him, to repel it by force.
+
+The Swiss Guard of about a thousand men were all trustworthy; and there
+was also a small body of heavy cavalry of the gendarmery who had proved
+true enough to resist all the seductions of the conspirators. There were
+likewise a few cannon. In all, nearly four thousand men could be mustered
+for the defense of the palace; a force, if well equipped and well led, not
+inadequate to the task of holding it out for some time against any number
+of undisciplined assailants. But they were not well armed. They were
+nearly destitute of ammunition, and Mandat's most vehement entreaties and
+remonstrances could not wring out from Pétion an order for a supply of
+cartridges, though, as he told him, several companies had not four rounds
+left, some had only one; and though it was notorious that the police had
+served out ammunition to the Marseillese, who had no claim to a single
+bullet. Still less were they well led; for at such a crisis every thing
+depended on the king's example, and Louis was utterly wanting to himself.
+
+As night approached, the agitation in the palace, and still more in the
+city, grew more and more intense. It was a brilliant and a warm night. By
+ten o'clock the mob began to cluster in the streets, many only curious and
+anxious from uncertain fear; those in the secret hastening toward the
+point of rendezvous. The rioters also had cannon, and by eleven their
+artillery-men had taken charge of their guns. The conspirators had got
+possession of all the churches; and as the hour of midnight struck, a
+single cannon-shot gave the signal, and from every steeple and tower in
+the city the fatal tocsin began to peal. The insurrection was begun.
+
+Pétion, who, from some motive which is not very intelligible, wished to
+save appearances, and who, though in fact he had been eager in promoting
+the insurrection, pretended innocence of all complicity in it even to the
+Assembly, whom he was aware that he was not deceiving, on the first sound
+of the bells repaired to the Hôtel de Ville. He found, as indeed he was
+aware that he should find, a strange addition to the Municipal Council.
+The majority of the sections of the city had declared themselves in
+insurrection; had passed resolutions that they would no longer obey the
+existing magistrates; and had appointed a body of commissioners to
+overbear them, trusting in the cowardice of the majority, and in the
+willing acquiescence and co-operation of Danton and the other members of
+the party of violence. The commissioners seized on a room in the Hôtel by
+the side of the regular council-room, and their first measures were marked
+with a cunning and unscrupulousness which largely contributed to the
+success of their more active comrades in the streets. Even Pétion himself
+was not wicked enough or resolute enough for them. The authority which
+Mandat had wrung from him on the previous morning was, in their eyes, a
+proof of unpardonable weakness. He might be terrified into issuing some
+other order which might disconcert or at least impede their plans; and
+accordingly they put him under a kind of honorable arrest, and sent him to
+his own house under the guard of an armed force, which was instructed to
+allow no one access to him; and at the same time they sent an order in his
+name to Mandat to repair to the Hôtel de Ville, to concert with them the
+measures necessary for the safety of the city.
+
+Had he acted on his own judgment, Mandat would have disregarded the
+summons; but M. Roederer urged upon him that he was bound to comply with
+an order brought in the name of the mayor. Accordingly he repaired to the
+Hôtel de Ville, and gave to the Municipal Council so distinct an account
+of his measures, and of his reason for taking them, that, though Danton
+and some of his more factious colleagues reproached him for exhibiting
+what they called a needless distrust of the people, the majority of the
+Council approved of his conduct, and dismissed him to return to his
+duties. But as he quit their chamber, he was dragged before the other
+body, the Commissioners of the Sections,[2] and subjected to another
+examination, which, as a matter of course, they conducted with every kind
+of insult and violence. The Municipal Council sent down a deputation to
+remonstrate with them; they rose on the Council and expelled them from
+their own council-chamber by main force, and then sent off Mandat to
+prison, whither, a few minutes later, they dispatched a gang of assassins
+to murder him.
+
+The news of his death soon reached the Tuileries, where it struck a chill
+even into the firm heart of the queen,[3] who had deservedly placed great
+reliance on his fidelity and resolution. She had now to trust to the valor
+and loyalty of the troops themselves, though thus deprived of their
+commander; and, as a last hope, she persuaded the king to go down and
+review them, hoping that his presence might animate the faithful, and
+perhaps fix the waverers. Louis consented, as he would have consented to
+any course that was recommended to him; but on such occasions more depends
+on the grace and spirit with which a thing is done than on the act itself,
+and grace and spirit were now less than ever to be looked for in the
+unhappy Louis. He visited first the courts of the palace, and the
+Carrousel, and then the gardens, at whose different entrances strong
+detachments of troops were stationed. When he first appeared he was
+greeted by one general cheer of "Vive le roi!" But as he passed along the
+ranks the unanimity and loyalty began to disappear. Even of those
+regiments which were still true to him the cheers were faint, as if half
+suppressed by alarm; while many companies mingled shouts for "the nation"
+with those for himself, and individual soldiers murmured audibly, "Down
+with the Veto!" or, "Long live the Sans-culottes!" secure that their
+officers would not venture to reprove, much less to chastise them. The
+Swiss Guard alone showed enthusiasm in their loyalty and resolution in
+their demeanor.
+
+But when he reached the artillery, on whom perhaps most depended, many of
+the gunners made no secret of their disaffection. Some even quit their
+ranks to offer him personal insults, doubling their fists in his face, and
+shouting out the coarsest threats which the Revolution had yet taught
+them. Both cheers and insults the hapless king received with almost equal
+apathy. The despair which was in his heart was shown in his dress, which
+had no military character or decoration, but was a suit of plain violet
+such as was never worn by kings of France but on occasions of mourning. It
+was to no purpose that the queen put a sword into his hand, and exhorted
+him to take the command of the troops himself, and to show himself ready
+to fight in person for his crown. It was only once or twice that he could
+even be brought to utter a few words of acknowledgment to those who
+treated him with respect, of expostulation to those who insulted and
+threatened him; and presently, pale, and, as it seemed, exhausted with
+that slight effort, he returned to his apartments.
+
+The queen was almost in despair. She told Madame de Campan that all was
+lost; that the king had shown no energy; that such a review as that had
+done harm rather than good. All that could now be done was for her to show
+herself not wanting to the occasion, nor to him. Her courage rose with the
+imminence of the danger. Those who beheld her, as with dilating eyes and
+heightened color she listened to the unceasing tumult, and, repressing
+every appearance of alarm, strove with unabated energy to rouse her
+husband, and to fortify the good disposition of the loyal friends around
+her, have described in terms of enthusiastic admiration the majestic
+dignity of her demeanor at this trying moment. She had need of all her
+presence of mind; for even among those who were most faithful to her
+dissensions were springing up. At the first alarm Marshal de Mailly and
+his company of gallant nobles and gentlemen had hastened to her side; but
+the National Guards were jealous of them. It seemed as if they expected to
+be allowed to remain nearest to the royal person; and the soldiers
+disdained to yield the post of honor to men who were not in uniform, and
+whom, as they were mostly in court dress, they even disliked as
+aristocrats. They besought the queen to dismiss them. "Never!" she
+replied; and, trusting rather that the example of their self-sacrificing
+devotion might stimulate those who thus complained, and full of that royal
+magnanimity which feels that it confers honor on those whom it trusts, and
+that it has a right to look for the loyalty of its servants even to the
+death, she added, "They will serve with you, and share your dangers. They
+will fight with you in the van, in the rear, where you will. They will
+show you how men can die for their king."
+
+But meanwhile the insurgents were rapidly approaching the palace, and
+already the tramp of the leading column might be heard. The tocsin had
+continued its ominous sound throughout the night, and at six in the
+morning the main body of the insurgents, twenty thousand strong, and well
+armed--for the new council had opened to them the stores of the arsenal--
+began their march under the command of Santerre. As they advanced they
+were joined by the Marseillese, who had been quartered in a barrack near
+the Hall of the Cordeliers, and their numbers were further swelled by
+thousands of the populace. Soon after eight they reached the Carrousel,
+forced the gates, and pressed on to the royal court, the National Guard
+and Swiss falling back before them to the entrance to the royal
+apartments, where the more confined space seemed to afford a better
+prospect of making an effectual resistance.
+
+But already the palace was deserted by those who were the intended objects
+of the attack. Roederer, and one or two of the municipal magistrates, in
+whom the indignity with which the new commissioners of the sections had
+treated them had excited a feeling of personal indignation, had been
+actively endeavoring to rouse the National Guards to an energetic
+resistance; but they had wholly failed. Those who listened to them most
+favorably would only promise to defend themselves if attacked, while some
+of the artillery-men drew the charges from their guns and extinguished
+their matches. Roederer, whom the strange vicissitudes of the crisis had
+for the moment rendered the king's chief adviser, though there seems no
+reason to doubt his good faith, was not a man of that fiery courage which
+hopes against hope, and can stimulate waverers by its example. He saw that
+if the rioters should succeed in storming the palace, and should find the
+king and his family there, the moment that made them masters of their
+persons would be the last of their lives and of the monarchy. He returned
+into the palace to represent to Louis the utter hopelessness of making any
+defense, and to recommend him, as his sole resource, to claim the
+protection of the Assembly. The queen, who, to use her own words, would
+have preferred being nailed to the walls of the palace to seeking a refuge
+which she deemed degrading, pointed to the soldiers, and showed by her
+gestures that they were the only protectors whom it became them to look
+to. Roederer assured her that they could not he relied on. She seemed
+unconvinced. He almost forgot his respect in his earnestness. "If you
+refuse, madame, you will be guilty of the blood of the king, of your two
+children; you will destroy yourself, and every soul within the palace."
+While she was still hesitating between her feeling of shame and her
+anxiety for those dearest to her, the king gave the word. "Let us go,"
+said he. "Let us give this last proof of our devotion to the
+Constitution." The princess spoke. "Could Roederer answer for the king's
+life?" He affirmed that he would answer for it with his own. The queen
+repeated the question. "Madame," he replied, "we will answer for dying at
+your side--that is all that we can promise." "Let us go," said Louis, and
+moved toward the door. Even at the last moment, one officer, M. Boscari,
+commander of a battalion of the National Guard, known as that of Les
+Filles St. Thomas, whose loyalty no disaster had ever been able to shake,
+implored him to change his mind. His men, united to the Swiss, would be
+able, he said, to cut a way for the royal family to the Rouen road; the
+insurgents were all on the other side of the city, and nothing could
+resist him. But again, as on all previous occasions, Louis rejected the
+brave advice. He pleaded the risk to which he should expose those dearest
+to him, and led them to almost certain death in committing them to the
+Assembly. Some of De Mailly's gentlemen gathered round him to accompany
+him; but such an escort seemed to Roederer likely to provoke additional
+animosity, and at his entreaty Louis trusted himself to a company of his
+faithful Swiss and to a detachment of the National Guard, who formed
+themselves into an escort to conduct him to the Assembly, whose hall
+looked into one side of the palace garden.
+
+The minister for foreign affairs walked at his side. The queen leaned on
+the arm of M. Dubouchage, the minister of marine, and with the other hand
+led the dauphin. The Princess Elizabeth and the princess royal followed
+with another minister. And thus, with the Princess de Lamballe, Madame de
+Tourzel, and one or two other ministers and attendants, the royal family
+left the palace of their ancestors, which only one of them was ever to
+behold again. As they quit the saloon, moved down the stairs, and crossed
+the garden, their every step was one toward a downfall and a destruction
+which could never be retraced. Marie Antoinette felt it to be so, and, as
+she reached the foot of the staircase, cast restless and anxious glances
+around, looking perhaps even then for any prospect of succor or of
+effectual resistance which might present itself. One of the Swiss
+misunderstood her, and with rude fidelity endeavored to encourage her.
+"Fear nothing, madame," said he, "your majesty is surrounded by honest
+citizens." She laid her hand on her heart. "I do fear nothing," and passed
+on without another word.
+
+As they crossed the garden the king broke the silence. "How unusually
+early," he remarked, "the leaves fall this year!" To those who heard him,
+the bareness which he remarked seemed an omen of the fate which awaited
+himself, about to be stripped of his royal dignity; perhaps even, like
+some superfluous crowder of the grove, to fall beneath the axe. The
+Assembly had already been deliberating whether it should invite him to
+take refuge with them when they heard that he was approaching. It was
+instantly voted that a deputation should be sent to meet him, which, after
+a few words of respectful salutation, fell in behind. A vast crowd was
+collected outside the doors of the hall. They hooted the king, and, still
+more bitterly, the queen, as they advanced. "Down with Veto!" was the
+chief cry; but mingled with it were still more unmanly insults, invoking
+more especially death on all the women. But the Guards kept the mob at a
+distance, though when they reached the hall the Jacobins made an effort to
+deprive them of that protection. They declared that it was illegal for
+soldiers to enter the hall, as indeed it was; yet without them the princes
+must at the last moment have been exposed to all the fury of the mob. At
+this critical moment Roederer showed both fidelity and presence of mind.
+He implored the deputies to suspend the law which forbade the entrance of
+the troops, and, while the Jacobins were reviling him and his proposal, he
+pretended to suppose that it had been agreed to, and led forward a
+detachment of soldiers who cleared the way. One grenadier look up the
+dauphin in his arms and carried him in; and, although the pressure of the
+crowd was extreme, at last the whole family were placed within the hall in
+such safety as the Assembly was able or disposed to afford them.
+
+Louis bore himself not without dignity. His words were few but calm. "I am
+come here to prevent a great crime. I think I can not be better placed,
+nor more safely, gentlemen, than among you." The president, who happened
+to be Vergniaud, while appearing to desire to give him confidence, yet
+avoided uttering a single word, except the simple address of "sire," which
+should be a recognition of the royal dignity, if indeed his speech was not
+a studied disavowal of it. Louis might reckon, he said, on the firmness of
+the National Assembly: its members had sworn to die in support of the
+rights of the people and of the constituted authorities: and then, on the
+plea that the Assembly must continue its deliberations, and that the law
+forbade them to be conducted in the presence of the sovereign, he assigned
+him and his family a little box behind the president's chair, which was
+usually set apart for the reporters of the debates. A Jacobin deputy
+proposed their removal into one of the committee-rooms, with the idea, as
+he afterward boasted, that it would be easy there to admit a band of
+assassins to murder them all; but Vergniaud and his party divined his
+object and overruled him. It might seem that the Girondins, though they
+had been the original promoters and chief organizers of the insurrection,
+were as yet disposed to be content with the overthrow of the throne, and
+had not arrived at the hardihood which can not be sated without murder;
+and it is a remarkable instance of the rapidity with which unprincipled
+men sink deeper and deeper into iniquity, that they who now exerted
+themselves successfully to save the life of Louis, five months afterward
+were as unanimous as the most ferocious Jacobins in destroying him.
+
+One object of Louis in abandoning his palace had been to save the lives of
+the National Guards and of the Swiss, by withdrawing them from what he
+regarded as an unequal combat with the infuriated multitude; and of the
+National Guard the greater part did escape, drawing off silently in small
+detachments, when the sovereign whom it had been their duty to defend,
+seemed no longer to require their service. But the Swiss remained bravely
+at their posts around the royal staircase, though, as they abstained from
+provoking the rioters by any active opposition, which now seemed to have
+no object, they hoped that they might escape attack. But the mob and
+Santerre were bent on their destruction. Some of the insurgents tried to
+provoke them by threats. Some endeavored to tamper with them to desert
+their allegiance. But an accidental interruption suddenly terminated their
+brief period of inaction. In the confusion a pistol went off, and the
+Swiss fancied it was meant as a signal for an assault upon them. Thinking
+that the time was come to defend their own lives, they leveled their
+muskets and fired: they charged down the steps, driving the insurgents
+before them like sheep; they cleared the inner or royal court, forced
+their way into the Carrousel, recovered the cannon which were posted in
+the large square, and were so completely victorious that, had there been
+any superior officer at hand to direct their movements, they might even
+now have checked the insurrection.
+
+There might even have been some hope had not Louis himself actually
+interfered to check their exertions. Hearing what they had accomplished,
+the gallant D'Hervilly made his way to them, and called on them to follow
+him to the rescue of the king. They hesitated, unwilling to leave their
+wounded comrades to the mercy of their enemies; but their hesitation was
+brief, for it was put an end to by the wounded men themselves, who bid
+them hasten forward; their duty, they told them, was to save the king; for
+themselves, they could but die where they lay.[4] There were still plenty
+of gallant spirits to do their duty to the king, if he could but have been
+persuaded to take a right view of his duty to himself and to them.
+
+The Swiss gladly obeyed D'Hervilly's summons. Forming in close order, and
+as steady as on parade, they marched through the garden, one battalion
+moving toward the end opposite to the palace, where there was a
+draw-bridge which it was essential to secure; the other following
+D'Hervilly to the Assembly hall. Nothing could resist their advance: they
+forced their way up the stairs; and in a few moments a young officer, M.
+de Salis, at the head of a small detachment, sword in hand, entered the
+chamber. Some of the deputies shrieked and fled, while others, more calm,
+reminded him that armed men were forbidden to enter the hall, and ordered
+him to retire. He refused, and sent his subaltern to the king for orders.
+But Louis still held to his strange policy of non-resistance. Even the
+terrible scenes of the morning, and the deliberate attack of an armed mob
+upon his palace, had failed to eradicate his unwillingness to authorize
+his own Guards to fight in his behalf, or to convince him that when his
+throne (perhaps even his life and the lives of all his family) was at
+stake, it was nobler to struggle for victory, and, if defeated, to die
+with arms in his hands, than tamely to sit still and be stripped of his
+kingly dignity by brigands and traitors. Could he but have summoned energy
+to put himself at the head of his faithful Guards, as we may be sure that
+his brave wife urged him to do; could he have even sent them one
+encouraging order, one cheering word, there still might have been hope;
+for they had already proved that no number of Santerre's ruffians could
+stand before them.[5] But Louis could not even now bring himself to act;
+he could only suffer. His command to the officer, the last he ever issued,
+was for the whole battalion to lay down their arms, to evacuate the
+palace, and to retire to their barracks. He would not, he said, that such
+brave men should die. They knew that in fact he was consigning them to
+death without honor; but they were loyal to the last. They obeyed, though
+their obedience to the first part of the order rendered the last part
+impracticable. They laid down their arms, and were at once made prisoners;
+and the fate of prisoners in such hands as those of their captors was
+certain. A small handful, consisting, it is said, of fourteen men, escaped
+through the courage of one or two friends, who presently brought them
+plain clothes to exchange for their uniforms, but before night all the
+rest were massacred.
+
+Not more fortunate were their comrades of the other battalion, except in
+falling by a more soldier-like death. Though no longer supported by the
+detachment under D'Hervilly, they succeeded in forcing their way to the
+draw-bridge. It was held by a strong detachment of the National Guard, who
+ought to have received them as comrades, but who had now caught the
+contagion of successful treason, and fired on them as they advanced. But
+the gallant Swiss, in spite of their diminished numbers still invincible,
+charged through them, forced their way across the bridge into the Place
+Louis XV., and there formed themselves into square, resolved to sell their
+lives dearly. It was all that was left to them to do. The mounted
+gendarmery, too, came up and turned against them. Hemmed in on all sides,
+they fell one after another; Louis, who had refused to let them die for
+him, having only given their death the additional pang that it had been of
+no service to him.
+
+The retreat of the king had left the Tuileries at the mercy of the
+rioters. Furious to find that he had escaped them, they wreaked their rage
+on the lifeless furniture, breaking, hewing, and destroying in every way
+that wantonness or malice could devise. Different articles which had
+belonged to the queen were the especial objects of their wrath. Crowds of
+the vilest women arrayed themselves in her dresses, or defiled her bed.
+Her looking-glasses were broken, with imprecations, because they had
+reflected her features. Her footmen were pursued and slaughtered because
+they had been wont to obey her. Nor were the monsters who slew them
+contented with murder. They tore the dead bodies into pieces; devoured the
+still bleeding fragments, or deliberately lighted fire and cooked them;
+or, hoisting the severed limbs on pikes, carried them in fiendish triumph
+through the streets.
+
+And while these horrors were going on in the palace, the tumult in the
+Assembly was scarcely less furious. The majority of the members--all,
+indeed, except the Girondins and Jacobins, who were secure in their
+alliance with the ringleaders--were panic-stricken. Many fled, but the
+rest sat still, and in terrified helplessness voted whatever resolutions
+the fiercest of the king's enemies chose to propose. It was an ominous
+preliminary to their deliberations that they admitted a deputation from
+the commissioners of the sections into the hall, where Guadet, to whom
+Vergniaud had surrendered the president's chair, thanked them for their
+zeal, and assured them that the Assembly regarded them as virtuous
+citizens only anxious for the restoration of peace and order. They were
+even formally recognized as the Municipal Council; and then, on the motion
+of Vergniaud, the Assembly passed a series of resolutions, ordering the
+suspension of Louis from all authority; his confinement in the Luxembourg
+Palace; the dismissal and impeachment of his ministers; the re-appointment
+of Roland and those of his colleagues whom he had dismissed, and the
+immediate election of a National Convention. A large pecuniary reward was
+even voted for the Marseillese, and for similar gangs from one or two
+other departments which had been brought up to Paris to take a part in the
+insurrection.
+
+Yet so deeply seated were hope and confidence in the queen's heart, so
+sanguine was her trust that out of the mutual enmity of the populace and
+the Assembly safety would still be wrought for the king and the monarchy,
+that even while the din of battle was raging outside the hall, and inside
+deputy after deputy was rising to heap insults on the king and on herself,
+or to second Vergniaud's resolutions for his formal degradation, she could
+still believe that the tide was about to turn in her favor. While the
+uproar was at its height she turned to D'Hervilly, who still kept his
+post, faithful and fearless, at his master's side. "Well, M. d'Hervilly,"
+said she, with an air, as M. Bertrand, who tells the story, describes it,
+of the most perfect security, "did we not do well not to leave Paris?" "I
+pray God," said the brave noble, "that your majesty may be able to ask me
+the same question in six months' time.[6]" His foreboding was truer than
+her hopes. In less than six months she was a desolate, imprisoned widow,
+helplessly awaiting her own fate from her husband's murderers.
+
+All these resolutions of Vergniaud, all the ribald abuse with which
+different members supported them, the unhappy sovereigns were condemned to
+hear in the narrow box to which they had been removed. They bore the
+insults, the queen with her habitual dignity, the king with his inveterate
+apathy; Louis even speaking occasionally with apparent cheerfulness to
+some of the deputies. The constant interruptions protracted the
+discussions through the entire day. It was half-past three in the morning
+before the Assembly adjourned, when the king and his family were removed
+to the adjacent Convent of the Feuillants, where four wretched cells had
+been hastily furnished with camp-beds, and a few other necessaries of the
+coarsest description. So little was any attempt made to disguise the fact
+that they were prisoners, that their own domestic servants were not
+allowed the next day to attend them till they had received a formal ticket
+of admittance from the president. Yet even in this extremity of distress
+Marie Antoinette thought of others rather than of herself; and when at
+last her faithful attendant, Madame de Campan, obtained access to her, her
+first words expressed how greatly her own sorrows were aggravated by the
+thought that she had involved in them those loyal friends whose attachment
+merited a very different recompense.[7]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+Indignities to which the Royal Family are subjected.--They are removed to
+the Temple.--Divisions in the Assembly.--Flight of La Fayette.--Advance of
+the Prussians.--Lady Sutherland supplies the Dauphin with Clothes.--Mode
+of Life in the Temple.--The Massacres of September.--The Death of the
+Princess de Lamballe.--Insults are heaped on the King and Queen.--The
+Trial of the King.--His Last Interview with his Family.--His Death.
+
+
+From the 11th of August the life of Marie Antoinette is almost a blank to
+us. We may be even thankful that it is so, and that we are spared the
+details, in all their accumulated miseries, of a series of events which
+are a disgrace to human nature. For month after month the gentle,
+benevolent king, whom no sovereign ever exceeded in love for his people,
+or in the exercise of every private virtue; the equally pure-minded,
+charitable, and patriotic queen, who, to the somewhat passive excellences
+of her husband added fascinating graces and lofty energies of which he was
+unhappily destitute, were subjected to the most disgusting indignities, to
+the tyranny of the vilest monsters who ever usurped authority over a
+nation, and to the daily insults of the meanest of their former subjects,
+who thought to make a merit with their new masters of their brutality to
+those whose birthright had been the submission and reverence of all around
+them.
+
+Vergniaud's motion had only extended to the suspension of the king from
+his functions till the meeting of the Convention; but no one could doubt
+that that suspension would never be taken off, and that Louis was in fact
+dethroned. Marie Antoinette never deceived herself on the point, and,
+retaining the opinion as to the fate of deposed monarchs which she had
+expressed three years before, pronounced that all was over with them. "My
+poor children," said she, apostrophizing the little dauphin and his
+sister, "it is cruel to give up the hope of transmitting to you so noble
+an inheritance, and to have to say that all is at an end with ourselves;"
+and, lest any one else should have any doubt on the subject, the Assembly
+no longer headed its decrees with any royal title, but published them in
+the name of the nation. In one point the resolutions of the 10th were
+slightly departed from. The municipal authorities reported that the
+Luxembourg had so many outlets and subterranean passages, that it would be
+difficult to prevent the escape of a prisoner from that palace; and
+accordingly the destination of the royal family was changed to the Temple.
+Thither, after having been compelled to spend two more days in the
+Assembly, listening to the denunciations and threats of their enemies,
+whom even the knowledge that they were wholly in their power failed to
+pacify, they were conveyed on the 13th; and they never quit it till they
+were dragged forth to die.
+
+The Temple had been, as its name imported, the fortress and palace of the
+Knights Templars, and, having been erected by them in the palmy days of
+their wealth and magnificence, contained spacious apartments, and
+extensive gardens protected from intrusion by a lofty wall, which
+surrounded the whole. It was not, unfit for, nor unaccustomed to, the
+reception of princes; for the Count d'Artois had fitted up a portion of it
+for himself whenever he visited the capital. And to his apartments those
+who had the custody of the king and queen at first conducted them. But the
+new Municipal Council, whom the recent events had made the real masters of
+Paris, considered those rooms too comfortable or too honorable a lodging
+for any prisoners, however royal; and the same night, before they could
+retire to rest, and while Louis was still occupying himself in
+distributing the different apartments among the members of his family and
+the few attendants who were allowed to share his captivity, an order was
+sent down to remove them all into a small dilapidated tower which had been
+used as a lodging for some of the count's footmen, but whose bad walls and
+broken windows rendered it unfit for even the servants of a prince.
+Besides their meanness and ruinous condition, the number of the rooms it
+contained was so scanty, that for the first few days the only room that
+could be found for the Princess Elizabeth was an old, disused kitchen; and
+even after that was remedied, she was forced to share her new chamber,
+though it was both small and dark, with her niece, Madame Royale; while
+the dauphin's bed was placed by the side of the queen's, in one which was
+but little large.[1] And the dungeon-like appearance of the entire place
+impressed the whole family with the idea that it was not intended that
+they should remain there long, but that an early death was preparing for
+them.
+
+Even this distress was speedily aggravated by a fresh severity. Four days
+afterward an order was sent down which commanded the removal of all their
+attendants, with the exception of one or two menial servants. Madame de
+Tourzel, the governess of the royal children, was driven away with the
+coarsest insults. The Princess de Lamballe, that most faithful and
+affectionate friend of the queen, was rudely torn from her embrace by the
+municipal officers; and, though no offense was even imputed to her, was
+dragged off to a prison, where she was soon to pay the forfeit of her
+loyalty with her blood.
+
+From this time forth the king and queen were completely cut off from the
+outer world. They were treated with a rigor which in happier countries is
+not even experienced by convicted criminals. They were forbidden to
+receive letters or newspapers; and presently they were deprived of pens,
+ink, and paper; though they would neither have desired to write nor
+receive letters which would have been read by their jailers, and could
+only have exposed their correspondents to danger. After a few days they
+were even deprived of the attendance of all their servants but two[2]--a
+faithful valet named Cléry (fidelity such as his may well immortalize his
+name), to whom we are indebted for the greater part of the scanty
+knowledge which we possess of the fate of the captive princes as long as
+Louis himself was permitted to live; and Turgy, a cook, who, by an act of
+faithful boldness, had obtained a surreptitious entrance into the Temple,
+and whose services seemed to have escaped notice, though at a later period
+they proved of no trivial importance.
+
+Had they but known what was passing in the Assembly, Marie Antoinette
+would in all probability have still found matter for some comfort and hope
+in the fierce mutual strife of the Jacobins and Girondins, which for some
+weeks kept the Assembly in a constant state of agitation; and she would
+have found even greater encouragement in the dissatisfaction which in many
+departments the people expressed at the late events; and in the conduct of
+La Fayette's army, which at first cordially approved of and supported the
+town-council and magistrates of Sedan, who arrested and threw into prison
+the commissioners whom the Assembly had sent to announce the suspension of
+the royal authority. But the intelligence of that demonstration in their
+favor never reached them, nor that of its suppression a few days later;
+when La Fayette, who, as on a former occasion, had committed himself to
+measures beyond his strength to carry out, was forced to fly from the
+country, and by a strange violation of military law was thrown into an
+Austrian prison. Nor again, when for a moment the Duke of Brunswick
+appeared likely to realize the hopes on which Marie Antoinette had built
+so confidently, and by the capture of Longwy seemed to have opened to
+himself the road to Paris, did any tidings of his achievement come to the
+ears of those who had felt such deep interest in his operations. After a
+time the ingenuity of Cléry found a mode of obtaining for them some little
+knowledge of what was passing outside, by contriving that some of his
+friends should send criers to cry an abstract of the news contained in the
+daily journals under his windows, which he in his turn faithfully reported
+to them while employed in such menial offices about their persons as took
+off the attention of their guards, who day and night maintained an
+unceasing espial on all their actions and even words.
+
+From the very first they had to endure strange privations for princes.
+They had not a sufficient supply of clothes; the little dauphin, in
+particular, would have been wholly unprovided, had not the English
+embassadress, Lady Sutherland, whose son was of a similar age and size,
+sent in a stock of such as she thought might be wanted. But as the
+garments thus received wore out, and as all means of replacing them were
+refused, the queen and princess were reduced to ply their own needles
+diligently to mend the clothes of the whole family, that they might not
+appear to their jailers, or to the occupants of the surrounding houses,
+who from their windows could command a view of the garden in which they
+took their daily walks, absolutely ragged.
+
+Such enforced occupation must indeed in some degree have been welcome as a
+relief from thought, which their unbroken solitude left them but too much
+leisure to indulge. Cléry has given us an account of the manner in which
+their day was parceled out.[3] The king rose at six, and Cléry, after
+dressing his hair, descended to the queen's chamber, which was on the
+story below, to perform the same service for her and for the rest of the
+family. And the hour so spent brought with it some slight comfort, as he
+could avail himself of that opportunity to mention any thing that he might
+have learned of what was passing out-of-doors, or to receive any
+instructions which they might desire to give him. At nine they breakfasted
+in the king's room. At ten they came down-stairs again to the queen's
+apartments, where Louis occupied himself in giving the dauphin lessons in
+geography, while Marie Antoinette busied herself in a corresponding manner
+with Madame Royale. But, in whatever room they were, their guards were
+always present; and when, at one o'clock, they went down-stairs to walk in
+the garden, they were still accompanied by soldiers: the only member of
+the family who was not exposed to their ceaseless vigilance being the
+little dauphin, who was allowed to run up and down and play at ball with
+Cléry, without a soldier thinking it necessary to watch all his movements
+or listen to all his childish exclamations. At two dinner was served, and
+regularly at that hour the odious Santerre, with two other ruffians of the
+same stamp, whom he called his aids-de-camp, visited them to make sure of
+their presence and to inspect their rooms; and Cléry remarked that the
+queen never broke her disdainful silence to him, though Louis often spoke
+to him, generally to receive some answer of brutal insult. After dinner,
+Louis and Marie Antoinette would play piquet or backgammon; as, while they
+were thus engaged, the vigilance of their keepers relaxed, and the noise
+of shuffling the cards or rattling the dice afforded them opportunities of
+saying a few words in whispers to one another, which at other times would
+have been overheard. In the evening the queen and the Princess Elizabeth
+read aloud, the books chosen being chiefly works of history, or the
+masterpieces of Corneille and Racine, as being most suitable to form the
+minds and tastes of the children; and sometimes Louis himself would seek
+to divert them from their sorrows by asking the children riddles, and
+finding some amusement in their attempts to solve them. At bed-time the
+queen herself made the dauphin say his prayers, teaching him especially
+the duty of praying for others, for the Princess de Lamballe, and for
+Madame de Tourzel, his governess; though even those petitions the poor boy
+was compelled to utter in whispers, lest, if they were repeated to the
+Municipal Council, he should bring ruin on those whom he regarded as
+friends. At ten the family separated for the night, a sentinel making his
+bed across the door of each of their chambers, to prevent the possibility
+of any escape.
+
+In this way they passed a fortnight, when the monotony of their lives was
+fearfully disturbed. The Jacobins had established their ascendency. They
+had created a Revolutionary Tribunal, which at once began its course of
+wholesale condemnation, sending almost every one who was brought before it
+to the scaffold with merely a form of trial; the guillotine being erected,
+as it was said, _en permanence_, that the deaths of the victims might
+never be delayed for want of means to execute them; while, that a
+succession of victims might never be wanting, Danton, in his new character
+of Minister of Justice, instituted a search of every house for arms or
+papers, or any thing which might afford evidence or even suggest a
+suspicion that the owners disliked or feared the new authorities.
+
+But it was not enough to strike terror into all the peaceful citizens. The
+Girondins had always been objects of jealous rivalry to the Jacobins.
+Fanatical and relentless as they were in their cruelty, they had recently
+given proofs that they disapproved of the furious blood-thirstiness that
+was beginning to decimate the city, and they had carried the Assembly with
+them in a vote for the dissolution of the new Municipal Council. At the
+same time, intelligence of the Prussian successes readied the capital,
+intelligence which, it seemed possible, might animate the Royalists to
+some fresh effort; and, lest they should find means of reconciling
+themselves to Vergniaud and his party, the Jacobins and Cordeliers
+resolved to give both a lesson by a deed of blood which should strike
+terror into them. We may spare ourselves the pain of relating the horrors
+of the September massacre, when, for more than four days, gangs of men
+worse than devils, and of women unsexed by profligacy and cruelty till
+they had become worse even than the men, gave themselves up to the work of
+indiscriminate slaughter, deluging the streets with blood, and where they
+could spare time, aggravating the pangs of death by superfluous tortures.
+It will be sufficient for our purpose to record the fate of one of the
+most innocent of all the victims, who owed her death to the fact that she
+had long been the queen's most chosen friend, and whose murder was gloated
+over with special ferocity by the monsters who perpetrated it, as enabling
+them to inflict an additional pang on her wretched friend and mistress.
+
+Madame de Lamballe, as we have seen, had accompanied the queen to the
+Temple on the first day of her captivity, and had subsequently been
+removed to one of the city prisons known as La Force. It was on the
+prisoners in the different places of confinement that the work of death
+was to be done: and she had been specially marked out for slaughter, not
+solely because she was beloved by Marie Antoinette, but also, it was
+understood, because, as she was very rich, and sister-in-law to the Duc
+d'Orléans, that detestable prince desired to add her inheritance to his
+OWD already vast riches. She was dragged before Hébert, one of the foulest
+of the Jacobin crew, who had taken his seat at the gate of the prison to
+preside over the trials, as they were called, of the prisoners in La
+Force. "Swear," said he, "devotion to liberty and to the nation, and
+hatred to the king and queen, and you shall live." "I will take the first
+oath," she replied, "but the second never; it is not in my heart. The king
+and queen I have ever loved and honored." Almost before she had finished
+speaking she was pushed into the gate-way. One ruffian struck her from
+behind with his sabre. She fell. They tore her into pieces. A letter of
+the queen's fell from her hair, in which she had hidden it. The sight of
+it redoubled the assassins' fury. They stuck her head on a pike, and
+carried it in triumph to the Palais Royal to display it to D'Orléans, who
+was feasting with some of the companions of his daily orgies, and then
+proceeded to the Temple to brandish it before the eyes of the queen.
+
+It was about three o'clock.[4] Dinner had just been removed, and the king
+and queen were sitting down to play backgammon, when horrid shouts were
+heard in the street. One of the soldiers on guard in the room, who had not
+yet laid aside every feeling of humanity, closed the window and even drew
+the curtain. Another of different temper insisted that Louis should come
+to the window and show himself. As the uproar increased, the queen rose
+from her seat, and the king asked what was the matter. "Well," said the
+man, "since you wish to know, they want to show you the head of Madame de
+Lamballe." No event that had yet occurred had struck the queen with such
+anguish. The uproar increased. Those who bore the head had wished even to
+force the doors, and bring their trophy, still bleeding, into the very
+room where the royal family were, and were only prevented by a compromise
+which permitted them to parade it round their tower in triumph. As the
+shouts died away, Pétion's secretary arrived with a small sum of money
+which had been issued for the king's use. He noticed that the queen stood
+all the time that he was in the room, and fancied she assumed that
+attitude out of respect to the mayor. She had never stirred since she had
+heard of the princess's death, but had stood rooted, as it were, to the
+ground, stupefied and speechless with horror and anguish. It was long
+before she could be restored; and all through the night the rest of the
+princesses, if at least they could have slept, was broken by her sobs,
+which never ceased.
+
+As time passed on, the prospects of the unhappy prisoners became still
+more gloomy. On the 21st of September the Convention met, and its first
+act was to abolish royalty and declare the government a republic, and an
+officer was instantly sent to make proclamation of the event under the
+Temple walls; and, as if the establishment of a republic authorized an
+increase of insolence on the part of the guards of the prisoners, the
+insults to which they were subjected grew more frequent and more gross.
+Sentences both menacing and indecent were written on the walls where they
+must catch their eye: the soldiers puffed their tobacco-smoke in the
+queen's face as she passed, or placed their seats in the passages so much
+in her way that she could hardly avoid stumbling over their legs as she
+went down to the garden. Sometimes they even assailed her with direct
+abuse, calling her the assassin of the people, who in their turn would
+assassinate her. More than once the whole family had to submit to a
+personal search, and to empty their pockets, when the officers who made
+the search carried off whatever they chose to term suspicious, especially
+their knives and scissors, so that, when at work, the queen and princess
+were forced to bite off the threads with their teeth. And amidst all this
+misery no one ever heard Marie Antoinette utter a word to lament her own
+fate, or to ask pity for herself. She mourned over her husband's fall; she
+pitied Elizabeth, to whom malice itself could not impute a share in the
+wrongs of which Danton and Vergniaud had taught the people to complain.
+Most of all did she bewail the ruined prospects of her son; and more than
+once she brought tears into Cléry's eyes by the earnest tenderness with
+which she implored him to provide for the safety of the noble child after
+his parents should have been destroyed.
+
+The insults increased, each being an additional omen of the future. The
+most painful injuries were reserved for the queen. Toward the end of
+October the dauphin was removed from her apartment to that of the king,
+that she might thus be deprived of the comfort of ministering to his daily
+wants. But Louis himself was not spared. One day an order came down to
+deprive him of his sword; on another he was stripped of his different
+decorations and orders of knighthood. The system of espial, too, was
+carried out with increased severity. Their linen, when it came hack from
+the washer-woman, and even their washing-bills, were held to the fire to
+see if any invisible ink had been employed to communicate with them. Their
+loaves and biscuits were cut asunder lest they should contain notes. The
+end was approaching. A week or two later the king was removed to another
+tower, and was only permitted to see his family during a certain portion
+of the day. At last it was determined to bring him to trial. On the 11th
+of December he was suddenly informed that he was to be brought before the
+Convention; and from that day forth he was cut off from all intercourse
+with his family, even his wife being forbidden to see or hear from him.
+The barbarous restriction afforded him one more opportunity of showing his
+amiable unselfishness and fortitude. The regulation had been made by the
+Municipal Council, not by the Assembly; and its inhuman and unprecedented
+severity, coupled with a jealousy of the Council, as seeking to usurp the
+whole authority of the State, induced the Assembly to rescind it, and to
+grant permission, for Louis to have the dauphin and his sister with him.
+Yet, lest these innocent children should prove messengers of conspiracy
+between him and the queen and Elizabeth, it was ordered at the same time
+that, so long as they were allowed to visit him, they should be separated
+from their mother and their aunt; and Louis, though never in greater need
+of comfort, thought it so much better for the children themselves that
+they should be with the queen, that for their sakes he renounced their
+society, and allowed the decree of the Council to be carried out in all
+its pitiless cruelty.
+
+And, again, we may spare ourselves from dwelling on the details of what,
+in hideous mockery, was called the king's trial, though it was in fact a
+mere ceremonious prelude to his murder, which had been determined on
+before it began. Deep as is the disgrace with which it has forever covered
+the nation which tolerated such an abomination, it was relieved by some
+incidents which did honor to the country and to human nature. The
+murderers of Louis, in their ignoble pedantry, wearied the ear with
+appeals to the examples of the ancient Romans, of Decius[5] and of Brutus.
+But no Roman ever gave a nobler proof of contempt of danger, and devotion
+to duty, than was afforded by the intrepid lawyers, Malesherbes, De Séze,
+and Tronchet, who voluntarily undertook the king's defense, though Louis
+himself warned them that their utmost efforts would be fruitless, and
+would only bring destruction on themselves without saving him. One member,
+too, of the Convention, Lanjuinais, though originally he had been a member
+of the Breton Club, and had latterly been generally regarded as connected
+with the Girondins, made more than one eloquent effort in the king's
+behalf, provoking the Jacobins and Girondins to their very wildest fury by
+his contemptuous defiance of their menaces. And even when the verdict was
+being given; when Jacobins, Girondins, and Cordeliers, Robespierre,
+Vergniaud, Danton, and the infamous Duc d'Orléans were vying with one
+another in the eagerness with which they pushed forward to record their
+votes of condemnation; and when a mob of hired ruffians, who thronged the
+hall, were cheering every vote for death, and holding daggers to the
+throat of every one from whom they apprehended a contrary judgment; one
+noble of frail body, but of a spirit worthy of his birth and rank, the
+Marquis de Villette, laughed in the faces of his threateners, looked the
+assassins in the face, and told them that he would not obey their orders,
+and that they dared not kill him; and with a loud voice pronounced a vote
+of acquittal.
+
+But no courage or devotion of a few honest men could save Louis. One vote
+by an immense majority pronounced him guilty; a second refused all appeal
+to the people; a third, by a majority of fifty voices, condemned him to
+death. And on the morning of the 20th of January, 1793, Louis was roused
+from his bed to hear his sentence, and to learn that it was to be carried
+out the next day.
+
+While the trial lasted, the queen and those with her had been kept in
+almost absolute ignorance of what was taking place. They never, however,
+doubted what the result would be,[6] so that it was scarcely a shock to
+them when they heard the news-men crying the sentence under their windows
+--the only mercy that was shown to either the prisoner who was to die, or
+to those who were to survive him, being that they were allowed once more
+to meet on earth. At eight in the evening the queen, his children, and his
+sister were to be allowed to visit him. He prepared for the interview with
+astonishing calmness, making the arrangements so deliberately that, when
+he noticed that Cléry had placed a bottle of iced water on the table, he
+bid him change it, lest, if the queen should require any, the chill should
+prove injurious to her health. Even that last interview was not allowed to
+pass wholly without witnesses, since the Municipal Council refused, even
+on such an occasion, to relax their regulation that their guards were
+never to lose sight-of the king; and all that was permitted was that he
+might retire with his family into an inner room which had a glass door, so
+that, though what passed must be seen, their last words might not be
+overheard. His daughter, Madame Royale, now a girl of fourteen, and old
+enough, as her mother had said a few months before, to realize the misery
+of the scenes which she daily saw around her, has left us an account of
+the interview, necessarily a brief one, for the queen and princess were
+too wretched to say much. Louis wept when he announced to them how short
+was the time which he had to live, but his tears were those of pity for
+the desolation of those he loved, and not of fear for himself. He was
+even, in some sense, a willing victim, for, as he told them, it had been
+proposed to save him by appealing to the primary Assemblies of the nation;
+but he had refused his consent to a step which must throw the whole
+country into confusion, and might be the cause of civil war. He would
+rather die than risk the bringing of such calamities on his people. He
+even sought to comfort the queen by making some excuses for the monsters
+who had condemned him; and his last words to his family were an entreaty
+to forgive them; to his son, an injunction never to seek to revenge his
+death, even, if some change of fortune should enable him to do so.
+
+The queen said nothing, but sat clinging to him in speechless agony. At
+last he begged them to retire, that he might seek rest to prepare himself
+for the morrow; and then she spoke, to beg that at least they might meet
+again the next morning. "Yes," said he, "at eight o'clock." "Why not at
+seven?" asked she. "Well, then, at seven." But, after she had left him he
+determined to avoid this second meeting, not so much because he feared its
+unnerving himself, but because he felt that the second parting must be too
+terrible for her.
+
+When she returned to her own chamber she had scarcely strength left to
+place the dauphin in his bed. She threw herself, dressed as she was, on
+her own bed, where her sister-in-law and daughter heard her, as the little
+princess describes her state, "shivering with cold and grief the whole
+night long.[7]"
+
+Even if she could have slept, her rest would soon have been disturbed by
+the movement of troops, the beating of the drums, and the heavy roll of
+the cannon passing through the street. For the miscreants who bore sway in
+the city knew well that the crime which they were about to commit was
+viewed with horror by the great majority of the nation, and even of the
+Parisians, and to the last moment were afraid of a rescue. But no one
+could interpose between Louis and his doom; and the next intelligence of
+him that reached his wife, who was waiting the whole morning in painful
+anxiety for the summons to see him once more, was that he had perished
+beneath the fatal guillotine, and that she was a widow.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+The Queen is refused Leave to see Cléry.--Madame Royale is taken Ill.--
+Plans are formed for the Queen's Escape by MM. Jarjayes, Toulan, and by
+the Baron de Batz.--Marie Antoinette refuses to leave her Son.--Illness of
+the young King.--Overthrow of the Girondins.--Insanity of the Woman
+Tison.--Kindness of the Queen to her.--Her Son is taken from her, and
+intrusted to Simon.--His Ill-treatment.--The Queen is removed to the
+Conciergerie.--She is tried before the Revolutionary Tribunal.--She is
+condemned.--Her last Letter to the Princess Elizabeth.--Her Death and
+Character.
+
+
+Shouts in the streets announced to her and those around her that all was
+over. All the morning she had alarmed the princesses by the speechless,
+tearless stupor into which she seemed plunged; but at last she roused
+herself, and begged to see Cléry, who had been with Louis till he left the
+Temple, and who, therefore, she hoped, might have some last message for
+her, some last words of affection, some parting gift. And so indeed he
+had;[1] for the last act of Louis had been to give that faithful servant
+his seal for the dauphin, and his ring for the queen, with a little packet
+containing portions of her hair and those of his children which he had
+been in the habit of wearing. And he had bid him tell them all--"the
+queen, his dear children, and his sister--that he had promised to see them
+that morning, but that he had desired to save them the pain of so cruel a
+separation. How much," he continued, "does it cost me to go without
+receiving their last embraces! You must bear to them my last farewell."
+
+But even the poor consolation of receiving these sad tokens of unchanged
+affection was refused to her. The Council refused Cléry admittance to her,
+and seized the little trinkets and the packet of hair. The king's last
+words never reached her. But a few days afterward, Toulan, one of the
+commissioners of the Council, who sympathized with her bereavement, found
+means to send her the ring and seal.[2] Her sister and her daughter were
+the more anxious that she should see Cléry, from the hope that
+conversation with him might bring on a flood of tears, which would have
+given her some relief. But her own fortitude was her best support.
+Miserable as she was, hopeless as she was, it was characteristic of her
+magnanimous courage that she did not long give way to womanly
+lamentations. She recollected that she had still duties to perform to the
+living, to her daughter and sister, and, above all, to her son, now her
+king, whom, if some happier change of fortune, when the nation should have
+recovered from its present madness, should replace him on his father's
+throne, it must be her care to render worthy of such a restoration. She
+began to apply herself diligently to the work of giving him lessons such
+as his father had given him, mingling them with the constant references to
+that father's example, which she never ceased to hold up to him, dwelling
+with the emphatic exaggeration of lasting affection on his gentleness, his
+benevolence, his love for his subjects; qualities which, in truth, he had
+possessed in sufficient abundance, had he but been gifted with the courage
+and firmness indispensable to secure to his people the benefits he wished
+them to enjoy.
+
+She had too, for a time, another occupation. The princess royal was, as
+she had said not long before, of an age to feel keenly the miseries of her
+parents, and the agitation into which she had been thrown had its natural
+effect upon her health. Her own language on the subject affords a striking
+proof how well Marie Antoinette had succeeded in imbuing her with her own
+forgetfulness of self. As she has recorded the occurrence in her journal,
+"Fortunately her affliction increased her illness to so serious a degree
+as to cause a favorable diversion to her mother's despair.[3]"
+
+Youth, however, and a strong constitution prevailed, and the little
+princess recovered; while other matters also for a time claimed a large
+share of her mother's attention. For herself, Marie Antoinette felt, as
+she well might feel, that, come what would, happiness and she were forever
+parted; and the death to which she never doubted that her enemies destined
+her could hardly have been anticipated by her as any thing but a relief,
+if she had thought only of her own feelings. But, again, she had others to
+think of besides herself--of her children. And she presently learned that
+others were thinking of her, and were willing (it should rather be said
+were eager and proud) to encounter any danger, if they might only have the
+happiness and honor of securing and saving her whom they still regarded as
+their queen. Two had long been attached to the royal household: the wife
+of M. de Jarjayes, a gentleman of ancient family in Dauphiné, had been one
+of Marie Antoinette's waiting-women, and he himself, since the fatal
+expedition to Varennes, had been employed by Louis on several secret
+missions. From the moment that his royal master was brought before the
+Convention he had despaired of his life, and had, therefore, bent all his
+thoughts on the preservation of the queen. M. Turgy, the second, was in a
+humbler rank of life. He was, as we have seen, one of the officers of the
+kitchen; but in the household of a king of France even the cooks had
+pretensions to gentle blood. A third was a man named Toulan, who had
+originally been a music-seller in Paris, but had subsequently obtained
+employment under the Municipal Council, and was now a commissioner, with
+duties which brought him into constant contact with the imprisoned queen.
+Either he had never in his heart been her enemy, or he had been converted
+by the dignified fortitude with which she bore her miseries, and by the
+irresistible fascination which even in prison she still exercised over all
+whose hearts had not been hardened by fanatical wickedness against every
+manly or honest feeling; he won the queen's confidence by the most welcome
+service, which has been already mentioned, of conveying to her her
+husband's seal and ring. She gave him a letter to recommend him to the
+confidence of Jarjayes; and their combined ingenuity devised a plan for
+the escape of the whole family. It was in their favor that a man, who came
+daily to look to the lamps, usually brought with him his two sons, who
+nearly matched the size of the royal children. And Jarjayes and Toulan,
+aided by another of the municipal commissioners, named Lepitre, who had
+also learned to abhor the indignities practiced on fallen royalty, had
+prepared full suits of male attire for the queen and princess, with red
+scarfs and sashes as were worn by the different commissioners, of whom
+there were too many for all of them to be known to the sentinels; and also
+clothes for the two children, ill-fitting and shabby, to resemble the
+dress of the lamp-lighter's boys. Passports, too, by the aid of Lepitre,
+whose duties lay in the department which issued them, were provided for
+the whole family; and after careful discussion of the arrangements to be
+adopted when once the prisoners were clear of the Temple, it was settled
+that they should take the road to Normandy in three cabriolets, which
+would be less likely to attract notice than any larger and less ordinary
+carriage.
+
+The end of February or the beginning of March was fixed for the attempt;
+but before that time the Government and the people had become greatly
+disquieted by the operations of the German armies, which were about to
+receive the powerful assistance of England. Prussia had gained decided
+advantages on the Rhine. An Austrian army, under the Archduke Charles, was
+making formidable progress in the Netherlands. Rumors, also, which soon
+proved to be well founded, of an approaching insurrection in the western
+departments of France, reached the capital. The vigilance with which the
+royal prisoners were watched was increased. Information, too, though of no
+precise character, that they had obtained means of communicating with
+their partisans who were at liberty, was conveyed to the magistrates. And
+at last Jarjayes and Toulan were forced to abandon the idea of effecting
+the escape of the whole family, though they were still confident that they
+could accomplish that of the queen, which they regarded as the most
+important, since it was plain that it was she who was in the most
+immediate danger. Elizabeth, as disinterested as herself, besought her to
+embrace their offers, and to let her and the children, as being less
+obnoxious to the Jacobins, take their chance of some subsequent means of
+escape, or perhaps even mercy.
+
+But such a flight was forbidden alike by Marie Antoinette's sense of duty
+and by her sense of honor, if indeed the two were ever separated in her
+mind. Honor forbade her to desert her companions in misery, whose danger
+might even be increased by the rage of her jailers, exasperated at her
+escape. Duty to her boy forbade it still more emphatically. As his
+guardian, she ought not to leave him; as his mother, she could not. And
+her renunciation of the whole design was conveyed to M. Jarjayes in a
+letter which did honor alike to both by the noble gratitude which it
+expressed, and which was long cherished by his heirs as one of their most
+precious possessions, till it was destroyed, with many another valuable
+record, when Paris a second time fell under the rule of wretches scarcely
+less detestable than the Jacobins whom they imitated.[4] It was written by
+stealth, with a pencil; but no difficulties or hurry, as no acuteness of
+disappointment or depth of distress, could rob Marie Antoinette of her
+desire to confer pleasure on others, or of her inimitable gracefulness of
+expression. Thus she wrote:
+
+"We have had a pleasant dream, that is all. I have gained much by still
+finding, on this occasion, a new proof of your entire devotion to me. My
+confidence in you is boundless. And on all occasions you will always find
+strength of mind and courage in me. But the interest of my son is my sole
+guide; and, whatever happiness I might find in being out of this place, I
+can not consent to separate myself from him. In what remains, I thoroughly
+recognize your attachment to me in all that you said to me yesterday. Rely
+upon it that I feel the kindness and the force of your arguments as far as
+my own interest is concerned, and that I feel that the opportunity can not
+recur. But I could enjoy nothing if I were to leave my children; and this
+idea prevents me from even regretting my decision.[5]"
+
+And to Toulan she said that "her sole desire was to be reunited to her
+husband whenever Heaven should decide that her life was no longer
+necessary to her children." He was greatly afflicted, but he could no
+longer be of use to her. Her last commission to him was to convey to her
+eldest brother-in-law, the Count de Provence, her husband's ring and seal,
+that they might be in safer custody than her own, and that she or her son
+might reclaim them, if either should ever be at liberty. She gave Toulan
+also, as a memorial of her gratitude, a small gold box, one of the few
+trinkets which she still possessed, and which, unhappily, proved a fatal
+present. In the summer of the next year it was found in his possession,
+its history was ascertained, and he was sent to the scaffold for the sole
+offense of having and valuing a relic of his murdered sovereign.
+
+Nor was this the only plan formed for the queen's rescue. The Baron de
+Batz was a noble of the purest blood in France, seneschal of the Duchy of
+Albret, and bound by ancient ties of hereditary friendship to the king, as
+the heir of Henry IV., whose most intimate confidence had been enjoyed by
+his ancestor. He was still animated by all the antique feelings of
+chivalrous loyalty, and from the first breaking-out of the troubles of the
+Revolution he had brought to the service of his sovereign the most
+absolute devotion, which was rendered doubly useful by an inexhaustible
+fertility of resource, and a presence of mind that nothing could daunt or
+perplex. On the fatal 21st of January, he had even formed a project of
+rescuing Louis on his way to the scaffold, which failed, partly from the
+timidity of some on whose co-operation he had reckoned, and partly, it is
+said, from the reluctance of Louis himself to countenance an enterprise
+which, whatever might be its result, must tend to fierce conflict and
+bloodshed. Since his sovereign's death he had bent all the energies of his
+mind to contrive the escape of the queen, and he had so far succeeded that
+he had enlisted in her cause two men whose posts enabled them to give must
+effectual resistance: Michonis, who, like Toulan, was one of the
+commissioners of the Council; and Cortey, a captain of the National Guard,
+whose company was one of those most frequently on duty at the Temple. It
+seemed as if all that was necessary to be done was to select a night for
+the escape when the chief outlets of the Temple should be guarded by
+Cortey's men; and De Batz, who was at home in every thing that required
+manoeuvre or contrivance, had provided dresses to disguise the persons of
+the whole family while in the Temple, and passports and conveyances to
+secure their escape the moment they were outside the gates. Every thing
+seemed to promise success, when at the last moment secret intelligence
+that some plan or other was in agitation was conveyed to the Council. It
+was not sufficient to enable them to know whom they were to guard against
+or to arrest, but it was enough to lead them to send down to the Temple
+another commissioner whose turn of duty did not require his presence
+there, but whose ferocious surliness of temper pointed him out as one not
+easily to be either tricked or overborne. He was a cobbler, named Simon,
+the very same to whose cruel superintendence the little king was presently
+intrusted.
+
+He came down the very evening that every thing was arranged for the escape
+of the hapless family. De Batz saw that all was over if he staid, and
+hesitated for a moment whether he should blow out his brains, and try to
+accomplish the queen's deliverance by force; but a little reflection
+showed him that the noise of fire-arms would bring up a crowd of enemies
+beyond his ability to overpower, and it soon appeared that it would tax
+all his resources to secure his own escape. He achieved that, hoping still
+to find some other opportunity of being useful to his royal mistress; but
+none offered. The Assembly did him the honor to set a price on his head;
+and at last he thought himself fortunate in being able to save himself.
+Those who had co-operated with him had worse fortune. Those in authority
+had no proofs on which to condemn them; but in those days suspicion was a
+sufficient death-warrant. Michonis and Cortey were suspected, and in the
+course of the next year a belief that they had at least sympathized with
+the queen's sorrows sent them both to the scaffold.
+
+With the failure of De Batz every project of escape was abandoned; and a
+few weeks later the queen congratulated herself that she had refused to
+flee without her boy, since in the course of May he was seized with
+illness which for some days threatened to assume a dangerous character.
+With a brutality which, even in such monsters as the Jacobin rulers of the
+city, seems almost inconceivable, they refused to allow him the attendance
+of M. Brunier, the physician who had had the charge of his infancy. It
+would be a breach of the principles of equality, they said, if any
+prisoner were permitted to consult any but the prison doctor. But the
+prison doctor was a man of sense and humanity, as well as of professional
+skill. He of his own accord sought the advice of Brunier; and the poor
+child recovered, to be reserved for a fate which, even in the next few
+weeks, was so foreshadowed, that his own mother must almost have begun to
+doubt whether his restoration to health had been a blessing to her or to
+himself.
+
+The spring was marked by important events. Had one so high-minded been
+capable of exulting in the misfortunes of even her worst enemies, Marie
+Antoinette might have triumphed in the knowledge that the murderers of her
+husband were already beginning that work of mutual destruction which in
+little more than a year sent almost every one of them to the same scaffold
+on which he had perished. The jealousies which from the first had set the
+Jacobins and Girondins at variance had reached a height at which they
+could only be extinguished by the annihilation of one party or the other.
+They had been partners in crime, and so far were equal in infamy; but the
+Jacobins were the fiercer and the readier ruffians; and, after nearly two
+months of vehement debates in the Convention, in which Robespierre
+denounced the whole body of the Girondin leaders as plotters of treason
+against the State, and Vergniaud in reply reviled Robespierre as a coward,
+the Jacobins worked up the mob to rise in their support. The Convention,
+which hitherto had been divided in something like equality between the two
+factions, yielded to the terror of a new insurrection, and on the 2d of
+June ordered the arrest of the Girondin leaders. A very few escaped the
+search made for them by the officers--Roland, to commit suicide;
+Barbaroux, to attempt it; Pétion and Buzot reached the forests to be
+devoured by congenial wolves. Lanjuinais,[6] whom the decree of the
+Convention had identified with them, but who, even in the moments of the
+greatest excitement, had kept himself clear of their wickedness and
+crimes, was the only one of the whole body who completely eluded the rage
+of his enemies. The rest, with Madame Roland, the first prompter of deeds
+of blood, languished in their well-deserved prisons till the close of
+autumn, when they all perished on the same scaffold to which they had sent
+their innocent sovereign.[7]
+
+But it may be that Marie Antoinette never learned their fall; though that
+if she had, pity would at least have mingled with, if it had not
+predominated over, her natural exultation, she gave a striking proof in
+her conduct toward one from whom she had suffered great and constant
+indignities. From the time that her own attendants were dismissed, the
+only person appointed to assist Cléry in his duties were a man and woman
+named Tison, chosen for that task on account of their surly and brutal
+tempers, in which the wife exceeded her husband. Both, and especially the
+woman, had taken a fiendish pleasure in heaping gratuitous insults on the
+whole family; but at last the dignity and resignation of the queen
+awakened remorse in the woman's heart, which presently worked upon her to
+such a degree that she became mad. In the first days of her frenzy she
+raved up and down the courtyard declaring herself guilty of the queen's
+murder. She threw herself at Marie Antoinette's feet, imploring her
+pardon; and Marie Antoinette not only raised her up with her own hand, and
+spoke gentle words of forgiveness and consolation to her, but, after she
+had been removed to a hospital, showed a kind interest in her condition,
+and amidst all her own troubles found time to write a note to express her
+anxiety that the invalid should have proper attention.[8]
+
+But very soon a fresh blow was struck at the hapless queen which made her
+indifferent to all else that could happen, and even to her own fate, of
+which it may be regarded as the precursor. At ten o'clock on the 3d of
+July, when the little king was sleeping calmly, his mother having hung a
+shawl in front of his bed to screen his eyes from the light of the candle
+by which she and Elizabeth were mending their clothes, the door of their
+chamber was violently thrown open, and six commissioners entered to
+announce to the queen that the Convention had ordered the removal of her
+boy, that he might he committed to the care of a tutor--the tutor named
+being the cobbler, Simon, whose savageness of disposition was sufficiently
+attested by the fact of his having been chosen on the recommendation of
+Marat. At this unexpected blow, Marie Antoinette's fortitude and
+resignation at last gave way. She wept, she remonstrated, she humbled
+herself to entreat mercy. She threw her arms around her child, and
+declared that force itself should not tear him from her. The commissioners
+were not men likely to feel or show pity. They abused her; they threatened
+her. She begged them rather to kill her than take her son. They would not
+kill her, but they swore that they would murder both him and her daughter
+before her eyes if he were not at once surrendered. There was no more
+resistance. His aunt and sister took him from the bed and dressed him. His
+mother, with a voice choked by her sobs, addressed him the last words he
+was ever to hear from her. "My child, they are taking you from me; never
+forget the mother who loves you tenderly, and never forget God! Be good,
+gentle, and honest, and your father will look down on you from heaven and
+bless you!" "Have you done with this preaching?" said the chief
+commissioner. "You have abused our patience finely," another added; "the
+nation is generous, and will take care of his education." But she had
+fainted, and heard not these words of mocking cruelty. Nothing could touch
+her further.
+
+If it be not also a mockery to speak of happiness in connection with this
+most afflicted queen, she was happy in at least not knowing the details of
+the education which was in store for the noble boy whose birth had
+apparently secured for him the most splendid of positions, and whose
+opening virtues seemed to give every promise that he would be worthy of
+his rank and of his mother. A few days afterward Simon received his
+instructions from a committee of the Convention, of which Drouet, the
+postmaster of Ste. Menehould, was the chief. "How was he to treat the wolf
+cub?" he asked (it was one of the mildest names he ever gave him). "Was he
+to kill him?" "No." "To poison him?" "No." "What then?" "He was to get rid
+of him,[9]" and Simon carried out this instruction by the most unremitting
+ill-treatment of his pupil. He imposed upon him the most menial offices;
+he made him clean his shoes; he reviled him; he beat him; he compelled him
+to wear the red cap and jacket which had been adopted as the Revolutionary
+dress; and one day, when his mother obtained a glimpse of him as he was
+walking on the leads of the tower to which he had been transferred, it
+caused her an additional pang to see that he had been stripped of the suit
+of mourning for his father, and had been clothed in the garments which, in
+her eyes, were the symbol, of all that was most impious and most
+loathsome.
+
+All these outrages were but the prelude of the final blow which was to
+fall on herself; and it shows how great was the fear with which her lofty
+resolution had always had inspired the Jacobins--fear with such natures
+being always the greatest exasperation of hatred and the keenest incentive
+to cruelty--that, when they had resolved to consummate her injuries by her
+murder, they did not leave her in the Temple as they had left her husband,
+but removed her to the Conciergerie, which in those days, fitly
+denominated the Reign of Terror, rarely led but to the scaffold. On the
+night of the 1st of August (the darkest hours were appropriately chosen
+for deeds of such darkness) another body of commissioners entered her
+room, and woke her up to announce that they had come to conduct her to the
+common prison. Her sister and her daughter begged in vain to be allowed to
+accompany her. She herself scarcely spoke a word, but dressed herself in
+silence, made up a small bundle of clothes, and, after a few words of
+farewell and comfort to those dear ones who had hitherto been her
+companions, followed her jailers unresistingly, knowing, and for her own
+sake certainly not grieving, that she was going to meet her doom. As she
+passed through the outer door it was so low that she struck her head. One
+of the commissioners had so much decency left as to ask if she was hurt.
+"No," she replied, "nothing now can hurt me.[10]" Six weeks later, an
+English gentleman saw her in her dungeon. She was freely exhibited to any
+one who desired to behold her, on the sole condition--a condition worthy
+of the monsters who exacted it, and of them alone--that he should show no
+sign of sympathy or sorrow.[11] "She was sitting on an old worn-out chair
+made of straw which scarcely supported her weight. Dressed in a gown which
+had once been white, her attitude bespoke the immensity of her grief,
+which appeared to have created a kind of stupor, that fortunately rendered
+her less sensible to the injuries and reproaches which a number of inhuman
+wretches were continually vomiting forth against her."
+
+Even after all the atrocities and horrors of the last twelve months, the
+news of the resolution to bring her to a trial, which, it was impossible
+to doubt, it was intended to follow up by her execution, was received as a
+shook by the great bulk of the nation, as indeed by all Europe. And
+Necker's daughter, Madame de Staël, who, as we have seen, had been
+formerly desirous to aid in her escape, now addressed an energetic and
+eloquent appeal to the entire people, calling on all persons of all
+parties, "Republicans, Constitutionalists, and Aristocrats alike, to unite
+for her preservation." She left unemployed no fervor of entreaty, no depth
+of argument. She reminded them of the universal admiration which the
+queen's beauty and grace had formerly excited, when "all France thought
+itself laid under an obligation by her charms;[12]" of the affection that
+she had won by her ceaseless acts of beneficence and generosity. She
+showed the absurdity of denouncing her as "the Austrian"--her who had left
+Vienna while still little more than a child, and had ever since fixed her
+heart as well as her home in France. She argued truly that the vagueness,
+the ridiculousness, the notorious falsehood of the accusations brought
+against her were in themselves her all-sufficient defense. She showed how
+useless to every party and in every point of view must be her
+condemnation. What danger could any one apprehend from restoring to
+liberty a princess whose every thought was tenderness and pity? She
+reproached those who now held sway in France with the barbarity of their
+proscriptions, with governing by terror and by death, with having
+overthrown a throne only to erect a scaffold in its place; and she
+declared that the execution of the queen would exceed in foulness all the
+other crimes that they had yet committed. She was a foreigner, she was a
+woman; to put her to death would be a violation of all the laws of
+hospitality as well as of all the laws of nature. The whole universe was
+interesting itself in the queen's fate. Woe to the nation which knew
+neither justice nor generosity! Freedom would never be the destiny of such
+a people.[13]
+
+It had not been from any feeling of compunction or hesitation that those
+who had her fate in their hands left her so long in her dungeon, but from
+the absolute impossibility of inventing an accusation against her that
+should not be utterly absurd and palpably groundless. So difficult did
+they find their task, that the jailer, a man named Richard, who, when
+alone, ventured to show sympathy for her miseries, sought to encourage her
+by the assurance that she would be replaced in the Temple. But Marie
+Antoinette indulged in no such illusion. She never doubted that her death
+was resolved on. "No," she replied to his well-meant words of hope, "they
+have murdered the king; they will kill me in the same way. Never again
+shall I see my unfortunate children, my tender and virtuous sister." And
+the tears which her own sufferings could not wring from her flowed freely
+when she thought of what they were still enduring.
+
+But at last the eagerness for her destruction overcame all difficulties or
+scruples. The principal articles of the indictment charged her with
+helping to overthrow the republic and to effect the reestablishment of the
+throne; with having exerted her influence over her husband to mislead his
+judgment, to render him unjust to his people, and to induce him to put his
+veto on laws of which they desired the enactment; with having caused
+scarcity and famine; with having favored aristocrats; and with having kept
+up a constant correspondence with her brother, the emperor; and the
+preamble and the peroration compared her to Messalina, Agrippina,
+Brunehaut, and Catherine de' Medici--to all the wickedest women of whom
+ancient or modern history had preserved a record. Had she been guided by
+her own feelings alone, she would have probably disdained to defend
+herself against charges whose very absurdity proved that they were only
+put forward as a pretense for a judgment that had been previously decided
+on. But still, as ever, she thought of her child, her fair and good son,
+her "gentle infant," her king. While life lasted she could never wholly
+relinquish the hope that she might see him once again, perhaps even that
+some unlooked-for chance (none could be so unexpected as almost every
+occurrence of the last four years) might restore him and her to freedom,
+and him to his throne; and for his sake she resolved to exert herself to
+refute the charges, and at least to establish her right to acquittal and
+deliverance.
+
+Louis had been tried before the Convention. Marie Antoinette was to be
+condemned by the, if possible, still more infamous court that had been
+established in the spring under the name of the Revolutionary Tribunal;
+and on the 13th of October she was at last conducted before a small
+sub-committee, and subjected to a private examination. To every question
+she gave firm and clear answers.[14] She declared that the French people
+had indeed been deceived, but not by her or by her husband. She affirmed
+"that the happiness of France always had been, and still was, the first
+wish of her heart;" and that "she should not even regret the loss of her
+son's throne, if it led to the real happiness of the country." She was
+taken back to her cell. The next day the four judges of the tribunal took
+their seats in the court. Fouquier-Tinville, the public prosecutor, a man
+whose greed of blood stamped him with an especial hideousness, even in
+those days of universal barbarity, took his seat before them; and eleven
+men, the greater part of whom had been carefully picked from the very
+dregs of the people--journeymen carpenters, tailors, blacksmiths, and
+discharged policemen--were constituted the jury.
+
+Before this tribunal--we will not dignify it with the name of a court of
+justice--Marie Antoinette, the widow Capet, as she was called in the
+indictment, was now brought. Clad in deep mourning for her murdered
+husband, and aged beyond her years by her long series of sorrows, she
+still preserved the fearless dignity which became her race and rank and
+character. As she took her place at the bar and cast her eyes around the
+hall, even the women who thronged the court, debased as they were, were
+struck by her lofty demeanor. "How proud she is!" was the exclamation, the
+only sign of nervousness that she gave being that, as those who watched
+her closely remarked, she moved her fingers up and down on the arm of her
+chair, as if she had been playing on the harpsichord. The prosecutor
+brought up witness after witness; some whom it was believed that some
+ancient hatred, others whom it was expected that some hope of pardon for
+themselves, might induce to give evidence such as was required. The Count
+d'Estaing had always been connected with her enemies. Bailly, once Mayor
+of Paris, as has been seen, had sought a base popularity by the wantonness
+of the unprovoked insults which he had offered to the king. Michonis knew
+that his head was imperiled by suspicions of his recent desire to assist
+her. But one and all testified to her entire innocence of the different
+charges which they had been brought forward to support, and to the
+falsehood of the statements contained in the indictment. Her own replies,
+when any question was addressed to herself, were equally in her favor.
+When accused of having been the prompter of the political mesures of the
+king's government, her answer could not be denied to be in accordance with
+the law: "That she was the wife and subject of the king, and could not be
+made responsible for his resolutions and actions." When charged with
+general indifference or hostility to the happiness of the people, she
+affirmed with equal calmness, as she had previously declared at her
+private examination, that the welfare of the nation had been, and always
+was, the first of her wishes.
+
+Once only did a question provoke an answer in any other tone than that of
+a lofty imperturbable equanimity. She had not known till that moment the
+depth of her enemies' wickedness, or the cruelty with which her son's mind
+had been dealt with, worse ten thousand times than the foulest tortures
+that could be applied to the body. Both her children had been subjected to
+an examination, in the hope that something might be found to incriminate
+her in the words of those who might hardly be able to estimate the exact
+value of their expressions. The princess had been old enough to baffle the
+utmost malice of her questioners; and the boy had given short and plain
+replies from which nothing to suit their purpose could be extracted, till
+they forced him to drink brandy, and, when he was stupefied with drink,
+compelled him to sign depositions in which he accused both the queen and
+Elizabeth of having trained him in lessons of vice. At first, horror at so
+monstrous a charge had sealed the queen's lips; but when she gave no
+denial, a juryman questioned her on the subject, and insisted on an
+answer. Then at last Marie Antoinette spoke in sublime indignation. "If I
+have not answered, it was because nature itself rejects such an accusation
+made against a mother. I appeal from it to every mother who hears me."
+
+Marie Antoinette had been allowed two counsel, who, perilous as was the
+duty imposed upon them, cheerfully accepted it as an honor; but it was not
+intended that their assistance should be more than nominal. She had only
+known their names on the evening preceding the trial; but when she
+addressed a letter to the President of the Convention, demanding a
+postponement of the trial for three days, as indispensable to enable them
+to master the case, since as yet they had not had time even to read the
+whole of the indictment, adding that "her duty to her children bound her
+to leave nothing undone which was requisite for the entire justification
+of their mother," the request was rudely refused; and all that the lawyers
+could do was to address eloquent appeals to the judges and jurymen, being
+utterly unable, on so short notice, to analyze as they deserved the
+arguments of the prosecutor or the testimony by which he had professed to
+support them. But before such a tribunal it signified little what was
+proved or disproved, or what was the strength or weakness of the arguments
+employed on either side. It was long after midnight of the second day that
+the trial concluded. The jury at once pronounced the prisoner guilty. The
+judges as instantly passed sentence of death, and ordered it to be
+executed the next morning.
+
+It was nearly five in the morning of the 16th of October when the favorite
+daughter of the great Empress-queen, herself Queen of France, was led from
+the court, not even to the wretched room which she had occupied for the
+last ten weeks, but to the condemned cell, never tenanted before by any
+but the vilest felons. Though greatly exhausted by the length of the
+proceedings, she had heard the sentence without betraying the slightest
+emotion by any change of countenance or gesture. On reaching her cell she
+at once asked for writing materials. They had been withheld from her for
+more than a year, but they were now brought to her; and with them she
+wrote her last letter to that princess whom she had long learned to love
+as a sister of her own, who had shared her sorrows hitherto, and who, at
+no distant period, was to share the fate which was now awaiting herself.
+
+"16th October, 4.30 A.M.
+
+"It is to you, my sister, that I write for the last time. I have just been
+condemned, not to a shameful death, for such is only for criminals, but to
+go and rejoin your brother. Innocent like him, I hope to show the same
+firmness in my last moments. I am calm, as one is when one's conscience
+reproaches one with nothing. I feel profound sorrow in leaving my poor
+children: you know that I only lived for them and for you, my good and
+tender sister. You who out of love have sacrificed everything to be with
+us, in what a position do I leave you! I have learned from the proceedings
+at my trial that my daughter was separated from you. Alas! poor child; I
+do not venture to write to her; she would not receive my letter. I do not
+even know whether this will reach you. Do you receive my blessing for both
+of them. I hope that one day when they are older they may be able to
+rejoin you, and to enjoy to the full your tender care. Let them both think
+of the lesson which I have never ceased to impress upon them, that the
+principles and the exact performance of their duties are the chief
+foundation of life; and then mutual affection and confidence in one
+another will constitute its happiness. Let my daughter feel that at her
+age she ought always to aid her brother by the advice which her greater
+experience and her affection may inspire her to give him. And let my son
+in his turn render to his sister all the care and all the services which
+affection can inspire. Let them, in short, both feel that, in whatever
+positions they may be placed, they will never be truly happy but through
+their union. Let them follow our example. In our own misfortunes how much
+comfort has our affection for one another afforded us! And, in times of
+happiness, we have enjoyed that doubly from being able to share it with a
+friend; and where can one find friends more tender and more united than in
+one's own family? Let my son never forget the last words of his father,
+which I repeat emphatically; let him never seek to avenge our deaths. I
+have to speak to you of one thing which is very painful to my heart, I
+know how much pain the child must have caused you. Forgive him, my dear
+sister; think of his age, and how easy it is to make a child say whatever
+one wishes, especially when he does not understand it.[15] It will come to
+pass one day, I hope, that he will better feel the value of your kindness
+and of your tender affection for both of them. It remains to confide to
+you my last thoughts. I should have wished to write them at the beginning
+of my trial; but, besides that they did not leave me any means of writing,
+events have passed so rapidly that I really have not had time.
+
+"I die in the Catholic Apostolic and Roman religion, that of my fathers,
+that in which I was brought up, and which I have always professed. Having
+no spiritual consolation to look for, not even knowing whether there are
+still in this place any priests of that religion[16] (and indeed the place
+where I am would expose them to too much danger if they were to enter it
+but once), I sincerely implore pardon of God for all the faults which I
+may have committed during my life. I trust that, in his goodness, he will
+mercifully accept my last prayers, as well as those which I have for a
+long time addressed to him, to receive my soul into his mercy. I beg
+pardon of all whom I know, and especially of you, my sister, for all the
+vexations which, without intending it, I may have caused you. I pardon all
+my enemies the evils that they have done me. I bid farewell to my aunts
+and to all my brothers and sisters. I had friends. The idea of being
+forever separated from them and from all their troubles is one of the
+greatest sorrows that I suffer in dying. Let them at least know that to
+my latest moment I thought of them.
+
+"Farewell, my good and tender sister. May this letter reach you. Think
+always of me; I embrace you with all my heart, as I do my poor dear
+children. My God, how heart-rending it is to leave them forever! Farewell!
+farewell! I must now occupy myself with my spiritual duties, as I am not
+free in my actions. Perhaps they will bring me a priest; but I here
+protest that I will not say a word to him, but that I will treat him as a
+person absolutely unknown."
+
+Her forebodings were realized; her letter never reached Elizabeth, but was
+carried to Fouquier, who placed it among his special records. Yet, if in
+those who had thus wrought the writer's destruction there had been one
+human feeling, it might have been awakened by the simple dignity and
+unaffected pathos of this sad farewell. No line that she ever wrote was
+more thoroughly characteristic of her. The innocence, purity, and
+benevolence of her soul shine through every sentence. Even in that awful
+moment she never lost her calm, resigned fortitude, nor her consideration
+for others. She speaks of and feels for her children, for her friends, but
+never for herself. And it is equally characteristic of her that, even in
+her own hopeless situation, she still can cherish hope for others, and can
+look forward to the prospect of those whom she loves being hereafter
+united in freedom and happiness. She thought, it may be, that her own
+death would be the last sacrifice that her enemies would require. And for
+even her enemies and murderers she had a word of pardon, and could address
+a message of mercy for them to her son, who, she trusted, might yet some
+day have power to show that mercy she enjoined, or to execute the
+vengeance which with her last breath she deprecated.
+
+She threw herself on her bed and fell asleep. At seven she was roused by
+the executioner. The streets were already thronged with a fierce and
+sanguinary mob, whose shouts of triumph were so vociferous that she asked
+one of her jailers whether they would tear her to pieces. She was assured
+that, as he expressed it, they would do her no harm. And indeed the
+Jacobins themselves would have protected her from the populace, so anxious
+were they to heap on her every indignity that would render death more
+terrible. Louis had been allowed to quit the Temple in his carriage. Marie
+Antoinette was to be drawn from the prison to the scaffold in a common
+cart, seated on a bare plank; the executioner by her side, holding the
+cords with which her hands were already bound. With a refinement of
+barbarity, those who conducted the procession made it halt more than once,
+that the people might gaze upon her, pointing her out to the mob with
+words and gestures of the vilest insult. She heard them not; her thoughts
+were with God: her lips were uttering nothing but prayers. Once for a
+moment, as she passed in sight of the Tuileries, she was observed to cast
+an agonized look toward its towers, remembering, perhaps, how reluctantly
+she had quit it fourteen months before. It was midday before the cart
+reached the scaffold. As she descended, she trod on the executioner's
+foot. It might seem to have been ordained that her very last words might
+be words of courtesy. "Excuse me, sir," she said, "I did not do it on
+purpose;" and she added, "make haste." In a few moments all was over.
+
+Her body was thrown into a pit in the common cemetery, and covered with
+quicklime to insure its entire destruction. When, more than twenty years
+afterward, her brother-in-law was restored to the throne, and with pious
+affection desired to remove her remains and those of her husband to the
+time-honored resting-place of their royal ancestors at St. Denis, no
+remains of her who had once been the admiration of all beholders could be
+found beyond some fragments of clothing, and one or two bones, among which
+the faithful memory of Châteaubriand believed that he recognized the mouth
+whose sweet smile had been impressed on his memory since the day on which
+it acknowledged his loyalty on his first presentation, while still a boy,
+at Versailles.
+
+Thus miserably perished, by a death fit only for the vilest of criminals,
+Marie Antoinette, the daughter of one sovereign, the wife of another, who
+had never wronged or injured one human being. No one was ever more richly
+endowed with all the charms which render woman attractive, or with all the
+virtues that make her admirable. Even in her earliest years, her careless
+and occasionally undignified levity was but the joyous outpouring of a
+pure innocence of heart that, as it meant no evil, suspected none; while
+it was ever blended with a kindness and courtesy which sprung from a
+genuine benevolence. As queen, though still hardly beyond girlhood when
+she ascended the throne, she set herself resolutely to work by her
+admonitions, and still more effectually by her example, to purify a court
+of which for centuries the most shameless profligacy had been the rule and
+boast; discountenancing vice and impiety by her marked reprobation, and
+reserving all her favor and protection for genius and patriotism, and
+honor and virtue. Surrounded at a later period by unexampled dangers and
+calamities, she showed herself equal to every vicissitude of fortune, and
+superior to its worst frowns. If her judgment occasionally erred, it was
+in cases where alternatives of evil were alone offered to her choice, and
+in which it is even now scarcely possible to decide what course would have
+been wiser or safer than that which she adopted. And when at last the long
+conflict was terminated by the complete victory of her combined enemies--
+when she, with her husband and her children, was bereft not only of power,
+but even of freedom, and was a prisoner in the hands of those whose
+unalterable object was her destruction--she bore her accumulated miseries
+with a serene resignation, an intrepid fortitude, a true heroism of soul,
+of which the history of the world does not afford a brighter example.
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+[1] One entitled "Marie-Antoinette, correspondance secrète entre Marie-
+Thérèse et le Comte Mercy d'Argenteau, avec des lettres de Marie-Thérèse
+et de Marie-Antoinette." (The edition referred to in this work is the
+greatly enlarged second edition in three volumes, published at Paris,
+1875.) The second is entitled "Marie-Antoinette, Joseph II., and Leopold
+II," published at Leipsic, 1866.
+
+[2] Entitled "Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette, et Madame Elizabeth," in six
+volumes, published at intervals from 1864 to 1873.
+
+[3] In his "Nouveau Lundi," March 5th, 1866, M. Sainte-Beuve challenged M.
+Feuillet de Conches to a more explicit defense of the authenticity of his
+collection than he had yet vouchsafed; complaining, with some reason, that
+his delay in answering the charges brought against it "was the more
+vexatious because his collection was only attacked in part, and in many
+points remained solid and valuable." And this challenge elicited from M.F.
+de Conches a very elaborate explanation of the sources from which he
+procured his documents, which he published in the _Revue des Deux Mondes_,
+July 15th, 1866, and afterward in the Preface to his fourth volume. That
+in a collection of nearly a thousand documents he may have occasionally
+been too credulous in accepting cleverly executed forgeries as genuine
+letters is possible, and even probable; in fact, the present writer
+regards it as certain. But the vast majority, including all those of the
+greatest value, can not be questioned without imputing to him a guilty
+knowledge that they were forgeries--a deliberate bad faith, of which no
+one, it is believed, has ever accused him.
+
+It may be added that it is only from the letters of this later period that
+any quotations are made in the following work; and the greater part of the
+letters so cited exists in the archives at Vienna, while the others, such
+as those, addressed by the Queen, to Madame de Polignac, etc., are just
+such as were sure to be preserved as relics by the families of those to
+whom they were addressed, and can therefore hardly be considered as liable
+to the slightest suspicion.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+[1] Sainte-Beuve, "Nouveaux Lundis," August 8th, 1864.
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+[1] "Histoire de Marie Antoinette," par E. and J. de Goncourt, p. 11.
+
+[2] How popular masked halls were in London at this time may be learned
+from Walpole's "Letters," and especially from a passage in which he gives
+an account of one given by "sixteen or eighteen young Lords" just two
+months before this ball at Vienna.--_Walpole to Mann_, dated February
+27th, 1770. Some one a few years later described the French nation as half
+tiger and half monkey; and it is a singular coincidence that Walpole's
+comment on this masquerading fashion should be, "It is very lucky, seeing
+how much of the tiger enters into the human composition, that there should
+be a good dose of the monkey too."
+
+[3] "Mémoires concernant Marie Antoinette," par Joseph Weber (her foster-
+brother), i., p. 6.
+
+[4] "Goethe's Biography," p. 287.
+
+[5] "Mémoires de Bachaumont," January 30th, 1770.
+
+[6] La maison du roi.
+
+[7] Chevalier d'honneur. We have no corresponding office at the English
+court.
+
+[8] The king said, "Vous étiez déjà de la famille, car votre mère a l'âme
+de Louis le Grand."--SAINTE-BEUVE, _Nouveaux Lundis_, viii., p. 322.
+
+[9] In the language of the French heralds, the title princes of the royal
+family was confined to the children or grandchildren of the reigning
+sovereign. His nephews and cousins were only princes of the blood.
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+[1] The word is Maria Teresa's own; "anti-français" occurring in more than
+one of her letters.
+
+[2] Quoted by Mme. du Deffand in a letter to Walpole, dated May 19th, 1770
+("Correspondance complète de Mme. du Deffand," ii., p.59).
+
+[3] Mercy to Marie-Thérèse, August 4th, 1770; "Correspondance secrète
+entre Marie-Thérèse et la Comte de Mercy Argenteau, avec des Lettres de
+Marie-Thérèse et Marie Antoinette," par M. le Chevalier Alfred d'Arneth,
+i., p. 29. For the sake of brevity, this Collection will be hereafter
+referred to as "Arneth."
+
+[4] "The King of France is both hated and despised, which seldom happens
+to the same man."--LORD CHESTERFIELD, _Letter to Mr. Dayrolles_, dated May
+19th, 1752.
+
+[5] Maria Teresa died in December, 1780.
+
+[6] Mme. du Deffand, letter of May 19th, 1770.
+
+[7] Chambier, i., p. 60.
+
+[8] Mme. de Campan, i., p. 3.
+
+[9] He told Mercy she was "'vive et un peu enfant, mais," ajouta-t-il,
+"cela est bien de son âge.'"--ARNETH, i., p. 11.
+
+[10] Arneth, i., p.9-16
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+[1] Dates 9th and 12th., Arneth, i., pp. 16, 18.
+
+[2] Marly was a palace belonging to the king, but little inferior in
+splendor to Versailles itself, and a favorite residence of Louis XV.,
+because a less strict etiquette had been established there. Choisy and
+Bellevue, which will often be mentioned in the course of this narrative,
+were two others of the royal palaces on a somewhat smaller scale. They
+have both been destroyed. Marly, Choisy, and Bellevue were all between
+Versailles and Paris.
+
+[3] Mém. de Goncourt, quoting a MS. diary of Hardy, p. 35.
+
+[4] De Vermond, who had accompanied her from Vienna as her reader.
+
+[5] See St. Simon's account of Dangeau, i., p. 392.
+
+[6] The Duc de Noailles, brother-in-law of the countess, "l'homme de
+France qui a peut-être le plus d'esprit et qui connait le mieux son
+souverain et la cour," told Mercy in August that "jugeant d'après son
+expérience et d'après les qualités qu'il voyait dans cette princesse, il
+était persuadé qu'elle gouvernerait un jour l'esprit du roi."--ARNETH, i.,
+p. 34.
+
+[7] La petite rousse.
+
+[8] "De monter à cheval gâte le teint, et votre taille à la longue s'en
+ressentira."--_Marie-Thérèse à Marie-Antoinette_, Arneth, i., p. 104.
+
+[9] "On fit chercher partout des ânes fort doux et tranquilles. Le 21 on
+répéta la promenade sur les ânes. Mesdames voulurent être de la partie
+ainsi que le Comte de Provence et le Comte d'Artois."--_Mercy à Marie-
+Thérèse_, September 19, 1770, Arneth, i., p. 49.
+
+[10] "Madame la Dauphine, à laquelle le trésor royal doit remettre 6000
+frs. par mois, n'a réellement pas un écu dont elle peut disposer elle-même
+et sans le concours de personne" (Octobre 20).--ARNETH, i. p. 69.
+
+[11] "Ses garçons de chambre reçoivent cent louis [a louis was twenty-four
+francs, so that the hundred made 2100 francs out of her 6000] par mois
+pour la dépense du jeu de S.A.R.; et soit qu'elle perde ou qu'elle gagne,
+on ne revoit rien de cette somme."--ARNETH, i.
+
+[12] "Mme. Adelaide ajouta, 'On voit bien que vous n'êtes pas de notre
+sang.'"--ARNETH, i., p. 94.
+
+[13] Arneth, i., p. 95.
+
+[14] "Finalement, Mme. la Dauphine se fait adorer de ses entours et du
+public; il n'est pas encore survenu un seul inconvénient grave dans sa
+conduite."--_Mercy à Marie-Thérèse_, Novembre 16, Arneth, i., p. 98.
+
+[15] Prince de Ligne, "Mém." ii., p. 79.
+
+[16] Mercy to Maria Teresa, dated November 17th, 1770, Arneth, i., p. 94.
+
+[17] Mercy to Maria Teresa, dated February 25th, 1771, Arneth, i, p. 134.
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+[1] See the "Citizen of the World," Letter 55. Reference has often been
+made to Lord Chesterfield's prediction of the French Revolution. But I am
+not aware that any one has remarked on the equally acute foresight of
+Goldsmith.
+
+[2] Letter of April 16th, 1771, Arneth, i., p. 148.
+
+[3] Arneth, i., p. 186.
+
+[4] Maria Teresa to Marie Antoinette, July 9th, and August 17th, Arneth,
+i., p. 196.
+
+[5] "Ne soyez pas honteuse d'être allemande jusqu'aux gaucheries.... Le
+Français vous estimera plus et fera plus de compte sur vous s'il vous
+trouve la solidité et la franchise allemande."--_Maria Teresa to Marie
+Antoinette._ May 8th, 1771, Arneth, i., p. 159.
+
+[6] Walpole's letter to Sir H. Mann, June 8th, 1771, v., p. 301.
+
+[7] Mercy to Maria Teresa, January 23d, 1772, Arneth, i., p. 265.
+
+[8] The Duc de la Vauguyon, who, after the dauphin's marriage, still
+retained his post with his younger brother.
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+[1] Mercy's letter to the empress, August 14th, 1772, Arneth, i., p. 335.
+
+[2] Mercy to Maria Teresa, November 14th, 1772, Arneth, i., p. 307.
+
+[3] Marie Antoinette to Maria Teresa, December 15th, 1772, Arneth, i., p.
+382.
+
+[4] Her sister Caroline, Queen of Naples.
+
+[5] Her brother Leopold, at present Grand Duke of Tuscany, afterward
+emperor. His wife, Marie Louise, was a daughter of Charles III. of Spain.
+
+[6] They, with several of the princes of the blood and some of the peers,
+as already mentioned, had been banished for their opposition to the
+abolition of the Parliaments; but now, in the hopes of obtaining the
+king's consent to his marriage with Madame de Montessan, a widow of
+enormous wealth, the Due d'Orléans made overtures for forgiveness,
+accompanying them, however, with a letter so insolent that it might we be
+regarded as an aggravation of his original offense. According to Madame du
+Deffand (letter to Walpole, December 18th, 1772, vol. ii., p. 283), he was
+only prevented from reconciling himself to the king some months before by
+his son, the Due de Chartres (afterward the infamous Égalité), whom she
+describes as "a young man, very obstinate, and who hopes to play a great
+part by putting himself at the head of a faction." The princes, however,
+in the view of the shrewd old lady, had made the mistake of greatly
+overrating their own importance. "These great princes, since their
+protest, have been just citizens of the Rue St. Denis. No one at court
+ever perceived their absence, and no one in the city ever noticed their
+presence."
+
+[7] Lord Stormont, the English Embassador at Vienna, from which city he
+was removed to Paris. In the preceding September Maria Teresa had
+complained to him of being "animated against her cabinet, from indignation
+at the partition of Poland."
+
+[8] That is, sisters-in-law--the Princesses Clotilde and Elizabeth.
+
+[9] The Hotel-Dieu was the most ancient hospital in Paris. It had already
+existed several hundred years when Philip Augustus enlarged it, and gave
+it the name of Maison de Dieu. Henry IV. and his successors had further
+enlarged it, and enriched it with monuments; and even the revolutionists
+respected it, though when they had disowned the existence of God they
+changed its name to that of L'Hospice de l'Humanité. It had been almost
+destroyed by fire a fortnight before the date of this letter, on the night
+of the 29th of December.
+
+[10] St. Anthony's Day was June 14th, and her name of Antoinette was
+regarded as placing her under his especial protection.
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+[1] They have not, however, been preserved.
+
+[2] Mercy to Maria Teresa, June 16th, 1773, Arneth, i., p. 467.
+
+[3] "Marie Antoinette, Louis XVI., et la Famille Royale", p. 23.
+
+[4] Marie Antoinette to Maria Theresa, July 17th, Arneth, ii., p. 8.
+
+[5] "Histoire de Marie Antoinette," par M. de Goncourt, p. 50. Quoting an
+unpublished journal by M.M. Hardy, in the Royal Library.
+
+[6] It is the name by which she is more than once described in Madame du
+Deffand's letters. See her "Correspondence," ii., p. 357.
+
+[7] Mercy to Maria Teresa, December 11th, 1773, Arneth, ii., p. 81.
+
+[8] "Mémoires de Besenval," i., p. 304.
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+[1] Mercy to Maria Teresa, August 14th, 1773, Arneth, ii., p. 31.
+
+[2] The money was a joint gift from herself as well as from him. Great
+distress, arising from the extraordinarily high price of bread, was at
+this time prevailing in Paris.
+
+[3] The term most commonly used by Marie Antoinette in her letters to her
+mother to describe Madame du Barri. She was ordered to retire to the Abbey
+of Pont-aux-Dames, near Meaux. Subsequently she was allowed to return to
+Luciennes, a villa which her royal lover had given her.
+
+[4] Madame de Mazarin was the lady who, by the fulsomeness of her
+servility to Madame du Barri, provoked Madame du Deffand (herself a lady
+not altogether _sans reproche_) to say that it was not easy to carry "the
+heroism of baseness and absurdity farther."
+
+[5] Lorraine had become a French province a few years before, on the death
+of Stanislaus Leczinsky, father of the queen of Louis XV.
+
+[6] Maria Teresa to Marie Antoinette, May 18th, and to Mercy on the same
+day, Arneth, ii., p. 149.
+
+[7] See his letter of 8th May to Maria Teresa. "Il faut que pour la suite
+de son bonheur, elle commence à s'emparer de l'autorité que M. le Dauphin
+n'exercera jamais que d'une façon convenable, et ... ce serait du dernier
+danger et pour l'état et pour le système général que qui ce soit s'emparât
+de M. le Dauphin et qu'il fut conduit par autre que par Madame la
+Dauphine."--ARNETH, ii., p. 137.
+
+[8] "Je parle à l'amie, à la confidente du roi."--_Maria Teresa to Marie
+Antoinette_, May 30th, 1770, Arneth, ii., p. 155.
+
+[9] "Jusqu'à présent l'étiquette de cette cour a toujours interdit aux
+reines et princesses royales de manger avec des hommes."--_Mercy to Maria
+Teresa_, June 7th, 1774, Arneth, ii, p. 164
+
+[10] "Elle me traite, à mon arrivée, comme tous les jeunes gens qui
+composaient ses pages, qu'elle comblait de bontés, en leur montrant une
+bienveillance pleine de dignité, mais qu'on pouvait aussi appeler
+maternelle."--_Marie Thérèse, Mémoires de Tilly_, i., p. 25.
+
+[11] Le don, ou le droit, de joyeux avènement.
+
+[12] La ceinture de la reine. It consisted of three pence (deniers) on
+each hogs-head of wine imported into the city, and was levied every three
+years in the capital.--ARNETH, ii, p. 179.
+
+[13] The title "ceinture de la reine" had been given to it because in the
+old times queens and all other ladies had carried their purses at their
+girdles.
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+[1] The title by which the count was usually known: that of the countess
+was madame.
+
+[2] St. Simon, 1709, ch. v., and 1715, ch. i, vols. vii. and xiii., ed.
+1829.
+
+[3] Ibid., 1700, ch xxx., vol. ii., p. 469.
+
+[4] Arneth, ii, p. 206.
+
+[5] Madame de Campan, ch. iv.
+
+[6] Madame de Campan, ch. v., p. 106.
+
+[7] _Id._, p. 101.
+
+[8] "_Sir Peter_. Ah, madam, true wit is more neatly allied to good--
+nature than your ladyship is aware of."--_School for Scandal_, act ii.,
+sc. 2.
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+[1] "Elle avait entièrement le défaut contraire [à la prodigalité], et je
+pouvais prouver qu'elle portait souvent l'économie jusqu'à des détails
+d'une mesquinerie blâmable, surtout dans une souveraine."--MADAME DE
+CAMPAN, ch. v., p. 106, ed. 1858.
+
+[2] Arneth, ii., p. 307.
+
+[3] See the author's "History of France under the Bourbons," iii., p.
+418. Lacretelle, iv., p. 368, affirms that this outbreak, for which in his
+eyes "une prétendue disette" was only a pretext, was "évidemment fomenté
+par des hommes puissans," and that "un salaire qui était payé par des
+hommes qu'on ne pouvait nommer aujourd'hui avec assez de certitude,
+excitait leurs fureurs factices."
+
+[4] La Guerre des Farines.
+
+[5] Arneth, ii., p. 342.
+
+[6] "Souvenirs de Vaublanc," i., p. 231.
+
+[7] August 23d, 1775, No. 1524, in Cunningham's edition, vol. vi., p. 245.
+
+[8] The Prince of Wales and the Duke of York, who were just at this time
+astonishing London with their riotous living.
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+[1] "Gustave III. et la Cour de France," i. p. 279.
+
+[2] The Duc d'Angoulême, afterward dauphin, when the Count d'Artois
+succeeded to the throne as Charles X.
+
+[3] Marie Antoinette to Maria Teresa, August 12th, 1775, Arneth, ii., p.
+366.
+
+[4] "Le projet de la reine était d'exiger du roi que le Sieur Turgot fût
+chassé, même envoyé à la Bastille ... et il a fallu les représentations
+les plus fortes et les plus instantes pour arrêter les effets de la colère
+de la Reine."--_Mercy to Maria Teresa_, May 16th, 1776, Arneth, ii., p.
+446.
+
+[5] The compiler of "Marie Antoinette, Louis XVI., et La Famille Royale"
+(date April 24th, 1776) has a story of a conversation between the king and
+queen which illustrates her feeling toward the minister. She had just come
+in from the opera. He asked her "how she had been received by the
+Parisians; if she had had the usual cheers." She made no reply; the king
+understood her silence. "Apparently, madame, you had not feathers enough."
+"I should have liked to have seen you there, sir, with your St. Germain
+and your Turgot; you would have been rudely hissed." St. Germain was the
+minister of war.
+
+[6] Mercy to Maria Teresa, May 16th, 1776, Arneth, ii., p. 446.
+
+[7] January 14th, 1776, Arneth, ii., p. 414.
+
+[8] The ground-floor of the palace was occupied by the shops of jewelers
+and milliners, some of whom were great sufferers by the fire.
+
+[9] In a letter written at the end of 1775, Mercy reports to the empress
+that some of Turgot's economical reforms had produced real discontent
+among those "qui trouvent leur intérêt dans le désordre," which they had
+vented in scandalous and seditious writings. Many songs of that character
+had come out, some of which were attributed to Beaumarchais, "le roi et la
+reine n'y ont point été respectés."--_December 17th_, 1775. Arneth, ii, p.
+410.
+
+[10] Mercy to Maria Teresa, November 15th, 1776, Arneth, ii., p. 524.
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+[1] "Le petit nombre de ceux que la Reine appelle 'sa société'"--_Mercy to
+Marie Teresa_, February 15th, 1777, Arneth, iii., p. 18.
+
+[2] "Il faut cependant convenir que dans ces circonstances si rapprochées
+de la familiarité, la Reine, par un maintien qui tient à son âme, a
+toujours su imprimer à ceux qui l'entouraient une contenance de respect
+qui contrebalançait un peu la liberté des propos."--_Mercy to Maria
+Teresa_, Arneth, ii, p.520.
+
+[3] Brunoy is about fifteen miles from Paris.
+
+[4] "Au reste il est temps pour la santé de la Reine que le carnaval
+finisse. On remarque qu'elle s'en altère, et que sa Majesté maigrit
+beaucoup."--_Marie Thérèse à Louis XVI._, la date Février 1, 1777, p 101.
+
+[5] Once when he had spoken to her with a severity which alarmed Mercy,
+who feared it might irritate the queen, "Il me dit en riant qu'il en avait
+agi ainsi pour sonder l'âme de la reine, et voir si par la force il n'y
+aurait pas moyen d'obtenir plus que par la douceur."--_Mercy to Maria
+Teresa_, Arneth, iii., p. 79.
+
+[6] Arneth, iii., p. 73.
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+[1] When Mercy remonstrated with her on her relapse into some of her old
+habits from which at first she seemed to have weaned herself, "La seule
+réponse que j'aie obtenu a été la crainte de s'ennuyer."--_Mercy to Maria
+Teresa_, November 19th, 1777, Arneth, iii., p. 13.
+
+[2] See Marie Antoinette's account to her mother of his quarrel with the
+Duchess de Bourbon at a _bal de l'opéra_, Arneth, iii., p. 174.
+
+[3] "Il y a apparence que notre marine dont on s'occupe depuis longtemps
+va bientôt être en activité. Dieu veuille que tous ces mouvements
+n'amènent pas la guerre de terre."--_Marie Antoinette to Maria Teresa_,
+March 18th, 1777, Arneth, iii., p. 174.
+
+[4] "Jamais les Anglais n'ont eu tant de supériorité sur mer; mais ils en
+eurent sur les Français dans tous les temps."--_Siècle de Louis_, ch xxxv.
+
+[5] The Comte de la Marck, who knew him well, says of him, "Il était
+gauche dans toutes ses manières; sa taille était très élevée, ses cheveux
+très roux, il dansait sans grâce, montait mal à cheval, et les jeunes gens
+avec lesquels il vivait se montraient plus adroits que lui dans les
+diverses exercices d'alors à la mode." He describes his income as "une
+fortune de 120,000 livres de rente," a little under £5000 a year.--
+_Correspondance entre le Comte de Mirabeau et le Comte de la Marck_, i. p.
+47.
+
+[6] "On a parlé de moi dans tous les cercles, même après que la bonté de
+la reine m'eut valu le régiment du roi dragons."--_Mémoires de ma Main,
+Mémoires de La Fayette_, i., p 86.
+
+[7] "La lettre où Votre Majesté, parlant du Roi de Prusse, s'exprime ainsi
+.... 'cela ferait un changement dans notre alliance, ce qui me donnerait
+la mort,' j'ai vu la reine pâlir en me lisant cet article."--_Mercy to
+Maria Teresa_, February 18th, 1778, Arneth, iii., p. 170.
+
+[8] See Coxe's "House of Austria," ch. cxxi. The war, which was marked by
+no action or event of importance, was terminated by the treaty of Teschen,
+May 10th, 1779.
+
+[9] "Il n'a pas voulu y consentir, et a toujours été attentif à exciter
+lui-même la reine aux choses qu'il jugeait pouvoir lui être agréables."--
+_Mercy to Maria Teresa_, March 29th, 1778, Arneth, iii., p. 177.
+
+[10] Marie Antoinette to Joseph II, and Leopold II., p. 21, date January
+16th, 1778.
+
+[11] Louis.
+
+[12] Marie Antoinette to Maria Teresa, May 16th, Arneth, iii., p. 200.
+
+[13] Weber, i., p.40.
+
+[14] One of his admirers, seeing his mortification, said to him: "You are
+very simple to have wished to go to court. Do you know what would have
+happened to you? I will tell you. The king, with his usual affability,
+would have laughed in your face, and talked to you of your converts at
+Ferney. The queen would have spoken of your plays. Monsieur would have
+asked you what your income was. Madame would have quoted some of your
+verses. The Countess of Artois would have said nothing at all; and the
+count would have conversed with you about 'the Maid of Orleans.'"--_Marie
+Antoinette, Louis XVI. et la Famille Royale_, p. 125, March 3d.
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+[1] "La cour se précipite pêle-mêle avec la foule, car l'étiquette de
+France veut que tous entrent à ce moment, que nul ne soit refusé, et que
+le spectacle soit public d'une reine qui va donner un héritier à la
+couronne, ou seulement un enfant au roi."--_Mém. de Goncourt_, p. 105.
+
+[2] Arneth, iii., p. 270.
+
+[3] Madame de Campan, ch. ix.
+
+[4] _Ibid_., ch. ix.
+
+[5] Chambrier, i., p. 394.
+
+[6] "Marie Antoinette, Louis XVI., et la Famille Royale," p. 147, December
+24th, 1778.
+
+[7] _Garde-malades_ was the name given to them.
+
+[8] "Du moment qu'ils [les enfants] peuvent être à l'air on les y
+accoutume petit à petit, et ils finissent par y être presque toujours; je
+crois que c'est la manière la plus saine et la meilleure des les élever."
+
+[9] Letter of Marie Antoinette to Maria Teresa, May 15th, 1779, Arneth,
+iii., p. 311.
+
+[10] Maria Teresa had offered the mediation of the empire to restore peace
+between England and France.
+
+[11] Spain had recently entered into the alliance against England in the
+hope of recovering Gibraltar. And just at the date of this letter the
+combined fleet of sixty-six sail of the line sailed into the Channel,
+while a French army of 50,000 men was waiting at St. Malo to invade
+England so soon as the British Channel fleet should have been defeated;
+but, though Sir Charles Hardy had only forty sail under his orders,
+D'Orvilliers and his Spanish colleague retreated before him, and at the
+beginning of September, from fear of the equinoctial gales, of which the
+queen here speaks with such alarm, retired to their own harbors, without
+even venturing to come to action with a foe of scarcely two-thirds of
+their own strength. See the author's "History of the British Navy," ch.
+xiv.
+
+[12] Letter of September 15th.
+
+[13] Letter of October 14th.
+
+[14] Letter of November 16th.
+
+[15] Letter of November 17th.
+
+[16] Kaunitz had been the prime minister of the empress, who negotiated
+the alliances with France and Russia, which were the preparations for the
+Seven Years' War.
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+[1] "On assure que sa majesté ne joue pas bien; ce que personne, excepté
+le roi, n'a osé lui dire. Au contraire, on l'applaudit à tout rompre."--
+_Marie Antoinette, Louis XVI. et la Famille Royale_ p. 203, date September
+28th, 1780.
+
+[2] In May, 1780, Sir Henry Clinton took Charleston, with a great number
+of prisoners, a great quantity of stores and four hundred guns.--LORD
+STANHOPE'S _History of England_, ch. lxii.
+
+[3] "Cette disposition a été faite deux ans plutôt que ne le comporte
+l'usage établi pour les enfants de France."--_Mercy to Maria Teresa_,
+October 14th, Arneth, iii. p. 476.
+
+[4] Madame de Campan, ch. ix.
+
+[5] "Gustave III. et la Cour de France," i., p. 349.
+
+[6] An order known as that "du Mérite" had been recently distributed for
+foreign Protestant officers, whose religion prevented them from taking the
+oath required of the Knights of the Grand Order of St. Louis.
+
+[7] "Sa figure et son air convenaient parfaitement à un héros de roman,
+mais non pas d'un roman français; il n'en avait ni le brillant ni
+légèreté."--_Souvenirs et Portraits_, par M. de Levis, p. 130.
+
+[8] "La Marck et Mirabeau," p. 32.
+
+[9] See his letter to Lord North proposing peace, date December 1st, 1780.
+Lord Stanhope's "History of England," vol. vii., Appendix, p. 13.
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+[1] "Gustave III. et la Cour de France," i., p. 357.
+
+[2] Chambrier, i., p. 430; "Gustave III.," etc., i., p. 353.
+
+[3] "Gustave III.," etc., i., p. 353.
+
+[4] "Mémoires de Weber," i., p. 50.
+
+[5] "On s'arrêtait dans les rues, on se parlait sans se connaître."--
+Madame de Campan, ch. ix.
+
+[6] L'Oeil de Boeuf.
+
+[7] Madame de Campan, ch. ix.; "Marie Antoinette, Louis XII., et la
+Famille Royale," p. 238.
+
+[8] "Un soleil d'été"--Weber, i., p. 53.
+
+[9] La Muette derived its name from _les mues_ of the deer who were reared
+there. It had been enlarged by the Regent d'Orléans, who gave it to his
+daughter, the Duchess de Berri; and it, was the frequent scene of the
+orgies of that infamous father and daughter, while more recently it had
+been known as the Parc aux Cerfs, under which title it had acquired a
+still more infamous reputation.
+
+[10] "Après le dîner il y eut appartement jeu, et la fête fut terminée par
+un feu d'artifice."--Weber, i., p. 57, from whom the greater part of those
+details are taken. For the etiquette of the "jeu," see Madame de Campan,
+ch. ix., p. 17, and 2 ed. 1858.
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+[1] Mercy to Maria Teresa, June 18th, 1780, Arneth iii., p. 440.
+
+[2] Le tabouret. See St. Simon.
+
+[3] See _infra_, the queen's letter to Madame de Tourzel, date July 25th,
+1789.
+
+[4] "Souvenirs de Quarante Ans," by Mademoiselle de Tourzel, p. 20.
+
+[5] "Filia dolorosa."--Châteaubriand.
+
+[6] Napoleon, in 1814, called her the only man of her family.
+
+[7] Madame de Campan, ch. x.
+
+[8] Mémoires de Madame d'Oberkirch, i., p. 279
+
+[9] The Marshal Prince de Soubise, whose incapacity and cowardice caused
+the disgraceful rout of Rosbach, was the head of this family; his sister,
+Madame Marsan, as governess of the "children of France", had brought up
+Louis XVI.
+
+[10] "Il [Rohan] a même menacé, si on ne veut pas prendre le bon chemin
+qui lui indique, que ma fille s'en ressentira."--_Marie-Thérèse à Mercy_,
+August 28th, 1774, Arneth, ii., p. 226.
+
+[11] "Ils paraissent si excédés du grand monde et des fêtes, qu'avec
+d'autres petites difficultés qui se sont élevées, nous avons décidé qu'il
+n'y aurait rien à Marly."--_Marie Antoinette to Mercy; Marie Antoinette,
+Joseph II., and Leopold II_., p. 27.
+
+[12] "No fewer than five actions were fought in 1782, and the spring of
+1783, by those unwearied foes. De Suffrein's force was materially the
+stronger of the two; it consisted of ten sail of the line, one fifty-gun
+ship, and four frigates; while Sir E. Hughes had but eight sail of the
+line, a fifty-gun ship, and one frigate," See the author's "History of the
+British Navy," i., p. 400.
+
+[13] Weber, i., p. 77. For the importance at this time attached to a
+reception at court, see Châteaubriand, "Mémoires d'Outre-tombe," i., p.
+221.
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+[1] Joseph to Marie Antoinette, date September 9th, 1783.--_Marie
+Antoinette, Joseph II., and Leopold II._, p.30, which, to save such a
+lengthened reference, will hereafter be referred to as "Arneth."
+
+[2] She was again expecting a confinement; but, as had happened between
+the birth of Madame Royale and that of the dauphin, an accident
+disappointed her hope, and her third child was not born till 1785.
+
+[3] Date September 29th, 1783, Arneth, p. 35.
+
+[4] Ministre de la maison du roi.
+
+[5] Arneth, p. 38.
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+[1] "Le roi signa une lettre de cachet qui défendait cette
+représentation."--Madame de Campan, ch. xi.; see the whole chapter. Madame
+de Campan's account of the queen's inclinations on the subject differs
+from that given by M. de Loménie, in his "Beaumarchais et son Temps," but
+seems more to be relied on, as she had certainly better means of
+information.
+
+[2] See M. Gaillard's report to the lieutenant of police.--_Beaumarchais
+et son Temps_, ii., p. 313.
+
+[3] "Il n'y a que les petits hommes qui redoutent les petits écrits."--
+_Act v., scene_ 3.
+
+[4] "Avec _Goddam_ en, Angleterre on ne manque de rien nulle part. Voulez-
+vous tâter un bon poulet gras ... _Goddam_ ... Aimez-vous à boire un coup
+d'excellent Bourgogne ou de clairet? rien que celui-ci _Goddam_. Les
+Anglais à la vérité ajoutent par-ci par-là autres mots en conversant, mais
+il est bien aisé de voir que _Goddam_ est le fond de la langue."--_Act_
+iii., _scene_ 5.
+
+[5] "Gustave III. et la Cour de France," ii., p.22
+
+[6] _Ibid_., p. 35.
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+[1] "De par la reine."
+
+[2] Madame de Campan, ch. xi.
+
+[3] "'La légèreté à tout croire et à tout dire des souverains,' écrit très
+justement M. Nisard (_Moniteur_ du 22 Janvier, 1886), 'est un des travers
+de notre pays, et comme le défaut de notre qualité de nation monarchique.
+C'est ce travers qui a tué Marie Antoinette par la main des furieux qui
+eurent peut-être des honnêtes gens pour complices. Sa mort devait rendre à
+jamais impossible en France la calomnie politique.'"--Chambrier, i., p.
+494.
+
+[4] "Mémoires de la Reine de France," par M. Lafont d'Aussonne, p. 42.
+
+[5] See her letters to Mercy, December 26th, 1784, and to the emperor,
+December 31st, 1784, and February 4th, 1785, Arneth, p. 64, _et seq._
+
+[6] "J'ai été réellement touchée, de la raison et de la fermeté que le roi
+a mises dans cette rude séance."--_Marie Antoinette to Joseph II._, August
+22d, 1785, Arneth, p. 93.
+
+[7] "La calomnie s'est attachée à poursuivre la reine, même avant cette
+époque où l'esprit de parti a fait disparaître la vérité de la terre."--
+Madame de Staël, _Procès de la Reine_, p. 2
+
+[8] Madame de Campan, "Éclaircissements Historiques," p. 461; "Marie
+Antoinette et le Procès du Collier," par M. Émile Campardon, p. 144,
+_seq._
+
+[9] "Permet au Cardinal de Rohan et au dit de Cagliostro de faire imprimer
+et afficher le présent arrêt partout où bon leur semblera."--Campardon, p.
+152.
+
+[10] "Sans doute le cardinal avait les mains pures de toute fraude; sans
+doute il n'était pour rien dans l'escroquerie commise par les époux de La
+Mothe."--Campardon, p. 155.
+
+[11] Campardon, p. 153, quoting Madame de Campan.
+
+[12] The most recent French historian, M.H. Martin, sees in this trial a
+proof of the general demoralization of the whole French nation.
+"L'impression qui en résulte pour nous est l'impossibilité que la reine
+ait été coupable. Mais plus les imputations dirigées contre elle étaient
+vraisemblables, plus la créance accordée à ces imputations était
+caractéristique, et attestait la ruine morale de la monarchie. C'était
+l'ombre du Parc aux Cerfs qui couvrait toujours Versailles."--_Histoire de
+France_, xvi., p. 559, ed. 1860.
+
+[13] Feuillet de Conches, i., p. 161.
+
+[14] Feuillet de Conches, i., p. 162. Some of the critics of M.F. de
+Conches's collection have questioned without sufficient reason the
+probability of there having been any correspondence between the queen and
+her elder sister. But the genuineness of this letter is strongly
+corroborated by a mistake into which no forger would have fallen. The
+queen speaks as if the cardinal had alleged that he had given her a rose;
+while his statement really was that Oliva, personating the queen, had
+dropped a rose at his feet. A forger would have made the letter Correspond
+with the evidence and the fact. The queen, in her agitation, might easily
+make a mistake.
+
+[15] "Il se retira dans son évêché de l'autre côté du Rhin. Là sa noble
+conduite fit oublier les torts de sa vie passée," etc.--Campardon, p. 156.
+
+[16] Campardon, p. 156.
+
+[17] It was from Ettenheim that the Duke d'Enghien was carried off in
+March, 1804. The cardinal died in February, 1803.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+[1] "Le duc déclarait de son côté à Mr. Elliott que ... si la reine l'eût
+mieux traité il eut peut-être mieux fait."--Chambrier, i., p.519
+
+[2] Sophie Hélène Béatrix, born July 9th, 1786, died June 9th, 1787, F. de
+Conches, i. p. 195.
+
+[3] See her letter to her brother, February, 1788, Arneth, p. 112.
+
+[4] "C'est un vrai enfant de paysan, grand frais et gros."--Arneth, pp.
+113.
+
+[5] Feuillet de Conches, i, p. 195.
+
+[6] Apparently she means the Notables and the Parliament.
+
+[7] The Duc de Guines.
+
+[8] See _ante_, ch. xviii.
+
+[9] "'Il faut,' dit-il, avec un mouvement d'impatience qui lui fit
+honneur, 'que, du moins, l'archevêque de Paris croie en Dieu.'"--
+_Souvenirs par le Duc de Levis_, p. 102.
+
+[10] The continuer of Sismondi's history, A. Renée, however, attributes
+the archbishop's appointment to the influence of the Baron de Breteuil.
+
+[11] "Son grand art consistait à parler à chacun des choses qu'il croyait
+qu'on ignorait."--De Levis, p. 100.
+
+[12] The loan he proposed in June was eighty millions (of francs); in
+October, that which he demanded was four hundred and forty millions.
+
+[13] It is worth noticing that the French people in general did not regard
+the power of arbitrary imprisonment exercised by their kings as a
+grievance. In their eyes it was one of his most natural prerogatives. A
+year or two before the time of which we are speaking, Dr. Moore, the
+author of "Zeluco," and father of Sir John Moore, who fell at Corunna, was
+traveling in France, and was present at a party of French merchants and
+others of the same rank, who asked him many questions about the English
+Constitution, When he said that the King of England could not impose a tax
+by his own authority, "they said, with some degree of satisfaction,
+'Cependant c'est assez beau cela.'"... But when he informed them "that the
+king himself had not the power to encroach upon the liberty of the meanest
+of his subjects, and that if he or the minister did so, damages were
+recoverable in a court of law, a loud and prolonged 'Diable!' issued from
+every mouth. They forgot their own situation, and turned to their natural
+bias of sympathy with the king, who, they all seemed to think, must be the
+most oppressed and injured of manhood. One of them at last, addressing
+himself to the English politician, said, 'Tout ce que je puis vous dire,
+monsieur, c'est que votre pauvre roi est bien à plaindre.'"--_A View of
+the Society and Manners in France_, etc., by Dr. John Moore, vol. i., p.
+47, ed. 1788.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+[1] Feuillet de Conches, i., p. 205.
+
+[2] M. Foulon was about this time made paymaster of the army and navy, and
+was generally credited with ability as a financier; but he was unpopular,
+as a man of ardent and cruel temper, and was brutally murdered by the mob
+in one of the first riots of the Revolution.
+
+[3] The king.
+
+[4] Necker.
+
+[5] Feuillet de Conches, i., p. 214.
+
+[6] _Ibid_., p. 217.
+
+[7] On one occasion when the Marquis de Bouillé pointed out to him the
+danger of some of his plans as placing the higher class at the mercy of
+the mob, "dirigé par les deux passions les plus actives du coeur humain,
+l'intérêt et l'amour propre, ... il me répondit froidement, en levant les
+yeux au ciel, qu'il fallait bien compter sur les vertus morales des
+hommes."--_Mémoires de M. de Bouillé_, p. 70; and Madame de Staël admits
+of her father that he was "se fiant trop, il faut l'avouer, à l'empire de
+la raison," and adds that he "étudia constamment l'esprit public, comme la
+boussole à laquelle les décisions du roi devaient se conformer."--
+_Considérations sur la Révolution Française_, i., pp. 171, 172.
+
+[8] Her exact words are "si ... il fasse reculer l'autorité du roi" (if he
+causes the king's authority to retreat before the populace or the
+Parliament).
+
+[9] "Histoire de Marie Antoinette," par M. Montjoye, p. 202.
+
+[10] Madame de Campan, p. 412.
+
+[11] This edict was registered in the "Chambre Syndicate," September 13th,
+1787.--_La Reine Marie Antoinette et la Rév. Française, Recherches
+Historiques_, par le Comte de Bel-Castel, p. 246.
+
+[12] There is at the present moment so strong a pretension set up in many
+constituencies to dictate to the members whom they send to Parliament as
+if they were delegates, and not representatives, that it is worth while to
+refer to the opinion which the greatest of philosophical statesman, Edmund
+Burke, expressed on the subject a hundred years ago, in opposition to that
+at a rival candidate who admitted and supported the claim of constituents
+to furnish the member whom they returned to Parliament with "instructions"
+of "coercive authority." He tells the citizens of Bristol plainly that
+such a claim he ought not to admit, and never will. The "opinion" of
+constituents is "a weighty and respectable opinion, which a representative
+ought always to rejoice to hear, and which he ought most seriously to
+consider; but _authoritative instruction_, mandates issued which the
+member is bound blindly and implicitly to obey, to vote, and to argue for,
+though contrary to the clearest conviction of his judgment and his
+conscience; these are things utterly unknown to the laws of this land, and
+which arise from a fundamental mistake of the whole order and tenor of our
+constitution. Parliament is not a _congress_ of embassadors from different
+and hostile interests...but Parliament is a _deliberative_ assembly of
+_one_ nation, with _one_ interest, that of the whole, where not local
+purposes, not local prejudices ought to guide, but the general good
+resulting from the general reason of the whole. You choose a member
+indeed; but when you have chosen him, he is not member of Bristol, but he
+is a member of Parliament."--_General Election Speech at the Conclusion of
+the Poll at Bristol_, November 3d, 1774, Burke's Works, vol. iii., pp. 19,
+20, ed. 1803.
+
+[13] De Tocqueville considers the feudal system in France in many points
+more oppressive than that of Germany.--_Ancien Régime_, p. 43.
+
+[14] Silence des grenouilles. Arthur Young, "Travels in France during
+1787, '88, '89," p. 537. It is singular proof how entirely research into
+the condition of the country and the people of France had been neglected
+both by its philosophers and its statesmen, that there does not seem to
+have been any publication in the language which gave information on these
+subjects. And this work of Mr. Young's is the one to which modern French
+writers, such as M. Alexis de Tocqueville, chiefly refer.
+
+[15] "The _lettres de cachet_ were carried to an excess hardly credible;
+to the length of being sold, with blanks, to be filled up with names at
+the pleasure of the purchaser, who was thus able, in the gratification of
+private revenge, to tear a man from the bosom of his family, and bury him
+in a dungeon, where he would exist forgotten and die unknown."--A. Young,
+p. 532. And in a note he gives an instance of an Englishman, named Gordon,
+who was imprisoned in the Bastile for thirty years without even knowing
+the reason of his arrest.
+
+[16] Arthur Young, writing January 10th, 1790, identifies Les Enragés with
+the club afterward so infamous as the Jacobins. "The ardent democrats who
+have the reputation of being so much republican in principle that they do
+not admit any political necessity for having even the name of the king,
+are called the Enragés. They have a meeting at the Jacobins', the
+Revolution Club which assembles every night in the very room in which the
+famous League was formed in the reign of Henry III." (p. 267).
+
+[17] M. Droz asserts that a collector of such publications bought two
+thousand five hundred in the last three months of 1788, and that his
+collection was far from complete.--_Histoire de Louis XVI_., ii., p. 180.
+
+[18] "Tout auteur s'érige en législateur."--_Memorial of the Princes to
+the King_, quoted in a note to the last chapter of Sismondi's History, p.
+551, Brussels ed., 1849.
+
+[19] In reality the numbers were even more in favor of the Commons: the
+representatives of the clergy were three hundred and eight, and those of
+the nobles two hundred and eighty-five, making only five hundred and
+ninety-three of the two superior orders, while the deputies of the Tiers-
+État were six hundred and twenty-one.--_Souvenirs de la Marquise de
+Créquy_, vii., p. 58.
+
+[20] "Se levant alors, 'Non,' dit le roi, 'ce ne peut être qu'à
+Versailles, à cause des chasses.'"--LOUIS BLANC, ii., p. 212, quoting
+Barante.
+
+[21] "La reine adopta ce dernier avis [that the States should meet forty
+or sixty leagues from the capital], et elle insista auprès du roi que l'on
+s'eloignât de l'immense population de Paris. Elle craignait dès lors que
+le peuple n'influençât les délibérations des députés."--MADAME DE CAMPAN,
+ch 83.
+
+[22] Chambrier, i., p. 562.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+[1] It was called "L'insurrection du Faubourg St. Antoine."
+
+[2] The best account of this riot is to be found in Dr. Moore's "Views of
+the Causes and Progress of the French Revolution," i., p. 189.
+
+[3] Madame de Campan specially remarks that the disloyal cry of "Vive le
+Duc d'Orléans" came from "les femmes du peuple" (ch. xiii.).
+
+[4] Afterward Louis Philippe, King of the French.
+
+[5] "View of the Causes and Progress of the French Revolution," by Dr.
+Moore, i., p. 144.
+
+[6] The dauphin was too ill to be present. The children were Madame Royale
+and the Duc de Normandie, who became dauphin the next month by the death
+of his elder brother.
+
+[7] "Aucun nom propre, excepté le sien, n'était encore célèbre dans les
+six cents députés du Tiers."--_Considérations sur la Révolution
+Française_, pp. 186, 187
+
+[8] In the first weeks of the session he told the Count de la Marck, "On
+ne sortira plus de là sans un gouvernement plus ou moins semblable à celui
+d'Angleterre."--_Correspondance entre le comte de la Marck_, i., p. 67.
+
+[9] He employed M. Malouet, a very influential member of the Assembly, as
+his agent to open his views to Necker, saying to him, "Je m'adresse donc à
+votre probité. Vous êtes lié avec MM. Necker et de Montmorin, vous devez
+savoir ce qu'ils veulent, et s'ils ont un plan; si ce plan est raisonnable
+je le défendrai."--_Correspondance de Mirabeau et La Marck_, i., p. 219.
+
+[10] There is some uncertainty about Mirabeau's motives and connections at
+this time. M. de Bacourt, the very diligent and judicious editor of that
+correspondence with De la Marck which has been already quoted, denies that
+Mirabeau ever received money from the Duc d'Orléans, or that he had any
+connection with his party or his views. The evidence on the other side
+seems much stronger, and some of the statements of the Comte de la Marck
+contained in that volume go to exculpate Mirabeau from all complicity in
+the attack on Versailles on the 9th of October, which seems established by
+abundant testimony.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+[1] A letter of Madame Roland dated the 26th of this very month, July,
+1789, declares that the people "are undone if the National Assembly does
+not proceed seriously and regularly to the trial of the illustrious heads
+[the king and queen], or if some generous Decius does not risk his life to
+take theirs."
+
+[2] This story reached even distant province. On the 24th of July Arthur
+Young, being at Colmar, was assured at the _table-d'hôte_ "That the queen
+had a plot, nearly on the point of execution, to blow up the National
+Assembly by a mine, and to march the army instantly to massacre all
+Paris." A French officer presumed but to doubt of the truth of it, and was
+immediately overpowered with numbers of tongues. A deputy had written it;
+they had seen the letter. And at Dijon, a week later, he tells us that
+"the current report at present, to which all possible credit is given, is
+that the queen has been convicted of a plot to poison the king and
+monsieur, and give the regency to the Count d'Artois, to set fire to
+Paris, and blow up the Palais Royal by a mine."--ARTHUR YOUNG'S _Travels,
+etc., in France_, pp. 143, 151.
+
+[3] "Car dès ce moment on menaçait Versailles d'une incursion de gens
+armés de Paris."--MADAME DE CAMPAN, ch. xiv.
+
+[4] Lacretelle, vol. vii., p. 105.
+
+[5] She meant to say, "Messieurs, je viens remettre entre vos mains
+l'épouse et la famille de votre souverain. Ne souffrez pas que l'on
+désunisse sur la terre ce qui a été uni dans le ciel."--MADAME DE CAMPAN,
+ch. xiv.
+
+[6] Napoleon seems to have formed this opinion of his political views:
+"Selon M. Gourgaud, Buonaparte, causant à Ste. Hélène le traitait avec
+plus de mépris [que Madame de Staël]. 'La Fayette était encore un autre
+niais. Il était nullement taillé pour le rôle qu'il avait à jouer....
+C'était un homme sans talents, ni civils, ni militaires; esprit borné,
+caractère dissimulé, dominé par des idées vagues de liberté mal digérées
+chez lui; mal conçues.'"--_Biographie Universelle_.
+
+[7] In his Memoirs he boasts of the "gaucherie de ses manières qui ne se
+plièrent jamais aux grâces de la Cour," p. 7.
+
+[8] See her letter to Mercy, without date, but, apparently written a day
+or two after the king's journey to Paris, Feuillet de Conches, i., p. 238.
+
+[9] "Souvenirs de Quarante Ans" (by Madame de Tourzel's daughter), p. 30.
+
+[10] Feuillet de Conches, i., p. 240.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+[1] "Mémoires de la Princesse de Lamballe," i., p. 342.
+
+[2] Les Gardes du Corps.
+
+[3] Louis Blanc, iii., p. 156, quoting the Procédure du Châtelet.
+
+[4] "Souvenirs de la Marquise de Créquy," vol. vii, p. 119.
+
+[5] There is some uncertainty where La Fayette slept that night.
+Lacretelle says it was at the "Maison du Prince de Foix, fort éloignée du
+château." Count Dumas, meaning to be as favorable to him as possible,
+places him at the Hôtel de Noailles, which is "not one hundred paces from
+the iron gates of the chapel" ("Memoirs of the Count Dumas," p. 159).
+However, the nearer he was to the palace, the more incomprehensible it is
+that he should not have reached the palace the next morning till nearly
+eight o'clock, two hours after the mob had forced their entrance into the
+Cour des Princes.
+
+[6] Weber, i., p. 218.
+
+[7] Le Boulanger (the king), la Boulangère (the queen), et le petit mitron
+(the dauphin).
+
+[8] "Souvenirs de la Marquise de Créquy," vii., p. 123.
+
+[9] Weber, ii, p. 226.
+
+[10] "Souvenirs de Quarante Ans," p. 47.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+[1] Madame de Campan, ch. xv.
+
+[2] F. de Conches, p. 264.
+
+[3] Madam de Campan, ch. xv.
+
+[4] See a letter from M. Huber to Lord Auckland, "Journal and
+Correspondence of Lord Auckland," ii, p. 365.
+
+[5] La Marck et Mirabeau, ii., pp. 90-93, 254.
+
+[6] "Arthur Young's Travels," etc., p. 264; date, Paris, January 4th,
+1790.
+
+[7] Feuillet de Conches, iii., p. 229.
+
+[8] Joseph died February 20th.
+
+[9] "Je me flatte que je la mériterai [l'amitié et confiance] de votre
+part lorsque ma façon de penser et mon tendre attachement pour vous, votre
+époux, vos enfants, et tout ce qui peut vous intéresser vous seront mieux
+connus."--ARNETH, p. 120. Leopold had been for many years absent from
+Germany, being at Florence as Grand Duke of Tuscany.
+
+[10] Feuillet de Conches, iii., p. 260.
+
+[11] As early as the second week in October (La Marck, p. 81, seems to
+place the conversation even before the outrages of October 5th and 6th;
+but this seems impossible, and may arise from his manifest desire to
+represent Mirabeau as unconnected with those horrors), Mirabeau said to La
+Marck, "Tout est perdu, le roi et la reine y périront et vous le verrez,
+la populace battra leurs cadavres."
+
+[12] Lèse-nation.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+[1] Arthur Young's "Journal," January 4th, 1790, p. 251.
+
+[2] Feuillet de Conches, i., p. 315.
+
+[3] "Le mal déjà fait est bien grave, et je doute que Mirabeau lui-même
+puisse réparer celui qu'on lui a laissé faire."--_Mirabeau et La Marck_,
+i., p. 100.
+
+[4] La Marck et Mirabeau, i., p. 315.
+
+[5] _Ibid._, p. 111.
+
+[6] Feuillet de Conches, i., p. 345.
+
+[7] Mirabeau et La Marck, i., p. 125.
+
+[8] He alludes to Maria Teresa's appearance at Presburg at the beginning
+of the Silesian war.
+
+[9] "Il lui [à l'Assemblée] importait de faire une épreuve sur toutes les
+Gardes Nationales de France, d'animer ce grand corps dont tous les membres
+étaient encore épars et incohérents, de leur donner une même impulsion....
+Enfin, de faire sous les yeux de l'Europe une imposante revue des force
+qu'elle pourrait un jour opposer à des rois inquiets ou courroucés."--
+LACRETELLE, vii., p. 359.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+[1] We learn from Dr. Moore that there was a leader with five subaltern
+officers and one hundred and fifty rank and file in each gallery of the
+chamber; that the wages of the latter were from two to three francs a day;
+the subaltern had ten francs, the leaders fifty. The entire expense was
+about a thousand francs a day, a sum which strengthens the suspicion that
+the pay-master (originally, at least) was the Duc d'Orléans.--DR. MOORE'S
+_View of the Causes, etc., of the French Revolution_, i., p. 425.
+
+[2] Mirabeau et La Marck, ii., p. 47.
+
+[3] Feuillet de Conches, i., p. 352.
+
+[4] Marie Antoinette to Mercy, Feuillet de Conches, i., p. 355.
+
+[5] _Ibid_., i., p. 365.
+
+[6] Arneth, p. 140.
+
+[7] It is remarkable that he, like one or two of the Girondin party,
+belonged by birth to the Huguenot persuasion, and Marat had studied
+medicine at Edinburgh.
+
+[8] The Marquise de Brinvilliers had been executed for poisoning several
+of her own relations in the reign of Louis XIV.
+
+[9] Madame de Campan, ch. xvii.; Chambrier, ii., p. 12.
+
+[10] He said to La Marck, "Aucun homme seul ne sera capable de ramener les
+Français an bon sens, le temps seul peut rétablir l'ordre dans les
+esprits," etc., etc.--_ Mirabeau et La Marck_, i., p. 147.
+
+[11] Feuillet de Conches, i., p, 376.
+
+[12] Marie Antoinette to Leopold, date December 11th, 1790, Arneth, p.
+143.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+[1] The Marshal de Bouillé, who was La Fayette's cousin, says, in October
+of this year, "L'évêque de Pamiers me fit le tableau de la situation
+malheureux de ce prince et de la famille royale ... que la rigueur et
+dureté de La Fayette, devenu leur geôlier, rendent de jour en jour plus
+insupportable."--_Mémories de De Bouillé_, pp. 175, 181. And in June he
+had remarked, "Que sa popularité (de La Fayette) dépendait plutôt de la
+captivité du roi, qu'il tenait prisonnier, et qui était sous sa garde, que
+de sa force personnelle, qui n'avait plus d'autre appui que la milice
+Parisienne."
+
+[2] _Ibid_., p. 130.
+
+[3] The letter to the King of Prussia is given by Lamartine; its date is
+December 3d, 1790.--_Histoire des Girondins_, book v., § 12.
+
+[4] Mercy to Marie Antoinette, from The Hague, December 17th, 1790,
+Feuillet de Conches, i., p. 398.
+
+[5] Feuillet de Conches, i., p. 401.
+
+[6] _Ibid., p. 403, date December 27th, 1790.
+
+[7] "Mirabeau et La Marck," ii., pp. 57--61.
+
+[8] Letter to the queen, date February 19th, 1791; "Correspondance de
+Mirabeau et La Marck," ii., p. 229.
+
+[9] "Mirabeau et La Marck," ii., pp. 153, 194, _et passim._
+
+[10] "Souvenirs de Quarante Ans," p. 54.
+
+[11] "Mirabeau aurait préféré que Louis XVI. sortit publiquement, et en
+roi, M. de Bouillé pensait de même."--_Mirabeau et La Marck_, i., p. 172.
+
+[12] 1789, see _ante_, p. 256.
+
+[13] Date February 18th, 1791, Feuillet de Conches, i., p. 465.
+
+[14] "Mirabeau et La Marck," ii., p., 216 date February 3d, 1791.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+[1] Feuillet de Conches, ii., p. 14, date March 7th.
+
+[2] Arneth, p. 146, letter of the queen to Leopold, February 27th, 1791.
+
+[3] Feuillet de Conches, ii., p. 20, date March 20th, 1791.
+
+[4] Letter of M. Simolin, the Russian embassador, April 4th, 1791,
+Feuillet de Conches, ii., p. 31.
+
+[5] "Souvenirs sur Mirabeau," par Étienne Dumont, p. 201.
+
+[6] In her letter to Mercy of August 16th, of which extracts are given in
+ch. xi., she takes credit for having encountered the dangers of the
+journey to Montmédy for the sake of "the public welfare."
+
+[7] Arneth, p. 155.
+
+[8] Letter of Leopold to Marie Antoinette, date May 2d, 1791, Arneth, p.
+162.
+
+[9] "Cette démarche est le terme extrême de réussir ou périr. Les choses
+en sont-elles au point de rendre ce risque indispensable?"--_Mercy to
+Marie Antoinette_, May 11th, 1791, Arneth, p. 163.
+
+[10] The day on which the king and she had been prevented from going to
+St. Cloud.
+
+[11] The king.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+[1] Chambrier, ii., p. 86-88.
+
+[2] Lamartine's "Histoire des Girondins," ii., p. 15.
+
+[3] Moore's "View," ii., p. 367.
+
+[4] The Palais Royal had been named the Palais National. All signs with
+the portraits of the king or queen, all emblems of royalty, had been torn
+down. A shop-keeper was even obliged to erase his name from his shop
+because it was Louis.--MOORE'S _View_, etc., ii., p. 356.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+[1] A certain set of writers in this country at one time made La Fayette a
+subject for almost unmixed eulogy, with such earnestness that it may be
+worth while to reproduce the opinion expressed of him by the greatest of
+his contemporaries--a man as acute in his penetration into character as he
+was stainless in honor--the late Duke of Wellington. In the summer of
+1815, he told Sir John Malcolm that "he had used La Fayette like a dog, as
+he merited. The old rascal," said he, "had made a false report of his
+mission to the Emperor of Russia, and I possessed complete evidence of his
+having done so. I told him, the moment he entered, of this fact; I did not
+even state it in the most delicate manner. I told him he must be sensible
+he had made a false report. He made no answer." And the duke bowed him out
+of the room with unconcealed scorn.--Kaye's _Life of Sir J. Malcolm_, ii.,
+p. 109.
+
+[2] Lamartine calls the Cordeliers the Club of Coups-de-main, as he calls
+the Jacobins the Club of Radical Theories.--_Histoire des Girondins_,
+xvi., p. 4.
+
+[3] Dr. Moore, ii., p. 372; Chambrier, ii., p. 142.
+
+[4] Mercy to Marie Antoinette, May 16th, Feuillet de Conches, ii., p. 60.
+
+[5] _Ibid._, p. 140.
+
+[6] A resolution, that is, to recognize the Constitution.
+
+[7] Arneth, p. 188; Feuillet de Conches, ii, p. 186.
+
+[8] The letter took several days to write, and was so interrupted that
+portions of it have three different dates affixed, August 16th, 21st,
+26th. Mercy's letter, which incloses Burke's memorial, is dated the 20th,
+from London, so that the first portion of the queen's letter can not be
+regarded as an intentional answer to Burke's arguments, though it is so,
+as embodying all the reasons which influenced the queen.
+
+[9] The manifesto which he left behind him when starting for Montmédy.
+
+[10] The king.
+
+[11] Feuillet de Conches, ii., p. 228; Arneth, p. 203.
+
+[12] The Emperor Leopold died March 1st, 1792.
+
+[13] The declaration of Pilnitz, drawn up by the emperor and the King of
+Prussia at a personal interview, August 21st, 1791, did not in express
+words denounce the new Constitution (which, in fact, they had not seen),
+but, after declaring "the situation of the King of France to be a matter
+of common interest to all European sovereigns," and expressing a hope that
+"the reality of that interest will be duly appreciated by the other powers
+whose assistance they invoke," they propose that those other powers "shall
+employ, in conjunction with their majesties, the most efficacious means,
+in order to enable the King of France to consolidate in the most perfect
+liberty the foundation of a monarchical government, conformable alike to
+the rights of sovereigns and the well-being of the French nation."--
+Alison, ch. ix., Section 90.
+
+[14] Arneth, p. 208.
+
+[15] _Ibid_, p. 210; Feuillet de Conches, ii., p. 325.
+
+[16] Letter, date December 3d, 1791. Feuillet de Conches, iv., p. 278.
+
+[17] Madame de Campan, ch xix.
+
+[18] "Leurs touffes de cheveux noirs volaient dans la salle, eux seuls à
+cette époque avaient quitté l'usage de poudrer les cheveux."--_Note on the
+Passage by Madame de Campan_, ch xix.
+
+[19] This first Assembly, as having framed the Constitution, is often
+called the Constituent Assembly; the second, that which was about to meet,
+being distinguished as the Legislative Assembly.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+[1] "Mémoires Particuliers," etc., par A.F. Bertrand de Moleville, i., p.
+355. Brissot, Isnard, Vergniaud, Gaudet, and an infamous ecclesiastic, the
+Abbé Fauchet, are those whom he particularly mentions, adding: "Mais M.
+de Lessart trouva que c'était les payer trop cher, et comme ils ne
+voulurent rien rabattre de leur demande, cette négociation n'eut aucune
+suite, et ne produisit d'autre effet que d'aigrir davantage ces cinq
+députés contre ce ministre."
+
+[2] Feuillet de Conches, ii., p.414, date October 4th: "Je pense qu'au
+fond le bon bourgeois et le bon peuple ont toujours été bien pour nous."
+
+[3] "Mémoires Particuliers," etc., par A.F. Bertrand de Moleville, i., p.
+10-12. It furnishes a striking proof of the general accuracy of Dr.
+Moore's information, that he, in his "View" (ii., p. 439), gives the name
+account of this conversation, his work being published above twenty years
+before that of M. Bertrand de Moleville.
+
+[4] "La reine lui répondit par un sourire de pitié, et lui demanda s'il
+était fou.... C'est par la reine elle-même que, le lendemain de cette
+étrange scène, je fus instruit de tous les détails que je viens de
+rapporter."--BERTRAND DE MOLEVILLE, i., p. 126.
+
+[5] She herself called him so on this occasion, and he belonged to the
+Jacobin Club; but he was also one of the Girondin party, of which, indeed,
+he was one of the founders, and it was as a Girondin that he was afterward
+pursued to death by Robespierre.
+
+[6] Narrative of the Comte Valentin Esterhazy, Feuillet de Conches, iv.,
+p. 40.
+
+[7] The queen spoke plainly to her confidants: "M. de La Fayette will only
+be the Mayor of Paris that he may the sooner become Mayor of the Palace.
+Pétion is a Jacobin, a republican; but he is a fool, incapable of ever
+becoming the leader of a party. He would be a nullity as mayor, and,
+besides, the very interest which he knows we take in his nomination may
+bind him to the king."--Lamartine's _Histoire des Girondins_ vi., p.22.
+
+[8] "Elle [Madame d'Ossun, dame d'atours de la reine] m'a dit, il y a
+trois semaines, que le roi et la reine avaiet été neuf jours sans un sou."
+_Letter of the Prince de Nassau-Siegen to the Russian Empress Catherine_,
+Feuillet de Conches, iv., p. 316; of also Madame de Campan, ch. xxi.
+
+[9] Letter of the Princess to Madame de Bombelles, Feuillet de Conches,
+v., p.267.
+
+[10] "N'est-il pas bien gentil, mon enfant?"--_Mémoires Particuliers_, p.
+235.
+
+[11] See two most insolent letters from the Count de Provence and Count
+d'Artois to Louis XVI, Feuillet de Conches, v., pp. 260, 261.
+
+[12] Feuillet de Conches, iv., p. 291
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+[1] Letter to Madame de Polignac, March 17th, Feuillet de Conches, v., p.
+337.
+
+[2] The Monks of St. Bernard were known as Feuillants, from Feuillans, a
+village in Languedoc where their principal convent was situated.
+
+[3] Lamartine, "Histoire des Girondins," xiii., p.18.
+
+[4] The messenger was M. Goguelat: he took the name of M. Daumartin, and
+adhered to the cause of his sovereigns to the last moment of their lives.
+
+[5] Letter of the Count de Fersen, who was at Brussels, to Gustavus (who,
+however, was dead before it could reach him), dated March 24th, 1792. In
+many respects the information De Fersen sends to his king tallies
+precisely with that sent by Breteuil to the emperor; he only adds a few
+circumstances which had not reached the baron.
+
+[6] Afterward Louis Philippe, King of the French, who was himself driven
+from the throne by insurrection above half a century afterward.
+
+[7] Madame de Campan, ch. xx.
+
+[8] _Ibid._, ch. XIX.
+
+[9] "Vie de Dumouriez," ii, p. 163, quoted by Marquis de Ferrières,
+Feuillet de Conches, and several other writers.
+
+[10] Even Lamartine condemns the letter, the greater part of which he
+inserts in his history as one in which "the threat is no less evident than
+the treachery."--_Histoire des Girondins,_ xiii., p. 16.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+[1] "Gare la Lanterne," alluding to the use of the chains to which the
+street-lamps were suspended as gibbets.
+
+[2] Madame de Campan, ch. xxi.
+
+[3] Dumas, "Memoirs of his Own Time," i., p. 353.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+[1] To be issued by the foreign powers.
+
+[2] Feuillet de Conches, vi., p. 192, and Arneth, p. 265.
+
+[3] The day is not mentioned. "Lettres de la Reine Marie Antoinette à la
+Landgravine Louise," etc. p. 47.
+
+[4] The bearer was Prince George himself, but she does not venture to name
+him more explicitly.
+
+[5] Lamourette might correspond to the English name Lovekin.
+
+[6] Letter of the Princess Elizabeth, date July 16th, 1792, Feuillet de
+Conches, vi., p. 215.
+
+[7] It is remarkable, however, that, if we are to take Lamartine as a
+guide in any respect, and he certainly was not in intention unfavorable to
+La Fayette, the marquis was even now playing a double game. Speaking of
+this very proposal, he says: "La Fayette himself did not disguise his
+ambition for a protectorate under Louis XVI. At the very moment when he
+seemed devoted to the preservation of the king he wrote thus to his
+confidante, La Colombe: 'In the matter of liberty I do not trust myself
+either to the king or any other person, and if he were to assume the
+sovereign, I would fight against him as I did in 1789.'"--_Histoire des
+Girondins_, xvii., p.7 (English translation). It deserves remark, too, if
+his words are accurately reported, that the only occasion 1789 on which he
+"fought against" Louis must have been October 5th and 6th, when he
+professed to be using every exertion for his safety.
+
+[8] M. Bertrand expressly affirms the insurrection of August 10th to have
+been almost exclusively the work of the Girondin faction.--_Mémoires
+Particuliers,_ ii., p. 122.
+
+[9] _Mémoires Particuliers,_ ii., p. 132.
+
+[10] "Mémoires Particuliers," p. 111.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+[1] See _ante_.
+
+[2] "Histoire de la Terreur," par Mortimer Ternaux, ii., p. 269. For the
+transactions of this day, and of the following months, he is by far the
+most trustworthy guide, as having had access to official documents of
+which earlier writers were ignorant. But he admits the extreme difficulty
+of ascertaining the precise details and time of each event. And it is not
+easy in every instance to reconcile his account with that of Madame de
+Campan, on whom for many particulars he greatly relies. He differs from
+her especially as to the hour at which the different occurrences of this
+day took place. For instance, he says (p. 268, note 2) that Mandat left
+the Tuileries a little after five, while Madame de Campan says it was four
+o'clock when the queen told her he had been murdered. Both, however, agree
+that it was soon after eight o'clock when the king left the palace.
+
+[3] "À quatre heures la reine sortit de la chambre du roi, et vint nous
+dire qu'elle n'espérait plus rien; que M. Mandat venait d'être
+assassiné."--MADAME DE CAMPAN, ch. xxi.
+
+[4] "La Terreur," viii., p. 4.
+
+[5] It is clear that this is the opinion formed by M Mortimer Ternaux. He
+sums up the fourth chapter of his eighth book with the conclusion that "le
+palais de la royauté ne fut pas enlevé de vive force, mais abandonné par
+ordre de Louis XVI." And in a note he affirms that the entire number of
+killed and wounded on the part of the rioters did not exceed one hundred
+and sixty "en chiffres ronds."
+
+[6] Bertrand de Moleville, ch. xxvii.
+
+[7] Madame de Campan, ch. xxi.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+[1] "Dernières Années du Règne et de la Vie de Louis XVI.," par François
+Hue, p. 336.
+
+[2] For about a fortnight they had two, both men--Hue, the valet to the
+dauphin, as well as Cléry; but Hue was removed on the 2d of September. He,
+as well as Cléry, has left an account of the imprisonment till the day of
+his dismissal.
+
+[3] "Journal de ce qui s'est passé à la tour du Temple," etc. p.28, _seq._
+
+[4] "Mémoires Particuliers," par Madame la Duchesse d'Angoulême, p. 21.
+
+[5] Decius was the hero whose example was especially invoked by Madame
+Roland. The historians of his own country had never accused him of
+murdering any one; but she, in the very first month of the Revolution, had
+called, with a very curious reading of history, for "some generous Decius
+to risk his life to take theirs" (the lives of the king and queen).
+
+[6] The princess told Cléry, "La reine et moi nous nous attendons à tout,
+et nous ne nous faisons aucune illusion sur le sort qu'on prépare au roi,"
+etc.--CLÉRY, p. 106.
+
+[7] "Mémoires" de la Duchesse d'Angoulême, p. 53.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+[1] Cléry's "Journal," p. 169.
+
+[2] In March, having an opportunity of communicating with the Count de
+Provence, she sent these precious memorials to him for safer custody, with
+a joint letter from herself and her three fellow-prisoners: "Having a
+faithful person on whom we can depend, I profit by the opportunity to send
+to my brother and friend this deposit, which may not be intrusted to any
+other hands. The bearer will tell you by what a miracle we were able to
+obtain these precious pledges. I reserve the name of him who is so useful
+to us, to tell it you some day myself. The impossibility which has
+hitherto existed of sending you any intelligence of us, and the excess of
+our misfortunes, make us feel more vividly our cruel separation. May it
+not lie long. Meanwhile I embrace you as I love you, and you know that
+that is with all my heart.--M.A." A line is added by the princess royal,
+and signed by her brother, as king, as well as by herself: "I am charged
+for my brother and myself to embrace you with all my heart.--M.T. [MARIA
+TERESA], LOUIS." And another by the Princess Elizabeth: "I enjoy
+beforehand the pleasure which you will feel in receiving this pledge of
+love and confidence. To be reunited to you and to see you happy is all
+that I desire. You know if I love you. I embrace you with all my heart.--
+E." The letters were shown by the Count de Provence to Cléry, whom he
+allowed to take a copy of them.--CLÉRY'S _Journal_, p. 174.
+
+[3] "Mémoires" de la Duchesse d'Angoulême, p. 56.
+
+[4] It was burned in 1871, in the time of the Commune.
+
+[5] Feuillet de Conches, vi., p. 499. The letter is neither dated nor
+signed.
+
+[6] Lanjuinais had subsequently the singular fortune of gaining the
+confidence of both Napoleon and Lounis XVIII. The decree against him was
+reversed in 1795, and he became a professor at Rennes. Though he had
+opposed the making of Napoleon consul for life, Napoleon gave him a place
+in his Senate; and at the first restoration, in 1814, Louis XVIII named
+him a peer of France. He died in 1827.
+
+[7] Some of the apologists of the Girondins--nearly all the oldest
+criminals of the Revolution have found defenders, except perhaps Marat and
+Robespierre--have affirmed that the Girondins, though they had not courage
+to give their votes to save the life of Louis, yet hoped to save him by
+voting for an appeal to the people; but the order in which the different
+questions were put to the Convention is a complete disproof of this plea.
+The first question put was, Was Louis guilty? They all voted "Oui"
+(Lacretelle, x., p. 403). But though on the second question, whether this
+verdict should be submitted to the people for ratification, many of them
+did vote for such an appeal being made, yet after the appeal had been
+rejected by a majority of one hundred and forty-two, and the third
+question, "What penalty shall be inflicted on Louis?" (Lacretelle, x., p.
+441) was put to the Convention, they all except Lanjuinais voted for
+"death." The majorities were, on their question, 683 to 66; on the second,
+423 to 281; on the third, 387 to 334; so that on this last, the fatal
+question, it would have been easy for the Girondins to have turned the
+scale. And Lamartine himself expressly affirms (xxxv., p.5) that the
+king's life depended on the Girondin vote, and that his death was chiefly
+owing to Vergniaud.
+
+[8] Goncourt, p. 370, quoting "Fragments de Turgy."
+
+[9] "S'en défaire."--_Louis XVII., sa Vie, son Agonie, sa Mort_, par M. de
+Beauchesne, quoting Senart. See Croker's "Essays on the Revolution," p.
+266.
+
+[10] Duchesse d'Angoulême, p. 78.
+
+[11] See a letter from Miss Chowne to Lord Aukland, September 23d, 1793,
+Journal, etc., of Lord Aukland, ii., p. 517.
+
+[12] "Le peuple la reçut non seulement comme une reine adorée, mais il
+semblait aussi qu'il lui savait gré d'être charmante," p.5, ed. 1820.
+
+[13] Great interest was felt for her in England. In October Horace Walpole
+writes: "While assemblies of friends calling themselves _men_ are from day
+to day meditating torment and torture for his [Louis XVI.'s] heroic widow,
+on whom, with all their power and malice, and with every page, footman,
+and chamber-maid of hers in their reach, and with the rack in their hands,
+they have not been able to fix a speck. Nay, do they not talk of the
+inutility of evidence? What other virtue ever sustained such an ordeal?"
+Walpole's testimony in such a matter is particularly valuable, because he
+had not only been intimately acquainted with all the gossip of the French
+capital for many years, but also because his principal friends in France
+did not belong to the party which might have been expected to be most
+favorable to the queen. Had there been the very slightest foundation for
+the calumnies which had been propagated against her, we may be sure that
+such a person as Madame du Deffand would not only have heard them, but
+would have been but too willing to believe them. His denunciation of them
+is a proof that she knew their falsehood.
+
+[14] Goncourt, p. 388, quoting _La Quotidienne_ of October 17th, 18th.
+
+[15] The depositions which the little king had been compelled to sign
+contained accusations of his aunt as well as of his mother.
+
+[16] As we shall see in the close of the letter, she did not regard those
+priests who had taken the oath imposed by the Assembly, but which the Pope
+had condemned, as any longer priests.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+Abbé De Mandoux; De Sabran;
+  De Sieyés;
+  De Vermond.
+Abolition of titles of honour.
+Addresses presented from Paris and from the States of Languedoc.
+Adelaide, Princess, intrigues of;
+  afflicted with the small-pox;
+  flight of.
+Admiral de Coligny;
+  d'Orvilliers;
+  du Chaffault;
+  Keppel;
+  Rodney.
+Ailesbury, Lady.
+Alliance formed with the United States;
+  with Russia and Prussia;
+  with Spain.
+American war, the.
+Anglomania in Paris.
+_Anglomanie_, a name given to English fashions.
+Anti-Austrian feeling in Paris.
+Antoinette, Marie. See _Marie Antoinette_.
+Arbitrary powers of the sovereign of France.
+Archbishop Loménie de Brienne.
+Archduke Maximilian visits his sister.
+Arpay-de-Duc, where the king's aunts were detained.
+Arnould, Mademoiselle.
+Arrest of Cardinal Rohan.
+Assassination of Gustavus III. of Sweden.
+Assembly, parties in the, "the Right," "the Left," and "the Plain,";
+  abolishes all privileges August 4th, 1789;
+  disorders in the;
+  tyranny of the;
+  meeting of the new.
+Austria, antagonistic feeling against;
+  Emperor Joseph of, visits France _incognito_;
+  writes to his sister, the Queen of France, on European politics;
+  Austria, Maria Teresa, Empress of;
+  death of Joseph II., Emperor of;
+  influence of, in France, causes jealousy;
+  remonstrating by the Emperor Leopold with the French  Government;
+  Death of Leopold;
+  war declared against.
+Autun, Bishop of.
+Axel de Fersen, Count.
+
+Bagatelle, a house belonging to the Comte d'Artois, which was built in
+sixty days.
+Bailli de Suffrein.
+Bailly, M., and the National Guard;
+  effrontery of.
+"Baker," a name given to the king.
+Balbi, Countess de.
+Balloons introduced into France by Montgolfier.
+Banquet at the Hotel de Ville on account of the birth of the dauphin.
+Barbaroux, M.
+"Barber of Seville," play of the.
+Barnave, M. and the Constitutionalists;
+  gives advice to the queen.
+Baron de Batz;
+  de Besenval;
+  de Breteuil.
+Baroness de Staël.
+Barri, Countess du, jealous of Marie Antoinette;
+  sent to a convent.
+Bastile, attack on the, 1789;
+  and murder of the governor;
+  anniversary of the capture of.
+Battle of Brandywine.
+Batz, Baron de.
+Bavaria, affairs in;
+  at the death of the elector 1777.
+Beauharnais, General.
+Beaulieu, Marshal.
+Beaumarchais, M.
+Beauty of Marie Antoinette.
+Beauvau, M. de, and the Opposition.
+Bertrand, M..
+Besenval, Baron de;
+  and the Reveillon riot.
+Birth of Duc d'Angoulême;
+  of the Princess Marie-Thérèse Charlotte (Madame Royale);
+  of the dauphin, son of Marie Antoinette.
+Bishop Lamourette;
+  Talleyrand.
+Body-guard, ball given by the;
+  and the Versailles mob;
+  protecting the court.
+Boehmer, the court jeweler.
+Boillé, Marquis de;
+  flies from France.
+Boutourlin's, M., attacks on M. Necker.
+Brandywine, Battle of.
+Breteuil, Baron de;
+  appointed prime minister;
+  and foreign intervention.
+Breton Club.
+Brienne, Loménie de, Archbishop of Toulouse.
+Brissac, Duc de.
+Brissot, M..
+Broglie, Marshal de.
+Brunier, M..
+Brunoy, entertainment given at.
+Brunswick, Duke of.
+Brunswick, Prince Ferdinand of.
+Burke's description of the beauty of the queen.
+Buzot, M..
+
+Calonne, M. de;
+  dismissed from the office of finance minister.
+Campan, Madame de.
+Cap, red, of liberty.
+Cape St. Vincent.
+Capet, name given to the queen before the trial.
+Cardinal de Rohan.
+Carlisle, Lord, receiving a challenge from La Fayette in 1778.
+Carnival of 1777.
+Castle of Gaillon.
+Chaffault, Admiral du.
+Challenge sent by Marquis de La Fayette to Lord Carlisle.
+Châlons, and the reception of the king on his arrest.
+Champs de Mars, fête in the, in celebration of the anniversary of the
+capture of the Bastile.
+Chantilly, festivities at.
+Charity shown by Louis XVI. and the queen during the winter of 1788-9.
+Charleston, capture of.
+Chartres, Duc de and Duc d'Orléans recalled from banishment;
+  and the Comte d'Artois establish horse-racing;
+  displays cowardice as rear-admiral;
+  refused marriage with Madame Royale;
+  and the red cap of liberty.
+Chevalier d'Assas, story of the.
+Chinon, M. de.
+Choiseul, Duc de;
+  dismissal of;
+  recall from banishment.
+Choisy, private parties at.
+Clergy, oppression of the.
+Cléry, M., refused audience with the queen.
+Clinton, Sir Harry.
+Clootz, Anacharsis, heads a deputation.
+Clostercamp, the scene of the heroism displayed by the Chevalier d'Assas.
+Clotilde, Princess, marriage of the.
+Clubs, political, springing up at Paris.
+Coigny, Duc de.
+Coligny, Admiral de, and Count de Mirabeau.
+Compiègne.
+Comte d'Artois;
+  de la Marck;
+  de Mercy;
+Condorcet, Marquis de.
+Constitution, completing the, by the Assembly;
+  acceptance of the, by the king.
+Constitutional guard, dissolution of the.
+Constitutionalists, or "the Plain".
+Conti, Prince de.
+Cordeliers, the.
+Cortey, M..
+Count d'Estaing;
+  de Fersen;
+  d'Hervilly;
+  de Grasse;
+  de Luxembourg;
+  de Maurepas;
+  de Mirabeau;
+  de Narbonne;
+  de Roche-Aymer;
+  de Rosenberg;
+  de Stedingk;
+  de St. Priest;
+  de Vaudreuil;
+  Esterhazy.
+Countess de Balbi;
+  du Barri;
+  de Grammont;
+  de Monnier;
+  de la Mothe;
+  de Noailles;
+  de Polignac;
+  de Provence.
+"Coupe-têtes," the.
+Court supper-parties.
+Couthon, M.
+Craufurd, Mr.
+
+D'Agoust, Marquis.
+D'Aiguillon, Duc.
+Dames de la Halle.
+D'Angoulême, Duc, birth of.
+D'Artois, Comte, marriage of the; and;
+  the Duc de Chartres establish horse-racing;
+  his character;
+  shielding the Duc de Chartres;
+  watching at the queen's bedside during her illness;
+  shows contempt for the commercial orders;
+  flees from Paris;
+  misconduct of the;
+  refuses to return to France.
+D'Assas, Chevalier, story of the.
+Dauphin, proposal of marriage of Marie Antoinette to the;
+  early education of the;
+  introduction to;
+  married at Versailles, Mary 16th, 1770;
+  letter from Maria Teresa to the;
+  admiration of the, for his wife;
+  and the Count de Provence, characters of the;
+  birth of the, son of Louis XVI.;
+  death of the, son of Louis XVI., June 4th, 1789, and succeeded by his
+    brother;
+  and M. Bertrand.
+Deane, Silas.
+Death of Francis, Emperor of Germany;
+  of Louis XV.;
+  of Voltaire;
+  of Cardinal de Rohan, at Ettenheim;
+  of Princess Sophie, daughter of the queen;
+  of the Dauphin, son of Louis XVI., June 4th, 1789;
+  of Joseph II., Emperor of Austria;
+  of Count de Mirabeau;
+  of Leopold, Emperor of Austria.
+Debt, the queen finds herself in.
+Declaration of Pilnitz.
+Defeat of De Grasse by Admiral Rodney.
+Degraves, M.
+De Launay, M., governor of the Bastile, death of.
+Des Huttes, M.
+D'Esprémesnil, Duval.
+De Staël, Baroness.
+D'Estaing, Count.
+Destruction of the Spanish squadron by the British at Cape St. Vincent
+De Varicourt, M.
+D'Hervilly, Count.
+D'Huillier, M.
+Disorders in the Assembly.
+Dissolution of the Constitutional Guard.
+Distress and discontent in France in 1771;
+  general, caused by the severity of the winter of 1788-89.
+D'Oberkirch, Madame
+Donkey-riding;
+  horse-riding.
+D'Orléans, Duc, and the Duc de Chartres recalled from banishment;
+  and the Archduke Maximilian;
+  shows hostility to the queen;
+  and the presidency of the club "Les Enragés";
+  and the Reveillon riot;
+  and the Versailles mob;
+  leaves France for England;
+  and the red cap.
+D'Ormesson, M.
+D'Orvilliers, Admiral.
+Duc d'Aiguillon;
+  d'Angoulême;
+  de Brissac;
+  de Chartres;
+  de Choisseu;
+  de Coigny; de la Feuillade;
+  de Maine;
+  de la Vauguyon;
+  de Liancourt;
+  d'Orléans;
+  de Richelieu.
+Dugazon, Madame.
+Duke of Brunswick;
+  of Normandy;
+  Paul of Russia;
+  of Tarouka.
+Dumont, M.
+Dumouriez, General, character of;
+  and the queen;
+  resigns his position as minister, and takes command of the army.
+Duportail, M.
+Duranton, M.
+Durepaire, M.
+Durfort, Marquis de.
+Duverney, Paris.
+
+Education, the queen's views of.
+Emigrant princes, misconduct of the.
+Emigration from France repugnant to Louis XVI.
+Emperor Francis of Germany;
+  Joseph of Austria;
+  Leopold of Austria.
+Empress Catherine, of Russia;
+  Maria Teresa, of Austria.
+Encore, the first.
+Epigram of Metastasio.
+Ermenonville, the burial-place of Rousseau.
+Escape from prison by the Countess de la Mothe;
+  the royal family preparing to;
+  arrested at Varennes and brought back.
+Esterhazy, Count.
+Etiquette, strictness of court;
+  relaxation of.
+Ettenheim, Cardinal de Rohan dies at.
+Execution of M. de Favras.
+Expenses, court, retrenchment in.
+Expostulation of the Emperor Maximilian with his sister.
+
+Factious conduct of the princes of the blood.
+Fall of Turgot.
+Favras, M. de, execution of.
+Feast of the Federation.
+Federation, Feast of the.
+Ferdinand, Duke, of Brunswick.
+Fersen, Count Axel de.
+Feudal system, the, in France and its need of reform.
+Feuillade's, Duc de la, statue of Louis XIV.
+Feuillants, les.
+Figaro, the Marriage of, the play of.
+Fire at the Hôtel Dieu;
+  at the Palace of Justice.
+Fire-works, explosion of, at Paris.
+First impressions of the French Court.
+Flanders, the regiment of, arrives at Versailles.
+Fleurieu, M.
+Fleury, Joly de.
+Flight from Paris decided on.
+Fontainebleau, the peasant at;
+  grand review at.
+Fontanges, M., de.
+Forgeries of the Queen's name committed.
+Fouquier, Tinville.
+France and Germany, feelings in, regarding Marie Antoinette's marriage;
+  distress and discontent in.
+Francis, Emperor of Germany, death of.
+Frost, severe, ant the Seine frozen over.
+
+Gaillon, Castle of.
+Gambling, court.
+Garden-parties given at the Trianon.
+General Beauharnais;
+  Dumouriez.
+General rejoicings.
+Gensonné, M.
+Germany, death of Francis, emperor of;
+  and France, feelings in regarding Marie Antoinette's marriage.
+Gibraltar, siege of.
+Gifts of Le Joyeuse Avénement and La Ceinture de la Reine renounced.
+Girondins, rise of the;
+  fall of the.
+Gluck appointed to teach the harpsichord;
+  visits Paris.
+Goethe.
+Goldsmith's prediction of a French revolution.
+Grains, war of the.
+Grammont, Countess de.
+Grasse, Count de.
+Gaudet, M.
+Guimenée, Princess de.
+Guines, Duc de.
+Gustavus III., King of Sweden, at the French court.
+
+Horse-racing by Comte d' Artois.
+Hôtel de Ville, banquet at the, on account of the birth of the dauphin;
+  storming of the, by the insurgents, July 1789.
+Hôtel Dieu, great fire at.
+Hughes, Sir E., fights with M. de Suffrein.
+Hunting-field, Marie Antoinette in the.
+Huttes, M. des.
+
+Illuminations in Paris at the birth of the dauphin.
+Income, settlement of.
+Indictment drawn up against the queen.
+Inscription on a snow pyramid erected in gratitude by the Parisians for
+the charity they received from their queen in the winter of 1788-'89.
+Insolence shown to the queen by a virago.
+Insurgents, the, under Santerre.
+Insurrection in Paris, July, 1789;
+  of June 20th 1792;
+  of August 5th, 1792.
+Intrigues formed against Marie Antoinette;
+  of Madame Adelaide.
+"Iphigénie," opera of.
+
+Jacobin Club, the.
+Jarjayes, Madame de.
+Jason and Medea, tapestry representing the history of.
+Jealousy shown by the queen's favorites;
+  of the Countess du Barri;
+  of the aunts;
+  of Austrian influence.
+Jewelry and Boehmer, the court jeweler.
+Joséphine Louise, Princess of Savoy, married to the Count de Provence.
+Joseph, Emperor of Austria, visits France _incognito_;
+  writes to his sister on European politics;
+  death of.
+Jussieu, Bernard de.
+Justice, remarkable, always shown by the queen.
+
+Kaunitz, Prince.
+Keppel, Admiral.
+King Gustavus III. of Sweden visits the French court.
+Korff, Madame de.
+
+La Belle Liégeoise.
+Lacoste, M.
+Lacy, Marshal.
+Lady Ailesbury; Sutherland.
+La Fayette, Marquis de; and the National Guard;
+  and Mirabeau;
+  demands the suppression of titles;
+  offered the sword of the Constable of France, which he declines;
+  shows insolence to the royal family;
+  threatens the queen with a divorce;
+  saves the castle at Vincennes;
+  insults the nobles who come to protect the king;
+  his urgency to bring back the king, who had been arrested in his flight;
+  arrogance of;
+  shows personal animosity to the king;
+  ordered to prepare for foreign service;
+  unskillfulness of;
+  shows much deficiency in military tactics;
+  appears before the Assembly, and
+  narrowly escapes impeachment;
+  proposes a plan for the royal family to escape;
+  flies from France, and is thrown into an Austrian prison.
+Lamballe, Princess de.
+Lambel, M.
+Lambert, M.
+Lameth, Alexander.
+Lameth, Charles.
+Lamoignon, M.
+Lamourette, Bishop, makes a motion in the Assembly.
+La Muette, at Choisy, palace of.
+Lanjuinais, M.
+Leopold, Emperor of Austria, remonstrates with the French government.
+_Le Patriote Français_.
+Lepitre, M.
+Les Enragés, a political club formed under the presidency of the Duc
+d'Orléans.
+"Les Événements Imprévus".
+Lessart, M.
+Letters from Maria Teresa to her daughter. See _Maria Teresa_.
+  From Marie Antoinette to her mother.  See _Marie Antoinette_.
+Liancourt, Duc de.
+Libelous attacks on the queen.
+Liberty, Restorer of French, a title given to the king.
+Lichtenstein, Prince de, sent as envoy from Austria.
+Loménie de Brienne, Archbishop of Toulouse, appointed prime minister;
+  resigns office.
+Lord Carlisle;
+  Stormont.
+Lorraine, Prince of;
+  death of.
+Lorraine, Princess of, at the State ball.
+Louis XIV., the Duc de la Feuillade's statue of.
+Louis XV., character and life of;
+  apathy of;
+  catches the smallpox;
+  death of.
+Louis XVI, receives homage on the death
+  of his grandfather;
+  influenced by his aunts;
+  gives the pavilion of the Little Trianon to the queen;
+  compared to Louis XII. and Henry IV.;
+  crowned at Rheims;
+  concludes an alliance with the United States;
+  exempts from the poll-tax all those unable to pay on the occasion of the
+    birth of the dauphin;
+  visits Cherbourg;
+  orders the arrest of two members of Parliament, and also the closing-up
+    of the House;
+  conspicuous for his charity during the winter of 1788-89;
+  concedes the chief demands of the Commons;
+  opens the States in person, May 5th, 1789;
+  loses his eldest son, the dauphin, June 4th, 1789;
+  grants reforms to the States;
+  removes Necker;
+  withdraws the troops from Paris;
+  visits Paris, and appeals to the populace, July 17th, 1789;
+  invites Necker to return;
+  called the "Restorer of French Liberty,";
+  sends his plate to be melted down for the benefit of the starving
+    citizens;
+  adheres to his conciliatory policy before the mob at Versailles;
+  fixes his residence at Paris;
+  accepts the Constitution so far as it has been settled;
+  accepts the services of the Count de Mirabeau;
+  offers La Fayette the sword of the Constable of France, which he
+    declines;
+  appears at the fête at the Champs de Mars;
+  contemplates foreign intervention;
+  decides to remove to Montmédy;
+  report of attempted assassination of;
+  reproves the nobles for coming to his aid;
+  forbidden to remove more than twenty leagues from Paris;
+  urged to escape;
+  escapes, and is arrested and brought back;
+  acceptance of the new Constitution by the king;
+  dissolves the first constituent assembly;
+  refuses his assent to the decrees against the priests and emigrants;
+  issues a circular condemning emigration;
+  apathy of;
+  made to put on the red cap of liberty;
+  a plot to assassinate;
+  appears at the Feast of Federation;
+  holds his last ball, August 5th, 1792;
+  reviews the troops for the last time;
+  appeals to the Assembly for protection;
+  receives notice that his authority is a nullity;
+  made prisoner with his wife and family;
+  sent to the Temple;
+  trial of;
+  insults offered to;
+  condemned to death;
+  execution of.
+Louvre, visit by the dauphin and dauphiness to the.
+Luckner, Marshal.
+Luxembourg, Count de, and the military banquet at Versailles.
+Luzerne, M. de.
+
+"MADAME DEFICIT," a nickname given to the queen.
+Madame Royale refused in marriage to the Duc de Chartres.
+Maillard, M., and the insurgents of 1789.
+Mailly, Marshal de.
+Maine, Duke de.
+Malesherbes, M.
+Malouet, M.
+Mandat, M.; assassination of.
+Mandense, Abbé.
+Marat, M., denounces the queen.
+Marchioness de Tourzel.
+Marck, Count de la.
+Maria Teresa, Empress of Austria, her habits and life;
+  her feelings at the departure of her daughter;
+  letter from, to the dauphin;
+  letter of advice to her daughter;
+  appoints Comte de Mercy as Embassador to France;
+  letters from Marie Antoinette to;
+  advice to Marie Antoinette;
+  disapproval of her daughter appearing in the hunting field;
+  expresses her approval of her daughter's liberality;
+  receives a letter from her daughter on her state entrance into Paris;
+  anxieties about her daughter since her accession as queen of France;
+  cautions her daughter against extravagances;
+  admonishes her daughter;
+  solicits an alliance between France and Austria against Prussia;
+  writes about the birth of her daughter's child;
+  death of.
+Marie Antoinette, importance of, in the French Revolution of 1789;
+  estimation of her character formed from her correspondences;
+  her birth, November 2d, 1755;
+  her childhood;
+  projects for her marriage;
+  her education;
+  proposal of marriage to the dauphin;
+  leaves Vienna April 26th, 1770;
+  Strasburg, reception at;
+  at Soissons;
+  meeting the king and dauphin at Compiègne;
+  visits the Princess Louise at the Convent of St. Denis;
+  married at Versailles, May 16th, 1770;
+  difficulties in the path of;
+  courage in her conduct;
+  letter of advice from her mother;
+  her sympathy with the sufferers at the fire-work explosion at Paris and
+    with the peasant at Fontainebleau pleases the king and the people;
+  description of her physical appearance;
+  writes to her mother, giving her first impressions of the court and of
+    her own position and prospects;
+  dislike to the court etiquette;
+  intrigues formed against;
+  jealousy of the aunts;
+  addresses from Paris and the states of Languedoc;
+  gaining popularity;
+  expresses a wish to learn to ride;
+  donkey-riding;
+  settlement of income upon;
+  introduces sledging parties into France;
+  gains admiration from her husband;
+  advice of Maria Teresa;
+  growing preference of Louis XV. for;
+  becomes a horse-woman;
+  applying herself to study;
+  taste for music acquired by;
+  appears at a review at Fontainebleau;
+  in the hunting-field;
+  writes to her mother early in 1773;
+  liberality shown by, to the sufferers by the fire at the Hôtel Dieu;
+  receives approval from her mother;
+  expresses her feelings about Poland;
+  state entrance of, into Paris;
+  writes to her mother;
+  presiding at the banquet of the Dames de la Halle;
+  visiting the Parisian theatres;
+  writes to her mother on the death of Louis XV.;
+  shows her good character upon her accession as queen of France;
+  procures the recall from banishment of the Duc de Choiseul;
+  receives from the king the pavilion of the Little Trianon;
+  desires for private friendships and constant amusements;
+  accused of Austrian preferences;
+  receives increased allowance as queen;
+  visited by the Archduke Maximilian;
+  writes to her mother on the coronation of the king;
+  gives garden parties at Trianon;
+  beauty of;
+  shows her mortification at not having children;
+  speaks disparagingly of the king;
+  writes to her mother extolling the French people;
+  indulges at the play-table;
+  finds herself in debt and forgeries of her name committed;
+  receives the Duke of Dorset and others with favor;
+  receives a visit from her brother, the Emperor of Austria;
+  writes to her mother concerning the emperor's visit;
+  receives a letter of advice from her brother on his departure from
+    France;
+  inviting the king's ministers to the Little Trianon;
+  writes political letters;
+  expects to become a mother;
+  declines to receive Voltaire on his return to France;
+  gives birth to a daughter, whom she names Marie Thérèse Charlotte;
+  goes to Notre Dame Cathedral to return thanks;
+  goes in a hackney-coach to a bal d'opéra;
+  is attacked by measles;
+  writes to her mother about the war between France and England;
+  studies politics;
+  engages in private theatricals;
+  writes to her mother in the midst of her troubles;
+  exhibits great grief at the death of her mother;
+  gives birth to a son, the dauphin of France;
+  on education;
+  receives M. de Suffrein with great honor;
+  receives a letter from her brother, the Emperor of Austria, on European
+    politics, and replies to it;
+  St. Cloud is bought for;
+  gives birth to the Duke of Normandy;
+  finds that her name has been forged and misrepresentations made for
+    procuring a necklace made by Boehmer;
+  receives a visit from her sister, the Princess of Teschen;
+  is treated with hostility by the Duc d'Orléans;
+  receives the nickname of "Madame Deficit";
+  loses her second daughter, the Princess Sophie;
+  writes two political letters to the Duchess de Polignac;
+  writes to Mercy on the present political state of affairs, August 19th,
+    1788;
+  conspicuous for her charity during a severe winter;
+  has serious views about the demands of the commons;
+  refuses to accept the Duc de Chartres for husband to her daughter Madame
+    Royale;
+  attends the opening of the States;
+  loses her eldest son, the dauphin, June 4th, 1780;
+  writes to the Duchess de Polignac on the States' affairs;
+  writes to the Marchioness de Tourzel, intrusting to her the education
+    of her children;
+  rejects Barnave's overtures;
+  is remarkable for her bravery;
+  writes to Mercy about her feelings at the present aspect of affairs;
+  receives insolence from a virago;
+  feels the death of her brother, the Emperor Joseph II. of Austria;
+  writes to her brother Leopold, who succeeded Joseph II.;
+  refuses to give evidence against the mob rioters;
+  shows kind feeling toward the widowed Marchioness de Favras;
+  makes a speech to the deputies;
+  is well received at the theatre;
+  receives the services of the Count de Mirabeau;
+  interviews him;
+  shows her presence of mind at the fête at the Champ de Mars;
+  writes to Mercy about the difficulty of managing Mirabeau;
+  has to bid farewell to Mercy, who is removed to the Hague;
+  gives audience to Prince de Lichtenstein;
+  denounced by Marat;
+  attempts made to assassinate;
+  writes to the Emperor of Austria, her brother Leopold, October 22d,
+    1790;
+  refuses to quit France by herself;
+  is threatened with a divorce by La Fayette;
+  writes to the Comte d'Artois, expostulating with him;
+  writes to her  brother to send troops to intervene;
+  escapes from Paris with her family, and is arrested and brought back;
+  writes to De Fersen;
+  writes to her brother, Emperor Leopold;
+  sends a letter to Mercy about the Revolution;
+  writes to Mercy about the declaration of Pilnitz and the Constitution;
+  declares her feelings in a letter to the Empress Catherine of Russia;
+  M. Bertrand and the queen;
+  receives news of the death of her brother Leopold, the Emperor of
+    Austria;
+  direct attacks made against;
+  Dumouriez speaks his mind strongly to;
+  appears before the insurrectionists at the Tuileries, June 20th, 1793;
+  writes to Mercy, July 4th, 1792;
+  receives proposals for her escape;
+  writes to the Landgravine Louise;
+  employs her time in quilting her husband a waistcoat to resist a dagger
+    or a bullet;
+  attempt made to assassinate;
+  determines to sacrifice personal safety to loss of the crown and
+    Constitution;
+  made prisoner with her husband;
+  plans formed for the escape of, fail;
+  additional insults offered to;
+  has a trial and is sentenced;
+  writes a final letter to the Princess Elizabeth;
+  is executed;
+  her remains treated with indignity;
+  summary of the character of.
+Maritime superiority possessed by England.
+Marly, palace at.
+Marmier, Madame de.
+Marquis d'Agoust;
+  de Bouillé;
+  de Condorcet;
+  de Durfort;
+  de La Fayette;
+  de Montesquieu;
+  de Savonières;
+  de St. Huruge;
+  de Vaudreuil.
+"Marriage of Figaro." the play of the.
+Marriage of Marie Antoinette to the Dauphin of France, May 16, 1770;
+  feelings in Germany and France regarding the.
+Marsan, Madame de.
+Marseillese, the.
+Marshal Beaulieu;
+  de Broglie;
+  de Mailly;
+  Lacy;
+  Luckner;
+  Rochambeau.
+Maubourg, M. Latour.
+Maurepas, Count de.
+Maximillan, Archduke, visits his sister.
+Mazarin, Madame de.
+Measles, the queen is attacked by the.
+Mercy, Comte de, appointed as embassador to France;
+  reports to Maria Teresa;
+  position and influence of, upon the accession of Louis XVI.;
+  receives letters from the queen on the political state of affairs;
+  replies to the same;
+  introduces Count de Mirabeau to the queen;
+  receives letter from the queen about Mirabeau;
+  is removed to the Hague;
+  the queen writes urgently to.
+Metastasio, epigram of.
+Michonis, M.
+Miomandre, M.
+Mirabeau, Count de, and court etiquette;
+  and his conjugal rights;
+  his character his behavior at the opening of the States;
+  drives Necker from office, and presents a petition to the king to
+    withdraw the troops from Paris;
+  changes his views;
+  his services accepted by the court;
+  denounced by the Jacobin club;
+  interviews the queen, and is pleased with her;
+  interviews the Count de la Marck;
+  great difficulty in managing;
+  retires from office;
+  stands by the queen;
+  death of;
+  funeral of.
+Mob at Versailles.
+Moleville, M. Bertrand de.
+Monnier, Countess de, and the Count de Mirabeau.
+Montesquieu, Marquis de.
+Montgolfier's balloons introduced.
+Montmédy.
+Montmorency, Viscount Matthieu de.
+Montmorin, M..
+Montsabert, M., arrest of.
+Moreau, M..
+Mothe, Countess de la.
+Murder of Mandat;
+  of the Princess de Lamballe.
+Music, great taste for, exhibited by the dauphiness.
+Mutiny in the Marquis de Bouillé's army.
+Mutual jealousies of the queen's favorites.
+Mysore, Tippoo Sahib, sultan of.
+
+Narbonne, Count de.
+"National Assembly," the, first proposed.
+National Guard, formation of the;
+  fires on the people.
+Necker, M.;
+  retires from the ministry;
+  invited to rejoin, and declines;
+  appointed prime mister;
+  aims at popularity;
+  convokes the States-general;
+  resumes office.
+Necklace made by Boehmer, the court jeweler;
+  story of the, revived.
+Noailles, Countess de.
+Normandy, Duke of.
+Notables, the Calonne, assembles;
+  Loménie de Brienne dismisses.
+Notre Dame, public thanksgiving at, on account of the birth of Madame
+  Royale;
+  also on the occasion of the birth of the dauphin.
+
+Oliva, Mademoiselle, and the great necklace forgery case.
+Opera of "Iphigénie en Aulide" performed in Paris.
+Opinion of foreign nations.
+Outrages in the provinces in 1789.
+Overthrow of the Girondins.
+
+Paris Duverney.
+Paris, fire-work explosion at;
+  state entrance of the dauphin and Marie Antoinette into;
+  great scarcity in, September, 1789;
+  riots in;
+  and the Reveillon riot;
+  riots in, July, 1789;
+  the court removes to;
+  insurrection in, June 20th, 1792;
+  riots in, August 5th, 1792.
+Parliament, violence of the;
+  arrest of two of its members;
+  closing-up of, by the king's order;
+  recall of, by Necker.
+Pastoret, M..
+Paul, Grand Duke of Russia, visits the French court with his wife.
+Peace restored between Prussia and Austria;
+  between France and England.
+Peasant, the, at Fontainebleau.
+_People's Friend, The_, a newspaper published by the Revolutionists.
+Pétion, M..
+Pilnitz, declaration of.
+Poland, the partition of.
+Polastron, Madame de.
+Polignac, Countess de.
+Political clubs springing up in Paris.
+Poll-tax, exemptions from, made by Louis XVI..
+Popularity of Marie Antoinette, increasing.
+Prince Charles of Lorraine, death of;
+  de Conti;
+  de Lichtenstein sent as envoy from Austria;
+  Ferdinand of Brunswick;
+  Kaunitz;
+  Cardinal Louis de Rohan.
+Princess Adelaide;
+  Clotilde;
+  de Guimenée;
+  de Lamballe;
+  Joséphine Louise of Savoy;
+  of Lorraine;
+  Sophie of France;
+  of Teschen;
+  Victoire.
+Private theatricals.
+Provence, Count de, married to the Princess Joséphine Louise of Savoy.
+Provence, Countess de.
+Provinces, outrages in the.
+Prussia allies with Russia.
+  and the declaration of Pilnitz.
+Public thanksgiving at the birth of Madame Royale;
+  at the birth of the dauphin.
+
+Race-course established in the Bois de Boulogne.
+Ramond, M..
+Red cap of liberty worn.
+Reform, the necessity of, generally admitted;
+  granted by Louis XVI..
+Rejoicings, general, in France at the birth of the princess;
+  at the birth of the dauphin.
+Republic declared.
+"Restorer of French Liberty," title given to the king.
+Rétaux de Villette.
+Retrenchment in court expenditure.
+Reveillon, M., and the Paris riot.
+Revolution of 1789 commenced.
+Revolutionary tribunal;
+  trial of the queen.
+Rheims, coronation of Louis XVI. at.
+Richelieu, Duc de.
+Ride, Marie Antoinette expresses a wish to learn to;
+  donkey-riding.
+Riding, donkey;
+  horse.
+Riots, formidable in some of the provinces;
+  in Paris;
+  the Reveillon, in Paris;
+  in Paris, July, 1789;
+  in Paris, June 20th, 1792;
+  in Paris, August 5th, 1792;
+Robespierre, M.
+Rochambeau, Marshal.
+Roche-Aymer, Count de.
+Rodney, Admiral.
+Roederer, M.
+Rohan, Cardinal Prince de.
+Roland, Madame, urging secret assassinations of the king and queen;
+  and Robespierre;
+  death of.
+Romenf, M.
+"Rose of the North," a name given to the Countess de Fersen.
+Rosenburg, Count de.
+Rousseau, Jean Jacques.
+Royal family, the, preparing to escape;
+  arrested;
+  authority suspended.
+Royalists, the name first used as a reproach.
+Russia allies with Prussia;
+  Grand Duke of, visits the French court;
+  Catherine Empress of.
+
+Sabran, Abbé de.
+Sahib, Tippoo, Sultan of Mysore.
+Salis, M. de.
+Sans-culottes.
+Santerre, M., and the attack on the Bastille;
+  and the Paris insurrection;
+  and the insurgents.
+Sartines, M. de.
+Savonières, Marquis de.
+Scarcity of food in Paris in September, 1789.
+Schönbrunn, retreat at.
+Seine, water-parties on the;
+  frozen over.
+Seven Years' War, the.
+Severity of the winter of 1788-'89 much felt in France.
+Seville, the Barber of, the play of.
+Séze, M. de.
+Sieyès, Abbé.
+Simolin, M.
+Simon M., and the young king.
+Sir Edward Hughes.
+Sledging-parties.
+Small-pox caught by Louis XV.;
+  caught by Madame Adelaide.
+Snow pyramids and obelisks erected, and inscriptions made on them showing
+  the French people's gratitude for the charity displayed by the queen in
+  the winter of 1788-'89.
+Soissons.
+Songs of the Dames de la Halle on the occasion of the birth of the
+  dauphin.
+Sophie Hélène Beatrice, Princess, born July 9th, 1786, died June 9th 1787.
+Sovereign of France, arbitrary powers of the.
+Spain and France form an alliance against the British.
+Spanish squadron destroyed by the British.
+St Anthony's Day.
+St. Cloud, visit of the dauphin and dauphiness to;
+  purchased for the queen.
+St Huruge, Marquis de.
+St. Priest, Count de.
+St. Targeau, M. de.
+St Menehould, the king recognized at, while escaping from France.
+Staël, Baroness de, at the opening of the States;
+  and the queen's last days.
+States-general, need for a meeting of the;
+  opening of the, by Louis XVI., May 5th, 1789;
+  uproar in.
+Statue of Louis XIV., by the Duc de la Feuillade.
+Stedingk, Count de.
+Stormont, Lord.
+Strasburg, reception at.
+Strausse, M.
+Successes of the English in America.
+Suffrein, Bailli de, fights with Sir E. Hughes.
+Sultan of Mysore.
+Supper-parties, court.
+Sutherland, Lady, supplies clothes for the dauphin.
+Sweden, Gustavus III., King of, at the French court;
+  assassination of the King of.
+Swedish nobles received at the French court
+Swiss Guard, under Count d'Hervilly; murder of the.
+
+Taboureau des Reaux.
+Talleyrand, Bishop of Autun.
+Tarouka's, Duka of, wager.
+Taxes imposed on the accession of a king and queen renounced.
+Tea, introduction of, into France
+Temple, the
+Teresa, Maria. See _Maria Teresa_
+Tertre, Duport de.
+Teschen, peace of;
+  Princess of, visits her sister, the queen, in 1786.
+Thanksgiving, public, at the Cathedral of Notre Dame.
+"The Handsome," a name given to the Count Axel de Fersen.
+Theatre, tumult at the.
+Theatres, the dauphin and dauphiness visiting the Parisian.
+Theatricals, private.
+Tison, Madam, and the queen.
+Titles of honor, abolition of.
+Tocqueville's, M. Alexis de, opinion of the feudal system in France.
+Toulan, M., and Marie Antoinette.
+Toulouse, Loménie de Brienne, Archbishop of.
+Tourzel, Marchioness de;
+  the queens writes, intrusting her children to the care of;
+  assumes the name of Madame de Korff.
+Trial of Cardinal de Rohan and others for forgery;
+  of the king, December 11th, 1792.
+Trianon, Little, pavilion of the, given to the queen;
+  the queen at the;
+  parties at the;
+  festivities at the;
+  the queen improving the.
+Tricolor flag adopted in Paris.
+Tronchet, M.
+Tuileries, shabbiness of the, and removal of the court to the.
+Turgot, A.R.J.;
+  dismissal from office.
+Turgy, M.
+
+Usages, French and Austrian.
+
+Valenciennes, a frontier town.
+Valory, M.
+Varennes, the king is arrested at, in his flight from Paris.
+Varicourt, M. de
+Vaudreuil, Count de.
+Vaudreuil, Marquis de.
+Vauguyon, Duc de la.
+Vergennes, Count de.
+Vergniaud, M.
+Vermond, Abbé de.
+Versailles, Marie Antoinette and Louis married at, May 16th, 1770;
+  less frequented;
+  winter of 1779.
+Veto, debates on the;
+  "Monsieur" and "Madame," nicknames to the king and queen.
+Victoire, Princess.
+Vienna, Marie Antoinette, leaving, April 26th, 1770.
+_Ville de Paris_, ship.
+Villette, Marquis de.
+Vincennes, castle at, attacked by the mob.
+Violence of the Parliament.
+Viscount Matthieu de Montmorency.
+Volatile character of the queen.
+Voltaire's remark about the maritime superiority of England; return to
+  France, and his death.
+
+Walpole's, Horace, observations on the beauty of the queen.
+War of the Grains;
+  the Seven Years';
+  the American;
+  between France and England;
+  declared against Austria.
+Water-parties on the Seine.
+West Indies, French successes in the.
+Winter of 1783, severity of;
+  of 1788-89, much distress in France in the.
+
+
+The End
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life of Marie Antoinette, Queen of
+France, by Charles Duke Yonge
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARIE ANTOINETTE ***
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life of Marie Antoinette, Queen of
+France, by Charles Duke Yonge
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Life of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France
+
+Author: Charles Duke Yonge
+
+Release Date: January 1, 2004 [EBook #10555]
+[Date last updated: October 8, 2005]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARIE ANTOINETTE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Anne Soulard, Michigan University, Joshua Hutchinson and
+the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Marie Antoinette]
+
+THE LIFE OF MARIE ANTOINETTE, QUEEN OF FRANCE.
+
+BY CHARLES DUKE YONGE
+
+
+1876
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+The principal authorities for the following work are the four volumes of
+Correspondence published by M. Arneth, and the six volumes published by M.
+Feuillet de Conches. M. Arneth's two collections[1] contain not only a
+number of letters which passed between the queen, her mother the Empress-
+queen (Maria Teresa), and her brothers Joseph and Leopold, who
+successively became emperors after the death of their father; but also a
+regular series of letters from the imperial embassador at Paris, the Count
+Mercy d'Argenteau, which may almost be said to form a complete history of
+the court of France, especially in all the transactions in which Marie
+Antoinette, whether as dauphiness or queen, was concerned, till the death
+of Maria Teresa, at Christmas, 1780. The correspondence with her two
+brothers, the emperors Joseph and Leopold, only ceases with the death of
+the latter in March, 1792.
+
+The collection published by M. Feuillet de Conches[2] has been vehemently
+attacked, as containing a series of clever forgeries rather than of
+genuine letters. And there does seem reason to believe that in a few
+instances, chiefly in the earlier portion of the correspondence, the
+critical acuteness of the editor was imposed upon, and that some of the
+letters inserted were not written by the persons alleged to be the
+authors. But of the majority of the letters there seems no solid ground
+for questioning the authenticity. Indeed, in the later and more important
+portion of the correspondence, that which belongs to the period after the
+death of the Empress-queen, the genuineness of the Queen's letters is
+continually supported by the collection of M. Arneth, who has himself
+published many of them, having found them in the archives at Vienna, where
+M.F. de Conches had previously copied them,[3] and who refers to others,
+the publication of which did not come within his own plan. M. Feuillet de
+Conches' work also contains narratives of some of the most important
+transactions after the commencement of the Revolution, which are of great
+value, as having been compiled from authentic sources.
+
+Besides these collections, the author has consulted the lives of Marie
+Antoinette by Montjoye, Lafont d'Aussonne, Chambrier, and the MM.
+Goncourt; "La Vraie Marie Antoinette" of M. Lescure; the Memoirs of Mme.
+Campan, Clery, Hue, the Duchesse d'Angouleme, Bertrand de Moleville
+("Memoires Particuliers"), the Comte de Tilly, the Baron de Besenval, the
+Marquis de la Fayette, the Marquise de Crequy, the Princess Lamballe; the
+"Souvenirs de Quarante Ans," by Mlle. de Tourzel; the "Diary" of M. de
+Viel Castel; the correspondence of Mme. du Deffand; the account of the
+affair of the necklace by M. de Campardon; the very valuable
+correspondence between the Count de la Marck and Mirabeau, which also
+contains a narrative by the Count de la Marck of many very important
+incidents; Dumont's "Souvenirs sur Mirabeau;" "Beaumarchais et son Temps,"
+by M. de Lomenie; "Gustavus III. et la Cour de Paris," by M. Geoffroy;
+the first seven volumes of the Histoire de la Terreur, by M. Mortimer
+Ternaux; Dr. Moore's journal of his visit to France, and view of the
+French Revolution; and a great number of other works in which there is
+cursory mention of different incidents, especially in the earlier part of
+the Revolution; such as the journals of Arthur Young, Madame de Stael's
+elaborate treatise on the Revolution; several articles in the last series
+of the "Causeries de Lundi," by Sainte-Beuve, and others in the _Revue des
+Deux Mondes_, etc., etc., and to those may of course be added the regular
+histories of Lacretelle, Sismondi, Martin, and Lamartine's "History of the
+Girondins."
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+Importance of Marie Antoinette in the Revolution.--Value of her
+Correspondence as a Means of estimating her Character.--Her Birth,
+November 2d, 1755.--Epigram of Metastasio.--Habits of the Imperial
+Family.--Schoenbrunn.--Death of the Emperor.--Projects for the Marriage of
+the Archduchess.--Her Education.--The Abbe de Vermond.--Metastasio.--
+Gluck.
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+Proposal for the Marriage of Marie Antoinette to the Dauphin.--Early
+Education of the Dauphin.--The Archduchess leaves Vienna in April, 1770.--
+Her Reception at Strasburg.--She meets the King at Compiegne.--The
+Marriage takes place May 16th, 1770.
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+Feelings in Germany and France on the Subject of the Marriage.--Letter of
+Maria Teresa to the Dauphin.--Characters of the Different Members of the
+Royal Family.--Difficulties which beset Marie Antoinette.--Maria Teresa's
+Letter of Advice.--The Comte de Mercy is sent as Embassador to France
+to act as the Adviser of the Dauphiness.--The Princesse de Lorraine at
+the State Ball.--A Great Disaster takes place at the Fire-works in Paris.
+--The Peasant at Fontainebleau.--Marie Antoinette pleases the King.--
+Description of her Personal Appearance.--Mercy's Report of the Impression
+she made on her First Arrival.
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+Marie Antoinette gives her Mother her First Impressions of the Court and
+of her own Position and Prospects.--Court Life at Versailles.--Marie
+Antoinette shows her Dislike of Etiquette.--Character of the Duc
+d'Aiguillon.--Cabals against the Dauphiness.--Jealousy of Mme. du Barri.--
+The Aunts, too, are Jealous of Her.--She becomes more and more Popular.--
+Parties for Donkey-riding.--Scantiness of the Dauphiness's Income.--Her
+Influence over the King.--The Duc de Choiseul is dismissed.--She begins
+to have Great Influence over the Dauphin.
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+Mercy's Correspondence with the Empress.--Distress and Discontent pervade
+France.--Goldsmith predicts a Revolution.--Apathy of the King.--The
+Aunts mislead Marie Antoinette.--Maria Teresa hears that the Dauphiness
+neglects her German Visitors.--Marriage of the Count de Provence.--Growing
+Preference of Louis XV. for the Dauphiness.--The Dauphiness applies
+herself to Study.--Marie Antoinette becomes a Horsewoman.--Her Kindness
+to all beneath her.--Cabals of the Adherents of the Mistress.--The
+Royal Family become united.--Concerts in the Apartments of the Dauphiness.
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+Marie Antoinette wishes to see Paris.--Intrigues of Madame Adelaide.--
+Characters of the Dauphin and the Count de Provence.--Grand Review at
+Fontainebleau.--Marie Antoinette in the Hunting Field.--Letter from her to
+the Empress. Mischievous Influence of the Dauphin's Aunts on her
+Character.--Letter of Marie Antoinette to the Empress.--Her Affection for
+her Old Home.--The Princes are recalled from Exile.--Lord Stormont.--Great
+Fire at the Hotel-Dieu.--Liberality of Charity of Marie Antoinette.--She
+goes to the Bal d'Opera.--Her Feelings about the Partition of Poland.--The
+King discusses Politics with her, and thinks highly of her Ability.
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+Marie Antoinette is anxious for the Maintenance of the Alliance between
+France and Austria.--She, with the Dauphin, makes a State Entry into
+Paris.--The "Dames de la Halle."--She praises the Courtesy of the
+Dauphin.--Her Delight at the Enthusiasm of the Citizens.--She, with the
+Dauphin, goes to the Theatre, and to the Fair of St. Ovide, and to St.
+Cloud.--Is enthusiastically received everywhere.--She learns to drive.
+--She makes some Relaxations in Etiquette.--Marriage of the Comte
+d'Artois.--The King's Health grows Bad.--Visit of Marshal Lacy to
+Versailles.--The King catches the Small-pox.--Madame du Barri quits
+Versailles.--The King dies.
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+The Court leaves Versailles for La Muette.--Feelings of the New
+Sovereigns.--Madame du Barri is sent to a Convent.--Marie Antoinette
+writes to Maria Teresa.--The Good Intentions of the New Sovereigns.--
+Madame Adelaide has the Small-pox.--Anxieties of Maria Teresa.--
+Mischievous Influence of the Aunts.--Position and Influence of the Count
+de Mercy.--Louis consults the Queen on Matters of Policy.--Her Prudence.--
+She begins to Purify the Court, and to relax the Rules of Etiquette.--Her
+Care of her Pages.--The King and she renounce the Gifts of Le Joyeux
+Avenement, and La Ceinture de la Reine.--She procures the Pardon of the
+Duc de Choiseul.
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+The Comte de Provence intrigues against the Queen.--The King gives her the
+Little Trianon.--She lays out an English Garden.--Maria Teresa cautions
+her against Expense.--The King and Queen abolish some of the Old Forms.--
+The Queen endeavors to establish Friendships with some of her Younger
+Ladies.--They abuse her Favor.--Her Eagerness for Amusement.--Louis
+enters into her Views.--Etiquette is abridged.--Private Parties at
+Choisy.--Supper Parties.--Opposition of the Princesses.--Some of the
+Courtiers are dissatisfied at the Relaxation of Etiquette.--Marie
+Antoinette is accused of Austrian Preferences.
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+Settlement of the Queen's Allowance.--Character and Views of Turgot.--She
+induces Gluck to visit Paris.--Performance of his Opera of "Iphigenie
+en Aulide."--The First Encore.--Marie Antoinette advocates the
+Re-establishment of the Parliaments, and receives an Address from them.--
+English Visitors at the Court.--The King is compared to Louis XII. and
+Henri IV.--The Archduke Maximilian visits his Sister.--Factious Conduct of
+the Princes of the Blood.--Anti-Austrian Feeling in Paris.--The War of
+Grains.--The King is crowned at Rheims.--Feelings of Marie Antoinette.--
+Her Improvements at the Trianon.--Her Garden Parties there.--Description
+of her Beauty by Burke, and by Horace Walpole.
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+Tea is introduced.--Horse-racing of Count d'Artois.--Marie Antoinette goes
+to see it.--The Queen's Submissiveness to the Reproofs of the Empress.--
+Birth of the Duc d'Angouleme.--She at times speaks lightly of the King.--
+The Emperor remonstrates with her.--Character of some of the Queen's
+Friends.--The Princess de Lamballe.--The Countess Jules de Polignac.--They
+set the Queen against Turgot.--She procures his Dismissal.--She
+gratifies Madame Polignac's Friends.--Her Regard for the French People.--
+Water Parties on the Seine.--Her Health is Delicate.--Gambling at
+the Palace.
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+Marie Antoinette finds herself in Debt.--Forgeries of her Name are
+committed.--The Queen devotes herself too much to Madame de Polignac and
+others.--Versailles is less frequented.--Remonstrances of the Empress.--
+Volatile Character of the Queen.--She goes to the Bals d'Opera at Paris.--
+She receives the Duke of Dorset and other English Nobles with Favor.--
+Grand Entertainment given her by the Count de Provence.--Character of
+the Emperor Joseph.--He visits Paris and Versailles.--His Feelings toward
+and Conversations with the King and Queen.--He goes to the Opera.--His
+Opinion of the Queen's Friends.--Marie Antoinette's Letter to the
+Empress on his Departure.--The Emperor leaves her a Letter of Advice.
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+Impressions made on the Queen by the Emperor's Visit.--Mutual Jealousies
+of her Favorites.--The Story of the Chevalier d'Assas.--The Terrace
+Concerts at Versailles.--More Inroads on Etiquette.--Insolence and
+Unpopularity of the Count d'Artois.--Marie Antoinette takes Interest in
+Politics.--France concludes an Alliance with the United States.--Affairs
+of Bavaria.--Character of the Queen's Letters on Politics.--The Queen
+expects to become a Mother.--Voltaire returns to Paris.--The Queen
+declines to receive him.--Misconduct of the Duke of Orleans in the Action
+off Ushant.--The Queen uses her Influence in his Favor.
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+Birth of Madame Royale.--Festivities of Thanksgiving.--The Dames de la
+Halle at the Theatre.--Thanksgiving at Notre Dame.--The King goes to a Bal
+d'Opera.--The Queen's Carriage breaks down.--Marie Antoinette has the
+Measles.--Her Anxiety about the War.--Retrenchments of Expense.
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+Anglomania in Paris.--The Winter at Versailles.--Hunting.--Private
+Theatricals.--Death of Prince Charles of Lorraine.--Successes of the
+English in America.--Education of the Duc d'Angouleme.--Libelous Attacks
+on the Queen.--Death of the Empress.--Favor shown some of the Swedish
+Nobles.--The Count de Fersen.--Necker retires from Office.--His Character.
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+The Queen expects to be confined again.--Increasing Unpopularity of the
+King's Brothers.--Birth of the Dauphin.--Festivities.--Deputations from
+the Different Trades.--Songs of the Dames de la Halle.--Ball given by the
+Body-guard,--Unwavering Fidelity of the Regiment.--The Queen offers up
+her Thanksgiving at Notre Dame.--Banquet at the Hotel de Ville.--
+Rejoicings in Paris.
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+Madame de Guimenee resigns the Office of Governess of the Royal
+Children.--Madame de Polignac succeeds her.--Marie Antoinette's Views of
+Education.--Character of Madame Royale.--The Grand Duke Paul and his Grand
+Duchess visit the French Court.--Their Characters.--Entertainments given
+in their Honor.--Insolence of the Cardinal de Rohan.--His Character and
+previous Life.--Grand Festivities at Chantilly.--Events of the War.--
+Rodney defeats De Grasse.--The Siege of Gibraltar fails.--M. de Suffrein
+fights five Drawn Battles with Sir E. Hughes in the Indian Seas.--The
+Queen receives him with Great Honor on his Return.
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+Peace is re-established.--Embarrassments of the Ministry.--Distress of the
+Kingdom.--M. de Calonne becomes Finance Minister.--The Winter of
+1783-'84 is very Severe.--The Queen devotes Large Sums to Charity.--Her
+Political Influence increases.--Correspondence between the Emperor and
+her on European Politics.--The State of France.--The Baron de Breteuil.--
+Her Description of the Character of the King.
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+"The Marriage of Figaro."--Previous History and Character of
+Beaumarchais.--The Performance of the Play is forbidden.--It is said to be
+a little altered.--It is licensed.--Displeasure of the Queen.--Visit of
+Gustavus III. of Sweden.--Fete at the Trianon.--Balloon Ascent.
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+St. Cloud is purchased for the Queen.--Libelous Attacks on her.--Birth of
+the Duc de Normandie.--Joseph presses her to make France support his
+Views in the Low Countries.--The Affair of the Necklace.--Share which the
+Cardinal de Rohan had in it.--The Queen's Indignation at his Acquittal.--
+Subsequent Career of the Cardinal.
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+The King visits Cherbourg.--Rarity of Royal Journeys.--The Princess
+Christine visits the Queen.--Hostility of the Duc d'Orleans to the Queen.
+--Libels on her.--She is called Madame Deficit.--She has a Second
+Daughter, who dies.--Ill Health of the Dauphin.--Unskillfulness and
+Extravagance of Calonne's System of Finance.--Distress of the Kingdom.--He
+assembles the Notables.--They oppose his Plans.--Letters of Marie
+Antoinette on the Subject.--Her Ideas of the English Parliament.--
+Dismissal of Calonne.--Character of Archbishop Lomenie de Brienne.--
+Obstinacy of Necker.--The Archbishop is appointed Minister.--The Distress
+increases.--The Notables are dissolved.--Violent Opposition of the
+Parliament.--Resemblance of the French Revolution to the English Rebellion
+of 1642.--Arrest of D'Espremesnil and Montsabert.
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+Formidable Riots take place in some Provinces.--The Archbishop invites
+Necker to join his Ministry.--Letter of Marie Antoinette describing her
+Interview with the Archbishop, and her Views.--Necker refuses.--The
+Queen sends Messages to Necker.--The Archbishop resigns, and Necker
+becomes Minister.--The Queen's View of his Character.--General Rejoicing.
+--Defects in Necker's Character.--He recalls the Parliament.--Riots in
+Paris.--Severe Winter.--General Distress.--Charities of the King and
+Queen.--Gratitude of the Citizens.--The Princes are concerned in the
+Libels published against the Queen.--Preparations for the Meeting of the
+States-general.--Long Disuse of that Assembly.--Need of Reform.--Vices
+of the Old Feudal System.--Necker's Blunders in the Arrangements for the
+Meeting of the States.--An Edict of the King concedes the Chief Demands
+of the Commons.--Views of the Queen.
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+The Reveillon Riot.--Opening of the States-general.--The Queen is insulted
+by the Partisans of the Duc d'Orleans.--Discussions as to the Number of
+Chambers.--Career and Character of Mirabeau.--Necker rejects his Support.
+--He determines to revenge himself.--Death of the Dauphin.
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+Troops are brought up from the Frontier.--The Assembly petitions the King
+to withdraw them.--He refuses.--Ho dismisses Necker.--The Baron de
+Breteuil is appointed Prime Minister.--Terrible Riots in Paris.--The
+Tricolor Flag is adopted.--Storming of the Bastile and Murder of the
+Governor.--The Count d'Artois and other Princes fly from the Kingdom.--The
+King recalls Necker.--Withdraws the Soldiers and visits Paris.--Formation
+of the National Guard.--Insolence of La Fayette and Bailly.--Madame
+de Tourzel becomes Governess of the Royal Children.--Letters of Marie
+Antoinette on their Character, and on her own Views of Education.
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+Necker resumes Office.--Outrages in the Provinces.--Pusillanimity of the
+Body of the Nation.--Parties in the Assembly.--Views of the
+Constitutionalists or "Plain."--Barnave makes Overtures to the Court.--The
+Queen rejects them.--The Assembly abolishes all Privileges, August
+4th.--Debates on the Veto.--An Attack on Versailles is threatened.--Great
+Scarcity in Paris.--The King sends his Plate to be melted down.--The
+Regiment of Flanders is brought up to Versailles.--A Military Banquet
+is held in the Opera-house.--October 5th, a Mob from Paris marches
+on Versailles.--Blunders of La Fayette.--Ferocity of the Mob on the 5th.
+--Attack on the Palace on the 6th.--Danger and Heroism of the Queen.--The
+Royal Family remove to Paris.--Their Reception at the Barrier and
+at the Hotel de Ville.--Shabbiness of the Tuileries.--The King fixes his
+Residence there.
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+Feelings of Marie Antoinette on coming to the Tuileries.--Her Tact in
+winning the Hearts of the Common People.--Mirabeau changes his Views.--
+Quarrel between La Fayette and the Duc d'Orleans.--Mirabeau desires to
+offer his Services to the Queen.--Riots in Paris.--Murder of Francois.--
+The Assembly pass a Vote prohibiting any Member from taking Office.--The
+Emigration.--Death of the Emperor Joseph II.--Investigation into
+the Riots of October.--The Queen refuses to give Evidence.--Violent
+Proceedings in the Assembly.--Execution of the Marquis de Favras.
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+The King accepts the Constitution so far as it has been settled.--The
+Queen makes a Speech to the Deputies.--She is well received at the
+Theatre.--Negotiations with Mirabeau.--The Queen's Views of the Position
+of Affairs.--The Jacobin Club denounces Mirabeau.--Deputation of
+Anacharsis Clootz.--Demolition of the Statue of Louis XIV.--Abolition of
+Titles of Honor.--The Queen admits Mirabeau to an Audience.--His
+Admiration of her Courage and Talents.--Anniversary of the Capture of the
+Bastile.--Fete of the Champ de Mars.--Presence of Mind of the Queen.
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+Great Tumults in the Provinces.--Mutiny in the Marquis de Bouille's Army.
+--Disorder of the Assembly.--Difficulty of managing Mirabeau.--Mercy is
+removed to The Hague.--Marie Antoinette sees constant Changes in the
+Aspect of Affairs.--Marat denounces Her.--Attempts are made to assassinate
+Her.--Resignation of Mirabeau.--Misconduct of the Emigrant Princes.
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+Louis and Marie Antoinette contemplate Foreign Intervention.--The Assembly
+passes Laws to subordinate the Church to the Civil Power.--Insolence
+of La Fayette.--Marie Antoinette refuses to quit France by Herself.--The
+Jacobins and La Fayette try to revive the Story of the Necklace.--Marie
+Antoinette with her Family.--Flight from Paris is decided on.--The Queen's
+Preparations and Views.--An Oath to observe the new Ecclesiastical
+Constitution is imposed on the Clergy.--The King's Aunts leave France.
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+The Mob attacks the Castle at Vincennes.--La Fayette saves it.--He insults
+the Nobles who come to protect the King.--Perverseness of the Count
+d'Artois and the Emigrants.--Mirabeau dies.--General Sorrow for his
+Death.--He would probably not have been able to arrest the Revolution.--
+The Mob prevent the King from visiting St. Cloud.--The Assembly passes a
+Vote to forbid him to go more than twenty Leagues from Paris.
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+Plans for the Escape of the Royal Family.--Dangers of Discovery.--
+Resolution of the Queen.--The Royal Family leave the Palace.--They are
+recognized at Ste. Menehould.--Are arrested at Varennes.--Tumult in the
+City, and in the Assembly.--The King and Queen are brought back to Paris.
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+Marie Antoinette's Feelings on her Return.--She sees Hopes of
+Improvement.--The 17th of July.--The Assembly inquire into the King's
+Conduct on leaving Paris.--They resolve that there is no Reason for taking
+Proceedings.--Excitement in Foreign Countries.--The Assembly proceeds to
+complete the Constitution.--It declares all the Members Incapable of
+Election to the New Assembly.--Letters of Marie Antoinette to the Emperor
+and to Mercy.--The Declaration of Pilnitz.--The King accepts the
+Constitution.--Insults offered to him at the Festival of the Champ de
+Mars.--And to the Queen at the Theatre.--The First or Constituent Assembly
+is dissolved.
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+Composition of the New Assembly.--Rise of the Girondins.--Their Corruption
+and Eventual Fate.--Vergniaud's Motions against the King.--Favorable
+Reception of the King at the Assembly, and at the Opera.--Changes
+in the Ministry.--The King's and Queen's Language to M. Bertrand de
+Moleville.--The Count de Narbonne.--Petion is elected Mayor of Paris.--
+Scarcity of Money, and Great Hardships of the Royal  Family.--Presents
+arrive from Tippoo Sahib.--The Dauphin.--The Assembly passes Decrees
+against the Priests and the Emigrants.--Misconduct of the Emigrants.--
+Louis refuses his Assent to the Decrees.--He issues a Circular condemning
+Emigration.
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+Death of Leopold.--Murder of Gustavus of Sweden--Violence of Vergniaud.--
+The Ministers resign.--A Girondin Ministry is appointed.--Character of
+Dumouriez.--Origin of the Name Sans-culottes.--Union of Different Parties
+against the Queen.--War is declared against the Empire.--Operations in
+the Netherlands.--Unskillfulness of La Fayette.--The King falls into a
+State of Torpor.--Fresh Libels on the Queen.--Barnave's Advice.--Dumouriez
+has an Audience of the Queen.--Dissolution of the Constitutional
+Guard.--Formation of a Camp near Paris.--Louis adheres to his Refusal
+to assent to the Decree against the Priests.--Dumouriez resigns his
+Office, and takes command of the Army.
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+The Insurrection of June 20th.
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+Feelings of Marie Antoinette.--Different Plans are formed for her Escape.
+--She hopes for Aid from Austria and Prussia.--La Fayette comes to Paris.
+--His Mismanagement--An Attempt is made to assassinate the Queen.--The
+Motion of Bishop Lamourette.--The Feast of the Federation.--La Fayette
+proposes a Plan for the King's Escape.--Bertrand proposes Another.--Both
+are rejected by the Queen.
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+Preparation for a New Insurrection.--Barbaroux brings up a Gang from
+Marseilles.--The King's last Levee.--The Assembly rejects a Motion for the
+Impeachment of La Fayette.--It removes some Regiments from Paris.--
+Preparations of the Court for Defense.--The 10th of August.--The City
+is in Insurrection.--Murder of Mandat.--Louis reviews the Guards.--He
+takes Refuge with the Assembly.--Massacre of the Swiss Guards.--Sack
+of the Tuileries.--Discussions in the Assembly.--The Royal Authority is
+suspended.
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+Indignities to which the Royal Family are subjected.--They are removed to
+the Temple.--Divisions in the Assembly.--Flight of La Fayette.--Advance
+of the Prussians.--Lady Sutherland supplies the Dauphin with Clothes.--
+Mode of Life in the Temple.--The Massacres of September.--The Death of
+the Princess de Lamballe.--Insults are heaped on the King and Queen.--The
+Trial of the King.--His Last Interview with his Family.--His Death.
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+The Queen is refused Leave to see Clery.--Madame Royale is taken Ill.--
+Plans are formed for the Queen's Escape by MM. Jarjayes, Toulan, and by
+the Baron de Batz.--Marie Antoinette refuses to leave her Son.--Illness
+of the young King.--Overthrow of the Girondins.--Insanity of the Woman
+Tison.--Kindness of the Queen to her.--Her Son is taken from her, and
+intrusted to Simon.--His Ill-treatment.--The Queen is removed to the
+Conciergerie.--She is tried before the Revolutionary Tribunal.--She is
+condemned.--Her last Letter to the Princess Elizabeth.--Her Death and
+Character.
+
+INDEX
+
+
+
+
+LIFE OF MARIE ANTOINETTE.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+Importance of Marie Antoinette in the Revolution.--Value of her
+Correspondence as a Means of estimating her Character.--Her Birth,
+November 2d, 1755.--Epigram of Metastasio.--Habits of the Imperial
+Family.--Schoenbrunn.--Death of the Emperor.--Projects for the Marriage of
+the Archduchess.--Her Education.--The Abbe de Vermond.--Metastasio.--
+Gluck.
+
+
+The most striking event in the annals of modern Europe is unquestionably
+the French Revolution of 1789--a Revolution which, in one sense, may be
+said to be still in progress, but which, is a more limited view, may be
+regarded as having been, consummated by the deposition and murder of the
+sovereign of the country. It is equally undeniable that, during its first
+period, the person who most attracts and rivets attention is the queen.
+One of the moat brilliant of modern French writers[1] has recently
+remarked that, in spite of the number of years which have elapsed since
+the grave closed over the sorrows of Marie Antoinette, and of the almost
+unbroken series of exciting events which have marked the annals of France
+in the interval, the interest excited by her story is as fresh and
+engrossing as ever; that such as Hecuba and Andromache were to the
+ancients, objects never named to inattentive ears, never contemplated
+without lively sympathy, such still is their hapless queen to all honest
+and intelligent Frenchmen. It may even be said that that interest has
+increased of late years. The respectful and remorseful pity which her fate
+could not fail to awaken has been quickened by the publication of her
+correspondence with her family and intimate friends, which has laid bare,
+without disguise, all her inmost thoughts and feelings, her errors as well
+as her good deeds, her weaknesses equally with her virtues. Few, indeed,
+even of those whom the world regards with its highest favor and esteem,
+could endure such an ordeal without some diminution of their fame. Yet it
+is but recording the general verdict of all whose judgment is of value, to
+affirm that Marie Antoinette has triumphantly surmounted it; and that the
+result of a scrutiny as minute and severe as any to which a human being
+has ever been subjected, has been greatly to raise her reputation.
+
+Not that she was one of those paragons whom painters of model heroines
+have delighted to imagine to themselves; one who from childhood gave
+manifest indications of excellence and greatness, and whose whole life was
+but a steady progressive development of its early promise. She was rather
+one in whom adversity brought forth great qualities, her possession of
+which, had her life been one of that unbroken sunshine which is regarded
+by many as the natural and inseparable attendant of royalty, might never
+have been even suspected. We meet with her first, at an age scarcely
+advanced beyond childhood, transported from her school-room to a foreign
+court, as wife to the heir of one of the noblest kingdoms of Europe. And
+in that situation we see her for a while a light-hearted, merry girl,
+annoyed rather than elated by her new magnificence; thoughtless, if not
+frivolous, in her pursuits; fond of dress; eager in her appetite for
+amusement, tempered only by an innate purity of feeling which never
+deserted her; the brightest features of her character being apparently a
+frank affability, and a genuine and active kindness and humanity which
+were displayed to all classes and on all occasions. We see her presently
+as queen, hardly yet arrived at womanhood, little changed in disposition
+or in outward demeanor, though profiting to the utmost by the
+opportunities which her increased power afforded her of proving the
+genuine tenderness of her heart, by munificent and judicious works of
+charity and benevolence; and exerting her authority, if possible, still
+more beneficially by protecting virtue, discountenancing vice, and
+purifying a court whose shameless profligacy had for many generations been
+the scandal of Christendom. It is probable, indeed, that much of her early
+levity was prompted by a desire to drive from her mind disappointments and
+mortifications of which few suspected the existence, but which were only
+the more keenly felt because she was compelled to keep them to herself;
+but it is certain that during the first eight or ten years of her
+residence in France there was little in her habits and conduct, however
+amiable and attractive, which could have led her warmest friends to
+discern in her the high qualities which she was destined to exhibit before
+its close.
+
+Presently, however, she becomes a mother; and in this new relation we
+begin to perceive glimpses of a loftier nature. From the moment of the
+birth of her first child, she performed those new duties which, perhaps
+more than any others, call forth all the best and most peculiar virtues of
+the female heart in such a manner as to add esteem and respect to the
+good-will which her affability and courtesy had already inspired;
+recognizing to the full the claims which the nation had upon her, that
+she should, in person, superintend the education of her children, and
+especially of her son as its future ruler; and discharging that sacred
+duty, not only with the most affectionate solicitude, but also with the
+most admirable judgment.
+
+But years so spent were years of happiness; and, though such may suffice
+to display the amiable virtues, it is by adversity that the grander
+qualities of the head and heart are more strikingly drawn forth. To the
+trials of that stern inquisitress, Marie Antoinette was fully exposed in
+her later years; and not only did she rise above them, but the more
+terrible and unexampled they were, the more conspicuous was the
+superiority of her mind to fortune. It is no exaggeration to say that the
+history of the whole world has preserved no record of greater heroism, in
+either sex, than was shown by Marie Antoinette during the closing years of
+her life. No courage was ever put to the proof by such a variety and such
+an accumulation of dangers and miseries; and no one ever came out of an
+encounter with even far inferior calamities with greater glory. Her moral
+courage and her physical courage were equally tried. It was not only that
+her own life, and lives far dearer to her than her own, were exposed to
+daily and hourly peril, or that to this danger were added repeated
+vexations of hopes baffled and trusts betrayed; but these griefs were
+largely aggravated by the character and conduct of those nearest to her.
+Instead of meeting with counsel and support from her husband and his
+brothers, she had to guide and support Louis himself, and even to find him
+so incurably weak as to be incapable of being kept in the path of wisdom
+by her sagacity, or of deriving vigor from her fortitude; while the
+princes were acting in selfish and disloyal opposition to him, and so, in
+a great degree, sacrificing him and her to their perverse conceit, if we
+may not say to their faithless ambition. She had to think for all, to act
+for all, to struggle for all; and to beat up against the conviction that
+her thoughts, and actions, and struggles were being balked of their effect
+by the very persona for whom she was exerting herself; that she was but
+laboring to save those who would not be saved. Yet, throughout that
+protracted agony of more than four years she bore herself with an
+unswerving righteousness of purpose and an unfaltering fearlessness of
+resolution which could not have been exceeded had she been encouraged by
+the most constant success. And in the last terrible hours, when the
+monsters who had already murdered her husband were preparing the same fate
+for herself, she met their hatred and ferocity with a loftiness of spirit
+which even hopelessness could not subdue. Long before, she had declared
+that she had learned, from the example of her mother, not to fear death;
+and she showed that this was no empty boast when she rose in the last
+scenes of her life as much even above her earlier displays of courage and
+magnanimity as she also rose above the utmost malice of her vile enemies.
+
+    *    *    *    *    *
+
+Marie Antoinette Josephe Jeanne was the youngest daughter of Francis,
+originally Duke of Lorraine, afterward Grand Duke of Tuscany, and
+eventually Emperor of Germany, and of Maria Teresa, Archduchess of
+Austria, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, more generally known, after the
+attainment of the imperial dignity by her husband in 1745, as the Empress-
+queen. Of her brothers, two, Joseph and Leopold, succeeded in turn to the
+imperial dignity; and one of her sisters, Caroline, became the wife of the
+King of Naples. She was born on the 2d of November, 1755, a day which,
+when her later years were darkened by misfortune, was often referred to as
+having foreshadowed it by its evil omens, since it was that on which the
+terrible earthquake which laid Lisbon in ruins reached its height. But, at
+the time, the Viennese rejoiced too sincerely at every event which could
+contribute to their sovereign's happiness to pay any regard to the
+calamities of another capital, and the courtly poet was but giving
+utterance to the unanimous feeling of her subjects when he spoke of the
+princess's birth as calculated to diffuse universal joy. Daughters had
+been by far the larger part of Maria Teresa's family, so that she was,
+consequently, anxious for another son; and, knowing her wishes, the Duke
+of Tarouka, one of the nobles whom she admitted to her intimacy, laid her
+a small wager that they would be realized by the sex of the expected
+infant. He lost his bet, but felt some embarrassment, in devising a
+graceful mode of paying it. In his perplexity, he sought the advice of the
+celebrated Metastasio, who had been for some time established at Vienna as
+the favorite poet of the court, and the Italian, with the ready wit of his
+country, at once supplied him with a quatrain, which, in her
+disappointment itself, could mid ground for compliment:
+
+  "Io perdei; l' augusta figlia
+  A pagar m' ha condannato;
+  Ma s'e ver che a voi somiglia,
+  Tutto il mondo ha guadagnato."
+
+The customs of the imperial court had undergone a great change since the
+death of Charles VI. It had been pre-eminent for pompous ceremony, which
+was thought to become the dignity of the sovereign who boasted of being
+the representative of the Roman Caesars. But the Lorraine princes had been
+bred up in a simpler fashion; and Francis had an innate dislike to all
+ostentation, while Maria Teresa had her attention too constantly fixed on
+matters of solid importance to have much leisure to spare for the
+consideration of trifles. Both husband and wife greatly preferred to their
+gorgeous palace at Vienna a smaller house which they possessed in the
+neighborhood, called Schoenbrunn, where they could lay aside their state,
+and enjoy the unpretending pleasures of domestic and rural life,
+cultivating their garden, and, as far as the imperious calls of public
+affairs would allow them time, watching over the education of their
+children, to whom the example of their own tastes and habits was
+imperceptibly affording the best of all lessons, a preference for simple
+and innocent pleasures.
+
+In this tranquil retreat, the childhood of Marie Antoinette was happily
+passed; her bright looks, which already gave promise of future loveliness,
+her quick intelligence, and her affectionate disposition combining to make
+her the special favorite of her parents. It was she whom Francis, when
+quitting his family in the summer of 1764 for that journey to Innspruck
+which proved his last, specially ordered to be brought to him, saying, as
+if he felt some foreboding of his approaching illness, that he must
+embrace her once more before he departed; and his death, which took place
+before she was nine years old, was the first sorrow which ever brought a
+tear into her eyes.
+
+The superintendence of her vast empire occupied a greater share of Maria
+Teresa's attention than the management of her family. But as Marie
+Antoinette grew up, the Empress-queen's ambition, ever on the watch to
+maintain and augment the prosperity of her country, perceived in her
+child's increasing attractions a prospect of cementing more closely an
+alliance which she had contracted some years before, and on which she
+prided herself the more because it had terminated an enmity of two
+centuries and a half. From the day on which Charles V, prevailed over
+Francis I. in the competition for the imperial crown, the attitude of the
+Emperor of Germany and of the King of France to each other had been one of
+mutual hostility, which, with but rare exceptions, had been greatly in
+favor of the latter country. The very first years of Maria Teresa's own
+reign had been imbittered by the union of France with Prussia in a war
+which had deprived her of an extensive province; and she regarded it as
+one of the great triumphs of Austrian diplomacy to have subsequently won
+over the French ministry to exchange the friendship of Frederick of
+Prussia for her own, and to engage as her ally in a war which had for its
+object the recovery of the lost Silesia. Silesia was not recovered. But
+she still clung to the French alliance as fondly as if the objects which
+she had originally hoped to gain by it had been fully accomplished; and,
+as the heir to the French monarchy was very nearly of the same age as the
+young archduchess, she began to entertain hopes of uniting the two royal
+families by a marriage which should render the union between the two
+nations indissoluble. She mentioned the project to some of the French
+visitors at her court, whom she thought likely to repeat her conversation
+on their return to their own country. She took care that reports of her
+daughter's beauty should from time to time reach the ears of Louis XV. She
+had her picture painted by French artists. She made a proficiency in the
+French language the principal object of her education; bringing over some
+French actors to Vienna to instruct her in the graces of elocution, and
+subsequently establishing as her chief tutor a French ecclesiastic, the
+Abbe de Vermond, a man of extensive learning, of excellent judgment, and
+of most conscientious integrity. The appointment would have been in every
+respect a most fortunate one, had it not been suggested by Lomenie de
+Brienne, Archbishop of Toulouse, who thus laid the abbe under an
+obligation which was requited, to the great injury of France, nearly
+twenty years afterward, when M. de Vermond, who still remained about the
+person of his royal mistress, had an opportunity of exerting his influence
+to make the archbishop prime minister.
+
+Not that her studies were confined to French. Metastasio taught her
+Italian; Gluck, whose recently published opera of "Orfeo" had, established
+for him a reputation as one of the greatest musicians of the age, gave her
+lessons on the harpsichord. But we fear it can not be said that she
+obtained any high degree of excellence in these or in any other
+accomplishments. She was not inclined to study; and, with the exception of
+the abbe, her masters and mistresses were too courtly to be peremptory
+with an archduchess. Their favorable reports to the Empress-queen were
+indeed neutralized by the frankness with which their pupil herself
+confessed her idleness and failure to improve. But Maria Teresa was too
+much absorbed in politics to give much heed to the confession, or to
+insist on greater diligence; though at a later day Marie Antoinette
+herself repented of her neglect, and did her best to repair it, taking
+lessons in more than one accomplishment with great perseverance during the
+first years of her residence at Versailles, because, as she expressed
+herself, the dauphiness was bound to take care of the character of the
+archduchess.
+
+There are, however, lessons of greater importance to a child than any
+which are given by even the most accomplished masters--those which flow
+from the example of a virtuous and sensible mother; and those the young
+archduchess showed a greater aptitude for learning. Maria Teresa had set
+an example not only to her own family, but to all sovereigns, among whom
+principles and practices such as hers had hitherto been little recognized,
+of regarding an attention to the personal welfare of all her subjects,
+even of those of the lowest class, as among the most imperative of her
+duties. She had been accessible to all. She had accustomed the peasantry
+to accost her in her walks; she had visited their cottages to inquire into
+and relieve their wants. And the little Antoinette, who, more than any
+other of her children, seems to have taken her for an especial model, had
+thus, from her very earliest childhood, learned to feel a friendly
+interest in the well-doing of the people in general; to think no one too
+lowly for her notice, to sympathize with sorrow, to be indignant at
+injustice and ingratitude, to succor misfortune and distress. And these
+were habits which, as being implanted in her heart, she was not likely to
+forget; but which might be expected rather to gain strength by indulgence,
+and to make her both welcome and useful to any people among whom her lot
+might be cast.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+Proposal for the Marriage of Marie Antoinette to the Dauphin.--Early
+Education of the Dauphin.--The Archduchess leaves Vienna in April, 1770.--
+Her Reception at Strasburg.--She meets the King at Compiegne.--The
+Marriage takes place May 16th, 1770.
+
+
+Royal marriages had been so constantly regarded as affairs of state, to be
+arranged for political reasons, that it had become usual on the Continent
+to betroth princes and princesses to each other at a very early age; and
+it was therefore not considered as denoting any premature impatience on
+the part of either the Empress-queen or the King of France, Louis XV.,
+when, at the beginning of 1769, when Marie Antoinette had but just
+completed her thirteenth year, the Duc de Choiseul, the French Minister
+for Foreign Affairs, who was himself a native of Lorraine, instructed the
+Marquis de Durfort, the French embassador at Vienna, to negotiate with the
+celebrated Austrian prime minister, the Prince de Kaunitz, for her
+marriage to the heir of the French throne, who was not quite fifteen
+months older. Louis XV. had had several daughters, but only one son. That
+son, born in 1729, had been married at the age of fifteen to a Spanish
+infanta, who, within a year of her marriage, died in her confinement, and
+whom he replaced in a few months by a daughter of Augustus III., King of
+Saxony. His second wife bore him four sons and two daughters. The eldest
+son, the Duc de Bourgogne, who was born in 1750, and was generally
+regarded as a child of great promise, died in his eleventh year; and when
+he himself died in 1765, his second son, previously known as the Duc de
+Berri, succeeded him in his title of dauphin. This prince, now the suitor
+of the archduchess, had been born on the 23d of August, 1754, and was
+therefore not quite fifteen. As yet but little was known of him. Very
+little pains had been taken with his education; his governor, the Duc de
+la Vauguyon, was a man who had been appointed to that most important post
+by the cabals of the infamous mistress and parasites who formed the court
+of Louis XV., without one qualification for the discharge of its duties. A
+servile, intriguing spirit had alone recommended him to his patrons, while
+his frivolous indolence was in harmony with the inclinations of the king
+himself, who, worn out with a long course of profligacy, had no longer
+sufficient energy even for vice. Under such a governor, the young prince
+had but little chance of receiving a wholesome education, even if there
+was not a settled design to enfeeble his mind by neglect.
+
+His father had been a man of a character very different from that of the
+king. By a sort of natural reaction or silent protest against the infamies
+which he saw around him, he had cherished a serious and devout
+disposition, and had observed a conduct of the most rigorous virtue. He
+was even suspected of regarding the Jesuits with especial favor, and was
+believed to have formed plans for the reformation of morals, and perhaps
+of the State. It was not strange that, on the first news of the illness
+which proved fatal to him, the people flocked to the churches with prayers
+for his recovery, and that his death was regarded by all the right-
+thinking portion of the community as a national calamity. But the
+courtiers, who had regarded his approaching reign with not unnatural
+alarm, hailed his removal with joy, and were, above all things, anxious to
+prevent his son, who had now become the heir to the crown, from following
+such a path as the father had marked out for himself. The negligence of
+some, thus combining with the deliberate malice of others, and aided by
+peculiarities in the constitution and disposition of the young prince
+himself, which became more and more marked as he grew up, exercised a
+pernicious influence on his boyhood. Not only was his education in the
+ordinary branches of youthful knowledge neglected, but no care was even
+taken to cultivate his taste or to polish his manners, though a certain
+delicacy of taste and refinement of manners were regarded by the
+courtiers, and by Louis XV. himself, as the pre-eminent distinction of his
+reign. He was kept studiously in the background, discountenanced and
+depressed, till he contracted an awkward timidity and reserve which
+throughout his life he could never shake off; while a still more
+unfortunate defect, which was another result of this system, was an
+inability to think or decide for himself, or even to act steadily on the
+advice of others after he had professed to adopt it.
+
+But these deficiencies in his character had as yet hardly had time to
+display themselves; and, had they been ever so notorious, they were not of
+a nature to divert Maria Teresa from her purpose. For her political
+objects, it would not, perhaps, have seemed to her altogether undesirable
+that the future sovereign of France should be likely to rely on the
+judgment and to submit to the influence of another, so long as the person
+who should have the best opportunity of influencing him was her own
+daughter. A negotiation for the success of which both parties were equally
+anxious did not require a long time for its conclusion; and by the
+beginning of July, 1769, all the preliminaries were arranged; the French
+newspapers were authorized to allude to the marriage, and to speak of the
+diligence with which preparations for it were being made in both
+countries; those in which the French king took the greatest interest being
+the building of some carriages of extraordinary magnificence, to receive
+the archduchess as soon as she should have arrived on French ground; while
+those which were being made in Germany indicated a more elementary state
+of civilization, as the first requisite appeared to be to put the roads
+between Vienna and the frontier in a state of repair, to prevent the
+journey from being too fatiguing.
+
+By the spring of the next year all the necessary preparations had been
+completed; and on the evening of the 10th of April, 1770, a grand court
+was held in the Palace of Vienna. Through a double row of guards of the
+palace, of body-guards, and of a still more select guard, composed wholly
+of nobles, M. de Durfort was conducted into the presence of the Emperor
+Joseph II., and of his widowed mother, the Empress-queen, still, though
+only dowager-empress, the independent sovereign of her own hereditary
+dominions; and to both he proffered, on the part of the King of France, a
+formal request for the hand of the Archduchess Marie Antoinette for the
+dauphin. When the Emperor and Empress had given their gracious consent to
+the demand, the archduchess herself was summoned to the hall and informed
+of the proposal which had been made, and of the approval which her mother
+and her brother had announced; while, to incline her also to regard it
+with equal favor, the embassador presented her with a letter from her
+intended husband, and with his miniature, which she at once hung round her
+neck. After which, the whole party adjourned to the private theatre of the
+palace to witness the performance of a French play, "The Confident Mother"
+of Marivaux, the title of which, so emblematic of the feelings of Maria
+Teresa, may probably have procured it the honor of selection.
+
+The next day the young princess executed a formal renunciation of all
+right of succession to any part of her mother's dominions which might at
+any time devolve on her; though the number of her brothers and elder
+sisters rendered any such occurrence in the highest degree improbable, and
+though one conspicuous precedent in the history of both countries had,
+within the memory of persons still living, proved the worthlessness of
+such renunciations.[1] A few days were then devoted to appropriate
+festivities. That which is most especially mentioned by the chroniclers of
+the court being, in accordance with the prevailing taste of the time, a
+grand masked ball,[2] for which a saloon four hundred feet long had been
+expressly constructed. And on the 26th of April the young bride quit her
+home, the mother from whom she had never been separated, and the friends
+and playmates among whom her whole life had been hitherto passed, for a
+country which was wholly strange to her, and in which she had not as yet a
+single acquaintance. Her very husband, to whom she was to be confided, she
+had never seen.
+
+Though both mother and daughter felt the most entire confidence that the
+new position, on which she was about to enter, would be full of nothing
+but glory and happiness, it was inevitable that they should be, as they
+were, deeply agitated at so complete a separation. And, if we may believe
+the testimony of witnesses who were at Vienna at the time,[3] the grief of
+the mother, who was never to see her child again, was shared not only by
+the members of the imperial household, whom constant intercourse had
+enabled to know and appreciate her amiable qualities, but by the
+population of the capital and the surrounding districts, all of whom had
+heard of her numerous acts of kindness and benevolence, which, young as
+she was, many of them had also experienced, and who thronged the streets
+along which she passed on her departure, mingling tears of genuine sorrow
+with their acclamations, and following her carriage to the outermost gate
+of the city that they might gaze their last on the darling of many hearts.
+
+Kehl was the last German town through which she was to pass, Strasburg was
+the first French city which was to receive her, and, as the islands which
+dot the Rhine at that portion of the noble boundary river were regarded as
+a kind of neutral ground, the French monarch had selected the principal
+one to be occupied by a pavilion built for the purpose and decorated with
+great magnificence, that it might serve for another stage of the wedding
+ceremony. In this pavilion she was to cease to be German, and was to
+become French; she was to bid farewell to her Austrian attendants, and to
+receive into her service the French officers of her household, male and
+female, who were to replace them. She was even to divest herself of every
+article of her German attire, and to apparel herself anew in garments of
+French manufacture sent from Paris. The pavilion was divided into two
+compartments. In the chief apartment of the German division, the Austrian
+officials who had escorted her so far formally resigned their charge, and
+surrendered her to the Comte de Noailles, who had been appointed
+embassador extraordinary to receive her; and, when all the deeds necessary
+to release from their responsibly the German nobles whose duties were now
+terminated had been duly signed, the doors were thrown open, and Marie
+Antoinette passed into the French division, as a French princess, to
+receive the homage of a splendid train of French courtiers, who were
+waiting in loyal eagerness to offer their first salutations to their new
+mistress. Yet, as if at every period of her life she was to be beset with
+omens, the celebrated German writer, Goethe, who was at that time pursuing
+his studies at Strasburg, perceived one which he regarded as of most
+inauspicious significance in the tapestry which decorated the walls of the
+chief saloon. It represented the history of Jason and Medea. On one side
+was portrayed the king's bride in the agonies of death; on the other, the
+royal father was bewailing his murdered children. Above them both, Medea
+was fleeing away in a car drawn by fire-breathing dragons, and driven by
+the Furies; and the youthful poet could not avoid reflecting that a record
+of the most miserable union that even the ancient mythology had recorded
+was a singularly inappropriate and ill-omened ornament for nuptial
+festivities.[4]
+
+A bridge reached from the island to the left bank of the river; and, on
+quitting the pavilion, the archduchess found the carriages, which had been
+built for her in Paris, ready to receive her, that she might make her
+state entry into Strasburg. They were marvels of the coach-maker's art.
+The prime minister himself had furnished the designs, and they had
+attracted the curiosity of the fashionable world in Paris throughout the
+winter. One was covered with crimson velvet, having pictures, emblematical
+of the four seasons, embroidered in gold on the principal panels; on the
+other the velvet was blue, and the elements took the place of the seasons;
+while the roof of each was surmounted by nosegays of flowers, carved in
+gold, enameled in appropriate colors, and wrought with such exquisite
+delicacy that every movement of the carriage, or even the lightest breeze,
+caused them to wave as if they were the natural produce of the garden.[5]
+
+In this superb conveyance Marie Antoinette passed on under a succession of
+triumphal arches to the gates of Strasburg, which, on this auspicious
+occasion, seemed as if it desired to put itself forward as the
+representative of the joy of the whole nation by the splendid cordiality
+of its welcome. Whole regiments of cavalry, drawn up in line of battle,
+received her with a grand salute as she advanced. Battery after battery
+pealed forth along the whole extent of the vast ramparts; the bells of
+every church rang out a festive peal; fountains ran with wine in the Grand
+Square. She proceeded to the episcopal palace, where the archbishop, the
+Cardinal de Rohan, with his coadjutor, the Prince Louis de Rohan (a man
+afterward rendered unhappily notorious by his complicity in a vile
+conspiracy against her) received her at the head of the most august
+chapter that the whole land could produce, the counts of the cathedral, as
+they were styled; the Prince of Lorraine being the grand dean, the
+Archbishop of Bordeaux the grand provost, and not one post in the chapter
+being filled by any one below the rank of count. She held a court for the
+reception of all the female nobility of the province. She dined publicly
+in state; a procession of the municipal magistrates presented her a sample
+of the wines of the district; and, as she tasted the luscious offering,
+the coopers celebrated what they called a feast of Bacchus, waving their
+hoops as they danced round the room in grotesque figures.
+
+It was a busy day for her, that first day of her arrival on French soil.
+From the dinner-table she went to the theatre; on quitting the theatre,
+she was driven through the streets to see the illuminations, which made
+every part of the city as bright as at midday, the great square in front
+of the episcopal palace being converted into a complete garden of
+fire-works; and at midnight she attended a ball which the governor of the
+province, the Marechal de Contades, gave in her honor to all the principal
+inhabitants of the city and district. Quitting Strasburg the next day,
+after a grand reception of the clergy, the nobles, and the magistrates of
+the province, she proceeded by easy stages through Nancy, Chalons, Rheims,
+and Soissons, the whole population of every town through which she passed
+collecting on the road to gaze on her beauty, the renown of which had
+readied the least curious ears; and to receive marks of her affability,
+reports of which were at least as widely spread, in the cheerful eagerness
+with which she threw down the windows of her carriage, and the frank,
+smiling recognition and genuine pleasure with which she replied to their
+enthusiastic acclamations. It was long remembered that, when the students
+of the college at Soissons presented her with a Latin address, she replied
+to them in a sentence or two in the same language.
+
+Soissons was her last resting-place before she was introduced to her new
+family. On the afternoon of Monday, the 14th of May, she quit it for
+Compiegne, which the king and all the court had reached in the course of
+the morning. As she approached the town she was met by the minister, the
+Duc de Choiseul, and he was the precursor of Louis himself, who,
+accompanied by the dauphin and his daughters, and escorted by his gorgeous
+company of the guards of the household,[6] had driven out to receive her.
+She and all her train dismounted from their carriages. Her master of the
+horse and her "knight of honor[7]" took her by the hand and conducted her
+to the royal coach. She sunk on her knee in the performance of her
+respectful homage; but Louis promptly raised her up, and, having embraced
+her with a tenderness which gracefully combined royal dignity with
+paternal affection, and having addressed her in a brief speech,[8] which
+was specially acceptable to her, as containing a well-timed compliment to
+her mother, introduced her to the dauphin; and, when they reached the
+palace, he also presented to her his more distant relatives, the princes
+and princesses of the blood,[9] the Duc d'Orleans and his son, the Duc de
+Chartres, destined hereafter to prove one of the foulest and most
+mischievous of her enemies; the Duc de Bourbon, the Princes of Conde and
+Conti, and one lady whose connection with royalty was Italian rather than
+French, but to whom the acquaintance, commenced on this day, proved the
+cause of a miserable and horrible death, the beautiful Princesse de
+Lamballe.
+
+Compiegne, however, was not to be honored by the marriage ceremony. The
+next morning the whole party started for Versailles, turning out of the
+road, at the express request of the archduchess herself, to pay a brief
+visit to the king's youngest daughter, the Princess Louise, who had taken
+on herself the Carmelite vows, and resided in the Convent of St. Denis.
+The request had been suggested by Choiseul, who was well aware that the
+princess shared the dislike entertained by her more worldly sisters to the
+house of Austria; but it was accepted as a personal compliment by the king
+himself, who was already fascinated by her charms, which, as he affirmed,
+surpassed those of her portrait, and was predisposed to view all her words
+and actions in the most favorable light. Avoiding Paris, which Louis, ever
+since the riots of 1750, had constantly refused to enter, they reached the
+hunting-lodge of La Muette, in the Bois de Boulogne, for supper. Here she
+made the acquaintance of the brothers and sisters of her future husband,
+the Counts of Provence and Artois, both destined, in their turn, to
+succeed him on the throne; of the Princess Clotilde, who may be regarded
+as the most fortunate of her race, in being saved by a foreign marriage
+and an early death from witnessing the worst calamities of her family and
+her native land; of the Princess Elizabeth, who was fated to share them in
+all their bitterness and horror; and (a strangely incongruous sequel to
+the morning visit to the Carmelite convent), the Countess du Barri also
+came into her presence, and was admitted to sup at the royal table; as if,
+even at the very moment when he might have been expected to conduct
+himself with some degree of respectful decency to the pure-minded young
+girl whom he was receiving into his family, Louis XV. was bent on
+exhibiting to the whole world his incurable shamelessness in its most
+offensive form.
+
+At midnight he, with the dauphin, proceeded to Versailles, whither, the
+next morning, the archduchess followed them. And at one o'clock on the
+16th, in the chapel of the palace, the Primate of France, the Archbishop
+of Rheims, performed the marriage ceremony. A canopy of cloth of silver
+was held over the heads of the youthful pair by the bishops of Senlis and
+Chartres. The dauphin, after he had placed the wedding-ring on his bride's
+finger, added, as a token that he endowed her with his worldly wealth, a
+gift of thirteen pieces of gold, which, as well as the ring, had received
+the episcopal benediction, and Marie Antoinette was dauphiness of France.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+Feelings in Germany and France on the Subject of the Marriage.--Letter of
+Maria Teresa to the Dauphin--Characters of the Different Members of the
+Royal Family.--Difficulties which beset Marie Antoinette.--Maria Teresa's
+Letter of Advice.--The Comte de Mercy is sent as Embassador to France
+to act as the Adviser of the Dauphiness.--The Princesse de Lorraine at
+the State Ball.--A Great Disaster takes place at the Fire-works in Paris.
+--The Peasant at Fontainebleau.--Marie Antoinette pleases the King.--
+Description of her Personal Appearance.--Mercy's Report of the Impression
+she made on her First Arrival.
+
+
+The marriage which was thus accomplished was regarded with unmodified
+pleasure by the family of the bride, and with almost equal satisfaction by
+the French king. In spite of the public rejoicings in both countries with
+which it was accompanied, it can not be said to have been equally
+acceptable to the majority of the people of either nation. There was still
+a strong anti-French party at Vienna,[1] and (a circumstance of far
+greater influence on the fortunes of the young couple) there was a strong
+anti-Austrian party in France, which was not without its supporters even
+in the king's palace. That the marriage should have been so earnestly
+desired at the imperial court is a strange instance of the extent to which
+political motives overpowered every other consideration in the mind of the
+great Empress-queen, for she was not ignorant of the real character of the
+French court, of the degree in which it was divided by factions, of the
+base and unworthy intrigues which were its sole business, and of the
+sagacity and address which were requisite for any one who would steer his
+way with safety and honor through its complicated mazes.
+
+Judgment and prudence were not the qualities most naturally to be expected
+in a young princess not yet fifteen years old. The best prospect which
+Marie Antoinette had of surmounting the numerous and varied difficulties
+which beset her lay in the affection which she speedily conceived for her
+husband, and in the sincerity, we can hardly say warmth, with which he
+returned her love. Maria Teresa had bespoken his tenderness for her in a
+letter which she wrote to him on the day on which her daughter left
+Vienna, and which has often been quoted as a composition worthy of her
+alike as a mother and as a Christian sovereign; and as admirably
+calculated to impress the heart of her new son-in-law by claiming his
+attachment for his bride, on the ground of the pains which she had taken
+to make her worthy of her fortune.
+
+"Your bride, my dear dauphin, has just left me. I do hope that she will
+cause your happiness. I have brought her up with the design that she
+should do so, because I have for some time forseen that she would share
+your destiny.
+
+"I have inspired her with an eager desire to do her duty to you, with a
+tender attachment to your person, with a resolution to be attentive to
+think and do every thing which may please you. I have also been most
+careful to enjoin her a tender devotion toward the Master of all
+Sovereigns, being thoroughly persuaded that we are but badly providing for
+the welfare of the nations which are intrusted to us when we fail in our
+duty to Him who breaks sceptres and overthrows thrones according to his
+pleasure.
+
+"I say, then, to you, my dear dauphin, as I say to my daughter: 'Cultivate
+your duties toward God. Seek to cause the happiness of the people over
+whom you will reign (it will be too soon, come when it may). Love the
+king, your grandfather; be humane like him; be always accessible to the
+unfortunate. If you behave in this manner, it is impossible that happiness
+can fail to be your lot.' My daughter will love you, I am certain, because
+I know her. But the more that I answer to you for her affection, and for
+her anxiety to please you, the more earnestly do I entreat you to vow to
+her the most sincere attachment.
+
+"Farewell, my dear dauphin. May you be happy. I am bathed in tears.[2]"
+
+The dauphin did not falsify the hopes thus expressed by the Empress-queen.
+But his was not the character to afford his wife either the advice or
+support which she needed, while, strange to say, he was the only member of
+the royal family to whom she could look for either. The king was not only
+utterly worthless and shameless, but weak and irresolute in the most
+ordinary matters. Even when in the flower and vigor of his age, he had
+never been able to summon courage to give verbal orders or reproofs to his
+own children,[3] but had intimated his pleasure or displeasure by letters.
+He had been gradually falling lower and lower, both in his own vices and
+in the estimation of the world; and was now, still more than when Lord
+Chesterfield first drew his picture,[4] both hated and despised. The
+dauphin's brothers, for such mere boys, were singularly selfish and
+unamiable; and the only female relations of her husband, his aunts, to
+whom, as such, it would have been natural that a young foreigner should
+look for friendship and advice, were not only narrow-minded, intriguing,
+and malicious, but were predisposed to regard her with jealousy as likely
+to interfere with the influence which they had hoped to exert over their
+nephew when he should become their sovereign.
+
+Marie Antoinette had, therefore, difficulties and enemies to contend with
+from the very first commencement of her residence in France. And many even
+of her own virtues were unfavorable to her chances of happiness,
+calculated as they were to lay her at the mercy of her ill-wishers, and to
+deprive her of some of the defenses which might have been found in a
+different temperament. Full of health and spirits, she was naturally eager
+in the pursuit of enjoyment, and anxious to please every one, from feeling
+nothing but kindness toward every one; she was frank, open, and sincere;
+and, being perfectly guileless herself, she was, as through her whole life
+she continued to be, entirely unsuspicious of unfriendliness, much more of
+treachery in others. Her affability and condescension combined with this
+trustful disposition to make her too often the tool of designing and
+grasping courtiers, who sought to gain their own ends at her expense, and
+who presumed on her good-nature and inexperience to make requests which,
+as they well knew, should never have been made, but which they also
+reckoned that she would be unwilling to refuse.
+
+But lest this general amiability and desire to give pleasure to those
+around her might seem to impart a prevailing tinge of weakness to her
+character, it is fair to add that she united to these softer feelings,
+robuster virtues calculated to deserve and to win universal admiration;
+though some of them, never having yet been called forth by circumstances,
+were for a long time unsuspected by the world at large. She had pride--
+pride of birth, pride of rank--though never did that feeling show itself
+more nobly or more beneficially. It never led her to think herself above
+the very meanest of her subjects. It never made her indifferent to the
+interests, to the joys or sorrows, of a single individual. The idea with
+which it inspired her was, that a princess of her race was never to commit
+an unworthy act, was never to fail in purity of virtue, in truth, in
+courage; that she was to be careful to set an example of these virtues to
+those who would naturally look up to her; and that she herself was to keep
+constantly in her mind the example of her illustrious mother, and never,
+by act, or word, or thought, to discredit her mother's name. And as she
+thus regarded courage as her birthright, so she possessed it in abundance
+and in variety. She had courage to plan, and courage to act; courage to
+resolve, and courage to adhere to the resolution once deliberately formed;
+and, above all, courage to endure and to suffer, and, in the very
+extremity of misery, to animate and support others less royally endowed.
+
+Such, then, as she was, with both her manifest and her latent
+excellencies, as well as with those more mixed qualities which had some
+defects mingled with their sweetness, Marie Antoinette, at the age of
+fourteen years and a half, was thrown into a world wholly new to her, to
+guide herself so far by her own discretion that there was no one who had
+both judgment and authority to control her in her line of conduct or in
+any single action. She had, indeed, an adviser whom her mother had
+provided for her, though without allowing her to suspect the nature or
+full extent of the duties which she had imposed upon him. Maria Teresa had
+been in some respects a strict mother, one whom her children in general
+feared almost as much as they loved her; and the rigorous superintendence
+on some points of conduct which she had exercised over Marie Antoinette
+while at home, she was not inclined wholly to resign, even after she had
+made her apparently independent. At the moment of her departure from
+Vienna, she gave her a letter of advice which she entreated her to read
+over every month, and in which the most affectionate and judicious counsel
+is more than once couched in a tone of very authoritative command; the
+whole letter showing not only the most experienced wisdom and the most
+affectionate interest in her daughter's happiness, but likewise a thorough
+insight into her character, so precisely are some of the errors against
+which the letter most emphatically warns her those into which she most
+frequently fell. And she appointed a statesman in whom she deservedly
+placed great confidence, the Count de Mercy-Argenteau, her embassador to
+the court at Versailles, with the express design that he should always be
+at hand to afford the dauphiness his advice in all the difficulties which
+she could not avoid foreseeing for her; and who should also keep the
+Empress-queen herself fully informed of every particular of her conduct,
+and of every transaction by which she was in any way affected. This part
+of his commission was wholly unsuspected by the young princess; but the
+count discharged such portions of the delicate duty thus imposed upon him
+with rare discretion, contriving in its performance to combine the
+strictest fidelity to his imperial mistress with the most entire devotion
+to the interests of his pupil, and to preserve the unqualified regard and
+esteem of both mother and daughter to the end of their lives. Toward the
+latter, as dauphiness, and even as queen, he stood for some years in a
+position very similar to that which Baron Stockmar fills in the history of
+the late Prince Consort of England, being, however, more frequent in his
+admonitions, and occasionally more severe in his reproofs, as the youth
+and inexperience of Marie Antoinette not unnaturally led her into greater
+mistakes than the scrupulous conscientiousness and almost premature
+prudence of the prince consort ever suffered him to commit; and his
+diligent reports to the Empress-queen, amounting at times to a diary of
+the proceedings of the French court, have a lasting and inestimable value,
+since they furnish us with so trustworthy a record of the whole life of
+Marie Antoinette for the first ten years of her residence in France,[5] of
+her actions, her language, and her very thoughts (for she ever scorned to
+give a reason or to make an excuse which was not absolutely and strictly
+true), that there is perhaps no person of historical importance whose
+conduct in every transaction of gravity or interest is more minutely
+known, or whose character there are fuller materials for appreciating.
+
+The very day of her marriage did not pass without her receiving a strange
+specimen of the factious spirit which prevailed at the court, and of the
+hollowness of the welcome with which the chief nobles had greeted her
+arrival. A state ball was given at the palace to celebrate the wedding,
+and as the Princess of Lorraine, a cousin of the Emperor Francis, was the
+only blood-relation of Marie Antoinette who was at Versailles at the time,
+the king assigned her a place in the first quadrille, giving her
+precedence for that occasion, next to the princes of the blood. It did not
+seem a great stretch of courtesy to show to a foreigner, even had she not
+been related to the princess in whose honor the ball was given; but the
+dukes and peers fired up at the arrangement, as if an insult had been
+offered them. They held a meeting at which they resolved that no member of
+their families should attend, and carried out their resolution so
+obstinately that at five o'clock, when the dancing was to commence, except
+the royal princesses there were only three ladies in the room. The king,
+who, following the example of Louis XIV., acted on these occasions as his
+own master of ceremonies, was forced to send special and personal orders
+to some of those who had absented themselves to attend without delay. And
+so by seven o'clock twelve or fourteen couples were collected[6] (the
+number of persons admitted to such entertainments was always extremely
+small), and the rude disloyalty of the protest was to outward appearance
+effaced by the submission of the recusants.
+
+But all the troubles which arose out of the wedding festivities were not
+so easily terminated. Little as was the good-will which subsisted between
+Louis XV. and the Parisians, the civic authorities thought their own
+credit at stake in doing appropriate honor to an occasion so important as
+the marriage of the heir of the monarchy, and on the 30th of May they
+closed a succession of balls and banquets by a display of fire-works, in
+which the ingenuity of the most celebrated artists had been exhausted to
+outshine all previous displays of the sort. Three sides of the Place Louis
+XV. were filled up with pyramids and colonnades. Here dolphins darted out
+many-colored flames from their ever-open mouths. There, rivers of fire
+poured forth cascades spangled with all the variegated brilliancy with
+which the chemist's art can embellish the work of the pyrotechnist. The
+centre was occupied with a gorgeous Temple of Hymen, which seemed to lean
+for support on the well-known statue of the king, in front of which it was
+constructed; and which was, as it were, to be carried up to the skies by
+above three thousand rockets and fire-balls into which it was intended to
+dissolve. The whole square was packed with spectators, the pedestrians in
+front, the carriages in the rear, when one of the explosions set fire to a
+portion of the platforms on which the different figures had been
+constructed. At first the increase of the blaze was regarded only as an
+ingenious surprise on the part of the artist. But soon it became clear
+that the conflagration was undesigned and real; panic-succeeded to
+delight, and the terror-stricken crowd, seeing themselves surrounded with
+flames, began to make frantic efforts to escape from the danger; but there
+was only one side of the square uninclosed, and that was blocked up by
+carriages. The uproar and the glare made the horses unmanageable, and in a
+few moments the whole mass, human beings and animals, was mingled in
+helpless confusion, making flight impossible by their very eagerness to
+fly, and trampling one another underfoot in bewildered misery. Of those
+who did succeed in extricating themselves from the square, half made their
+way to the road which runs along the bank of the river, and found that
+they had only exchanged one danger for another, which, though of an
+opposite character, was equally destructive. Still overwhelmed with
+terror, though the first peril was over, the fugitives pushed one another
+into the stream, in which great numbers were drowned. The number of the
+killed could never be accurately ascertained: but no calculation estimated
+the number of those who perished at less than six hundred, while those who
+were grievously injured were at least as many more.
+
+The dauphin and dauphiness were deeply shocked by a disaster so painfully
+at variance with their own happiness, which, in one sense, had caused it.
+Their first thought was, as far as they might be able, to mitigate it.
+Most of the victims were of the poorer class, the grief of whose surviving
+relatives was, in many instances, aggravated by the loss of the means of
+livelihood which the labors of those who had been cut off had hitherto
+supplied; and, to give temporary succor to this distress, the dauphin and
+dauphiness at once drew out from the royal treasury the sums allowed to
+them for their private expenses for the month, and sent the money to the
+municipal authorities to be applied to the relief of the sufferers. But
+Marie Antoinette did more. She felt that to give money only was but cold
+benevolence; and she made personal visits to many of those families which
+had been most grievously afflicted, showing the sincerity of her sympathy
+by the touching kindness of her language, and by the tears which she
+mingled with those of the widow and the orphan.[7] Such unmerited kindness
+made a deep impression on the citizens. Since the time of Henry IV. no
+prince had ever shown the slightest interest in the happiness or misery of
+the lower classes; and the feeling of affectionate gratitude which this
+unprecedented recognition of their claims to be sympathized with as
+fellow-creatures awakened was fixed still more deeply in their hearts a
+short time afterward, when, at one of the hunting-parties which took place
+at Fontainebleau, the stag charged a crowd of the spectators and severely
+wounded a peasant with his horns. Marie Antoinette sprung to the ground at
+the sight, helped to bind up the wound, and had the man driven in her own
+carriage to his cabin, whither she followed him herself to see that every
+proper attention was paid to him.[8] And the affection which she thus
+inspired among the poor was fully shared by the chief personage in the
+kingdom, the sovereign himself. A life of profligacy had not rendered
+Louis wholly insensible to the superior attractions of innocence and
+virtue. Perhaps a secret sense of shame at the slavery in which his vices
+held him, and which, as he well knew, excited the contempt of even his
+most dissolute courtiers, though he had not sufficient energy to shake it
+off, may have for a moment quickened his better feelings; and the fresh
+beauty of the young princess, who, from the first moment of her arrival at
+the court, treated him with the most affectionate and caressing respect,
+awakened in him a genuine admiration and good-will. He praised her beauty
+and her grace to all his nobles with a warmth that excited the jealousy of
+his infamous mistress, the Countess du Barri. He made allowance for some
+childishness of manner as natural at her age,[9] showed an anxiety for
+every thing which could amuse or gratify her, which afforded a marked
+contrast to his ordinary apathy. And, though in so young a girl it was
+rather the promise of future beauty than its developed perfection that her
+feat-* as yet presented, they already exhibited sufficient charms to
+exempt those who extolled them from the suspicion of flattery. A clear and
+open forehead, a delicately cut nose, a complexion of dazzling brilliancy,
+with bright blue eyes, whose ever-varying lustre seemed equally calculated
+to show every feeling which could move her heart; which could, at times
+seem almost fierce with anger, indignation, or contempt, but whose
+prevailing expression was that of kindly benevolence or light-hearted
+mirth were united with a figure of exquisite proportions, sufficiently
+tall for dignity, though as yet, of course, slight and unformed, and every
+movement of which was directed by a grace that could neither be taught nor
+imitated. If any defect could be discovered in her face, it consisted in a
+somewhat undue thickness of the lips, especially of the lower lip, which
+had for some generations been the prevailing characteristic of her family.
+
+Accordingly, a month after her marriage, Mercy could report to Maria
+Teresa that she had had complete success, and was a universal favorite;
+that, besides the king, who openly expressed his satisfaction, she had won
+the heart of the dauphin, who had been very unqualified in the language in
+which he had praised both her beauty and her agreeable qualities to his
+aunts; and that even those princesses were "enchanted" with her. The whole
+court, and the people in general, extolled her affability, and the
+graciousness with which she said kind things to all who approached her.
+Though the well-informed embassador had already discovered signs of the
+cabals which the mistress and her partisans were forming against her, and
+had been rendered a little uneasy by the handle which she had more than
+once afforded to her secret enemies, when, "in gayety of heart and without
+the slightest ill-will," she had allowed herself to jest on some persons
+and circumstances which struck her as ridiculous, her jests being seasoned
+with a wit and piquancy which rendered them keener to those who were their
+objects, and more so mischievous to herself. He especially praised the
+unaffected dignity with which she had received the mistress who had
+attended in her apartments to pay her court, though in no respect deceived
+as to the lady's disposition, her penetration into the characters of all
+with whom she had been brought into contact, denoting, as it struck him,
+"a sagacity" which, at her age, was "truly astonishing.[10]"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+Marie Antoinette gives her Mother her First Impressions of the Court and
+of her own Position and Prospects.--Court Life at Versailles.--Marie
+Antoinette shows her Dislike of Etiquette.--Character of the Duc
+d'Aiguillon.--Cabals against the Dauphiness.--Jealousy of Mme. du Barri.--
+The Aunts, too, are Jealous of Her.--She becomes more and more Popular.--
+Parties for Donkey-riding.--Scantiness of the Dauphiness's Income.--Her
+Influence over the King.--The Duc de Choiseul is dismissed.--She begins
+to have Great Influence over the Dauphin.
+
+
+Marie Antoinette herself was inclined to be delighted with all that befell
+her, and to make light of what she could hardly regard as pleasant or
+becoming; and two of her first letters to her mother, written in the early
+part of July,[1] give us an insight into the feelings with which she
+regarded her new family and her own position, as well as a picture of her
+daily occupations and of the singular customs of the French court,
+strangely inconsistent in what it permitted and in what it disallowed,
+and, in the publicity in which its princes lived, curiously incompatible
+with ordinary ideas of comfort and even delicacy.
+
+"The king," she says, "is full of kindnesses toward me, and I love him
+tenderly. But it is pitiable to see his weakness for Madame du Barri, who
+is the silliest and most impertinent creature that it is possible to
+conceive. She has played with us every evening at Marly,[2] and she has
+twice been seated next to me; but she has not spoken to me, and I have not
+attempted to engage in conversation with her; but, when it was necessary,
+I have said a word or two to her.
+
+"As for my dear husband, he is greatly changed, and in a most advantageous
+manner. He shows a great deal of affection for me, and is even beginning
+to treat me with great confidence. He certainly does not like M. de la,
+Vauguyon; but he is afraid of him. A curious thing happened about the duke
+the other day. I was alone with my husband, when M. de la Vauguyon stole
+hurriedly up to the doors to listen. A servant, who was either a fool or a
+very honest man, opened the door, and there stood his grace the duke
+planted like a sentinel, without being able to retreat. I pointed out to
+my husband the inconvenience that there was in having people listening at
+the doors, and he took my remark very well."
+
+She did not tell the empress the whole of this occurrence; she had been
+too indignant at the duke's meanness to suppress her feelings, and she
+reproved the duke himself with a severity which can hardly be said to have
+been misplaced.
+
+"Duke de la Vauguyon," she said, "my lord the dauphin is now of an age to
+dispense with a governor; and I have no need of a spy. I beg you not to
+appear again in my presence.[3]"
+
+Between the writing of her first and second letters she had heard from
+Maria Teresa; and she "can not describe how the affection her mother
+expresses for her has gone to her heart. Every letter which she has
+received has filled her eyes with tears of regret at being separated from
+so tender and loving a mother, and, happy as she is in France, she would
+give the world to see her family again, if it were but for a moment. As
+her mother wishes to know how the days are passed; she gets up between
+nine and ten, and, having dressed herself and said her morning prayers,
+she breakfasts, and then she goes to the apartments of her aunts, whose
+she usually finds the king. That lasts till half-past ten; then at eleven
+she has her hair dressed.
+
+"At twelve," she proceeds to say, "what is called the Chamber is held, and
+there every one who does not belong to the common people may enter. I put
+on my rouge and wash my hands before all the world; the men go out, and
+the women remain; and then I dress myself in their presence. Then comes
+mass. If the king is at Versailles, I go to mass with him, my husband, and
+my aunts; if he is not there, I go alone with the dauphin, but always at
+the same hour. After mass we two dine by ourselves in the presence of all
+the world; but dinner is over by half-past one, as we both eat very fast.
+From the dinner-table I go to the dauphin's apartments, and if he has
+business, I return to my own rooms, where I read, write, or work; for I am
+making a waistcoat for the king, which gets on but slowly, though, I
+trust, with God's grace, it will be finished before many years are over.
+At three o'clock I go again to visit my aunts, and the king comes to them
+at the same hour. At four the abbe[4] comes to me, and at five I have
+every day either my harpsichord-master or my singing-master till six. At
+half-past six I go almost every day to my aunts, except when I go out
+walking. And you must understand that when I go to visit my aunts, my
+husband almost always goes with me. At seven we play cards till nine
+o'clock; but when the weather is fine I go out walking, and then there is
+no play in my apartments, but it is held at my aunts'. At nine we sup; and
+when the king is not there, my aunts come to sup with us; but when the
+king is there, we go after supper to their rooms, waiting there for the
+king, who usually comes about a quarter to eleven; and I lie down on a
+grand sofa and go to sleep till he comes. But when he is not there, we go
+to bed at eleven o'clock."
+
+The play-table which is alluded to in these letters was one of the most
+curious and mischievous institutions of the court. Gambling had been one
+of its established vices ever since the time of Henry IV., whose enormous
+losses at play had formed the subject of Sully's most incessant
+remonstrances. And from the beginning of the reign of Louis XIV., a
+gaming-table had formed a regular part of the evening's amusement. It was
+the one thing which was allowed to break down the barrier of etiquette. On
+all other occasions, the rules which regulated who might and who might not
+be admitted to the royal presence were as precise and strict as in many
+cases they were unreasonable and unintelligible. But at the gaming-table
+every one who could make the slightest pretensions to gentle birth was
+allowed to present himself and stake his money; [5] and the leveling
+influence of play was almost as fully exemplified in the king's palace as
+in the ordinary gaming-houses, since, though the presence of royalty so
+far acted as a restraint on the gamblers as to prevent any open explosion,
+accusations of foul play and dishonest tricks were as rife as in the most
+vulgar company.
+
+Marie Antoinette was winning many hearts by her loveliness and affability;
+but she could not scatter her kind speeches and friendly smiles among all
+with whom she came into contact without running counter to the prejudices
+of some of the old courtiers who had been formed on a different system; to
+whom the maintenance of a rigid etiquette was as the very breath of their
+nostrils, and in whose eyes its very first rule and principle was that
+princes should keep all the world at a distance. Foremost among these
+sticklers for old ideas was the Countess de Noailles, her principal "lady
+of honor," whose uneasiness on the subject speedily became so notorious as
+to give rise to numerous court squibs and satirical odes, the authors of
+which seemed glad to compliment the dauphin and to vex her ladyship at the
+same time, but who could not be deterred by these effusions from lecturing
+Marie Antoinette on her disregard of her rank, and on the danger of making
+herself too familiar, till she provoked the young princess into giving her
+the nickname of Madame Etiquette; and, no doubt, in her childish
+playfulness, to utter many a speech and do many an act whose principle
+object was to excite the astonishment or provoke the frowns of the too
+prim lady of honor.
+
+There can be no doubt that, though she often pushed her strictness too
+far, Madame de Noailles to some extent had reason on her side; and that a
+certain degree of ceremony and stately reserve is indispensable in court
+life. It is a penalty which those born in the purple must pay for their
+dignity, that they can have no friend on a perfect equality with
+themselves; and those who in different ages and countries have tried to
+emancipate themselves from this law of their rank have not generally won
+even the respect of those to whom they have condescended, and still less
+the approbation of the outer world, whose members have perhaps a secret
+dislike to see those whom they regard as their own equals lifted above
+them by the familiarity of princes.
+
+This, however, was a matter of comparatively slight importance. An excess
+of condescension is at the worst a venial and an amiable error; but even
+at the early period plots were being contrived against the young princess,
+which, if successful, would have been wholly destructive of her happiness,
+and which, though she was fully aware of them, she had not means by
+herself to disconcert or defeat. They were the more formidable because
+they were partly political, embracing a scheme for the removal of a
+minister, and consequently conciliated more supporters and insured greater
+perseverance than if they had merely aimed at securing a preponderance of
+court favor for the plotters. Like all the other mistresses who had
+successfully reigned in the French courts, Madame du Barri had a party of
+adherents who hoped to rise by her patronage. The Duc de Choiseul himself
+had owed his promotion to her predecessor, Madame de Pompadour, and those
+who hoped to supplant him saw in a similar influence the best prospect of
+attaining their end. One of the least respectable of the French nobles was
+the Duc d'Aiguillon. As Governor of Brittany, he had behaved with
+notorious cowardice in the Seven Years' War. He had since been, if
+possible, still more dishonored by charges of oppression, peculation, and
+subornation, on which the authorities of the province had prosecuted him,
+and which the Parisian Parliament had pronounced to be established. But no
+kind of infamy was a barrier to the favor of Louis XV. He cancelled the
+resolution of the Parliament, and showed such countenance to the culprit
+that d'Aiguillon, who was both ambitious and covetous, conceived the idea
+of supplanting Choiseul in the Government. As one of Choiseul's principal
+measures had been the negotiation of the dauphin's marriage, Marie
+Antoinette was known to regard him with a good-will which was founded on
+gratitude. But, unfortunately, her feelings on this point were not shared
+by her husband; for Choiseul had had notorious differences with his
+father, the late dauphin, and, though it was perfectly certain that that
+prince had died of natural disease, people had been found to whisper in
+his son's ear suspicions that he had been poisoned, and that the minister
+to whom he was unfriendly had been concerned in his death.
+
+The two plots, therefore, to overthrow the minister and to weaken the
+influence of the dauphiness, went hand-in-hand, and, as might have been
+expected from the character of the patroness of both, no means were too
+vile or wicked for the intriguers who had set them on foot. Madame du
+Barri was, indeed, seriously alarmed for the maintenance of her own
+ascendency. The king took such undisguised pleasure in his new
+granddaughter's company, that some of the most experienced courtiers began
+to anticipate that she would soon gain entire influence over him[6]. The
+mistress began, therefore, to disparage her personal charms, never
+speaking of her to Louis ("France," as she generally called him), except
+as "the little blowsy,[7]" while her ally, De la Vauguyon, endeavored to
+further her views by exerting the influence which he mistakenly flattered
+himself that he still retained over the dauphin, to surround her with his
+own creatures. He tried to procure the dismissal of the Abbe de Vermond,
+who, having been, as we have seen, the tutor of Marie Antoinette at
+Vienna, still remained attached to her person as her reader; and whose
+complete knowledge of all the ways of the court, joined to a thorough
+honesty and devoted fidelity to her best interests, rendered his services
+most valuable to his mistress in her new sphere. He sought to recommend a
+creature of his own as her confessor; to obtain for his own daughter the
+appointment of one of her chief ladies; and, with a wickedness peculiar to
+the French court, he even endeavored to imitate the vile arts by which the
+Duc de Richelieu had deprived Marie Leczinska of the affections of the
+king, to alienate the dauphin from his young wife, and to induce him to
+commit himself to the guidance of Madame du Barri. But this part of the
+scheme failed. The dauphin was strangely insensible to the personal charms
+of Marie Antoinette herself, and was wholly inaccessible to any inferior
+temptations; and, as far as the arrangements of the court were concerned,
+the success of the mistress's cabal was limited to procuring the dismissal
+of the mistress of the robes, the Countess de Grammont, for refusing to
+cede to Madame du Barri and some of her friends the place which belonged
+to her office at some private theatricals which were held in the palace.
+
+Louis XIV. had taught his nobles the pernicious notion that an order to
+withdraw from the court was a penal banishment, and his successor now
+banished Madame de Grammont fourteen leagues from Versailles, and for some
+time refused to recall his sentence, though Marie Antoinette herself wrote
+to him to complain of one of her servants being so treated for such a
+cause. She had not, as she reported to her mother, been very willing to
+write, knowing that Madame du Barri read all the king's letters; but Mercy
+had urged her to take the step, thinking it very important that she should
+establish the practice of communicating directly with Louis on all matters
+relating to her own household, and that she should avoid the blunder of
+his daughters, her aunts, whose conduct toward their father had, in his
+opinion, been mischievously timid, and to follow whose example would be
+prejudicial both to her dignity and to her comfort.
+
+The aunts too, and especially the eldest, Madame Adelaide, had schemes of
+their own, which, they also sought to carry out by underhand methods. The
+more conscious they were that they themselves had no influence over their
+father, the less could they endure the chance of their niece acquiring
+any, though it could not have been said to have been established at their
+expense. On the other hand, they had before his marriage had considerable
+power with the dauphin, which they had now but little hope of retaining.
+They saw also that Marie Antoinette had in a few weeks gained a general
+popularity such as they had never won in their whole lives, and on all
+these accounts they were painfully jealous of her. They put ideas and
+plans into her head which they expected to grate upon their father's taste
+or indolence, and then contrived to have them represented or
+misrepresented to him, though he disappointed their malice by regarding
+such things as childish ebullitions natural to a girl of her age, and was
+far more inclined to humor than to reprove her. With the same object, they
+tried to induce her to interfere in appointments in which she had no
+concern; but she remembered her mother's advice, and on this point kept
+steadily in the path which that affectionate adviser had marked out for
+her. They even ventured to make disparaging observations on her manners,
+as inexperienced and unformed, to the dauphin himself, till he silenced
+them by the warmth of his praises alike of her beauty and of her
+disposition; and they were so afraid of any addition to her popularity
+with the nation at large, that, when the city of Paris and the states of
+Languedoc presented her with an address, they recommended her to make no
+reply, assuring her that on similar occasions they themselves had never
+given any answers. Luckily, she had a better adviser, who on this occasion
+was the Abbe de Vermond. He told her truly that in this matter the conduct
+which the older princesses had pursued was a warning, not a pattern: that
+they had made all France discontented; and at his suggestion Marie
+Antoinette gave to each address "an answer full of graciousness, with
+which the public was enchanted."
+
+Thus in the first year of her marriage, by her kindness of heart, guided
+by the advice of Mercy and the abbe, to which she listened with the
+greatest docility, she had won general affection, and had made no enemies
+but those whose enmity was an honor. She was, as she wrote to her mother,
+perfectly happy, though, had she not wished to make the best of matters,
+she was not, in fact, wholly free from disappointments and vexations, some
+of which continued for years to cause her uneasiness and anxiety, though
+others were comparatively trivial or temporary, while one was of an almost
+comical nature.
+
+She had conceived a great desire to learn to ride. Her mother had been a
+great horsewoman; and, as the dauphin, like the king, was passionately
+addicted to hunting, which hitherto she had only witnessed from a
+carriage, Marie Antoinette not unnaturally desired to be mistress of an
+accomplishment which would enable her to give him more of her
+companionship. Unluckily Mercy disapproved of the idea. It is impossible
+to read his correspondence with the empress, and in subsequent years with
+Marie Antoinette herself, without being forcibly impressed with respect
+for his consummate prudence, his sound judgment in matters of public
+policy, and his unswerving fidelity to the interests of both mother and
+daughter. But at the same time it is difficult to avoid seeing that he was
+too little inclined to make allowance for the youthful eagerness for
+amusements which was natural to her age, and that at times he carried his
+supervision into matters on which his statesman-like experience and
+sagacity had hardly qualified him to form an opinion. He was proud of his
+princess's beauty; and, considering himself in charge of her figure as
+well as of her conduct, he had made himself very uneasy by the fancied
+discovery that she was becoming crooked. He was sure that one shoulder was
+growing higher than the other; he earnestly recommended stays, and was
+very much displeased with her aunts for setting her against them, because
+they were not fashionable in Paris. And when the horse exercise was
+proposed, he set his face against it; he wrote to Maria Teresa, who agreed
+with him in thinking it ruinous to the complexion, injurious to the shape,
+and not to be safely indulged in under thirty years of age[8]; and, lest
+distance should weaken the authority of the empress, he enlisted Madame de
+Noailles and Choiseul on his side, and Choiseul persuaded the king that it
+was a very objectionable pastime for a young bride.
+
+There was not as yet the slightest prospect of the dauphiness becoming a
+mother (a circumstance which was, in fact, the most serious of her
+vexations, and that which lasted longest): but the king on this point
+agreed with his minister, and after some discussion a compromise was hit
+upon, and it was decided that she might ride a donkey. The whole country
+was immediately ransacked for a stud of quiet donkeys.[9] In September the
+court moved to Compiegne, and day after day, while the king and the
+dauphin were shooting in one part of the woods, on the other side a
+cavalcade of donkey-riders, the aunts and the king's brothers all swelling
+Marie Antoinette's train, trotted up and down the glades, and sought out
+shady spots for rural luncheons out-of-doors; and, though even this
+pastime was occasionally found liable to as much danger as an expedition
+on nobler steeds, the merry dauphiness contrived to extract amusement for
+herself and her followers from her very disasters. It was long a standing
+joke that on one occasion, when her donkey and herself came down in a soft
+place, her royal highness, before she would allow her attendants to
+extricate her from the mud, bid them go to Madame de Noailles, and ask her
+what the rules of etiquette prescribed when a dauphiness of France failed
+to keep her seat upon a donkey.
+
+She had also another annoyance which was even of a less royal character
+than being doomed to ride on a donkey. She had absolutely no pocket-money.
+For many generations the princes of the country had been accustomed to dip
+their hands so unrestrainedly into the national treasury, that their
+legitimate appointments had been fixed on a very moderate, if not scanty,
+scale; so that any one who, like the dauphin and dauphiness, might be
+scrupulous not to exceed their income (though that scruple had probably
+affected no one before) could not fail to be greatly straitened. The
+allowance of Marie Antoinette was fixed at no higher amount than six
+thousand francs a month; and of this small sum, according to a report
+which, in the course of the autumn, Mercy made to the empress, not a
+single crown really reached the princess for her private use.[10] Nearly
+half of the money was stopped to pay some pensions granted Marie
+Leczinska, with which the dauphiness could by no possibility have the
+slightest concern. Almost as much more was intrusted to the gentlemen of
+her chamber for the expenses of the play table, at which she was expected
+to preside, since there was no queen to discharge that duty; and whether
+her royal highness's cards won or lost, the money equally disappeared,[11]
+and the remainder was distributed in presents to her ladies, at the
+discretion of Madame de Noailles. Had not Maria Teresa, when she first
+quit Vienna, intrusted Mercy with a thousand pounds for her use, and had
+she not herself been singularly economical in her ideas, she would have
+been in the humiliating position of being unable to provide for her own
+most ordinary wants, and, a matter about which she was even more anxious,
+for her constant charities. Yet so inveterate was the mismanagement in
+both the court and the government, that it was some time before Mercy
+could succeed, by the strongest remonstrances supported by clear proofs of
+the real situation of her royal highness, in getting her affairs and her
+resources placed upon a proper footing.
+
+In spite of all the efforts of the cabal, the king's regard for her
+increased daily. He had not for many years been used to being treated with
+respect, and she, not from any artfulness, but from her native propriety
+of feeling, which forbade her ever to forget that he was her husband's
+grandfather and her king, united a tone of the most loyal respect with her
+filial caresses. She called him papa, and even paid him the tacit
+compliment of grounding occasional requests on considerations of humanity
+and justice, little as such motives had ever influenced Louis, and rarely
+as their names had of late been heard in the precincts of the palace. She
+even induced him to pardon Madame de Grammont; insisting on such a
+concession as due to herself, when she demanded it for one of her own
+retinue, till he laughed, and replied, "Madame, your orders shall be
+executed." And the steadiness she thus showed in protecting her own
+servants won her many hearts among the courtiers, at the same time that it
+filled her aunts with astonishment, who, while commending her firmness,
+could not avoid adding that "it was easy to see that she did not belong to
+their race.[12]" And how strong as well as how general was of respect and
+good-will which she had thus diffused was seen in a remarkable manner at
+some of the private theatricals, which were a frequent diversion of the
+king, when the actor, at the end of one of his songs, introduced some
+verses which he had composed in her honor, and the whole body of courtiers
+who were present showed their approbation by a vehement clapping of their
+hands, in defiance of a standing order of the court, which prohibited any
+such demonstrations being made in the sovereign's presence.[13]
+
+It, however, more than counterbalanced these triumphs that, before the end
+of the year, the cabal of the mistress succeeded in procuring the
+dismissal of the Choiseul, and the appointment of the Duc d'Aiguillon as
+minister. For Choiseul had been not only a faithful, but a most judicious,
+friend to her. If others showed too often that they regarded her as a
+foreigner, he only remembered it as a reason for giving her hints as to
+the feelings of the nation or of individuals which a native would not have
+required. And she thankfully acknowledged that his suggestions had always
+been both kind and useful, and expressed her sense of her obligations to
+him, and her concern at his dismissal to her mother, who fully shared her
+feelings on the subject.
+
+And, encouraged by this victory over her most powerful adherent, the cabal
+began to venture to attack Marie Antoinette herself. They surrounded her
+with spies; they even spread a report that Louis had begun to see through
+and to distrust her, in the hope that, when it should reach the king's own
+ears, it might perhaps lay the foundation of the alienation which it
+pretended to assert; and they grew the bolder because the king's next
+brother was about to be married to a Savoyard princess, of whose favor De
+la Vauguyon flattered himself that he was already assured. Under these
+circumstances Marie Antoinette behaved with consummate prudence, as far at
+least as her enemies were concerned. She despised the efforts made to
+lower her in the general estimation so completely that she seemed wholly
+unconscious of them. She did not even allow herself to be provoked into
+treating the authors of the calumnies with additional coldness; but gave
+no handle to any of them to complain of her, so that the critical and
+anxious eyes of Mercy himself found nothing to wish altered in her conduct
+toward them.[14] And throughout the winter she pursued the even tenor of
+her way, making herself chiefly remarkable by almost countless acts of
+charity, which she dispensed with such judgment as showed that they
+proceeded, not from a heedless disregard of money, but from a thoughtful
+and vigilant kindness, which did not think the feelings any more than the
+necessities of the poor beneath her notice.
+
+Circumstances to which she contributed only indirectly enhanced her
+popularity and weakened the effects of the mistress's hostility.
+Versailles had not been so gay for many winters, and the votaries of mere
+amusement, always a strong party at every court, rejoiced at the addition
+to the royal family to whom the gayety was owing. Louis roused himself to
+gratify the young princess, who enlivened his place with the first
+respectable pleasures which it or he had known for years. When he saw that
+she liked dramatic performances, he opened the private theatre of the
+palace twice a week. Because she was fond of dancing, he encouraged her to
+have a weekly ball in her own apartments, at which she herself was the
+principal attraction, not solely by the elegance of her every movement,
+but still more by the graciousness with which she received and treated her
+guests, having a kind smile and an affable word for all, apparently
+forgetting her rank in the frankness of her condescension, yet at the same
+time bearing herself with an innate dignity which prevented the most
+forward from presuming on her kindness or venturing on any undue
+familiarity.[15]
+
+The winter of 1770 was one of unusual severity; and she found resources
+for a further enlivenment of the court in the frost itself. Sledging on
+the snow was an habitual pastime at Vienna, where the cold is more severe
+than at Paris; nor in former years had sledges been wholly unknown in the
+Bois de Boulogne. And now Marie Antoinette, whose hardy habits made
+exercise in the fresh air almost a necessity for her, had sledges built
+for herself and her attendants; and the inhabitants of Versailles and the
+neighborhood, as fond of novelty as all their countrymen, were delighted
+at the merry sledging-parties which, as long as the snow lasted, explored
+the surrounding country, while the woods rang with the horses' bells, and,
+almost as loudly and still more cheerfully, with the laughter of the
+company.
+
+Her liveliness had, as it were, given a new tone to the whole court; and
+though the dauphin held out longer against the genial influence of his
+wife's disposition than most people, it at last in some degree thawed even
+his frigidity. She ascribed his apathy and apparent dislike to female
+society rather to the neglect or malice of his early tutors than to any
+natural defect of capacity or perversity of disposition; and often
+lectured him on his deficiencies, and even on some of his favorite
+pursuits, which she looked upon as contributing to strengthen his shyness
+with ladies. She was not unacquainted with English literature, in which
+the rusticity and coarseness of the fox-hunting squires formed a piquant
+subject for the mirth of dramatists and novelists; and if Squire Western
+had been the type of sportsmen in all countries, she could not have
+inveighed more vigorously than she did against her husband's addiction to
+hunting. One evening, when he did not return from the field till the play
+in the theatre was half over, she not only frowned upon him all the rest
+of the entertainment, but when, after the company had retired, he began to
+enter into an explanation of the cause of his delay, a scene ensued which
+it will be best to give in the very words of Mercy's report to the
+empress.
+
+"The dauphiness made him a short but very energetic sermon, in which she
+represented to him with vivacity all the evils of the uncivilized kind of
+life he was leading. She showed him that no one of his attendants could
+stand that kind of life, and that they would like it the less that his own
+air and rude manners made no amends to those who were attached to his
+train; and that, by following this plan of life, he would end by ruining
+his health and making himself detested. The dauphin received this lecture
+with gentleness and submission, confessed that he was wrong, promised to
+amend, and formally begged her pardon. This circumstance is certainly very
+remarkable, and the more so because the next day people observed that he
+paid the dauphiness much more attention, and behaved toward her with a
+much more lively affection than usual.[16]"
+
+We do not, however, find in reality that the severity of her admonitions
+produced any permanent diminution of his fondness for hunting and
+shooting; but the gentleness of her general manners, and the delight which
+he saw that all around her took in her graciousness, so far excited his
+admiration that he began to follow her example. He said that "she had such
+native grace that every thing which she did succeeded to perfection; that
+it must be admitted that she was charming." And before the end of the
+winter he had come to take an active part both in her Monday balls, and in
+those which her ladies occasionally gave in her honor; "dancing himself
+the whole of the evening, and conversing with all the company with an air
+of cheerfulness and good-nature of which no one before had ever thought
+him capable.[17]" The happy change in his demeanor was universally
+attributed to the dauphiness; and, as the character of their future king
+was naturally watched with anxiety as a matter of the highest importance,
+it greatly increased the attachment of all who had the welfare of the
+nation at heart to the princess, whose general example had produced so
+beneficial an effect.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+Mercy's Correspondence with Empress.--Distress and Discontent pervade
+France.--Goldsmith predicts a Revolution.--Apathy of the King.--The
+Aunts mislead Marie Antoinette.--Maria Teresa hears that the Dauphiness
+neglects her German Visitors.--Marriage of the Count de Provence.--Growing
+Preference of Louis XV. for the Dauphiness.--The Dauphiness applies
+herself to Study.--Marie Antoinette becomes a Horsewoman.--Her Kindness
+to all beneath her.--Cabals of the Adherents of the Mistress.--The
+Royal Family become united.--Concerts in the Apartments of the Dauphiness.
+
+
+Marie Antoinette was not a very zealous or copious letter-writer. Her only
+correspondent In her earlier years was her mother, and even to her her
+letters are less effusive and less full of details than might have been
+expected, one reason for their brevity arising out of the intrigues of the
+court, since she had cause to believe herself so watched and spied upon
+that her very desk was not safe; and, consequently, she never ventured to
+begin a letter to the empress before the morning on which it was to be
+sent, lest it should be read by those for whose eyes it was not intended.
+For our knowledge, therefore, of her acts and feelings at this period of
+her life, we still have to rely principally on Mercy's correspondence,
+which is, however, a sufficiently trustworthy guide, so accurate was his
+information, and so entire the frankness with which she opened herself to
+him on all occasions and on all subjects.
+
+The spring of 1771 opened very unfavorably for the new administration;
+omens of impending dangers were to be seen on all sides. Ten or twelve
+years before, Goldsmith, whose occasional silliness of manner prevented
+him from always obtaining the attention to which his sagacity entitled
+him, had named the growing audacity of the French parliaments as not only
+an indication of the approach of great changes in that country, but as
+likely also to be their moving cause.[1] And they had recently shown such
+determined resistance to the royal authority, that, though in the most
+conspicuous instance of it, their assertion of their right to pronounce an
+independent judgment on the charges brought against the Duc d'Aiguillon,
+they were unquestionably in the right; and though their pretensions were
+supported by almost the whole body of the princes of the blood, some of
+whom were immediately banished for their contumacy, Louis had been
+persuaded to abolish them altogether. And Marie Antoinette, though she
+carefully avoided mixing herself up with politics, was, as she reported to
+her mother,[2] astonished beyond measure at their conduct, which she
+looked upon as arising out of the grossest disloyalty, and which certainly
+indicated the existence of a feeling very dangerous to the maintenance of
+the royal authority on the part of those very men who were most bound to
+uphold it. There was also great and general distress. For a moment in the
+autumn it had been relieved by a fall in the price of bread, which the
+unreasoning gratitude of the populace had attributed to the benevolence of
+the dauphiness; but the severity of the winter had brought it back with
+aggravated intensity till it reached even to the palace, and compelled a
+curtailment of some of the festivities with which it had been intended to
+celebrate the marriage of the Count de Provence, which was fixed for the
+approaching May.
+
+Distress is the sure parent of discontent, unless the people have a very
+complete confidence in their government. And this was so far from being
+the case in France at this time, that the distrust of and contempt for
+those in the highest places increased daily more and more. The influence
+which Madame du Barri exerted over the king became more rooted as he
+became more used to submit to it, and more notorious as he grew more
+shameless in his avowal of it. She felt her power, and her intrigues
+became in the same proportion more busy and more diversified in their
+objects. In the vigorous description of Mercy, Versailles was wholly
+occupied by treachery, hatred, and vengeance; not one feeling of honesty
+or decency remained; while the people, ever quick-witted to perceive the
+vices of their rulers, especially when they are indulged at their expense,
+revenged themselves by bitter and seditious language, and by satires and
+pasquinades in which neither respect nor mercy was shown even to the
+sacred person of the sovereign himself. He was callous to all marks of
+contempt displayed for himself; but was, or was induced to profess
+himself, deeply annoyed at the conduct of the dauphin, who showed a fixed
+aversion for the mistress, which, however, his grandfather did not regard
+as dictated by his own feelings. Louis rather believed that it was
+fostered by Marie Antoinette, and that she, in encouraging her husband,
+was but following the advice of her aunts; and he threatened to
+remonstrate with the dauphiness on the subject, though, as Mercy correctly
+divined, he could not nerve himself to the necessary resolution.
+
+It was true that Marie Antoinette did often allow herself to be far too
+much influenced by those princesses. She confessed to Mercy that she was
+afraid to displease or thwart them; a feeling which he regarded as the
+more unfortunate because, when she was not actuated by that consideration,
+her own judgment and her own impulses would always guide her aright; and
+because, too, the elder princesses were the most unsafe of all advisers.
+They were notoriously jealous of one another, and each at times tried to
+inspire her niece with her feelings toward the other two; and they often,
+without meaning it, played into the hands of the mistress's cabal,
+intriguing for selfish objects of their own with as much malice and
+meanness as could be practiced by Madame du Barri herself.
+
+Still, in spite of these drawbacks, it was almost inevitable that they
+should have great influence over their niece. Their experience might well
+be presumed by her to have given them a correct insight into the ways of
+the court, and the best mode of behaving to their own father; and she, a
+foreigner and almost a child, was not only in need of counsel and
+guidance, but had no one else of her own sex to whom she could so
+naturally look for information or advice. They were, as she explained to
+Mercy, her only society; and, though she was too clear-sighted not to see
+their faults, and not at times to be aware that she was suffering from
+their perverseness, she, like other people, was often compelled to
+tolerate what she could not mend, and to shut her eyes to disagreeable
+qualities when forced to live on terms of intimacy with the possessors.
+
+On this point Maria Teresa was, perhaps, hardly inclined to make
+sufficient allowance for her difficulties, and insisted over and over
+again on the mischief which would arise to her from the habit of
+surrendering her judgment to these princesses. She told her that, though
+far from being devoid of virtues and real merit, "they had never succeeded
+in making themselves loved or esteemed by either their father or the
+public;[3]" and she added other admonitions which, as they were avowedly
+suggested by reports that had reached her, may be taken as indicating some
+errors into which her daughter's lightness of heart had occasionally
+betrayed her. She entreated her not to show an exclusive preference for
+the more youthful portion of her society, to the neglect of those who were
+older, and commonly of higher consideration; never to laugh at people or
+turn them into ridicule--no habit could be more injurious to herself, and
+indulgence in it would give reason to doubt her good-nature; it might gain
+her the applause of a few young people, but it would alienate a much
+greater number, and those the people of the most real weight and
+respectability. "This is not," said the experienced and wise empress, "a
+trivial matter in a princess. We live on the stage of the great world, and
+it is above all things essential that people should entertain a high idea
+of us. If you will only not allow others to lead you astray, you are sure
+of success; a kind Providence has endowed you so liberally with beauty,
+and with so many charms, that all hearts are yours if you are but
+prudent.[4]"
+
+The empress would have had her exhibit this prudence in her conduct also
+to Madame du Barri. She pressed upon her that she was justified in
+appearing ignorant of that lady's real position and character; that she
+need only be aware that she was received at court, and that respect for
+the king should prevent her from suspecting him of countenancing
+undeserving people.
+
+One other detail in the accounts of Marie Antoinette's conduct, which from
+time to time reached Vienna, had also vexed the empress, and it should be
+kept in mind by any one who would fairly estimate the truth of the charge
+brought against her, and urged with such rancor after she had become
+queen--of postponing the interests of France to those of her native land,
+of being Austrian at heart. Maria Teresa had heard, on the contrary, that
+she had given those Austrians who had presented themselves at Versailles
+but a cold reception, and she did not attempt to conceal her discontent.
+With a natural and becoming pride in and jealousy for her own loyal and
+devoted subjects, she entreated her daughter never to feel ashamed of
+them, or ashamed of being German herself, even if, comparatively speaking,
+the name should imply some deficiency in polish. "The French themselves
+would esteem her more if they saw in her something of German solidity and
+frankness.[5]"
+
+The daughter answered the mother with some adroitness. She took no notice
+of the advice about her behavior to Madame du Barri. It was the one topic
+on which her own feelings of propriety, as well as those of the dauphin,
+coincided with the suggestions of the aunts, and she did not desire to vex
+or provoke the empress by a prolonged discussion of the question; but the
+charge of coldness to her own countrymen she denied earnestly. "She should
+always glory in being a German. Some of those nobles whom the empress had
+expressly named she had treated with careful distinction, and had even
+danced with them, though they were not men of the very highest character.
+She well knew that the Germans had many good qualities which she could
+wish that the French shared with them;" and she promised that, whenever
+any of her mother's subjects of such standing and merit as to be worthy of
+her attention came to the court, they should have no cause to complain of
+her reception of them. Her language on the subject is so measured and
+careful as to lead us almost inevitably to the inference that the reports
+which had excited such dissatisfaction at Vienna were not without
+foundation, but that the French gayety, even if often descending to
+frivolity, was more to her taste than the German solidity which her mother
+so highly esteemed, and that she had been at no great pains to hide a
+preference which must naturally he acceptable to those among whom her
+future life was to be spent.
+
+In the middle of May, the Count de Provence was married to the Princess
+Josephine Louise of Savoy, and the court went to Fontainebleau to receive
+the bride. The necessity for leaving Madame du Barri behind threw the king
+more into the company of the dauphiness than he had been on any previous
+occasion, and her unaffected graces seemed for the moment to have made a
+complete conquest of him. He came in his dressing-gown to her apartments
+for breakfast, and spent a great portion of the day there. The courtiers
+again began to speculate on her breaking down the ascendency of the
+favorite, remarking that, though Louis was careful to pay his new relative
+the honors which, were her due as a stranger and a bride, he returned as
+speedily as he could with decency to the dauphiness as if for relief; and
+that, though she herself took care to put her new sister-in-law forward on
+all occasions, and treated her with the most marked cordiality and
+affection, every one else made the dauphiness the principal object of
+homage even in the festivities which were celebrated in honor of the
+countess. Indeed, it was evident from the very first that any attempt of
+the mistress's cabal to establish a rivalry between the two princesses
+must be out of the question. The Countess de Provence had no beauty, nor
+accomplishments, nor graciousness. Horace Walpole, who was meditating a
+visit to Paris, where he had some diligent correspondents, was told that
+he would lose his senses when he saw the dauphiness, but would be
+disenchanted by her sister; and the saying, though that of a blind old
+lady, expressed the opinion of all Frenchmen who could see.[6]
+
+Indeed, so obvious was the king's partiality for her that even Madame du
+Barri more than once sought to propitiate her by speaking in praise of her
+to Mercy, and professing an eager desire to aid in procuring the
+gratification of any of her wishes. But he was too shrewd and too
+well-informed to place the least confidence in her sincerity, though he
+did not fear half as much harm to his pupil from her enmity as from the
+pretended affection of the aunts, who, from a mixture of folly and
+treachery, were unwearied in their attempts to keep her at a distance
+from the king, by inspiring her with a fear of him, for which his
+disposition, which had as much good-nature in it as was compatible with
+weakness, gave no ground whatever. Indeed, the mischief they did was not
+confined to their influence over her, if Mercy was correct in his belief
+that it was their disagreeable tempers and manners which at this time,
+and for the remainder of the reign, prevented Louis from associating
+more with his family, which, had all been like the dauphiness, he would
+have preferred to do.
+
+It would probably have been in vain that Mercy remonstrated against her
+submitting as she did to the aunts, had he not been at all times able to
+secure the co-operation of the empress, who placed the most implicit
+confidence in his judgment in all matters relating to the French court,
+and remonstrated with her daughter energetically on the want of proper
+self-respect which was implied in her surrendering her own judgment to
+that of the aunts, as if she were a slave or a child. And Marie
+Antoinette replied to her mother in a tone of such mingled submissiveness
+and affection as showed how sincere was her desire to remove every shade
+of annoyance from the empress's mind; and which may, perhaps, lead to a
+suspicion that even her subservience to the aunts proceeded in a great
+degree from her anxiety to win the good-will of every one, and from the
+kindness which could not endure to thwart those with whom she was much
+associated; though at the same time she complained to the ambassador that
+her mother wrote without sufficient knowledge of the difficulties with
+which she was surrounded. But she had too deep an affection and reverence
+for her mother to allow her words to fall to the ground; and gradually
+Mercy began to see a difference in her conduct, and a greater inclination
+to assert her own independence, which was the feeling that above all
+others he thought most desirable to foster in her.
+
+Another topic which we find constantly urged in the empress's letters
+would seem strangely inconsistent with Marie Antoinette's position, if we
+did not remember how very young she still was. For her mother writes to
+her in many respects as if she were still at school, and continually
+inculcates on her the necessity of profiting by De Vermond's instructions,
+and applying herself to a course of solid reading in theology and history.
+And here, though her natural appetite for amusement interfered with her
+studies somewhat more than the empress, prompted by Mercy, was willing to
+make allowance for, she profited much more willingly by her mother's
+advice, having indeed a natural inclination for the works of history and
+biography, and a decided distaste for novels and romances. She could not
+have had a better guide in such matters than De Vermond, who was a man of
+extensive information and of a very correct taste; and under his guidance
+and with his assistance she studied Sully's memoirs, Madame de Sevigne's
+letters, and any other books which he recommended to her, and which gave
+her an idea of the past history of the country as well as the masterpieces
+of the great French dramatists.[7]
+
+The latter part of the year 1771 was marked by no very striking
+occurrences. Marie Antoinette had carried her point, and had begun to ride
+on horseback without either her figure or her complexion suffering from
+the exercise. On the contrary, she was admitted to have improved in
+beauty. She sent her measure to Vienna, to show Maria Teresa how much she
+had grown, adding that her husband had grown as much, and had become
+stronger and more healthy-looking, and that she had made use of her
+saddle-horses to accompany him in his hunting and shooting excursions.
+Like a true wife, she boasted to her mother of his skill as a shot: the
+very day that she wrote he had killed forty head of game. (She did not
+mention that a French sportsman's bag was not confined to the larger game,
+but that thrushes, blackbirds, and even, red-breasts, were admitted to
+swell the list.) And the increased facilities for companionship with him
+that her riding afforded increased his tenderness for her, so that she was
+happier than ever. Except that as yet she saw no prospect of presenting
+the empress with a grandchild, she had hardly a wish ungratified.
+
+Her taste for open-air exercise of this kind added also to the attachment
+felt for her by the lower classes, from the opportunities which arose out
+of it for showing her unvarying and considerate kindness. The contrast
+which her conduct afforded to that of previous princes, and indeed to that
+of all the present race except her husband, caused her actions of this
+sort to be estimated rather above their real importance. But how great was
+the impression which they did make on those who witnessed them may be seen
+in the unanimity with which the chroniclers of the time record her
+forbidding her postilions to drive over a field of corn which lay between
+her and the stag, because she would rather miss the sight of the chase
+than injure the farmer; and relate how, on one occasion, she gave up
+riding for a week or two, and sent her horses back from Compiegne to
+Versailles, because the wife of her head-groom was on the point of her
+confinement, and she wished her to have her husband near her at such a
+moment; and on another, when the horse of one of her attendants kicked
+her, and inflicted a severe bruise on her foot, she abstained from
+mentioning the hurt, lest it should bring the rider into disgrace by being
+attributed to his awkward management.
+
+Not that the intrigues of the mistress and her adherents were at all
+diminished. They were even more active than ever since the marriage of the
+Count de Provence, who, in an underhanded way, instigated his wife to show
+countenance to Madame du Barri, and who allowed, if he did not encourage,
+the mistress and her friends to speak slightingly of the dauphiness in his
+presence. But, as Marie Antoinette felt firmer in her own position, she
+could afford to disregard the malice of these caballers more than she had
+felt that she could do at first, and even to defy them. On one occasion
+that the Count de Provence was imprudent enough to discuss some of his
+schemes with the door open while she was in the next room, she told him
+frankly that she had heard all that he said, and reproached him for his
+duplicity; and the dauphin coming in at the moment, she flew to him,
+throwing her arms round his neck, and telling him how she appreciated his
+honesty and candor, and how the more she compared him with the others, the
+more she saw his superiority. Indeed, she soon began to find that the
+Countess de Provence was as little to be trusted as her husband; and the
+only member of the family whom she really liked, or of whom she had at all
+a favorable opinion, was the Count d'Artois, who, though not yet out of
+the school-room, "showed," as she told her mother, "sentiments of honesty
+which he could never have learned of his governor.[8]"
+
+Her indefatigable guardian, Mercy, reported to the empress that she
+improved every day. He had learned to conceive a very high idea of her
+abilities; and he dilated with especial satisfaction on the powers of
+conversation which she was developing; on her wit and readiness in
+repartee; on her originality, as well as facility of expression; and on
+her perfect possession of the royal art of speaking to a whole company
+with such notice of each member of it, that each thought himself the
+person to whom her remarks were principally addressed. She possessed
+another accomplishment, also, of great value to princes--a tenacious
+recollection of faces and names. And she had made herself acquainted with
+the history of all the chief nobles, so as to be able to make graceful
+allusions to facts in their family annals of which they were proud, and,
+what was perhaps even more important, to avoid unpleasant or dangerous
+topics. The king himself was not insensible to the increase of attraction
+which her charms, both of person and manner, conferred on the royal
+palace. He was perfectly satisfied with the civility of her behavior to
+Madame du Barri, who admitted that she had nothing to complain of. And
+the only point in which even Mercy, the most critical of judges, saw any
+room for alteration in her conduct was a certain remissness in bestowing
+her notice on men of real eminence, and on foreign visitors if they were
+not of the very highest rank; the remark as to the latter class being
+perhaps dictated by a somewhat excessive natural susceptibility, and by a
+laudable desire that any Germans who returned from France to their own
+country should sing her praises in her native land.
+
+Perhaps one of the strongest proofs of the regard in which, at this time,
+she was held by all parties in the court is found in the circumstance that
+the Count de Provence himself very soon found it impossible to continue
+his countenance to the intrigues against her which he had previously
+favored. He preferred ingratiating himself and the countess with her.
+Marie Antoinette was always placable, and from the first had been eager,
+as the head of the family, to place her sister-in-law at her ease; so that
+when the count evinced his desire to stand on a friendly footing with her,
+she showed every disposition to meet his wishes, and the spring and summer
+of 1772 exhibited to the courtiers, who were little accustomed to such
+scenes, a happy example of an intimate family union. Marie Antoinette had
+always been fond of music, and, as we have seen before, ever since her
+arrival in France, had devoted fixed hours to her music-master. And now,
+on almost every evening which was not otherwise preoccupied, she gave
+little concerts in her apartments to the royal family, their principal
+attendants, and a few of the chief nobles of the court; being herself
+occasionally one of the performers, and maintaining her character as a
+hostess by a combined affability and dignity which made all her guests
+pleased with themselves as with her, and set all imitation and all
+detraction alike at defiance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+Marie Antoinette wishes to see Paris.--Intrigues of Madame Adelaide.--
+Characters of the Dauphin and the Count de Provence.--Grand Review at
+Fontainebleau.--Marie Antoinette ill the Hunting Field.--Letter from her
+to the Empress.--Mischievous Influence of the Dauphin's Aunts on her
+Character.--Letter of Marie Antoinette to the Empress.--Her Affection for
+her Old House.--The Princes are recalled from Exile.--Lord Stormont.--
+Great Fire at the Hotel-Dieu.--Liberality and Charity of Marie
+Antoinette.--She goes to the Bal d'Opera.---Her Feelings about the
+Partition of Poland.--The King discusses Politics with her, and thinks
+highly of her Ability.
+
+
+It was a curious proof of the mischievousness as well as of the extent of
+the influence which Madame Adelaide and her sister were able to exert over
+the indolence and apathy of their father, that when Marie Antoinette had
+for more than two years been married and living within twelve miles of
+Paris, she had never yet seen it by daylight, although the universal and
+natural expectation of the citizens had been that the royal pair would pay
+the city a state visit immediately after their marriage. Her own wishes
+had not been consulted in the matter; for she was naturally anxious to see
+the beautiful city of which she had heard so much; and the delay which had
+taken place was equally at variance with Madame de Noailles' notions of
+propriety. But when the countess suggested a plan for visiting the capital
+_incognito_, proposing that the dauphiness should drive as far as the
+entrance to the suburbs, and then, having sent on her saddle-horses,
+should ride along the boulevards, Madame Adelaide, professing a desire to
+join the party, raised so many difficulties on the subject of the retinue
+which was to follow, and was so successful in creating jealousies between
+her own ladies and those in attendance on Marie Antoinette, that Madame de
+Noailles was forced to recommend the abandonment of the project. Mercy was
+far more annoyed than his young mistress; he saw that the secret object of
+Madame Adelaide was to throw as many hindrance as possible in the way of
+the dauphiness winning popularity by appearing in public, while he also
+correctly judged hat it would be consistent both with propriety and with
+her interest, as the future queen of the country, rather to seek and even
+make opportunities for enabling the people to become acquainted with her.
+But to Marie Antoinette any disappointment of that kind was a very
+trifling matter. She had vexations which, as she told the embassador, she
+could not explain even to him; and they kept alive in her a feeling of
+homesickness which, in all persons of amiable and affectionate
+disposition, must require some, time to subdue. Even when her brother, the
+Archduke Ferdinand, had quit Vienna in the preceding autumn to enter on
+the honorable post of Governor of Lombardy, she had not congratulated, but
+condoled with him, "feeling by her own experience how much it costs to be
+separated from one's family." And what she had found in her own home did
+not as yet make up to her for all she had left behind. Even her husband,
+though uniformly kind in language and behavior, was of a singularly cold
+and undemonstrative disposition; and it almost seemed as if the gayety
+which he exhibited at her balls were an effort so foreign to his nature
+that he indemnified himself by unpardonable boorishness on other
+occasions. The Count de Provence had but little more polish, and a far
+worse temper. Squabbles often took place between the two brothers. Though
+both married men, they were still in age only boys; and on more than one
+occasion they proceeded to acts of personal violence to each other in her
+presence. Luckily no one else was by, and she was able to pacify and
+reconcile them; but she could hardly avoid feeling ashamed of having been
+called on to exert herself in such a cause, or contrasting the undignified
+boisterousness (to give it no worse name) of such scenes with the decorous
+self-respect which, with all their simplicity of character, had always
+governed the conduct of her own relations.
+
+Not but that, in the opinion of Mercy,[1] the dauphin was endowed by
+nature with a more than ordinary share of good qualities. His faults were
+only such as proceeded from an excessively bad education. He had many most
+essential virtues. He was a young man of perfect integrity and
+straightforwardness; he was desirous to hear the truth; and it was never
+necessary to beat about the bush, or to have recourse to roundabout ways
+of bringing it before him. On the contrary, to speak to him with perfect
+frankness was the surest way both to win his esteem and to convince his
+reason. On one or two occasions in which he had consulted the embassador,
+Mercy had expressed his opinions without the least reserve, and had
+perceived that the young prince had liked him better for his candor.
+
+The king still kept up the habit of spending the greater part of the
+autumn at Compiegne and Fontainebleau, visits which Marie Antoinette
+welcomed as a holiday from the etiquette of Versailles. She wrote word to
+her mother that she was growing very fast, and taking asses' milk to keep
+up her strength; that that regimen, with constant exercise, was doing her
+great good; and that she had gained great praise for the excellence of her
+riding. On one occasion, when they were at Fontainebleau, she especially
+delighted the officers of her husband's regiment of cuirassiers, when the
+king reviewed it in person. The dauphin himself took the command of his
+men, and put them through their evolutions while she rode by his side; he
+then presented each of the officers to her separately, and she distributed
+cockades to the whole body. The first she gave to the dauphin himself,[2]
+who placed it in his hat. Each officer, as he received his, did the same.
+And after the king had taken his departure, she, with her husband,
+remained on the field for an hour, conversing freely with the soldiers,
+and showing the greatest interest in all that concerned the regiment.
+Throughout the day the young prince had exhibited a knowledge of the
+profession, and a readiness as well as an ease of manner, which had
+surprised all the spectators, and Mercy had the satisfaction of hearing
+every one attribute the admirable appearance which he had made on so
+important an occasion (for it was the first time of his appearing in such
+a position) to the example and hints of the dauphiness.
+
+It was scarcely less of a public appearance, while it was one in which the
+king himself probably took more interest, when, a few days afterward, on
+the occasion of a grand stag-hunt in the forest, she joined in the chase
+in a hunting uniform of her own devising. The king was so delighted that
+he scarcely left her side, and extolled her taste in dress, as well as her
+skill in horsemanship, to all whom he honored with his conversation. But
+the empress was not quite so well pleased. Her disapproval of horse
+exercise for young married women was as strong as ever. She had also
+interpreted some of her daughter's submissive replies to her admonitions
+on the subject as a promise that she would not ride, and she scolded her
+severely (no weaker word can express the asperity of her language) for
+neglect of her engagement, as well as for the risk of accidents which are
+incurred by those who follow the hounds, and some of which, as she heard,
+had befallen the dauphiness herself. Her daughter's explanation was as
+frank as it deserved to be accounted sufficient, while her letter is
+interesting also, as showing her constant eagerness to exculpate herself
+from the charge of indifference to her German countrymen, an eagerness
+which proves how firmly she believed the notion to be fixed in the
+empress's mind.
+
+"I expect, my dear mamma, that people must have told you more about my
+rides than there really was to be told. I will tell you the exact truth.
+The king and the dauphin both like to see me on horseback. I only say this
+because all the world perceives it, and especially while we were absent
+from Versailles they were delighted to see me in my riding-habit. But,
+though I own it was no great effort for me to conform myself to their
+desires, I can assure you that I never once let myself he carried away by
+too much eagerness to keep close to the hounds; and I hope that, in spite
+of all my giddiness, I shall always allow myself to be restrained by the
+experienced hunters who constantly accompany me, and I shall never thrust
+myself into the crowd. I should never have supposed any one could have
+reported to you as an accident what happened to me in Fontainebleau. Every
+now and then one finds in the forest large stepping stones; and as we were
+going on very gently my horse stumbled on one covered with sand, which he
+did not see; but I easily held him up, and we went on.... Esterhazy was at
+our ball yesterday. Every one was greatly pleased with his dignified
+manner and with his style of dancing. I ought to have spoken to him when
+he was presented to me, and my silence only proceeded from embarrassment,
+as I did not know him. It would be doing me great injustice to think that
+I have any feeling of indifference to my country; I have more reason than
+any one to feel, every day of my life, the value of the blood which flows
+in my veins, and it is only from prudence that at times I abstain from
+showing how proud I am of it.... I never neglect any mode of paying
+attention to the king, and of anticipating his wishes as far as I can. I
+hope that he is pleased with me. It is my duty to please him, my duty and
+also my glory, if by such means I can contribute to maintain the alliance
+of the two houses....[3]"
+
+The empress was but half pacified about the riding and hunting. She owned
+that, if both the king and the dauphin approved of it, she had nothing
+more to say, though she still blamed the dauphiness for forgetting a
+promise which she understood to have been made to herself. At the same
+time, no language could be kinder than that in which she asked "whether
+her daughter could believe that she would wish to deprive her of so
+innocent a pleasure, she who would give her very life to procure her one,
+if she were not apprehensive of mischievous consequences;" her
+apprehensions being solely dictated by her anxiety to see her daughter
+bear an heir to the throne. But she would by no means admit her excuses
+for giving the Hungarian prince a cold reception. "How," she said, "could
+she forget that her little Antoinette, when not above twelve or thirteen
+years old, knew how to receive people publicly, and say something polite
+and gracious to every one, and how could she suppose that the same
+daughter, now that she was dauphiness, could feel embarrassment?
+Embarrassment was a mere chimera."
+
+But the truth was that it was not a mere chimera. Mercy had more than once
+deplored, as one among the mischievous effects of Madame Adelaide's
+constant interference and domineering influence, that it had bred in Marie
+Antoinette a timidity which was wholly foreign to her nature. And indeed
+it was hardly possible for one still so young to be aware that she was
+surrounded by unfriendly intriguers and spies, and to preserve that
+uniform presence of mind which her rank and position made so desirable for
+her, and which was in truth so natural to her that she at once recovered
+it the moment that her circumstances changed.
+
+And a probability of an early change was already apparent. During the last
+months of 1772 there was a general idea that the king's health and mental
+faculties were both giving away; and all the different parties about
+Versailles began to show their sense of her approaching authority. It was
+remarked that both the ministers and the mistress had become very guarded
+in their language, and in their behavior to her and her husband. The Count
+de Provence took a curious way of showing his expectation of a change, by
+delivering her a long paper of counsels for her guidance, the chief object
+of which was to warn her against holding such frequent conversations with
+Mercy. She apparently thought that the writer's desire was to remove the
+embassador from her confidence that he himself might occupy the vacant
+place, and she showed her opinion of the value of the advice by reading it
+to Mercy and then putting it into the fire.
+
+Some extracts from the first letter which she wrote to her mother in 1773
+will serve to give us a fair idea of her feelings at this time, both from
+what it does and from what it does not mention. The intelligence which has
+reached her about her sister recalls to her mind her own anxiety to become
+a mother, her disappointment in this matter being, indeed, one of the most
+constant topics of lamentation in the letters of both daughter and mother,
+till it was removed by the birth of the princess royal. But that is her
+only vexation. In every other respect she seems perfectly contented with
+the course which affairs are taking; while we see how thoroughly unspoiled
+she is both in the warmth of the affection with which she speaks of her
+family and greets the little memorials of home which have been sent her;
+and still more in the continuance of her acts of charity, and in her
+design that her benevolence should be unknown.
+
+"I hear that the queen[4] is expecting to be confined. I hope her child
+will be a son. When shall I be able to say the same of myself? They tell
+me, too, that the grand duke[5] and his wife are going into Spain. I
+greatly wish that they would conceive a dread of the sea-voyage, and take
+this place in their way. The journey would be a little longer; but they
+would be well received here, for my brother is very highly thought of;
+and, besides, I am somewhat jealous at being the only one of my family
+unacquainted with my sister-in-law.
+
+"The pictures of my little brothers which you have sent me have given me
+great pleasure. I have had them set in a ring, and wear it every day.
+Those who have seen my brothers at Vienna pronounce the pictures very
+like, and every one thinks them very good-looking. New-year's-day here is
+a day of a great crowd and grand ceremony. There was nothing either to
+blame or to praise in the degree in which I adopted my dear mamma's
+advice. The Favorite came to pay her respects to me at a moment when my
+apartment was very full It was impossible for me to address myself to
+every one separately, so I spoke to the whole company in a body; and I
+have reason to believe that both the Favorite and her sister, who is her
+principal adviser, were pleased; though I have also reason to believe
+that, two days afterward, M. d'Aiguillon tried to persuade them that they
+had been ill-treated. As for the minister himself, he has never complained
+of me, and, indeed, I have always been careful to treat him equally well
+with the rest of his colleagues.
+
+"You will have learned, my dear mamma, that the Duc d'Orleans and the Duc
+de Chartres are returned from banishment. I am glad of it for the sake of
+peace, and for that of the tranquillity and comfort of the king. But, if
+she had been in the king's place, I do not think my dear mamma would have
+accepted the letter which they have dared to write, and which they have
+got printed in foreign newspapers.[6]
+
+"I was glad to see M. de Stormont.[7] I asked him all the news about my
+dear family, and it was a pleasure to him to inform me. He seems to me to
+have overcome his prejudices, and every one here thinks him a man of
+thorough high-breeding. I have desired M. de Mercy to invite him to one of
+my Monday balls. We are going to have one at, Madame de Noailles'. They
+will last till Ash-Wednesday. They will begin an hour or two later than
+they used to, that we may not be so tired as we were last year when we
+came to Lent In spite of the amusements of the carnival, I am always
+faithful to my poor harp, and they say that I make great progress with it.
+I sing, too, every week at the concert given by my sister of Provence.
+Although there are very few people there, they are very well amused; and
+my singing gives great pleasure to my two sisters.[8] I also find time to
+read a little. I have begun the 'History of England' by Mr. Hume. It seems
+to me very interesting, though it is necessary to recollect that it is a
+Protestant who has written it.
+
+"All the newspapers have spoken of the terrible fire at the Hotel-Dieu.[9]
+They were obliged to remove the patients into the cathedral and the
+archbishop's palace. There are generally from five to six thousand
+patients in the hospital. In spite of all the exertions that were made, it
+was impossible to prevent the destruction of a great part of the building;
+and, though it is now a fortnight since the accident happened, the tire is
+still smoldering in the cellars. The archbishop has enjoined a collection
+to be made for the sufferers, and I have sent him a thousand crowns. I
+said nothing of my having done so to any one, and the compliments which
+they have paid me on it have been embarrassing to me; but they have said
+it was right to let it be known that I had sent this money, for the sake
+of the example."
+
+She was on this, as on many other occasions, one of those who
+
+  "Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame."
+
+One of her sayings, with which she more than once repressed the panegyrics
+of those who, as it seemed to her, extolled her benevolence too loudly,
+was that it was not worth while to say a great deal about giving a little
+assistance; and, on this occasion, so secret had she intended to keep her
+benevolence that she had not mentioned it to De Vermond, or even to Mercy.
+But she judged rightly that the empress would enter into the feelings
+which had prompted both the act and also the silence; and she was amply
+rewarded by her mother's praise.
+
+"I have been enchanted," the empress wrote, in instant reply, "with the
+thousand crowns that you have sent to the Hotel-Dieu, and you speak very
+properly in saying that you have been vexed at people speaking to you
+about it. Such actions ought to be known to God alone, and I am certain
+that you acted in that spirit. Still, those who published your act had
+good reasons for what they did, as you say yourself, thinking of the
+influence of your example. My dear little girl, we owe this example to the
+world, and to set such is one of the most essential and most delicate
+duties of our condition. The more frequently you can perform acts of
+benevolence and generosity without crippling your means too much, the
+better; and what would be ostentation and prodigality in another is
+becoming and necessary for those of our rank. We have no other resources
+but those of conferring benefits and showing kindness; and this is even
+more the case with a dauphiness or a queen consort, which I myself have
+not been."
+
+There could hardly be a better specimen of the principles on which the
+empress herself had governed her extensive dominions, or of the value of
+her example and instructions to her daughter, than that which is contained
+in these few lines; but it is not always that such lessons are so closely
+followed as they were by the virtuous and beneficent dauphiness. The
+winter passed on cheerfully; the ordinary amusements of the palace being
+varied by her going with the dauphin and the Count and Countess of
+Provence to one of the public masked balls of the opera-house, a diversion
+which, considering the unavoidably mixed character of the company, it is
+hard to avoid thinking somewhat unsuited to so august a party, but one
+which had been too frequently countenanced by different members of the
+royal family for several years for such a visit to cause remarks, though
+the masks of the princes and princesses could not long preserve their
+secret Another favorite amusement of the court at this time was the
+representation of proverbs, in which Marie Antoinette acted with the
+little Elizabeth; and we have a special account of one such performance,
+which was given in her honor by one of her ladies, having been originally
+devised for the Day of Saint Anthony, as her saint's day,[10] though it
+was postponed on account of her being confined to her room with a cold.
+The proverb was, "Better late than never;" and, as the most acceptable
+compliment to the dauphiness, the managers introduced a number of
+characters attired in a diversity of costumes, intended to represent the
+natives of all the countries ruled over by the Empress-queen, each of whom
+made a speech, in which the praises of Maria Teresa and Marie Antoinette
+were happily combined.
+
+The king got better, and intrigues of all kinds were revived; but, aided
+by Mercy's counsels, and supported by the dauphin's unalterable affection,
+Marie Antoinette disconcerted all that were aimed at her by the uniform
+prudence of her conduct. Happily for her, with all his defects, her
+husband was still one in whom she could feel perfect confidence. As she
+told Mercy, under any conceivable circumstances she was sure of his views
+and intentions being always right; the only difficulty was to engage him
+in a sufficiently decided course of action, which his timid and sluggish
+disposition rendered almost painful to him. And just at this moment she
+was more anxious than usual to inspire him with her own feelings and
+spirit, because she could not avoid fearing that the discontent with which
+the few people in France who deserved the name of statesmen regarded the
+recent partition of Poland might create a coolness between France and
+Austria, calculated to endanger the alliance, the continuance of which was
+so indispensable to her happiness, and, as she was firmly convinced, to
+the welfare of both countries. She conversed more than once with Mercy on
+the subject, and her reflections, both on the partition, and on the degree
+in which the mutual interest of the two nations was concerned in their
+remaining united, gave him a very good idea of her political capacity. He
+also reported to his imperial mistress that he had found out that King
+Louis had conceived the same opinion of her, and had begun to discuss
+affairs of importance with her. He trusted that his majesty would get a
+habit of doing so; since, if his life should be spared, she would thus in
+time become able to exert a very useful influence over him; and as, at all
+events, "it was absolutely certain that some day or other she would govern
+the kingdom, it was of the very greatest consequence to the success of the
+great and brilliant career which she had before her that she should
+previously accustom herself to regard affairs with such principles and
+views as were suitable to the position which she must occupy."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+Marie Antoinette is anxious for the Maintenance of the Alliance between
+France and Austria.--She, with the Dauphin, makes a State Entry into
+Paris.--The "Dames de la Halle."--She praises the Courtesy of the
+Dauphin.--Her Delight at the Enthusiasm of the Citizens.--She, with the
+Dauphin, goes to the Theatre, and to the Fair of St. Ovide, and to St.
+Cloud.--Is enthusiastically received everywhere.--She learns to drive.--
+She makes some Relaxations in Etiquette.--Marriage of the Comte d'Artois.
+--The King's Health grows Bad.--Visit of Marshal Lacy to Versailles.--The
+King catches the Small-pox.--Madame du Barri quits Versailles.--The King
+dies.
+
+
+Politics were, indeed, taking such a hold over Marie Antoinette that they
+begin to furnish some topics for her letters to her mother, one of which
+shows that she had already formed that opinion of French fickleness which
+she had afterward too abundant cause to maintain. "I do hope," she says,
+"that the good intelligence between our two nations will last. One good
+thing in this country is, that if ill-natured feelings are quick to arise,
+they disappear with equal rapidity. The King of Prussia is innately a bad
+neighbor, but the English will also always be bad neighbors to France, and
+the sea has never prevented them from doing her great mischief." We might,
+firstly, demur to any actions of our statesmen being classed with the
+treacherous aggressions of Frederick of Prussia, nor did many years of her
+husband's reign pass over before the greatest of English ministers
+proposed and concluded a treaty between the two countries, which he fondly
+and wisely hoped would lay the foundations of a better understanding, if
+not of a lasting peace, between the two countries. But even before that
+treaty was framed, and before Pitt's voice had become predominant in the
+State, Marie Antoinette's complaint that the sea had never disarmed us of
+power to injure France had received the strongest exemplification that as
+yet the history of the two nations afforded in Rodney's great victory.
+However, she soon turns to more agreeable subject, and proceeds to speak
+of a pleasure to which she was looking forward, and which, as we have
+already seen, had been unaccountably deferred till this time, in defiance
+of all propriety and of all precedent. "I hope that the dauphin and I
+shall make our entry into Paris next month, which will be a great delight
+to me. I do not venture to speak of it yet, though I have the king's
+promise: it would not be the first time that they had made him change his
+mind."
+
+The most elaborate exposure of the cabals and intrigues which ever since
+her marriage had been persistently directed against Marie Antoinette could
+not paint them so forcibly as the simple fact that three years had now
+elapsed since her marriage; and that, though the state entrance of the
+heir of the crown and his bride into the metropolis of the kingdom ought
+to have been a prominent part of the marriage festivities, it had never
+yet taken place. Nor, though Louis had at last given his formal promise
+that it should be no longer delayed, did the young pair even yet feel sure
+that an influence superior to theirs might not induce him to recall it.
+However, at last the intrigues were baffled, and, on the 8th of June, the
+visit, which had been expected by the Parisians with an eagerness
+exceeding that of the dauphiness herself, was made. It was in every
+respect successful; and it is due to Marie Antoinette to let the outline
+of the proceeding be described by herself.
+
+"Versailles, June 14th.
+
+"MY DEAREST MOTHER,--I absolutely blush for your kindness to me. The day
+before yesterday Mercy sent me your precious letter, and yesterday I
+received a second. That is indeed passing one's fete day happily. On
+Tuesday I had a fete which I shall never forget all my life. We made our
+entrance into Paris. As for honors, we received all that we could possibly
+imagine; but they, though very well in their way, were not what touched me
+most. What was really affecting was the tenderness and earnestness of the
+poor people, who, in spite of the taxes with which they are overwhelmed,
+were transported with joy at seeing us. When we went to walk in the
+Tuileries, there was so vast a crowd that we were three-quarters of an
+hour without being able to move either forward or backward. The dauphin
+and I gave repeated orders to the Guards not to beat any one, which had a
+very good effect. Such excellent order was kept the whole day that, in
+spite of the enormous crowd which followed us everywhere, not a person was
+hurt. When we returned from our walk we went up to an open terrace, and
+staid there half an hour. I can not describe to you, my dear mamma, the
+transports of joy and affection which every one exhibited toward us.
+Before we withdrew we kissed our hands to the people, which gave them
+great pleasure. What a happy, thing it is for persons in our rank to gain
+the love of a whole nation so cheaply! Yet there is nothing so precious; I
+felt it thoroughly, and shall never forget it.
+
+"Another circumstance which gave great pleasure on that glorious day was
+the behavior of the dauphin. He made admirable replies to every address,
+and remarked every thing that was done in his honor, and especially the
+earnestness and delight of the people, to whom he showed great kindness.
+Of all the copies of verses which were given me on this occasion, these
+are the prettiest which I inclose to you.[1] Tomorrow we are going to
+Paris to the opera, There is great anxiety for us to do so; and I believe
+that we shall go on two other days also to visit the French and the
+Italian comedy. I feel more and more, every day of my life, how much my
+dear mamma has done for my establishment. I was the youngest of all her
+daughters, and she has treated me as if I were the eldest; so that my
+whole soul is filled with the most tender gratitude.
+
+"The king has had the kindness to procure the release of three hundred and
+twenty prisoners, for debts due to nurses who have brought up their
+children. Their release took place two days after our entrance. I wished
+to attend Divine service on my fete day; but the evening before, my
+sister, the Countess of Provence, had a party for me, a proverb with songs
+and fire-works, and this distraction forced me to put off going to church
+till the next day.
+
+"I am very glad to hear that you have such good hope of the continuance of
+peace. While the intriguers of this country are devouring one another,
+they will not harass their neighbors nor their allies."
+
+She does not enter into details; the pomp and ceremony of their reception
+by nobles and magistrates had been in her eyes as nothing in comparison
+with the cordial welcome given to them by the poorer citizens. While they,
+on their part, must have been equally gratified at perceiving the sincere
+pleasure with which she and the dauphin accepted their salutations; a
+feeling how different from that which had animated any of their princes
+for many years, we may judge from the order given to the guards to forbear
+beating the crowd which gathered round them, as no doubt, without such an
+order, the soldiers would have thought it usual and natural to do.
+
+Not that the proceedings of the day had not been magnificent and imposing
+enough to attract the admiration of any who thought less of the hearts of
+the citizens than of pomp and splendor. The royal train, conveyed from
+Versailles in six state carriages, was received at the city gate by the
+governor, the Marshal Duc de Brissac, accompanied by the head of the
+police, the provost of the merchants, and all the other municipal
+authorities. The marshal himself was the heir of the Comte de Brissac who,
+nearly two centuries before, being also Governor of Paris, had tendered to
+the victorious Henry IV. the submission of the city. But Henry was as yet
+only the chief of a party, not the accepted sovereign of the whole nation;
+and the enthusiasm with which half the citizens rained their shouts of
+exultation in his honor had its drawback in the sullen silence of the
+other half, who regarded the great Bourbon as their conqueror rather than
+their king, and his triumphant entrance as their defeat and humiliation.
+
+To-day all the citizens were but one party. As but one voice was heard, so
+but one heart gave utterance to it. The joy was as unanimous as it was
+loud. From the city gates the royal party passed on to the great national
+cathedral of Notre Dame, and from thence to the church dedicated by
+Clovis, the first Christian king, to St. Genevieve, whose recent
+restoration was the most creditable work of the present reign, and which
+subsequently, under the new name of the Pantheon, was destined to become
+the resting-place of many of the worthies whose memory the nation
+cherishes with enduring pride. At last they reached the Tuileries, their
+progress having been arrested at different points by deputations of all
+kinds with loyal and congratulatory addresses; at the Hotel-Dieu by the
+prioress with a company of nuns; on the Quai Conti by the Provost of the
+Mint with his officers; before the college bearing the name of its
+founder, Louis le Grand, the Rector of the University, at the head of his
+students, greeted them in a Latin speech, at the close of which he secured
+the re-doubling of the acclamations of the pupils by promising them a
+holiday. Not that the cheers required any increase. The citizens in their
+ecstasy did not even think their voices sufficient. As the royal couple
+moved slowly through the gardens of the Tuileries arm-in-arm, every hand
+was employed in clapping, hats were thrown up, and every token of joy
+which enthusiasm ever devised was displayed to the equally delighted
+visitors. "Good heavens, what a crowd!" said Marie Antoinette to De
+Brissac, who had some difficulty in keeping his place at her side.
+"Madame," said the old warrior, as courtly as he was valiant, "if I may
+say so without offending my lord the dauphin, they are all so many
+lovers." When they had made the circuit of the garden and returned to the
+palace, the most curious part of the day's ceremonies awaited them. A
+banqueting-table was arranged for six hundred guests, and those guests
+were not the nobles of the nation, nor the clergy, nor the must renowned
+warriors, nor the municipal officers, but the fish-women of the city
+market. A custom so old that its origin can not be traced had established
+the right of these dames to bear an especial part in such festivities. In
+the course of the morning they had made their future queen free of their
+market, with an offering of fruits and flowers. And now, as, according to
+a singular usage of the court, no male subject was ever allowed to sit at
+table with a queen or dauphiness of France, the dinner party over which
+the youthful pair, sitting side by side, presided, consisted wholly of
+these dames whose profession is not generally considered as imparting any
+great refinement to the manners, and who, before the close of the
+entertainment, showed, in more cases than one, that they had imported some
+of the notions and fashions of their more ordinary places of resort into
+the royal palace.
+
+It was characteristic of Marie Antoinette that, in her description of the
+day to her mother, she had dwelt with special emphasis on the gracious
+deportment of her husband. It was equally natural for Mercy to assure the
+empress[2] that it had been the grace and elegance of the dauphiness
+herself which had attracted general admiration, and that it was to her
+example and instruction that every one attributed the courteous demeanor
+which, as he did not deny, the young prince had unquestionably exhibited.
+It was she whom the king, as he affirmed, had complimented on the result
+of the day; a success which she had gracefully attributed to himself,
+saying that he must be greatly beloved by the Parisians to induce them to
+give his children so splendid a reception[3]. To whomsoever it was owing,
+the embassador certainly did not exaggerate the opinion of the world
+around him when he affirmed that, in the memory of man, no one recollected
+any ceremony which had made so great a sensation, and had been attended by
+so complete a success.
+
+And it was followed up, as she expected, by several visits to the
+different Parisian theatres, which, in compliance with the king's express
+direction, were made in all the state which would have been observed had
+he himself been present. Salutes were fired from the Bastile and the Hotel
+des Invalides; companies of Royal Guards lined the vestibule and the
+passage of the theatre; sentinels stood even on the stage; but, fond as
+the French are of martial finery and parade, the spectators paid little
+attention to the soldiers, or even to the actors. All eyes were fixed on
+the dauphiness alone. At Mercy's suggestion, the dauphin and she had
+previously obtained the king's permission to allow the violation of the
+rule which forbade any clapping of hands in the presence of royalty. This
+relaxation of etiquette was hailed as a great condescension by the
+play-goers, and throughout the evening of their appearance at the Italian
+comedy the spectators had already made abundant use of their new
+privilege, when the enthusiasm was brought to a height by a chorus which
+ended with the loyal burden of "Vive le roi!" Clerval, the performer of
+the principal part, added, "Et ses chers enfants;" and the compliment was
+re-echoed from every part of the house with continued clapping and
+cheering, till it reminded Marie Antoinette of a somewhat similar scene
+which, as a child, she had witnessed in the theatre of Vienna,[4] when the
+empress, from her box, had announced to the audience that a son (the heir
+to the empire) had just been born to the Archduke Leopold.
+
+The ice being, thus, as it were, once broken, the dauphin and dauphiness
+took many opportunities of appearing in public during the following
+months, visiting the great Paris fair of St. Ovide, as it was called,
+walking up and down the alleys, and making purchases at the stalls the
+whole Place Louis XV., to which the fair had recently been removed, being
+illuminated, and the crowd greeting them with repeated and enthusiastic
+cheers. They also went in state to the exhibition of pictures at the
+Louvre, and drove to St. Cloud to walk about the park attached to that
+palace, which was one of the most favorite places of resort for the
+Parisians on the fine summer evenings; so that, while the court was at
+Versailles, scarcely a week elapsed without her giving them an opportunity
+of seeing her, in which it was evident that she fully shared their
+pleasure. To be loved was with her a necessity of her very nature; and, as
+she was constantly referring with pride to the attachment felt by the
+Austrians for her mother, she fixed her own chief wishes on inspiring with
+a similar feeling those who were to become her and her husband's subjects.
+She was, at least for the time, rewarded as she desired. This is, indeed,
+said they, the best of innovations, the best of revolutions,[5] to see the
+princes mingling with the people, and interesting themselves in their
+amusements. This was really to unite all classes; to attach the country to
+the palace and the palace to the country; and it was to the dauphiness
+that the credit of this new state of things was universally attributed.
+
+She was looking forward to a greater pleasure in a visit from her.
+brother, the emperor, which the empress hoped might be attended with
+consequences more important than those of passing pleasure; since she
+trusted to his influence, and, if opportunity should occur, to his
+remonstrances, to induce the dauphin to break through the unaccountable
+coldness with which, in some respects, he still treated his beautiful
+wife. But Joseph was forced to postpone his visit, and the fulfillment of
+the empress's anticipations was also postponed for some years.
+
+However, Marie Antoinette never allowed disappointments to dwell in her
+mind longer than she could help. She rather strove to dispel the
+recollection of them by such amusements as were within her reach. She
+learned to drive, and found great diversion in being her own charioteer
+through the glades of the forest. She began to make further inroads in the
+court etiquette, giving balls in which she broke through the custom which
+prescribed that special places should be marked out for the royal family,
+and directed that the princes and princesses should sit with the rest of
+the company during the intervals between the dances; an arrangement which
+enabled her to talk to every one, and which gained her general good-will
+from the graciousness of her manner. She did not greatly trouble herself
+at the jealousy of her popularity openly displayed by her aunts and her
+sister-in-law, who could not bear to hear her called "La bellissima.[6]"
+Nor was her influence weakened when, in November, a fresh princess, the
+sister of Madame de Provence, arrived from Italy, to be married to the
+Comte d'Artois, for the bride was even less attractive than her sister.
+According to Mercy, she was pale and thin, had a long nose and a wide
+mouth, danced badly, and was very awkward in manner. So that Louis
+himself, though usually very punctilious in his courtesies to those in her
+position, could not forbear showing how little he admired her.
+
+An incident occurred on the evening of the marriage which is worth
+remarking, from the change which subsequently took place in the taste of
+the dauphiness, who a few years afterward provoked unfavorable comments by
+the ardor with which she surrendered herself to the excitement of the
+gaming-table. As a matter of course, a grand party was invited to the
+palace to celebrate the event of the morning; and, as an invariable part
+of such entertainments, a table was set out for the then fashionable game
+of lansquenet, at which the king himself played, with the royal family and
+all the principal persons of the court. In the course of the evening Marie
+Antoinette won more than seven hundred pounds; but she was rather
+embarrassed than gratified by her good fortune. She had tried to lose the
+money back; but, as she had been unable to succeed, the next morning she
+sent the greater part of it to the curates of Versailles to be distributed
+among the poor, and gave the rest to some of her own attendants who seemed
+to her to need it, being determined, as she said, to keep none of it for
+herself.
+
+The winter revived the apprehensions concerning the king's health; he was
+manifestly sinking into the grave, while
+
+  "That which should accompany old age,
+  As love, obedience, honor, troops of friends,
+  He might not look to have."
+
+His very mistress began with great zeal than ever, though with no better
+taste, to seek to conciliate the dauphiness. She tried to purchase her
+good-will by a bribe. She was aware that the princess greatly admired
+diamonds, and, learning that a jeweler of Paris had a pair of ear-rings of
+a size and brilliancy so extraordinary that the price which he asked for
+them was 700,000 francs, she persuaded the Comte de Noailles to carry them
+to Marie Antoinette to show them, with a message from herself that if the
+dauphiness liked to keep them, she would induce the king to make her a
+present of them.[7] Whether Marie Antoinette admired them or not, she had
+far too proper a sense of dignity to allow herself to be entrapped into
+the acceptance of an obligation by one whom she so deservedly despised.
+She replied coldly that she had jewels enough, and did not desire to
+increase the number. But the overture thus made by Madame du Barri could
+not be kept secret, and more than one of her partisans followed the hint
+afforded by her example, and showed a desire to make their peace with
+their future queen. The Duc d'Aiguillon himself was among the foremost of
+her courtiers, and entreated the mediation of Mercy in his favor, making
+the ambassador his messenger to assure her that "he should impose it upon
+himself as a law to comply with her wishes in every thing;" and only
+desired that he might be allowed to know which of the requests that she
+might make were dictated by her own judgment, and which merely proceeded
+from her indulgent favor to the importunities of others. For Marie
+Antoinette had of late often broken through the rule which, in compliance
+with her mother's advice, she had at first laid down for herself, to
+abstain from recommending persons for preferment; and had pressed many a
+petition on the minister's notice as to which it was self-evident that she
+could know nothing of their merits, nor feel any personal interest in
+their success.
+
+In the spring of 1774 she had an opportunity of convincing her mother that
+any imputation of neglect of her countrymen when visiting the court was
+unfounded, by the marked honors which she paid to Marshal Lacy, one of the
+most honored veterans of the Seven Years' War. Knowing how highly he was
+esteemed by her mother, she took care to be informed beforehand of the day
+of his arrival. She gave orders that he should find invitations to her
+parties awaiting him. She made arrangements to give him a private audience
+even before he saw the king, where her reception of him showed how deep
+and ineffaceable was her love for her family and her old home, even while
+fairly recognizing the fact that her first duties and her first affections
+now belonged to France. The old warrior avowed that he had been greatly
+moved by the touching affection with which she spoke to him of her love
+and veneration for her mother; and by the tears which he saw in her eyes
+when she said that the one thing wanting to her happiness was the hope of
+being allowed one day to see that dear mother once more. She showed him
+some of the last presents which the empress had sent her, and dwelt with
+fond minuteness of observation on some views of Schoenbrunn and other spots
+in the neighborhood of Vienna which were endeared to her by her early
+recollections.
+
+The return of mild weather seemed to be bringing with it same return of
+strength to the king, when, on the 28th of April, he was suddenly seized
+with illness, which was presently pronounced by the physicians to be the
+small-pox. All was consternation at Versailles, for it was soon perceived
+to be a severe if not a malignant attack; and at the same time all was
+perplexity. Thirty years before, when Louis had been supposed to be on his
+deathbed at Metz, bishops, peers, and ministers had found in the loss of
+royal favor reason to repent the precipitation with which they had
+insisted on the withdrawal of Madame de Chateauroux; and now, should he
+again recover, it was likely that Madame du Barri would he equally
+resentful, and that the confessor who should make her removal a necessary
+condition of his administering the sacraments of the Church to the king,
+and the courtiers who should support or act upon their requisition, would
+surely find reason to repent it. Accordingly, for the first few days of
+Louis's illness, she remained at Versailles; but he grew visibly worse.
+His daughters, who, though they had not had the disease themselves, tended
+his sick-bed with the most devoted and fearless affection, consulted the
+physicians, who declared it dangerous to admit of any further delay in the
+ministration of the rites of the Church. He himself gave his sanction to
+the ladies' departure, and then the royal confessor administered the
+sacraments, and drew up a declaration to be published in the royal name,
+that, "though he owed no account of his conduct to any but God alone, he
+nevertheless declared that he repented having given rise to scandal among
+his subjects, and only desired to live for the support of religion and the
+welfare of his people."
+
+Even this avowal the Cardinal de Roche-Aymer promised Madame du Barri to
+suppress; but the royal confessor, the Abbe Mandoux, overruled him, and
+compelled its publication, in spite of the Duc de Richelieu, the chief
+confidant of the mistress, and long the chief minister and promoter of the
+king's debaucheries, who insulted the cardinal with the grossest abuse for
+his breach of promise.[8] It may be doubted whether such a compromise with
+profligacy, and such a profanation of the most solemn rites of the Church
+by its ministers, were not the greatest scandal of all; but it was in too
+complete harmony with their conduct throughout the whole of the reign.
+And, as it was impossible but that religion itself should suffer in the
+estimation of worldly men from such an open disregard of all but its mere
+outward forms, it can hardly be denied that the French cardinals and
+prelates about the court had almost as great a share in bringing about
+that general feeling of contempt for all religion which led to that formal
+disavowal of God himself which was witnessed twenty years later, as the
+scoffers who were now uniting against it, or the professed infidels who
+then, renounced it. Such as it was, the king's act of penitence was not
+performed too soon. At the end of the first week of May all prospect of
+his recovery vanished. Mortification set in, and on the 10th of May he
+died.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+The Court leaves Versailles for La Muette.--Feelings of the New
+Sovereigns.--Madame du Barri is sent to a Convent.--Marie Antoinette
+writes to Maria Teresa.--The Good Intentions of the New Sovereigns.--
+Madame Adelaide has the Small-pox.--Anxieties of Maria Teresa.--
+Mischievous Influence of the Aunts.--Position and Influence of the Count
+de Mercy.--Louis consults the Queen on Matters of Policy.--Her Prudence.--
+She begins to Purify the Court, and to relax the Rules of Etiquette.--Her
+Care of her Pages.--The King and the renounce the Gifts of Le Joyeux
+Avenement and La Ceinture de la Reine.---She procures the Pardon of the
+Due de Choiseul.
+
+
+Throughout the morning of the 10th of May there was great confusion and
+agitation at Versailles. The physicians declared that the king could not
+live out the day; and the dauphin had decided on removing his household to
+the smaller palace of La Muette at Choisy, to spend in that comparative
+retirement the first week or two after his grandfather's death, during
+which it would hardly be decorous for the royal family to be seen in
+public. But, as it was not thought seemly to appear to anticipate the
+event by quitting Versailles while Louis was still alive, a lighted candle
+was placed in the window of the sick-room, which, the moment that the king
+had expired, was to be extinguished, as a signal to the equerries to
+prepare the carriages. The dauphin and dauphiness were in an adjoining
+room awaiting the intelligence, when, at about three o'clock in the
+afternoon, a sudden trampling of feet was heard, and Madame de Noailles
+entered the apartment to entreat them to advance into the saloon to
+receive the homage of the princes and principal officers of the court, who
+were waiting to pay their respects to their new sovereigns. They came
+forward arm-in-arm; and in tears, in which sincere sorrow was mingled with
+not unnatural nervousness, received the salutations of the courtiers, and
+immediately afterward left Versailles with all the family.
+
+Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette had now reached the pinnacle of human
+greatness, as sovereigns of one of the noblest empires in the world. Yet
+the first feelings which their elevation had excited in both, and
+especially in the queen, were rather those of dismay and perplexity than
+of exultation. In the preceding autumn, Mercy[1] had remarked to the
+empress, with surprise and vexation, that, though the dauphiness exhibited
+singular readiness and acuteness in comprehending political questions, she
+was very unwilling, and, as it seemed to him, afraid of dealing with them,
+and that she shrunk from the thought that the day would come when she must
+possess power and authority. And the continuance of this feeling is
+visible in her first letter to her mother, some passages of which show a
+sobriety of mind under such a change of circumstances, which, almost as
+much as the benevolence which the letter also displays, augured well for
+the happiness of the people over whom she was to reign, so far at least as
+that happiness depended on the virtues of the sovereign.
+
+"Choisy, May 14th.
+
+"My Dearest Mother,--Mercy will have informed you of the circumstances of
+our misfortune. Happily his cruel disease left the king in possession of
+his senses till the last moment, and his end was very edifying. The new
+king seems to have the affection of his people. Two days before the death
+of his grandfather, he sent two hundred thousand[2] francs to the poor,
+which has produced a great effect. Since he has been here, he has been
+working unceasingly, answering with his own hand the letters of the
+ministers, whom as yet he can not see, and many others likewise. One thing
+is certain, and that is that he has a taste for economy, and the greatest
+desire possible to make his people happy. In every thing he has as great a
+desire to be rightly instructed as he has need to be. I trust that God
+will bless his good intentions.
+
+"The public expected great changes in a moment. The king has limited
+himself to sending away the creature[3] to a convent, and to driving from
+the court every thing which is connected with that scandal. The king even
+owed this example to the people of Versailles, who, at the very moment of
+his grandfather's death, insulted Madame do Mazarin,[4] one of the
+humblest servants of the favorite. I am earnestly entreated to exhort the
+king to mercy toward a number of corrupt souls who had done much mischief
+for many years; and I am strongly inclined to comply with the request.
+
+    *    *    *    *    *
+
+"A messenger has just arrived to forbid my going to see my Aunt Adelaide,
+who has a great deal of fever. They are afraid of the small-pox for her. I
+am horrified, and can not bring myself to think of the consequences. It is
+a terrible thing for her to pay so immediately for the sacrifice which she
+made.
+
+"I am very glad that Marshal Lacy was pleased with me. I confess, my dear
+mamma, that I was greatly affected when he took leave of me, at thinking
+how rarely it happens to me to see any of my countrymen, and especially of
+those who have the happiness to approach you. A little time back I saw
+Madame de Marmier, which was a great pleasure to me, since I know how
+highly you value her.
+
+"The king has allowed me myself to name the ladies who are to have places
+in my household, now that I am queen; and I have had the satisfaction of
+giving the Lorrainers[5] a proof of my regard, in taking for my chief
+almoner the Abbe de Sabran, a man of excellent character, of noble birth,
+and already named for the bishopric about to be established at Nancy.
+
+"Although it pleased God that I should be born in the rank which I this
+day occupy, still I can not forbear admiring the bounty of Providence in
+choosing me, the youngest of your daughters, for the noblest kingdom in
+Europe. I feel more than ever what I owe to the tenderness of my august
+mother, who expended such pains and labor in procuring for me this
+splendid establishment. I have never so greatly longed to throw myself at
+her feet, to embrace her, to lay open my whole soul to her, and to show
+her how entirely it is filled with respect and tenderness and gratitude."
+
+It is impossible to read these glowing words, so full of the joy and hope
+of youth, and breathing a confidence of happiness apparently so
+well-founded, since it was built on a resolution to use the power placed
+in the writer's hands for the welfare of the people over whom it was to
+be exerted, without reflecting how painful a contrast to the hopes now
+expressed is presented by the reality of the destiny in store for her
+and her husband. At the moment he was as little disturbed by forebodings
+of evil as his queen, and willingly yielded to her request to add a few
+lines with his own hand to the empress, that, on so momentous an
+occasion as his accession she might not be left to gather his feelings
+solely from her report of them. The postscript of the letter is
+accordingly their joint performance, he evidently desiring to gratify
+Maria Teresa by praise of her daughter; and she, while pleased at his
+acquiescence, not concealing her amusement at the clumsiness, or, to say
+the least, the rusticity, of some of his expressions.
+
+P.S. in the king's hand: "I am very glad, my dear mamma, to find an
+occasion to prove to you my tenderness and my attachment. I should be very
+glad to have your advice at this time, which is so embarrassing. I should
+be enchanted to be able to please you, and to show by my conduct all my
+attachment and the gratitude which I feel for your kindness in giving me
+your daughter, with whom I am as well satisfied as possible."
+
+P.S. by the queen: "The king would not let my letter go without adding a
+word from himself. I am quite aware that it would not have been too much
+for him to do to write an entire letter. But I must beg my dear mamma to
+excuse him, in consideration of the mass of business with which he is
+occupied, and also a little on account of his timidity and the embarrassed
+manner which is natural to him. You see, my dear mamma, by his compliment
+at the end, that, though he has great affection for me, he does not spoil
+me by insipid flatteries."
+
+It is almost equally remarkable that the empress herself, though thus to
+see her favorite daughter on the throne of France had been her most ardent
+wish, was far from regarding the consummation of her desires with
+unalloyed pleasure. She was so completely a politician above all things,
+that, though she was well aware that Louis XV. had been one of the most
+infamous kings that ever dishonored a throne, she looked upon him solely
+as an ally; described him to her daughter as "that good and tender
+prince;" declared that she should never cease to regret him, and that she
+would wear mourning for him all the rest of her life. At the same time,
+she did not conceal from herself that he had left his kingdom in a most
+deplorable condition. She had, as she declared, herself experienced how
+heavy is the burden of an empire; she reflected how young her daughter
+was; and expressed a sad fear that "her days of happiness were over." "She
+was now in a position in which there was no half-way between complete
+greatness and great misery.[6]" The best hopes for her future the empress
+saw in the character for purity and kindness which Marie Antoinette had
+already established and in the esteem and affection of the people which
+those qualities had won for her; and she entreated her, taking it for
+granted that in advising her she was advising the king also, to be prudent
+and cautious, to avoid making any sudden changes, and above all things to
+maintain the alliance between the two countries, and to listen to the
+experienced and faithful advice of her embassador.
+
+Maria Teresa was mistaken when she thought that her daughter would at all
+times be able to lead her husband. Though slow in action, Louis was not
+deficient in perception. On many subjects he had views of his own, which,
+in some cases, were clear and sound enough, and to which, even when they
+were not so, he adhered with considerable tenacity. At the same time,
+though he had but little affection for his aunts, and still less respect
+for their judgment, he had been so long accustomed to listen to their
+advice while he had no authority, that he could not as yet wholly shake
+off all feeling of deference for it, and their influence was exerted with
+most mischievous effect in the first week of his reign. Indeed, it had
+been exhibited even before the reign began, though the form which it took
+greatly interfered with the personal comfort of the young sovereigns. It
+had been settled that the king and queen should go by themselves to La
+Muette, and that the rest of the royal family should remove to the
+Trianon. But Madame Adelaide had no inclination for a plan which would
+separate her from her nephew at a moment when so many matters of
+importance would come before her for decision. At the last moment she
+prevailed upon him to consent that the whole family should go to Choisy
+together; and the very next day she induced him to dismiss his ministers,
+and to place the Comte de Maurepas at the head of the Government, though
+Louis himself had selected another-statesman for the office, M. Machault,
+who, as finance minister twenty-five years before, had shown both ability
+and integrity, and who had enjoyed the confidence of the king's father,
+and though Maurepas had never been supposed to be either able or honest,
+and might well have been regarded as superannuated, since he had begun his
+official life under Louis XIV.
+
+With the change in the position of Marie Antoinette, Mercy's position had
+also been changed, and likewise his view of the line of conduct which it
+was desirable for her to adopt. Hitherto he had been the counselor of a
+princess who, without wary walking, was liable every moment to be
+overwhelmed by the intrigues with which she was surrounded; and his chief
+object had been to enable his royal pupil to escape the snares and dangers
+which encompassed her. Now, as far as his duties could be determined by
+the wish of the empress, in which her daughter fully acquiesced, he was
+elevated to the post of confidential adviser to a great queen, who, in his
+opinion, was inevitably destined to be the real ruler of the kingdom. It
+was a strange position for so experienced a politician as the empress to
+desire for him, and for so prudent a statesman to accept. Yet, anomalous
+as it was, and dangerous as it would usually be for a foreign embassador
+to interfere in the internal politics of the kingdom to which he is sent,
+his correspondence bears ample testimony to both his sagacity and his
+disinterestedness. And it would have been well for both his royal pupil
+and her adopted country had his advice more frequently and more steadily
+guided the course of both.
+
+On one point of primary importance his advice to the queen differed from
+that which he had been wont to give to the dauphiness. While dauphiness,
+he had urged her to abstain from any interference in public affairs. He
+now, on the contrary, desired to see her take an active part in them,
+explaining to the empress that the reason which actuated him was the
+character of the new king, who, as he regarded him, was never likely to
+exert the authority which belonged to him with independence or steadiness,
+but was certain to be led by some one or other, while it would in the
+highest degree endanger the maintenance of the alliance between France and
+Austria (which, coinciding with the judgment of his imperial mistress, he
+regarded as the most important of all political objects), and be most
+injurious to the welfare of France and to her own personal comfort, if
+that leader should be any one but the queen.[7]
+
+But, as we have seen, he could not prevent Louis from yielding at times to
+other influences. Taking the same view of the situation as the empress, if
+indeed Maria Teresa had not adopted it from him, he had urged Marie
+Antoinette to prevent any change in the ministry being made at first, in
+which it is highly probable that she did not coincide with him, though
+equally likely that Maurepas was not the minister whom she would have
+preferred. Another piece of advice which he gave was, however, taken, and
+with the happiest effect The poorer classes in Paris and its neighborhood
+were suffering from a scarcity which almost amounted to a famine; and,
+before the death of Louis XV., Mercy had recommended that the first
+measure of the new reign should be one which should lower the price of
+bread. That counsel was too entirely in harmony with the active
+benevolence of the new monarch to be neglected. The necessary edicts were
+issued. In twenty-four hours the price of the loaf was reduced by
+two-fifths, and Mercy had the satisfaction of hearing the relief
+generally attributed to the influence of the new queen.
+
+It can not he supposed that the king knew either the opinion which the
+empress and the embassador had formed of his capacity and disposition, or
+the advice which they had consequently given to the queen. But he very
+early began to show that he himself also appreciated his wife's quickness
+of intelligence and correctness of judgment. Maria Teresa, in pressing on
+her daughter her opinion of the general character of the policy which the
+interest of France required, explained her view of her daughter's position
+to be that she was "the friend and confidante of the king.[8]" And June
+had hardly arrived before he began to discuss all his plans and
+difficulties with her; while she spared his pride and won his further
+confidence by avoiding all appearances of pressing for it, as if her
+advice were necessary to him, but at the same time showing with what
+satisfaction she received it. To those who solicited her intervention, her
+language was most carefully guarded. "She did not," she said, "interfere
+in any affair of state; she only coincided in all the wishes and
+intentions of the king."
+
+There were, however, matters which were strictly and exclusively within
+her own province; and in them she at once began to exert her authority
+most beneficially. Her first desire was to purify the court where
+licentiousness in either sex had long been the surest road to royal favor.
+She began by making a regulation, that she would receive no lady who was
+separated from her husband; and she abolished a senseless and inexplicable
+rule of etiquette which had hitherto prohibited the queen and princesses
+from dining or supping in company with their husbands.[9] Such an
+exclusion from the king's table of those who were its most natural and
+becoming ornaments had notoriously facilitated and augmented the disorders
+of the last reign; and it was obvious that its maintenance must at least
+have a tendency to lead to a repetition of the old irregularities.
+Fortunately, the king was as little inclined to approve of it as the
+queen. All his tastes were domestic, and he gladly assented to her
+proposal to abolish the custom. Throughout the reign, at all ordinary
+meals, at his suppers when he came in late from hunting, when he had
+perhaps invited some of his fellow-sportsmen to share his repast, and at
+State banquets, Marie Antoinette took her seat at his side, not only
+adding grace and liveliness to the entertainment, but effectually
+preventing license, and even the suspicion of scandal; and, as she desired
+that her household as well as her family should set an example of
+regularity and propriety to the nation, she exercised a careful
+superintendence over the behavior of those who had hitherto been among the
+least-considered members of the royal establishment. Even the king's
+confessor had thought the morals of the royal pages either beneath his
+notice or beyond his control; but Marie Antoinette took a higher view of
+her duties. She considered her pages[10] as placed under her charge, and
+herself as bound to extend what one of themselves calls a maternal care
+and kindness to them, restraining as far as she could, and when she could
+not restrain, reproving their boyish excesses, softening their hearts and
+winning their affections by the gentle dignity of her admonitions, and by
+the condescending and hopeful indulgence with which she accepted their
+expressions of contrition and their promises of amendment. In one matter,
+too, which, if not exactly political, was at all events of public
+interest, she acted in a manner of which none of her predecessors had set
+an example. By a custom of immemorial antiquity, at the accession of a new
+sovereign, a tax had been levied on the whole kingdom as an offering to
+the king, known as "the gift of the happy accession;[11]" when there was a
+queen, a similar tax was imposed upon the Parisians, to provide what was
+called "the girdle of the queen.[12]" It has already been mentioned that
+the distress which existed in Paris at this time was so severe that, just
+before the death of the late king, Louis and Marie Antoinette had relieved
+it by a munificent gift from their private purse; and to lay additional
+burdens on the people at such a time was not only repugnant to their
+feelings, but seemed especially inconsistent with their recent generosity.
+Accordingly, the very first edict of the new reign announced that neither
+tax would be imposed. The people felt the kindness which dictated such a
+relief more than even the relief itself, and repaid it with expressions of
+gratitude such as no French sovereign had heard for above a century; but
+Marie Antoinette, with the humility natural to her on such subjects, made
+light of her own share in the act of benevolence, turning off the
+compliments which were paid to her with a playful jest, that it was
+impossible for a queen to affix a purse to her girdle, now that girdles
+had gone out of fashion.[13]
+
+On another subject, also, not wholly unconnected with politics, Since the
+nobleman concerned had once been the chief minister, but in which Marie
+Antoinette's interest was personal, she broke through her usual rule of
+not beginning the discussion with the king, and requested the recall from
+banishment of the Due de Choiseul. An unfounded prejudice based upon
+calumnies set on foot by the cabal of Madame du Barri, had envenomed
+Louis's mind against the duke. He bad been led to suspect that his own
+father, the late dauphin, had been poisoned, and that Choiseul had been
+accessory to the crime. There was nothing more certain than that the
+dauphin's death had been natural; but a dislike of the accused duke
+lingered in the king's mind, and he eluded compliance with his wife's
+request till she put it on entirely personal grounds, by declaring it to
+be humiliating to herself that one to whom she was under the deepest
+obligations as the negotiator of her own happy marriage should be under
+the king's displeasure without her being able to procure his pardon. Louis
+felt the force of the appeal thus made to him. "If she used that argument,
+he could deny her nothing," and the duke's sentence was remitted, though
+his royal patroness was unable to procure his re-admission to office. Nor
+did Maria Teresa regret that she failed in that object; since she feared
+his restless character, and felt the alliance between the two countries
+safer in the hands of the new foreign secretary, the Count de Vergennes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+The Comte de Provence intrigues against the Queen.--The King gives her the
+Little Trianon,--She lays out an English Garden.--Maria Teresa cautions
+her against Expense.--The King and Queen abolish some of the Old Forms.--
+The Queen endeavors to establish Friendships with some of her Younger
+Ladies.--They abuse her Favor.--Her Eagerness for Amusement.--Louis enters
+into her Views.--Etiquette is abridged.--Private Parties at Choisy.--
+Supper Parties.--Opposition of the Princesses.--Some of the Courtiers are
+dissatisfied at the Relaxation of Etiquette.--Marie Antoinette is accused
+of Austrian Preferences.
+
+
+Her accession to the throne, however, had not entirely delivered Marie
+Antoinette from intrigues. It had only changed their direction and object,
+and also the persona of the intriguers. Her chief enemy now was the prince
+who ought to have been her best friend, the next brother of her husband,
+the Comte de Provence. Among the papers of Louis XV. the king had found
+proofs, in letters from both count and countess, that they had both been
+actively employed in trying to make mischief, and to poison the mind of
+their grandfather against the dauphiness. They became still more busy now,
+since each day seemed to diminish the probability of Marie Antoinette
+becoming a mother; while, if she should leave no children, the Comte de
+Provence would be heir to the throne. He scarcely made any secret that he
+was already contemplating the probability of his succession; and, as there
+were not wanting courtiers to speculate also on the chance, it soon became
+known that there was no such sure road to the favor of monsieur[1] as that
+of disparaging and vilifying the queen. There might have been some safety
+for her in being put on her guard against her enemy; and the king himself,
+who called his brother Tartuffe, did, in consequence of his discovery, use
+great caution and circumspection in his behavior toward him; but Marie
+Antoinette was of a temper as singularly forgiving as it was open: she
+could not bear to regard with suspicion even those of whose unfriendliness
+and treachery she had had proofs; and after a few days she resumed her old
+familiarity with the pair, as if she had no reason to distrust them,
+slighting on this subject the remonstrances of Mercy, who pointed out to
+her in vain that she was putting weapons into their hands which they would
+be sure to turn against herself.
+
+At this moment she was especially happy with a new pastime. Amidst the
+stately halls of Versailles she had often longed for a villa on a smaller
+scale, which she might call her own; and the wish was now gratified. On
+one side of the park of Versailles, and about a mile from the palace, the
+late king had built an exquisite little pavilion for his mistress, which
+was known as the Little Trianon. There had been a building of one kind or
+another on the same spot for above a century. Louis XIV. had erected there
+a cottage of porcelain for his imperious favorite, Madame de Montespan;
+and it was the more sumptuous palace with which, after her death, he
+replaced it, that gave rise to the strange quarrel between the haughty
+monarch and his equally haughty minister, Louvois, of which St. Simon has
+left us so curious an account.[2] This had been allowed to fall into a
+state of decay; and a few years before his death, Louis XV. had pulled
+down what remained of it, and had built a third on its foundations, which
+had been the most favorite abode of Madame du Barri during his life, but
+which was now rendered vacant by her dismissal. The house was decorated
+with an exquisite delicacy of taste, in which Louis XV. had far surpassed
+his predecessor; but the chief charm of the place was generally accounted
+to be the garden, which had been laid out by Le Notre, an artist, whose
+original genius as a landscape gardener was regarded by many of his
+contemporaries as greatly superior to his more technical skill as an
+architect.[3]
+
+A few hundred yards off was another palace, the Great Trianon; but it was
+the Little Trianon which caught the queen's fancy; and, on her expression
+of a wish to have it for her own, the king at once made it over to her;
+and, pleased with her new toy, Marie Antoinette, still a girl in her
+impulsive eagerness for a fresh pleasure (she was not yet nineteen), began
+to busy herself with remodeling the pleasure-grounds with which it was
+surrounded. Before the time of Le Notre, the finest gardens in the country
+had been laid out on what was called the Italian plan. He was too good a
+patriot to copy the foreigners: he drove out the Italians, and introduced
+a new arrangement, known as the French style, which was, in fact, but an
+imitation of the stiff, formal Dutch mode. But of late the English
+gardeners had established that supremacy in the art which they have ever
+since maintained; and the present aim of every fashionable horticulturist
+in France was to copy the effects produced on the banks of the Thames by
+Wise and Browne.
+
+Marie Antoinette fell in with the prevailing taste. She imported English
+drawings and hired English, gardeners. She visited in person the Count de
+Caraman, and one or two other nobles, who had already done something by
+their example to inoculate the Parisians with the new fashion. And
+presently lawns and shrubberies, widening invariably simple flower-beds,
+supplanted the stately uniformity of terraces, alleys converging on
+central fountains, or on alcoves as solid and stiff as the palace itself,
+and trees cut into all kinds of fantastic shapes, which had previously
+been regarded as the masterpieces of the gardeners' invention. Her
+happiness was at its height when, at the end of a few months, all was
+completed to her liking, and she could invite her husband to an
+entertainment in a retreat which was wholly her own, and the chief
+beauties of which were her own work.
+
+As yet, therefore, all was happiness, and prospect of happiness. Even
+Maria Teresa, whose unceasing anxiety for her daughter often induced her
+to see the worst side of things, was rendered for a moment almost playful
+by the reports which reached Vienna of the universal popularity of "Louis
+XVI. and his little queen!" "She blushed," she said, "to think that in
+thirty-three years of her reign she had not done as much as Louis had done
+in thirty-three days.[4]" But she still warned her daughter that every
+thing depended on keeping up the happy impression already made; that much
+still remained to be done. And the queen's answer showed that her new
+authority had brought with it some cares. "It is true," she writes, "that
+the praises of the king resound everywhere. He deserves it well by the
+uprightness of his heart, and the desire which he has to act rightly; but
+this French enthusiasm disquiets me for the future. The little that I
+understand of business shows me that some matters are full of difficulty
+and embarrassment. All agree that the late king has left his affairs in a
+very bad state. Men's minds are divided; and it will be impossible to
+please all the world in a country where the vivacity of the people wants
+every thing to be done in a moment. My dear mamma is quite right when she
+says we must lay down principles, and not depart from them. The king will
+not have the same weakness as his grandfather. I hope that he will have no
+favorites; but I am afraid that he is too mild and too easy. You may
+depend upon it that I will not draw the king into any great expenses."
+(The empress had expressed a fear lest the Trianon might prove a cause of
+extravagance.) "On the contrary, I, of my own accord, have refused to make
+demands on him for money which some have recommended me to make."
+
+Some relaxations, too, of the formality which had previously been
+maintained between the sovereign and the subordinate members of the royal
+family, and especially an order of the king that his brothers and sisters
+were not in private intercourse to address him as his majesty, had grated
+on the empress's sense of the distance always to be preserved between a
+monarch and the very highest of his subjects. And she had complained that
+reports had reached her that "there was no distinction between the queen
+and the other princesses; and that the familiarity subsisting in the court
+was extreme." But Marie Antoinette replied, in defense of the king and
+herself, that there was "great exaggeration in these reports, as indeed
+there was about every thing that went on at the court; that the
+familiarity spoken of was seen but by very few. It is not for me," she
+said, "to judge; but it seems to me that what exists among us is only the
+air of kindly affection and gayety which is suitable to our age. It is
+true that the Count d'Artois" (who had been the special subject of some of
+the empress's unfavorable comments) "is very lively and very giddy, but I
+can always keep him in order. As for my aunts, no one can any longer say
+that they lead me; and as for monsieur and madame, I am very far from
+placing entire confidence in them.
+
+"I must confess that I am fond of amusement, and am not very greatly
+inclined to grave subjects. I hope, however, to improve by degrees; and,
+without ever mixing myself up in intrigues, to qualify myself gradually to
+be of service to the king when he makes me his confidante, since he treats
+me at all times with the most perfect affection."
+
+Her reflections on the impulsiveness and impatience of the French
+character, and of the difficulties which those qualities placed in the
+path of their rulers, justify the praises which Mercy had lavished on her
+sagacity, for it is evident that to them the chief troubles of her later
+years may be clearly traced. And it is difficult to avoid agreeing with
+her rather than with her mother, and thinking the most entire freedom of
+intercourse between the king and his nearest relations as desirable as it
+was natural. Royalty is, as the empress herself described it, a burden
+sufficiently heavy, without its weight being augmented by observances and
+restrictions which would leave the rulers without a single friend even
+among the members of their own family. And probably the empress herself
+might have seen less reason for her admonitions on the subject, had it not
+been for the circumstance, which was no doubt unfortunate, that the royal
+family at this time contained no member of a graver age and a settled
+respectability of character who might, by his example, have tempered the
+exuberance natural to the extreme youth of the sovereigns and their
+brothers.
+
+Not that Marie Antoinette was content to limit the number of those whom
+she admitted to familiarity to her husband's kinsmen and kinswomen. Still
+fretting in secret over the want of any object on whom to lavish a
+mother's tenderness, she sought for friendship as a substitute, shutting
+her eyes to the fact that persons in her rank, as having no equals, can
+have no friends, in the true sense of the word. Nor, had such a thing been
+possible anywhere, was France the country in which to find it. There
+disinterestedness and integrity had long been banished from her own sex
+almost as completely as from the other; and most of those whom she took
+into favor made it their first object to render that favor profitable to
+themselves. If she professed in their society to forget for a few hours
+that she was queen, they never forgot it; they never lost sight of the
+fact that she could confer places and pensions, and they often discarded
+moderation and decency in the extravagance of their solicitations; while
+she frequently, with an overamiable facility, surrendering her own
+judgment to their importunities, not only granted their requests, but at
+times even adopted their prejudices, and yielded herself as an instrument
+to gratify their antipathies or resentments.
+
+And the same feeling of vacancy in her heart, of which she was ever
+painfully conscious, produced in her also a constant restlessness, and a
+craving for excitement which exhibited itself in an insatiable appetite
+for amusement (as she confessed to her mother), and led her to seek
+distraction even in pastimes for which naturally she had but little
+inclination. In these respects it can not be said that, during the first
+year of her reign, she was as uniformly prudent as she had been while
+dauphiness. The restraint in which she had lived for those four years had
+not been unwholesome for one so young; but it had no doubt been irksome to
+her. And the feeling of complete liberty and independence which had
+succeeded it had, by a sort of natural reaction, sharpened the energy with
+which she now pursued her various diversions. It is possible, too, that
+the zest with which she indulged herself may have derived additional
+keenness from the knowledge that her ill-wishers found in it pretext for
+misconstruction and calumny; and that, being conscious of entire purity in
+thought, word, and deed, she looked on it as due to her own character to
+show that she set all such detraction and detractors at defiance. To all
+cavilers, as also to her mother, whose uneasiness was frequently aroused
+by gossip which reached Vienna from Paris, her invariable reply was that
+her way of life had the king her husband's entire approbation. And while
+he felt a conjugal satisfaction in the contemplation of his queen's
+attractions and graces, the qualities in which, as he was well aware, he
+himself was most deficient, Louis might well also cherish the most
+absolute reliance on her unswerving rectitude, knowing the pride with
+which she was wont to refer to her mother's example, and to boast that the
+lesson which, above all others, she had learned from it was that to
+princes of her birth and rank wickedness and baseness were unpardonable.
+
+Indeed, many of the amusements Louis not only approved, but shared with
+her, while she associated herself with those in which he delighted, as far
+as she could, joining his hunting parties twice a week, either on
+horseback or in her carriage, and at all times exhibiting a pattern of
+domestic union of which the whole previous history of the nation afforded
+no similar example. The citizens of Paris could hardly believe their eyes
+when they saw their king and queen walk arm-in-arm along the boulevards;
+and the courtiers received a lesson, if they had been disposed to profit
+by it, when on each Sunday morning they saw the royal pair repair to the
+parish church for divine service, the day being closed by their public
+supper in the queen's apartment.
+
+And this appearance of domestic felicity was augmented by the introduction
+of what may be called private parties, with which, at the queen's
+instigation, Louis consented to vary the cold formality of the ordinary
+entertainments of the court. In the autumn they followed the example of
+Louis XV. by exchanging for a few weeks the grandeur of Versailles for the
+comparative quiet of some of their smaller palaces; and, while they were
+at Choisy, they issued invitations once or twice a week to several of the
+Parisian ladies to come out and spend the day at the palace, when, as the
+principal officers of the household were not on duty, they themselves did
+the honors to their guests, the queen conversing with every one with her
+habitual graciousness, while the king also threw off his ordinary reserve,
+and seemed to enter into the pleasures of the day with a gayety and
+cordiality which surprised the party, and which, from the contrast that it
+presented to his manner when he was by himself, was very generally
+attributed to the influence of the queen's example.
+
+And these quiet festivities were so much to his taste that afterward, when
+the court moved to Fontainebleau, and when they settled at Versailles for
+the winter, he cheerfully agreed to a proposal of Marie Antoinette to have
+a weekly supper party; adopting also another suggestion of hers which was
+indispensable to render such reunions agreeable, or even, it may be said,
+practicable. At her request he abolished the ridiculous rule which, under
+the last two kings, had forbidden gentlemen to be admitted to sit at table
+with any princess of the royal family. But natural as the idea seemed, it
+was not carried out without opposition on the part of Madame Adelaide and
+her sisters, who remonstrated against it as an infraction of all the old
+observances of the court, till it became a contest for superiority between
+the queen and themselves. Marie Antoinette took counsel with Mercy, and,
+by his advice, pointed out to her husband that to abandon the plan after
+it had been announced, in submission to an opposition which the princesses
+had no right to make, would be to humiliate her in the eyes of the whole
+court. Louis had not yet shaken off all fear of his aunts; but they were
+luckily absent, so he yielded to the influence which was nearest. The
+suppers took place. He and the queen themselves made out the lists of the
+guests to be invited, the men being named by him, and the ladies being
+selected by the queen. They were a great success; and, as the history of
+the affair became known, the court and the Parisians generally rejoiced in
+the queen's triumph, and were grateful to her for this as for every other
+innovation which had a tendency to break down the haughty barrier which,
+during the last two reigns, had been established between the sovereign and
+his subjects. Nor were these pleasant informal parties the only instances
+in which, great inroads were made on the old etiquette. The Comte de
+Mirabeau, a man fatally connected in subsequent years with some of the
+most terrible of the insults which were offered to the royal family, about
+this time described etiquette as a system invented for the express purpose
+of blunting the capacity of the French princes, and fixing them in
+position of complete dependence. And Marie Antoinette seems to have
+regarded it with similar eyes; her dislike of it being quickened by the
+expectations which its partisans and champions entertained that her every
+movement was to be regulated by it. And its requirements were sufficiently
+burdensome to tax a far better-trained patience that was natural to one
+who though a queen, was not yet nineteen. Not only was no guest of the
+male sex, except the king, allowed to sit at table with her, but no
+man-servant, no male officer of her household, might be present when the
+king and she dined together, as indeed usually happened; even his
+presence could not sanction the introduction of any other man. The lady
+of honor, on her knees, though in full dress, presented him the napkin
+to wipe his fingers and filled his glass; ladies in waiting in the same
+grand attire changed the plates of the royal pair; and after dinner, as
+indeed throughout the day, the queen could not quit one room in the
+palace for another, unless some of her ladies were at hand in complete
+court dress to attend upon her.[5] These usages, which were in reality
+so many chains to restrain all freedom, and to render comfort
+impossible, were abolished in the first few months of the new reign;
+but, little as was the foundation which they had in common sense, and
+equally little as was the addition which they made to the royal dignity,
+it is certain that many of the courtiers, besides Madame de Noailles,
+were greatly disconcerted at their extinction. They regarded the queen's
+orders on the subject as a proof of a settled preference for Austrian
+over French fashions. They began to speak of her as "the Austrian," a
+name which, though Madame Adelaide had more than once chosen it to
+describe her during the first year of her marriage, had since that time
+been almost forgotten, but which was now revived, and was continually
+reproduced by a certain party to cast odium on many of her most simple
+tastes and most innocent actions. Her enemies oven affirmed that in
+private she was wont to call the Trianon her "little Vienna,[6]" as if
+the garden, which she was laying out with a taste that long made it the
+admiration of all the visitors to Versailles, were dear to her, not as
+affording a healthful and becoming occupation, nor for the sale of the
+giver, but only because it recalled to her memory the gardens of
+Schoenbrunn, to which, as their malice suggested, she never ceased to
+look back with unpatriotic regret.
+
+In one point of view they were unquestionably correct. The queen did
+undoubtedly desire to establish in the French court the customs and the
+feelings which, during her childhood, had prevailed at Vienna; but they
+were wholly wrong in thinking them Austrian usages. They were Lorrainese
+in their origin; they had been imported to Vienna for the first time by
+her own father, the Emperor Francis; when she referred to them, it was as
+"the patriarchal manners of the House of Lorraine[7]" that she spoke of
+them; and her preference for them was founded on the conviction that it
+was to them that her mother and her mother's family were indebted for the
+love and reverence of the people which all the trials and distresses of
+the struggle against Frederic had never been able to impair.
+
+Nor was it only the old stiffness and formality, which had been compatible
+with the grossest license, that was now discountenanced. A wholly new
+spirit was introduced to animate the conversation with which those royal
+entertainments were enlivened. Under Louis XV., and indeed before his
+reign, intrigue and faction had been the real rulers of the court,
+spiteful detraction and scandal had been its sole language. But, to the
+dispositions, as benevolent as they were pure, of the young queen and her
+husband, malice and calumny were almost as hateful as profligacy itself.
+She held, with the great English dramatist, her contemporary, that true
+wit was nearly allied to good-nature;[8] and she showed herself more
+decided in nothing than in discouraging and checking every tendency to
+disparagement of the absent, and diffusing a tone of friendly kindness
+over society. On one occasion, when she heard some of her ladies laughing
+over a spiteful story, she reproved them plainly for their mirth as "bad
+taste." On another she asked some who were thus amusing themselves, "How
+they would like any one to speak thus of themselves in their absence, and
+before her?" and her precept, fortified by example (for no unkind comment
+on any one was ever heard to pass her lips), so effectually extinguished
+the habit of detraction that in a very short time it was remarked that no
+courtier ventured on an ill-natured word in her presence, and that even
+the Comte de Provence, who especially aimed at the reputation of a sayer
+of good things, and affected a character for cynical sharpness, learned at
+last to restrain his sarcastic tongue, and at least to pretend a
+disposition to look at people's characters and actions with as much
+indulgence as herself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+Settlement of the Queen's Allowance.--Character and Views of Turgot.--She
+induces Gluck to visit Paris.--Performance of his Opera of "Iphigenie
+en Aulide."--The First Encore.--Marie Antoinette advocates the
+Re-establishment of the Parliaments, and receives an Address from them.--
+English Visitors at the Court.--The King is compared to Louis XII. and
+Henri IV.--The Archduke Maximilian visits his Sister.--Factious Conduct of
+the Princes of the Blood.--Anti-Austrian Feeling in Paris.--The War of
+Grains.--The King is crowned at Rheims.--Feelings of Marie Antoinette.--
+Her Improvements at the Trianon.--Her Garden Parties there.--Description
+of her Beauty by Burke, and by Horace Walpole.
+
+
+Maria Teresa had warned her daughter against extravagance, a warning which
+would have been regarded as wholly misplaced by any other of the French
+princes, who were accustomed to treat the national treasury as a fund
+intended to supply the means for their utmost profusion, but which
+certainly coincided with the views of Marie Antoinette herself, who, as we
+have seen, vindicated herself from the charge of prodigality, and declared
+that she took great care that her improvements at the Trianon should not
+be beyond her means. Yet it would not have been surprising if they had
+been found to be so, since, even after she became queen, her income
+continued to be far too narrow for her rank. The nominal allowance of all
+former kings and queens had been fixed at an unreasonably low rate, from
+the pernicious custom of drawing on the treasury for all deficiencies; but
+this mode of proceeding was inconsistent with the notions of propriety
+entertained by the new sovereigns, and with those of the new finance
+minister.
+
+Maurepas himself had never been distinguished for ability, but he was
+sufficiently clear-sighted to be aware that the principal difficulties of
+the State arose from the disorder into which the profligacy and
+prodigality of the late reign, ever since the death of the wise Fleury,
+had thrown its finances; and he had made a most happy choice for the
+office of comptroller-general of finance, appointing to it a man named
+Turgot, who, as Intendant of the Limousin, had brought that province into
+a condition of prosperity which had made it a model for the rest of the
+kingdom. In his new and more enlarged sphere of action, Turgot's abilities
+expanded; or, perhaps it should rather be said, had a fairer field for
+their display. He showed himself equally capable in every department of
+his duties; as a financial reformer, as an administrator, and as a
+legislator. No minister in the history of the nation had ever so united
+large-minded genius with disinterested integrity. He had not accepted
+office without a full perception of its difficulties. He saw all that had
+to be done, and applied himself to putting the finances of the nation on a
+healthy footing, as an indispensable preface to other reforms equally
+necessary. He easily secured the co-operation of the king and queen, Louis
+cheerfully adopting the retrenchments which he recommended, though some of
+them, such as the reduction in the hunting establishment, touched his
+personal tastes. But at the same time, as there was no illiberality in his
+economy, or, rather, as he saw that real economy could only be practiced
+if the sovereigns had a fixed income really adequate to the call upon it,
+he placed their allowances on a more satisfactory footing than had ever
+been fixed for them before, the queen's privy purse being settled at a sum
+which Mercy agreed with him would prove sufficient for all her expenses,
+though it was but 200,000 francs a year.
+
+And so it was generally found to be; for, with the exception of an
+occasional fancy for some splendid jewel, Marie Antoinette had no
+expensive tastes. Her economy was even far greater than her attendants
+approved, extending to details which they would have wished her to regard
+as beneath the dignity of a sovereign;[1] and so judiciously did she
+manage her resources that she was able to defray out of her privy purse
+the pensions which she occasionally conferred on men eminent in arts or
+literature, whom she rightly judged it a royal duty to encourage.
+
+One of her first acts of liberality of this kind was exercised in favor of
+a countryman of her own, the celebrated Gluck. Music was one of her most
+favorite accomplishments. She still devoted a portion of almost every day
+in taking lessons on the harp; but the French music was not to her taste;
+while, since the death of Handel, Gluck's superiority to all his other
+musical contemporaries had been generally acknowledged in all countries.
+She now, by the gift of a pension of 6000 francs, induced him to visit
+Paris. It was at the French opera that many of his most celebrated works
+were first given to the world; and an incident which took place at the
+performance of one of them showed that, if the frequenters of Versailles
+were dissatisfied at the inroads lately made on the old etiquette, the
+queen had a compensation in the warm attachment with which she had
+inspired the Parisians. Instead of conveying the performers to Versailles,
+as had been the extravagant practice of the late reign, Louis and Marie
+Antoinette went into Paris when they desired to visit the theatre. The
+citizens, delighted at the contrast which their frequent visits to the
+capital afforded to the marked dislike of it shown by the late king,
+crowded the theatre on every night on which they were expected; and on one
+of these occasions Gluck's "Iphigenie" was the opera selected for
+performance. It contains a chorus in which, according to the design of the
+dramatist, Achilles was directed to turn to his followers with the words
+
+  "Chantez, celebrez votre reine."
+
+But the French opera-singers were a courtly race. The French opera had
+been established a century before as a Royal Academy of Music by Louis
+XIV., who had issued letters patent which declared the profession of an
+opera-singer one that might be followed even by a nobleman; and it seemed,
+therefore, quite consistent with the rank thus conferred on them that they
+should take the lead in paying loyal compliments to their princes.
+Accordingly, when the performer who represented the invincible son of
+Thetis, the popular tenor singer, Le Gros, came to the chorus in question,
+he was found to have prepared a slight change in his part. He did not
+address himself to the myrmidons behind him, but he came forward, and,
+with a bow to the boxes and pit, substituted the following,
+
+  "Chantons, celebrons notre reine,
+  L'hymen, que sous ses lois l'enchaine,
+  Va nous rendre a jamais heureux."
+
+The audience was taken by surprise, but it was a surprise of delight. The
+whole house rose to its feet, cheering and clapping their hands. For the
+first time in theatrical history, the repetition of a song was demanded.
+The now familiar term of "Encore!" was heard and obeyed. The queen herself
+was affected to tears by the enthusiastic affection displayed toward her,
+nor at such a moment did she suffer her feeling of the evanescent
+character of popularity among so light-minded a people to dwell in her
+mind, or to mar the pleasure which such a reception was well calculated to
+impart.
+
+Popularity at this moment seemed doubly valuable to her, because she was
+not ignorant that the feeling of disappointment at the unproductiveness of
+her marriage had recently been increased by the knowledge that the young
+Countess d'Artois was about to become a mother. And the attachment which
+she inspired was not confined to the play-goers; it was shared by a body
+so little inclined to exhibitions of impulsive loyalty as the Parliament.
+It has been seen that Louis XV. had abolished that body; but one of the
+first proposals made by Maurepas to the new king had had its
+re-establishment for its object. The question had been discussed in the
+king's council, and also in the royal family, with great eagerness. The
+ablest of the ministers protested against the restoration of an assembly
+which had invariably shown itself turbulent and usurping, and the king
+himself was generally understood to share their views. But Marie
+Antoinette, led by the advice of Choiseul, was eager in her support of
+Maurepas, and it was believed that her influence decided Louis. If it was
+so, it was an exertion of her power that she had ample cause to repent at
+a subsequent period; but at the time she thought of nothing but showing
+her sense of the general superiority of Choiseul, and so requiting some of
+the obligations under which she considered that she lay to him for
+arranging her marriage; and she received a deputation from the
+re-established Parliament with marked pleasure, and replied to their
+address with a graciousness which seemed intended to show that she
+sincerely rejoiced at the event which had given cause for it.
+
+It was not till Christmas that the royal family went out of mourning; but,
+as soon as it was left off, the court returned to its accustomed gayety--
+balls, concerts, and private theatricals occupying the evenings; though
+the people remarked with undisguised satisfaction that the expenses of
+former years had been greatly retrenched. It was also noticed that many
+foreigners of distinction, and especially some English ladies of high
+rank, gladly accepted invitations to the balls, which they certainly would
+not have done while their presence was likely to bring them into contact
+with Madame du Barri. Lady Ailesbury is especially mentioned as having
+been received with marked distinction by the queen, and also by the king,
+who was careful to show his approval of her entertainments by the share
+which he took in them; and, as he paraded the saloons arm-in-arm with her,
+to distinguish those whom she noticed, so that, to quote the words of one
+of the most lively chroniclers of the day, their example seemed to be fast
+bringing conjugal love and fidelity into fashion. She even persuaded him
+to depart still further from his usual reserve, so as to appear in costume
+at more than one fancy ball; the dress which he chose being that of the
+only predecessor of his own house whom he could in any point have desired
+to resemble, Henry IV. He had already been indirectly compared to that
+monarch, the first Bourbon king, by the ingenious flattery of a print-
+*seller. In the long list of sovereigns who had reigned over France in the
+five hundred years which had passed by since the warrior-saint of the
+Crusades had laid down his life on the sands of Tunis, there had been but
+two to whom their countrymen could look back with affection or respect--
+Louis XII., to whom his subjects had given the title of The Good, and
+Henry, to whom more than one memorial still preserved the surname of The
+Great. And the courtly picture-dealer, eager to make his market of the
+gratitude with which his fellow-citizens greeted the reforms with which
+the reigning sovereign had already inaugurated his reign, contrived to
+extract a compliment to him even out of the severe prose of the
+multiplication-table; publishing a joint portrait of the three kings,
+Louis XII., Henry IV., and Louis XVI., with an inscription beneath to
+testify that 12 and 4 made 16.
+
+In the spring of 1775, Marie Antoinette received a great pleasure in a
+visit from her younger brother, Maximilian. He was the only member of her
+family whom she had seen in the five years that had elapsed since she left
+Vienna. But, eagerly as she had looked forward to his visit, it did not
+bring her unmixed satisfaction, being marred by the ill-breeding of the
+princes of the blood, and still more by the approval of their conduct
+displayed by the citizens of Paris, which seemed to afford a convincing
+evidence of the small effect which even the queen's virtues and graces had
+produced in softening the old national feeling of enmity to the house of
+Austria. The archduke, who was still but a youth, did not assert his royal
+rank while on his travels, but preserved such an _incognito_ as princes on
+such occasions are wont to assume, and took the title of Count de Burgau.
+The king's brothers, however, like the king himself, paid no regard to his
+disguise, but visited him at the first instant of his arrival; but the
+princes of the blood stood on their dignity, refused to acknowledge a rank
+which was not publicly avowed, or to recollect that the visitor was a
+foreigner and brother to their queen, and insisted on receiving the
+attention of the first visit from him. The excitement which the question
+caused in the palace, and the queen's indignation at the slight thus
+offered, as she conceived, to her brother, were great. High words passed
+between her and the Duc d'Orleans, the chief of the recusants, on the
+subject; and one part of her remonstrance throws a curious additional
+light on the strange distance which, as has been already pointed out, the
+etiquette of the French court had established between the sovereigns and
+the very highest of their subjects, even the nearest of their relations.
+The duke had insisted on the _incognito_ as debarring Maximilian from all
+claim to attention from a prince like himself whose rank was not
+concealed. She urged that the king and his brothers had not regarded it in
+that light. "The duke knew," she said, "that the king had treated
+Maximilian as a brother; that he even invited him to sup in private with
+himself and her, an honor to which no prince of the blood had ever
+pretended." And, finally, warming with her subject, she told him that,
+though her brother would be sorry not to make the acquaintance of the
+princes of the blood, he had many other things in Paris to see, and would
+manage to do without it.[2] Her expostulation was fruitless. The princes
+adhered to their resolution, and she to hers. They were not admitted to
+any of the festivities of the palace during the archduke's stay, and were
+even excluded from all the private entertainments which were given in his
+honor, since she made it known that the king and she would refuse to
+attend any to which they were invited. But, though their conduct was
+surely both discourteous to a foreigner and disrespectful to their
+sovereign, the Parisian populace took their part; and some of them who
+showed themselves ostentatiously in the streets of the city on days on
+which there were parties at Versailles were loudly applauded by a crowd
+which was not entirely drawn from the lower classes. It was noticed that
+the Duc de Chartres, the son of the Duc d'Orleans, was one of the foremost
+in exciting this anti-Austrian feeling, the outbreak of which was
+especially remarkable as the first instance in which the enthusiasm of the
+citizens for Marie Antoinette seemed to have cooled, or at least to have
+been interrupted. And this change in their feelings produced so painful an
+impression on her mind, that, after her brother's departure, she abandoned
+her intention of going to the opera, though Gluck's "Orfeo" was to be
+performed, lest she should meet with a reception less cordial than that to
+which she had hitherto been accustomed.
+
+This ebullition against the house of Austria, however, was at the moment
+dictated rather by discontent with the Home Government than by any settled
+feeling on the subject of foreign politics. Corn had been at a rather high
+price in Paris and its neighborhood throughout the winter; and the
+dearness was taken advantage of by the enemies of Turgot, and employed by
+them as an argument to prove the impolicy of his measures to introduce
+freedom of trade. They even organized[3] formidable riots at Paris and
+Versailles, which, however, Turgot, whose resolution was equal to his
+capacity, prevailed on the king to repress by acts of vigor very unusual
+to him, and very foreign to his disposition. The troops were called out;
+the Parliament was summoned to a Bed of Justice, and enjoined to put the
+law in force against the guilty; two of the most violent revolters were
+executed; order was restored, and the wholly factitious character of the
+outbreak was proved by the tranquillity which ensued, though the price of
+bread remained unaltered till the commencement of the harvest, the
+citizens themselves presently making a jest of their sedition, and
+nicknaming it The War of the Grains.[4]
+
+In France, one excitement soon drives out another, and the whole attention
+of the nation was now fixed on the coronation, which had been appointed to
+take place in June. After some discussion, it had been settled that Louis
+should be crowned alone. There had not been many precedents for the
+coronation of a queen in France; and the last instance, that of Marie de
+Medicis, as having been followed by the assassination of her husband, was
+regarded by many as a bad omen. If Marie Antoinette had herself expressed
+any wish to be her husband's partner in the solemnity, it would certainly
+have been complied with, and their subsequent fate would have been
+regarded as a confirmation of the evil augury. But she was indifferent on
+the subject, and quite contented to behold it as a spectator. It took
+place on Sunday, the 11th of June, in the grand Cathedral at Rheims. The
+progress of the royal family, which had quit Versailles for that city on
+the preceding Monday, had resembled a triumphant procession, so
+enthusiastic had been the acclamations which had greeted the king and
+queen at each town through which they had passed; and all the previous
+displays of joy were outdone by the demonstrations afforded by the
+citizens of Rheims itself. It was midnight, on the 8th of June, when the
+queen reached the gates; but the road outside and the streets inside were
+thronged with a crowd as dense as midday could have produced, which
+followed her to the archbishop's palace, making the whole city resound
+with their loyal cheers; and which, the next morning, awaited her
+coming-forth after holding a grand reception of all the nobles of the
+province, to meet the king when he made his solemn entry in the
+afternoon. The ceremony in the cathedral was one of great magnificence;
+but, in the account of the day which, after her return to Versailles,
+she wrote to her mother, she does not enter into details, as being
+necessarily known to the empress in their general character; confining
+herself rather to a description of the impression which the manifest
+cordiality with which the whole people had entered into the spirit of
+the solemnity had made upon her own mind and heart.[5]
+
+"The coronation was perfect in every respect. It was made plain that every
+one was highly delighted with the king, and so he deserves that all his
+subjects should be. Great and small, all displayed the greatest interest
+in him; and at the moment of placing the crown on his head the ceremonies
+of the church were interrupted by the most touching acclamations. I could
+not restrain myself; my tears flowed in spite of all my efforts, and the
+people were pleased to see them. During the whole time of our journey I
+did my best to correspond to the earnestness of the people; and although
+the heat was great, and the crowd immense, I do not regret my fatigue,
+which, moreover, has not injured my health. It is a very astonishing
+circumstance, but at the same time a very pleasant one, to be so well
+received only two months after the revolt, and in spite of the high price
+of bread, which unhappily still continues. It is a strange peculiarity in
+the French character to allow themselves to be so easily led away by
+mischievous suggestions, and then immediately to return to good behavior.
+It is very certain that when we see people, even in times of distress,
+treating us so well, we are the more bound to labor for their happiness.
+The king seems to me penetrated with this truth. As for me, I feel that
+all my life, even if I were to live a hundred years, I shall never forget
+the coronation day."
+
+But all the tumultuous pomp and exultation only made her return with
+renewed pleasure to her quiet retreat of the Trianon, which, with the
+assistance of the illustrious Buffon, then superintendent of the king's
+gardens, and of Bernard de Jussieu, Director of the Jardin des Plantes,
+and celebrated as one of the first botanists of Europe, she was laying out
+with a delicate taste that long rendered it one of the chief attractions
+to all the inhabitants of the district. For the sentiment which she
+expressed in the letter to the empress, which has just been quoted, was
+not the mere formal utterance of a barren philanthropy, but was dictated
+and carried out by an active benevolence. She felt in her inmost heart the
+duty which she there professed, of exerting herself to promote the
+happiness of the people, and was far too unselfish to desire to keep to
+herself the whole of the delight her gardens were calculated to afford.
+The Trianon was a possession exactly calculated to gratify her taste for
+innocent rural pleasure. As she said herself, at Versailles she was a
+queen; here she was a plain country lady, superintending not only her
+flowers, but her farm-yard and her dairy, taking pride in her stock and
+her produce. She would invite the king and the rest of the royal family to
+garden parties, where, at a table set out under a bower of honeysuckle,
+she would pour out their coffee with her own hands, boasting of the
+thickness of her cream, the freshness of her eggs, the ruddiness and
+flavor of her strawberries, as so many proofs of her skill in managing her
+establishment; and would not fear to shock her aunts by tempting one of
+her sisters-in-law to a game at ball, or battledoor and shuttlecock. But
+she probably enjoyed still more the power of gratifying the inhabitants of
+Versailles and the neighborhood. The moment that her improvements were
+completed, she opened the gardens to the public to walk in, and gave
+out-of-door parties and children's dances, to which all the inhabitants of
+Versailles who presented themselves in decent apparel were admitted. She
+would even open the dance herself with some well-conducted boy, and
+afterward stroll among the crowd, talking affably to all the company, even
+to the governesses and nurses, and delighting the parents with the
+interest which she exhibited in the characters, the growth, and even the
+names of the children.
+
+There were some who, startled at the unwonted sight of a sovereign so
+treating her subjects as fellow-creatures, confessed a fear that such
+familiarity was not without its dangers;[6] but the objects of her
+condescension worshiped her for it; and for a time at least the great
+majority of the nation forgot that she was Austrian. She was now nearly
+twenty years of age. Her form had developed into a rare perfection of
+elegance. Her features had added to the original brilliancy of her girlish
+loveliness something of that higher beauty which judgment and sagacity
+inspire, and which dignity renders only the more imposing; while the same
+benevolence and purity beamed in every look which were remarked as her
+most sterling characteristics on her first arrival in the country. And it
+is not to her French or German admirers alone that we are reduced to trust
+for the impression which at this time she made on all beholders. We have
+seen that English gentlemen and ladies of rank were frequent visitors to
+the French court; and from two of these, men of widely different
+characters, talents, and turns of mind, we have a striking concurrence of
+testimony as to the power of the fascination which she exerted on all who
+came within the sphere of her influence. Burke was the earlier visitor.
+Indeed, it was in the last months of the preceding reign, while she was
+still dauphiness, that she had excited in his enthusiastic imagination
+those emotions which he afterward described in words which will live as
+long as the English language. It was in the spring of 1774 that it seemed
+to him that "surely never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to
+touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon,
+decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she just began to move in--
+glittering like the morning-star, full of life, and splendor, and joy." No
+one could be less like Burke than Horace Walpole, a cynical observer, who
+piqued himself on indifference, and especially on a superiority to the
+vulgar belief in the merits and attractions of kings and princes. Yet his
+report of the charms of Marie Antoinette, as he saw them in the autumn of
+this year, 1775, reveals an admiration of them as vivid as that of the
+warm-hearted and more poetical Irishman. He saw her, as he reports to Lady
+Ossory, first at a state court hall,[7] given on the occasion of the
+marriage of the Princess Clotilde, in the theatre of the palace; and he
+would have desired to give his correspondent some description of the
+beauty of the building; "the bravest in the universe, and yet one in which
+taste predominates over expense;" but he was absorbed by the still more
+powerful attractions of the princess whom he had seen in it: "What I have
+to say I can tell your ladyship in a word, for it was impossible to see
+any thing but the queen. Hebes, and Floras, and Helens, and Graces are
+street-walkers to her. She is a statue and beauty when standing or
+sitting; grace itself when she moves." As he is writing to a lady, he
+proceeds to describe her dress, which to ladies of the present day may
+still have its interest: "She was dressed in silver, scattered over with
+_laurier_ roses; few diamonds; and feathers, much lower than the
+monument." He proceeds to describe the ball itself, and some of the
+company, which was, however, very select; but at every sentence or two he
+comes back to the queen, so deep and so real was the impression which she
+had made on him. "Monsieur is very handsome. The Comte d'Artois is a
+better figure and a better dancer. Their characters approach to those of
+two other royal dukes.[8] There were but eight minuets, and, except the
+queen and princesses, only eight lady dancers; I was not so much struck
+with the dancing as I expected. For beauty I saw none, or the queen
+effaced all the rest. After the minuets were French country-dances, much
+incumbered by the long trains, longer tresses, and hoops. In the intervals
+of dancing, baskets of peaches, china oranges (a little out of season),
+biscuits, ices, and wine-and-water were presented to the royal family and
+dancers. The ball lasted just two hours. The monarch did not dance, but
+for the first two rounds of the minuet even the queen does not turn her
+back to him. Yet her behavior is as easy as divine."
+
+Such was a French court ball on days of most special ceremony, a somewhat
+solemn affair, which required graciousness such as that of Marie
+Antoinette to make admission to every one a very enviable privilege; even
+though its stiffness had been in some degree relieved by a new regulation
+of the queen, that the invitations, which had hitherto been confined to
+matrons, should be extended to unmarried girls. Scarcely any change
+produced greater consternation among the admirers of old customs. The
+dowagers searched all the registers of those who had been admitted to the
+court balls since the beginning of the century to fortify their
+objections. But, to their dismay, some of the early festivities in the
+time of Marie Leczinska proved to have been shared by one or two noble
+maidens. The discovery was of little importance, since Marie Antoinette
+had shown that she was not afraid of making precedents. But still it in
+some degree silenced the grumblers, and for the rest of the reign no one
+contested the queen's right to decide who should, and who should not, be
+admitted to her society.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+Tea is introduced.--Horse-racing of Count d'Artois.--Marie Antoinette goes
+to see it--The Queen's Submissiveness to the Reproofs of the Empress.--
+Birth of the Duc d'Angouleme.--She at times speaks lightly of the King.--
+The Emperor remonstrates with her.--Character of some of the Queen's
+Friends.--The Princess de Lamballe.--The Countess Jules de Polignac.--
+They set the Queen against Turgot.--She procures his Dismissal.--She
+gratifies Madame Polignac's Friends.--Her Regard for the French People.--
+Water Parties on the Seine.--Her Health is Delicate.--Gambling at the
+Palace.
+
+
+Nor were these the only innovations which marked the age. A rage for
+adopting English fashions--_Anglomanie_, as it was called--began to
+prevail; and, among the different modes in which it exhibited itself, it
+is especially noticed that tea[1] was now introduced, and began to share
+with coffee the privileges of affording sober refreshment to those who
+aspired in their different ways to give the tone to French society.
+
+A less innocent novelty was a passion for horse-racing, in which the Comte
+d'Artois and the Duc de Chartres set the example of indulging,
+establishing a race-course in the Bois de Boulogne. The count had but
+little difficulty in persuading the queen to attend it, and she soon
+showed so decided a fancy for the sport, and became so regular a visitor
+of it, that a small stand was built for her, which in subsequent years
+provoked some unfavorable comments, when the princess obtained her leave
+to give luncheon in it to some of their racing friends, who were not in
+all instances of a character deserving to be brought into a royal
+presence.
+
+She pursued this, as she pursued every other amusement which she took up,
+with great keenness for a while, so much so as to provoke earnest
+remonstrances from her mother, whose letters were commonly dictated by
+Mercy's reports and suggestions. Nor, if she felt uneasiness, did Maria
+Teresa spare her daughter, or take any great care to moderate her language
+of reproof. At times her tone is so severe as to excite a feeling of
+wonder at the submissiveness with which her letters were received. No
+express eulogy of her admirers could give so great an idea of Marie
+Antoinette's amiability, good-nature, genuine modesty, and sincere
+affection for her mother, as the ingenuousness with which she admits
+errors, or the temper with which she urges excuses. To that venerated
+parent she is just as patient of admonition, now that she is seated on a
+throne, as she could have been in her schoolroom at Schoenbrunn; and, in
+reply to the scoldings (no milder word can do justice to the earnest
+vehemence of the letters which at this time she received from Vienna), she
+pleads not only that an appetite for amusement is natural to her age, but
+that she enters into none of which the king does not fully approve, and
+none which are ever allowed to interfere with her giving him full
+enjoyment of her society whenever he has leisure or inclination for it.
+
+But her replies to her mother hint also at the continuance of the old
+causes for her restlessness, and for her eager pursuit of new diversions
+to distract her thoughts. Her natural desire for children of her own was
+greatly increased when, on the 12th of August, her sister-in-law, the
+Countess d'Artois, presented her husband with a son.[2] She treated the
+young mother with a sisterly kindness suited to the occasion, which
+extorted the unqualified praise of Mercy himself; but she could not
+restrain her feelings on the subject to her mother, and she expressed to
+her frankly the extreme pain "which she suffered at thus seeing an heir to
+the throne who was not her own child." Nor is it strange that at such
+moments she should feel hurt at the coldness with which her husband
+continued to behave toward her, or that she should ran eagerly after any
+excitement which might aid in diverting her mind from a comparison of her
+own position with that of her happier sister-in-law.[3]
+
+It would have been well if she had confined her expressions of
+disappointment to her mother. But since we may not disguise her occasional
+acts of imprudence, it must be confessed that at times her mortification
+led her to speak of her husband to strangers in a tone of disparagement
+which was highly unbecoming. Maximilian had been accompanied by the Count
+de Rosenburg, who had in consequence been admitted to the intimate society
+of the court during the archduke's visit, and who had inspired Marie
+Antoinette with so favorable an opinion of his character and judgment that
+after his return to Vienna she more than once sent him an account of the
+proceedings at the palace since her brother's departure. She describes to
+him a series of concerts, at which she had sung herself with some of her
+ladies. She gives him a list of the guests, remarking, with a
+particularity which seems to show that she expects her words to be
+reported to the empress, that the gentlemen, though amiable and well bred,
+were not young. But she also complains that the king's tastes do not
+resemble hers, that he cares for nothing but hunting and mechanical
+employments; and, indulging in an unwonted bit of sarcasm, she proceeds:
+"You will allow that I should not look well beside a forge. I could never
+become a Vulcan; and the part of Venus would displease him more than my
+real tastes, which he does not disapprove." In another letter she mentions
+him in a tone of contemptuous pity, almost equally unbecoming, speaking of
+him as "the poor man" whom she had made a tool of to further some views of
+her own, though Mercy assured the empress that her assertion of having so
+treated him was a mere fiction of her imagination, to impart a sort of
+lively tone to her letter; that, in spite of occasional outbursts of
+levity, she had in reality the firmest affection and esteem for Louis; and
+that nothing could be more irreproachable than her conduct toward him in
+every respect. He added that the people in general did her full justice on
+this head; that if her popularity with the Parisians had for a moment
+suffered any diminution through the artifices of faction, the cloud had
+been blown away; and that she had been recently received at the different
+theatres with as fervent a loyalty as had greeted even her first
+appearance.
+
+The empress, however, was so uneasy that she induced her son, the Emperor
+Joseph, to add his expostulations to hers; and he, who was a prince of
+considerable shrewdness, as well as of a high idea of the proprieties of
+his rank, wrote her a long letter of remonstrance; imputing with great
+truth the failings, which he pointed out with sufficient plainness, to a
+facility of disposition which made her indulgent to the manoeuvres of
+those whom she admitted to her friendship, but who did not deserve such an
+honor. He even spoke of the society which she had gathered round her, as
+calculated to prevent him from performing his promise of paying her a
+visit; "for what should he do in a court of frivolous intriguers?" And he
+concluded by urging her to prevent these false friends from making a tool
+of her for the gratification of their own selfishness and rapacity; and to
+be solicitous for no friendship or confidence but that of her husband; the
+study of whose wishes was to her not only a state duty, but the only one
+which would make her permanently happy, and secure to her the lasting
+affection of the people.
+
+There was, however, no subject on which Marie Antoinette was so little
+amenable to advice as the choice of her friends, and none on which she
+more required it. Above all the frequenters of the court, two ladies were
+distinguished by her especial favor--the Princess de Lamballe and the
+Countess de Polignac. The princess, a daughter of the Prince de Carignan
+in Savoy, having been married to the son of the Duc de Penthievre, was
+left a widow before she was twenty years of age. She had been originally
+recommended to Mario Antoinette in the first year of her residence in
+France, partly by her royal birth, and partly by her misfortunes; and the
+attachment which the dauphiness at once conceived for her was cemented by
+the ardor with which it was returned. In many respects the princess well
+deserved the favor with which she was regarded. Her temper was sweet and
+amiable; her character singularly truthful and sincere; and, that she
+might never be separated from her friend, the place of superintendent of
+the queen's household was revived for her. Some cavilers were disposed to
+grumble at the re-establishment of an office which had been suppressed as
+useless and costly; but no one could allege that Madame de Lamballe abused
+the royal favor, and her share in the calamities of later days justified
+the queen's choice by the proof it afforded of the princess's unalterable
+fidelity and devotion.
+
+But the countess was a very different character. She had, indeed, a
+well-bred air of good humor, but that, with her youth (she was but
+twenty years of age), was her only qualification; for her capacity was
+narrow, her disposition selfish and grasping, and she was so inveterate
+a manoeuvrer, that, when she had no intrigues of her own on foot, she
+was always ready to lend herself to the plots of others. What was worse,
+she did not enjoy an untainted character. The name of the Comte de
+Vaudreuil was often coupled with hers in the scandals of the court. And
+the queen, since she could hardly be ignorant of the reports which were
+circulated, incurred, by the marked favor which she showed to the
+countess, the imputation of shutting her eyes to the frailties of her
+friends, and thus showing that dissoluteness was not an insuperable
+barrier to her partiality. It was only the earnest remonstrance of Mercy
+which prevented her from conferring the place of lady of honor on the
+countess; but she allowed her to exert a pernicious influence over her
+in many ways, for the countess was unwearied in soliciting appointments
+and pensions for her relatives; at times making demands in such numbers,
+and of so exorbitant a character, that the queen herself was forced to
+admit the impossibility of granting them all, though she still sought to
+gratify her to far too great an extent, and would not allow the proved
+insatiability of her and her family to open her eyes to her real
+character.
+
+It was, however, a far more mischievous submission to the influence of the
+countess and her coterie, when she permitted them to prejudice her against
+Turgot, whom she had more than once described to her mother as an upright
+statesman, and who had constantly shown, so far as he could make
+compliance consistent with his duty to the State, a sincere desire to
+consult her wishes. But as the Polignac party saw in his prudence,
+integrity, and firmness the most formidable obstacle to their project of
+using the queen's favor to enrich themselves, she now yielded up her
+judgment to their calumnies. Forgetting her former praises of the
+minister's integrity, she began to disparage him as one whose measures
+caused general dissatisfaction, and at last she pushed her hostility to
+him so far that she actually tried to induce Louis not to be content with
+dismissing him from office, but to send him as a prisoner to the
+Bastille.[4] That she could not avoid feeling some shame at the part which
+she had acted may be inferred from the pains which she took to conceal it
+from her mother, whom she assured that, though she was not sorry for his
+dismissal, she had in no degree interfered in the matter; but "her conduct
+and even her intentions were well known, and known to be far removed from
+all manoeuvres and intrigues.[5]"
+
+Unfortunately the ambassador's letters tell a different story. As a
+sincere friend as well as a loyal servant of Marie Antoinette, he
+expresses to the empress his deep feeling that, "as the comptroller-
+general enjoyed a great reputation for integrity, and was beloved by the
+people, it was a melancholy thing that his dismissal should be in part the
+queen's work,[6]" and his fear that her conduct in the affair may
+"hereafter bring upon her the reproaches of the king her husband, and even
+of the entire nation." The foreboding thus uttered was but too sadly
+realized. She had driven from her husband's councils the only man who
+combined with the penetration to perceive the absolute necessity of a
+large reform and the character of the changes required, the genius to
+devise them and the firmness to carry them out.
+
+Thirteen years later, a variety of causes, some of which will be unfolded
+in the course of this narrative, had contributed to irritate the
+impatience of the nation, while the unskillfulness of the existing
+minister had disarmed the royal authority. And the very same reforms which
+would now have been accepted with general thankfulness were then only used
+by demagogues as a pretext for further inflaming the minds of the
+multitude against every thing which bore the slightest appearance of
+authority, even against the very sovereign who had granted them. France
+and all Europe to this day feel the sad effects of Marie Antoinette's
+interference.
+
+She had given fatal proof of the truth of the words wrung from her by
+nervous excitement at the moment of the late king's death, when she
+declared that Louis and she were too young to reign; and the best excuse
+that can be found for her is that she was not yet one-and-twenty. It was
+not, however, wholly from submission to the interested malevolence of
+others that she had shown herself the enemy of the great financier and
+statesman. She had a spontaneous dislike to the retrenchments which
+necessarily formed a great portion of his economical measures; not as
+interfering with the indulgence of any extravagant tastes of her own, but
+as restraining her power of gratifying her friends. For she was entirely
+impressed with the idea that no person or body could have any right to
+call in question the king's disposal of the national revenue; and that
+there was no prerogative of the crown of which the exercise was more
+becoming to the royal dignity than that of granting pensions or creating
+sinecures with no limitations but such as might be imposed by his own will
+or discretion. And on this point her husband fully shared her feelings.
+"What," said he, on one occasion to Turgot, who was urging him to refuse
+an utterly unwarrantable application for a pension. "What are a thousand
+crowns a year?" "Sire," replied the minister, "they are the taxation of a
+village." The king acquiesced for the moment, but probably not without
+some secret wincing at the control to which he seemed to be subjected; and
+we may, perhaps, suppose that even the queen's disapproval of the minister
+would have been less effectual had it not been re-enforced by the king's
+own feelings.
+
+In fact, that the part which she took against the great minister was the
+fruit of mere inconsiderateness and ignorance of the feelings and
+necessities of the nation, and that, if she had known the depth of the
+people's distress, and the degree in which it was caused by the
+viciousness of the whole existing system of government, she would gladly
+have promoted every measure which could tend to their relief, we may find
+abundant proof in a letter which she had written to her mother, a few
+weeks earlier. Maria Teresa had spoken with some harshness of the French
+fickleness. Marie Antoinette replies:[7]
+
+"You are quite right in all you say about French levity, but I am truly
+grieved that on that account you should conceive an aversion for the
+nation. The disposition of the people is very inconsistent, but it is not
+bad. Pens and tongues utter a great many things which are not in their
+heart. The proof that they do not cherish hatred is that on the very
+slightest occasion they speak well of one, and even praise one much more
+than one deserves. I have just this moment myself had experience of this.
+There had been a terrible fire in Paris in the Palace of Justice, and the
+same day I was to have gone to the opera, so I did not go, but sent two
+hundred louis to relieve the most pressing cases of distress;[8] and ever
+since the fire, the very same people who had been circulating libels and
+songs against me[9] have been extolling me to the skies."
+
+These revelations of her inmost thoughts to her mother show how real and
+warm was her affection for the French as a nation, as well as how little
+she claimed any merit for her endeavors to benefit them; though a
+subsequent passage in the same letter also shows that she had been so much
+annoyed by some pasquinades and libels, of which she had been the subject,
+that she had become careful not to furnish fresh opportunities to her
+enemies: "We have had here such a quantity of snow as has not been seen
+for many years, so that people are going about in sledges, as they do at
+Vienna. We were out in them yesterday about this place; and to-day there
+is to be a grand procession of them through Paris. I should greatly have
+liked to be able to go; but, as a queen has never been seen at such
+things, people might have made up stories if I had gone, and I preferred
+giving up the pleasure to being worried by fresh libels."
+
+She was still as eager as ever in the pursuit of amusement, and especially
+of novelties in that way, when not restrained by considerations such as
+those which she here mentions. When at Choisy, she gave water parties on
+the river in boats with awnings, which she called gondolas, rowing down as
+far as the very entrance to the city. It was not quite a prudent diversion
+for her, for at this time her health was not very strong. She easily
+caught cold, and the reports of such attacks often caused great uneasiness
+at Vienna; but the watermen were highly delighted, looking on her act in
+putting herself under their care as a compliment to their craft; and some
+of them, to increase her pleasure, jumped overboard and swam about. Their
+well-meant gallantry, however, was nearly having an unfavorable effect;
+unaware that it was not an accident, she thought that their lives were in
+danger, and the fear for them turned her sick, while Madame de Lamballe
+fainted away. But when she perceived the truth, the qualm passed away, and
+she rewarded them handsomely for their ducking; begging, however, that it
+might not be repeated, and assuring them that she needed no such proof to
+convince her of their dutiful and faithful loyalty.
+
+But the craving for excitement which was bred and nourished by the
+continuance of her unnatural position with respect to her husband in some
+parts of his treatment of her, was threatening to produce a very
+pernicious effect by leading her to become a gambler. Some of those ladies
+whom she admitted to her intimacy were deeply infected with this fatal
+passion; and one of the most mischievous and intriguing of the whole
+company, the Princess de Guimenee, introduced a play-table at some of her
+balls, which she induced Marie Antoinette to attend. At first the queen
+took no share in the play; as she had hitherto borne none, or only a
+formal part, in the gaming which, as we have seen, had long been a
+recognized feature in court entertainments; but gradually the hope of
+banishing vexation, if only by the substitution of a heavier care, got
+dominion over her, and in the autumn of 1776 we find Mercy commenting on
+her losses at lansquenet and faro, at that time the two most fashionable
+round games, the stakes at which often rose to a very considerable amount.
+Though she continued to indulge in this unhealthy pastime for some time,
+in Mercy's opinion she never took any real interest in it. She practiced
+it only because she wished to pass the time, and to drive away thought;
+and because the one accomplishment she wanted was the art of refusing. She
+even carried her complaisance so far as to allow professed gaming-table
+keepers to be brought from Paris to manage a faro-bank in her apartments,
+where the play was often continued long after midnight. It was not the
+least evil of this habit that it unavoidably left the king, who never quit
+his own apartments in the evening, to pass a great deal of time by
+himself; but, as if to make up for his coldness in one way, he was most
+indulgent in every other, and seemed to have made it a rule never to
+discountenance any thing which could amuse her. His behavior to her, in
+Mercy's eyes, seemed to resemble servility; "it was that of the most
+attentive courtier," and was carried so far as to treat with marked
+distinction persons whose character he was known to disapprove, solely
+because she regarded them with favor.[10]
+
+In cases such as these the defects in the king's character contributed
+very injuriously to aggravate those in hers. She required control, and he
+was too young to exercise it. He had too little liveliness to enter into
+her amusements; too little penetration to see that, though many of them--
+it may be said all, except the gaming-table--were innocent if he partook
+of them, indulgence in them, when he did not share them, could hardly fail
+to lead to unfriendly comments and misconstruction; though even his
+presence could hardly have saved his queen's dignity from some humiliation
+when wrangles took place, and accusations of cheating were made in her
+presence. The gaming-table is a notorious leveler of distinctions, and the
+worst-behaved of the guests were too frequently the king's own brothers;
+they were rude, overbearing, and ill-tempered. The Count de Provence on
+one occasion so wholly forgot the respect due to her, that he assaulted a
+gentleman in her presence; and the Count d'Artois, who played for very
+high stakes, invariably lost his temper when he lost his money. Indeed,
+the queen seems to have felt the discredit of such scenes; and it is
+probable that it was their frequent occurrence which led to a temporary
+suspension of the faro-bank; as a violent quarrel on the race-course
+between d'Artois and his cousin, the Duke de Chartres, whom he openly
+accused of cheating him, for a while disgusted her with horse-races, and
+led her to propose a substitution of some of the old exercises of
+chivalry, such as running at the ring; a proposal which had a great
+element of popularity in it, as being calculated to lead to a renewal of
+the old French pastimes, which seemed greatly preferable to the existing
+rage for copying, and copying badly, the fashions and pursuits of England.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+Marie Antoinette finds herself in Debt.--Forgeries of her Name are
+committed.--The Queen devotes herself too much to Madame de Polignac and
+others.--Versailles is less frequented.--Remonstrances of the Empress.--
+Volatile Character of the Queen.--She goes to the Bals d'Opera at Paris.--
+She receives the Duke of Dorset and other English Nobles with Favor.--
+Grand Entertainment given her by the Count de Provence.--Character of the
+Emperor Joseph.--He visits Paris and Versailles.--His Feelings toward and
+Conversations with the King and Queen.--He goes to the Opera.--His Opinion
+of the Queen's Friends.--Marie Antoinette's Letter to the Empress on his
+Departure.--The Emperor leaves her a Letter of Advice.
+
+
+But this addiction to play, though it was that consequence of the
+influence of the society to which Marie Antoinette was at this time so
+devoted, which would have seemed the most objectionable in the eyes of
+rigid moralists, was not that which excited the greatest dissatisfaction
+in the neighborhood of the court. Excessive gambling had so long been a
+notorious vice of the French princes, that her letting herself down to
+join the gaming-table was not regarded as indicating any peculiar laxity
+of principle; while the stakes which she permitted herself, and the losses
+she incurred, though they seemed heavy to her anxious German friends, were
+as nothing when compared with those of the king's brothers. Even when it
+became known that she was involved in debt, that again was regarded as an
+ordinary occurrence, apparently even by the king himself, who paid the
+amount (about L20,000) without a word of remonstrance, merely remarking
+that he did not wonder at her funds being exhausted since she had such a
+passion for diamonds. For a great portion of the debts had been incurred
+for some diamond ear-rings which the queen herself did not wish for, and
+had only bought to gratify Madame de Polignac, who had promised her custom
+to the jeweler who had them for sale. Marie Antoinette had evidently
+become less careful in regulating her expenses, till she was awakened by
+the discovery of a crime which she herself imputed to her own carelessness
+in such matters. The wife of the king's treasurer had borrowed money in
+her name, and had forged her handwriting to letters of acknowledgment of
+the loans. The fraud was only discovered through Mercy's vigilance, and
+the criminal was at seized and punished, but it proved a wholesome lesson
+to the queen, who never forgot it, though, as we shall see hereafter, if
+others remembered it, the recollection only served to induce them to try
+and enrich themselves by similar knaveries.
+
+And this devotion of the queen to the society of the Polignacs and
+Guimenees, "her society," as she sometimes called it,[1] had also a
+mischievous effect in diminishing her popularity with the great body of
+the nobles. The custom of former sovereigns had been to hold receptions
+several evenings in each week, to which the men and women of the highest
+rank were proud to repair to pay their court. But now the royal apartments
+were generally empty, the king being alone in his private cabinet, while
+the queen was passing her time at some small private party of young
+people, by her presence often seeming to countenance intrigues of which
+she did not in her heart approve, and giddy conversation which was hardly
+consistent with her royal position; though Mercy, in reporting these
+habits to the empress, adds that the queen's own demeanor, even in the
+moments of apparently unrestrained familiarity, was marked by such uniform
+self-possession and dignity, that no one ever ventured to take liberties
+with her, or to approach her without the most entire respect.[2]
+
+It was hardly strange, then, that those who were not members of this
+society should feel offended at finding the court, as it were, closed
+against them, and should cease to frequent the palace when they had no
+certainty of meeting any thing but empty rooms. They even absented
+themselves from the queen's balls, which in consequence were so thinly
+attended that sometimes there were scarcely a dozen dancers of each sex,
+so that it was universally remarked that never within the memory of the
+oldest courtiers had Versailles been so deserted as it was this winter;
+the difference between the scene which the palace presented now from what
+had been witnessed in previous seasons striking the queen herself, and
+inclining her to listen more readily to the remonstrances which, at
+Mercy's instigation, the empress addressed to her. Her mother pointed out
+to her, with all the weight of her own long experience, the
+incompatibility of a private mode of life, such as is suitable for
+subjects, with the state befitting a great sovereign; and urged her to
+recollect that all the king's subjects, so long as their rank and
+characters were such as to entitle them to admission at court, had an
+equal right to her attention; and that the system of exclusiveness which
+she had adopted was a dereliction of her duty, not only to those who were
+thus deprived of the honors of the reception to which they were entitled,
+but also to the king, her husband, who was injured by any line of conduct
+which tended to discourage the nobles of the land from paying their
+respects to him.
+
+In the midst of all her giddiness, Marie Antoinette always listened with
+good humor, it may even be said with docility, to honest advice. No one
+ever in her rank was so unspoiled by authority; and more than one
+conversation which she held with the ambassador on the subject showed that
+these remonstrances, re-enforced as they were by the undeniable fact of
+the thinness of the company at the palace, had made an impression on her
+mind; though such impressions were as yet too apt to be fleeting, and too
+liable to be overborne by fresh temptations; for in volatile impulsiveness
+she resembled the French themselves, and the good resolutions she made one
+day were always liable to be forgotten the next. Nothing as yet was steady
+and unalterable in her character but her kindness of heart and
+graciousness of manner; they never changed; and it was on her genuine
+goodness of disposition and righteousness of intention that her German
+friends relied for producing an amendment as she grew older, far more than
+on any regrets for the past, or intentions of improvement for the future,
+which might be wrung from her by any momentary reflection or vexation.
+
+If Versailles was less lively than usual, Paris, on the other hand, had
+never been so gay as during the carnival of 1777. The queen went to
+several of the masked balls at the opera with one or other of her
+brothers-in-law and their wives; the king expressing his perfect
+willingness that she should so amuse herself, but never being able to
+overcome his own indolence and shyness so far as to accompany her. It
+could not have been a very lively amusement. She did not dance, but sat in
+an arm-chair surveying the dancers, or walked down the saloon attended by
+an officer of the bodyguard and one lady in waiting, both masked like
+herself. Occasionally she would grant to some noble of high rank the honor
+of walking at her side; but it was remarked that those whom she thus
+distinguished were often foreigners; some English noblemen, such as the
+Duke of Dorset and Lord Strathavon being especially favored, for a reason
+which, as given by Mercy, shows that that insular stiffness which, with
+national self-complacency, Britons sometimes confess as a not unbecoming
+characteristic, was not at that time attributed to them by others; since
+the ambassador explains the queen's preference by the self-evident fact
+that the English gentlemen were the best dancers, and made the best figure
+in the ball-room.
+
+But all the other festivities of this winter were thrown into the shade by
+an entertainment of extraordinary magnificence, which was given in the
+queen's honor by the Count de Provence at his villa at Brunoy.[3] The
+count was an admirer of Spenser, and appeared to desire to embody the
+spirit of that poet of the ancient chivalry in the scene which he
+presented to the view of his illustrious guest when she entered his
+grounds. Every one seemed asleep. Groups of cavaliers, armed _cap-a-pie_,
+and surrounded by a splendid retinue of squires and pages, were seen
+slumbering on the ground; their lances lying by their sides, their shields
+hanging on the trees which overshadowed them; their very horses reposing
+idly on the grass on which they cared not to browse. All seemed under the
+influence of a spell as powerful as that under which Merlin had bound the
+pitiless daughter of Arthur; but the moment that Marie Antoinette passed
+within the gates the enchantment was dissolved; the pages sprung to their
+feet, and brought the easily roused steeds to their awakened masters.
+Twenty-five challengers, with scarfs of green, the queen's favorite color,
+on snow-white chargers, overthrew an equal number of antagonists; but no
+deadly wounds were given. The victory of her champions having been
+decided, both parties of combatants mingled as spectators at a play, and
+afterward as dancers at a grand ball which was wound up by a display of
+fire-works and a superb illumination, of which the principal ornament was
+a gorgeous bouquet of flowers, in many-colored fire, lighting up the
+inscription "Vive Louis! Vive Marie Antoinette!"
+
+At last, however, the carnival came to an end. Not too soon for the
+queen's good, since hunts and long rides by day, and balls kept up till a
+late hour by night, had been too much for her strength,[4] so that even
+indifferent observers remarked that she looked ill and had grown thin. But
+even had Lent not interrupted her amusements, she would have ceased for a
+while to regard them, her whole mind being now devoted to preparing for
+the reception of her brother, the Emperor Joseph, whose visit, which had
+been promised in the previous year, was at last fixed for the month of
+April. It was anticipated with anxiety by the Empress and Mercy, as well
+as by Marie Antoinette. He was a prince of a peculiar disposition and
+habits. Before his accession to the imperial throne, he had been kept,
+apparently not greatly against his will, in the background. Nor, while his
+father lived, did he give any indications of a desire for power, or of any
+capacity for exercising it; but since he had been placed on the throne he
+had displayed great activity and energy, though he was still, in the
+opinion of many, more of a philosopher--a detractor might said more of a
+pedant--than of a statesman. He studied theories of government, and was
+extremely fond of giving advice; and as both Louis and Marie Antoinette
+were persons who in many respects stood in need of friendly counsel, Mercy
+and Maria Teresa had both looked forward to his visit to the French court
+as an event likely to be of material service to both, while his sister
+regarded it with a mixed feeling of hope and fear, in which, however, the
+pleasurable emotions predominated.
+
+She was not insensible to the probability that he would disapprove of some
+of her habits; indeed, we have already seen that he had expressed his
+disapproval of them, and of some of her friends, in the preceding year;
+and she dreaded his lectures; but, on the other hand, she felt confident
+that a personal acquaintance with the court would prove to him that many
+of the tales to her prejudice which had readied him had been mischievous
+exaggerations, and that thus he would be able to disabuse their mother,
+and to tranquilize her mind on many points. She hoped, too, that a
+personal knowledge of each other by him and her own husband would tend to
+cement a real friendship between them; and that his stronger mind would
+obtain an influence over Louis, which might induce him to rouse himself
+from his ordinary apathy and reserve, and make him more of a man of the
+world and more of a companion for her. Lastly, but probably above all, she
+thirsted with sisterly affection for the sight of her brother, and
+anticipated with pride the opportunity of presenting to her new countrymen
+a relation of whom she was proud on account of his personal endowments and
+character, and whose imperial rank made his visit wear the appearance of a
+marked compliment to the whole French nation.
+
+High-strung expectations often insure their own disappointment, but it was
+not so in this instance; though the august visitor's first act displayed
+an eccentricity of disposition which must have led more people than one to
+entertain secret misgivings as to the consequences which might flow from a
+visit which had such a commencement. Like his brother Maximilian, he too
+traveled incognito, under the title of the Count Falkenstein; and he
+persisted in maintaining his disguise so absolutely that he refused to
+occupy the apartments which the queen had prepared for him in the palace,
+and insisted on taking up his quarters with Mercy in Paris, and at a
+hotel, for the few days which he passed at Versailles.
+
+However, though by his conduct in this matter he to some extent
+disappointed the hope which his sister had conceived of an uninterrupted
+intercourse with him during his stay in France, in every other respect the
+visit passed off to the satisfaction of all the parties principally
+concerned. Fortunately, at their first interview Marie Antoinette herself
+made a most favorable impression on him. She had been but a child when he
+had last seen her. She was now a woman, and he was wholly unprepared for
+the matured and queenly beauty at which she had arrived. He was not a man
+to flatter any one, but almost his first words to her were that, had she
+not been his sister, he could not have refrained from seeking her hand
+that he might secure to himself so lovely a partner; and each succeeding
+meeting strengthened his admiration of her personal graces. She, always
+eager to please, was gratified at the feeling she had inspired; and thus
+an affectionate tone was from the first established between them, and all
+reserve was banished from their conversation. It was not diminished by the
+admonitions which, as he conceived, his age and greater experience
+entitled him to address to her, though sometimes they took the form of
+banter and ridicule, sometimes that of serious reproof;[5] but she bore
+all his lectures with unvarying good humor, promising him that the time
+should come when she would make the amendment which he desired; never
+attempting to conceal from him, and scarcely to excuse, the faults of
+which she was not unconscious, nor the vexations which in some particulars
+continually disquieted her.
+
+It was, at least, equally fortunate that the king also conceived a great
+liking for his brother-in-law at first sight. His character disposed him
+to receive with eagerness advice from one who had himself occupied a
+throne for several years, and whose relationship seemed a sufficient
+warrant that his counsels would be honest and disinterested. Accordingly
+those about him soon remarked that Louis treated the emperor with a
+cordiality that he had never shown to any one else. They had many long and
+interesting conversations, sometimes with Marie Antoinette as a third
+party, sometimes by themselves. Louis discussed with the emperor his
+anxiety to have a family, and his hopes of such a result; and Joseph
+expressed his opinion freely on all subjects, even volunteering
+suggestions of a change in the king's habits; as when he recommended him,
+as a part of his kingly duty, to visit the different provinces, sea-ports,
+cities, and manufacturing towns of his kingdom, so as to acquaint himself
+generally with the feelings and resources of the people. Louis listened
+with attention. If there was any case in which the emperor's advice was
+thrown away, it was, if the queen's suspicions were correct, when he
+recommended to the king a line of conduct adverse to her influence.
+
+Mercy had told the emperor that Louis was devotedly attached to the queen,
+but that he feared her at least as much as he loved her; and Joseph would
+have desired to see some of this fear transferred to and felt by her; and
+showed his wish that the king should exert his legitimate authority as a
+husband to check those habits of his wife of which they both disapproved,
+and which she herself did not defend. But, even if Louis did for a moment
+make up his mind to adopt a tone of authority, his resolution faded away
+in his wife's presence before her superior resolution; and to the end of
+their days she continued to be the leader, and he to follow her guidance.
+
+It need hardly be told that so august a visitor had entertainments given
+in his honor. The king gave banquets at Versailles, the queen less formal
+parties at her Little Trianon, though gayeties were not much to Joseph's
+taste; and, at a visit which his sister compelled him to pay to the opera,
+he remained ensconced at the back of her box till she dragged him forward,
+and, as if by main force, presented him to the audience. The whole theatre
+resounded with applause, expressed in such a way as to mark that it was to
+the queen's brother, fully as much as to the emperor, that the homage was
+paid. The opera was "Iphigenie," the chorus in which, "_Chantons,
+celebrons notre reine_," had by this time been almost as fully adopted, as
+the expression of the national loyalty, as "God save the Queen" is in
+England. But even on its first performance it had not been hailed with
+more rapturous cheering than shook the whole house on this occasion; and
+Joseph had the satisfaction of believing that his sister's hold on the
+affection and on the respect of the Parisians was securely established.
+
+He was less pleased at the races in the Bois de Boulogne, which he visited
+the next day. No inconsiderable part of Mercy's disapproval of such
+gatherings had been founded on the impropriety of gentlemen appearing in
+the queen's presence in top-boots and leather breeches, instead of in
+court dress; and the emperor's displeasure appears to have been chiefly
+excited by the hurry and want of stately order which were inseparable from
+the excitement of a race-course, and which, indifferent as he was to many
+points of etiquette, seemed even to him derogatory to the majesty of a
+queen to witness so closely. But he was far more dissatisfied with the
+company at the Princess de Guimenee's, to which the queen, with not quite
+her usual judgment, persuaded him one evening to accompany her. He saw not
+only gambling for much higher stakes than could be right for any lady to
+venture (the queen did not play herself), but he saw those who took part
+in the play lose their tempers over their cards and quarrel with one
+another; while he heard the hostess herself accused of cheating, the
+gamesters forgetting the respect due to their queen in their excitement
+and intemperance. He spoke strongly on the subject to Marie Antoinette,
+declaring that the apartment was no better than a common gaming-house; but
+was greatly mortified to see that his reproofs on this subject were
+received with less than the usual attention, and that she allowed her
+partiality for those whom she called her friends to outweigh her feeling
+of the impropriety of disorders of which she could not deny the existence.
+
+But entertainments and amusements were not permitted to engross much of
+his time. If he visited the king and queen as a brother, he was visiting
+France and Paris as a sovereign and a statesman, and as such he made a
+careful inspection of all that Paris had most worthy of his attention--of
+the barracks, the arsenals, the hospitals, the manufactories. And he
+acquired a very high idea of the capabilities and resources of the
+country, though, at the same time, a very low opinion of the talents and
+integrity of the existing ministers. Of the king himself he conceived a
+favorable estimate. Of his desire to do his duty to his people he had
+always been convinced, but, in a long conversation which he had held with
+him on the character of the French people,[6] and of the best mode of
+governing them, in which Louis entered into many details, he found his
+correctness of judgment and general knowledge of sound principles of
+policy far superior to his anticipations, though at the same time he felt
+convinced that his want of readiness and decision, and his timidity in
+action, would always render and keep him very inferior to the queen,
+especially whenever it should be necessary to come to a prompt decision on
+matters of moment.
+
+After a visit of six weeks, he quit Paris for his dominions in the
+Netherlands at the end of May, and a letter of the queen to her mother is
+very expressive of the pleasure which she had received from his visit, and
+of the lasting benefits which she hoped to derive from it.
+
+"Versailles, June 14th.
+
+"MY DEAREST MOTHER,--It is plain truth that the departure of the emperor
+has left a void in my heart from which I can not recover. I was so happy
+during the short time of his visit that at this moment it all seems like a
+dream. But one thing will never be a dream to me, and that is, the good
+advice and counsel which he gave me, and which is forever engraven in my
+heart.
+
+"I must tell my dear mamma that he gave me one thing which I earnestly
+begged of him, and which causes me the greatest pleasure: it is a packet
+of advice, which he has left me in writing. At this moment it constitutes
+my chief reading; and, if ever I could forget what he said to me, which I
+do not believe I ever could, I should still have this paper always before
+me, which would soon recall me to my duty. My dear mamma will have learned
+by the courier, who started yesterday, how well the king behaved during
+the last moments of my brother's visit. I can assure you that I thoroughly
+understand him, and that he was really affected at the emperor's
+departure. As he does not always recollect to pay attention to forms, he
+does not at all times show his feelings to the outer world, but all that I
+see proves to me that he is truly attached to my brother, and that he has
+the greatest regard for him; and at the moment of my brother's departure,
+when I was in the deepest distress, he showed an attention to, and a
+tenderness for, me which all my life I shall never forget, and which would
+attach me to him, if I had not been attached to him already.
+
+"It is impossible that my brother should not have been pleased with this
+nation. For one who, like him, knows how to estimate men, must have seen
+that, in spite of the exceeding levity which is inveterate in the people,
+there is a manliness and cleverness in them, and, speaking generally, an
+excellent heart, and a desire to do right. The only thing is to manage
+them properly.... I have this moment received your dear letter by the
+post. What goodness yours is, at a moment when you have so much business
+to think of, to recollect my name day! It overwhelms me. You offer up
+prayers for my happiness. The greatest happiness that I can have is to
+know that you are pleased with me, to deserve your kindness, and to
+convince you that no one in the world feels greater affection or greater
+respect for you than I."
+
+It is a letter very characteristic of the writer, as showing that neither
+time nor distance could chill her affection for her family; and that the
+attainment of royal authority had in no degree extinguished her habitual
+feeling of duty: that it had even strengthened it by making its
+performance of importance not only to herself, but to others. Nor is the
+jealousy for the reputation of the French people, and the desire so warmly
+professed that they should have won her brother's favorable opinion, less
+becoming in a queen of France; while, to descend to minor points, the
+neatness and felicity of the language may be admitted to prove, if her
+education had been incomplete when she left Austria, with how much pains,
+since her progress had depended on herself, she had labored to make up for
+its deficiencies. That she should have asked her brother, as she here
+mentions, to leave her his advice in writing, is a practical proof that
+her expression of an earnest desire to do her duty was not a mere form of
+words; while the resolution which she avows never to forget his
+admonitions shows a genuine humility and candor, a sincere desire to be
+told of and to amend her faults, which one is hardly prepared to meet with
+in a queen of one-and-twenty. For Joseph did not spare her, nor forbear to
+set before her in the plainest light those parts of her conduct which he
+disapproved. He told her plainly that if in France people paid her respect
+and observance, it was only as the wife of their king that they honored
+her; and that the tone of superiority in which she sometimes allowed
+herself to speak of him was as ill-judged as it was unbecoming. He hinted
+his dissatisfaction at her conduct toward him as her husband in a series
+of questions which, unless she could answer as he wished, must, even in
+her own judgment, convict her of some failure in her duties to him. Did
+she show him that she was wholly occupied with him, that her study was to
+make him shine in the opinion of his subjects without any thought of
+herself? Did she stifle every wish to shine at his expense, to be affable
+when he was not so, to seem to attend to matters which he neglected? Did
+she preserve a discreet silence as to his faults and weaknesses, and make
+others keep silence about them also? Did she make excuses for him, and
+keep secret the fact of her acting as his adviser? Did, she study his
+character, his wishes? Did she take care never to seem cold or weary when
+with him, never indifferent to his conversation or his caresses?
+
+The other matters on which the emperor chiefly dwells were those on which
+Mercy, and, by Mercy's advice, Maria Teresa also, had repeatedly pressed
+her. But those questions of Joseph's set plainly before us some of his
+young sister's difficulties and temptations, and, it must be confessed,
+some points in which her conduct was not wholly unimpeachable in
+discretion, even though her solid affection for her husband never wavered
+for a moment. In some respects they were an ill-assorted couple. He was
+slow, reserved, and awkward. She was clever, graceful, lively, and looking
+for liveliness. Both were thoroughly upright and conscientious; but he was
+indifferent to the opinions formed of him, while she was eager to please,
+to be applauded, to be loved. The temptation was great, to one so young,
+at times to put her graces in contrast to his uncouthness; to be seen to
+lead him who had a right to lead her; and, though we may regret, we can
+not greatly wonder, that she had not always steadiness to resist it. One
+tie was still wanting to bind her to him more closely; and happily the day
+was not far distant when that was added to complete and rivet their union.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+Impressions made on the Queen by the Emperor's Visit.--Mutual Jealousies
+of her Favorites.--The Story of the Chevalier d'Assas.--The Terrace
+Concerts at Versailles--More Inroads on Etiquette.--Insolence and
+Unpopularity of the Count d'Artois.--Marie Antoinette takes Interest in
+Politics.--France concludes an Alliance with the United States.--Affairs
+of Bavaria.--Character of the Queen's Letters on Politics.--The Queen
+expects to become a Mother.--Voltaire returns to Paris.--The Queen
+declines to receive him.--Misconduct of the Duke of Orleans in the Action
+off Ushant.--The Queen uses her Influence in his Favor.
+
+
+The emperor's admonitions and counsels had not been altogether unfruitful.
+If they had not at once entirely extinguished his sister's taste for the
+practices which he condemned, they had evidently weakened it; even though,
+as the first impression wore off, and her fear of being overwhelmed with
+_ennui_[1] resumed its empire, she relapsed for a while into her old
+habits, it was no longer with the same eagerness as before, and not
+without frequent avowals that they had lost their attraction. She visibly
+drew off from the entanglements of the coterie with which she had
+surrounded herself. The members had grown jealous of one another. Madame
+de Polignac feared the influence of the superior disinterestedness of the
+Princess de Lamballe; Madame de Guimenee, who was suspected of a want of
+even common honesty, grudged every favor that was bestowed on Madame de
+Polignac; and their rivalry, which was not always suppressed even in the
+queen's presence, was not only felt by her to be degrading to herself, but
+was also wearisome.
+
+Throughout the autumn her occupations and amusements were of a simpler
+kind. She read more, and agreeably surprised De Vermond by the soundness
+of her reflections on many incidents and characters in history. Accounts
+of chivalrous deeds had an especial charm for her. Hume was still her
+favorite author. And it happened that, while the gallantry of the loyal
+champions of Charles I. was fresh in her memory, a casual conversation
+threw in her way an opportunity of doing honor to the self-devoted heroism
+of a French soldier whom the proudest of the British cavaliers might have
+welcomed as a brother, but whose valiant and self-sacrificing fidelity had
+been left unnoticed by the worthless sovereign in whose service he had
+perished, and by his ministers, who thought only of securing the favor of
+the reigning mistress--favor to be won by actions of a very different
+complexion.
+
+In the Seven Years' War, when the French army, under the Marshal De
+Broglie, and the Prussians, under Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, were
+watching one another in the neighborhood of Wesel, the Chevalier d'Assas,
+a captain in the regiment of Auvergne, was in command of an outpost on a
+dark night of October. He had strolled a little in advance of his sentries
+into the wood which fronted his position, when suddenly he found himself
+surrounded and seized by a body of armed enemies. They were the advanced
+guard of the prince's army, who was marching to surprise De Broglie by a
+night attack, and they threatened him with instant death if he made the
+slightest noise. If he were but silent, he was safe as a prisoner of war;
+but his safety would have been the ruin of the whole French army, which
+had no suspicion of its danger. He did not for even a moment hesitate.
+With all the strength of his voice he shouted to his men, who were within
+hearing, that the enemy were upon them, and fell, bayoneted to death,
+almost before the words had passed his lips. He had saved his comrades and
+his commander, and had influenced the issue of the whole campaign. The
+enemy, whose well-planned enterprise his self-devotion had baffled, paid a
+cordial tribute of praise to his heroism, Ferdinand himself publicly
+expressing his regret at the fate of one whose valor had shed honor on
+every brother-soldier; but not the slightest notice had been taken of him
+by those in authority in France till his exploit was accidentally
+mentioned in the queen's apartments. It filled her with admiration. She
+asked what had been done to commemorate so noble a deed. She was told
+"nothing;" the man and his gallantry had been alike forgotten. "Had he
+left descendants or kinsmen?" "He had a brother and two nephews; the
+brother a retired veteran of the same regiment, the nephews officers in
+different corps of the army." The dead hero was forgotten no longer. Marie
+Antoinette never rested till she had procured an adequate pension for the
+brother, which was settled in perpetuity on the family; and promotion for
+both the nephews; and, as a further compliment, Clostercamp, the name of
+the village which was the scene of the brave deed, was added forever to
+their family name. The pension is paid to this day. For a time, indeed, it
+was suspended while France was under the sway of the rapacious and
+insensible murderers of the king who had granted it; but Napoleon restored
+it; and, amidst all the changes that have since taken place in the
+government of the country, every succeeding ruler has felt it equally
+honorable and politic to recognize the eternal claims which patriotic
+virtue has on the gratitude of the country.
+
+Marie Antoinette had thus the honor of setting an example to the
+Government and the nation. Her heart was getting lighter as the vexations
+under which she had so long fretted began to disappear. The late
+card-parties were often superseded, throughout the autumn, by concerts on
+the terrace at Versailles, where the regimental bands were the performers,
+and to which all the well-dressed towns-people were admitted, while the
+queen, attended by the princesses and her ladies, and occasionally
+escorted by Louis himself, strolled up and down and among the crowd,
+diffusing even greater pleasure than they themselves enjoyed; Marie
+Antoinette, as usual, being the central object of attraction, and greeting
+all with a teaming brightness of expression, and an affability as cordial
+as it was dignified, which deserved to win all hearts. One of the
+entertainments which she gave to the king at the Little Trianon may he
+recorded, not for any unusual sumptuousness of the spectacle, but as
+having been the occasion on which she made one more inroad on the
+established etiquette of the court in one of its most unaccountable
+restrictions: to such royal parties the king's ministers had never been
+regarded as admissible, but on this night Marie Antoinette commanded the
+company of the Count and Countess de Maurepas. And the innovation was
+regarded not only by them as a singular favor, but by all their colleagues
+as a marked compliment to the whole body of ministers, and served to
+increase their desire to consult her inclinations in every matter in which
+she took an interest.
+
+And the esteem which she thus conciliated was at this time not destitute
+of real importance, since the conduct of the other members of the royal
+family excited very different feelings. The Count de Provence was
+generally distrusted as intriguing and insincere. And the Count d'Artois,
+whose bad qualities were of a more conspicuous character, was becoming an
+object of general dislike, not so much from his dissipated mode of life as
+from the overbearing arrogance which he imparted into his pleasures. No
+rank was high enough to protect the objects of his displeasure from his
+insolence; even ladies were not safe from it;[2] while his extravagance
+was beyond all bounds since he considered himself entitled to claim from,
+the national treasury whatever he might require in addition to his stated
+income. He was at the same time repairing one castle, that of St. Germain,
+which the king had given him; rebuilding another large house which he had
+purchased in the same neighborhood; and pulling down and rebuilding a
+third, named Bagatelle, in the Bois de Boulogne, which he had just bought,
+and as to which he had laid an enormous wager that it should be completed
+and furnished in sixty days. To win his bet nearly a thousand workmen were
+employed day and night, and, as the requisite materials could not be
+provided at so short a notice, he sent patrols of his regiment to scour
+the roads, and seize every cart loaded with stones or timber for other
+employers, which he thus appropriated to his own use. He did, indeed, pay
+for the goods thus seized, and he won his bet, but when the princes of the
+land made so open a parade of their disregard of all law and all decency,
+one can hardly wonder that men in secret began, to talk of a revolution,
+or that all the graces and gentleness of the queen should be needed to
+outweigh such grave causes of discontent and indignation.
+
+As the new year opened, affairs of a very different kind began to occupy
+the queen's attention. On political questions, the advice which the
+empress gave her differed in some degree from that of her embassador.
+Maria Teresa was an earnest politician, but she was also a mother; and, as
+being eager above all things for her daughter's happiness, while she
+entreated Marie Antoinette to study politics, history, and such other
+subjects as might qualify her to be an intelligent companion of the king,
+and so far as or whenever he might require it, his chief confidante, she
+warned her also against ever wishing to rule him. But Mercy was a
+statesman above every thing, and, feeling secure of being able to guide
+the queen, he desired to instill into her mind an ambition to govern the
+king. On one most important question she proved wholly unable to do so,
+since the decision taken was not even in accordance with the judgment or
+inclination of Louis himself; but he allowed himself to be persuaded by
+two of his ministers to adopt a course against which Joseph had earnestly
+warned him in the preceding year, and which, as he had been then
+convinced, was inconsistent alike with his position as a king and with his
+interests as King of France.
+
+England had been for some years engaged in a civil war with her colonies
+in North America, and from the commencement of the contest a strong
+sympathy for the colonists had been evinced by a considerable party in
+France. Louis, who, for several reasons disliked England and English
+ideas, was at first inclined to coincide in this feeling as a development
+of anti-English principles: he was far from suspecting that its source was
+rather a revolutionary and republican sentiment. But he had conversed with
+his brother-in-law on the possibility of advantages which might accrue to
+France from the weakening of her old foe, if French aid should enable the
+Americans to establish their independence. Joseph's opinion was clear and
+unhesitating: "I am a king; it is my business to be royalist." And he
+easily convinced Louis that for one sovereign to assist the subjects of
+another monarch who were in open revolt, was to set a mischievous example
+which might in time be turned against himself. But since his return to
+Vienna, unprecedented disasters had befallen England; a whole army had
+laid down its arms; the ultimate success of the Americans seemed to every
+statesman in Europe to be assured, and the prospect gave such
+encouragement to the war party in the French cabinet that Louis could
+resist it no longer. In February, 1778, a treaty was concluded with the
+United States, as the insurgents called themselves; and France plunged
+into a war from which she had nothing to gain, which involved her in
+enormous expenses, which brought on her overwhelming defeats, and which,
+from its effects upon the troops sent to serve with the American army, who
+thus became infected with republican principles, had no slight influence
+in bringing about the calamities which, a few years later, overwhelmed
+both king and people.
+
+All Marie Antoinette's language on the subject shows that she viewed the
+quarrel with England with even greater repugnance than her husband; but it
+is curious to see that her chief fear was lest the war should be waged by
+land, and that she felt much greater confidence in the French navy than in
+the army;[3] though it was just at this time that Voltaire was pointing
+out to his countrymen that England had always enjoyed and always would
+possess a maritime superiority which different inquirers might attribute
+to various causes, but which none could deny.[4]
+
+Even before the conclusion of this treaty, however, the Americans had
+found sympathizers in France, to one of whom some of the circumstances of
+the war which they were now waging gave a subsequent importance to which
+no talents or virtues of his own entitled him. The Marquis de La Fayette
+was a young man of ancient family, and of fair but not excessive fortune.
+He was awkward in appearance and manner, gawky, red-haired, and singularly
+deficient in the accomplishments which were cultivated by other youths of
+his age and rank.[5] But he was deeply imbued with the doctrines of the
+new philosophy which saw virtue in the mere fact of resistance to
+authority; and when the colonists took up arms, he became eager to afford
+them such aid as he could give. He made the acquaintance of Silas Deane,
+one of the most unscrupulous of the American agents, who promised him,
+though he was only twenty years of age, the rank of major-general. As he
+was at all times the slave of a most overweening conceit, he was tempted
+by that bait; and, though he could not leave France without incurring the
+forfeiture of his military rank in the army of his own country, in April,
+1777, he crossed over to America to serve as a volunteer under Washington,
+who naturally received with special distinction a recruit of such
+political importance. He was present at more than one battle, and was
+wounded at Brandywine; but the exploit which made him most conspicuous was
+a ridiculous act of bravado in sending a challenge to Lord Carlisle, the
+chief of the English Commissioners who in 1778 were dispatched to America
+to endeavor to re-establish peace. However, the close of the war, which
+ended, as is well known, in the humiliation of Great Britain and the
+establishment of the independence of the colonies, made him seem a hero to
+his countrymen on his return. The queen, always eager to encourage and
+reward feats of warlike enterprise, treated him with marked distinction,
+and procured him from her husband not only the restoration of his
+commission, but promotion to the command of a regiment;[6] kindness which,
+as will be seen, he afterward requited with the foulest ingratitude.
+
+Nor was this most imprudent war with England the only question of foreign
+politics which at this time interested Marie Antoinette. Her native land,
+her mother's hereditary dominions, were also threatened with war. On the
+death of the Elector of Bavaria at the end of 1777, Joseph, who had been
+married to his sister, claimed a portion of his territories; and Frederick
+of Prussia, that "bad neighbor," as Marie Antoinette was wont to call him,
+announced his resolution to resist that claim, by force of arms if
+necessary. If he should carry out the resolution which he had announced,
+and if war should in consequence break out, much would depend on the
+attitude which France would assume on her fidelity to or disregard of the
+alliance which had now subsisted more than twenty years. So all-important
+to Austria was her decision, that Maria Teresa forgot the line which, as a
+general rule of conduct, she had recommended to her daughter, and wrote to
+her with the most extreme earnestness to entreat her to lose no
+opportunity of influencing the King's council. If it depended upon Maria
+Teresa, the claim would probably not have been advanced; but Joseph had
+made it on the part of the empire, and, when it was once made, the empress
+could not withhold her support from her son. She therefore threw herself
+into the quarrel with as much earnestness as if it had been her own.
+Indeed, since Joseph had as yet no authority over her hereditary
+possessions, it was only by her armies that it could be maintained; and in
+her letters to her daughter she declared that Marie Antoinette had her
+happiness, the welfare of her house, and of the whole Austrian nation in
+her hands; that all depended on her activity and affection. She knew that
+the French ministers were inclined to favor the views of Frederick, but if
+the alliance should be dissolved it would kill her.[7] Marie Antoinette
+grew pale at reading so ominous a denunciation. It required no art to
+inflame her against Frederick. The Seven Years' War had begun when she was
+but a year old; and all her life she had heard of nothing more frequently
+than of the rapacity and dishonesty of that unprincipled aggressor. She
+now entered with eagerness into her mother's views, and pressed them on
+Louis with unremitting diligence and considerable fertility of argument,
+though she was greatly dismayed at finding that not only his ministers,
+but he himself, regarded Austria as actuated by an aggressive ambition,
+and compared her claim to a portion of Bavaria to the partition of Poland,
+which, six years before, had drawn forth unwonted expressions of honorable
+indignation from even his unworthy grandfather. The idea that the alliance
+between France and the empire was itself at stake on the question, made
+her so anxious that she sent for the ministers themselves, pressing her
+views on both Maurepas and Vergennes with great earnestness. But they,
+though still faithful to the maintenance of the alliance, sympathized with
+the king rather than with her in his view of the character of the claim
+which the emperor had put forward; and they also urged another argument
+for abstaining from any active intervention, that the finances of the
+country were in so deplorable a state that France could not afford to go
+to war. It was plain, as she told them, that this consideration should at
+least equally have prevented their quarreling with England. But, in spite
+of all her persistence, they were not to be moved from this view of the
+true interest of France in the conjuncture that had arisen; and,
+accordingly, in the brief war which ensued between the empire and Prussia,
+France took no part, though it is more than probable that her mediation
+between the belligerents, which had no little share in bringing about the
+peace of Teschen,[8] was in a great degree owing to the queen's influence.
+
+For she was not discouraged by her first failure, but renewed her
+importunities from time to time; and at last did succeed in wringing a
+promise from her husband that if Prussia should invade the Flemish
+provinces of Austria, France would arm on the empress's side. So fully did
+the affair absorb her attention that it made her indifferent to the
+gayeties which the carnival always brought round. She did, indeed, as a
+matter of duty, give one or two grand state balls, one of which, in which
+the dancers of the quadrilles were masked, and in which their dresses
+represented the male and female costumes of India, was long talked of for
+both the magnificence and the novelty of the spectacle; and she attended
+one or two of the opera-balls, under the escort of her brothers-in-law and
+their countesses; but they had begun to pall upon her, and she made
+repeated offers to the king to give them up and to spend her evenings in
+quiet with him. But he was more inclined to prompt her to seek amusement
+than to allow her to sacrifice any,[9] even such as he did not care to
+partake of; nevertheless, he was pleased with the offer, and it was
+observed by the courtiers that the mutual confidence of the husband and
+wife in each other was more marked and more firmly established than ever.
+He showed her all the dispatches, consulted her on all points, and
+explained his reasons when he could not adopt all her views. As Marie
+Antoinette wrote to her brother, "If it were possible to reckon wholly on
+any man, the king was the one on whom she could thoroughly rely.[10]"
+
+So greatly, indeed, did the quarrel between Austria and Prussia engross
+her, that it even occupied the greater part of letters whose ostensible
+object is to announce prospects of personal happiness which might have
+been expected to extinguished every other consideration. In one, after
+touching briefly on her health and hopes, she proceeds:
+
+"How kind my dear mamma is, to express her approval of the way in which I
+have conducted myself in these affairs up to the present time! Alas! there
+is no need for you to feel obliged to me; it was my heart that acted in
+the whole matter. I am only vexed at not being able to enter myself into
+the feelings of all these ministers, so as to be able to make them
+comprehend how every thing which has been done and demanded by the
+authorities at Vienna is just and reasonable. But unluckily none are more
+deaf than those who will not hear; and, besides, they have such a number
+of terms and phrases which mean nothing, that they bewilder themselves
+before they come to say a single reasonable thing. I will try one plan,
+and that is to speak to them both in the king's presence, to induce them,
+at least, to hold language suitable to the occasion to the King of
+Prussia; and in good truth it is for the interest and glory of the
+king[11] himself that I am anxious to see this done; for he can not but
+gain by supporting allies who on every account ought to be so dear to him.
+
+"In other respects, and especially in my present conditions, he behaves
+most admirably, and is most attentive to me. I protest to you, my dear
+mamma, that my heart would be torn by the idea that you could for a moment
+suspect his good-will in what has been done. No; it is the terrible
+weakness of his ministers, and tis own great want of self-reliance, which
+does all the mischief; and I am sure that if he would never act but on his
+own judgment, every one would see his honesty, his correctness of feeling,
+and his tact, which at present they are far from appreciating.[12]"
+
+And at the end of the month she writes again:
+
+"I saw Mercy a day or two ago: he showed me the articles which the King of
+Prussia sent to my brother. I think it is impossible to see any thing more
+absurd than his proposals. In fact, they are so ridiculous that they must
+strike every one here; I can answer for their appearing so to the king. I
+have not been able to see the ministers. M. de Vergennes has not been here
+[she is writing from Marly]; he is not well, so that I must wait till we
+return to Versailles.
+
+"I had seen before the correspondence of the King of Prussia with my
+brother. It is most abominable of the former to have sent it here, and the
+more so since, in truth, he has not much to boast of. His imprudence, his
+bad faith, and his malignant temper are visible in every line. I have been
+enchanted with my brother's answers. It is impossible to put into letters
+more grace, more moderation, and at the same time more force. I am going
+to say something which is very vain; but I do believe that there is not in
+the whole world any one but the emperor, the son of my dearest mother, who
+has the happiness of seeing her every day, who could write in such a
+manner."
+
+There is no trace in these letters of the levity and giddiness of which
+Mercy so often complains, and which she at times did not deny. On the
+contrary, they display an earnestness as well as a good sense and an
+energy which are gracefully set off by the affection for her mother, and
+the pride in her brother's firmness and address which they also express.
+With respect to the conduct of Louis at this crisis we may perhaps differ
+from her; and may think that he rarely showed so much self-reliance, the
+general want of which was in truth his greatest defect, as when he
+preferred the arguments of Vergennes to her entreaties. But if her praises
+of the emperor are, as she herself terms them, vanity, it is the vanity of
+sisterly and patriotic affection, which can not but be regarded with
+approval; and we may see in it an additional proof of the correctness of
+an assertion, repeated over and over again in Mercy's correspondence,
+that, whenever Marie Antoinette gave the rein to her own natural impulses,
+she invariably both thought and acted rightly.
+
+In one of the extracts which have just been quoted, the queen alludes to
+her own condition; and that, in any one less unselfish, might well have
+driven all other thoughts from her head. For the event to which she had so
+long looked forward as that which was wanted to crown her happiness, and
+which had been so long deferred that at times she had ceased to hope for
+it at all, was at last about to take place--she was about to become a
+mother. Her own joy at the prospect was shared to its full extent by both
+the king and the empress. Louis, roused out of his usual reserve, wrote
+with his own hand to both the empress and the emperor, to give the
+intelligence; and Maria Teresa declared that she had nothing left to wish
+for, and that she could now close her eyes in peace. And the news was
+received with almost equal pleasure by the citizens of Paris, who had long
+desired to see an heir born to the crown; and by those of Vienna, who had
+not yet forgotten the fair young princess, the flower of her mother's
+flock, as they had fondly called her, whom they had sent to fill a foreign
+throne. Her own happiness exhibited itself, as usual, in acts of
+benevolence, in the distribution of liberal gifts to the poor of Paris and
+Versailles, and a foundation of a hospital for those in a similar
+condition with herself.[13]
+
+In the course of the spring, Paris was for a moment excited even more than
+by the declaration of war against England, or than by the expectation of
+the queen's confinement, by the return of Voltaire, who had long been in
+disgrace with the court, and had been for many years living in a sort of
+tacit exile on the borders of the Lake of Geneva. He was now in extreme
+old age, and, believing himself to have but a short time to live, he
+wished to see Paris once more, putting forward as his principal motive his
+desire to superintend the performance of his tragedy of "Irene." His
+admirers could easily secure him a brilliant reception at the theatre; but
+they were anxious above all things to obtain for him admission to the
+court, or at least a private interview with the queen. She felt in a
+dilemma. Joseph, a year before, had warned her against giving
+encouragement to a man whose principles deserved the reprobation of all
+sovereigns. He himself, though on his return to Vienna he had passed
+through Geneva, had avoided an interview with him, while the empress had
+been far more explicit in her condemnation of his character. On the other
+hand, Marie Antoinette had not yet learned the art of refusing, when those
+who solicited a favor had personal access to her; and she had also some
+curiosity to see a man whose literary fame was accounted one of the chief
+glories of the nation and the age. She consulted the king, but found
+Louis, on this subject, in entire agreement with her mother and her
+brother. He had no literary curiosity, and he disapproved equally the
+lessons which Voltaire had throughout his life sought to inculcate upon
+others, and the licentious habits with which he had exemplified his own
+principles in action. She yielded to his objections, and Voltaire, deeply
+mortified at the refusal,[14] was left to console himself as best he could
+with the enthusiastic acclamations of the play-goers of the capital, who
+crowned his bust on the stage, while he sat exultingly in his box, and
+escorted him back in triumph to his house; those who could approach near
+enough even kissing his garments as he passed, till he asked them whether
+they designed to kill him with delight; as, indeed, in some sense, they
+may be said to have done, for the excitement of the homage thus paid to
+him day after day, whenever he was seen in public, proved too much for his
+feeble frame. He was seized with illness, which, however, was but a
+natural decay, and in a few weeks after his arrival in Paris he died.
+
+As the year wore on, Marie Antoinette was fully occupied in making
+arrangements for the child whose coming was expected with such impatience.
+Her mother is of course her chief confidante. She is to be the child's
+godmother; her name shall be the first its tongue is to learn to
+pronounce; while for its early management the advice of so experienced a
+parent is naturally sought with unhesitating deference. Still, Marie
+Antoinette is far from being always joyful. Russia has made an alliance
+with Prussia; Frederick has invaded Bohemia, and she is so overwhelmed
+with anxiety that she cancels invitations for parties which she was about
+to give at the Trianon, and would absent herself from the theatre and from
+all public places, did not Mercy persuade her that such a withdrawal would
+seem to be the effect, not of a natural anxiety, but of a despondency
+which would be both unroyal and unworthy of the reliance which she ought
+to feel on the proved valor of the Austrian armies.
+
+The war with England, also, was an additional cause of solicitude and
+vexation. The sailors in whom she had expressed such confidence were not
+better able than before to contend with British antagonists. In an
+undecisive skirmish which took place in July between two fleets of the
+first magnitude, the French admiral, D'Orvilliers, had made a practical
+acknowledgment of his inferiority by retreating in the night, and eluding
+all the exertions of the English admiral, Keppel, to renew the action. The
+discontent in Paris was great; the populace was severe on one or two of
+the captains, who were thought to have taken undue care of their ships and
+of themselves, and especially bitter against the Duke de Chartres, who had
+had a rear-admiral's command in the fleet, and who, after having made
+himself conspicuous before D'Orvilliers sailed, by his boasts of the
+prowess which he intended to exhibit, had made himself equally notorious
+in the action itself by the pains he took to keep himself out of danger.
+On his return to Paris, shameless as he was, he scarcely dared show his
+face, till the Comte d'Artois persuaded the queen to throw her shield over
+him. It was impossible for him to remain in the navy; but, to soften his
+fall, the count proposed that the king should create a new appointment for
+him, as colonel-general of the light cavalry. Louis saw the impropriety of
+such a step: truly it was but a questionable compliment to pay to his
+hussars, to place in authority over them a man under whom no sailor would
+willingly serve. Marie Antoinette in her heart was as indignant as any
+one. Constitutionally an admirer of bravery, she had taken especial
+interest in the affairs of the fleet and in the details of this action.
+She had honored with the most marked eulogy the gallantry of Admiral du
+Chaffault, who had been severely wounded; but now she allowed herself to
+be persuaded that the duke's public disgrace would reflect on the whole
+royal family, and pressed the request so earnestly on the king that at
+last he yielded. In outward appearance the duke's honor was saved; but the
+public, whose judgment on such matter is generally sound, and who had
+revived against him some of the jests with which the comrades of Luxemburg
+had shown their scorn of the Duke de Maine, blamed her interference; and
+the duke himself, by the vile ingratitude with which he subsequently
+repaid her protection, gave but too sad proof that of all offenders
+against honor the most unworthy of royal indulgence is a coward.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+Birth of Madame Royale.--Festivities of Thanksgiving.--The Dames de la
+Halle at the Theatre.--Thanksgiving at Notre Dame.--The King goes to a Bal
+d'Opera.--The Queen's Carriage breaks down.--Marie Antoinette has the
+Measles.--Her Anxiety about the War.--Retrenchments of Expense.
+
+
+Mercy, while deploring the occasional levity of the queen's conduct, and
+her immoderate thirst for amusement, had constantly looked forward to the
+birth of a child as the event which, by the fresh and engrossing
+occupation it would afford to her mind, would be the surest remedy for her
+juvenile heedlessness. And, as we have seen, the absence of any prospect
+of becoming a mother had, till recently, been a constant source of anxiety
+and vexation to the queen herself--the one drop of bitterness in her cup,
+which, but for that, would have been filled with delights. But this
+disappointment was now to pass away. From the moment that it was publicly
+announced that the queen was in the way to become a mother, one general
+desire seemed to prevail to show how deep an interest the whole nation
+felt in the event. In cathedrals, monasteries, abbeys, universities, and
+parish churches, masses were celebrated and prayers offered for her safe
+delivery. In many instances, private individuals even gave extraordinary
+alms to bring down the blessing of Heaven on the nation, so interested in
+the expected event. And on the 19th of December, 1778, the prayers were
+answered, and the hopes of the country in great measure realized by the
+birth of a princess, who was instantly christened Maria Therese Charlotte,
+in compliment to the empress, her godmother.
+
+The labor was long, and had nearly proved fatal to the mother, from the
+strange and senseless custom which made the queen's bed-chamber on such an
+occasion a reception-room for every one, of whatever rank or station, who
+could force his way in.[1] In most countries, perhaps in all, the
+genuineness of a royal infant is assured by the presence of a few great
+officers of state; but on this occasion not only all the ministers, with
+all the members of the king's or of the queen's household, were present in
+the chamber, but a promiscuous rabble filled the adjacent saloon and
+gallery, and, the moment that it was announced that the birth was about to
+take place, rushed in disorderly tumult into the apartment, some climbing
+on the chairs and sofas, and even on the tables and wardrobes, to obtain a
+better sight of the patient. The uproar was great. The heat became
+intense; the queen fainted. The king himself dashed at the windows, which
+were firmly closed, and by an unusual effort of strength tore down the
+fastenings and admitted air into the room. The crowd was driven out, but
+Marie Antoinette continued insensible; and the moment was so critical that
+the physician had recourse to his lancet, and opened a vein in her foot.
+As the blood came she revived. The king himself came to her side, and
+announced to her that she was the mother of a daughter.
+
+It can hardly be said that the hopes of the nation, or of the king
+himself, had been fully realized, since an heir to the throne, a dauphin,
+that had been universally hoped for. But in the general joy that was felt
+at the queen's safety the disappointment of this hope was disregarded, and
+the little princess, Madame Royale, as she was called from her birth, was
+received by the still loyal people in the same spirit as that in which
+Anne Boleyn's lady in waiting had announced to Henry VIII. the birth of
+her "fair young maid:"
+
+  "_King Henry_. Now by thy looks
+  I guess thy message. Is the queen delivered?
+  Say ay; and of a boy.
+
+  "_Lady_. Ay, ay, my liege,
+  And of a lovely boy. The God of Heaven
+  Both now and ever bless her. 'Tis a girl,
+  Promises boys hereafter."
+
+And a month before the empress had expressed a similar sentiment: "I
+trust," she wrote to her daughter in November, "that God will grant me the
+comfort of knowing that you are safely delivered. Every thing else is a
+matter of indifference. Boys will come after girls.[2]" And the same
+feeling was shared by the Parisians in general, and embodied by M. Imbert,
+a courtly poet, whose odes were greatly in vogue in the fashionable
+circles, in an epigram which was set to music and sung in the theatres.
+
+  "Pour toi, France, un dauphin doit naitre,
+    Une Princesse vient pour en etre temoin,
+  Sitot qu'on voit une grace paraitre,
+    Croyez que l'amour n'est pas loin.[3]"
+
+Marie Antoinette herself was scarcely disappointed at all. When the
+attendants brought her her babe, she pressed it to her bosom. "Poor little
+thing," said she, "you are not what was desired, but you shall not be the
+less dear to me. A son would have belonged to the State; you will be my
+own: you shall have all my care, you shall share my happiness and sweeten
+my vexations.[4]"
+
+The Count de Provence made no secret of his joy. He was still heir
+presumptive to the throne. And, though no one shared his feelings on the
+subject, for the next few weeks the whole kingdom, and especially the
+capital, was absorbed in public rejoicings. Her own thankfullness was
+displayed by Marie Antoinette in her usual way, by acts of benevolence.
+She sent large sums of money to the prisons to release poor debtors; she
+gave dowries to a hundred poor maidens; she applied to the chief officers
+of both army and navy to recommend her veterans worthy of especial reward;
+and to the curates of the metropolitan parishes to point out to her any
+deserving objects of charity; and she also settled pensions on a number of
+poor children who were born on the same day as the princess; one of whom,
+who owed her education to this grateful and royal liberality, became
+afterward known to every visitor of Paris as Madame Mars, the most
+accomplished of comic actresses.[5]
+
+One portion of the rejoicings was marked by a curious incident, in which
+the same body whose right to a special place of honor at ceremonies
+connected with the personal happiness of the royal family we have already
+seen admitted--the ladies of the fish-market--again asserted their
+pretensions with triumphant success. On Christmas-eve the theatres were
+opened gratuitously, but these ladies, who, with their friends, the
+coal-heavers, selected the most aristocratic theatre, La Comedie
+Francaise, for the honor of their visit, arrived with aristocratic
+unpunctuality, so late that the guards stopped them at the doors,
+declaring that the house was full, and that there was not a seat vacant.
+They declared that in any event room must be made for them. "Who were in
+the boxes of the king and queen? for on such occasions those places were
+theirs of right." Even they, however, were full, and the guards demurred
+to the ladies' claim to be considered, though for this night only, as the
+representatives of royalty, and to have the existing occupants of the
+seats demanded turned out to make room for them. The box-keeper and the
+manager were sent for. The registers of the house confirmed the validity
+of the claim by former precedents, and a compromise was at last effected.
+Rows of benches were placed on each side of the stage itself. Those on the
+right were allotted to the coal-heavers as representatives of Louis; the
+ladies of the fish-market sat on the left as the deputies of Marie
+Antoinette. Before the play was allowed to begin, his majesty the king of
+the coal-heavers read the bulletin of the day announcing the rapid
+progress of the queen toward recovery; and then, giving his hand to the
+queen of the fish-wives, the august pair, followed by their respective
+suites, executed a dance expressive of their delight at the good news, and
+then resumed their seats, and listened to Voltaire's "Zaire" with the most
+edifying gravity.[6] It was evident that in some things there was already
+enough, and rather more than enough, of that equality the unreasonable and
+unpractical passion for which proved, a few years later, the most pregnant
+cause of immeasurable misery to the whole nation.
+
+But the demonstration most in accordance with the queen's own taste was
+that which took place a few weeks later, when she went in a state
+procession to the great national cathedral of Notre Dame to return thanks;
+one most interesting part of the ceremony being the weddings of the
+hundred young couples to whom she had given dowries, who also received a
+silver medal to commemorate the day. The gayety of the spectacle, since
+they, with the formal witnesses of their marriage, filled a great part of
+the antechapel; and the blessings invoked on the queen's head as she left
+the cathedral by the prisoners whom she had released, and by the poor
+whose destitution she had relieved, made so great an impression on the
+spectators, that even the highest dignitaries of the court added their
+cheers and applause to those of the populace who escorted her coach to the
+gates on its return to Versailles.
+
+She was now, for the first time since her arrival in France, really and
+entirely happy, without one vexation or one foreboding of evil. The king's
+attachment to her was rendered, if not deeper than before, at least far
+more lively and demonstrative by the birth of his daughter; his delight
+carrying him at times to most unaccustomed ebullitions of gayety. On the
+last Sunday of the carnival, he even went alone with the queen to the
+masked opera ball, and was highly amused at finding that not one of the
+company recognized either him or her. He even proposed to repeat his visit
+on Shrove-Tuesday; but when the evening came he changed his mind, and
+insisted on the queen's going by herself with one of her ladies, and the
+change of plan led to an incident which at the time afforded great
+amusement to Marie Antoinette, though it afterward proved a great
+annoyance, as furnishing a pretext for malicious stories and scandal. To
+preserve her _incognito_, a private carriage was hired for her, which
+broke down in the street close by a silk-mercer's shop. As the queen was
+already masked, the shop-men did not know her, and, at the request of the
+lady who attended her, stopped for her the first hackney-coach which
+passed, and in that unroyal vehicle, such as certainly no sovereign of
+France had ever set foot in before, she at last reached the theatre. As
+before, no one recognized her, and she might have enjoyed the scene and
+returned to Versailles in the most absolute secrecy, had not her sense of
+the fun of a queen using such a conveyance overpowered her wish for
+concealment, so that when, in the course of the evening, she met one or
+two persons of distinction whom she knew, she could not forbear telling
+them who she was, and that she had come in a hackney-coach.
+
+Her health seemed less delicate than it had been before her confinement.
+But in the spring she was attacked by the measles, and her illness, slight
+as it was, gave occasion to a curious passage in court history. The fear
+of infection was always great at Versailles, and, as the king himself and
+some of the ladies had never had the complaint, they were excluded from
+her room. But that she might not be left without attendants, four nobles
+of the court, the Duke de Coigny, the Duke de Guines, the Count Esterhazy,
+and the Baron de Besenval, in something of the old spirit of chivalry,
+devoted themselves to her service, and solicited permission to watch by
+her bedside till she recovered. As has been already seen, the bed-chamber
+and dressing-room of a queen of France had never been guarded from
+intrusion with the jealousy which protects the apartments of ladies in
+other countries, so that the proposal was less startling than it would
+have been considered elsewhere, while the number of nurses removed all
+pretext for scandal. Louis willingly gave the required permission, being
+apparently flattered by the solicitude exhibited for his queen's health.
+And each morning at seven the sick-watchers[7] took their seats in the
+queen's chamber, sharing with the Countess of Provence, the Princesse de
+Lamballe, and the Count d'Artois the task of keeping order and quiet in
+the sick-room till eleven at night. Though there was no scandal, there was
+plenty of jesting at so novel an arrangement. Wags proposed that in the
+case of the king being taken ill, a list should be prepared of the ladies
+who should tend his sick-bed. However, the champions were not long on
+duty: at the end of little more than a week their patient was
+convalescent. She herself took off the sentence of banishment which she
+had pronounced against the king in a brief and affectionate note, which
+said "that she had suffered a great deal, but what she had felt most was
+to be for so many days deprived of the pleasure of embracing him." And the
+temporary separation seemed to have but increased their mutual affection
+for each other.
+
+The Trianon was now more than ever delightful to her. The new plantations,
+which contained no fewer than eight hundred different kinds of trees, rich
+with every variety of foliage, were beginning, by their effectiveness, to
+give evidence of the taste with which they had been laid out; while with a
+charity which could not bear to keep her blessings wholly to herself, she
+had set apart one corner of the grounds for a row of picturesque cottages,
+in which she had established a number of pensioners whom age or infirmity
+had rendered destitute, and whom she constantly visited with presents from
+her dairy or her fruit-trees. Roaming about the lawns and walks, which she
+had made herself, in a muslin gown and a plain straw hat, she could forget
+that she was a queen. She did not suspect that the intriguers, who from
+time to time maligned her most innocent actions, were misrepresenting even
+these simple and natural pleasures, and whispering in their secret cabals
+that her very dress was a proof that she still clung as resolutely as ever
+to her Austrian preferences; that she discarded her silk gowns because
+they were the work of French manufacturers, while they were her brother's
+Flemish subjects who supplied her with muslins.
+
+But, far beyond her plantations and her flowers, her child was to her a
+source of unceasing delight. She could be carried by her side about the
+garden a great part of the day. For, as in her anticipations and
+preparations she had told her mother long before, French parents kept
+their children as much as possible in the open air,[8] a fashion which
+fully accorded with her own notions of what was best calculated to give an
+infant health and strength. And before the babe was five months old,[9]
+she flattered herself that it already distinguished her from its nurses.
+That nothing might be wanting to her comfort, peace was re-established
+between Austria and Prussia; and if at this time the war with England did
+make her in some degree uneasy, she yet felt a sanguine anticipation of
+triumph for the French arms, in the event of a battle between the hostile
+fleets; a result of which, when the antagonists did come within sight of
+each other, it appeared that the French and Spanish admirals felt far less
+confident. Her anxieties and hopes are vividly set forth in a letter
+which, in the course of the summer, she wrote to her mother, which is also
+singularly interesting from its self-examination, and from the substantial
+proof it supplies of the correctness of those anticipations which were
+based on the salutary effect which her novel position as a mother might be
+expected to have upon her character.
+
+"Versailles, August 16th.
+
+"My Dearest Mother,--I can not find language to express to my dear mamma
+my thanks for her two letters, and for the kindness with which she
+expresses her willingness to exert herself to the utmost to procure us
+peace.[10] It is true that that would be a great happiness, and my heart
+desires it more than any thing in the world; but, unhappily, I do not see
+any appearance of it at present. Every thing depends on the moment. Our
+fleets, the French and Spanish, being now united, we have a considerable
+superiority.[11]
+
+"They are now in the Channel; and I can not without great agitation
+reflect that at any instant the whole fate of the war may be decided. I am
+also terrified at the approach of September, when the sea is no longer
+practicable. In short, it is only on the bosom of my dearest mamma that I
+lay aside all my disquiet God grant that it may be groundless, but her
+kindness encourages me to speak to her as I think. The king is touched,
+quite as he should be, with all the service you so kindly propose to
+render him; and I do not doubt that he will be always eager to profit by
+it, rather than to deliver himself up to the intrigues of those who have
+so frequently deceived France, and whom we must regard as our natural
+enemies.
+
+"My health is completely re-established. I am going to resume my ordinary
+way of life, and consequently I hope soon to be able to announce to my
+dearest mother fresh news such as that of last year. She may feel quite
+re-assured now as to my behavior. I feel too strongly the necessity of
+having more children to be careless in that. If I have formerly done
+amiss, it was my youth and my levity; but now my head is thoroughly
+steadied, and you may reckon confidently on my properly feeling all my
+duties. Besides that, I owe such conduct to the king as a reward for his
+tenderness, and, I will venture to say it, his confidence in me, for which
+I can only praise him more find more.
+
+"... I venture to send my dear mamma the picture of my daughter: it is
+very like her. The dear little thing begins to walk very well in her
+leading-strings. She has been able to say "papa" for some days. Her teeth
+have not yet come through, but we can feel them all. I am very glad that
+her first word has been her father's name. It is one more tie for him. He
+behaves to me most admirably, and nothing could be wanting to make me love
+him more. My dear mamma will forgive my twaddling about the little one;
+but she is so kind that sometimes I abuse her kindness."
+
+It was well for Marie Antoinette's happiness that her husband was one in
+whom, as we have seen that she told her mother, she could feel entire
+confidence, for during her seclusion in the measles the intriguers of the
+court had ventured to try and work upon him. Mercy had reason to suspect
+that some were even wicked enough to desire to influence him against his
+wife by the same means by which the Duke de Richelieu had formerly
+alienated his grandfather from Marie Leczinska; and the queen herself
+received proof positive that Maurepas, in spite of her civilities to him
+and his countess, had become jealous of her political influence, and had
+endeavored to prevent his consulting her on public affairs. But all
+manoeuvres intended to disturb the conjugal felicity of the royal pair
+were harmless against the honest fidelity of the king, the graceful
+affection of the queen, and the firm confidence of each in the other. The
+people generally felt that the influence which it was now notorious that
+the queen did exert on public affairs was a salutary one; and great
+satisfaction was expressed when it became known in the autumn that the
+usual visit to Fontainebleau was given up, partly as being costly, and
+therefore undesirable while the nation had need to concentrate all its
+resources on the effective prosecution of the war, and partly that the
+king might be always within reach of his ministers in the event of any
+intelligence of importance arriving which required prompt decision.
+
+Her letters to her mother at this time show how entirely her whole
+attention was engrossed by the war; and, at the same time, with what wise
+earnestness she desired the re-establishment of peace. Even some gleams of
+success which had attended the French arms in the West Indies, where the
+Marquis de Bouille, the most skillful soldier of whom France at that time
+could boast, took one or two of the British islands, and the Count
+d'Estaing, whose fleet of thirty-six sail was for a short time far
+superior to the English force in that quarter, captured one or two more,
+did not diminish her eagerness for a cessation of the war. Though it is
+curious to see that she had become so deeply imbued with the principles of
+statesmanship with which M. Necker, the present financial minister, was
+seeking to inspire the nation, that her objections to the continuance of
+the war turned chiefly on the degree in which it affected the revenue and
+expenditure of the kingdom. She evidently sympathizes in the
+disappointment which, as she reports to the empress, is generally felt by
+the public at the mismanagement of the admiral, M. d'Orvilliers, who, with
+forces so superior to those of the English, has neither been able to fall
+in with them so as to give them battle, nor to hinder any of their
+merchantmen from reaching their harbors in safety. As it is, he will have
+spent a great deal of money in doing nothing.[12] And a month later she
+repeats the complaints.[13] The king and she have renounced the journey
+to Fontainebleau because of the expenses of the war; and also that they
+may be in the way to receive earlier intelligence from the army. But the
+fleet has not been able to fall in with the English, and has done nothing
+at all. It is a campaign lost, and which has cost a great deal of money.
+What is still more afflicting is, that disease has broken out on board the
+ships, and has caused great havoc; and the dysentery, which is raging as
+an epidemic in Brittany and Normandy, has attacked the land force also,
+which was intended to embark for England ... "I greatly fear," she
+proceeds, "that these misfortunes of ours will render the English
+difficult to treat with, and may prevent proposals of peace, of which I
+see no immediate prospect. I am constantly persuaded that if the king
+should require a mediation, the intrigues of the King of Prussia will
+fail, and will not prevent the king from availing himself of the offers of
+my dear mamma. I shall take care never to lose sight of this object, which
+is of such interest to the whole happiness of my life." So full is her
+mind of the war, that four or five words in each letter to report that
+"her daughter is in perfect health," or that "she has cut four teeth," are
+all that she can spare for that subject, generally of such engrossing
+interest to herself and the empress; while, before the end of the year, we
+find her taking even the domestic troubles of England into her
+calculations,[14] and speculating on the degree in which the aspect of
+affairs in Ireland may affect the great preparations which the English
+ministers are making for the next campaign.
+
+The mere habit of devoting so much consideration to affairs of this kind
+was beneficial as tending to mature and develop her capacity. She was
+rapidly learning to take large views of political questions, even if they
+were not always correct. And the acuteness and earnestness of her comments
+on them daily increased her influence over both the king and the
+ministers, so that in the course of the autumn Mercy could assure the
+empress[15] that "the king's complaisance toward her increased every day,"
+that "he made it his study to anticipate all her wishes, and that this
+attention showed itself in every kind of detail," while Maurepas also was
+unable to conceal from himself that her voice always prevailed "in every
+case in which she chose to exert a decisive will," and accordingly "bent
+himself very prudently" before a power which he had no means of resisting.
+So solicitous indeed did the whole council show itself to please her, that
+when the king, who was aware that her allowance, in spite of its recent
+increase was insufficient to defray the charges to which she was liable,
+proposed to double it, Necker himself, with all his zeal for economy and
+retrenchment, eagerly embraced the suggestion; and its adoption gave the
+queen a fresh opportunity of strengthening the esteem and affection of the
+nation, by declaring that while the war lasted she would only accept half
+the sum thus placed at her disposal.
+
+The continuance of the war was not without its effect on the gayety of the
+court, from the number of officers whom their military duties detained
+with their regiments; but the quiet was beneficial to Marie Antoinette,
+whose health was again becoming delicate, so much so, that after a grand
+drawing-room which she held on New-year's-eve, and which was attended by
+nearly two hundred of the chief ladies of the city, she was completely
+knocked up, and forced to put herself under the care of her physician.
+
+Meanwhile the war became more formidable. The English admiral, Rodney, the
+greatest sailor who, as yet, had ever commanded a British fleet, in the
+middle of January utterly destroyed a strong Spanish squadron off Cape St.
+Vincent; and as from the coast of Spain he proceeded to the West Indies,
+the French ministry had ample reason to be alarmed for the safety of the
+force which they had in those regions. It was evident that it would
+require every effort that could be made to enable their sailors to
+maintain the contest against an antagonist so brave and so skillful And,
+as one of the first steps toward such a result, Necker obtained the king's
+consent to a great reform in the expenditure of the court and in the civil
+service; and to the abolition of a great number of costly sinecures. We
+may be able to form some idea of the prodigality which had hitherto wasted
+the revenues of the country, from the circumstance that a single edict
+suppressed above four hundred offices; and Marie Antoinette was so sincere
+in her desire to promote such measures, that she speaks warmly in their
+praise to her mother, even though they greatly curtailed her power of
+gratifying her own favorites.
+
+"The king," she says, "has just issued an edict which is as yet only the
+forerunner of a reform which he designs, to make both in his own household
+and in mine. If it be carried out, it will be a great benefit, not only
+for the economy which it will introduce, but still more for its agreement
+with public opinion, and for the satisfaction it will give the nation." It
+is impossible for any language to show more completely how, above all
+things, she made the good of the country her first object. And she was the
+more inclined to approve of all that was being done in this way from her
+conviction that Necker was both honest and able; an opinion which she
+shared with, if she had not learned it from, her mother and her brother,
+and which was to some extent justified by the comparative order which he
+had re-established in the finance of the country, and by the degree in
+which he had revived public credit. She was not aware that the real
+dangers of the situation had a source deeper than any financial
+difficulty, a fact which Necker himself was unable to comprehend. And she
+could not foresee, when it became necessary to grapple with those dangers,
+how unequal to the struggle the great banker would be found.
+
+It may, perhaps, be inferred that she did suspect Necker of some
+deficiency in the higher qualities of statesmanship when, in the spring of
+1780, she told her mother that "she would give every thing in the world to
+have a Prince Kaunitz in the ministry;[16] but that such men were rare,
+and were only to be found by those who, like the empress herself, had the
+sagacity to discover and the judgment to appreciate such merit." She was,
+however, shutting her eyes to the fact that her husband had had a minister
+far superior to Kaunitz; and that she herself had lent her aid to drive
+him from his service.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+Anglomania in Paris.--The Winter at Versailles.--Hunting.--Private
+Theatricals.--Death of Prince Charles of Lorraine.--Successes of the
+English in America.--Education of the Duc d'Angouleme.--Libelous Attacks
+on the Queen.--Death of the Empress.--Favor shown to some of the Swedish
+Nobles.--The Count de Fersen.--Necker retires from Office.--His Character.
+
+
+It is curious, while the resources of the kingdom were so severely taxed
+to maintain the war against England, of which every succeeding dispatch
+from the seat of war showed more and more the imprudence, to read in
+Mercy's correspondence accounts of the Anglomania, which still subsisted
+in Paris; surpassing that which the letters of the empress describe as
+reigning in Vienna, though it did not show itself now in quite the same
+manner as a year or two before, in the aping of English vices, gambling at
+races, and hard drinking, but rather in a copying of the fashions of men's
+dress; in the introduction of top-boots; and, very wholesomely, in the
+adoption of a country life by many of the great nobles, in imitation of
+the English gentry; so that, for the first time since the coronation of
+Louis XIV., the great territorial lords began to spend a considerable part
+of the year on their estates, and no longer to think the interests and
+requirements of their tenants and dependents beneath their notice.
+
+The winter of 1779 and the spring of 1780 passed very happily. If
+Versailles, from the reasons mentioned above, was not as crowded as in
+former years, it was very lively. The season was unusually mild; the
+hunting was scarcely ever interrupted, and Marie Antoinette, who now made
+it a rule to accompany her husband on every possible occasion, sometimes
+did not return from the hunt till the night was far advanced, and found
+her health much benefited by the habit of spending the greater part of
+even a winter's day in the open air. Her garden, too, which daily occupied
+more and more of her attention, as it increased in beauty, had the same
+tendency; and her anxiety to profit by the experience of others on one
+occasion inflicted a whimsical disappointment of the free-thinkers of the
+court. The profligate and sentimental infidel Rousseau had died a couple
+of years before, and had been buried at Ermenonville, in the park of the
+Count de Girardin. In the course of the summer the queen drove over to
+Ermenonville, and the admirers of the versatile writer flattered
+themselves that her object was to pay a visit of homage to the shrine of
+their idol; but they wore greatly mortified to find that, though his tomb
+was pointed out to her, she took no further notice of it than such as
+consisted of a passing remark that it was very neat, and very prettily
+placed; and that what had attracted her curiosity was the English garden
+which the count had recently laid out at a great expense, and from which
+she had been led to expect that she might derive some hints for the
+further improvement of her own Little Trianon.
+
+She had not yet entirely given up her desire for novelty in her
+amusements; and she began now to establish private theatricals at
+Versailles, choosing light comedies interspersed with song, and with but
+few characters, the male parts being filled by the Count d'Artois and some
+of the most distinguished officers of the household, while she herself
+took one of the female parts; the spectators being confined to the royal
+family and those nobles whose posts entitled them to immediate attendance
+on the king and queen. She was so anxious to perform her own part well,
+though she did not take any of the principal characters, but preferred to
+act the waiting-woman rather than the mistress, that she placed herself
+under the tuition of Michu, a professional actor of reputation from one of
+the Parisian theatres; but, though the audience was far too courtly to
+greet her appearance on the stage without vociferous applause, the
+preponderance of evidence must lead us to believe that her majesty was not
+a good actress.[1] And perhaps we may think that as the parts which she
+selected required rather an arch pertness than the grace and majesty which
+were more natural to her, so, also, they were not altogether in keeping
+with the stately dignity which queens should never wholly lay aside.
+
+It was well, however, that she should have amusements to cheer her, for
+the year was destined to bring her heavy troubles before its close: losses
+in her own family, which would be felt with terrible heaviness by her
+affectionate disposition, were impending over her; while the news from
+America, where the English army at this time was achieving triumphs which
+seemed likely to have a decisive influence on the result of the war,
+caused her great anxiety. How great, a letter which she wrote to her
+mother in July affords a striking proof. In June, when she heard of the
+dangerous illness of her uncle, Prince Charles of Lorraine, now Governor
+of the Low Countries, formerly the gallant antagonist of Frederick of
+Prussia, she declared that "the intelligence overwhelmed her with an
+agitation and grief such as she had never before experienced," and she
+lamented with evidently deep and genuine distress the threatened
+extinction of the male line of the house of Lorraine. But before she wrote
+again, the news of Sir Henry Clinton's exploits in Carolina had arrived,
+and, though almost the same post informed her of the prince's death, the
+sorrow which that bereavement awakened in her mind was scarcely allowed,
+even in its first freshness, an equal share of her lamentations with the
+more absorbing importance of the events of the campaign beyond the
+Atlantic.
+
+"MY DEAREST MOTHER,--I wrote to you the moment that I received the sad
+intelligence of my uncle's death; though, as the Brussels courier had
+already started, I fear my letter may have arrived rather late. I will not
+venture to say more on the subject, lest I should be reopening a sorrow
+for which you have so much cause to grieve.... The capture of
+Charleston[2] is a most disastrous event, both for the facilities it will
+afford the English and for the encouragement which it will give to their
+pride. It is perhaps still more serious because of the miserable defense
+made by the Americans. One can hope nothing from such bad troops."
+
+It is curious to contrast the angry jealousy which she here betrays of our
+disposition and policy as a nation, with the partiality which, as we have
+seen, she showed for the agreeable qualities of individual Englishmen. But
+her uneasiness on this subject led to practical results, by inducing her
+to add her influence to that of a party which was discontented with the
+ministry; and was especially laboring to persuade the king to make a
+change in the War Department, and to dismiss the Prince de Montbarey,
+whose sole recommendation for the office of secretary of state seemed to
+be that he was a friend of the prime minister, and to give his place to
+the Count de Segur. The change was made, as any change was sure to be made
+in favor of which she personally exerted herself; even the partisans of M.
+de Maurepas himself were forced to allow that the new minister was in
+every respect far superior to his predecessor; and Mercy was desirous that
+she should procure the dismissal of Maurepas also, thinking it of great
+importance to her own comfort that the prime minister should be bound to
+her interests.
+
+But she was far more anxious on other subjects. Nearly two years had now
+elapsed since the birth of the princess royal; and there was as yet no
+prospect of a companion to her, so that the Count d'Artois began to make
+arrangements for the education of his infant son, the Duc d'Angouleme,
+with a premature solicitude, which was evidently designed to point the
+child out to the nation as its future sovereign.[3] The queen was greatly
+annoyed; and, to add to her vexation, one of the teething illnesses to
+which children are subject at this time threw the little princess into
+convulsions, which, to a mother's anxiety, seemed even dangerous to her
+life; though in a day or two that apprehension passed away.
+
+But these hopes of D'Artois and his flatterers again filled the court with
+intrigues. In the course of the summer she was made highly indignant by
+finding that news from the court, with malicious comments, were sent from
+Paris across the frontier to be printed at Deux-Ponts or Duesseldorf, and
+then circulated in Paris and in Vienna; and it was difficult to avoid
+connecting these libels with those who in the palace itself were
+manifestly building hopes on the diminution of her influence and the
+disparagement of her character.
+
+But this and all other vexations were presently thrown into the shade by a
+great grief, the more difficult to bear because it was wholly unexpected
+by her--the death of her mother. In reality, Maria Teresa had been unwell
+for some time; but the suspicions of the serious character of her
+complaint, which she secretly entertained, she had never revealed to Marie
+Antoinette; and at last the end followed too quickly on the first
+appearance of danger to allow time for any preparatory warnings to be
+received at Versailles before the fatal intelligence arrived. On the 24th
+of November she was taken ill in a manner which excited the alarm of her
+physicians, but her family felt no apprehensions. Even on the 27th, the
+emperor felt so sanguine that the cough which seemed her most distressing
+symptom was but temporary, that it was with the greatest unwillingness
+that he consented to her receiving the communion, as the physicians
+recommended; but the next day even he was forced to acquiesce in the
+hopeless view which they took of their patient; and on the 29th she died,
+after having borne sufferings, which for the last three days had been of
+the most painful character, with the same heroism with which, in her
+earlier life, she had struggled against griefs of a different kind.
+
+The dispatch announcing her death was brought to the king; and it is
+characteristic of his timid disposition that he could not nerve himself to
+communicate it to his wife, but suppressed all mention of it during the
+evening; and in the morning summoned the Abbe de Vermond, and employed him
+to break the news to her, reserving for himself the less painful task of
+approaching her with words of affectionate consolation after the first
+shock was over. For a time, however, she was almost overwhelmed with
+sorrow. She attempted to write to her brother, but after a few lines she
+closed the letter, declaring that her tears prevented her from seeing the
+paper; and those about her found that for some time she could bear no
+other topic of conversation than the courage, the wisdom, the greatness of
+her mother, and, above all, her warm affection for herself and for all her
+other children.[4]
+
+With the death of the empress we lose the aid of Mercy's correspondence,
+which has afforded such invaluable service in the light it has thrown on
+the peculiarities of Marie Antoinette's position, and the gradual
+development of her character during the earlier years of her residence in
+France. We shall again obtain light from the same source of almost greater
+importance, when the still more terrible dangers of the Revolution
+rendered the queen more dependent than ever on his counsels. But for the
+next few years we shall be compelled to content ourselves with scantier
+materials than have been furnished by the empress's unceasing interest in
+her daughter's welfare, and the embassador's faithful and candid reports.
+
+The death of Maria Teresa naturally closed the court of her daughter
+against all gayeties during the spring of 1781. Still, one of the taxes
+which princes pay for their grandeur is the force which, at times, they
+are compelled to put upon their inclinations, when they dispense with that
+retirement which their own feelings would render acceptable; and, after a
+few weeks of seclusion, a few guests began to be admitted to the royal
+supper-table, among whom, as a very extraordinary favor, were some Swedish
+nobles;[5] one of whom, the Count de Stedingk, had established a claim to
+the royal favor by serving, with several of his countrymen, as a volunteer
+in the Count d'Estaing's fleet in the West Indies. Such service was highly
+esteemed by both king and queen, since Louis, though he had been
+unwillingly dragged into the war by the ambition of the Count de Vergennes
+and the popular enthusiasm, naturally, when once engaged in it, took as
+vivid an interest in the prowess of his forces as if he had never been
+troubled with any misgivings as to the policy which had set them in
+motion; and Marie Antoinette was at all times excited to enthusiasm by any
+deed of valor, and, as we have seen, took an especial interest in the
+achievements of the navy.
+
+The King of Sweden, the chivalrous Gustavus III., had already made the
+acquaintance of Louis and Marie Antoinette in a short visit which he had
+paid to France the year after their marriage; and the queen now wrote to
+him in warm praise of M. de Stedingk, and all his countrymen who had come
+under her notice, while the king rewarded the count's valor and the wounds
+which had been incurred in its exhibition by an order of knighthood,[6]
+and the more substantial gift of a pension. But the Swede who soon outran
+all his compatriots in the race for the royal favor of both king and queen
+was the Count Axel de Fersen, a descendant, it was believed, of one of the
+Scotch officers of the great Macpherson clan, who, in the stormy times of
+the Thirty Years' War, had sought fame and fortune under the banner of
+Gustavus Adolphus. The beauty of his countess was celebrated throughout
+both Sweden and France, and his own was but little inferior to it. If she
+was known as "The Rose of the North," his name was rarely mentioned
+without the addition of "The handsome." He was a perfect master of all
+noble and knightly accomplishments, and was also distinguished for a
+certain high-souled and romantic[7] enthusiasm, which lent a tinge to all
+his conversation and demeanor; and this combination won for him the marked
+favor of Marie Antoinette. The calumniators, whom the condition and
+prospects of the royal family made more busy than ever at this time,
+insinuated that he had touched her heart; but those who knew best the
+manners of life and characters of both denounced it as the vilest of
+libels. The count's was a loyal attachment, doing nothing but honor to him
+who felt it, and to the queen who inspired it; and it was marked by a
+permanence which distinguishes no devotion but that which is pure and
+noble, as he showed ten years later by the well-planned and courageous,
+though unsuccessful, efforts which he made for the deliverance of the
+queen and all her family.
+
+That Marie Antoinette, who from early youth had shown an intuitive
+accuracy of judgment in her estimate of character, should, from the very
+first, honorably distinguish a man capable of such devotion to her service
+was not unnatural; but there was another circumstance in his favor, which
+he shared with the other foreign nobles, English and German, who in these
+years were well received by the queen. Their disinterestedness presented a
+striking contrast to the rapacity of the French. Every French noble valued
+the court only for what he could obtain from it. Even Madame de Polignac,
+whom the queen specially honored with the title of her friend, exhibited
+an all-grasping covetousness, of which, with all her efforts to shut her
+eyes to it, Marie Antoinette could not be unconscious; and her perception
+of the difference between her French and her foreign courtiers was marked
+by herself in a few words, when the Comte de la Marck, who was himself of
+foreign extraction, ventured once to recommend to her greater caution in
+her display of liking for the foreign nobles, as what might excite the
+jealousy of the French;[8] and she replied that "he might be right, but
+the foreigners were the only people who asked her for nothing."
+
+Meanwhile, the war went on in America; the colonists themselves were
+making but little, if any, progress, and the French contingent were
+certainly reaping no honor, M. de La Fayette, the only officer who came in
+contact with a British force, showing no military skill or capacity, and
+not even much courage. But in the course of the spring France sustained a
+far heavier loss than even the defeat of an army could have inflicted on
+her, in the retirement of Necker from the ministry. As a statesman, he was
+certainly not entitled to any very high rank. He had neither extensive
+knowledge, nor large views, nor firmness; the only project of
+constitutional reform which he had brought forward had been but a
+mutilated and imperfect copy of the system devised by the original and
+statesman-like daring of Turgot. At a subsequent period he proved himself
+incapable of discerning the true character of the circumstances which
+surrounded him, and wholly ignorant of the feelings of the nation, and of
+the principles and objects of those who aspired to take a lead in its
+councils. But as yet his financial policy had undoubtedly been successful.
+He had greatly relieved the general distress, he had maintained the public
+credit, and he had inspired the nation with confidence in itself, and
+other countries also with confidence in its resources; but he had made
+many and powerful enemies by the retrenchments which had been a necessary
+part of his system. As early as the spring of 1780, Mercy had reported to
+the empress that both the king's brothers and the Duc d'Orleans complained
+that some of his measures infringed upon their established rights; that
+the Count d'Artois had had a very stormy discussion with Necker himself,
+and, when he could neither convince nor overbear him, had tried, though
+unsuccessfully, to enlist the queen against him. The count had since
+employed the controller of his own household, M. Boutourlin, to write
+pamphlets against him, and, in point of fact, many of the most elaborate
+details of a financial statement which Necker had recently published were
+very ill-calculated to endure a strict scrutiny; but M. Boutourlin did his
+work so badly that Necker had no difficulty in repelling him, and for a
+moment seemed the stronger for the attack that had been made upon him.
+
+He had been so far right in his estimate of his position that he could
+rely on the support of the queen, who was aware that both her mother and
+her brother had a high opinion of his integrity; but though the king also
+had from time to time given his cordial sanction to his different
+measures, it was not in the nature of Louis to withstand repeated pressure
+and solicitation. Necker, too, himself unintentionally played into the
+hands of his enemies. He had nominally only a subordinate position in the
+ministry. As he was a Protestant, Louis had feared to offend the clergy by
+giving him a seat in the council, or the title of comptroller-general; but
+had conferred that post on M. Taboureau des Reaux, making Necker director
+of the treasury under him. The real management of the exchequer was,
+however, placed wholly in his hands; and, as he was one of the vainest of
+men, he had gradually assumed a tone of importance as if his were the
+paramount influence in the Government; going so far as even to open
+negotiations with foreign statesmen to which none of his colleagues were
+privy.[9] It was not strange that he was not very well satisfied with a
+position which seemed as if it had been contrived in order to keep him out
+of sight, and to deprive him of the credit belonging to his financial
+successes; but hitherto he had been satisfied to bide his time. Now,
+however, his triumph over M. Boutourlin seemed to him so to have
+established his supremacy as to entitle him to insist on a promotion which
+should be a public recognition of his position as the real minister of
+finance, and as entitled to a preponderating voice in all matters of
+general policy. He accordingly demanded admission to the council, and, on
+its being refused, at once resigned his office.
+
+The consternation was universal; the general public had gradually learned
+to place such confidence in him that they looked on his loss as
+irreparable. Some even of the princes who had originally striven to
+prepossess the king against him either changed their minds or feared to
+show their disagreement with the common feeling. And Marie Antoinette, who
+fully shared his views as to the primary importance of finance in all
+questions of government, condescended to admit him to an interview;
+requested him, as a personal favor to herself, to recall his resignation,
+urging upon him that patience would surely in time procure him all that he
+asked; and, in her honest earnestness for the welfare of the nation, wept
+when he withdrew without having yielded to her solicitations. It was late
+in the evening and dark when he took his leave, and afterward, when he was
+told that he had drawn tears from her eyes by his refusal, he said that,
+had he seen them, he should have submitted to a wish so enforced, even at
+the sacrifice of his own comfort and reputation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+The Queen expects to be confined again.--Increasing Unpopularity of the
+King's Brothers.--Birth of the Dauphin.--Festivities.--Deputations from
+the Different Trades.--Songs of the Dames de la Halle.--Ball given by the
+Body-guard.--Unwavering Fidelity of the Regiment.--The Queen offers up her
+Thanksgiving at Notre Dame.--Banquet at the Hotel de Ville.--Rejoicing in
+Paris.
+
+
+How irreparable his loss was, was shown by the rapid succession of finance
+ministers who, in the course of the next seven years, successively held
+the office of comptroller-general. All were equally incompetent, and under
+their administration, sometimes merely incapable, sometimes combining
+recklessness and corruption with incapacity, the treasury again became
+exhausted, the resources of the nation dwindled away, and the distress of
+all but the wealthiest classes became more and more insupportable. But for
+a time the attention of Marie Antoinette was drawn off from political
+embarrassments by the event which alone seemed wanting to complete her
+personal happiness, and to place her position and popularity on an
+impregnable foundation.
+
+In the spring she discovered that she was again about to become a mother.
+The whole nation expected the result with an intense anxiety. The king's
+brothers were daily becoming more and more deservedly unpopular. The Count
+d'Artois, who as the father of a son, occupied more of the general
+attention than his elder brother, seemed to take pains to parade his
+contempt for the commercial class, and still more for the lower orders,
+and his disapproval of every proposal which had for its object to
+conciliate the traders or to relieve the sufferings of the poor; while the
+Count de Provence openly established a mistress, the Countess de Balbi, at
+the Luxembourg Palace, his residence in the capital, where she presided
+over the receptions which he took upon himself to hold, to the exclusion
+of his lawful princess. The Countess de Provence was not well calculated
+to excite admiration or sympathy, since she was plain and ungracious. But
+Madame de Balbi, whose character had been disgracefully notorious even
+before her connection with the count, was not more attractive in
+appearance or manner than the Savoy princess; and the citizens of Paris,
+who in this instance faithfully represented the feelings of the entire
+nation, did not disguise their anxiety that the child about to be born
+should be a prince, who might extinguish the hopes and projects of both
+his uncles.
+
+Their wishes were gratified. On the morning of the 22d of October the king
+was starting from the palace on a hunting expedition with his brothers,
+when it was announced to him that the queen was taken ill.[1] He at once
+returned to her room, and, mindful of the danger which she had incurred on
+the occasion of the birth of Madame Royale from the greatness and disorder
+of the crowd, he broke through the ancient custom, and ordered that the
+doors should be closed, and that no one should be admitted beyond a very
+small number of the great officers, male and female, of the household. His
+cares were rewarded by a comparatively easy birth; and his anxiety to
+protect his wife from agitation was further shown by a second arrangement,
+which was perhaps hardly so easy to carry out, but which was also
+perfectly successful. As was most natural, the queen and himself fully
+shared the ardent wishes of the nation that the expected child should
+prove an heir to the throne; and he consequently feared that, should it
+not be so, the disappointment might produce an injurious effect on the
+mother's health; or, should their hopes be realized, that the excessive
+joy might be equally dangerous. With a desire, therefore, to avoid
+exposing her to either shock in the first moments of weakness, he forbade
+any announcement of the sex of the child being made to any one but
+himself. The instant that the child was born, he hastened to the bedside
+to judge for himself whether she could bear the news. Presently she came
+to herself; and it seemed to her that the general silence indicated that
+she had become the mother of a second daughter. But she desired to be
+assured of the fact. "See," said she to Louis, "how reasonable I am. I ask
+no questions.[2]" And Louis, who from joy was scarcely able to contain
+himself, seeing her freedom from agitation, thought he might safely reveal
+to her the whole extent of their happiness. He called out, so as to be
+heard by the Princess de Guimenee, who still held the post of governess to
+the royal children, and who had already exhibited the child to the
+witnesses in the antechamber, and was now awaiting his summons at the open
+door, "My lord the dauphin begs to be admitted." The Princess de Guimenee
+brought "my lord the dauphin" to his mother's arms, and for a few minutes
+the small company in the room gazed in respectful silence while the father
+and mother mingled tears of joy with broken words of thanksgiving.
+
+Yet even in this moment of exultation Marie Antoinette could not forget
+her first-born, nor the feelings which had made her rejoice at the birth
+of a daughter, who still had, as it were, no rival in her eyes, because no
+rival claim to her own could be set up with respect to a princess. She
+kissed the long-wished-for infant over and over again; pressed him fondly
+to her heart; and then, after she had perused each feature with anxious
+scrutiny, and pointed out some resemblances, such as mothers see, to his
+father, "Take him," said she, to Madame de Guimenee; "he belongs to the
+State; but my daughter is still mine.[3]"
+
+Presently the chamber was cleared; and in a few minutes the glad tidings
+were carried to every corner of the palace and town of Versailles, and, as
+speedily as expresses could gallop, to the anxious city of Paris. By a
+somewhat whimsical coincidence, the Count de Stedingk, who, from having
+been one of the intended hunting-party, had been admitted into the
+antechamber, rushing down-stairs in his haste to spread the intelligence,
+met the Countess de Provence on the staircase. "It is a dauphin, madame,"
+he cried; "what a happy event!" The countess made him no reply. Nor did
+she or her husband pretend to disguise their mortification. The Count
+d'Artois was a little less open in the display of his discontent, which
+was, however, sufficiently notorious. But, with these exceptions, all
+France, or at least all France sufficiently near the court to feel any
+personal interest in its concerns, was unanimous in its exultation.
+
+As soon as the new-born child was dressed, his father took him in his
+arms, and, carrying him to the window, showed him to the crowd[4] which,
+on the first news of the queen's illness, had thronged the court-yard, and
+was waiting in breathless expectation the result. A rumor had already
+begun to penetrate the throng that the child was a son, and the moment
+that the happy tidings were confirmed, and the infant--their future king,
+as they undoubtingly hailed him--was presented to their view, their joy
+broke forth in such vociferous acclamations that it became necessary to
+silence them by an appeal to them to show consideration for the mother's
+weakness.
+
+For the next three months all was joy and festivity. When the little Duc
+d'Angouleme, now a sprightly boy of six years old, was taken into the
+nursery to see, or, in the court language, to pay his homage to, the heir
+to the throne, he said to his father, as he left the room, "Papa, how
+little my cousin is!" "The day will come, my boy," replied the count,
+"when you will find him quite great enough." And it seemed as if the whole
+nation, and especially the city of Paris, thought no celebration of the
+birth of its future king could be too sumptuous for his greatness. It was
+a real heart-felt joy that was awakened in the people. On the day
+following the birth, chroniclers of the time remarked that no other
+subject was spoken of; that even strangers stopped one another in the
+streets to exchange congratulations.[5]
+
+The different trades and guilds led the way in the expression of these
+loyal felicitations. When his royal highness was a week old, he held a
+grand reception. Deputations from different bodies of artisans, each with
+a band of music at its head, and each carrying some emblem of its
+occupation, marched in a long procession to Versailles. The chimney-sweeps
+bore aloft a chimney entwined with garlands, on the top of which was
+perched one of the smallest of their boys; the chairmen carried a chair
+superbly gilt, on which sat in state a representative of the royal nurse,
+with a child in her arms in royal robes; the butchers drove a fat ox; the
+pastry-cooks bore on a splendid tray a variety of pastry and sweetmeats
+such as might tempt children of a larger growth than the little prince
+they had come to honor; the blacksmiths beat an anvil in time to their
+cheers; the shoe-makers brought a pair of miniature boots; the tailors had
+devoted elaborate and minute pains to the embroidering of a uniform of the
+dauphin's regiment, such as might even now fit its young colonel, if his
+parents would permit him to be attired in it. The crowd was too great to
+be received in even the largest saloon of the palace; but it filled the
+court-yard beneath; and, as the weather was luckily favorable, the dauphin
+was brought to the balcony and displayed to the people, while they greeted
+him with cheers, which were renewed from time to time, even after he had
+been withdrawn, till the shouting seemed as if it would have no end.
+
+One deputation, consisting of members of the fairer sex, received even
+higher honors. Fifty ladies of the fish-market vindicated the
+long-acknowledged claims of their body by forming a separate procession.
+Each dame was dressed in a gown of rich black silk, their established
+court-dress, and nearly every one had diamond ornaments. To them, the
+celebrated antechamber, from the oval window at the end known as the
+Bull's Eye, was opened;[6] and three of their body were admitted even into
+the queen's room, and to the side of the bed. The popular poet La Harpe,
+whom the partiality of Voltaire had designated as the heir of his genius,
+had composed an address, which the spokeswoman of the party had written
+out on the back of her fan, and now read with a sweet voice, which had
+procured her the honor of being so selected,[7] and with very appropriate
+delivery. The queen made a brief but most gracious answer, and then, on
+their retirement, the whole company, with a train of fish-women of the
+lower class, was entertained at a grand banquet, which they enlivened with
+songs composed for the occasion. One of them so hit the fancy of the king
+and queen that they quoted it more than once in their letters to their
+correspondents, and Marie Antoinette even sung it occasionally to her
+harp:
+
+  "Ne craignez pas,
+  Cher papa,
+  D' voir augmenter vot' famille,
+  Le Bon Dieu z'y pourvoira:
+  Fait's en tant qu' Versailles en fourmille
+  Y eut-il cent Bourbons chez nous,
+  Y a du pain, du laurier pour tous."
+
+The body-guard celebrated the auspicious event by giving a grand ball in
+the concert-room of the palace to the queen on her recovery; it was
+attended by the whole court, and Marie Antoinette opened it herself,
+dancing a minuet with one of the troop, whom his comrades had selected for
+the honor, and whom the king promoted, as a memorial of the occasion and
+as a testimony of his approval of the loyalty of that gallant regiment.
+
+Amidst all the troubles of later years, the fidelity of those noble troops
+never wavered. They had even in one hour of terrible danger the honor, in
+the same palace, of saving the life of their queen. But it is a melancholy
+proof of the fleeting character and instability of popular favor which is
+supplied by the recollection that these very artisans who were now so
+vociferous, and undoubtedly at this moment so sincere in their profession
+of loyalty, were afterward her foul and ferocious enemies. And yet between
+1781 and 1789 there had been no change in the character or conduct of the
+king and queen, or rather, it may be said, the intervening years had been
+a period during which a countless series of acts of beneficence had
+displayed their unceasing affection for their subjects.
+
+The festivities were crowned in the most appropriate manner by a public
+thanksgiving, offered by the queen herself to Heaven for the gift of a
+son, and for her own recovery. But that celebration was necessarily
+postponed till her strength was entirely re-established; and it was not
+till the 21st of January that the physicians would allow her to encounter
+the excitement of so interesting but fatiguing a day. The court had quit
+Versailles for La Muette the day before, to be nearer the city; and on the
+appointed morning, which the watchers for omens delightedly remarked as
+one of midsummer brilliancy,[8] the most superb procession that even Paris
+had ever witnessed issued from the gates of the old hunting-lodge, whose
+earlier occupants had been animated by a very different spirit.[9]
+
+That the honors of the day might be wholly the queen's, Louis himself did
+not accompany her, but followed her three hours later, to meet her at the
+Hotel de Ville. Nineteen coaches, glittering with burnished gold, and
+every panel of which was embellished with crowns, wreaths, or allegorical
+pictures, marching on at a stately walk toward the city gate, conveyed the
+queen, radiant with beauty and happiness, the sisters and aunts of the
+king, the long train of her and their ladies, and all the great officers
+of her household. Squadrons of the body-guard furnished the escort, riding
+in front of the queen's carriage and behind it, but not on either side,
+she herself having forbidden any arrangement which might intercept the
+full sight of herself from a single citizen. Companies of other regiments
+awaited the procession at different points, and closed up behind it as it
+passed, swelling the vast train which thus grew at every step. An
+additional escort, almost an army in itself, in double rank, lined the
+whole road from the barrier of the Champs Elysees of the great cathedral;
+and, as the royal coach passed through the city gate, a herald proclaimed
+that "The king wishing to consecrate by fresh acts of kindness the happy
+moment when God showered his mercies on him by the birth of a dauphin, and
+at the same time to give to the inhabitants of his good city of Paris some
+special mark of his beneficence, granted an exemption from the poll-tax to
+all the burgesses, traders, and artisans who were not in such
+circumstances as made the payment easy."
+
+The proclamation was received with all the thankfulness of surprise; the
+cheers, which had never censed from the moment that the procession first
+came in sight, were redoubled, and it was amidst shouts of congratulation
+both to themselves and to her that the queen proceeded onward to Notre
+Dame. Having paid her vows and made her offerings in the cathedral of the
+nation, she passed on to the Church of Ste. Genevieve, the especial
+patroness of the city, and repeated her thanksgiving before the tomb of
+Clovis, the founder of the monarchy. At the Hotel de Ville she was met by
+the king, with the princess, his brothers, the great officers of his
+household, and the ministers; and there (after having first come forward
+on the balcony to afford the multitude, who completely filled the vast
+square in front of the building, a sight of their sovereigns), the royal
+pair, sitting side by side, presided at a banquet of unsurpassed
+magnificence and luxury. In compliance with the strictest laws of the old
+etiquette, none but ladies were admitted to the king's table, but other
+tables were provided for the male guests. The most renowned musicians
+performed the sweetest airs, but the melodies of Gluck and Gretry were
+drowned in the cheers of the multitude outside, who thus relieved their
+impatience for the re-appearance of their queen.
+
+The banquet was succeeded by a grand reception, with its singular but
+invariable accompaniment of a gaming-table,[10] and the whole was
+concluded by a grand illumination and display of fireworks, in which the
+pyrotechnists had exhausted their allegorical ingenuity. A Temple of Hymen
+occupied the centre, and the God of Marriage--never, so far as present
+appearances indicated, more auspiciously employed--presented to France the
+precious infant who was the most recent fruit of his favor; while the
+flame upon his altar, which never had burned with a brighter light, was
+fed by the thank-offerings of the whole French people. As each new feature
+of the display burst upon their eyes, the acclamations of the populace
+redoubled, and their enthusiasm was kindled to the utmost pitch when Louis
+and Marie Antoinette descended the stairs, and, arm-in-arm, walked out
+among the crowd, ostensibly to see the illuminations from the different
+points which presented the most imposing spectacle; but really, as the
+citizens perceived, to show their sympathy with the joy of the people by
+mingling with the multitude, and thus allowing all to approach and even to
+accost them; while they, and especially the queen, replied to every loyal
+cheer or homely word of congratulation by a cordial smile or expression of
+approval or thanks, which long dwelt in the memory of those to whom they
+were addressed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+Madame de Guimenee resigns the Office of Governess of the Royal Children.
+--Madame de Polignac succeeds her.--Marie Antoinette's Views of
+Education.--Character of Madame Royale.--The Grand Duke Paul and his Grand
+Duchess visit the French Court.--Their Characters.--Entertainments given
+in their Honor.--Insolence of the Cardinal de Rohan.--His Character and
+previous Life.--Grand Festivities at Chantilly.--Events of the War.--
+Rodney defeats de Grasse.--The Siege of Gilbralter fails.--M. de Suffrein
+fights five Drawn Battles with Sir E. Hughes in the Indian Seas.--The
+Queen receives him with great Honor on his Return.
+
+
+The post of governess to the royal children was one which was conferred
+for life, and did not even cease on the accession of a new sovereign, and
+the birth of a new royal family. Madame de Guimenee, therefore, having
+been appointed to that office on the birth of the first child of the late
+dauphin, the father of Louis XVI., still retained it, and on the birth of
+Madame Royale transferred her services to that princess. The arrangement
+had been far from acceptable to Marie Antoinette, who had no great liking
+for the lady, though, with her habitual kindness of disposition, she had
+accepted her attentions, and had often condescended to appear as a guest
+at her evening parties, taking only the precaution of ascertaining
+beforehand whom she was likely to meet there.[1] But, in the spring of
+1782, the Prince de Guimenee became involved in pecuniary difficulties
+that compelled him to retire from the court, and his princess to resign
+her appointment, which Marie Antoinette at once bestowed on Madame de
+Polignac. Her attachment to that lady affords a striking exemplification
+of one feature in her character, a steady adherence to friendships once
+formed, which can never be otherwise than amiable, even when, as it may be
+thought was the case in this and one or two other instances, she carried
+it to excess; for she could hardly fail to be aware that Madame de
+Polignac was most unpopular with all classes, and that her unpopularity
+was not undeserved. She was covetous for herself, and she had a number of
+relations, equally rapacious, who regarded her court favor solely as a
+means of enriching the whole family. She had procured a valuable reversion
+for her husband; and subsequently the rare favor of an hereditary dukedom;
+and it was characteristic of her disposition that she might have attained
+the rank of duchess for herself at an earlier date, but that she preferred
+to it the chance of other favors of a more practically useful nature; nor
+was it till she had received such sums of money that nothing more could
+well be asked, that she turned her ambition to titles, and to the
+much-coveted dignity of a stool to sit upon in the presence of royalty.[2]
+
+But the more people spoke ill of her, the more the queen protected her;
+and if she received the resignation of Madame de Guimenee with pleasure,
+much of her joy seemed to be owing to the opportunity which it afforded
+her of promoting the new duchess to the vacant place, while Madame de
+Polignac had even the address to persuade her that she accepted the post
+unwillingly, and, in undertaking it, was making a sacrifice to loyalty and
+friendship. But if the queen was duped on that point, she was not deceived
+on others. She knew that the duchess had no qualifications for the office;
+that she was neither clever nor accomplished. But her absence of any
+special qualifications was, in fact, her best recommendation in the eyes
+of her patroness; for Marie Antoinette had high ideas of the duty which a
+mother owes to her children. She thought herself bound to take upon
+herself the real superintendence of their education, and, having this
+view, she preferred a governess who would be content that her children's
+minds should receive their color from herself. Her own idea of education,
+as we shall see it hereafter described by herself,[3] was that example was
+more powerful than precept, and that love was a better teacher than fear;
+and, acting on this principle, from the moment that her little daughter
+was old enough to comprehend her intentions and wishes, she began to make
+her her companion; abandoning, or at least relaxing, her pursuit of other
+pleasures for that which was now her chief delight, as well as in her eyes
+her chief duty--the task of watching over the early promise, the opening
+talents and virtues of those who were destined, as she hoped, to have a
+predominant influence on the future welfare of the nation. Especially she
+made a rule of taking the little princess with her on the different
+errands of humanity and benevolence, which, wherever she might be, and
+more particularly while she was at Versailles, formed an almost habitual
+part of her occupations. She saw that much of the distress which now
+seemed to be the normal condition of the humbler classes, and much of the
+discontent, which was felt by all classes but the highest, were caused by
+the pride of the princes and nobles, who, in France, drew a far more
+rigorous and unbending line of demarkation between themselves and their
+inferiors than prevailed in other countries; and she desired from their
+earliest infancy to imbue her children with a different principle, and to
+teach them by her own example that none could be so lowly as to be beneath
+the notice even of a sovereign; and that, on the contrary, the greater the
+depression of the poor, the greater claim did it give them on the
+solicitude and protection of their princes and rulers.
+
+Nor were these lessons, which even worldly policy might have dictated, the
+only ones which she sought to inculcate on the little princess before the
+more exciting pursuits of society should have rendered her less
+susceptible to good impressions. Unfriendly as her husband's aunts had
+always been to herself, and little as there was that was really amiable in
+their characters, there was yet one, the Princess Louise, the Nun of St.
+Denis, whose renunciation of the world seemed to point her out to her
+family as a model of holiness and devotion; and as, above all things,
+Marie Antoinette desired to inspire her little daughter with a deep sense
+of religious obligation, she soon began to take her with her in all her
+visits to the convent, and to encourage her to converse with the other
+Sisters of the house. Nor did she abandon the practice even when it was
+suggested to her that such an intercourse with those who were notoriously
+always on the watch to attract recruits of rank or consideration, might
+have the result of inclining the child to follow her great-aunt's example;
+and perhaps, by renouncing the world, to counteract plans which her
+parents might have preferred for her establishment in life. Marie
+Antoinette declared that should the princess express such a desire, far
+from being annoyed, "she should feel flattered by it;[4]" she would, it
+may be presumed, have regarded it as a convincing testimony of the
+soundness of her own system of education, and of the purity of the
+instruction which she had given.
+
+But such was not to be the destiny of her whose life at this moment seemed
+to beam with prospects of happiness which it would have been cruel to
+allow her to exchange for the gloom of a convent, though, even before she
+arrived at womanhood, the most austere seclusion of such an abode would
+have seemed a welcome asylum from dangers yet undreamed of. Her destiny
+was indeed to be one of trials and afflictions even to the end; trials
+very different in their kind from those which the gates of the Carmelite
+sisterhood would have opened to her. But her mother's early lessons of
+humility and piety, and still more her mother's virtuous and heroic
+example, never ceased to bear their fruit in their influence on her
+character, amidst all the vicissitudes of fortune. The unhappy
+daughter,[5] as she was styled by the faithful and eloquent champion of
+her race, lived to win the respect even of its enemies,[6] supplying, at
+more than one critical moment, a courage and decision of which her male
+relatives were destitute; and, in the second and final ruin of her house,
+her fortitude and resignation still commanded the loyal adherence of a
+large party among her countrymen, and the esteem of foreign statesmen, who
+gladly recognized in her no small portion of the nobility of her female
+ancestors.
+
+In the spring of 1782 the attention of the Parisians was occupied for a
+while by the arrival of two visitors from a nation which as yet had sent
+forth but few of its sons to mingle in society with those of other
+countries. The Grand Duke of Russia, who had indeed been its rightful
+emperor ever since the murder of his father twenty years before, but who
+had been compelled to postpone his claims to those of his ambitious and
+unscrupulous mother, Catherine II., had conceived a desire so far to
+imitate the example of his great ancestor, the founder of the Russian
+empire, Peter the Great, as to make a personal investigation of the
+manners of other people besides his own. To use the language in which the
+empress communicated to Louis XVI. her son's wish to pay him a visit, he
+sought, in the first instance, "to take lessons in courtesy and nobility
+from the most elegant court in the world." And as Louis had responded with
+a cordial invitation to Versailles, at the end of May he, with his grand
+duchess, a princess of Wuertemberg, arrived at the palace.
+
+Paul had not as yet given any indications of the brutal and ferocious
+disposition which distinguished him in his later years, till it gradually
+developed into a savage insanity which neither his nobles nor even his
+sons could endure. He appeared rather a young man of frank and open
+temper, somewhat more unguarded in his language, especially concerning his
+own affairs and position, than was quite prudent or becoming; but kind in
+intention, sometimes even courteous in manner, shrewd in discerning what
+things and what persons were most worthy of his notice, and showing no
+deficiency of judgment in the observations which he made upon them. The
+grand duchess, however, was generally regarded as greatly superior to her
+husband in every respect. He was almost repulsive in his ugliness. She was
+extremely handsome in feature, though disfigured by a stoutness
+extraordinary in one so young. She had also a high reputation for
+accomplishments and general ability, though that too was disguised by a
+coldness or ungraciousness of manner that gave strangers a disagreeable
+impression of her; which, however, a more intimate acquaintance greatly
+removed.
+
+Their characters had preceded them, and Marie Antoinette, for perhaps the
+first time in her life, felt very uneasy as to her own power of receiving
+them with the dignity which became both her and them. As she afterward
+explained her feelings to Madame de Campan, "she found the part of a
+queen much move difficult to play in the presence of other sovereigns, or
+of princes who were born to become sovereigns, than before ordinary
+courtiers.[7]" She even fortified her courage before dinner with a glass
+of water, and the medicine proved effectual. Even if it cost her an effort
+to preserve her habitual gayety, her difficulty was unperceived, and
+indeed, after the few first moments, ceased to be a difficulty. Paul
+himself cared but little for female attractions or graces; but the
+archduchess was charmed with her union of liveliness and dignity, which
+surpassed all her previous experiences of courts; and one of her ladies,
+Madame d'Oberkirch, who has left behind her some memoirs, to which all
+succeeding writers have been indebted for many particulars of this visit,
+could scarcely find words to describe the impression the queen's beauty
+had made upon her and all her fellow-travelers. "The queen was marvelously
+beautiful; she fascinated every eye. It was absolutely impossible for any
+one to display a greater grace and nobility of demeanor.[8]" Madame
+d'Oberkirch, like herself, was German by birth; and Marie Antoinette
+begged her to speak German to her, that she might refresh her recollection
+of her native language; but she found that she had almost forgotten it.
+"Ah," said she, "German is a fine language; but French, in the mouths of
+my children, seems to me the finest language in the world." And in the
+same spirit of entire adoption of French feelings, and even of French
+prejudices, she declared to the baroness that though the Rhine and the
+Danube were both noble rivers, the Seine was so much more beautiful that
+it had made her forget them both.
+
+But her preference for every thing French did not make her neglect the
+duties of hospitality to her foreign visitors; she wished rather that they
+should carry with them as fixed an idea as she herself entertained of the
+superiority of France to their own country, in this as in every other
+particular. And she gave two magnificent entertainments in their honor at
+the Little Trianon, displaying the beauties of her garden by day, and also
+by night, by an illumination of extraordinary splendor. They were highly
+delighted with the beauty and the novelty of a scene such as they had
+never before witnessed; but her pleasure was in a great degree marred by
+the indecent boldness of one whose sacred profession, as well as his
+ancient lineage, ought to have restrained him from such misconduct, though
+it was but too completely in harmony with his previous life. Prince Louis
+de Rohan was a descendant of the great Duke de Sully, and a member of a
+family which, during the last reign, had possessed an influence at court
+which was surpassed by that of no other house among the French nobles.[9]
+He himself had reaped the full advantage of its interest. As we have
+already seen, he had been coadjutor of Strasburg when Marie Antoinette
+passed through that city on her way to France in 1770. He had subsequently
+been promoted to the rank of cardinal; and, though he was notoriously
+devoid of capacity, yet through the influence of his relations, and that
+of Madame du Barri, with whom they maintained an intimate connection, he
+had obtained the post of embassador to the court of Vienna, where he had
+made himself conspicuous for every species of disorder. His whole life in
+the Austrian capital had been a round of shameless profligacy and
+extravagance. The conduct of the inferior members of the embassy,
+stimulated by his example, and protected by his official character, had
+been equally scandalous, till at last Maria Teresa had felt herself bound,
+in justice to her subjects, to insist on his recall. The moment that he
+became aware that his position was in danger, he began to write abusive
+letters against the Empress-queen, and to circulate libels at Vienna
+against both her and Marie Antoinette, on whom he openly threatened to
+avenge himself, if his pleasures or his prospects should in any way be
+interfered with.[10]
+
+Since his return to France he had had the address to conciliate Maurepas,
+who, adding the authority of his ministerial office to the solicitations
+of the cardinal's sister, Madame de Marsan, had succeeded in wringing from
+the unwilling king his appointment to the honorable and lucrative
+preferment of grand almoner. But even that post, though it made him one of
+the great officers of the court, did not weaken his desire to annoy the
+queen, for having, as he believed, used her influence to deprive him of
+his embassy, and for having by her marked coldness since his return from
+Vienna, showed her disapproval of his profligate character, and of his
+insolence to her mother.
+
+And, unhappily, there were not wanting persons base enough to co-operate
+with him, generally discredited as he was, as instruments of their own
+secret malice. The birth of the dauphin had been a fatal blow to the hopes
+which had been founded on the possible succession of the king's brothers;
+and from this time forth the whisperers of detraction and calumny were
+more than ever busy, sometimes venturing to forge her handwriting, and
+sometimes daring, with still fouler audacity, to invent stories designed
+to tarnish her reputation by throwing doubts on her conjugal fidelity. At
+such a moment the presence of such a man as the cardinal on the stage was
+an evil omen. His audacity, it seemed, could hardly be purposeless, and
+his purpose could not be innocent.
+
+He had been most anxious to obtain admission to one of the entertainments
+which the queen gave to the Russian princes; and, when he was
+disappointed, he had the silly audacity to bribe the porter of the Trianon
+to admit him into the garden, where, as the royal party passed down the
+different walks, he thrust himself ostentatiously at different points into
+their sight, professing to disguise himself by throwing a mantle over his
+shoulders, but taking care that his scarlet stockings should prevent any
+uncertainty from being felt as to his identity. That he should have
+presumed to intrude into the queen's presence in her own palace without
+permission was in itself an insult; but those behind the scenes believed
+that he had a deeper design, and that he wished to diffuse a belief that
+Marie Antoinette secretly regarded him with a favor which she was
+unwilling to show openly, and that he had not obtained admission to her
+garden without her connivance.
+
+The princes of the blood, too, the Prince de Conde and the Duke de
+Bourbon, invited Paul and his archduchess to an entertainment at
+Chantilly, which far surpassed in splendor the display at Trianon. But the
+queen was willing, on such an occasion, to be eclipsed by her subjects.
+"The princes," she said, "might well give festivities of vast cost,
+because they defrayed the charges out of their private revenues; but the
+expenses of entertainments given by the king or by herself fell on the
+national treasury, of which they were bound to be the guardians in the
+interest of the poor tax-payers."
+
+Not that, in all probability, Paul and his archduchess noticed the
+inferiority. Court festivities at St. Petersburg were as yet neither
+numerous nor magnificent, and they soon showed themselves so wearied with
+the round of gayety which had been forced upon them, that some of the
+diversions which had been projected at other royal palaces besides
+Versailles were given up to avoid distressing them.[11] The sight which
+pleased them most was the play, to which, at their own special request,
+the queen accompanied them, and where they were greatly struck by the
+magnificence of the theatre and every thing connected with the
+performance, as well as with the reception which the audience gave the
+queen. Much as they had admired what they had seen, it was her grace and
+kind solicitude for their gratification which made the greatest impression
+on them; and the archduchess kept up a correspondence with her during the
+rest of their travels, especially dwelling on the scenes which pleased her
+most in Germany, and on the persons she met who were known to and regarded
+by the queen.
+
+Political affairs were at this time causing Marie Antoinette great
+anxiety. One of her most frequently expressed wishes had been that the
+French fleet should have an opportunity of engaging that of England in a
+pitched battle, when the judicious care which M. de Sartines had bestowed
+on the marine would be seen to bear its fruit. But when the battle did
+take place, the result was such as to confound instead of justifying her
+patriotic expectations. In April, the English Admiral Rodney inflicted on
+the Count de Grasse a crushing defeat off the coast of Jamaica. In
+September, the combined forces of France and Spain were beaten off with
+still heavier loss from the impregnable fortress of Gibraltar; and the
+only region in which a French admiral escaped disaster was the Indian Sea,
+where the Bailli de Suffrein, an officer of rare energy and ability,
+encountered the British admiral, Sir Edward Hughes, in a series of severe
+actions, and, except on one occasion in which he lost a few transports,
+never permitted his antagonist to claim any advantage over him; the single
+loss which he sustained in his first combat being more than
+counterbalanced by his success on land, where, by the aid of Hyder Ali's
+son, the celebrated Tippoo, be made himself master of Cuddalore; and then,
+dropping down to the Cingalese coast, recaptured Trincomalee, the conquest
+of which had been one of Hughes's most recent achievements.[12] The queen
+felt the reverses keenly. She even curtailed some of her own expenses in
+order to contribute to the building of new ships to replace those which
+had been lost; and she received M. de Suffrein, on his return from India
+at the conclusion of the war, with the most sincere and marked
+congratulations. She invited him to the palace, and, when he arrived, she
+caused Madame de Polignac to bring both her children into the room. "My
+children," said she, "and especially you, my son, know that this M. de
+Suffrein. We are all under the greatest obligations to him. Look well at
+him, and ever remember his name. It is one of the first that all my
+children must learn to pronounce, and one which they must never
+forgot.[13]"
+
+She was acting up to her mother's example, than whom no sovereign had
+better known how to give their due honor to bravery and loyalty. Such a
+queen deserved to have faithful friends; and Suffrein was a man who, had
+his life been spared, might, like the Marquis de Bouille, have shown that
+even in France the feelings of chivalry and devotion to kings and ladies
+were not yet extinguished. But he died before either his country or his
+queen had again need of his services, or before he had any opportunity of
+proving by fresh achievements his gratitude to a sovereign who knew so
+well how to appreciate and to honor merit.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+Peace is re-established.--Embarrassments of the Ministry.--Distress of the
+Kingdom.--M. de Calonne becomes Finance Minister.--The Winter of 1783-'84
+is very Severe.--The Queen devotes Large Sums to Charity.--Her Political
+Influence increases--Correspondence between the Emperor and her on
+European Politics.--The State of France.--The Baron de Breteuil.--Her
+Description of the Character of the King.
+
+
+The conclusion of peace between France and England was one of the earliest
+events of the year 1783, but it brought no strength to the ministry; or,
+rather, it placed its weakness in a more conspicuous light. Maurepas had
+died at the end of 1781, and, since his death, the Count de Vergennes had
+been the chief adviser of the king; but his attention was almost
+exclusively directed to the conduct of the diplomacy of the kingdom, and
+to its foreign affairs, and he made no pretensions to financial knowledge.
+Unluckily the professed ministers of finance, Joly de Fleury and his
+successor, D'Ormesson, were as ignorant of that great subject as himself,
+and, within two years after Necker's retirement, their mismanagement had
+brought the kingdom to the very verge of bankruptcy. D'Ormesson was
+dismissed, and for many days it was anxiously deliberated in the palace by
+whom he should be replaced. Some proposed that Necker should he recalled,
+but the king had felt himself personally offended by some circumstances
+which had attended the resignation of that minister two years before. The
+queen inclined to favor the pretensions of Lomenie de Brienne, Archbishop
+of Toulouse; not because he had any official experience, but because
+fifteen years before he had recommended the Abbe de Vermond to Maria
+Teresa; and the abbe, seeing in the present embarrassment an opportunity
+of repaying the obligation, now spoke highly to her of the archbishop's
+talents. But Madame de Polignac and her party persuaded her majesty to
+acquiesce in the appointment of M. de Calonne, a man who, like Turgot, had
+already distinguished himself as intendant of a province, though he had
+not inspired those who watched his career with as high an opinion of his
+uprightness as of his talents. He had also secured the support of the
+Count d'Artois by promising to pay his debts; and Louis himself was won to
+think well of him by the confidence which he expressed in his own capacity
+to grapple with the existing, or even with still greater difficulties.
+
+Nor, indeed, had he been possessed of steadiness, prudence, and principle,
+was he very unfit for such a post at such a time. For he was very fertile
+in resources, and well-endowed with both physical and moral courage; but
+these faculties were combined with, were indeed the parents of, a
+mischievous defect. He had such reliance on his own ingenuity and ability
+to deal with each difficulty or danger as it should arise, that he was
+indifferent to precautions which might prevent it from arising. The spirit
+in which he took office was exemplified in one of his first speeches to
+the queen. Knowing that he was not the minister whom she would have
+preferred, he made it his especial business to win her confidence; and he
+had not been long installed in office when she expressed to him her wish
+that he would find means of accomplishing some object which she desired to
+promote. "Madame," was his courtly reply, "if it is possible, it is done
+already. If it is impossible, I will take care and manage it." But being
+very unscrupulous himself, he overshot his mark when he sought to
+propitiate her further by offering to represent as hers acts of charity
+which she had not performed. The winter of 1783 was one of unusual
+severity. The thermometer at Paris was, for some weeks, scarcely above
+zero; scarcity, with its inevitable companion, clearness of price, reduced
+the poor of the northern provinces, and especially of the capital and its
+neighborhood, to the verge of starvation. The king, queen, and princesses
+gave large sums from their privy purses for their relief; but as such
+supplies were manifestly inadequate, Louis ordered the minister to draw
+three millions of francs from the treasury, and to apply them for the
+alleviation of the universal distress. Calonne cheerfully received and
+executed the beneficent command. He was perhaps not sorry, at his first
+entrance on his duties, to show how easy it was for him to meet even an
+unforeseen demand of so heavy an amount; and he fancied he saw in it a
+means of ingratiating himself with Marie Antoinette. He proposed to her
+that he should pay one of the millions to her treasurer, that that officer
+might distribute it, in her name, as a gift from her own allowance; but
+Marie Antoinette disdained such unworthy artifice. She would have felt
+ashamed to receive praise or gratitude to which she was not entitled. She
+rejected the proposal, insisting that the king's gift should be attributed
+to himself alone, and expressing her intention to add to it by curtailing
+her personal expenditure, by abridging her entertainments so long as the
+distress should last, and by dedicating the sums usually appropriated to
+pleasure and festivity to the relief of those whose very existence seemed
+to depend on the aid which it was her duty and that of the king to
+furnish. For there was this especial characteristic in Marie Antoinette's
+charity, that it did not proceed solely from kindness of heart and
+tenderness of disposition, though these were never wanting, but also from
+a settled principle of duty, which, in her opinion, imposed upon
+sovereigns, as a primary obligation, the task of watching over the welfare
+of their subjects as persons intrusted by Providence to their care; and
+such a feeling was obviously more to be depended upon as a constant motive
+for action than the most vivid emotion of the moment, which, if easily
+excited, is not unfrequently as easily overpowered by some fresh object.
+
+Meanwhile events were gradually compelling her to take a more active part
+in politics. Maurepas had been jealous of her influence, and, while that
+old minister lived, Louis, who from his childhood had been accustomed to
+see him in office, committed almost every thing to his guidance. But, as
+he always required some one of stronger mind than himself to lean upon, as
+soon as Maurepas was gone he turned to the queen. It was to her that he
+now chiefly confided his anxieties and perplexities; from her that he
+sought counsel and strength; and the ministers naturally came to regard
+her as the real ruler of the State. Accordingly, we find from her
+correspondence of this period that even such matters as the appointment of
+the embassadors to foreign states were often referred to her decision; and
+how greatly the habit of considering affairs of importance expanded her
+capacity we may learn from the opinion which her brother, the emperor, who
+was never disposed to flatter, or even to spare her, had evidently come to
+entertain of her judgment. In one long letter, written in September of the
+year 1783, he discussed with her the attitude which France had assumed
+toward Austria ever since the dismissal of Choiseul; the willingness of
+her ministers to listen to Prussian calumnies; the encouragement which
+they had given to the opposition in the empire; and their obsequiousness
+to Prussia; while Austria had not retaliated, as she had had many
+opportunities of doing, by any complaisance toward England, though the
+English statesmen had made many advances toward her. It is a curious
+instance of fears being realized in a sense very different from that which
+troubled the writer at the moment, that among the acts of France of which,
+had he been inclined to be captious, he might justly have complained, he
+enumerates her recent acquisition of Corsica, as one which, "for a number
+of reasons, might be very prejudicial to the possessions of the house of
+Austria and its branches in Italy." It did indeed prove an acquisition
+which largely influenced the future history, not only of Austria, but of
+the whole world, when the little island, which hitherto had been but a
+hot-bed of disorder, and a battle-field of faction burdensome to its
+Genoese masters, gave a general to the armies of France whose most
+brilliant exploits were a succession of triumphs over the Austrian
+commanders in every part of the emperor's dominion. His letter concludes
+with warnings drawn from the present condition and views of the different
+states of Europe, and especially of France, whose "finances and resources,
+to speak with moderation, have been greatly strained" in the recent war;
+embracing in their scope even the designs of Russia on the independence of
+Turkey; and with a request that his sister would inform him frankly what
+he is to believe as to the opinions of the king; and in what light he is
+to regard the recent letters of Vergennes, which, to his apprehension,
+show an indifference to the maintenance of the alliance between the two
+countries.[1]
+
+It is altogether a letter such as might pass between statesmen, and proves
+clearly that Joseph regarded his sister now as one fully capable of taking
+large views of the situation of both countries. And her answer shows that
+she fully enters into all the different questions which he has raised,
+though it also shows that she is guided by her heart as well as by her
+judgment; still looks on the continuance of the friendship between her
+native and her adopted country as essential not only to her comfort, but
+even in some degree to her honor, and also that on that account she is
+desirous at times of exerting a greater influence than is always allowed
+her.
+
+"Versailles, September 29th, 1783.
+
+"Shall I tell you, my dear brother, that your letter has delighted me by
+its energy and nobleness of thought and why should I not tell you so? I am
+sure that you will never confound your sister and your friend with the
+tricks and manoeuvres of politicians.
+
+"I have read your letter to the king. You may be sure that it, like all
+your other letters, shall never go out of my hands. The king was struck
+with many of your reflections, and has even corroborated them himself.
+
+"He has said to me that he both desired and hoped always to maintain a
+friendship and a good understanding with the empire; but yet that it was
+impossible to answer for it that the difference of interests might not at
+times lead to a difference in the way of looking at and judging of
+affairs. This idea appeared to me to come from himself alone, and from the
+distrust with which people have been inspiring him for a long time. For,
+when I spoke to him, I believe it to be certain that he had not seen M. de
+Vergennes since the arrival of your courier. M. de Mercy will have
+reported to you the quietness and gentleness with which this minister has
+spoken to him. I have had occasion to see that the heads of the other
+ministers, which were a little heated, have since cooled again. I trust,
+that this quiet spirit will last, and in that case the firmness of your
+reply ought to lead to the rudeness of style which the people here adopted
+being forgotten. You know the ground and the characters, so you can not be
+surprised if the king sometimes allows answers to pass which he would not
+have given of his own accord.
+
+"My health, considering my present condition,[2] is perfect. I had a
+slight accident after my last letter; but it produced no bad consequences:
+it only made a little more care necessary. Accordingly I shall go from
+Choisy to Fontainebleau by water. My children are quite well. My boy will
+spend his time at La Muette while we are absent. It is just a piece of
+stupidity of the doctors, who do not like him to take so long a journey at
+his age, though he has two teeth and is very strong. I should be perfectly
+happy if I were but assured of the general tranquillity, and, above all,
+of the happiness of my much-loved brother, whom I love with all my
+heart.[3]"
+
+Another letter, written three months later, explains to the emperor the
+object of some of the new arrangements which Calonne had introduced,
+having for one object, among others, the facilitation of a commercial
+intercourse, especially in tobacco, with the United States. She hopes that
+another consequence of them will be the abolition of the whole system of
+farmers-general of the revenue; and she explains to him both the
+advantages of such a measure, and at the same time the difficulties of
+carrying it out immediately after so costly a war, since it would involve
+the instant repayment of large sums to the farmers, with all the clearness
+of a practiced financier. She mentions also the appointment of the Baron
+de Breteuil as the new minister of the king's household,[4] and her
+estimate of his character is rendered important by his promotion, six
+years later, to the post of prime minister. The emperor also had ample
+means of judging of it himself, since the baron had succeeded the Cardinal
+de Rohan as embassador at Vienna. "I think, with you, that he requires to
+be kept within bounds; and he will be so more than other ministers by the
+nature of his office, which is very limited, and entirely under the eyes
+of the king and of his colleagues, who will be glad of any opportunities
+of mortifying his vanity. However, his activity will be very useful in a
+thousand details of a department which has been neglected and badly
+managed for the last sixty years." And though it is a slight anticipation
+of the order of our narrative, it will not be inconvenient to give here
+some extracts from a third letter to the same brother, written in the
+autumn of the following year, in which she describes the king's character,
+and points out the difficulties which it often interposes to her desire of
+influencing his views and measures.
+
+It may perhaps be thought that she unconsciously underrates her influence
+over her husband, though there can be no doubt that he was one of those
+men whom it is hardest to manage; wholly without self-reliance, yet with a
+scrupulous wish to do right that made him distrustful of others, even, of
+those whose advice he sought, or whose judgment he most highly valued.
+
+"September 22d, 1784.
+
+"I will not contradict you, my dear brother, on what you say about the
+short-sightedness of our ministry. I have long ago made some of the
+reflections which you express in your letter. I have spoken on the subject
+more than once to the king; but one must know him thoroughly to be able to
+judge of the extent to which, his character and prejudices cripple my
+resources and means of influencing him. He is by nature very taciturn; and
+it often happens that he does not speak to me about matters of importance
+even when he has not the least wish to conceal them from me. He answers me
+when I speak to him about them, but he scarcely ever opens the subject;
+and when I have learned a quarter of the business, I am then forced to use
+some address to make the ministers tell me the rest, by letting them think
+that the king has told me every thing. When I reproach him for not having
+spoken to me of such and such matters, he is not annoyed, but only seems a
+little embarrassed, and sometimes answers, in an off-hand way, that he had
+never thought of it. This distrust, which is natural to him, was at first
+strengthened by his govern--or before my marriage. M. de Vauguyon had
+alarmed him about the authority which his wife would desire to assume over
+him, and the duke's black disposition delighted in terrifying his pupil
+with all the phantom stories invented against the house of Austria. M. de
+Maurepas, though less obstinate and less malicious, still thought it
+advantageous to his own credit to keep up the same notions in the king's
+mind. M. de Vergennes follows the same plan, and perhaps avails himself of
+his correspondence on foreign affairs to propagate falsehoods. I have
+spoken plainly about this to the king more than once. He has sometimes
+answered me rather peevishly, and, as he is never fond of discussion, I
+have not been able to persuade him that his minister was deceived, or was
+deceiving him. I do not blind myself as to the extent of my own influence.
+I know that I have no great ascendency over the king's mind, especially in
+politics; and would it be prudent in me to have scenes with his ministers
+on such subjects, on which it is almost certain that the king would not
+support me? Without ever boasting or saying a word that is not true, I,
+however, let the public believe that I have more influence than I really
+have, because, if they did not think so, I should have still less. The
+avowals which I am making to you, my dear brother, are not very flattering
+to my self-love; but I do not like to hide any thing from you, in order
+that you may be able to judge of my conduct as correctly as is possible at
+this terrible distance from you, at which my destiny has placed me.[5]"
+
+A melancholy interest attunes to sentences such as these, from the
+influence which the defects in her husband's character, when joined to
+those of his minister, had on the future destinies of both, and of the
+nation over which he ruled. It was natural that she should explain them to
+a brother; and though, as a general rule, it is clearly undesirable for
+queens consort to interfere in politics, it is clear that with such a
+husband, and with the nation and court in such a condition as then existed
+in France, it was indispensable that Marie Antoinette should covet, and,
+so far as she was able, exert, influence over the king, if she were not
+prepared to see him the victim or the tool of caballers and intriguers who
+cared far more for their own interests than for those of either king or
+kingdom. But as yet, though, as we see, these deficiencies of Louis
+occasionally caused her annoyance, she had no foreboding of evil. Her
+general feeling was one of entire happiness; her children were growing and
+thriving, her own health was far stronger than it had been, and she
+entered with as keen a relish as ever into the excitements and amusements
+becoming her position, and what we may still call her youth, since she was
+even now only eight-and-twenty.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+"The Marriage of Figaro"--Previous History and Character of Beaumarchais.
+--The Performance of the Play is forbidden.--It is said to be a little
+altered.--It is licensed.--Displeasure of the Queen.--Visit of Gustavus
+III. of Sweden.--Fete at the Trianon.--Balloon Ascent.
+
+
+In the spring of 1784, the court and capital wore wrought up to a high
+pitch of excitement by an incident which was in reality of so ordinary and
+trivial a character, that it would be hard to find a more striking proof
+how thoroughly unhealthy the whole condition and feeling of the nation
+must have been, when such a matter could have been regarded as important.
+It was simply a question whether a play, which had been recently accepted
+by the manager of the principal theatre in Paris, should receive the
+license from the theatrical censor which was necessary to its being
+performed.
+
+The play was entitled "The Marriage of Figaro." The history of the author,
+M. Beaumarchais, is curious, as that of a rare specimen of the literary
+adventurer of his time. He was born in the year 1732. His father was a
+watch-maker named Caron, and he himself followed that trade till he was
+three or four and twenty, and attained considerable skill in it. But he
+was ambitious. He was conscious of a handsome face and figure, and knew
+their value in such a court as that of Louis XV. He gave up his trade as a
+watch-maker, and bought successively different places about the court, the
+last of which was sold at a price sufficient to entitle him to claim
+gentility; so that, in one of his subsequent railings against the nobles,
+he declared that his nobility was more incontestable than that of most of
+the body, since he could produce the stamped receipt for it. Following the
+example of Moliere and Voltaire, he changed his name, and called himself
+Beaumarchais. He married two rich widows. He formed a connection with the
+celebrated financier, Paris Duverney, who initiated him in the mysteries
+of stock-jobbing. Being a good musician, he obtained the protection of the
+king's daughters, taught them the harp, and conducted the weekly concerts
+which, during the life of Marie Leczinska, they gave to the king and the
+royal family. He wrote two or three plays, none of which had any great
+success, while one was a decided failure. He became involved in lawsuits,
+one of which he conducted himself against the best ability of the Parisian
+bar, and displayed such wit and readiness that he not only gained his
+cause, but established a notoriety which throughout life was apparently
+his dearest object. He crossed over to England, where he made the
+acquaintance of Wilkes, and one or two agents of the American colonies,
+then just commencing their insurrection; and, partly from political
+sympathy with their views of freedom, partly, as he declared, to retaliate
+on England for the injuries which France had suffered at her hands in the
+Seven Years' War, he became a political agent himself, procuring arms and
+ships to be sent across the Atlantic, and also a great quantity of stores
+of a more peaceful character, out of which he had hoped to make a handsome
+profit. But the Americans gave him credit for greater disinterestedness;
+the President of Congress wrote him a letter thanking him for his zeal,
+but refused to pay for his stores, for which he demanded nearly a hundred
+and fifty thousand francs. He commenced an action for the money in the
+American courts, but, as he could not conduct it himself, he did not
+obtain an early decision; indeed, the matter imbittered all his closing
+days, and was not settled when he died.
+
+But while he was in the full flush of self-congratulation at the degree in
+which, as he flattered himself, he had contributed to the downfall of
+England, the exuberance of his spirits prompted him to try his hand at a
+fourth play, a sort of sequel to one of his earlier performances--"The
+Barber of Seville." He finished it about the end of the year 1781, and, as
+the manager of the theatre was willing to act it, he at once applied for
+the necessary license. But it had already been talked about: if one party
+had pronounced it lively, witty, and the cleverest play that had been seen
+since the death of Moliere, another set of readers declared it full of
+immoral and dangerous satire on the institutions of the country. It is
+almost inseparable from the very nature of comedy that it should be to
+some extent satirical. The offense which those who complained of "The
+Marriage of Figaro" on that account really found in it was, that it
+satirized classes and institutions which could not bear such attacks, and
+had not been used to them. Moliere had ridiculed the lower middle class;
+the newly rich; the tradesman who, because he had made a fortune, thought
+himself a gentleman; but, as one whose father was in the employ of
+royalty, he laid no hand on any pillar of the throne. But Beaumarchais, in
+"The Marriage of Figaro," singled out especially what were called the
+privileged classes; he attacked the licentiousness of the nobles; the
+pretentious imbecility of ministers and diplomatists; the cruel injustice
+of wanton arrests and imprisonments of protracted severity against which
+there was no appeal nor remedy; and the privileged classes in consequence
+denounced his work, and their complaints of its character and tendency
+made such an impression that the court resolved that the license should
+not he granted.
+
+The refusal, however, was not at first pronounced in a straightforward
+way; but was deferred, as if those who had resolved on it feared to
+pronounce it. For a long time the censor gave no reply at all, till
+Beaumarchais complained of the delay as more injurious to him than a
+direct denial. When at last his application was formally rejected, he
+induced his friends to raise such a clamor in his favor, that Louis
+determined to judge for himself, and caused Madame de Campan to read it to
+himself and the queen. He fully agreed with the censor. Many passages he
+pronounced to be in extremely bad taste. When the reader came to the
+allusions to secret arrests, protracted imprisonments, and the tedious
+formalities of the law and lawyers, he declared that it would be necessary
+to pull down the Bastile before it could be acted with safety, as
+Beaumarchais was ridiculing every thing which ought to be respected. "It
+is not to be performed, then?" said the queen. "No," replied the king,
+"you may depend upon that."
+
+Similar refusals of a license had been common enough, so that there was no
+reason in the world why this decision should have attracted any notice
+whatever. But Beaumarchais was the fashion. He had influential patrons
+even in the palace: the Count d'Artois and Madame de Polignac, with the
+coterie which met in her apartments, being among them; and the mere idea
+that the court or the Government was afraid to let the play be acted
+caused thousands to desire to see it, who, without such a temptation,
+would have been wholly indifferent to its fate. The censor could not
+prevent its being read at private parties, and such readings became so
+popular that, in 1782, one was got up for the amusement of the Russian
+prince, who was greatly pleased by the liveliness of the dramatic
+situations, and, probably, not sufficiently aware of the prevalence of
+discontent in many circles of French society to sympathize with those who
+saw danger in its satire.
+
+The praises lavished on it gave the author greater boldness, which was
+quite unnecessary. He even meditated an evasion of the law by getting it
+acted in a place which was not a theatre, and tickets were actually issued
+for the performance in a saloon which was often used for rehearsals, when
+a royal warrant[1] peremptorily forbidding such a proceeding was sent down
+from the palace. A clamor was at once raised by the friends of
+Beaumarchais, as if "sealed letters" had never been issued before. They
+talked in a loud voice of "oppression" and "tyranny;" and any one who knew
+the king's disposition might have divined that such an act of vigor was
+sure to be followed by one of weakness. Presently Beaumarchais changed his
+tone. He gave out that he had retrenched the passages which had excited
+the royal disapproval, and requested that the play might be re-examined. A
+new censor of high literary reputation reported to the head of the
+police[2] that if one or two passages were corrected, and one or two
+expressions, which were liable to be misinterpreted, were suppressed, he
+foresaw no danger in allowing the representation. Beaumarchais at once
+promised to make the required corrections, and one of Madame de Polignac's
+friends, the Count de Vaudreuil, the very nobleman with whom that lady's
+name was by many discreditably connected, obtained the king's leave to
+perform it at his country house, that thus an opportunity might be
+afforded for judging whether or not the alterations which had been made
+were sufficient to render its performance innocent.
+
+The king was assured that the passages which he had regarded as
+mischievous were suppressed or divested of their sting. Marie Antoinette
+apparently had her suspicions; but Louis could never long withstand
+repeated solicitations, and, as he had not, when Madame de Campan read it,
+formed any very high opinion of its literary merits, he thought that, now
+that it was deprived of its venom, it would be looked upon as heavy, and
+would fail accordingly. Some good judges, such as the Marquis de
+Montesquieu, were of the same opinion. The actors thought differently. "It
+is my belief," said a man of fashion to the witty Mademoiselle Arnould,
+using the technical language of the theatre, "that your play will be
+'damned.'" "Yes," she replied, "it will, fifty nights running." But, even
+if Louis had heard of her prophecy, he would have disregarded it. He gave
+his permission for the performance to take place, and on the 27th April,
+1784, "The Marriage of Figaro" was accordingly acted to an audience which
+filled the house to the very ceiling; and which the long uncertainty as to
+whether it would ever be seen or not had disposed to applaud every scene
+and every repartee, and even to see wit where none existed. To an
+impartial critic, removed both by time and country from the agitation
+which had taken place, it will probably seem that the play thus obtained a
+reception far beyond its merits. It was undoubtedly what managers would
+call a good acting play. Its plot was complicated without being confused.
+It contained many striking situations; the dialogue was lively, but there
+was more humor in the surprises and discoveries than verbal wit in the
+repartees. Some strokes of satire were leveled at the grasping disposition
+of the existing race of courtiers, whose whole trade was represented as
+consisting of getting all they could, and asking for more; and others at
+the tricks of modern politicians, feigning to be ignorant of what they
+knew; to know what they were ignorant of; to keep secrets which had no
+existence; to lock the door to mend a pen; to appear deep when they were
+shallow; to set spies in motion, and to intercept letters; to try to
+ennoble the poverty of their means by the grandeur of their objects. The
+censorship, of course, did not escape. The scene being laid in Spain,
+Figaro affirmed that at Madrid the liberty of the press meant that, so
+long as an author spoke neither of authority, nor of public worship, nor
+of politics, nor of morality, nor of men in power, nor of the opera, nor
+of any other exhibition, nor of any one who was concerned in any thing, he
+might print what be pleased. The lawyers were reproached with a scrupulous
+adherence to forms, and a connivance at needless delays, which put money
+into their pockets; and the nobles, with thinking that, as long as they
+gave themselves the trouble to be born, society had no right to expect
+from them any further useful action. But such satire was too general, it
+might have been thought, to cause uneasiness, much more to do specific
+injury to any particular individual, or to any company or profession.
+Figaro himself is represented as saying that none but little men feared
+little writings.[3] And one of the advisers whom King Louis consulted as
+to the possibility of any mischief arising from the performance of the
+play, is said to have expressed his opinion in the form of an apothegm,
+that "none but dead men were killed by jests." The author might even have
+argued that his keenest satire had been poured upon those national
+enemies, the English, when he declared what has been sometimes regarded as
+the national oath to be the pith and marrow of the English language, the
+open sesame to English society, the key to unlock the English heart, and
+to obtain the judicious swearer all that he could desire.[4]
+
+And an English writer, with English notions of the liberty of the press,
+would hardly have thought it worth while to notice such an affair at all,
+did he not feel bound to submit his judgment to that of the French
+themselves. And if their view be correct, almost every institution in
+France must have been a dead man past all hopes of recovery, since the
+French historical writers, to whatever party they belong, are unanimous in
+declaring that it was from this play that many of the oldest institutions
+in the country received their death-blow, and that Beaumarchais was at
+once the herald and the pioneer of the approaching Revolution.
+
+Paris had scarcely cooled down after this excitement, when its attention
+was more agreeably attracted by the arrival of a king, Gustavus III. of
+Sweden. He had paid a visit to France in 1771, which had been cut short by
+the sudden death of his father, necessitating his immediate return to his
+own country to take possession of his throne; but the brief acquaintance
+which Marie Antoinette had then made with him had inspired her with a
+great admiration of his chivalrous character; and in the preceding year,
+hearing that he was contemplating a tour in Southern Europe, she had
+written to him to express a hope that he would repeat his visit to
+Versailles, promising him "such a reception as was due to an ancient ally
+of France;[5]" and adding that "she should personally have great pleasure
+in testifying to him how greatly she valued his friendship."
+
+Her mention of the ancient alliance between the two countries, which,
+indeed, had subsisted ever since the days of Francis I., was very welcome
+to Gustavus, since the object of his journey was purely political, and he
+desired to negotiate a fresh treaty. But those matters he, of course,
+arranged with the ministers. The queen was only concerned in the
+entertainments due from royal hosts to so distinguished a guest. Most of
+them were of the ordinary character, there being a sort of established
+routine of festivity for such occasions. And it may be taken as a proof
+that the court had abated somewhat of its alarm at Beaumarchais's play
+that "The Marriage of Figaro" was allowed to be acted on one of the king's
+visits to the theatre. She also gave him an entertainment of more than
+usual splendor at the Trianon, at which all the ladies present, and the
+invitations were very numerous, were required to be dressed in white,
+while all the walks and shrubberies of the garden were illuminated, so
+that the whole scene presented a spectacle which he described in one of
+his letters as "a complete fairy-land; a sight worthy of the Elysian
+Fields themselves.[6]" But, as usual, the queen herself was the chief
+ornament of the whole, as she moved graciously among her guests, laying
+aside the character of queen to assume that of the cordial hostess; and
+not even taking her place at the banquet, but devoting herself wholly to
+the pleasurable duty of doing honor to her guests.
+
+One of the displays was of a novel character, from which its inventors and
+patrons expected scientific results of importance, which, though nearly a
+century has since elapsed, have not yet been realized. In the preceding
+year, Montgolfier had for the first time sent up a balloon, and the new
+invention was now exhibited in the Court of Versailles: the queen allowed
+the balloon to be called by her name; and, to the great admiration of
+Gustavus, who had a decided taste for matters which were in any way
+connected with practical science, the "Marie Antoinette" made a successful
+voyage to Chantilly. The date of another invention, if, indeed, it
+deserves so respectable a title, is also fixed by this royal visit. Mesmer
+had recently begun to astonish or bewilder the Parisians with his theory
+of animal magnetism; and Gustavus spent some time in discussing the
+question with him, and seems for a moment to have flattered himself that
+he comprehended his principles. But the only durable result which arose
+from his stay in France was the sincere regard and esteem which he and the
+queen mutually conceived for each other. They established a
+correspondence, in which Marie Antoinette repeatedly showed her eagerness
+to gratify his wishes and to attend to his recommendations; and when, at a
+later period, unexpected troubles fell on her and her husband, there was
+no one whom their troubles inspired with greater eagerness to serve them
+than Gustavus, whose last projects, before he fell by the hand of an
+assassin, were directed to their deliverance from the dangers which,
+though neither he nor they were as yet fully alive to their magnitude,
+were on the point of overwhelming them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+St. Cloud is purchased for the Queen.--Libelous Attacks on her.--Birth of
+the Duc de Normandie.--Joseph presses her to support his Views in the Low
+Countries.---The Affair of the Necklace.--Share which the Cardinal de
+Rohan had in it.--The Queen's Indignation at his Acquittal.--Subsequent
+Career of the Cardinal.
+
+
+Marie Antoinette had long since completed her gardens at the Trianon, but
+the gradual change in the arrangements of the court had made a number of
+alterations requisite at Versailles, with which the difficulty of finding
+money rendered it desirable to proceed slowly. It was reckoned that it
+would be necessary to give up the greater part of the palace to workmen
+for ten years; and as the other palaces which the king possessed in the
+neighborhood of Paris were hardly suited for the permanent residence of
+the court, the queen proposed to her husband to obtain St. Cloud from the
+Duc d'Orleans, giving him in exchange La Muette, the Castle of Choisy, and
+a small adjacent forest. Such an arrangement would have produced a
+considerable saving by the reduction of the establishments kept up at
+those places, at which the court only spent a few days in each year. And
+as the duke was disposed to think that he should be a gainer by the
+exchange, it is not very easy to explain how it was that the original
+project was given up, and that St. Cloud was eventually sold to the crown
+for a sum of money, Choisy and La Muette being also retained.
+
+St. Cloud was bought; and Marie Antoinette, still eager to prevent her own
+acquisition from being too costly, proposed to the king that it should he
+bought in her name, and called her property; since an establishment for
+her would naturally lie framed on a more moderate scale than that of any
+palace belonging to the king, which was held always to require the
+appointment of a governor and deputy-governors, with a corresponding staff
+of underlings, while she should only require a porter at the outer gate.
+The advantage of such a plan was so obvious that it was at once adopted.
+The porters and servants wore the queen's livery; and all notices of the
+regulations to be observed were signed "In the queen's name.[1]" Yet so
+busy were her enemies at this time, that even this simple arrangement,
+devised solely for the benefit of the people who were intimately concerned
+in every thing that tended to diminish the royal expenditure, gave rise to
+numberless cavils. Some affirmed that the issue of such notices in the
+name of the queen instead of in that of the king was an infringement on
+his authority. One most able and influential counselor of the Parliament,
+Duval d'Espremesnil, who in more than one discussion in subsequent years
+showed that in general he fully appreciated the principles of
+constitutional government, but who at this time seems to have been
+animated by no other feeling than that of hatred for the existing
+ministers, even went the length of affirming that there was "something not
+only impolitic but immoral in the idea of any palace belonging to a queen
+of France.[2]" But when the arrangements had once been made, Marie
+Antoinette not unnaturally thought her honor concerned in not abandoning
+it in deference to clamor so absurd, as well as so disrespectful to
+herself; and St. Cloud, to which she had always been partial, continued
+hers, and for the next five years divided her attention with the Trianon.
+
+But though she herself disregarded all such attacks with the calm dignity
+which belonged to her character, her friends were not free from serious
+apprehensions as to the power of persistent detraction and calumny. It was
+one of the penalties which the nation had to pay for the infamies which
+had stained the crown during the last three centuries, that the people had
+learned to think that nothing was too bad to say and to believe of their
+kings; and Marie Antoinette seemed as yet a fairer mark than usual for
+slanderous attack, because her position was weaker than that of a King.[3]
+It depended on the life of her husband and of a single son, who was
+already beginning to show signs of weakness of constitution. It was
+therefore with exceeding satisfaction that in the autumn of 1784 her
+friends learned that she was again about to become a mother. They prayed
+with inexpressible anxiety that the expected child should prove a son; and
+on the 27th of March, 1785, their prayers were granted. A son was born,
+whom his delighted father at once took in his arms, calling him "his
+little Norman," and, saying "that the name alone would bring him
+happiness," created Duke of Normandy. No prophecy was ever so sadly
+falsified; no king's son had ever so miserable a lot; but no forebodings
+of evil as yet disturbed his parents. Their delight was fully shared by
+the body of the people; for the cabals against the queen were as yet
+confined to the immediate precincts of the court, and had not descended to
+infect the middle classes. It was with difficulty when, after her
+confinement, she paid her visit to Paris to return thanks at Notre Dame
+and St. Genevieve, that the citizens could he prevented from unharnessing
+her horses and dragging her coach in triumph through the streets.[4] And
+their exultation was fully shared by the better-intentioned class of
+courtiers, and by all Marie Antoinette's real friends, who felt assured
+that the birth of this second son had given her the security which had
+hitherto been wanting to her position.
+
+Meanwhile, she was again led to interest herself greatly in foreign
+politics, though in truth she hardly regarded any thing in which her
+brother's empire was interested as foreign, so deep was her conviction
+that the interests of France and Austria were identical and inseparable,
+and so unwearied were her endeavors to make her husband's ministers see
+all questions that concerned her brother's dominions with her eyes.
+Throughout the latter part of 1784, and the earlier months of 1785,
+Joseph, who was always restless in his ambition, was full of schemes of
+aggrandizement which he desired to carry out through the favor and
+co-operation of France. At one moment he projected obtaining Bavaria in
+exchange for the Netherlands, at another he aimed at procuring the opening
+of the Scheldt by threatening the Dutch with instant war if they resisted.
+But, as all these schemes were eventually abandoned, they would hardly
+require to be mentioned here, were it not for the proofs which his
+correspondence with his sister affords of his increasing esteem for her
+capacity, and his evident conviction of her growing influence in the
+French Government, and for the light which some of her answers to his
+letters throw on her relations with the ministers, which had perhaps some
+share in increasing the annoyance that the affair of "the necklace," as
+will be presently mentioned, caused her before the end of the year. Her
+difficulties with Louis himself were the same as she had already described
+to her brother on former occasions. "It was impossible to induce him to
+take a strong line, so as to speak resolutely to M. de Vergennes in her
+presence, and equally so to prevent his changing his mind afterward;[5]"
+while she distrusted the good faith of the minister so much that, though
+she resolved to speak to him strongly on the subject, she would not do so
+till she could discuss the question with him "in the presence of the king,
+that he might not be able to disfigure or to exaggerate what she said."
+Yet she did not always find her precautions effectual. Louis's judgment
+was always at the mercy of the last speaker. She assured her brother that
+"he had abundant reason to be contented with the king's personal feelings
+on the subject. When he received the emperor's letter, he spoke to her
+about it in a way that delighted her. He regarded Joseph's demands as
+just, and his motives as most reasonable. Yet--she blushed to own it even
+to her brother--after he had seen his minister, his tone was no longer the
+same; he was embarrassed; he shunned the subject with her, and often found
+some new objection to weaken the effect of his previous admissions."
+
+At one time she even feared a rupture between the two countries. Vergennes
+was urging the king to send an army of observation to the frontier; and,
+if it were sent, the proximity of such a force to the Austrian troops in
+the Netherlands would, to her apprehension, be full of danger. There was
+sound political acuteness in her remark that the dispatch of an army of
+observation was not "in itself a declaration of war, but that when two
+armies are so near to one another an order to advance is very soon
+executed;" and, with a shrewd perception of the argument which was most
+likely to influence the humane disposition of her husband, she pressed
+upon him that "the delays and shuffling of his ministers might very
+probably involve him in war, in spite of his own intentions." However,
+eventually the clouds which had caused her anxiety were dissipated; the
+mediation of France had even some share in leading to a conclusion of
+these disputes in a manner in which Joseph himself acquiesced; and the
+good understanding between the two crowns, on which, as Marie Antoinette
+often declared, her happiness greatly depended, was preserved, or, as she
+hoped, even strengthened, by the result of these negotiations.
+
+But on one occasion of real moment to the personal comfort and credit of
+the queen, Louis behaved with a clear good sense, and, what was equally
+important, with a firmness which she gratefully acknowledged,[6] and
+contrasted remarkably with the pusillanimous advice that had been given by
+more than one of the ministers. That the affair in which he exhibited
+these qualities should for a moment have been regarded as one of political
+importance, is another testimony to the diseased state of the public mind
+at the time; and that it should have been possible so to use it as to
+attach the slightest degree of discredit to the queen, is a proof as
+strange as melancholy how greatly the secret intrigues of the basest cabal
+that ever disgraced a court had succeeded in undermining her reputation,
+and poisoning the very hearts of the people against her.[7]
+
+Boehmer, the court jeweler, had collected a large number of diamonds of
+unusual size and brilliancy, which he had formed into a necklace, in the
+hope of selling it to the queen, whose fancy for such jewels had some
+years before been very great. She had at one time spent sums on diamond
+ornaments, large enough to provoke warm remonstrances from her mother,
+though certainly not excessive for her rank; and Louis, knowing her
+partiality for them, had more than once made her costly gifts of the kind.
+But her taste for them had cooled; her children now engrossed far more of
+her attention than her dress, and she was keenly alive to the distress
+which still prevailed in many parts of the kingdom, and to the
+embarrassments of the revenue, which the ingenuity of Calonne did not
+relieve half so rapidly as his rashness encumbered it. Accordingly, her
+reply to Boehmer's application that she would purchase his necklace was
+that her jewel-case was sufficiently full, and that she had almost given
+up wearing diamonds; and that if such a sum as he asked, which was nearly
+seventy thousand pounds, were available, she should greatly prefer its
+being spent on a ship for the nation, to replace the _Ville de Paris_,
+whose loss still rankled in her breast.
+
+The king, who thought that she must secretly wish for a jewel of such
+unequalled splendor, offered to make her a present of the necklace, but
+she adhered to her refusal. Boehmer was greatly disappointed; he had
+exhausted his resources and his credit in collecting the stones in the
+hope of making a grand profit, and declared loudly to his patrons that he
+should be ruined if the queen could not be induced to change her mind. His
+complaints were so unrestrained that they reached the ears of those who
+saw in his despair a possibility of enriching themselves at his expense.
+There was in Paris at the time a Countess de la Mothe, who, as claiming
+descent from a natural son of Henri II., had added Valois to her name, and
+had her claim to royal birth so far allowed that, as she was in very
+destitute circumstances, she had obtained a small pension from the crown.
+Her pension and her pretensions had perhaps united to procure her the hand
+of the Count de la Mothe, who had for some time been discreditably known
+as one of the most worthless and dangerous adventurers who infested the
+capital. But her marriage had been no restraint on a life of unconcealed
+profligacy, and among her lovers she reckoned the Cardinal de Rohan, who,
+as we have already seen, was as little scrupulous or decent as herself.
+
+As, however, the cardinal's extravagance had left him with little means of
+supplying her necessities, Madame La Mothe conceived the idea of swindling
+Boehmer out of his necklace, and of making de Rohan an accomplice in the
+fraud. The one thing which in the transaction is difficult to determine is
+whether the cardinal was her willing and conscious assistant, or her dupe.
+That his capacity was of the very lowest order was notorious, but he was a
+man who had been bred in courts; he knew the manner in which princes
+transacted their business, and in which queens signed their names. He had
+long been acquainted with Marie Antoinette's figure and gestures and
+voice; while, unhappily, there was nothing in his character which was
+incompatible with his becoming an accomplice in any act of baseness.
+
+What followed was a drama of surprises. It was with as much astonishment
+as indignation that Marie Antoinette learned that Boehmer believed that
+she had secretly bought the necklace, which openly and formally she had
+refused, and that he was looking to her for the payment of its price. And
+about a fortnight later it was like a thunder-clap that a summons came
+upon the Cardinal de Rohan, who had just been performing mass before the
+king and queen, to appear before them in Louis's private cabinet, and that
+he found himself subjected to an examination by Louis himself, who
+demanded of him with great indignation an explanation of the circumstances
+that had led him to represent himself to Boehmer as authorized to buy a
+necklace for the queen. Terrified and confused, he gave an explanation
+which was half a confession; but which was too complicated to be
+thoroughly intelligible. He was ordered to retire into the next room and
+write out his statement. His written narrative proved more obscure than
+his spoken words. In spite of his prayers that he might be spared the
+degradation of being arrested while still clad in his pontifical habits,
+he was at once sent to the Bastile. A day or two afterward Madame La Mothe
+was apprehended in the provinces, and Louis directed that a prosecution
+should be instantly commenced against all who had been concerned in the
+transaction.
+
+For the queen's name had been forged. The cardinal did not deny that he
+had represented himself to Boehmer as employed by her for the purchase of
+the jewel which, as he said, she secretly coveted, and for the payment of
+its price by installments. But, as his justification, he produced a letter
+desiring him to undertake the business, and signed "Marie Antoinette de
+France." He declared that he had never suspected the genuineness of this
+letter, though it was notorious that such an addition to their Christian
+names was used by none but the sons and daughters of the reigning
+sovereign, and never by a queen. And eventually his whole story was found
+to be that Madame La Mothe had induced him to believe that she was in the
+queen's confidence, and also that the queen coveted the necklace and was
+resolved to obtain it; but that she was unable at once to pay for it; and
+that, being desirous to make amends to the cardinal for the neglect with
+which she had hitherto treated him, she had resolved on employing him to
+make arrangements with Boehmer for the instant delivery of the ornament,
+and for her payment of the price by installments.
+
+This was strange enough to have excited the suspicions of most men. What
+followed was stranger still. Not content with forging the queen's
+handwriting, Madame La Mothe had even, if one may say so, forged the queen
+herself. She had assured the cardinal that Marie Antoinette had consented
+to grant him a secret interview; and at midnight, in the gardens of
+Versailles, had introduced him to a woman of notoriously bad character
+named Oliva, who in height resembled the queen, and who, in a conference
+of half a minute, gave him a letter and a rose with the words, "You know
+what this means." She had hardly uttered the words when Madame La Mothe
+interrupted the pair with the warning the Countesses of Provence and
+Artois were approaching. The mock queen retired in haste. The cardinal
+pressed the rose to his heart; acted on the letter; and protested that he
+had never doubted that he had seen the queen, and had been acting on her
+commands in obtaining the necklace from Boehmer and delivering it to
+Madame La Mothe, though he now acknowledged that he had been imposed upon,
+and offered to pay the jeweler for his property.
+
+There were not wanting those who advised that this offer should be
+accepted, and that the matter should be hushed up, rather than that a
+prince of the Church should be publicly disgraced by a prosecution for
+fraud. But Louis and Marie Antoinette both rightly judged that their duty
+as sovereigns of the kingdom forbade them to compromise justice by
+screening dishonesty. It was but two years before that a great noble, the
+most eloquent of all French orators, had singled out Marie Antoinette's
+love of justice as one of her most conspicuous, as it was one of her most
+noble, qualities; and the words deserve especially to be remembered from
+the melancholy contrast which his subsequent conduct presents to the
+voluntary tribute which he now paid to her excellence. In 1783, the young
+Count de Mirabeau, pleading for the restitution of his conjugal rights,
+put the question to the judges at Aix before whom he was arguing, "Which
+of you, if he desired to consecrate a living personification of justice,
+and to embellish it with all the charms of beauty, would not set up the
+august image of our queen?"
+
+She and her husband might well have felt they were bound to act up to such
+a eulogy. Some of their advisers also, and especially the Baron de
+Breteuil and the Abbe de Yermond, fortified their decision with their
+advice; being, in truth, greatly influenced by a reason which they forbore
+to mention, namely, by their suspicion that the untiring malice of the
+queen's enemies would not have failed to represent that the suppression of
+the slightest particle of the truth could only have been dictated by a
+guilty consciousness which felt that it could not bear the light; and that
+the queen had forborne to bring the cardinal into court solely because she
+knew that he was in a situation to prove facts which would deservedly
+damage her reputation.
+
+It is impossible to doubt that the resolution which was adopted was the
+only one consistent with either propriety or common sense. However
+plausible may be the arguments which in this or that case may be adduced
+for concealment, the common instinct of mankind, which rarely errs in such
+matters, always conceives a suspicion that it is dictated by secret and
+discreditable motives; and that he who screens manifest guilt from
+exposure and punishment makes himself an accomplice in the wrong-doing, if
+he was not so before. But, though Louis judged rightly for his own and his
+queen's character in bringing those who were guilty of forgery and robbery
+to a public trial, the result inflicted an irremediable wound on one great
+institution, furnishing an additional proof how incurably rotten the whole
+system of the Government must have been, when corruption without shame or
+disguise was allowed to sway the highest judicial tribunal in the country.
+
+The Parliament of Paris, constantly endeavoring throughout its whole
+history to encroach upon the royal prerogative, had always founded its
+pretensions on its purity and disinterestedness. Since its
+re-establishment at the beginning of the present reign, it had advanced
+its claim to the possession of those virtues more loudly than ever; yet
+now, in the very first case which came before it in which a noble of the
+highest rank was concerned, it was made apparent not only that it was
+wholly destitute of every quality which ought to belong to a judicial
+bench, of a regard for truth and justice, and even of a knowledge of the
+law; but that no one gave it credit for them, and that every one regarded
+the decision to be given as one which would depend, not on the merits of
+the case, but on the interest which the culprits might be able to make
+with the judges.[8]
+
+The trial took place in May of the following year. We need not enter into
+its details; the denials, the admissions, the mutual recriminations of the
+persons accused. In the fate of the La Mothes and Mademoiselle Oliva no
+one professed to be concerned; but the friends of the cardinal were
+numerous, rich, and powerful; and for months had been and still were
+indefatigable in his cause. Some days before the trial, the attorney-
+general had become aware that nearly the whole of the Parliament had been
+gained by them; he even furnished the queen with a list of the names of
+those judges who had promised their verdict beforehand, and of the means
+by which they had been won over. And on the decisive morning the cardinal
+and his friends made a theatrical display which was evidently intended to
+overawe those members of the Parliament who were yet unconvinced, and to
+enlist the sympathies of the public in general. He himself appeared at the
+bar in a long violet cloak, the mourning robe of cardinals; and all the
+passages leading to the hall of justice were lined by his partisans, also
+in deep mourning; and they were not solely his own relations, the nobles
+of the different branches of his family, the Soubises, the Rohans, the
+Guimenees; but though, as princes of the blood, the Condes were nearly
+allied to the king and queen, they also were not ashamed to swell the
+company assembled, and to solicit the judges as they passed into the court
+to disregard alike justice and their own oaths, and to acquit the
+cardinal, whatever the evidence might be which had been, or was to be,
+produced against him. They were only asking what they had already assured
+themselves of obtaining. The queen's signature was indeed declared to be a
+forgery, and the La Mothes, Mademoiselle Oliva, and a man named Retaux de
+Villette, who had been the actual writer of the forged letters, were
+convicted and sentenced to the punishment which the counsel for the crown
+had demanded. But the cardinal was acquitted, as well as a notorious
+juggler and impostor of the day, called Cagliostro, who had apparently
+been so entirely unconnected with the transaction that it is not easy to
+see how he became included in the prosecution; and permission was given to
+the cardinal to make his acquittal public in any manner and to any extent
+which he might desire.[9]
+
+The subsequent history of the La Mothes was singular and characteristic.
+The countess, who had been sentenced to be flogged, branded, and
+imprisoned for life, after a time contrived, it is believed by the aid of
+some of the Rohan family, to escape from prison. She fled to London, where
+for some time she and her husband lived on the proceeds of the necklace,
+which they had broken up and sold piecemeal to jewelers in London and
+other cities; but they were soon reduced to great distress. After the
+Revolution had broken out in Paris, they tried to make money by publishing
+libels on the queen, in which they are believed to have obtained the aid
+of some who in former times had been under great personal obligations to
+Marie Antoinette. But the scheme failed: they were overwhelmed with debt;
+writs were issued against them, and in trying to escape from the sheriff's
+officers, the countess fell from a window at the top of a house, and
+received injuries which proved fatal.
+
+A most accomplished writer of the present day, who has devoted much care
+and ability to the examination of the case, has pronounced an opinion that
+the cardinal was innocent of dishonesty,[10] and limits his offense to
+that of insulting the queen by the mere suspicion that she could place her
+confidence in such an unworthy agent as Madame La Mothe, or that he
+himself could be allowed to recover her favor by such means as he had
+employed. But his absolute ignorance of the countess's schemes is not
+entirely consistent with the admitted fact that, when he was arrested, his
+first act was to send orders to his secretary to burn all the letters
+which he had received from her on the subject; and unquestionably neither
+Louis nor Marie Antoinette doubted his full complicity in the conspiracy.
+Louis at once deprived him of his office of grand almoner, and banished
+him from the court, declaring that "he knew too well the usages of the
+court to have believed that Madame La Mothe had really been admitted to
+the queen's presence and intrusted with such a commission.[11]" And Marie
+Antoinette gave open expression to her indignation at the acquittal "of an
+intriguer who had sought to ruin her, or to procure money for himself, by
+abusing her name and forging her signature," adding, with undeniable
+truth, that still more to be pitied than herself was a "nation which had
+for its supreme tribunal a body of men who consulted nothing but their
+passions; and of whom some were full of corruption, and others were
+inspired with a boldness which always vented itself in opposition to those
+who were clothed with lawful authority.[12]"
+
+But her magnanimity and her sincere affection for the whole people were
+never more manifest than now even in her first moments of indignation.
+Even while writing to Madame de Polignac that she is "bathed in tears of
+grief and despair," and that she can "hope for nothing good when
+perverseness is so busy in seeking means to chill her very soul," she yet
+adds that "she shall triumph over her enemies by doing more good than
+ever, and that it will be easier for them to afflict her than to drive her
+to avenging herself on them.[13]" And she uses the same language to her
+sister Christine, even while expressing still more strongly her
+indignation at being "sacrificed to a perjured priest and a shameless
+intriguer." She demands her sister's "pity, as one who had never deserved
+such injurious treatment;[14] but who had only recollected that she was
+the daughter of Maria Teresa--to fulfill her mother's exhortations, always
+to show herself French to the very bottom of her heart;" but she concludes
+by repeating the declaration that "nothing shall tempt her to any conduct
+unworthy of herself, and that the only revenge that she will take shall he
+to redouble her acts of kindness."
+
+It is pleasing to be able to close so odious a subject by the statement
+that the disgrace which the cardinal had thus brought upon himself may be
+supposed in some respects to have served as a lesson to him, and that his
+conduct in the latter days of his life was such as to do no discredit to
+the noble race from which he sprung.
+
+A great part of his diocese as Bishop of Strasburg lay on the German side
+of the Rhine; and thither,[15] when the French Revolution began to assume
+the blood-thirsty character which has made it a warning to all future
+ages, he was fortunate to escape in safety from the fury of the assassins
+who ruled France. And though he was no longer rich, his less fortunate
+countrymen, and especially his clerical brethren, found in him a liberal
+protector and supporter.[16] He even levied a body of troops to re-enforce
+the royalist army. But, when the First Consul wrung from the Pope a
+concordat of which he disapproved, he resigned his bishopric, and shortly
+afterward died at Ettenheim,[17] where, had he remained but a short time
+longer, he, like the Duke d'Enghien, might have found that a residence in
+a foreign land was no protection against the ever-suspicious enmity of
+Bonaparte.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+The King visits Cherbourg.--Rarity of Royal Journeys.--The Princess
+Christine visits the Queen--Hostility of the Duc d'Orleans to the Queen.--
+Libels on her.--She is called Madame Deficit.--She has a Second Daughter,
+who dies.--Ill Health of the Dauphin.--Unskillfulness and Extravagance of
+Calonne's System of Finance.--Distress of the Kingdom.--He assembles the
+Notables.--They oppose his Plans.--Letters of Marie Antoinette on the
+Subject.--Her Ideas of the English Parliament.--Dismissal of Calonne.--
+Character of Archbishop Lomenie de Brienne.--Obstinacy of Necker.--The
+Archbishop is appointed Minister.--The Distress increases.--The Notables
+are dissolved.--Violent Opposition of the Parliament--Resemblance of the
+French Revolution to the English Rebellion of 1642.--Arrest of
+d'Espremesnil and Montsabert.
+
+
+It was owing to Marie Antoinette's influence that Louis himself in the
+following year began to enter on a line of conduct which, if circumstances
+had not prevented him from persevering in it, might have tended, more
+perhaps than any thing else that he could have done, to make him also
+popular with the main body of the people. The emperor, while at
+Versailles, had strongly pressed upon him that it was his duty, as king of
+the nation, to make himself personally acquainted with every part of his
+kingdom, to visit the agricultural districts, the manufacturing towns, the
+fortresses, arsenals, and harbors of the country. Joseph himself had
+practiced what he preached. No corner of his dominions was unknown to him;
+and it is plain that there can be no nation which must not be benefited by
+its sovereign thus obtaining a personal knowledge of all the various
+interests and resources of his subjects. But such personal investigations
+were not yet understood to be a part of a monarch's duties. Louis's
+contemporary, our own sovereign, George III., than whom, if rectitude of
+intention and benevolence of heart be the principal standards by which
+princes should be judged, no one ever better deserved to be called the
+father of his country, scarcely ever went a hundred miles from Windsor,
+and never once visited even those Midland Counties which before the end of
+his reign had begun to give undeniable tokens of the contribution which
+their industry was to furnish to the growing greatness of his empire; and
+the last two kings of France, though in the course of their long reigns
+they had once or twice visited their armies while waging war on the
+Flemish or German frontier, had never seen their western or southern
+provinces.
+
+But now Marie Antoinette suggested to her husband that it was time that he
+should extend his travels, which, except when he had gone to Rheims for
+his coronation, had never yet carried him beyond Compiegne in one
+direction and Fontainebleau in another; and, as of all the departments of
+Government, that which was concerned with the marine of the nation
+interested her most (we fear that she was secretly looking forward to a
+renewal of war with England), she persuaded him to select for the object
+of his first visit the fort of Cherbourg in Normandy, where those great
+works had been recently begun which have since been constantly augmented
+and improved, till they have made it a worthy rival to our own harbors on
+the opposite side of the Channel. He was received in all the towns through
+which he passed with real joy. The Normans had never seen their king since
+Henry IV. had made their province his battle-field; and the queen, who
+would gladly have accompanied him, had it not been that such a journey
+undertaken by both would have resembled a state procession, and therefore
+have been tedious and comparatively useless, exulted in the reception
+which he had met with, and began to plan other expeditions of the same
+kind for him, feeling assured that his presence would be equally welcomed
+in other provinces--at Bourdeaux, at Lyons, or at Toulon. And a series of
+such visits would undoubtedly have been calculated to strengthen the
+attachment of the people everywhere to the royal authority; which,
+already, to some far-seeing judges, seemed likely soon to need all the
+re-enforcement which it could obtain in any quarter.
+
+In the summer of 1786 she had a visit from her sister Christine, the
+Princess of Teschen, who, with her husband, had been joint governor of
+Hungary, and since the death of her uncle, Charles of Lorraine, had been
+removed to the Netherlands. She had never seen her sister since her own
+marriage, and the month which they spent together at Versailles may be
+almost described as the last month of perfect enjoyment that Marie
+Antoinette ever knew; for troubles were thickening fast around the
+Government, and were being taken wicked advantage of by her enemies, at
+the head of whom the Duc d'Orleans now began openly to range himself. He
+was a man notorious, as has been already seen, for every kind of infamy;
+and though he well knew the disapproval with which Marie Antoinette
+regarded his way of life and his character, it is believed that he had had
+the insolence to approach her with the language of gallantry; that he had
+been rejected with merited indignation; and that he ever afterward
+regarded her noble disdain as a provocation which it should be the chief
+object of his life to revenge. In fact, on one occasion he did not scruple
+to avow his resentment at the way in which, as he said, she had treated
+him; though he did not mention the reason.[1]
+
+Calumny was the only weapon which could be employed against her; but in
+that he and his partisans had long been adept. Every old libel and pretext
+for detraction was diligently revived. The old nickname of "The Austrian"
+was repeated with pertinacity as spiteful as causeless; even the king's
+aunts lending their aid to swell the clamor on that ground, and often
+saying, with all the malice of their inveterate jealousy, that it was not
+to be expected that she should have the same feelings as their father or
+Louis XIV., since she was not of their blood, though it was plain that the
+same remark would have applied to every Queen of France since Anne of
+Brittany. Even the embarrassments of the revenue were imputed to her; and
+she, who had curtailed her private expenses, even those which seemed
+almost necessary to her position, that she might minister more largely to
+the necessities of the poor--who had declined to buy jewels that the money
+might be applied to the service of the State--was now held up to the
+populace as being by her extravagance the prime cause of the national
+distress. Pamphlets and caricatures gave her a new nickname of "Madame
+Deficit;" and such an impression to her disfavor was thus made on the
+minds of the lower classes, that a painter, who had just finished an
+engaging portrait of her surrounded by her children, feared to send it to
+the exhibition, lest it should be made a pretext for insult and violence.
+Her unpopularity did not, indeed, last long at this time, but was
+superseded, as we shall presently see, by fresh feelings of gratitude for
+fresh labors of charity; nevertheless, the outcry now raised left its seed
+behind it, to grow hereafter into a more enduring harvest of distrust and
+hatred.
+
+She had troubles, too, of another kind which touched her more nearly. A
+second daughter, Sophie[2], had been born to her in the summer of 1786;
+but she was a sickly child, and died, before she was a year old, of one of
+the illnesses to which children are subject, and for some months the
+mother mourned bitterly over her "little angel," as she called her. Her
+eldest boy, too, was getting rapidly and visibly weaker in health: his
+spine seemed to diseased, Marie Antoinette's only hope of saving him
+rested on the fact that his father had also been delicate at the same age.
+Luckily his brother gave her no cause for uneasiness; as she wrote to the
+emperor[3]--"he had all that his elder wanted; he was a thorough peasant's
+child, tall, stout, and ruddy.[4]" She had also another comfort, which, as
+her troubles thickened, became more and more precious to her, in the warm
+affection that had sprung up between her and her sister-in-law, the
+Princess Elizabeth. A letter[5] has been preserved in which the princess
+describes the death of the little Sophie to one of her friends, which it
+is impossible to read without being struck by the sincerity of the
+sympathy with which she enters into the grief of the bereaved mother. In
+these moments of anguish she showed herself indeed a true sister, and, the
+two clinging to one another the more the greater their dangers and
+distresses became, a true sister she continued to the end.
+
+Meanwhile the embarrassments of the Government were daily assuming a more
+formidable appearance. Calonne had for some time endeavored to meet the
+deficiency of the revenue by raising fresh loans, till he had completely
+exhausted the national credit; and at last had been forced to admit that
+the scheme originally propounded by Turgot, and subsequently in a more
+modified degree by Necker, of abolishing the exemptions from taxation
+which were enjoyed by the nobles--the privileged classes, as they were
+often called--was the only expedient to save the nation from the disgrace
+and ruin of total bankruptcy. But, as it seemed probable that the nobles
+would resist such a measure, and that their resistance would prove too
+strong for him, as it had already been found to be for his predecessors,
+he proposed to the king to revive an old assembly which had been known by
+the title of the Notables; trusting that, if he succeeded in obtaining the
+sanction of that body to his plans, the nobles would hardly venture to
+insist on maintaining their privileges in defiance of the recorded
+judgment of so respectable a council. His hopes were disappointed. He
+might fairly have reckoned on obtaining their concurrence, since it was
+the unquestioned prerogative of the king to nominate all the members; but,
+even when he was most deliberate and resolute, his rashness and
+carelessness were incurable. He took no pains whatever to select members
+favorable to his views; and the consequence was that, in March, 1787, in
+the very first month of the session of the Notables, the whole body
+protested against one of the taxes which he desired to impose; and his
+enemies at once urged the king to dismiss him, basing their recommendation
+on the practice of England, where, as they affirmed, a minister who found
+himself in a minority on an important question immediately retired from
+office.
+
+Marie Antoinette, who, as we have seen, had been a diligent reader of
+Hume, had also been led to compare the proceedings of the refractory
+Notables with the conduct of our English parliamentary parties, and to an
+English reader some of her comments can not fail to be as interesting as
+they are curious. The Duchess de Polignac was drinking the waters at Bath,
+which at that time was a favorite resort of French valetudinarians, and,
+while she was still in that most beautiful of English cities, the queen
+kept up an occasional correspondence with her. We have two letters which
+Marie Antoinette wrote to her in April; one on the 9th, the very day on
+which Calonne was dismissed; the second, two days latter; and even the
+passages which do not relate to politics have their interest as specimens
+of the writer's character, and of the sincere frankness with which she
+laid aside her rank and believed in the possibility of a friendship of
+complete equality.
+
+"April 9th, 1787.
+
+"I thank you, my dear heart, for your letter, which has done me good. I
+was anxious about you. It is true, then, that you have not suffered much
+from your journey. Take care of yourself, I insist on it, I beg of you;
+and be sure and derive benefit from the waters, else I should repent of
+the privation I have inflicted on myself without your health being
+benefited. When you are near I feel how much I love you; and I feel it
+much more when you are far away. I am greatly taken up with you and yours,
+and you would be very ungrateful if you did not love me, for I can not
+change toward you.
+
+"Where you are you can at least enjoy the comfort of never hearing of
+business. Although you are in the country of an Upper and a Lower House,
+you can stop your ears and let people talk. But here it is a noise that
+deafens one in spite of all I can do. The words 'opposition' and 'motions'
+are established here as in the English Parliament, with this difference,
+that in London, when people go into opposition, they begin by denuding
+themselves of the favors of the king; instead of which, here numbers
+oppose all the wise and beneficent views of the most virtuous of masters,
+and still keep all he has given them. It may be a cleverer way of
+managing, but it is not so gentleman-like. The time of illusion is past,
+and we are tasting cruel experience. We are paying dearly to-day for our
+zeal and enthusiasm for the American war. The voice of honest men is
+stifled by members and cabals. Men disregard principles to bind themselves
+to words, and to multiply attacks on individuals. The seditious will drag
+the State to its ruin rather than renounce their intrigues."
+
+And in her second letter she specifies some of the Opposition by name; one
+of whom, as will be seen hereafter, contributed greatly to her subsequent
+miseries.... "The repugnance which you know that I have always had to
+interfering in business is today put cruelly to the proof; and you would
+be as tired as I am of all that goes on. I have already spoken to you of
+our Upper and Lower House,[6] and of all the absurdities which take place
+there, and of the nonsense which is talked. To be loaded with benefits by
+the king, like M. de Beauvau, to join the Opposition, and to surrender
+none of them, is what is called having spirit and courage. It is, in
+truth, the courage of infamy. I am wholly surrounded with folks who have
+revolted from him. A duke,[7] a great maker of motions, a man who has
+always a tear in his eye when he speaks, is one of the number. M. de La
+Fayette always founds the opinions he expresses on what is done at
+Philadelphia.... Even bishops and archbishops belong to the Opposition,
+and a great many of the clergy are the very soul of the cabal. You may
+judge, after this, of all the resources which they employ to overturn the
+plans of the king and his ministers."
+
+Calonne, however, as has already been intimated, had been dismissed from
+office before this last letter was written. There had been a trial of
+strength between him and his enemies; which he, believing that he had won
+the confidence of Louis himself, reckoned on turning to his own advantage,
+by inducing the king to dismiss those of his opponents who were in office.
+To his astonishment, he found that Louis preferred dispensing with his own
+services, and the general voice was probably correct when it, affirmed
+that it was the queen who had induced him to come to that decision.
+
+Lomenie de Brienne, Archbishop of Toulouse, was again a candidate for the
+vacant post, and De Vermond was as diligent as on the previous occasion[8]
+in laboring to return the obligations under which that prelate had
+formerly laid him, by extolling his abilities and virtues to the queen,
+and recommending him as a worthy successor to Calonne, whom she had never
+trusted or liked. In reality, the archbishop was wholly destitute of
+either abilities or virtues. He was notorious both for open profligacy and
+for avowed infidelity, so much so that Louis had refused to transfer him
+to the diocese of Paris, on the ground that "at least the archbishop of
+the metropolis ought to believe in God.[9]" But Marie Antoinette was
+ignorant of his character, and believed De Vermond's assurance that the
+appointment of so high an ecclesiastic would propitiate the clergy, whose
+opposition, as many of her letters prove, she thought specially
+formidable, and for whose support she knew her husband to be nervously
+anxious. Some of Calonne's colleagues strongly urged the king to
+re-appoint Necker, whose recall would have been highly popular with the
+nation. But Necker had recently given Louis personal offense by publishing
+a reply to some of Calonne's statements, in defiance of the king's express
+prohibition, and had been banished from Paris for the act; and the queen,
+recollecting how he had formerly refused to withdraw his resignation at
+her entreaty, felt that she had no reason to expect any great
+consideration for the opinions or wishes of either herself or the king
+from one so conceited and self-willed, who would be likely to attribute
+his re-appointment, not to the king's voluntary choice, but to his
+necessities: she therefore strongly pressed that the archbishop should be
+preferred. In an unhappy moment she prevailed;[10] and on the 1st of May,
+1787, Lomenie de Brienne was installed in office with the title of Chief
+of the Council of Finance.
+
+A more unhappy choice could not possibly have been made. The new minister
+was soon seen to be as devoid of information and ability as he was known
+to be of honesty. He had a certain gravity of outward demeanor which
+imposed upon many, and he had also the address to lead the conversation to
+points which, his hearers understood still less than himself; dilating on
+finance and the money market even to the ladies of the court, who had had
+some share in persuading the queen of his fitness for office.[11] But his
+disposition was in reality as rash as that of Calonne; and it was a
+curious proof of his temerity, as well as of his ignorance of the feeling
+of parties in Paris, that though he knew the Notables to be friendly to
+him, as indeed they would have been to any one who might have superseded
+Calonne, he dismissed them before the end of the month. And the language
+held on their dissolution both by the ministers and by the President of
+the Notables, and which was cheerfully accepted by the people, is
+remarkable from the contrast which it affords to the feelings which swayed
+the national council exactly two years afterward. Some measures of
+retrenchment which the Notables had recommended had been adopted; some
+reductions had been made in the royal households; some costly ceremonies
+had been abolished; and one or two imposts, which had pressed with great
+severity on the poorer classes, had been extinguished or modified. And not
+only did M. Lamoignon, the Keeper of the Seals, in the speech in which he
+dismissed them, venture to affirm that these reductions would be found to
+have effected all that was needed to restore universal prosperity to the
+kingdom; but the President of the Assembly, in his reply, thanked God "for
+having caused him to be born in such an age, under such a government, and
+for having made him the subject of a king whom he was constrained to
+love," and the thanksgiving was re-echoed by the whole Assembly. But this
+contentment did not last long. The embarrassments of the Treasury were too
+serious to be dissipated by soft speeches. The Notables were hardly
+dissolved before the archbishop proposed a new loan of an enormous amount;
+and, as he might have foreseen, their dissolution revived the pretensions
+of the Parliament. The queen's description of the rise of a French
+opposition at once received a practical commentary. The debates in the
+Parliament became warmer than they had ever been since the days of the
+Fronde: the citizens, sharing in the excitement, thronged the palace of
+the Parliament, expressing their approval or disapproval of the different
+speakers by disorderly and unprecedented clamor; the great majority
+hooting down the minister and his supporters, and cheering those who spoke
+against him. The Duc d'Orleans, by open bribes, gained over many of the
+councilors to oppose the court in every thing. The registration of several
+of the edicts which the minister had sent down was refused; and one member
+of the Orleanist party even demanded the convocation of the States-
+general, formerly and constitutionally the great council of the nation,
+but which had never been assembled since the time of Richelieu.
+
+The archbishop was sometimes angry, and sometimes terrified, and as weak
+in his anger as in his terror. He persuaded the king to hold a bed of
+justice to compel the registration of the edicts. When the Parliament
+protested, he banished it to Troyes. In less than a month he became
+alarmed at his own vigor, and recalled it. Encouraged by his
+pusillanimity, and more secure than ever of the support of the citizens
+who had been thrown into consternation by his demand of a second loan,
+nearly[12] six times as large as the first, it became more audacious and
+defiant than ever, D'Orleans openly placing himself at the head of the
+malcontents. Lomenie persuaded the king to banish the duke, and to arrest
+one or two of his most vehement partisans; and again in a few weeks
+repented of this act of decision also, released the prisoners, and
+recalled the duke.
+
+As a matter of course, the Parliament grew bolder still. Every measure
+which the minister proposed was rejected; and under the guidance of one of
+their members, Duval d'Espremesnil, the councilors at last proceeded so
+far as to take the initiative in new legislation into their own hands. In
+the first week in May, 1788, they passed a series of resolutions affirming
+that to be the law which indeed ought to have been so, but which had
+certainly never been regarded as such at any period of French history. One
+declared that magistrates were irremovable, except in cases of misconduct;
+another, that the individual liberty and property of every citizen were
+inviolable; others insisted on the necessity of convoking the States-
+general as the only assembly entitled to impose taxes; and the councilors
+hoped to secure the royal acceptance of these resolutions by some previous
+votes which asserted that, of those laws which were the very foundation of
+the Constitution, the first was that which assured the "crown to the
+reigning house and to its descendants in the male line, in the order of
+primogeniture.[13]"
+
+But Louis, or rather his rash minister, was not to be so conciliated; and
+a scene ensued which is the first of the striking parallels which this
+period in France affords to the events which had taken place in England a
+century and a half before. As in 1642 Charles I. had attempted to arrest
+members of the English Parliament in the very House of Commons, so the
+archbishop now persuaded Louis to send down the captain of the guard, the
+Marquis d'Agoust, to the palace of the Parliament, to seize D'Espremesnil,
+and another councilor named Montsabert, who had been one of his foremost
+supporters in the recent discussions. They behaved with admirable dignity.
+Marie Antoinette was not one to betray her husband's counsels, as
+Henrietta Maria had betrayed those of Charles. D'Espremesnil and his
+friend, wholly taken by surprise, had had no warning of what was designed,
+no time to withdraw, nor in all probability would they have done so in any
+case. When M. d'Agoust entered the council hall and demanded his
+prisoners, there was a great uproar. The whole Assembly made common cause
+with their two brethren who were thus threatened. "We are all
+d'Espremesnils and Montsaberts," was their unanimous cry; while the tumult
+at the doors, where a vast multitude was collected, many of whom had arms
+in their hands and seemed prepared to use them, was more formidable still.
+But D'Agoust, though courteous in the discharge of his duty, was intrepid
+and firm; and the two members voluntarily surrendered themselves and
+retired in custody, while the archbishop was so elated with his triumph
+that a few days afterwards he induced the king to venture on another
+imitation of the history of England, though now it was not Charles, but
+the more tyrannical Cromwell, whose conduct was copied. Before the end of
+the month the Governor of Paris entered the palace of the Parliament,
+seized all the registers and documents of every kind, locked the doors,
+and closed them with the king's seal; and a royal edict was issued
+suspending all the parliaments both in the capital and the provinces.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+Formidable Riots take place in some Provinces.--The Archbishop invites
+Necker to join his Ministry.--Letter of Marie Antoinette describing her
+Interview with the Archbishop, and her Views.--Necker refuses.--The Queen
+sends Messages to Necker.--The Archbishop resigns, and Necker becomes
+Minister.--The Queen's View of his Character.--General Rejoicing.--Defects
+in Necker's Character.--He recalls the Parliament.--Riots in Paris.--
+Severe Winter.--General Distress.--Charities of the King and Queen.--
+Gratitude of the Citizens.--The Princes are concerned in the Libels
+published against the Queen.--Preparations for the Meeting of the States-
+general.--Long Disuse of that Assembly.--Need of Reform.--Vices Of the Old
+Feudal System.--Necker's Blunders in the Arrangements for the Meeting of
+the States.--An Edict of the King concedes the Chief Demands of the
+Commons.--Views of the Queen.
+
+
+The whole kingdom was thrown into great and dangerous excitement by these
+transactions. Little as were the benefits which the people had ever
+derived from the conduct of the Parliament, their opposition to the
+archbishop, who had already had time to make himself generally hated and
+despised, caused the councilors to be very generally regarded as champions
+of liberty; and in the most distant provinces, in Bearn, in Isere, and in
+Brittany, public meetings (a thing hitherto unknown in the history of the
+nation) were held, remonstrances were drawn up, confederacies were formed,
+and oaths were administered by which those who took them bound themselves
+never to surrender what they affirmed to be the ancient privileges of the
+nation.
+
+The archbishop became alarmed; a little, perhaps, for the nation and the
+king, but far more for his own place, which he had already contrived to
+render profitable to himself by the preferments which it had enabled him
+to engross. And, in the hope of saving it, he now entreated Necker to join
+the Government, proposing to yield up the management of the finances to
+him, and to retain only the post of prime minister.
+
+A letter from the queen to Mercy shows that she acquiesced in the scheme.
+Her disapproval of Necker's past conduct was outweighed by her sense of
+the need which the State had of his financial talents; though, for reasons
+which she explains, she was unwilling wholly to sacrifice the archbishop;
+and the letter has a further interest as displaying some of the
+difficulties which arose from the peculiar disposition of the king, while
+every one was daily more and more learning to look upon her as the more
+important person in the Government. On the 19th of August, 1783, she
+writes to Mercy,[1] whom the archbishop had employed as his agent to
+conciliate the stubborn Swiss Banker:
+
+"The archbishop came to me this morning, immediately after he had seen
+you, to report to me the conversation which he had had with you. I spoke
+to him very frankly, and was touched by what he said. He is at this moment
+with the king, to try and get him to decide; but I very much fear that M.
+Necker will not accept while the archbishop remains. The animosity of the
+public against him is pushed so far that M. Necker will be afraid of being
+compromised, and, indeed, perhaps it might injure his credit; but, at the
+same time, what is to be done? In truth and conscience we can not
+sacrifice a man who has made for as all these sacrifices of his
+reputation, of his position in the world, perhaps even of his life; for I
+fear they would kill him. There is yet M. Foulon, if M. Necker refuses
+absolutely.[2] But I suspect him of being a very dishonest man; and
+confidence would not be established with him for comptroller. I fear, too,
+that the public is pressing us to take a part much more humiliating for
+the ministers, and much more vexatious for ourselves, inasmuch as we shall
+have done nothing of our own will. I am very unhappy. I will close my
+letter after I know the result of this evening's conference. I greatly
+fear the archbishop will be forced to retire altogether, and then what man
+are we to take to place at the head of the whole? For we must have one,
+especially with M. Necker. He must have a bridle; and the person who is
+above me[3] is not able to be such; and I, whatever people may say, and
+whatever happens, am never any thing but second; and, in spite of the
+confidence which the first has in me, he often makes me feel it.... The
+archbishop has just gone. The king is very unwilling; and could only be
+brought to make up his mind by a promise that the person[4] should only be
+sounded; and that no positive engagement should be made."
+
+Necker refused. The next day Mercy reported to the queen that, though the
+excitement was great, it confined itself to denunciations of the
+archbishop and of the keeper of the seals; and that "the name of the queen
+had never once been mentioned;" and on the 22d, Marie Antoinette,[5] from
+a conviction of the greatness of the emergency, determined to see Necker
+herself; and employed the embassador and De Vermond to let him know that
+her own wish for his restoration to the direction of the finances was
+sincere and earnest, and to promise him that the archbishop should not
+interfere in that department in any way whatever. Two days later,[6] she
+wrote again to mention that the king had vanquished his repugnance to
+Necker, and had come wholly over to her opinion. "Time pressed, and it was
+more essential than ever that Necker should accept;" and on the 25th she
+writes a final letter to report to Mercy that the archbishop has resigned,
+and that she has just summoned Necker to come to her the next morning.
+Though she felt that she had done what was both right and indispensable,
+she was not without misgivings. "If," she writes, in a strain of anxious
+despondency very foreign to her usual tone, and which shows how deeply she
+felt the importance of the crisis, and of every step that might be taken--
+"if he will but undertake the task, it is the best thing that can be done;
+but I tremble (excuse my weakness) at the fact that it is I who have
+brought him back. It is my fate to bring misfortune, and, if infernal
+machinations should cause him once more to fail, or if he should lower the
+authority of the king, they will hate me still more."
+
+In one point of view she need not have trembled at being known to have
+caused Necker's re-appointment, since it is plain that no other nomination
+was possible. Vergennes had died a few months before, and the whole
+kingdom did not supply a single statesman of reputation except Necker. Nor
+could any choice have for the moment been more universally popular. The
+citizens illuminated Paris; the mob burned the archbishop in effigy; and
+the leading merchants and bankers showed their approval in a far more
+practical way. The funds rose; loans to any amount were freely offered to
+the Treasury; the national credit revived; as if the solvency or
+insolvency of the nation depended on a single man, and him a foreigner.
+
+Yet, if regarded in any point of view except that of a financier, he was
+extremely unfit to be the minister at such a crisis; and the queen's
+acuteness had, in the extract from her letter which has been, quoted
+above, correctly pointed out the danger to be apprehended, namely, that he
+might lower the authority of the king.[7] It was, in fact, to his uniform
+and persistent degradation of the king's authority that the greater part,
+if not the whole, of the evils which ensued may be clearly traced, and the
+cause that led him to adopt this fatal system was thoroughly visible to
+one gifted with such intuitive penetration into character as Marie
+Antoinette. For he had two great defects or weaknesses; an overweening
+vanity, which, as it is valued applause above every thing, led him to
+regard the popularity which they might win for him as the natural motive
+and the surest test of his actions; and an abstract belief in human
+perfection and in the submission of all classes to strict reason, which
+could only proceed from a total ignorance of mankind.[8] Yet, greatly as
+financial skill was needed, if the kingdom was to be saved from the
+bankruptcy which seemed to be imminent, it was plain that a faculty for
+organization and legislation was no less indispensable if the vessel of
+the State was to be steered safely along the course on which it was
+entering; for the archbishop's last act had been to induce the king to
+promise to convoke the States-general. The 1st of May of the ensuing year
+was fixed for their meeting; and the arrangements for and the management
+of an assembly, which, as not having met for nearly two hundred years,
+could not fail to present many of the features of an entire novelty, were
+a task which would have severely tested the most statesman-like capacity.
+
+But, unhappily, Necker's very first acts showed him equally void of
+resolution and of sagacity. He was not only unable to estimate the
+probable conduct of the people in future, but he showed himself incapable
+of profiting by the experience of the past; and, in spite of the
+insubordinate spirit which the Parliament had at all times displayed, he
+at once recalled them in deference to the clamor of the Parisian citizens,
+and allowed them to enter Paris in a triumphal procession, as if his very
+object had been to parade their victory over the king's authority. Their
+return was the signal for a renewal of riots, which assumed a more
+formidable character than ever. The police, and even the guardhouses, were
+attacked in open day, and the Government had reason to suspect that the
+money which was employed in fomenting the tumults was supplied by the Duc
+d'Orleans. A fierce mob traversed the streets at night, terrifying the
+peaceable inhabitants with shouts of triumph over the king as having been
+compelled to recall the Parliament against his will; while those who were
+supposed to be adverse to the pretensions of the councilors were insulted
+in the streets, and branded as Royalists, the first time in the history of
+the nation that ever that name had been used as a term of reproach.
+
+Yet, presently the whole body of citizens, with their habitual impulsive
+facility of temper, again, for a while, became Royalists. The winter was
+one of unprecedented severity. By the beginning of December the Seine was
+frozen over, and the whole adjacent country was buried in deep snow.
+Wolves from the neighboring forests, desperate with hunger, were said to
+have made their way into the suburbs, and to have attacked people in the
+streets. Food of every kind became scarce, and of the poorer classes many
+were believed to have died of actual starvation. Necker, as head of the
+Government, made energetic and judicious efforts to relieve the universal
+distress, forming magazines in different districts, facilitating the means
+of transport, finding employment for vast numbers of laborers and
+artisans, and purchasing large quantities of grain in foreign countries;
+and, not only were Louis and Marie Antoinette conspicuous for the
+unstinting liberality with which they devoted their own funds to the
+supply of the necessities of the destitute, but the queen, in many cases
+of unusual or pressing suffering that were reported to her in Versailles
+and the neighboring villages, sent trustworthy persons to investigate
+them, and in numerous instances went herself to the cottages, making
+personal inquiries into the condition of the occupants, and showing not
+only a feeling heart, but a considerate and active kindness, which doubled
+the value of her benefactions by the gracious, thoughtful manner in which
+they were bestowed.
+
+She would willingly have done the good she did in secret, partly from her
+constant feeling that charity was not charity if it were boasted of,
+partly from a fear that those ready to misconstrue all her acts would find
+pretexts for evil and calumny even in her bounty. One of her good deeds
+struck Necker as of so remarkable a character that he pressed her to allow
+him to make it known. "Be sure, on the contrary," she replied, "that you
+never mention it. What good could it do? they would not believe you;[9]"
+but in this she was mistaken. Her charities were too widely spread to
+escape the knowledge even of those who did not profit by them; and they
+had their reward, though it was but a short-lived one. Though the majority
+of her acts of personal kindness were performed in Versailles rather than
+in Paris, the Parisians were as vehement in their gratitude as the
+Versaillese; and it found a somewhat fantastic vent in the erection of
+pyramids and obelisks of snow in different quarters of the city, all
+bearing inscriptions testifying the citizens' sense of her benevolence.
+One, which far exceeded all its fellows in size--the chief beauty of works
+of that sort--since it was fifteen feet high, and each of the four faces
+was twelve feet wide at the base, was decorated with a medallion of the
+royal pair, and bore a poetical inscription commemorating the cause of its
+erection:
+
+  "Reine, dont la beaute surpasse les appas
+  Pres d'un roi bienfaisant occupe ici la place.
+  Si ce monument frele est de neige et de glace,
+    Nos coeurs pour toi ne le sont pas.
+    De ce monument sans exemple,
+  Couple auguste, l'aspect bien doux pur votre coeur
+  Sans doute vous plaira plus qu'un palais, qu'un temple
+   Que vous eleverait un peuple adulateur.[10]"
+
+Neither the queen's feelings nor her conduct had been in any way altered;
+but six months later the same populace who raised this monument and
+applauded these verses were, with ferocious and obscene threats, clamoring
+for her blood. And there is hardly any thing more strange or more grievous
+in the history of the nation, hardly any greater proof of that incurable
+levity which was one great cause of the long series of miseries which soon
+fell upon it, than that the impressions of gratitude which were so vivid
+at the moment, and so constantly revived by the queen's untiring
+benevolence, could yet be so easily effaced by the acts of demagogues and
+libelers, whom the people thoroughly despised even while suffering
+themselves to be led by them. How great a part in these libels was borne
+by those who were bound by every tie of blood to the king to be his
+warmest supporters, we have a remarkable proof in an Edict of Council
+which was issued during the ministry of the archbishop, and which deprived
+the palaces of the Count de Provence, the Count d'Artois, and the Duc
+d'Orleans of their usual exemption from the investigation of the syndics
+of the library, as those officers were called whose duty it was to search
+all suspected places for libelous or seditious pamphlets; the reason
+publicly given for this edict being that the dwellings of these three
+princes were a perfect arsenal for the issue of publications contrary to
+the laws, to morality, and to religion.[11]
+
+With the return of spring, the severity of the distress began to pass
+away. But, even while it lasted, it scarcely diverted the attention of the
+middle classes from the preparations for the approaching meeting of the
+States-general, from which the whole people, with few exceptions, promised
+themselves great advantages, though comparatively few had formed any
+precise notion of the benefits which they expected, or of the mode in
+which they were to be attained. The States-general had been originally
+established in the same age which saw the organization of our own
+Parliament, with very nearly the same powers, though the members had more
+of the narrower character of delegates of their constituents than was the
+case in England, where they were more wisely regarded as representatives
+of the entire nation.[12] And it was an acknowledged principle of their
+constitution that they could neither propose any measure nor ask for the
+redress of any grievance which was not expressly mentioned in the
+instructions with which their constituents furnished them at the time of
+their election.
+
+In England, the two Houses of Parliament, by a vigilant and systematic
+perseverance, had gradually extorted from the sovereign a great and
+progressive enlargement of their original powers, till they had almost
+engrossed the entire legislative authority in the kingdom. But in France,
+a variety of circumstances had prevented the States-general from arriving
+at a similar development. And, consequently, as in human affairs very
+little is stationary, their authority had steadily diminished, instead of
+increasing, till they had become so powerless and utterly insignificant
+that, since the year 1615, they had never once been convened. Not only had
+they been wholly disused, but they seemed to have been wholly forgotten.
+During the last two reigns no one had ever mentioned their name; much less
+had any wish been expressed for their resuscitation, till the financial
+difficulties of the Government, and the general and growing discontent of
+the great majority of the nation, with which, since the death of Turgot,
+every successive minister had been manifestly incompetent to deal, had, as
+we have seen, led some ardent reformers to demand their restoration, as
+the one expedient which had not been tried, and which, therefore, had this
+in its favor, that it was not condemned by previous failure.
+
+That great reforms were indispensable was admitted in every quarter. There
+was no country in Europe where the feudal system had received so little
+modification.[13] Every law seemed to have been made, and every custom to
+have been established for the exclusive benefit of the nobles. They were
+even exempted from many of the taxes, an exemption which was the more
+intolerable from the vast number of persons who were included in the list.
+Practically it may be said that there were two classes of nobles--the old
+historic houses, as they were sometimes called, such as the Grammonts or
+Montmorencies, which were not numerous, and many of which had greatly
+decayed in wealth and influence; and an inferior class whose nobility was
+derived from their possession of office under the crown in any part of the
+kingdom. Even tax-gatherers and surveyors, if appointed by royal warrant,
+could claim the rank; and new offices were continually being created and
+sold which conferred the same title. Those so ennobled were not reckoned
+the equals of the higher class. They could not even be received at court
+until their patents were four hundred years old, but they had a right to
+vote as nobles at elections to any representative body. Those whose
+patents were twenty-four years old could be elected as representatives;
+and from the moment of their creation they all enjoyed great exemptions;
+so that, as the lowest estimate reckoned their numbers at a hundred
+thousand, it is a matter for some wonder how the taxes to which they did
+not contribute produced any thing worth collecting. It was, of course,
+manifest that the exemptions enormously increased the burden to be borne
+by the classes which did not enjoy such privileges.
+
+But, heavy as the grievance of these exemptions was, it was as nothing
+when compared with the feudal rights claimed by the greater nobles. The
+peasants on their estates were forced to grind their corn at the lord's
+mill, to press their grapes at his wine-press, paying for such act
+whatever price he might think fit to exact, and often having their crops
+wholly wasted or spoiled by the delays which such a system engendered. The
+game-laws forbade them to weed their fields lest they should disturb the
+young partridges or leverets; to manure the soil with any thing which
+might injure their flavor; or even to mow or reap till the grass or corn
+was no longer required as shelter for the young coveys. Some of the rights
+of seigniory, as it was called, were such as can hardly be mentioned in
+this more decorous age; some were so ridiculous that it is inconceivable
+how their very absurdity had not led to their abolition. In the marshy
+districts of Brittany, one right enjoyed by the great nobles was "the
+silence of the frogs,[14]" which, whenever the lady was confined, bound
+the peasants to spend their days and nights in beating the swamps with
+long poles to save her from being disturbed by their inharmonious
+croaking. And if this or any other feudal right was dispensed with, it was
+only commuted for a money payment, which was little less burdensome.
+
+The powers exercised by the crown were more intolerable still. The
+sovereign was absolute master of the liberties of his subjects. Without
+alleging the commission of any crime, he could issue warrants--letters
+under seal, as they were called--which consigned the person named in them
+to imprisonment, which was often perpetual. The unhappy prisoner had no
+power of appeal. No judge could inquire into his case, much less release
+him. The arrests were often made with such secrecy and rapidity that his
+nearest relations knew not what had become of him, but he was cut off from
+the outer world, for the rest of his life, as completely as if he had at
+once been handed over to the executioner.[15]
+
+It was impossible but that such customs should produce general discontent,
+and a resolute demand for a complete reformation of the system. And one of
+the problems which the minister had to determine was, how to organize the
+States-general so that they should be disposed to promote such measures as
+reform as should be adequate without being excessive; as should give due
+protection to the middle and lower classes without depriving the nobles of
+that dignity and authority which were not only desirable for themselves,
+but useful to their dependents; and, lastly, such as should carefully
+preserve the rightful prerogatives of the crown, while putting an end to
+those arbitrary powers, the existence of which was incompatible with the
+very name of freedom.
+
+In making the necessary arrangements, the long disuse of the Assembly was
+a circumstance greatly in favor of the Government, if Necker had had skill
+to avail himself of it, since it wholly freed him from the obligation of
+being guided by former precedents. Those arrangements were long and warmly
+debated in the king's council. Though the records of former sessions had
+been so carelessly preserved that little was known of their proceedings,
+it seemed to be established that the representatives of the Commons had
+usually amounted to about four-tenths of the whole body, those of the
+clergy and of the nobles being each about three-tenths; and that they had
+almost invariably deliberated and voted in separate chambers; and the
+princes and the chief nobles presented memorials to the king, in which
+they almost unanimously recommended an adherence to these ancient forms;
+while, with patriotic prudence, they sought to obviate all jealousy of
+their own pretensions or views which might be entertained or feigned in
+any quarter, by announcing their willingness to abandon all the exclusive
+privileges and exemptions which they had hitherto possessed, and which
+were notoriously one chief cause of the generally prevailing discontent.
+
+But the party which had originated the clamor for the States-general, now,
+encouraged by their success, put forward two fresh demands; the first,
+that the number of the representatives of the Commons should equal that of
+both the other orders put together, which they called "the duplication of
+the Third Estate;" the second, that the three orders should meet and vote
+as one united body in one chamber; the two proposition taken together
+being manifestly calculated and designed to throw the whole power into the
+hands of the Commons.
+
+Necker had great doubts about the propriety and safety of the first
+proposal, and no doubt at all of the danger of the second. His own
+judgment was that the wisest plan would be to order the clergy and nobles
+to unite in an Upper Chamber, so as in some degree to resemble the British
+House of Lords; while the Third Estate, in a Lower Chamber, would be a
+tolerably faithful copy of our House of Commons. But he could never bring
+himself to risk his popularity by opposing what he regarded as the opinion
+of the masses. He was alarmed by the political clubs which were springing
+up in Paris; one, whose president was the Duc d'Orleans, assuming the
+significant and menacing title of Les Enrages;[16] and by the vast number
+of pamphlets which were circulated both in the capital and the chief towns
+of the provinces by thousands,[17] every writer of which put himself
+forward as a legislator,[18] and of which the vast majority advocated what
+they called the rights of the Third Estate, in most violent language; and,
+finally, he adopted the course which is a great favorite with vain and
+weak men, and which he probably represented to himself as a compromise
+between unqualified concession and unyielding resistance, though, every
+one possessed of the slightest penetration could see that it practically
+surrendered both points: he advised the king to issue his edict that the
+number of representatives to be returned to the States-general should be
+twelve hundred, half of whom were to be returned by the Commons, a quarter
+by the clergy, and a quarter by the nobles;[19] and to postpone the
+decision as to the number of the chambers till the Assembly should meet,
+when he proposed to allow the States themselves to determine it; trusting,
+against all probability, that, after having thus given the Commons the
+power to enforce their own views, he should be able to persuade them to
+abandon the same in deference to his judgment.
+
+Louis, as a matter of course, adopted his advice; and, after several
+different towns--Blois, Tours, Cambrai, and Compiegne among them--had been
+proposed as the place of meeting, he himself decided in favor of
+Versailles,[20] as that which would afford him the best hunting while the
+session lasted. The queen in her heart disapproved of every one of these
+resolutions. She saw that Necker had, as she had foreboded, sacrificed the
+king's authority by his advice on the two first questions; and she
+perceived more clearly than any one the danger of fixing the States-
+general so near to Paris that the turbulent population of the city should
+be able to overawe the members. She pressed these considerations earnestly
+on the king,[21] but it was characteristic of the course which she
+prescribed to herself from, the beginning, and from which she never
+swerved, that when her advice was overruled she invariably defended the
+course which had been taken. Her language, when any one spoke to her
+either of her own opinions and wishes, or of the feelings with which the
+different classes of the nation regarded her, was invariably the same.
+"You are not to think of me for a moment. All that I desire of you is to
+take care that the respect which is due to the king shall not be
+weakened;[22]" and it was only her most intimate friends who knew how
+unwise she thought the different decisions that had been adopted, or how
+deep were her forebodings of evil.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+The Reveillon Riot.--Opening of the States-general.--The Queen is insulted
+by the Partisans of the Duc d'Orleans.--Discussions as to the Number of
+Chambers.--Career and Character of Mirabeau.--Necker rejects his Support.
+--He determines to revenge himself.--Death of the Dauphin.
+
+
+The meeting of the States-general, as has been already seen, was fixed for
+the 4th of May, 1789; and, as if it were fated that the bloody character
+of the period now to be inaugurated should be displayed from the very
+outset, the elections for the city of Paris, which were only held in the
+preceding week, were stained with a riot so formidable as to be commonly
+spoken of in the records of the time as an insurrection.[1]
+
+One of the candidates for the representation of the Third Estate was a
+paper-maker of the name of Reveillon, a man eminent for his charity and
+general liberality, but one who was believed to regard the views of the
+extreme reformers with disfavor. He was so popular with his own workmen,
+who were very numerous, and with their friends, who knew his character
+from them, that he was generally expected to succeed. The opposite party,
+who had candidates of their own, and had the support of the purse of the
+Duc d'Orleans, were determined that he should not; and no way seemed so
+sure as to murder him. Bands of ferocious-looking ruffians were brought in
+from the country districts, armed with heavy bludgeons, and, as was
+afterward learned, well supplied with money; and on the morning of the
+28th of April news was brought to the Baron de Besenval, the commander of
+the Royal Guards, that a mob of several thousand men had collected in the
+streets, who had read a mock sentence, professing to have been passed by
+the Third Estate, which condemned Reveillon to be hanged, after which they
+had burned him in effigy, and then attacked his house, which they were
+sacking and destroying. They even ventured to attack the first company of
+soldiers whom De Besenval sent to the rescue; and it was not till he
+dispatched a battalion with a couple of field-pieces to the spot that the
+plunderers were expelled from the house and the riot was quelled. Nearly
+five hundred of the mob were killed, but when the Parliament proceeded to
+set on foot a judicial inquiry into the cause of the tumult, Necker
+prevailed on the secretary of state to suppress the investigation, as he
+feared to exasperate D'Orleans further by giving publicity to his
+machinations, which he did not yet suspect either the extent or the
+object.[2]
+
+A momentary tranquility was, however, restored at Paris; and all eyes were
+turned from the capital to Versailles, where the first few days of May
+were devoted to the receptions of the States-general by the king and
+queen, ceremonies which might have had a good effect, since the bitterest
+adversaries of the court were favorably impressed by the grace and
+affability of the queen; but which many shrewd judges afterward believed
+to have had a contrary influence, from the offense taken by the
+representatives of the Commons at some of the details of the ancient
+etiquette, which on so solemn an occasion was revived in all its stately
+strictness. The dignitaries of the Church wore their most sumptuous robes.
+The Nobles glittered with silk and gold lace; jeweled clasps fastened
+plumes of feathers in their hats; orders glittered on their breasts; and
+many a precious stone sparkled in the hilts of their swords. The
+representatives of the Commons were allowed neither feathers, nor
+embroidery, nor swords; but were forced to content themselves with plain
+black cloaks, and an unadorned homeliness of attire, which seemed as if
+intended to exclude all idea of their being the equals of those other
+orders of which they had for a moment become the colleagues. And, in a
+similar spirit it was arranged that, after the folding-doors of the saloon
+in which the sovereigns were awaiting them were thrown wide open to admit
+the representatives of the higher orders, the Commons were let in through
+a side door. And though in the eyes of persons habituated to the
+ceremonious niceties of court life these distinctions seemed matters of
+course, and, as such, unworthy of notice, it can hardly be wondered at if
+they were galling to men accustomed only to the simpler manners of a
+provincial town; and who, proud of their new position and deeply impressed
+with its importance, fancied they saw in them a settled intention to
+degrade both them and their constituents by thus stamping them with a
+badge of inferiority before all the spectators.
+
+The opening of the States-general was fixed for the 5th of May, and on the
+day before, which was Sunday, a solemn mass was performed at the principal
+church in Versailles, that of Notre Dame; after which the congregation
+proceeded to another church,  that of St. Louis, to hear a sermon from the
+Bishop of Nancy. It was a stately procession that moved from one church to
+the other, and it was afterward remembered as the very last in which the
+royal pair appeared before their subjects with the undiminished
+magnificence of ancient ceremony. First, after a splendid escort of
+troops, came the members of the States in their several orders; then the
+king marched by himself; the queen followed; and behind her came the
+princes and princesses of the royal family of the blood, the officers of
+state and of the household, and companies of the Body-guard brought up the
+rear. The acclamations of the spectators were loud as the deputies of the
+States, and especially as the representatives of the Commons, passed on;
+loud, too, as the king; moved forward, bearing himself with unusual
+dignity; but, when the queen advanced, though still the main body of the
+people cheered with sincere respect, a gang of ruffians, among whom were
+several women,[3] shouted out "Long live the Duke of Orleans!" in her ear,
+with so menacing an accent that, she nearly fainted with terror. By a
+strong mastery over herself she shook off the agitation, which was only
+perceived by her immediate attendants; but the disloyal feeling thus shown
+toward her at the outset was a sad omen of the spirit in which one party
+at least was prepared to view the measures of the Government; and, so far
+as she was concerned, of the degree in which her enemies had succeeded in
+poisoning the minds of the people against her, as the person whose
+resistance to their meditated encroachments on the royal authority was
+likely to prove the most formidable.
+
+It was a significant hint, too, of the projects already formed by the
+worthless prince whose adherents these ruffians proclaimed themselves. The
+Duc d'Orleans conceived himself to have lately received a fresh
+provocation, and an additional motive for revenge. His eldest son, the Duc
+de Chartres,[4] was now a boy of sixteen, and he had proposed to the king
+to give him Madame Royale in marriage; an idea which the queen, who held
+his character in deserved abhorrence, had rejected with very decided marks
+of displeasure. He was also stimulated by views of personal ambition. The
+history of England had been recently studied by many persons in France
+besides the king and queen; and there were not wanting advisers to point
+out to the duke that the revolution which had taken place in England
+exactly a century before had owed its success to the dethronement of the
+reigning sovereign and the substitution of another member of the royal
+family in his place. As William of Orange was, after the king's own
+children, the next heir to James II., so was the Duc d'Orleans now the
+next heir, after the king's children and brothers, to Louis XVI.; and for
+the next five months there can be no doubt that he and his partisans, who
+numbered in their body some of the most influential members of the States-
+general, kept constantly in view the hope of placing him on the throne
+from which they were to depose his cousin.
+
+The next day the States were formally opened by Louis in person. The place
+of meeting was a spacious hall which, two years before, had been used for
+the meeting of the Notables. It had been the scene of many a splendid
+spectacle in times past, but had never before witnessed so imposing or
+momentous a ceremony. The town itself had not risen into notice till the
+memory of the preceding States-general had almost passed away. And now,
+after all the deputies had ranged themselves to receive their sovereign,
+the representatives of the clergy on the right of the throne, the Nobles
+on the left, the Commons in denser masses at the bottom of the hall;[5] as
+the king, accompanied by the queen, leading two of her children[6] by the
+hand, and attended by all the princes of the royal family and of the
+blood, by the dukes and peers of the kingdom, the ministers and great
+officers of state, entered and took his seat on the throne, the most
+unimpassioned spectator must have felt that he was beholding a scene at
+once magnificent and solemn; and one, from long desuetude, as novel as if
+it had been wholly unprecedented, such as might well inaugurate a new
+policy or a new constitution.
+
+Could those who beheld it as spectators, could those who bore a part in
+the solemnity, have looked into futurity; could they have divined that no
+other hall would ever again see that virtuous and beneficent king
+surrounded with that pomp, or received with that reverential homage which
+was now paid to him as as unquestioned right; nay, that the end, of which
+this day was the beginning, scarcely one single person of all those now
+present, whether men in the flower of their strength, women in the pride
+of their beauty, or even children in their infantine innocence and grace,
+would live to behold; but that sovereigns and subjects were destined,
+almost without exception, to perish with circumstances of unutterable,
+unimaginable horror and misery, as the direct consequence of this day's
+pageant; we may well believe that the most sanguine of those who now
+greeted it with eager hope and exultation would rather have averted his
+eyes from the ill-omened spectacle, and would have preferred to bear the
+worst evils of which he was anticipating the abolition, to bringing on his
+country the calamities which were about to fall upon it.
+
+A large state arm-chair, a little lower than the throne, had been set
+beside it for the queen; the princes and princesses were ranged on each
+side on a row of chairs without arms; and, when all had taken their
+places, the king opened the session with a short speech, leaving the real
+business to be unfolded at greater length by his ministers. In order to
+feel assured of the proper emphasis and expression, he had rehearsed his
+speech frequently to the queen; and, as he now delivered it with unusual
+dignity and gracefulness, it was received with frequent acclamations,
+though some of those who were watching all that passed with the greatest
+anxiety fancied that one or two compliments to the queen which it
+contained met with a colder response; while, at its close, the
+representatives of the Third Estate gave an indication of their feeling
+toward the other orders, and provoked a display on their part which
+promised little cordiality to their deliberations. The king, who had
+uncovered himself while speaking, on resuming his seat replaced his hat.
+The Nobles, according to the ancient etiquette, replaced theirs; and many
+of the Commons at once asserted their equality with them by also covering
+themselves. Such an assumption was a breach of all established custom. The
+Nobles were indignant, and with angry shouts demanded the removal of the
+Commons' hats. They were met with louder clamor by the Commons, and in a
+moment the whole hall was in an uproar, which was only allayed by the
+presence of mind of Louis himself, who, as if oppressed by the heat, laid
+aside his own hat, when, as a matter of course, the Nobles followed his
+example. The deputies of the Commons did the same, and peace was restored.
+
+The king's speech was followed by another short one from the keeper of the
+seals, which received but little attention; and by one of prodigious
+length from Necker, which was equally injudicious and unacceptable to his
+hearers, both in what it said and in what it omitted. He never mentioned
+the question of constitutional reform. He said nothing of what the
+Commons, at least, thought still more important--the number of chambers in
+which the members were to meet; and, though he dilated at the most profuse
+length on the condition of the finances, and on his own success in
+re-establishing public credit, they were by no means pleased to hear him
+assert that success had removed any absolute necessity for their meeting
+at all, and that they had only been called together in fulfillment of the
+king's promise, that so the sovereign might establish a better harmony
+between the different parts of the Constitution.
+
+Before any business could be proceeded with, it was necessary for the
+members to have the writs of their elections properly certified and
+registered, for which they were to meet on the following day. We need not
+here detail the artifices and assumptions by which the members of the
+Third Estate put forward pretensions which were designed to make them
+masters of the whole Assembly; nor is it necessary to unfold at length the
+combination of audacity and craft, aided by the culpable weakness of
+Necker, by which they ultimately carried the point they contended for,
+providing that the three orders should deliberate and vote together as one
+united body in one chamber. Emboldened by their success, they even
+proceeded to a step which probably not one among them had originally
+contemplated; and, as if one of their principal objects had been to disown
+the authority of the king by which they had been called together, they
+repudiated the title of States-general, and invented for themselves a new
+name, that of "The National Assembly," which, as it had never been heard
+of before, seemed to mark that they owed their existence to the nation,
+and not to the sovereign.
+
+But the discussions that took place before all these points were settled,
+presented, besides the importance of the conclusion which was adopted,
+another feature of powerful interest, since it was in them that the
+members first heard the voice of the Count de Mirabeau, who, more than any
+other deputy, was supposed during the ensuing year to be able to sway the
+whole Assembly, and to hold the destinies of the nation in his hands.
+
+Necker's daughter, the celebrated Baroness de Stael, wife of the Swedish
+embassador, who was present at the opening of the States, which, as her
+father's daughter, she regarded with exulting confidence as the body of
+legislators who were to regenerate the nation, remarked, as the long
+procession passed before her eyes, that of the six hundred deputies of the
+Commons[7], the Count de Mirabeau alone bore a name which was previously
+known; and he was manifestly out of his place as a representative of the
+Commons. His history was a strange one. He was the eldest son of a
+Provencal noble, of Italian origin, great wealth, and a ferocious
+eccentricity of character, which made him one of the worst possible
+instructors for a youth of brilliant talents, unbridled passions, and a
+disposition equally impetuous in its pursuit of good and of evil. Even
+before he arrived at manhood he had become notorious for every kind of
+profligacy; while his father, in an almost equal degree, provoked the
+censure of those who interested themselves in the career of a youth of
+undeniable ability, by punishments of such severity as wore the appearance
+of vengeance rather than of fatherly correction. In six or seven years he
+obtained no fewer than fifteen warrants, or letters under seal, for the
+imprisonment of his son in different jails or fortresses, while the young
+man seemed to take a wanton pleasure in showing how completely all efforts
+for his reformation were thrown away. Though unusually ugly (he himself
+compared his face to that of a tiger who had had the small-pox), he was
+irresistible among women. While one of the youngest subalterns in the
+army, he made love, rarely without success, to the mistresses or wives of
+his superior officers, and fought duel after duel with those who took
+offense at his gallantries, From one castle in which he was imprisoned he
+was aided to escape by the wife of an officer of the garrison, who
+accompanied his flight. From another he was delivered by the love of a
+lady of the highest rank, the Marchioness de Monnier, whom he had met at
+the governor's table.
+
+When, after some years of misery, the marchioness terminated them by
+suicide, he seduced a nun of exquisite beauty to leave her convent for his
+sake; and as France was no longer a safe residence for them, he fled to
+Frederick of Prussia, who, equally glad to welcome him as a Frenchman, a
+genius, and a profligate, received him for a while into high favor. But he
+was penniless; and Frederick was never liberal of his money. Debt soon
+drove him from Prussia, and he retired to England, where he made
+acquaintance with Fox, Fitzpatrick, and other men of mark in the political
+circles of the day. He was at all times and amidst all his excesses both
+observant and studious; and while witnessing in person the strife of
+parties in this country, he learned to appreciate the excellencies of our
+Constitution, both in its theory and in its practical working. But
+presently debt drove him from London as it had driven him from Berlin;
+and, after taking refuge for a short time in Holland and Switzerland, he
+was hesitating whither next to betake himself, when, hearing of the
+elections for the States-general, he resolved to offer himself as a
+candidate; and returned to Provence to seek the suffrages of the Nobles of
+his own county.
+
+Unluckily, his character was too well known in his native district; and
+the Nobles, unwilling to countenance the ambition of one who had obtained
+so evil a notoriety, rejected him. Full of indignation, he turned to the
+Third Estate, offering himself as a representative of the Commons. In his
+speeches to the citizens of Aix and Marseilles--for he canvassed both
+towns--he inveighed against Necker and the Government with an eloquence
+which electrified his audience, who had never before been addressed in the
+language of independence. He was returned for both towns, and hastened to
+Versailles, eager to avenge on the Nobles, the body which, as he felt, he
+had a right to have represented, the affront which had driven him, against
+his will, to seek the votes of a class with which he had scarcely a
+feeling in common; for in the whole Assembly there was no man less of a
+democrat in his heart, or prouder of his ancestry and aristocratic
+privileges.
+
+He differed from most of his colleagues, inasmuch as he, from the first,
+had distinct views of the policy desirable for the nation, which he
+conceived to be the establishment of a limited constitutional monarchy,
+such as he had seen in England.[8] But no man in the whole Assembly was
+more inconsistent, as he was ever changing his views, or at least his
+conduct and language, at the dictates of interest or wounded pride;
+sometimes, as it might seem, in the mere wantonness of genius, as if he
+wished to show that he could lead the Assembly with equal ease to take a
+course, or to retrace its steps--that it rested with him alone alike to do
+or to undo. The only object from which he never departed was that of
+making all parties feel and bow to his influence. And it is this very
+inconsistency which so especially connects his career for the rest of his
+life with the fortunes of the queen, since, while he misunderstood her
+character, and feared her power with the king and ministers as likely to
+be exerted in opposition to his own views, he was the most ferocious and
+most foul of her enemies: when he saw that she was willing to accept his
+aid, and when he therefore began to conceive a hope of making her useful
+to himself in the prosecution of his designs, no man was louder in her
+praise, nor, it must be admitted, more energetic or more judicious in the
+advice which he gave her.
+
+His language on the first occasion on which he made his voice heard in the
+Assembly was eminently characteristic of him, so manifestly was it
+directed to the attainment of his own object--that of making himself
+necessary to the court, and obtaining either office or some pension which
+might enable him to live, since his own resources had long been exhausted
+by his extravagance. D'Espresmenil had strongly advocated the doctrine
+that the meeting of the three orders in separate chambers was a
+fundamental principle of the monarchy; and Mirabeau, in opposition to him,
+moved an address to the king, which represented the Third Estate as
+desirous to ally itself with the throne, so as to enable it to resist the
+pretensions of the clergy and the nobles; and, as this speech of his
+produced no overture from the minister, in the middle of June he made a
+direct offer to Necker to support the Government, if Necker had any plan
+at all which was in the least reasonable;[9] and he gave proof of his
+sincerity by vigorously opposing some proposals of the extreme reformers.
+But, with incredible folly, Necker rejected his support, treating his
+arguments to his face as insignificant, and affirming that their views
+were irreconcilable, since Mirabeau wished to govern by policy, while he
+himself preferred morality.
+
+He at once resolved to revenge himself on the minister who had thus
+slighted him,[10] and he was not long in finding an opportunity. On the
+23d of June, after the States had assumed their new form, and Louis at a
+royal sitting had announced the reforms he had resolved to grant, and
+which were so complete that the most extreme reformers admitted that they
+could have wished for nothing more, except that they should themselves
+have taken them, and that the king should not have given them, Mirabeau
+took the lead in throwing down a defiance to his sovereign; refusing to
+consent to the adjournment of the Assembly, as was natural on the
+withdrawal of the king, and declaring that they, the members of the
+Commons, would not quit the hall unless they were expelled by bayonets.
+
+But, violently as Versailles and Paris were agitated throughout May and
+June, Marie Antoinette took no part in the discussion which these
+questions excited. She had a still graver trouble at home. Her eldest son,
+the dauphin, whose birth had been greeted so enthusiastically by all
+classes, had, as we have seen, long been sickly. Since the beginning of
+the year his health had been growing worse, and on the 4th of June he
+died; and, though his bereaved mother bore up bravely under his loss, she
+felt it deeply, and for a time was almost incapacitated from turning her
+attention to any other subject.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+Troops are brought up from the Frontier.--The Assembly petitions the King
+to withdraw them.--He refuses.--He dismisses Necker.---The Baron de
+Breteuil is appointed Prime Minister.--Terrible Riots in Paris.--The
+Tri-color Flag is adopted.--Storming of the Bastile and Murder of the
+Governor.--The Count d'Artois and other Princes fly from the Kingdom.--The
+King recalls Necker.--Withdraws the Soldiers and visits Paris.--Formation
+of the National Guard.-Insolence of La Fayette and Bailly.--Madame de
+Tourzel becomes Governess of the Royal Children--Letters of Marie
+Antoinette on their Character, and on her own Views of Education.
+
+
+But even so solemn, a grief as that for a dead child she was not suffered
+to indulge long. Even for such a purpose royalty is not always allowed the
+respite which would be conceded to those in a more moderate station; and
+affairs in Paris began to assume so menacing a character that she was
+forced to rouse herself to support her husband. Demagogues in Paris
+excited the lower classes of the citizens to formidable tumults. The
+troops were tampered with; they mutinied; and when the Assembly so
+violated its duty as to take the mutineers under its protection, and to
+intercede with the king for their pardon, Louis, or, as we should probably
+say, Necker, did not venture to refuse, though it was plain that the
+condign punishment of such an offense was indispensable to the maintenance
+of discipline for the future. And Louis felt the humiliation so deeply
+that some of those about him, the Count d'Artois taking the lead in that
+party, were able to induce him to bring up from the frontier some German
+and Swiss regiments, which, as not having been exposed to the contagion of
+the capital, were free from the prevailing taint of disloyalty. But Louis
+was incapable of carrying out any plan resolutely. He selected the
+commander with judgment, placing the troops under the orders of a veteran
+of the Seven Years' War, the old Marshal de Broglie, who, though more than
+seventy years of age, gladly brought once more his tried skill and valor
+to the service of his sovereign. But the king, even while intrusting him
+with this command, disarmed him at the same moment by a strict order to
+avoid all bloodshed and violence; though nothing could be more obvious
+than that such outbreaks as the marshal was likely to be called on to
+suppress could not be quelled by gentle means.
+
+The Orleanists and Mirabeau probably knew nothing of this humane or rather
+pusillanimous order, though most of the secrets of the court were betrayed
+to them; but Mirabeau saw in the arrival of the soldiers a fresh
+opportunity of making the king feel the folly of the minister in rejecting
+his advances; and in a speech of unusual power he thundered against those
+who had advised the bringing-up of troops, as he declared, to overawe the
+Assembly; though, in fact, nothing but their presence and active exertions
+could prevent the Assembly from being overawed by the mob. But,
+undoubtedly, at this time his own first object was to use the populace of
+Paris to terrify the members into obedience to himself. In one of his ends
+he succeeded; he drove Necker from office. He carried the address which he
+proposed, to entreat the king to withdraw the troops; but Louis had for
+the moment resolved on adopting bolder counsels than those of Necker. He
+declined to comply with the petition, declaring that it was his duty to
+keep in Paris a force sufficient to preserve the public tranquillity,
+though, if the Assembly were disquieted by their neighborhood, he
+expressed his unwillingness to remove their session to some more distant
+town. And at the same time he dismissed Necker from office, banishing him
+from France, but ordering him to keep his departure secret.
+
+The queen had evidently had great influence in bringing him to this
+decision; but how cordially she approved of all the concessions which the
+king had already made, and how clearly she saw that more still remained to
+be done before the necessary reformation could be pronounced complete, the
+letter which on the evening of Necker's dismissal she wrote to Madame de
+Polignac convincingly proves. She had high ideas of the authority which a
+king was legitimately entitled to exercise; and to what she regarded as
+undue restrictions on it, injurious to his dignity, she would never
+consent. She probably regarded them as abstract questions which had but
+little bearing on the substantial welfare of the people in general; but of
+all measures to increase the happiness of all classes, even of the very
+lowest, she was throughout the warmest advocate.
+
+"July 11th, 1789.
+
+"I can not sleep, my dear heart, without letting you know that M. Necker
+is gone. MM. de Breteuil and de la Vauguyon will be summoned to the
+council to-morrow. God grant that we may at last be able to do all the
+good with which we are wholly occupied. The moment will be terrible; but I
+have courage, and, provided that the honest folks support us without
+exposing themselves needlessly, I think that I have vigor enough in myself
+to impart some to others. But it is more than ever necessary to bear in
+mind that all classes of men, so long as they are honest, are equally our
+subjects, and to know how to distinguish those who are right-thinking in
+every district and in every rank. My God! if people could only believe
+that these are my real thoughts, perhaps they would love me a little. But
+I must not think of myself. The glory of the king, that of his son, and
+the happiness of this ungrateful nation, are all that I can, all that I
+ought to, wish for; for as for your friendship, my dear heart, I reckon on
+that always..."
+
+Such language and sentiments were worthy of a sovereign. That the feelings
+here expressed were genuine and sincere, the whole life of the writer is a
+standing proof; and yet already fierce, wicked spirits, even of women (for
+never was it more clearly seen than in France at this time how far, when
+women are cruel, they exceed the worst of men in ferocity), were thirsting
+for her blood. Already a woman in education and ability far above the
+lowest class, one whose energy afterward raised her to be, if not the
+avowed head, at least the moving spirit, of a numerous party (Madame
+Roland), was urging the public prosecution, or, if the nation were not
+ripe for such a formal outrage, the secret assassination, of both king and
+queen.[1] But, however benevolent and patriotic were the queen's
+intentions, it became instantly evident that those who had counseled the
+dismissal of Necker had given their advice in entire ignorance of the hold
+which he had established on the affections of the Parisians; while the new
+prime minister, the Baron de Breteuil, whose previous office had connected
+him with the police, was, on that account, very unpopular with a class
+which is very numerous in all large cities. The populace of Paris broke
+out at once in riots which amounted to insurrection. Thousands of
+citizens, not all of the lowest class, decorated with green cockades, the
+color of Necker's livery, and armed with every variety of weapon, paraded
+the streets, bearing aloft busts of Necker and the Duc d'Orleans, without
+stopping, in their madness, to consider how incongruous a combination they
+were presenting. The most ridiculous stories were circulated about the
+queen: it was affirmed that she had caused the Hall of the Assembly to be
+undermined, that she might blow it up with gunpowder;[2] and, by way of
+averting or avenging so atrocious an act, the mob began to set fire to
+houses in different quarters of the city. Growing bolder at the sight of
+their own violence, they broke open the prisons, and thus obtained a
+re-enforcement of hundreds of desperadoes, ripe for any wickedness. The
+troops were paralyzed by Louis's imbecile order to avoid bloodshed, and in
+the same proportion the rioters were encouraged by their inaction and
+evident helplessness. They attacked the great armory, and equipped
+themselves with its contents, applying to the basest uses time-honored
+weapons, monuments of ancient valor and patriotism. The spear with which
+Dunois had cleared his country of the British invaders; the sword with
+which the first Bourbon king had routed Egmont's cavalry at Ivry, were
+torn down from the walls to arm the vilest of mankind for rapine and
+slaughter. They stormed the Hotel de Ville, and got possession of the
+municipal chest, containing three millions of francs; and now, more and
+more intoxicated with their triumph, and with the evidence which all these
+exploits afforded that the whole city was at their mercy, they proceeded
+to give their riot a regular organization, by establishing a committee to
+sit in the Guildhall and direct their future proceedings. Lawless and
+ferocious as was the main body of the rioters, there were shrewd heads to
+guide their fury; and the very first order issued by this committee was
+marked by such acute foresight, and such a skillful adaptation to the
+requirements of the moment and the humor of the people, that it remains in
+force to this day. It was hardly strange that men in open insurrection
+against the king's authority should turn their wrath against one of its
+conspicuous emblems, consecrated though it was by usage of immemorial
+antiquity and by many a heroic achievement--the snow-white banner bearing
+the golden lilies. But that glorious ensign could not be laid aside till
+another was substituted for it; and the colors of the city, red and blue,
+and white, the color of the army, were now blended together to form the
+tricolor flag which has since won for itself a wider renown than even the
+deeds of Bayard or Turenne had shed upon the lilies, and with which, under
+every form of government, the nation has permanently identified itself.
+
+They demanded more men, and a committee with three millions of francs
+could easily command recruits. They stormed the Hotel des Invalides, where
+thousands of muskets were kept fit for instant use; one division of
+regular troops, whose commander, the Baron de Besenval, was a resolute
+man, determined to do his duty, mutinying against his orders, and refusing
+to fire on the mob. They took possession of the city gates, and, thinking
+themselves now strong enough for any exploit, on the third day of the
+insurrection, the 14th of July, they marched in overpowering force to
+attack the Bastile.
+
+In former times the Bastile had been the great fortress of the city; and,
+as such, it had been fortified with all the resources of the engineer's
+art. Massive well-armed towers rose at numerous points above walls of
+great height and solidity. A deep fosse surrounded it, and, when well
+supplied and garrisoned, it had been regarded with pride by the citizens,
+as a bulwark capable of defying the utmost efforts of a foreign enemy, and
+not the less to be admired because they never expected it to be exposed to
+such a test; but as a warlike fortress it had long been disused. In recent
+times it had only been known as the State-prison, identified more than any
+other with the worst acts of despotism and barbarity. As such it was now
+as much detested as it had formerly been respected; and it had nothing but
+the outward appearance of strength to resist an attack. Evidently the
+military authorities had never anticipated the possibility that the mob
+would rise to such a height of audacity. But the rioters were now
+encouraged by two days of unbroken success, and those who spurred them on
+were well-informed as well as fearless. They knew that the castle was in
+such a state that its apparent strength was its real weakness; that its
+entire garrison consisted of little more than a hundred soldiers, most of
+whom were superannuated veterans, a force inadequate to man one-tenth of
+the defenses; and that the governor, De Launay, though personally brave,
+was a man devoid of presence of mind, and nervous under responsibility.
+
+Led by a brewer, named Santerre, who for the next three years bore a
+conspicuous part in all the worst deeds of ferocity and horror, they
+assailed the gates in vast numbers. While the attention of the scanty
+garrison was fully occupied by this assault, another party scaled the
+walls at a point where there was not even a sentinel to give the alarm,
+and let down one draw-bridge across the fosse, while another was loosened,
+as is believed, by traitors in the garrison itself. Swarming across the
+passage thus opened to them, thousands of the assailants rushed in;
+murdered the governor, officers, and almost every one of the garrison; and
+with a savage ferocity, as yet unexampled, though but a faint omen of
+their future crimes, they cut off the head and hands of De Launay and
+several of their chief victims, and, sticking them on pikes, bore them as
+trophies of their victory through the streets of the city.
+
+The news of what had been done came swiftly to Versailles, where it
+excited feelings in the Assembly which, had the king or his advisers been
+capable of availing themselves of it with skill and firmness, might have
+led to a salutary change in the policy of that body; for the greater part
+of the deputies were thoroughly alarmed at the violence of Santerre and
+his companions, and would in all probability have supported the king in
+taking strong measures for the restoration of order. But Louis could not
+be roused, even by the murder of his own faithful servant, to employ force
+to save those who might be similarly menaced. The only expedient which
+occurred to his mind was to concede all that the rioters required; and at
+midday on the 15th he repaired to the Assembly, and announced that he had
+ordered the removal of the troops from Paris and from Versailles;
+declaring that he trusted himself to the Assembly, and wished to identify
+himself with the nation. The Assembly could hardly have avoided feeling
+that it was a strange time to select for withdrawing the troops, when an
+armed mob was in possession of the capital; but, as they had formerly
+requested that measure, they thought themselves bound    now to applaud
+it, and, being for the moment touched by the compliment paid to
+themselves, when he quit the Hall they unanimously rose and followed him,
+escorting him back to the palace with vehement cheers. A vast crowd filled
+the outer courts, who caught the contagion, and shouted out a demand for a
+sight of the whole royal family; and presently, when the queen brought out
+on the balcony her only remaining boy, whom the death of his brother had
+raised to the rank of dauphin, and saluted them, with a graceful bow, the
+whole mass burst out in one vociferous acclamation.
+
+Yet even in that moment of congratulation there were base and malignant
+spirits in the crowd, full of bitterness against the royal family, and
+especially against the queen, whom they had evidently been taught to
+regard as the chief obstacle to the reforms which they desired. Her
+faithful waiting-woman, Madame de Campan, had gone down into the
+court-yard and mingled with the crowd, to be the better able to judge of
+their real feelings. She could see that many were disguised; and one
+woman, whose veil of black lace, with which she concealed her features,
+showed that she did not belong to the lowest class, seized her violently
+by the arm, calling her by her name, and bid her "go and tell her queen
+not to interfere any more in the Government, but to leave her husband and
+the good States-general to work out the happiness of the people." Others
+she heard uttering threats of vengeance against Madame de Polignac. And
+one, while pouring forth "a thousand invectives" against both king and
+queen, declared that it should soon be impossible to find even a fragment
+of the throne on which they were now seated.
+
+Marie Antoinette was greatly alarmed, not for herself, but for her
+husband; and, now that he had determined on withdrawing the soldiers from
+the capital, she earnestly entreated him to accompany them, taking the not
+unreasonable view that the violence of the Parisian mob would be to some
+extent quelled, and the well-intentioned portion of the Assembly would
+have greater boldness to support their opinions, if the king were thus
+placed out of the reach of danger from any fresh outbreak; and it was
+generally understood that an attack on Versailles itself was
+anticipated.[3] She felt so certain of the wisdom of such a course, and so
+sanguine of prevailing, that she packed up her diamonds, burned many of
+her papers, and drew up a set of orders for the arrangement of the details
+of the journey. But on the morning of the 16th she was compelled to inform
+Madame Campan that the plan was given up. Large portions of the Parisian
+mob, and among them one deputation of the fish-women, who in this, as well
+as on more festive occasions, claimed equally to take the lead, had come
+out to demand that the king should visit Paris; and the Ministerial
+Council thought it safer for him to comply with that petition than to
+throw himself into the arms of the soldiers, a step which might not
+improbably lead to a civil war.
+
+To the queen this seemed the most dangerous course of all. She knew that
+both at Versailles and at Paris the agents of the Duke of Orleans had been
+scattering money with a lavish hand; and she scarcely doubted that either
+on his road, or in the city, her husband would be assassinated, or at the
+least detained by the mob as a prisoner and a hostage.
+
+Had she not feared to increase his danger, she would have accompanied him;
+but at such a crisis it required more courage and fortitude to separate
+herself from him; and the most courageous part was ever that which was
+most natural to her. But, though she took no precautions for herself, she
+was as thoughtful as ever for her friends; and, knowing how obnoxious the
+Duchess de Polignac was to the multitude, she insisted on her departing
+with her family. The duchess fled, not unwillingly; and at the same time
+others also quit Versailles who had not the same plea of delicacy of sex
+to excuse their terrors, and who were bound by every principle of duty to
+remain by the king's side the more steadily the greater might be the
+danger. The Prince de Conde, who certainly at one time had been a brave
+man, and had won an honorable name, worthy of his intrepid ancestor, in
+the Seven Years' War; his brother, the Prince de Conti; the Count
+d'Artois, who, having always been the advocate of the most violent
+measures, was doubly bound to stand forward in defense of his king and
+brother, all fled, setting the first example of that base emigration which
+eventually left the king defenseless in the midst of his enemies. The
+Baron de Breteuil and some of the ministers made similar provision for
+their own safety; though it may be said, as some extenuation of their
+ignoble flight, that they had no longer any official duties to detain
+them, since the king had already dismissed them, and on the evening of the
+16th had written to Necker to beg him to return without delay and resume
+his office, claiming his instant obedience as a proof of the attachment
+and fidelity which he had promised when departing five days before.
+
+On the morning of the 17th, Louis set out for Paris in a single carriage,
+escorted by a very slender guard and accompanied by a party of the
+deputies. He was fully alive to the danger he was incurring. He knew that
+threats had been openly uttered that he should not reach Paris alive;[4]
+and he had prepared for his journey as for death, burning his papers,
+taking the sacrament, and making arrangements for a regency. Marie
+Antoinette was almost hopeless of his safety. She sat with her children in
+her private room, shedding no tears, lest the knowledge of her grief
+should increase the alarm of her attendants; but her carriages were kept
+harnessed, and she had prepared and learned by heart a short speech, with
+which, if the worst news which she apprehended should arrive, she intended
+to repair to the Assembly, and claim its protection for the wife and
+children of their sovereign.[5] But often, as she rehearsed it, her voice,
+in spite of all her efforts, was broken by sobs, and her reiterated
+exclamation, "They will never let him return!" but too truly expressed the
+deep forebodings of her heart.
+
+They were not yet fated to be realized; the Insurrection Committee had
+already organized a force which they had entitled the National Guard, and
+of which they had conferred the command on the Marquis de La Fayette, And
+at the gates of the city the king was met by him and the mayor, a man
+named Bailly, who had achieved a considerable reputation as a
+mathematician and an astronomer, but who was thoroughly imbued with the
+leveling and irreligious doctrines of the school of the Encyclopedists. No
+men in Paris were less likely to treat their sovereign with due respect.
+
+Since his return from America, La Fayette had been living in retirement on
+his estate, till at the recent election he had been returned to the
+States-general as one of the representatives of the nobles for his native
+province of Auvergne. He had taken no part in the debates, being entirely
+destitute of political abilities;[6] and he had apparently no very
+distinct political views, but wavered between a desire for a republic,
+such, as that of which he had witnessed the establishment in America, and
+a feeling in favor of a limited monarchy such as he understood to exist in
+Great Britain, though he had no accurate comprehension of its most
+essential principles. But his ruling passion was a desire for popularity;
+and as he had always been vain of his unbending ill-manners as a proof of
+his liberal sentiments,[7] and as his vanity made him regard kings and
+queens with a general dislike, as being of a rank superior to his own, he
+looked on the present occurrence as a favorable opportunity for gaining
+the good-will of the mob, by showing marked disrespect to Louis. He would
+not even pay him the ordinary compliment of appearing in uniform, but
+headed his new troops in plain clothes; and even those were not such as
+belonged to his rank, but were the ordinary dress of a plain citizen;
+while Bailly's address, as Louis entered the gates, was marked with the
+most studied and gratuitous insolence. "Sire," said he, "I present to your
+majesty the keys of your good city of Paris. They are the same which were
+presented to Henri IV. He had conquered his people: to-day the people have
+conquered their king."
+
+Louis proceeded onward to the Hotel de Ville, in a strange procession,
+headed by a numerous band of fish-women, always prominent, and recruited
+at every step by a crowd of rough peasant-looking men, armed with
+bludgeons, scythes, and every variety of rustic weapons, evidently on the
+watch for some opportunity to create a tumult, and seeking to provoke one
+by raising from time to time vociferous shouts of "Vive la nation!" and
+uttering ferocious threats against any one who might chance to exclaim,
+"Vive le roi!" But they were disconcerted by the perfect calmness of the
+king, on whom danger to himself seemed the only thing incapable of making
+an impression. On Bailly's insolent speech he had made no comment,
+remarking, in a whisper to his principal attendant, that he had better
+appear not to have heard it. And now at the Hotel de Ville his demeanor
+was as unruffled as if every thing that had happened had been in perfect
+accordance with his wishes. He made a short speech, in which he confirmed
+all the concessions and promises which he had previously made. He even
+placed in his hat a tricolor cockade, which the mayor had the effrontery
+to present to him, though it was the emblem of the revolt of his subjects
+and of the defeat of his troops. And at last such an effect had his
+fearless dignity on even the fiercest of his enemies, that when he
+afterward came out on the balcony to show himself to the crowd beneath,
+the whole mass raised the shout of "Vive le roi!" with as much enthusiasm
+as had ever greeted the most feared or the most beloved of his
+predecessors.
+
+His return to the barrier resembled a triumphal procession. Yet, happy as
+it seemed that outrage had thus been averted and unanimity restored, the
+result of the day can not, perhaps, be deemed entirely fortunate, since it
+probably contributed to fix more deeply in the king's mind the belief that
+concession to clamor was the course most likely to be successful. Nor did
+the queen, though for the moment her despondency was changed to thankful
+exultation, at all conceal from herself that the perils which had been
+escaped were certain to recur; and that vigilance and firmness would
+surely again be called for to repel them--qualities which she could find
+in herself, but which she might well doubt her ability to impart to
+others.[8]
+
+Her own attention was for a moment occupied by the necessary work of
+selecting a new governess for her children in the place of Madame de
+Polignac; and after some deliberation her choice fell on the Marchioness
+de Tourzel, a lady of the most spotless character, who seems to have been
+in every respect well fitted for so important an office. As Marie
+Antoinette had scarcely any previous acquaintance with her, it was by her
+character alone that she had been recommended to her; as was gracefully
+expressed in the brief speech with which Marie Antoinette delivered her
+little charges into her hands. "Madame," said she, "I formerly intrusted
+my children to friendship; to-day I intrust them to virtue;[9]" and, a day
+or two afterward, to make easier the task which the marchioness had not
+undertaken without some unwillingness, she addressed her a letter in which
+she describes the character of her son, and her own principles and method
+of education, with an impartiality and soundness of judgment which could
+not have been surpassed by one who had devoted her whole attention to the
+subject:
+
+"July 25th, 1789.
+
+"My son is four years and four months old, all but two days. I say nothing
+of his size nor of his general appearance; it is only necessary to see
+him. His health has always been good, but even in his cradle we perceived
+that his nerves were very delicate.... This delicacy of his nerves is such
+that any noise to which he is not accustomed frightens him. For instance,
+he is afraid of dogs because he once heard one bark close to him; and I
+have never obliged him to see one, because I believe that, as his reason
+grows stronger, his fears will pass away. Like all children who are strong
+and healthy, he is very giddy, very volatile, and violent in his passions;
+but he is a good child, tender, and even caressing, when his giddiness
+does not run away with him. He has a great sense of what is due to
+himself, which, if he be well managed, one may some day turn to his good.
+Till he is entirely at his ease with any one, he can restrain himself,
+and even stifle his impatience and his inclination to anger, in order to
+appear gentle and amiable. He is admirably faithful when once he has
+promised any thing, but he is very indiscreet; he is thoughtless in
+repeating any thing that he has heard; and often, without in the least
+intending to tell stories, he adds circumstances which his own imagination
+has put into his head. This is his greatest fault, and it is one for which
+he must be corrected. However, taken altogether, I say again, he is a good
+child; and by treating him with allowance, and at the same time with
+firmness, which must be kept clear of severity, we shall always be able to
+do all that we can wish with him. But severity would revolt him, for he
+has a great deal of resolution for his age. To give you an instance: from
+his very earliest childhood the word _pardon_ has always offended him. He
+will say and do all that you can wish when he is wrong, but as for the
+word _pardon_, he never pronounces it without tears and infinite
+difficulty.
+
+"I have always accustomed my children to have great confidence in me, and,
+when they have done wrong, to tell me themselves; and then, when I scold
+them, this enables me to appear pained and afflicted at what they have
+done rather than angry. I have accustomed them all to regard 'yes' or
+'no,' once uttered by me, as irrevocable; but I always give them reasons
+for my decision, suitable to their ages, to prevent their thinking that my
+decision comes from ill-humor. My son can not read, and he is very slow at
+learning; but he is too giddy to apply. He has no pride in his heart, and
+I am very anxious that he should continue to feel so. Our children always
+learn soon enough what they are. He is very fond of his sister, and has a
+good heart. Whenever any thing gives him pleasure, whether it be the going
+anywhere, or that any one gives him any thing, his first movement always
+is to ask that his sister may have the same. He is light-hearted by
+nature. It is necessary for his health that he should be a great deal in
+the open air; and I think it is better to let him play and work in the
+garden on the terrace, than to take him longer walks. The exercise which
+children take in running about and playing in the open air is much more
+healthy than forcing them to walk, which often makes their backs
+ache.[10]"
+
+Some of these last recommendations may seem to show that the governess
+was, to some extent, regarded as a nurse as well as a teacher; and when we
+find Marie Antoinette complaining of want of discretion in a child of four
+years old, it may perhaps be thought that she is expecting rather more of
+such tender years than is often found in them; that she is inclined to be
+overexacting rather than overindulgent; an error the more venial, since it
+is probable that the educators of princes are more likely to go astray in
+the opposite direction. But it is impossible to avoid being struck with
+the candor with which she judges her boy's character, and with the
+judiciousness of her system of education; and equally impossible to resist
+the conviction that a boy of good disposition, trained by such a mother,
+had every chance of becoming a blessing to his subjects, if fate had only
+allowed him to succeed to the throne which she had still a right to look
+forward to for him as his assured inheritance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+Necker resumes Office.--Outrages in the Provinces.--Pusillanimity of the
+Body of the Nation.--Parties in the Assembly.--Views of the
+Constitutionalists or "Plain."--Barnave makes Overtures to the Court.--The
+Queen rejects them.--The Assembly abolishes all Privileges, August 4th.--
+Debates on the Veto.--An Attack on Versailles is threatened.--Great
+Scarcity in Paris.--The King sends his Plate to be melted down.--The
+Regiment of Flanders is brought up to Versailles.--A Military Banquet is
+held in the Opera-house.--October 5th, a Mob from Paris marches on
+Versailles.--Blunders of La Fayette--Ferocity of the Mob on the 5th.--
+Attack on the Palace on the 6th.--Danger and Heroism of the Queen.--The
+Royal Family remove to Paris.--Their Reception at the Barrier and at the
+Hotel de Ville.--Shabbiness of the Tuileries.--The King fixes his
+Residence there.
+
+
+Necker had obeyed the king's summons the moment that he received it, and
+before the end of the month he returned to Versailles and resumed his
+office. But, even before the king's dispatch reached him, Paris had
+witnessed terrible proofs that the tranquillity which the king's visit to
+the capital was supposed to have re-established was but temporary. The
+populace had broken out into fresh tumults, murdering some of Breteuil's
+colleagues with circumstances of frightful barbarity; while intelligence
+of similar disturbances in the provinces was constantly arriving. In
+Normandy, in Alsace, and in Provence, in the towns, and in the rural
+districts, the towns-people and the peasants rose against their wealthier
+neighbors or their landlords, burning their houses, and commonly murdering
+the owners with the most revolting barbarity. Some were torn into pieces;
+some were roasted alive; some had actually portions of their flesh cut off
+and eaten by their murderers in their own sight, before the blow was given
+which terminated their agonies. Their sex did not save ladies from being
+victims of the same cruelties, nor did it prevent women from being actors
+in them.
+
+Yet the horror of these scenes was scarcely stranger than the
+pusillanimity of those who endured them unresistingly; for there were not
+wanting instances of magistrates honest enough to detest, and courageous
+enough to chastise, such outrages; and wherever the effort was made it
+succeeded so completely as to fix no slight criminality on those who
+submitted to them. In Dauphiny, the States of the province raised a small
+guard, which quelled the first attempts to cause riots there, and hanged
+the ringleaders. In Macon, a similar force, though not three hundred
+strong, encountered a band of brigands, six thousand in number, and
+brought back two hundred prisoners, the chiefs of whom were instantly
+executed, and by their prompt punishment tranquillity was restored.
+Similar firmness would have saved other districts, which now allowed
+themselves to be the victims of ravage and murder; as afterward it would
+have preserved the whole country, even when the madness and wickedness of
+subsequent years were at their height; for in no part of the kingdom did
+those who perpetrated or sympathized with the crimes which have made the
+Revolution a by-word, approach the number of those who loathed them, but
+who had not the courage or foresight to withstand them. It seemed as if a
+long course of misgovernment, and the example of the profligacy and
+impiety set by the higher classes for many generations, had demoralized
+the entire people, some in their excesses discarding the ordinary
+instincts of human beings; while the bulk of the nation had lost even that
+courage which had once been among its most shining qualities, and had no
+longer the manliness to resist outrages which they abhorred, even when
+their own safety was staked upon their repression.
+
+And similar weakness was exhibited in the Assembly itself; for,
+unquestionably, the party which at last prevailed was not that which was
+originally the strongest. Like most assemblies of the kind, it was divided
+into three parties--the extreme Royalists, or "the Right;" the extreme
+Reformers (who were subdivided into several sections), or "the Left;" and
+between them the moderate Constitutionalists, or "the Plain," as they were
+called, from occupying seats in the middle of the hall, between the raised
+benches on either side. And to the last party belonged all the men most
+distinguished either for statesman-like perceptions or for eloquence,
+Mirabeau himself agreeing with them in all their leading principles,
+though he never formally enrolled himself in the ranks of any party.
+
+The majority of the Constitutionalists were as loyal to the king's person
+and dignity as the extreme Royalists; their most eloquent speaker, a young
+lawyer named Barnave, at the first opening of the States had even sought
+to open a direct communication with the court, begging Madame de
+Lamballe[1] to assure the queen of the wish of himself and all his friends
+to maintain the king in the full enjoyment and exercise of what he called
+a Constitutional authority, borrowing the idea and expression from the
+English Government. But though Marie Antoinette had no objection to the
+king of his own accord renouncing portions of the power which had been
+claimed and exerted by his predecessors, she would not hear of the States
+taking upon themselves to impose such sacrifices on him, or to curtail his
+authority by any exercise of their own; and she rejected with something
+like disdain the support of those whose alliance was only to be purchased
+on such conditions. Barnave, like Mirabeau, felt insulted; determined to
+revenge himself, and for a while united himself to the fiercest of the
+Republicans; while the Right, with incredible folly, often played into his
+hand, joining the Left, of which many members avowedly aimed at the
+abolition of royalty, and with none of whom they had one opinion or
+sentiment in common to defeat the Constitutionalists, with whom they
+practically had but very slight differences. And thus, as with a base
+pusillanimity, many, both of the Right and of the Plain, fled from the
+country after the tumults of October, the mastery of the Assembly
+gradually fell into the hands of that party which contained by far fewer
+men of ability or honesty than either of the others, but which surpassed
+them both in distinctness of object, and in unscrupulous resolution to
+carry out its views.
+
+But the events of July, the mutiny of the troops, the successful
+insurrection of the mob, the destruction of the Bastile, and the visit of
+Louis to Paris, had been a series of damaging blows to the Government; and
+as each successive exploit gave encouragement to the movement party,
+events proceeded with extreme rapidity. Necker, who returned to Versailles
+on the 27th of July, showed more clearly than ever his unfitness for the
+chief post in the administration at such a crisis, by devoting himself
+solely to financial arrangements, and omitting to take, on the part of the
+crown, the initiative in any one of the reforms which the king had
+promised. Those he permitted to be intrusted to a committee of the
+Assembly; and the committee had scarcely met when the Assembly took the
+matter into its own hands; and in a strange panic, and at a single
+sitting, swept away the privileges of both Nobles and clergy, those who
+seemed personally most concerned in their maintenance being the foremost
+in urging their suppression. A member of the oldest nobility proposed the
+abolition of the privileges of the Nobles. A bishop moved the extinction
+of tithes; Bretons, Burgundians, Provencals, renounced for their fellow-
+citizens the old distinctions and immunities to which each province had
+hitherto clung with an unyielding if somewhat unreasoning attachment; and
+the whole was crowned by the Archbishop of Paris proposing a celebration
+of the _Te Deum_, as an expression of gratitude to God for having inspired
+a series of actions calculated to confer so much happiness on the nation.
+
+Though he could not avoid seeing the mischievous character of many of the
+resolutions thus tumultuously passed, and though his royal assent to them
+was asked in language unceremonious and almost peremptory in its curtness,
+Louis could not bring himself, or perhaps did not venture, to refuse his
+sanction to them. He had laid down a rule for himself to refuse no
+concession except such as on religious grounds his conscience might revolt
+from; and on the 18th he signified his formal acceptance of the
+resolutions, and of the title of "Restorer of French Liberty." It was an
+act of great weakness, and was rewarded, as such acts generally are, by
+further encroachments on his authority. The progress of the Left was not
+even arrested by a quarrel between some of its members (who, being
+clergymen, were not inclined to be reduced to beggary by the extinction of
+their incomes), and Mirabeau, who, not unnaturally, bore the priests
+especial ill-will. Before the end of the month, the Assembly even deprived
+the king of the power of withholding his assent from measures which it
+might pass, enacting that he should no longer possess an absolute "veto,"
+as it was called, and Necker, exhibiting on this question an incapacity
+more glaring than even his former conduct had displayed, induced the king
+to yield this point also; and to express his own preference for what its
+contrivers called a suspensive veto--a power, that is, of withholding his
+assent to any measure till it had been passed by two successive
+Assemblies. The discussions on this most momentous point had been very
+vehement in the Assembly itself; and, besides the greatness of the
+principle involved in the decision, they have a peculiar importance as
+showing that Mirabeau had not the absolute power over the minds of the
+members which he believed himself to possess; since he contended with all
+the energy of his temper, and with irresistible force of argument, against
+a vote which, as he declared, could only take the power from the king to
+vest it in the Assembly, and yet was wholly unable to carry more than a
+small minority with him in his opposition.
+
+And this defeat may have had some share in prompting him to countenance
+and aid, if indeed he was not the original contriver of, a plot which was
+undoubtedly intended to produce a change in the whole frame-work of the
+Government. The harvest had been bad, and at the beginning of September
+Paris was suffering under a scarcity almost as severe as had ever been
+felt in the depth of winter. The emergency was so great that the king sent
+all his plate to the Mint to be melted down, to procure money to purchase
+food for the starving citizens; and many patriotic individuals, Necker
+himself being among the most munificent, gave their plate and jewels for
+the same benevolent object. But relief procured from such sources was
+unavoidably of too limited a character to last long. Though Necker
+proposed and the Assembly voted taxes of prodigious amount, they could not
+at once be made available, and some of the lower classes were said to have
+died of actual famine. In their distress the citizens looked to the king,
+and attributed their misery in a great degree to his ignorance of their
+situation, which was caused by his living at Versailles. They nicknamed
+him the "Baker," as if he could supply them with bread, and began to
+clamor for him at least to take up an occasional residence among them in
+in his capital. From raising a cry, the step was easy to organize a riot
+to compel him to do so. And to this object the partisans of the Duke of
+Orleans, assisted, if not prompted, by Mirabeau, now began to apply
+themselves, hoping that the result would be the deposition of Louis and
+the enthronement of the duke, who might be glad to take the great orator
+for his prime minister.
+
+So certain did the conspirators feel of success, that they took no pains
+to keep their machinations secret. As early as the middle of September
+intelligence was received at Versailles that the Parisians would march
+upon that town in force, on the 5th of October; and the Assembly was
+greatly alarmed, believing, not without reason, that the object of the
+intended attack was to overawe and overbear them. The magistrates of the
+town were even more terrified, and besought the king to bring up at least
+one regiment for their protection. And, prudent and reasonable as the
+request was, the compliance with it furnished the agents of sedition with
+pretexts for further violence.
+
+A regiment, known as that of Flanders, was sent for from the frontiers,
+and speedily arrived at Versailles, when, according to their old and
+hospitable fashion, the Body-guard,[2] who regarded Versailles as their
+home, invited the officers, and with them the officers of the Swiss Guard,
+and those of the town militia also, to a banquet on the 1st of October.
+The opera-house, as had often been done in similar instances, was lent for
+the occasion; and the boxes were filled with the chief ladies of the court
+and of the town, and also with many members of the Assembly, as
+spectators. So enthusiastic were the acclamations that greeted the toast
+of the king's health, that, though Marie Antoinette had previously desired
+that the royal family should not appear to have any connection with the
+entertainment, the captain of the guard, the Count de Luxembourg, had no
+difficulty in persuading her that it would but be a graceful recognition
+of such spontaneous and sincere loyalty at such a time if she were to
+honor the banquet with her presence, though but by the briefest visit.
+Louis, too, accepted the proposal with greater warmth than usual, and when
+the royal pair with their children--the queen, as was her custom, leading
+one in each hand--descended from their apartments and walked through the
+banquet-hall, the enthusiasm was redoubled. The spectators, among whom
+were many members of the Assembly, caught the contagion. Loyal cheers
+resounded from every part of the theatre, and the feelings excited became
+so fervid that some officers of the National Guard, who were among the
+guests, reversed their new tricolor cockade, and, displaying the white
+side outermost, seemed to have resumed the time-honored badge under which
+the army had reaped all its old glories. The band struck up a favorite air
+from one of the new operas, "Peut-on affliger ce qu'on aime?" which those
+who saw the anxiety which recent events had already stamped upon the
+queen's majestic brow could hardly avoid applying to their royal mistress;
+and when it followed it up by Blondel's lamentation for Richard, "O
+Richard, O mon roi, l'univers t'abandonne," the first notes of the
+well-known song touched a chord in every heart, and the whole company,
+courtiers, ladies, soldiers, and deputies, were all carried away in a
+perfect delirium of loyal rapture. The whole company escorted the royal
+family back to their apartments; though it was remarked afterward that
+some of the soldiers, who on this occasion were the most vociferous in
+their exultation, were, before the end of the same week, among the most
+furious threateners and assailants of the palace.
+
+But a demonstration such as this, in which the whole number of the
+soldiers concerned did not exceed fifteen hundred men, could not deter the
+organizers of the impending riot from carrying out their plan: if it did
+not even aid them by the opportunities which it afforded for spreading
+abroad exaggerated accounts of what had taken place, as an additional
+proof of the settled hatred and contempt which the court entertained for
+the people. Mirabeau had suggested that the best chance of success for an
+insurrection in Paris lay in placing women at its head; and, in compliance
+with his hint, at day-break on the appointed morning a woman of notorious
+infamy of character moved toward the chief market-place of Paris, beating
+a drum, and calling on all who heard her to follow her.[3] She soon
+gathered round her a troop of followers worthy of such a leader, market-
+women, fish-women, and men in women's clothes, whose deep voices, and the
+power with which they brandished their weapons, betrayed their sex through
+their disguise.
+
+One man, Maillard, who had been conspicuous as one of the fiercest of the
+stormers of the Bastile, disdained any concealment or dress but his own;
+they chose him for their leader, mingling with their cries for bread
+horrid threats against the queen and the aristocrats. Their numbers
+increased till they felt themselves strong enough to attack the Hotel de
+Ville. A detachment of the National Guard who were on duty offered them no
+resistance, pleading that they had received no orders from La Fayette; and
+the rioters, now amounting to many thousands, having armed themselves from
+the store of muskets and swords which they found in the armory, passed on
+to the barrier and took the road to Versailles.
+
+The riot had lasted four hours, and the very last of the rioters had
+already passed through the gates before La Fayette reached the Hotel de
+Ville, though his office of Commander of the National Guard made the
+preservation of tranquillity one of his most especial duties. He had
+evidently feared to risk his popularity by resisting the mob, and even now
+he refused to act at all till be had received a written order from the
+Municipal Council; and, when he had obtained that, he did not obey it; but
+preferred complying with the demands of his own soldiers, who insisted on
+following the rioters to Versailles, where they would exterminate the
+regiment of Flanders; bring the king back to Paris; and perhaps depose him
+and appoint a Regent. Yet even this open avowal of their treasonable views
+did not deter their unworthy general from submitting to their dictates. He
+had indeed no desire for the success of their designs; for he had no
+connection with the Duc d'Orleans, and no inclination to co-operate with
+Mirabeau, who he knew was in the habit of speaking of him with contempt;
+but he had not firmness to resist their demand. His vanity, too, always
+his most predominant feeling, was flattered by the desire they expressed
+to retain him as their commander, and at last he procured from the
+magistrates a fresh order, authorizing him to comply with the soldiers'
+clamor, and to lead them to Versailles.
+
+When before the magistrates he had professed an expectation that he should
+be able to induce the king to comply with the wishes of the Assembly, and
+a determination to restrain the excesses of the mob; but the whole day had
+been so wasted by his irresolution that when he at last put his regiment
+in motion it was seven o'clock in the evening--full four hours after
+Maillard and his fish-women had reached Versailles. The news of their
+approach and of their designs had been brought to the palace by Monsieur
+de Chinon, the eldest son of the Duc de Richelieu, who, at great personal
+risk, had disguised himself as an artisan, and had marched some way with
+the crowd to learn their object. He reported that even the women and
+children were armed, that the great majority were drunk; that they were
+beguiling the way with the most ferocious threats, and that they had been
+joined by a gang of men who gave themselves the name of "Coupe-tetes," and
+boasted that they should have ample opportunity of proving their title to
+it.
+
+In addition to the warnings previously received, a rumor had reached the
+palace on the preceding evening that the Duc d'Orleans had come down to
+Versailles in disguise,[4] a movement which could hardly have an innocent
+object; but so little heed had been given to the intelligence, or, it may
+perhaps be said, so little was it supposed that, if such an attack was
+really meditated, any warning would have been given, that Monsieur de
+Chinon found the palace empty. Louis had gone to hunt in the Bois de
+Meudon; Marie Antoinette was at the Little Trianon. But messengers easily
+found them. The queen came in with speed from her garden, which she was
+destined never to behold again; the king hastened hack from his coverts;
+and by the time that they returned, the Count de St. Priest, the Minister
+of the Household, had their carriages ready for them to retire to
+Rambouillet, and he earnestly pressed the adoption of such a course.
+Louis, as usual, could not make up his mind. He sat in his chair,
+repeating that it was a moment to think seriously. "Rather," said Marie
+Antoinette, "say that it is a time to act promptly." He would gladly have
+had her depart with her children, but she refused to leave him, declaring
+that her place was by his side; that, as the daughter of Maria Teresa, she
+did not fear death; and after a time he changed his mind and ceased to
+wish even her to retire, clinging to his old conviction that conciliation
+was always possible. He believed that he had won over even the worst of
+the mob, and that all danger was past.
+
+Versailles witnessed a strange scene that morning. The moment that the mob
+reached the town, they forced their way into the Assembly Hall, where
+Maillard, as their spokesman, after terrifying the members with ferocious
+threats against the whole body of the Nobles, demanded that the Assembly
+should send a deputation to the king to represent to him the distress of
+the people, and that a party of the women should accompany it. Louis
+consented to receive them, and when they reached the palace, the women,
+disorderly and ferocious as they were, were so awed by the magnificence
+and pomp which they beheld, and by the actual presence of the king and
+queen, that they could only summon up a few modest and humble words of
+petition, and one, a young and pretty girl of seventeen, fainted with the
+excitement. One of the princesses brought her a glass of water: she
+recovered, and, as she knelt to kiss the king's hand, Louis kissed her
+himself, and, transported by his affability, she and her companions quit
+the apartment, uttering loud cheers for the king and queen. But this had
+not been the impression which their leaders had intended them to receive;
+and, when they reached the streets, their new-born loyalty so exasperated
+their comrades that the soldiers had some difficulty in saving them from
+their fury.
+
+Meanwhile, the mob increased every hour. They occupied the court-yard of
+the palace, roaring out ferocious threats, the most sanguinary of which
+were directed against the queen. The President of the Assembly moved that
+the members should adjourn and repair to the palace for the protection of
+the royal family, but Mirabeau resisted the proposal, and procured its
+rejection; and when a large party of the members went, as individuals, to
+place their services at the king's disposal, he mingled with the rioters,
+tampering with the soldiers, and urging them to espouse what he called the
+cause of the people. As it grew dark, the crowd grew more and more
+tumultuous and violent. The Body-guard, who were all gentlemen, were
+faithful and fearless; but it began to be seen that none of the other
+troops, not even the regiment of Flanders, could be trusted. Some of them
+even fired on the Body-guard, and mortally wounded its commander, the
+Marquis de Savonieres; while Louis, adhering to his unhappy policy of
+conciliation even at such a moment, sent down orders to the officer who
+succeeded to the command that the men were not to use their weapons, and
+that all bloodshed was to be avoided. "Tell the king," replied M.
+d'Huillier, "that his orders shall be obeyed; but that we shall all be
+assassinated."
+
+The mob grew fiercer when it became known that La Fayette and his regiment
+were approaching. No one knew what course he might take, but the
+ringleaders of the rioters resolved on a strenuous effort to render his
+arrival useless by their previous success. Guns were fired, heavy blows
+were dealt on the railings of the inner court-yard and on the gates; and
+the danger seemed so imminent that the mob might force its way into the
+palace, that the deputies themselves besought the king to delay no longer,
+but to retire to Rambouillet. He was still irresolute, and still trusting
+to his plan of conciliating by non-resistance. The queen, though more
+earnest than ever that he should depart, still nobly adhered to her own
+view of duty, and refused to leave him; but, hoping that he might change
+his mind, she gave a written order to keep the carriages harnessed, and to
+prepare to force a passage for them if the life of the king should appear
+to be in danger; but, she added, they were not to be used if she alone
+were threatened.
+
+At last, when it was nearly midnight, La Fayette arrived. With a singular
+perverseness of folly, at a time when every moment was of consequence, he
+had halted his men a mile out of the town to make them a speech in praise
+of himself and his own loyalty, and to administer to them an oath to be
+faithful to the nation, to the law, and to the king; an oath needless if
+they were inclined to keep it; useless, if they were not; and in the state
+of feeling then common, mischievous in the order in which he ranged the
+powers to which he required them to profess allegiance. At last he reached
+the palace. Leaving his men below, he ascended to the king's apartments,
+and, laying his hand on his heart, assured the king that he had no more
+loyal servant than himself. Louis was not given to sarcasm: yet some of
+the bystanders fancied that there was a tone of irony in his voice when in
+reply he expressed his conviction of the marquis's sincerity; and perhaps
+La Fayette thought so too, for he proceeded to harangue his majesty on his
+favorite subject of his own courage; describing the dangers which, as he
+affirmed, he had incurred in the course of the day. After which he
+descended into the court-yard to assure the soldiers that the king had
+promised to accede to their wishes; and then returned to the royal
+apartments to inform the king that contentment was restored, and that he
+himself would be responsible for the tranquillity of the night.
+
+The royal family, exhausted with the fatigues of so terrible a day,
+retired to rest, the queen expressly enjoining her ladies to follow her
+example. Fortunately they were too anxious for her safety to obey her,
+and, with their own attendants, kept watch in the room outside her
+bed-chamber. But La Fayette, in spite of the responsibility which he had
+taken upon himself, felt no such anxiety. He declared himself tired and
+sleepy; and, leaving the palace, went to a friend's house to ask for a
+bed.[5] Yet he well knew that the crowd was still assembled around the
+palace, and was increasing in violence. Though the night was stormy and
+wet, the rioters sought no shelter except such as was afforded by a
+hurried resort to the wine-shops in the neighborhood, where they inflamed
+their intoxication, and from which they soon returned to renew their
+savage clamor and threats, increasing the disorder by keeping up a
+frequent fire of their muskets. Throughout the night the Duc d'Orleans was
+briskly going to and fro, his emissaries scattering money among the
+rioters, who seemed to have no definite purpose or plan, till, as day
+began to break, one of the gates leading into the Princes' Court was seen
+to be open. It had been intrusted to some of La Fayette's soldiers, and
+could not have been opened without treachery. The crowd poured in,
+uttering fiercer threats than ever, from the belief that their prey was
+within their reach. There was, in truth, nothing between them and the
+staircase which led to the royal apartments except two gallant gentlemen,
+M. des Huttes and M. Moreau, the sentries of the detachment of the Body-
+guard on duty, whose quarters were at the head of the staircase in a
+saloon opposite to the queen's chamber. But these brave men were worthy of
+the best days of the French army. The more formidable the mob, and the
+greater the danger, the more imperative to their loyal hearts was the duty
+to defend those whose safety was intrusted to their vigilance; and with so
+dauntless a front did they stand to their posts that for a moment the
+ruffians recoiled and shrunk from attacking them, till D'Orleans himself
+came forward, waving to them with his hand a signal to force the way in,
+and pointing out to them which way to take.
+
+What, then, could two men effect against such a multitude? Des Huttes
+perished, pierced by a hundred pikes, and torn into pieces by his blood-
+thirsty assailants. Moreau, with equal valor, but with better fortune,
+backed up the stairs, fighting so desperately as he retreated that he gave
+his comrades time to barricade the doors leading to the queen's
+apartments, and to come to his assistance. As they drew him back, terribly
+wounded, into the guardroom, De Varicourt and Durepaire took his place. De
+Varicourt was soon slain, but Durepaire, a man of prodigious strength and
+prowess, held the assassins at bay for some time, till he too fell,
+reduced to helplessness by a score of deep wounds; when he, in his turn,
+was replaced by Miomandre. His devotion and intrepidity equaled that of
+his comrades; he was eminently skillful also in the use of his weapons,
+and with his own hand he struck down many of his assailants, till he was
+gradually forced back by numbers, when he placed his musket as a barrier
+across the door-way, and thus still kept his enemies at bay, while he
+shouted to the queen's ladies, now separated from him by but a single
+partition, to save the queen, for "the tigers with whom he was struggling
+were aiming at her life."
+
+In the annals of the ancient chivalry of the nation it had been recorded
+as the most brilliant feat of Bayard, that, on a bridge of the Garigliano,
+he had for a while, with his single arm, stemmed the onset of two hundred
+Spaniards; and that glorious exploit of the model hero of the nation had
+never been more faithfully copied and more nobly rivaled than it was on
+this morning of shame and danger by Miomandre and his intrepid comrades,
+as they successively stepped into the breach to fight against those whom
+he truly called, not men, but tigers. It was but a brief moment before he
+too was struck down; but he had gained for the ladies a respite sufficient
+to enable them to secure the safety of their royal mistress. They roused
+her from her bed, for her fatigue had been so great that she had hitherto
+slept soundly through the uproar, and hurried her off to the apartments of
+the king, who, having in been just similarly awakened, was coming to seek
+her; and in a few minutes the whole family was collected in his
+antechamber; while the Body-guard occupied the queen's bedroom, and the
+rioters, balked of their intended victim, were pillaging the different
+rooms into which they had been able to make their way. Luckily, La Fayette
+was still absent: he was having his hair dressed with great composure,
+while the mob, for whose contentment and orderly behavior he had vouched,
+was plundering the royal palace and seeking its owners to murder them; and
+in his absence the Marquis de Vaudreuil and a body of nobles took upon
+themselves the office of defenders of the crown, and, going down to the
+court-yard, reproached the National Guard with their inaction at such a
+moment of danger, and with their manifest sympathy with the rioters. At
+first, out of mere shame, the National Guard attempted to justify
+themselves: "they had been told," they said, "that the Body-guard were the
+aggressors; that they had attacked the people." "Do you pretend to
+believe," said the gallant marquis, "that two hundred men have been mad
+enough to attack thirty thousand?" The argument was irresistible; they
+declared that if the Body-guard would assume the tricolor, they would
+stand by them as brothers. And, by a reaction not uncommon at such times
+of excitement, the two regiments became reconciled in a moment. As no
+tricolor cockades could be procured, they exchanged shakos, and, in many
+cases, arms. And presently, when the Coup-tetes, after mutilating the
+bodies of two of the Body-guard who had been killed on the previous
+evening, were preparing to murder two or three more who had fallen into
+their hands, the National Guard dashed to their rescue, shouting out, with
+a curious identification of their force with the old French army, that
+"they would save the Body-guard who saved them at Fontenoy," and brought
+them off unhurt.
+
+Balked of their expected prey, the rioters grew more furious than ever; in
+useless wrath they kept firing against the walls of the palace, and
+shouting out a demand for the queen to show herself. She, with her
+children, was still in the king's apartment, where the princesses, the
+ministers, and a few courtiers were also assembled. Necker, in an agony of
+terror and distress, sat with his face buried in his hands, unable to
+offer any advice; La Fayette, who had just arrived, dwelt upon the dangers
+which he had run, though no one else knew what they were, and assured the
+king of the power which he still possessed to allay the tumult, if the
+reasonable demands of the people (as he called them) were granted. Marie
+Antoinette alone was undaunted and calm; or, at least, if in the depths of
+her woman's heart she felt terror at the sanguinary and obscene threats of
+her ruffianly enemies, she scorned to show it. When the firing began, M.
+de Luzerne, one of the ministers, had quietly placed himself between her
+and the window; but, while she thanked him for his devotion, she begged
+him to retire, saying, with her habitually gracious courtesy, that it was
+her place to be there,[6] not his, since the king could not afford to have
+so faithful a servant endangered. And now, holding her little son and
+daughter, one in each hand, she stepped out on the balcony, to confront
+those who were shouting for her blood. "No children!" was their cry. She
+led the dauphin and his sister back into the room, and, returning to the
+balcony, stood before them alone, with her hands crossed and her eyes
+looking up to heaven, as one who expected instant death, with a firmness
+as far removed from defiance as from supplication. Even those ruthless
+miscreants were awed by her magnanimous fearlessness; not a shot was
+fired; for a moment it seemed as if her enemies had become her partisans.
+Loud shouts of "Bravo!" and "Long live the queen!" were heard on all
+sides; and one ruffian, who raised his gun to take aim at her, had his
+weapon beaten down by those who stood near him, and ran some risk of being
+himself sacrificed to their indignation. But this impulse of respect, like
+other impulses of such a people, was short-lived, and presently the
+multitude began to raise a shout, which expressed the original purpose
+which had led the majority to march upon Versailles. "To Paris!" was the
+cry, and again La Fayette volunteered his advice, urging the king to
+comply with the request. By this time Louis had learned the value of the
+marquis's loyalty. But he had no alternative. It was evident that the
+rioters had the power of compelling compliance with their demand. And
+accordingly he authorized the marquis to promise that he would remove his
+family to Paris, and a few minutes afterward he himself went out on the
+balcony with the queen, and himself announced his intention, with the view
+of giving his act a greater appearance of being voluntarily resolved upon.
+
+Soon after midday he set out, accompanied by the queen, his brother the
+Count de Provence, his sister the Princess Elizabeth, and his children. It
+was a strange and shameful retinue that escorted the King of France to his
+capital. One party of the rioters, with Maillard and another ruffian named
+Jourdan, the chief of the Coupe-tetes, at their head, had started two
+hours before, bearing aloft in triumph the heads of the mangled
+Body-guards, and combining such hideous mockery with their barbarity that
+they halted at Sevres to compel a barber to dress the hair on the lifeless
+skulls. And now the royal carriage was surrounded by a vast and confused
+medley; market-women and the rest of the female rabble, with drunken gangs
+of the ruffians who had stormed the palace in the morning, still
+brandishing their weapons, or bearing loaves of bread on their pike-heads,
+and singing out that they should all have enough of bread now, since they
+were bringing the baker, the bakeress, and the baker's boy to Paris.[7]
+The only part of the procession that bore even a decent appearance was a
+small escort of 'different regiments--the Guards, the National Guards, and
+the Body-guards; many of the latter still bleeding from the wounds which
+they had received in the conflict and tumult of the morning. A train of
+carriages containing a deputation of the members of the Assembly also
+followed; Mirabeau himself having just earned a motion that the Assembly
+was inseparable from the king, and that wherever he was there must be the
+place of meeting for the great council of the nation. Yet, in spite of the
+confidence which their presence might have been expected to diffuse among
+the mob, and in spite of the hopes of coming plenty which the rioters
+themselves announced, the royal party was not even yet safe from further
+attacks. Some ruffians stabbed at the royal carriage as it passed with
+their pikes, and several shots were fired at it, though fortunately they
+missed their aim and no one was injured.[8]
+
+To the queen the journey was more painful than to any one else. A few
+weeks before she had congratulated Mademoiselle de Lamballe on not being a
+mother--perhaps the bitterest exclamation that grief and anxiety ever
+wrung from her lips; and now the keenest anxieties of a mother were indeed
+added to those of a queen. The procession moved with painful slowness. No
+provisions had been taken in the carriage, and the little dauphin was
+suffering from hunger and begging for some food. Tears, which her own
+danger could not bring to her eyes, flowed plentifully as she witnessed
+the suffering of her child. She could only beg him to bear his privations
+with patience; and she had the reward of the pains she had always taken to
+inspire him with confident in her, in the fortitude with which, for the
+rest of the day, he bore what to children of his age is probably the
+severest hardship to which they can be exposed.[9]
+
+So vast and disorderly was the procession that it was nine o'clock at
+night before it reached Paris. Bailly again met the royal carriage at the
+barrier, and, re-assuming the tone of coarse insult which he had adopted
+on the king's previous visit, had the effrontery to describe the day so
+full of horror to every one, and of humiliation and agony to those whom he
+was addressing, as a glorious day. It was at such moments as these that
+Louis's impassibility assumed the character of dignity. He disdained to
+notice the mayor's insolence, and briefly answered that it was always with
+pleasure and with confidence that he found himself among the inhabitants
+of his good city of Paris. He proceeded to the Hotel de Ville, where the
+council of civic magistrates was sitting; and where the president
+addressed him in language which afforded a marked contrast to that of the
+mayor, calling him "an adored father who had come to visit the place where
+he could meet with the greatest number of his children." And it seemed as
+if Bailly himself had become in some degree ashamed of his insolence; for
+now, when Louis desired him, in reply to the president's address, to
+repeat the answer which he had made to him at the barrier, he merely said
+that the king had come with pleasure among the Parisians. "The king, sir,"
+interrupted the queen, "added, 'and with confidence.'" "Gentlemen," said
+Bailly, "you hear her majesty's words. You are happier in doing so than if
+I myself had uttered them." The whole company burst into one rapturous
+cheer, and at their request the king and queen showed themselves for a few
+minutes at the windows, beneath which, late as the hour was, a vast
+multitude was still collected, which received them with vociferous cheers.
+And then the royal family, quitting the Hotel, drove to the Tuileries,
+where their attendants had been hastily making such preparations as a few
+hours allowed for their reception.
+
+Since the completion of the Palace at Versailles the Tuileries had been
+almost deserted.[10] The paint and gilding were tarnished, the curtains
+were faded, many most necessary articles of furniture were altogether
+wanting; and the whole was so shabby that it attracted the notice of even
+the little dauphin. "How bad, mamma," said he, "every thing looks here."
+"My boy," she replied, "Louis XIV. lived here comfortably enough." But
+they had not yet decided on making it their permanent residence. La
+Fayette, who had tried to induce the king to promise to do so, had been
+distinctly refused; and for some days Louis did not make up his mind. But,
+after a time, the fear, if he should propose to return, to Versailles, of
+being met by an opposition on the part of the Assembly or the civic
+magistrates, which he might be unable to surmount, or, if he should again
+settle there, of his absence from the city furnishing a pretext for fresh
+tumults, caused him to announce his intention of making Paris his
+principal abode for the future. He gave orders for the removal of some
+furniture and of the queen's library to the Tuileries; and, with something
+of the apathy of despair, began to reconcile himself to his new abode and
+his changed position.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+Feelings of Marie Antoinette on coming to the Tuileries.--Her Tact in
+winning the Hearts of the Common People.--Mirabeau changes his Views.--
+Quarrel between La Fayette and the Duc d'Orleans.--Mirabeau desires to
+offer his Services to the Queen.--Riots in Paris.--Murder of Francois.--
+The Assembly pass a Vote prohibiting any Member from taking Office.--The
+Emigration.--Death of the Emperor Joseph II.--Investigation into the Riots
+of October.--The Queen refuses to give Evidence.--Violent Proceedings in
+the Assembly.--Execution of the Marquis de Favras.
+
+
+The comment made by Marie Antoinette on quitting Versailles was that "they
+were undone; they were being dragged off, perhaps to death, which was
+never far removed from captive sovereigns;[1]" and such henceforward was
+her prevailing feeling. She may occasionally, prompted by her own innate
+courage and sanguineness of disposition, have cherished a short-lived
+hope, founded on a consciousness of the king's and her own purity of
+intention, or on a belief, which she never wholly discarded, in the
+natural goodness of heart of the French people when not led astray by
+demagogues; and of their impulsive levity of disposition, which seemed to
+make no change of temper on their part impossible; but her general feeling
+was one of humiliation for the past and despair for the future. Not only
+did the example of Charles I., whose fate was ever before her eyes, fill
+her with dread for her husband's life (to her own danger she never gave a
+thought), but she felt also that the cause and principle of royalty had
+been degraded by the shameful scenes through which she had lately passed;
+and we shall fail to do justice to the patience, fortitude, and energy of
+her conduct during the remainder of her life, if we allow ourselves to
+forget that these high qualities were maintained and exerted in spite of
+the most depressing circumstances and the most discouraging convictions;
+that she was struggling because it was her duty to struggle for her
+husband's honor and her child's inheritance; but that she was never long
+sustained by that incentive which, with so many, is absolutely
+indispensable to steady and useful exertion--the anticipation of eventual
+success.
+
+A letter which the very next morning she wrote to Mercy, who fortunately
+still retained his old post as embassador, shows the courage with which
+she still caught at every circumstance which seemed in the least hopeful;
+and with what unfaltering tact she sought every opportunity of acting on
+the impulsiveness which she regarded as one chief characteristic of the
+French people.
+
+"October 7th, 1789.
+
+"I am quite well. You may be easy about me. If we could only forget where
+we are and how we came here, we ought to be satisfied with the feelings of
+the people, especially this morning. I hope, if bread does not fall short,
+that many things will return to their proper order. I speak to the people,
+militia, fish-women, and all: all offer me their hands; I give them mine.
+In the Hotel de Ville I was personally well received. The people this
+morning begged us to remain here. I answered them, speaking for the king,
+who was by my side, that it depended on themselves whether we remained;
+that we desired nothing better; that all animosities must be laid aside;
+that the slightest renewal of bloodshed would make us flee, with horror.
+Those who were nearest to me swore that all that was over. I told the
+fish-women to go and tell others all that we had just said to one
+another.[2]"
+
+And a day or two later, on the 10th, even while giving fuller expression
+to her feelings of unhappiness, and of disgust at the events of the past
+week, as to which she assures Mercy that "no description could be
+exaggerated; on the contrary, that any account must fall far short of what
+the king and she had seen and experienced," she yet repeats that "she
+hopes to bring back to a right feeling the honest and sound portion of the
+citizens and people. Unhappily, however," as she adds, "they are not the
+most numerous body. Still, with gentleness and unwearied patience, she may
+hope that at least she shall succeed in doing away with the horrible
+distrust which occupies every mind, and which has dragged the king and
+herself into the gulf in which they are at present." So keen at this time
+was her feeling that one principal cause of their miseries was the unjust
+distrust which the citizens in general conceived of the views and designs
+of the court, that she desires Mercy not to try to see her; and, while she
+describes the scantiness of the accommodation which her attendants had as
+yet been able to provide for her, so that Madame Royale had a bed in her
+dressing-room, and the little dauphin was in her own room, she finds
+advantage in these arrangements, inconvenient as they were, since they
+prevented any suspicion from arising that she was giving audiences which
+she desired to keep secret.
+
+She did not overrate the impression which she had made on the people; and
+her faithful attendant, Madame Campan, has preserved more minute details
+of the events of the 7th than she herself reported to the embassador. She
+was hardly dressed when a huge crowd collected on the terrace under her
+window, shouting for her to show herself; and, when she came forward, they
+began to accost her in a mingled tone of expostulation and menace. "She
+must drive away the courtiers who were the ruin of kings. She must love
+the inhabitants of her good city." She replied "that she had always felt
+so toward them; she had loved them while at Versailles; she should
+continue to love them at Paris." "Ah," interrupted a virago, hardier than
+her companions, "but on the 14th of July you would have besieged and
+bombarded the city; and on the 6th of October you wanted to flee to the
+frontier." She answered, in the gentlest tone, that "these were idle
+stories, which they were wrong to believe; tales like these were what
+caused at once the misery of the people and that of the best of kings."
+Another woman addressed her in German. Marie Antoinette declared that "she
+did not understand what she said; that she had become so completely French
+that she had forgotten her native language;" and the compliment to their
+country fairly vanquished them. They received it with shouts of "Bravo,"
+and with loud clapping of their hands. They begged the ribbons and flowers
+of her bonnet. She took them off with her own hand and distributed them
+among them; and they divided the spoils with thankful exultation, smiling,
+waving their hands, and crying out, "Long live Marie Antoinette! Long live
+our good queen![3]"
+
+For a time it seemed as if the fortunes of the king and country were being
+weighed in an uncertain balance. One day some circumstances seemed to hold
+out a prospect of the re-establishment of tranquillity, and of the return
+of the masses to a better feeling. The next day these favorable
+appearances were more than counterbalanced by fresh evidences of the
+increasing power of the factious and unscrupulous demagogues. It was
+greatly in favor of the crown that the triumph of the mob on the 6th of
+October had led to violent quarrels between the Duc d'Orleans, La Fayette,
+and Mirabeau. La Fayette had charged the duke with having entered into a
+plot to assassinate him, and threatened to impeach him formally if he did
+not at once quit the kingdom.[4] The duke trembled and consented, easily
+procuring from the ministers, who were glad to get rid of him, a
+diplomatic mission to England as a pretext for his departure; and
+Mirabeau, who despised both the duke and the marquis, full of contempt for
+the pusillanimity which the former had shown in the quarrel, abandoned all
+idea of placing him on his cousin's throne. "Make him my king!" he
+exclaimed; "I would not have him for my valet."
+
+Emboldened by his success with the duke, La Fayette, who had great
+confidence in his own address, next tried to win over or to get rid of
+Mirabeau himself. He proposed to obtain an embassy for him also. The
+suggestion of what was clearly an honorable exile in disguise was at once
+declined.[5] He then offered him a large sum of money, for at that moment
+he had the entire disposal of the civil list; but he found that the
+great orator was disinclined to connect himself with him in any way, much
+more to lay himself under any obligation to him. In fact, Mirabeau was at
+this moment hoping to obtain a post in the home administration, where, if
+he could once succeed in procuring a footing, he had no doubt of soon
+obtaining the entire mastery; and the royal family was hardly settled at
+the Tuileries before he applied to his friend, the Count de la Marck, whom
+he rightly believed to enjoy the queen's good opinion, begging him to
+express to her his ardent wish to serve her. He even drew up a long
+memorial on the existing state of affairs, indicating the line of conduct
+which, in his opinion, the king ought to pursue; the leading feature of
+which was an early departure from Paris to some city at no great distance,
+that he might be safe and free; while in the capital it was evident that
+he was neither. And the step which he thus recommended at the outset
+deserves attention as being also that on which a year later he still
+insisted as the indispensable preliminary to whatever line of conduct
+might be decided on.
+
+But at this moment his advice never reached those for whom it was
+intended. La Marck, with all his good-will both to his friend and to the
+court, could not venture to bring before the queen's notice the name of
+one who, only a few days before, had denounced her in the foulest manner
+in the Assembly for having appeared at the soldiers' banquet, and whom she
+with her own eyes had beheld uniting with the assailants of the palace. He
+thought it more politic, even for the eventual attainment of his friend's
+objects, to content himself for the time with giving the memorial and
+stating the views of the writer to the Count de Provence; and that prince
+declared that it would be useless to bring it to the knowledge of either
+king or queen: "that the queen had not sufficient influence over her
+husband to induce him to adopt such a plan;" and he even hinted that at
+times Louis was disposed to be jealous of her appearing to influence him.
+
+But if these circumstances--the quarrel between the enemies of the court,
+and the conversion of one more able and formidable than either--were in
+the king's favor, other events which took place in the same few weeks were
+full of mischief and danger. Before the end of the month fresh riots broke
+out in Paris. Bread, the supply of which Marie Antoinette, as we have
+seen, rightly regarded as a matter of the first importance to the
+tranquillity of the city, continued scarce and dear; and the mob broke
+open the bakers' shops, and murdered one baker, a man named Francois, with
+a ferocity more terrible than they had even shown toward De Launay, or the
+guards at Versailles. They tore his body to pieces, and, having cut off
+his head, compelled his wife to kiss the scarcely cold lips, and then left
+her fainting on the pavement still covered with his blood. Even La Fayette
+was horror-stricken at such brutality. It was the only occasion on which
+he did his duty during the whole progress of the Revolution. He came down
+with a company of the National Guard, dispersed the rioters, seized the
+ruffian who was bearing aloft, the head of the murdered man on a pole, and
+caused him to be hanged the next day. And during the next few weeks he
+more than once brought his soldiers to the support of the civil power, and
+inflicted summary punishment on gangs of miscreants, whose idea of reform
+was a state of things which should afford impunity to crime.
+
+But in the next month the Assembly dealt a heavier blow on the king's
+authority than could be inflicted by the worst excesses of an informal
+mob--they passed a resolution prohibiting any of its members from
+accepting any office in the administration: it was an imitation of the
+self-denying ordinance into which Cromwell had tricked the English
+Parliament; and, though bearing an appearance of disinterestedness in
+closing the access to official emoluments and honors against themselves,
+was in reality an injury to the king, as depriving him of his right to
+select his ministers from the entire body of the nation; and to the nation
+itself, as preventing it from obtaining the services of those who might be
+presumed to be its ablest citizens, as having been already selected as its
+representatives.
+
+But a far more irreparable injury than any that could be inflicted on the
+court by either populace or Assembly came from its friends. We have seen
+that the Count d'Artois, with some nobles who had especial reason to fear
+the enmity of the Parisians, had fled from the country in July; and now
+their example was followed by a vast number of the higher classes, several
+of them having hitherto been prominent as the leaders of the Moderate or
+Constitutional section of the Assembly--men who had no grounds for
+complaining that, except in one or two instances, at moments of
+extraordinary excitement, their influence had been overborne, but who now
+yielded to an infectious panic. Before the end of the year more than three
+hundred deputies had resigned their seats and quit the country; salving
+over to themselves the dereliction of the duties which a few months before
+they had voluntarily sought, and their performance of which was now a more
+imperative duty than ever, by denunciations of the crimes which had been
+committed, and which they had found themselves unable to prevent. They did
+not see that their pusillanimous flight must lead to a continuance of such
+atrocities, leaving, as it did, the undisputed sway in the Assembly to
+those very men who had been the authors of the outrages of which they
+complained. They were, in fact, insuring the ruin of all that they most
+wished to preserve; for, in the progress of the debates in the Assembly
+during the winter, many questions of the most vital importance were
+decided by very small majorities, which their presence would have turned
+into minorities. The greater the danger was, the more irresistible they
+ought to have felt the obligation to stand to the last by the cause of
+which they were the legitimate champions; and the final triumph of the
+Jacobin party owed hardly more to the energy of its leaders than to the
+cowardly and inglorious flight of the princes and nobles who left the
+field open without resistance to their wickedness and audacity.
+
+It was a melancholy winter that the queen now passed. So far as she was
+able, she diverted her mind from political anxieties by devoting much of
+her time to the education of her children. A little plot of ground was
+railed off in the garden of the Tuileries for the dauphin's[6] amusement;
+and one of her favorite relaxations was to watch him working at the
+flower-beds himself with his little hoe and rake; though, as if to mark
+that they were in fact prisoners, both she and he were followed wherever
+they went by grenadiers of the city-guard, and were not allowed to
+dispense with their attendance for a single moment. Marie Antoinette had
+reason to complain that she was watched as a criminal[7]. Sad as she was
+at heart, she was not allowed the comfort of privacy and retirement. She
+was forced to hold receptions for the nobles and chief citizens, and as
+the court was now formally established at the Tuileries, she dined every
+week in public with the king; but she steadily resisted the entreaties of
+some of the ministers and courtiers to visit the theatres, thinking, with
+great justice, that an attendance at public spectacles of that character
+would have had an appearance of gayety, as unbecoming at such a period of
+anxiety, as it was inconsistent with her feelings; and before the end of
+the winter she sustained a fresh affliction in the loss of her brother the
+emperor[8]; whose death bore with it the additional aggravation of
+depriving her of a counselor whose advice she valued, and of an ally on
+whose active aid she believed that she could rely far more than she could
+on that of their brother Leopold, who now succeeded to the imperial
+throne.
+
+Not that Leopold can be charged with indifference to his sister's welfare.
+In the very week of his accession to the throne he wrote to her with great
+affection, assuring her of his devotion to her interests, and expressing
+his desire to correspond with her in the most unreserved confidence. But
+the same letter shows that  as yet he knew but very little of her;[9] and
+that he regarded the difficulties in which some of Joseph's recent
+measures had involved the Imperial Government as sufficiently serious to
+engross his attention. A few extracts from her reply are worth preserving,
+as proving how steadily in her conduct and language to every one she
+adhered to her rule of concealing her husband's defects, and putting him
+forward as the first person on whose wishes and directions her own conduct
+most depend. It also shows what advances she was herself making in the
+perception of the true character of the crisis, so far as the objects of
+the few honest members who still remained in the Assembly were concerned,
+and the extent to which she was trying to reconcile herself to some
+curtailment of her husband's former authority.
+
+Thanking him for the assurance of his friendship, she says: "Believe me,
+my dear brother, we shall always be worthy of it. I say we, because I do
+not separate the king from myself. He was touched by your letter, as I was
+myself, and bids me assure you of this. His heart is loyalty and honesty
+itself; and if ever again we become, I do not say what we have been, but
+at least what we ought to be, you may then depend on the entire fidelity
+of a good ally.
+
+"I do not say any thing to you of our actual position: it is too heart-
+rending. It ought to afflict every sovereign in the universe, and still
+more an affectionate relation like you. It is only time and patience that
+can bring back men's minds to a healthy state. It is a war of opinions,
+and one which is still far from being terminated. It is only the justice
+of our cause and the feeling of a good conscience that can support us ...
+My most sincere wish is that you may never meet with ingratitude. My own
+melancholy experience proves to me that, of all evils, that is the most
+terrible."
+
+Yet no indignation at the thanklessness of the Parisians could chill her
+constant benevolence toward them; and amidst all the anxieties which
+filled her mind for herself, her husband, and her child, she founded an
+asylum for the education of a number of orphan daughters of old soldiers,
+and found time to give her careful attention to a code of regulations for
+its management.[10]
+
+Meanwhile circumstances were gradually paving the way for her accepting
+the help of him who, during the earliest discussions of the Assembly, had
+been, not so much through his own malice as through Necker's folly, her
+worst enemy. We have seen how, immediately after the attack on Versailles,
+Mirabeau had once more endeavored to find an opening through which to
+place himself at her service. He alone, perhaps, of all men in the
+kingdom, perceived the reality and greatness of the danger which
+threatened even the lives of the sovereigns;[11] and, as amidst all the
+errors into which his regard for his own interests, his vindictiveness, or
+his caprice impelled him, he always preserved the perceptions and
+instincts of a genuine statesman, many of the transactions of the winter
+increased his conviction of the peril in which every interest in the whole
+kingdom was placed, if the headlong folly of the Assembly could not be
+restrained, and if even, proverbially difficult as such a course is, some
+of its acts could not be rescinded; while one transaction, which, more
+than any other that had yet taken place, showed the greatness of the
+queen's heart, much sharpened his eagerness to prove himself a worthy
+servant of so noble-minded a mistress.
+
+Some of the magistrates who still desired to discharge their duty had
+instituted an investigation into the conspiracy which had originated the
+attack on Versailles, and all its multiplied horrors. They had examined a
+great body of witnesses, whose evidence left no doubt of the active part
+taken in it by the Duc d'Orleans and his partisans, and by Mirabeau,
+whether he were to be included among that prince's adherents or not; but
+they conceived it specially important to procure the testimony of the
+queen herself. However, it was in vain that they applied to her for the
+slightest information. Appeals to her indignation, to her pride, and to
+her danger, were equally disregarded by her. No denunciation of those who,
+whatever had been their crimes, were still the subjects of her husband,
+could, in her eyes, be becoming to her as queen; and when those who hoped
+to make a tool of her to crush their political rivals urged that no
+evidence would be accepted as equally conclusive with hers, since no one
+had seen so much of what had taken place, or had in so great a degree
+preserved that coolness which was indispensable to a clear account of it,
+and to the identification of the guilty, her reply was a dignified and
+magnanimous pardon of the outrages beneath which she had so nearly
+perished. "I have seen every thing; I have known every thing; I have
+forgotten every thing;" and Mirabeau, not unthankful for the protection
+which her magnanimity thus throw around him, was eager to make atonement
+for his past insults and injuries.
+
+And many of the recent events had convinced him that there was no time to
+lose. The vote of November, debarring him, in common with all other
+members of the Assembly, from office, was a severe blow to the most
+important of his projects, so far as his own interests were concerned.
+Within a month it had been followed by another, proposed by the Abbe
+Sieyes, a busy priest who boasted that he had made himself master of the
+whole science of politics, but who was in fact a mere slave of abstract
+theories, the safety or even the practicability of which he was utterly
+unable to estimate. On his motion, the Assembly, in a single evening,
+abolished all the ancient territorial divisions of the kingdom, and the
+very names of the provinces; dividing the country anew into eighty-three
+departments, and coupling with this new arrangement a number of details
+which were evidently calculated to wrest the whole executive authority of
+the kingdom from the crown and to vest it in the populace. At another
+sitting, the whole property of the Church was confiscated. On another
+night, the Parliaments were abolished; and on a fourth, the party which
+had carried these measures made a still more direct and audacious attack
+on the royal prerogative, by passing a resolution which deprived the crown
+of all power of revising the sentences of the judicial tribunals, and of
+pardoning or mitigating the punishment of those who might have been
+condemned. And, if to bring home to the tender-hearted monarch the full
+effect of this last inroad upon his legitimate power, they at the same
+time created a new crime to which they gave the name of treason against
+the nation,[12] without either defining it, or specifying the kind of
+evidence which should he required to prove it; and they proceeded at once
+to put it in force to procure the condemnation of a nobleman of decayed
+fortune, but of the highest character, the Marquis de Favras, in a manner
+which showed that their real object was to strike terror into the whole
+Royalist party. The charges on which he was brought to trial were not
+merely unfounded, but ridiculous. He was charged with designing to raise
+an army of thirty thousand men, with the object of carrying off the king
+from Paris, of dissolving the Assembly by force, and putting La Fayette
+and Bailly to death. The evidence with which it was pretended to support
+these charges broke down on every point, and its failure of itself
+established the prisoner's innocence, even without the aid of his own
+defense, which was lucid and eloquent. But the marquis was known to be a
+Royalist in feeling, and, though very poor, to stand high in the
+confidence of the princes. The demagogues collected mobs round the
+courthouse to intimidate the judges, and the judges proved as base as the
+accusers themselves. They professed, indeed, to fear not so much for their
+own lives as for the public tranquillity, but they pronounced him guilty.
+One of them had even the effrontery to acknowledge his innocence to Favras
+himself, and to affirm that his life was a necessary sacrifice to the
+public peace.
+
+No event since the attack on Versailles had caused Marie Antoinette equal
+anguish. It showed that attachment to the king and herself was in itself
+regarded as an inexpiable crime, and her distress was greatly augmented
+when, on the Sunday following the execution of the marquis, some of his
+friends brought to the table where, as usual, she was dining in public
+with the king, the widowed marchioness and her orphaned son in deep
+mourning, and presented them to their majesties. Their introducers
+evidently expected that the king, or at least the queen, by the
+distinguished reception which she would accord to them, would mark their
+sense of the merits of their late husband and father, and of the indignity
+of the sentence under which he had suffered.
+
+Marie Antoinette was sadly embarrassed and distressed: she was taken
+wholly by surprise; and it happened by a cruel perverseness of fortune
+that Santerre, the brewer, whose ruffianly and ferocious enmity to the
+whole royal family, and especially to herself, had been conspicuous
+throughout the worst outrages of the past summer and autumn, was on the
+same day on duty at the palace as commander of one of the battalions of
+the Parisian Guard, and was standing behind her chair when the marchioness
+and her son were introduced. Her embarrassment and all her feelings on the
+occasion were described by herself in the course of the afternoon to
+Madame Campan.
+
+After the dinner was over, she went up to her attendant's room, saying
+that it was a relief to find herself where she could weep at her ease; for
+weep she must at the folly of the ultra-Royalists. "We can not but be
+destroyed," she continued, "when we are attacked by people who unite every
+kind of talent to every kind of wickedness; and when we are defended by
+folks who are indeed very estimable, but who have no just notion of our
+position. They have now compromised me with both parties, in their
+presenting to me the widow and son of Favras. If I had been free to do as
+I would, I should have taken the child of a man who had just been
+sacrificed for us, and have placed him at table between the king and
+myself; but surrounded as I was by the very murderers who had caused his
+father's death, I could not venture even to bestow a glance upon him. Yet
+the Royalists will blame me for not having seemed to be interested in the
+poor child; while the Revolutionists will be furious, thinking that those
+who presented him to me knew that it would please me." And all that she
+could venture to do she did. She knew that the marchioness was very poor,
+and she sent her by a trusty agent a few hundred louis, and with it a kind
+message, assuring the unhappy widow that she would always watch over her
+and her son's interests.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+The King accepts the Constitution so far as it has been settled.--The
+Queen makes a Speech to the Deputies.--She is well received at the
+Theatre.--Negotiations with Mirabeau.--The Queen's Views of the Position
+of Affairs.--The Jacobin Club denounces Mirabeau.--Deputation of
+Anacharsis Clootz.--Demolition of the Statue of Louis XIV.--Abolition of
+Titles of Honor.--The Queen admits Mirabeau to an Audience.--His
+Admiration of her Courage and Talents.--Anniversary of the Capture of the
+Bastile.--Fete of the Champ de Mars.--Presence of Mind of the Queen.
+
+
+What was probably as painful to Marie Antoinette as these occurrences
+themselves was the apathy with which the king regarded them. The English
+traveler to whose journal we have more than once referred, and who, in the
+first week of the year, saw the royal pair waiting in the gardens of the
+Tuileries, remarked that though the queen did not appear in good health,
+but showed melancholy and anxiety in her face, the king, on the other
+hand, "was as plump as ease could render him.[1]" And in the course of
+February, in spite of all her remonstrances, Necker succeeded in
+persuading him to go down to the Assembly, and to address the members in a
+long speech, in which, though some of his expressions were clearly
+intended as a reproof of the Assembly itself for the precipitation and
+violence of some of its measures, he nevertheless declared his cordial
+assent to the new Constitution, so far as they had yet settled it, and
+promised to co-operate in a spirit of affection and confidence in the
+labors which still remained to be achieved.
+
+The greater part of the speech is believed to have been his own
+composition; and it is characteristic of the fidelity with which, on every
+occasion, Marie Antoinette adhered to her rule of strengthening her
+husband's position by her own cordial and conspicuous support, that,
+strongly as she had objected to the step before it was taken, now that it
+was decided on, she professed a decided approval of it; and when a
+deputation of the Assembly, which had been appointed to escort the king
+with honor back to the palace, solicited an audience of herself to pay
+their respects, she assured the deputies that "she partook of all the
+sentiments of the king; that she united with all her heart and mind in the
+measure which his love for his people had just dictated to him." And then,
+bringing the dauphin forward, she added: "Behold my son. I shall
+unceasingly speak to him of the virtues of his most excellent father. I
+shall teach him from the earliest age to cherish public liberty, and I
+hope that he will be its firmest bulwark."
+
+For a moment the step seemed to have succeeded, though the proofs of its
+success were still more strongly proofs of the utter want of sense that
+marked all the proceedings of the Assembly. As Louis had expressed his
+assent to the Constitution so far as it was settled, it was proposed, as a
+fitting compliment to him, that the Assembly and the whole body of the
+citizens of Paris should take an oath of fidelity to the Constitution
+without any such reservation. But in the course of the next few weeks the
+Assembly showed how little his reproof of its former precipitation and
+violence had been heeded, since, among the first measures with which it
+proceeded to the completion of the Constitution, one deprived him of the
+right of deciding on peace and war, a power which all wise statesmen
+regard as inseparable from the executive government; another extinguished
+the right of primogeniture; and a third confiscated all the property of
+the monastic establishments.
+
+However, those who took the lead in the management of affairs (for Necker
+and the ministers had long ceased to exert the slightest authority) were
+blinded by their own fury to the absurdity and inconsistency of their
+conduct. Their exultation was unbounded, and, adhering to the line of
+conduct which she had marked out for herself, Marie Antoinette now yielded
+to their entreaties that she would show herself to the citizens at the
+theatre. Even in the days of her earliest popularity she had never met a
+more enthusiastic reception. The greater part of the house rose at her
+entrance, clapping their hands and cheering, and the disloyalty of a few
+malcontents only made her triumph more conspicuous, so roughly were they
+treated by the rest of the audience. Marie Antoinette was herself touched
+at the cordiality with which she was greeted, and saw in it another proof
+that "the people and citizens were good at heart if left to themselves;
+but," she added to the Princess de Lamballe, to whom she described the
+scene, "all this enthusiasm is but a gleam of light, a cry of conscience
+which weakness will soon stifle.[2]"
+
+It is probably doing no injustice to Mirabeau to believe that the crimes
+which had made the greatest impression on the queen were not the events
+which affected him the most strongly. But he was not only a statesman in
+intellect, but an aristocrat in every feeling of his heart. No man was
+fonder of referring to his illustrious ancestors; or of claiming kindred
+with men of old renown, such as the Admiral de Coligny, of whom he more
+than once boasted in the Assembly as his cousin; and each blow dealt at
+the consideration of the Nobles was an additional incentive to him to seek
+to arrest the progress of a revolution which had already gone far beyond
+his wishes or his expectations. And as he was always energetic in the
+pursuit of his plans, he had, by some means or other, in spite of the
+discouragement derived from the language and conduct of the Count de
+Provence, contrived to get information of his willingness to enlist in the
+Royalist party conveyed to the queen. The Count de la Marck, who was still
+his chief confidant, was at Brussels at the beginning of the spring, when
+he received a letter from Mercy, begging him to return without delay to
+Paris. He lost no time in obeying the summons, when he learned, to his
+great delight, though his pleasure was alloyed by some misgiving, that the
+king and queen had resolved to avail themselves of Mirabeau's services,
+and that he himself was selected as the intermediate agent in the
+negotiation. La Marck's misgiving,[3] as he frankly told the embassador at
+the outset, was caused by the fear that Mirabeau had done more harm than
+he could repair; but he gladly undertook the commission, though its
+difficulty was increased by a stipulation which showed at once the
+weakness of the king, and the extraordinary difficulties which it placed
+in the way of his friends. The count was especially warned to keep all
+that was passing a secret from Necker. He was startled, as he well might
+be, at such an injunction. But he did not think it became his position to
+start a difficulty; and, as he was fully impressed with the importance of
+not losing time, the negotiation proceeded rapidly. He introduced Mirabeau
+to Mercy, and he himself was admitted to an interview with the queen, when
+he learned that her greatest objections to accepting Mirabeau's services
+were of a personal nature, founded partly on the general badness of his
+character, partly on the share he had borne in the events of the 5th and
+6th of October. By the count's own account, he went rather beyond the
+truth in his endeavors to exculpate his friend on this point; and he
+probably deceived himself when he believed that he had convinced the queen
+of his innocence. But both she and Louis, who was present at a part of the
+interview, had evidently made up their minds to forget the past, if they
+could trust his promises for the future. And the interview ended in the
+further conduct of the necessary arrangements being left by Louis to the
+queen.
+
+In a subsequent conversation with the count, she explained her own views
+of the existing situation of affairs, describing them, indeed, according
+to her custom, as the ideas of the king, in a manner which shows how much
+she was willing that the king should abate of his old prerogatives,
+provided only that the concessions were made voluntarily by himself, and
+not imposed by violent and illegal resolutions of the Assembly. Mirabeau
+had drawn up an elaborate memorial for the consideration of the king, in
+which he pointed out in general terms his sense of the state of "utter
+anarchy" into which France had fallen, his shame and indignation at
+feeling "that he himself had contributed to bring affairs into such a bad
+state." and his "profound conviction of the necessity, in the interests of
+the whole nation, of re-establishing the legitimate authority of the
+king.[4]" And Marie Antoinette, commenting on this expression, assured La
+Marck that "the king had no desire to recover the full extent of the
+authority which he had formerly possessed; and that he was far from
+thinking it necessary for his own personal happiness any more than for the
+welfare of his people.[5]" And it seemed to the count that she placed
+unlimited confidence in Mirabeau's ability to re-establish her husband's
+power on a sufficient and satisfactory basis; so full was her
+conversation, during the latter part of the interview, of the good which
+she expected to be again able to do, and of the warm affection with which
+she regarded the people.
+
+The benefits of this new alliance were not to be all on one side. Mirabeau
+was overwhelmed with debt; and though his father had died in the preceding
+summer, he had not yet entered into his inheritance, but was in a state
+little short of absolute destitution. From this condition he was to be
+relieved, and the arrangements for the discharge of his debts, and the
+securing to him the enjoyment of a sufficient though by no means excessive
+income, were intrusted to Marie Antoinette by the king, and by her to her
+almoner, M. de Fontanges, who, when Lomenie de Brienne was promoted to the
+archbishopric of Sens, had succeeded him at Toulouse. The archbishop, who
+was sincerely devoted to his royal mistress, carried out the necessary
+arrangements with great skill, but they could not be managed with such
+secrecy as entirely to escape notice. Among the clubs which had been set
+on foot at the beginning of the previous year the most violent had been
+that known as the Breton Club, from being founded by some of the deputies
+from the great province of Brittany; but, when the court removed to Paris,
+and the Assembly was established in a large building close to the garden
+of the Tuileries, the Bretons obtained the use of an apartment in an old
+convent of Dominican or Jacobin friars (as they were called), the same
+which two centuries before had been the council-room of the League, and
+they changed their own designation also, and called themselves the
+Jacobins; and, canceling the rule which limited the right of membership to
+deputies, they now admitted every one who, by application for election,
+avowed his adherence to their principles. Their leaders at this time were
+Barnave; a young noble named Alexander Lameth, whose mother, having been
+left in necessitous circumstances, owed to the bounty of the king and
+queen the means of educating her children, a benefit which they repaid
+with the most unremitting hostility to the whole royal family; and a
+lawyer named Duport. Mirabeau was in the habit of ridiculing them as the
+triumvirate; but they were crafty and unscrupulous men, skillful in
+procuring information; and, having obtained intelligence of his
+negotiations with the court, they retaliated on him by hiring pamphleteers
+and journalists to attack him, and narratives of the treason of the Count
+de Mirabeau were hawked about the streets.
+
+To apply such language to the adherence of a French noble to the crown was
+the most open avowal of disloyalty on which the revolutionary party had
+yet ventured; and in the next four weeks it received a practical
+development in a series of measures, some of which were so ridiculous as
+only to deserve notice from the additional evidence which they furnished
+of the extreme folly of those who now had the lead in the Assembly, and of
+the strange excitement in which the whole nation, or at least the whole
+population of Paris, must have been wrought up before they could mistake
+their acts for those of sagacity or patriotism; but others of which,
+though not less unwise, were of greater importance as being irrevocable
+steps in the downward course of destruction along which the whole country
+was being dragged.
+
+The leaders of the revolutionary party had already selected two days in
+the past year as especially memorable for the triumphs won over the crown:
+one was the 20th of June, on which, in the Tennis Court at Versailles, the
+members of the Assembly had bound themselves to effect the regeneration of
+the kingdom; the other the 14th of July, on which, as they boasted, they
+had forever established freedom by the destruction of the Bastile; and
+they determined this year to celebrate both these anniversaries in a
+becoming manner. Accordingly, on the 20th of June, a crack-brained member
+of the Jacobin Club, a Prussian of noble birth, named Clootz, who, to show
+his affinity with the philosophers of old, had assumed the name of
+Anacharsis, hired a band of vagrants and idlers, and, dressing them up in
+a variety of costumes to represent Arabs, red Indians, Turks, Chinese,
+Laplanders, and other tribes, savage and civilized, led them into the
+Assembly as a deputation from all the nations of the earth to announce the
+resurrection of the whole world from slavery; and demanded permission for
+them to attend the festival of the ensuing month, that each, on behalf of
+his country, might give in his adhesion to the principles of liberty as
+expounded by the Assembly. The president of the day replied with an
+oration thanking M. Clootz for the honor done to France by such an
+embassy; and Alexander Lameth followed up the president's harangue by
+fresh praises of the deputation as holy pilgrims who had thrown off the
+shackles of superstition. Nor was he content with a barren panegyric. He
+had devised an appropriate sacrifice with which to commemorate such
+exalted virtue. In the finest square of the city, the Place des Victoires,
+the Duke de la Feuillade had erected a statue of Louis XIV. to celebrate
+his royal master's triumphs, the pedestal of which was decorated with
+allegorical representations of the nations which had been conquered by the
+French marshals. It was generally regarded as the finest work of art in
+the city, and as such it had long been an object of admiration and pride
+to the citizens. But M. Lameth, in his new-born enthusiasm, regarded it
+with other eyes, and closed his speech by proposing that, as monuments of
+despotism and flattery could not fail to be shocking to so enlightened a
+body, the Assembly should order its instant demolition. His proposal was
+received with enthusiastic cheers, and the noble monument was instantly
+overthrown in a fit of blind fury more resembling the orgies of drunken
+Bacchanals, or the thirst for desolation which had animated the Goths and
+Huns, than the conduct of the chosen legislators of a polite and
+accomplished people.
+
+But even this was not all. The insult to the memory of a king who, little
+as he deserved it, had a century before been the object of the unanimous
+admiration of his subjects, was but a prelude to other resolutions of far
+greater moment, as giving an indelible character to the future of the
+nation. A deputy, M. Lambel, whose very name was previously unknown to the
+majority of his colleagues, rose and made a speech of three lines, as if
+the proposal which it contained only required to be mentioned to command
+instant and universal assent "This day," said he, "is the tomb of vanity.
+I demand the suppression of the titles of duke, count, marquis, viscount,
+baron, and knight." La Fayette and Alexander Lameth's brother, Charles,
+supported the demand with almost equal brevity; a representative of one of
+the most ancient families in the kingdom, the Viscount Matthieu de
+Montmorency moved a prohibition of the use of armorial bearings; another
+noble, M. de St. Targeau, proposed that the use of names derived from the
+estates of the owners should be abolished. Every proposal was carried by
+acclamation. Louder and louder cheers followed each suggestion of a new
+abolition; a member who ventured to propose an amendment to one proposal
+was hooted down; and in little more than an hour the whole series of
+resolutions, which struck at once at the recollections and glories of the
+past and at the dignity of the future, was made the law of the land.
+
+Every one of these attacks on the nobles was a fresh provocation to
+Mirabeau, and increased his eagerness to complete his reconciliation with
+the crown. He pronounced the abolition of titles a torch to kindle civil
+war, and pressed more earnestly than ever for an interview with the queen,
+in which he might both learn her views and explain his own. Marie
+Antoinette had foreseen that she should be forced to admit him to her
+presence, but there was nothing to which she felt a stronger repugnance.
+His profligate character excited a feeling of perfect disgust in her mind;
+but for the public good she overcame it, and, having in the course of June
+removed to St. Cloud for change of air, on the 3d of July she, accompanied
+by the king, received him in the garden of that palace. The account which
+she sent her brother of the interview shows with what a mixture of
+feelings she had been agitated. She speaks of herself as "shivering with
+horror" as the moment drew near, and can not bring herself to describe him
+except as a "monster," though, she admits that his language speedily
+removed her agitation, which, when he was first presented to her, had
+nearly made her ill. "He seemed to be actuated by entire good faith, and
+to be altogether devoted to the king; and Louis was highly pleased with
+him, so that they now thought every thing was safe.[6]"
+
+She, on her part, had made an equally favorable impression on him. She had
+adroitly flattered his high opinion of himself by saying that "if she had
+been speaking to persons of a different class and character she should
+have felt the necessity of being guarded in her language, but that in
+dealing with a Mirabeau there could be no need of such caution;" and he
+told his confidant, La Marck, that till he knew "the soul and thoughts of
+the daughter of Maria Teresa, and learned how fully he could reckon on
+that august ally, he had seen nothing of the court but its weakness; but
+now confidence had raised his courage, and gratitude had made the
+prosecution of his principles a duty;[7]" and in some subsequent letters
+he speaks of every thing as depending on the queen, and describes in brief
+but forcible language his appreciation of the dangers which surrounded
+her, and of the magnanimous courage with which he sees that she is
+prepared to confront them. "The king," he says, "has but one man about
+him, and that is his wife. There is no safety for her but in the
+reestablishment of the royal authority. I love to believe that she would
+not desire to preserve life without the crown. What I am quite certain of
+is, that she will not preserve her life unless she preserves her crown."
+
+In his interview with her, as she reported it to the emperor, he had
+recommended, as the first step to be adopted by the king and herself, a
+departure from Paris; and, in reference to that plan, which he at all
+times regarded as the foundation of every other, he tells La Marck: "The
+moment will soon come when it will be necessary to try what can be done by
+a woman and a child on horseback. For her it is but the adoption of an
+hereditary mode of action.[8] But she must be prepared for it, and must
+not suppose that one can extricate one's self from an extraordinary crisis
+by mere chance or by the combinations of an ordinary man."
+
+The hopes with which the acquisition of such an ally inspired the queen at
+this time nerved her to bear her part in the festival with which the
+Assembly had decided on celebrating the demolition of the Bastile. The
+arrangements for it were of a gigantic character. Round the sides of the
+Champ de Mars a vast embankment was raised, so as to give the plain the
+appearance of an amphitheatre, and to afford accommodation to three
+hundred thousand spectators. At the entrance a magnificent arch of triumph
+was erected. The centre was occupied by a grand altar; and on one side a
+gorgeous pavilion was appropriated to the king, his family, and retinue,
+the members of the Assembly, and the municipal magistrates. They were all
+to be performers in the grand ceremony which was to be the distinguishing
+feature of the day. The Constitution was scarcely more complete than it
+had been when Louis signified his acceptance of it five months before; but
+now, not only were he, the deputies, and municipal authorities of Paris to
+swear to its maintenance, but the same oath was to be taken by the
+National Guard, and by a deputation from every regiment in the army; and
+it was to bind the soldiers throughout the kingdom to the new order of
+things that the ceremony was originally designed.[9]
+
+As a spectacle few have been more successful, and perhaps none has ever
+been so imposing. Before midnight on the 13th of July, the whole of the
+vast amphitheatre was filled with a dense crowd, in its gayest holiday
+attire--a marvelous and magnificent sight from its mere numbers; and early
+the next morning the heads of the procession began to defile under the
+arch at the entrance of the plain--La Fayette, at the head of the National
+Guard, leading the way. It was a curious proof of the king's weakness, and
+of the tenacity with which he clung to his policy of conciliation, that,
+in spite of his knowledge of the general's bitter animosity to his
+authority and to himself, and of his recent vote for the suppression of
+all titles of honor, Louis had offered him the sword of the Constable of
+France, a dignity which had been disused for many years; and it was an
+equally striking evidence of La Fayette's inveterate disloyalty that,
+gratifying as the succession to Duguesclin and Montmorency would have been
+to his vanity, he nevertheless refused the honor, and contented himself
+with the dignity which the enrollment of the detachments from the
+different departments under his banner conferred on him, by giving him the
+appearance of being the commander-in-chief of the National Guard
+throughout the kingdom. The National Guard was followed by regiment after
+regiment, and deputation after deputation, of the regular army; and, to
+show the subordination to the law which they were expected to acknowledge
+for the future, their swords were all sheathed, while the deputies, the
+municipal magistrates, and other peaceful citizens who bore a part in the
+procession had their swords drawn. Sailors from the fleet, magistrates and
+deputations from every department, and from every city or town of
+importance in the kingdom, followed; and after them came two hundred
+priests, with Talleyrand, Bishop of Autun, in his episcopal vestments at
+their head, their white robes somewhat uncanonically decorated with
+tricolor ribbons, who passed on into the centre of the plain and ranged
+themselves on the steps of the altar. So vast was the procession that it
+was half-past three in the afternoon before the detachment of Royal Guards
+which closed it took up their position.
+
+When at last all were in their places, Louis, accompanied by the queen and
+other members of his family, entered the royal pavilion. He was known by
+sight to the deputations from the most distant provinces, for he had
+reviewed them in a body the day before, when several of them had been
+separately presented to him, toward whom he had for once laid aside his
+habitual reserve, assuring them of his fatherly regard for all his
+subjects with warmth and manifest sincerity. The queen, too, as she always
+did, had made a most favorable impression on those members whom she had
+seen by her judicious and cordial affability. Louis wore no robes, but
+only the ordinary dress of a French noble. Marie Antoinette was in full
+evening costume, and her hair was dressed with a plume of tricolor
+feathers. Yet even on this day, which was intended to be one of universal
+joy and friendliness, evil signs were not wanting to show how powerful
+were the enemies of both king and queen; for no seat whatever had been
+provided for her, while by the aide of that constructed for the king
+another on very nearly the same level had been placed for the President of
+the Assembly.
+
+But these refinements of discourtesy were lost on the spectators. They
+cheered the royal pair joyously the moment that they appeared. Before the
+shouts had died away, Bishop Talleyrand began the service of the mass;
+and, on its termination, administered the oath "of fidelity to the nation,
+the law, the king, and the Constitution as decreed by the Assembly and
+accepted by the king." La Fayette took the oath first in the name of the
+army. Talleyrand followed on behalf of the clergy. Bailly came next, as
+the representative of the citizens of Paris. It was a stormy day; and when
+the moment arrived for the king to set the seal to the universal
+acceptance of the constitution by swearing to exert all his own power for
+its maintenance, the rain came down so heavily as to render it impossible
+for him to leave the shelter of his own pavilion. As it happened, the
+momentary disappointment gave a greater effect to his act. With more than
+usual presence of mind, he advanced to the front of the pavilion, so as to
+be seen by the whole of the assembled multitude, and took the oath with a
+loud voice and perfect dignity of manner. As he resumed his seat, the rain
+cleared away, the sun burst through the clouds; and the queen, as if by a
+sudden inspiration, brought forward the little dauphin, and, lifting him
+up in her arms, showed him to the people. Those whom the king's voice
+could not reach saw the graceful action; and from every side of the plain
+one universal acclamation burst forth, which seemed to bear out Marie
+Antoinette's favorite assertion that the people were good at heart, and
+that it was not without great perseverance in artifice and malignity that
+they could be excited to disloyalty and treason.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+Great Tumults in the Provinces.--Mutiny in the Marquis de Bouille's Army.
+--Disorder of the Assembly.--Difficulty of managing Mirabeau.--Mercy is
+removed to The Hague.--Marie Antoinette sees constant Changes in the
+Aspect of Affairs.--Marat denounces Her.--Attempts are made to assassinate
+Her.--Resignation of Mirabeau.--Misconduct of the Emigrant Princes.
+
+
+But men less blinded by the feverish excitement of revolutionary
+enthusiasm would have seen but little in the state of France at this time
+to regard as matter for exultation. Many of the recent measures of the
+Assembly, and especially the extinction of the old provinces, had created
+great discontent in the rural districts. Formidable riots had broken out
+in many quarters, especially in the great southern cities, in some of
+which the mob had rivaled the worst excesses of its Parisian brethren;
+massacring the magistrates, tearing their bodies into pieces, and
+terrifying the peaceable inhabitants by processions, in which the mangled
+remains of their victims formed the most conspicuous feature. At Brest and
+at Toulon the sailors showed that they fully shared the general
+dissatisfaction; while in the army a formidable mutiny broke out among the
+troops which were under the command of the Marquis de Bouille, in
+Lorraine. That, indeed, had a different object, since it had been excited
+by Jacobin emissaries, who were aware that the marquis, the soldier who,
+of the whole French army at that time, enjoyed the highest reputation, was
+firmly attached to the king; though he was not one of the nobles who had
+opposed all reform, nor had he hesitated to follow his royal master's
+example and to declare his acceptance of the new Constitution. Fortunately
+he had subalterns worthy of him, and faithful to their oaths; and as he
+was a man of great promptitude and decision, he, with their aid, quelled
+the mutiny, though not without a sanguinary conflict, in which he himself
+lost above four hundred men, while the loss which he inflicted on the
+mutineers was far heavier. But he had set a noble example, and had given
+an undeniable proof of the possibility of quelling the most formidable
+tumults; and it may be said that his quarters were the only spot in all
+France which was not wholly given up to anarchy and disorder.
+
+For even the Assembly itself was a prey to tumult and violence. From the
+time of its assuming that title admission had been given to every one who
+could force his way into the chamber, whether he was a member or not; nor
+was any order preserved among those who thus obtained admission; but they
+were allowed to express their opinion of every speaker and of every speech
+by friendly or unfriendly clamor: a practice which, as may well be
+supposed, materially influenced many votes. And presently attendance for
+that purpose became a trade; some of the most violent deputies hiring a
+regularly appointed troop to take their station in the galleries, and
+paying them daily wages to applaud or hiss in accordance with the signs
+which they themselves made from the body of the hall.[1] And if the
+populace was thus the master of the Assembly while at Versailles, this was
+far more the case after its removal to Paris, where the number of the idle
+portion of the population furnished the Jacobins with far greater means of
+intimidating their adversaries.
+
+It was remarkable that La Marck himself, as has been already intimated,
+did not fully share the hopes which the king and queen founded on the
+adhesion of Mirabeau. It was not only that on one point he had sounder
+views than Mirabeau himself--doubting, as he did, whether the mischief
+which his vehement friend had formerly done could now be undone by the
+same person, merely because he had changed his mind--but he also felt
+doubts of Mirabeau's steadiness in his new path, and feared lest eagerness
+for popularity, or an innate levity of disposition, might still lead him
+astray. As he described him in a letter to Mercy, "he was sometimes very
+great and sometimes very little; he could be very useful, and he could be
+very mischievous: in a word, he was often above, and sometimes greatly
+below, any other man." At another time he speaks of him as "by turns
+imprudent through excess of confidence, and lukewarm from distrust;" and
+this estimate of the great demagogue, which was not very incorrect, shows,
+too, how high an opinion La Marck had formed of the queen's ability and
+force of character, for he looks to her "to put a curb on his
+inconstancy,[2]" trusting for that result not so much to her power of
+fascination as to her clearness of view and resolution.
+
+And she herself was never so misled by her high estimate of Mirabeau's
+abilities and influence as to think his judgment unerring. On the
+contrary, her comment to Mercy on one of the earliest letters which he
+addressed to the king was that it was "full of madness from one end to the
+other," and she asked "how he, or any one else, could expect that at such
+a moment the king and she could be induced to provoke a civil war?"
+alluding, apparently, to his urgent advice that the royal family should
+leave Paris, a step of the necessity for which she was not yet convinced.
+Her hope evidently was that he would bring forward some motions in the
+Assembly which might at least arrest the progress of mischief, and perhaps
+even pave the way for the repair of some of the evil already done.
+
+On one point she partly agreed with him, but not wholly. He insisted on
+the necessity of dismissing the ministers; but she, though thinking them,
+both as a body and individually, unequal to the crisis, saw great
+difficulty in replacing them, since the vote of the preceding winter
+forbade the king to select their successors from the members of the
+Assembly;[3] and she feared also lest, if he should dismiss them, the
+Assembly would carry out a plan which, as it seemed to her, it already
+showed great inclination to adopt, of managing every thing by means of
+committees, and preventing the appointment of any new administration. Her
+view of the situation, and of the king's and her position, varied from
+time to time, as indeed their circumstances and the views of the Assembly
+appeared to alter. In August she is in great distress, caused by a
+decision of the emperor to remove Mercy to the Hague. "I am," she writes
+to the embassador, "in despair at your departure, especially at a moment
+when affairs are becoming every day more embarrassing and more painful,
+and when I have therefore the greater need of an attachment as sincere and
+enlightened as yours. But I feel that all the powers, under different
+pretexts, will withdraw their ministers one after another. It is
+impossible to leave them incessantly exposed to this disorder and license;
+but such is my destiny, and I am forced to endure the horror of it to the
+very end.[4]" But a fortnight later she tells Madame de Polignac that "for
+some days things have been wearing a better complexion. She can not feel
+very sanguine, the mischievous folks having such an interest in perverting
+every thing, and in hindering every thing which, is reasonable, and such
+means of doing so; but at the moment the number of ill-intentioned people
+is diminished, or at least the right-thinking of all classes and of all
+ranks are more united ... You may depend upon it," she adds, "that
+misfortunes have not diminished my resolution or my courage: I shall not
+lose any of that; they will only give me more prudence.[5]" Indeed, her
+own strength of mind, fortitude, and benevolence were the only things in
+France which were not constantly changing at this time; and she derived
+one lesson from the continued vicissitudes to which she was exposed,
+which, if partly grievous, was also in part full of comfort and
+encouragement to so warm a heart. "It is in moments such as these that one
+learns to know men, and to see who are truly attached to one, and who are
+not. I gain every day fresh experiences in this point; sometimes cruel,
+sometimes pleasant; for I am continually finding that some people are
+truly and sincerely attached to us, to whom I never gave a thought."
+
+Another of her old vexations was revived in the renewed jealousy of
+Austrian influence with which the Jacobin leaders at this time inspired
+the mob, and which was so great that, when in the autumn Leopold sent the
+young Prince de Lichtenstein as his envoy to notify his accession, Marie
+Antoinette could only venture to give him a single audience; and, greatly
+as she enjoyed the opportunity of gathering from him news of Vienna and of
+the old friends of the childhood of whom she still cherished an
+affectionate recollection, she was yet forced to dismiss him after a few
+minutes' conversation, and to beg him to accelerate his departure from
+Paris, lest even that short interview should be made a pretext for fresh
+calumnies. "The kindest thing that any Austrian of mark could do for her,"
+she told her brother, "was to keep away from Paris at present.[6]" She
+would gladly have seen the Assembly interest itself a little in the
+politics of the empire, where Leopold's own situation was full of
+difficulties; but the French had not yet come to consider themselves as
+justified in interfering in the internal government of other countries. As
+she describes their feelings to the emperor, "They feel their own
+individual troubles, but those of their neighbors do not yet affect them;
+and the names of Liberty and Despotism are so deeply engraved in their
+heads, even though they do not clearly define them, that they are
+everlastingly passing from the love of the former to the dread of the
+latter;" and then she adds a sketch of her own ideas and expectations, and
+of the objects which she conceives it her duty to keep in view, in which
+it is affecting to see that her utter despair of any future happiness for
+the king and herself in no degree weakens her desire to promote the
+happiness of the very people who have caused her suffering. "Our task is
+to watch skillfully for the moment when men's heads have returned to
+proper ideas sufficiently to make them enjoy a reasonable and honest
+freedom, such as the king has himself always desired for the happiness of
+his people; but far from that license and anarchy which have precipitated
+the fairest of kingdoms into all possible miseries. Our health continues
+good, but it would be better if we could only perceive the least gleam of
+happiness around us; as for ourselves, that is at an end forever, happen
+what will. I know that it is the duty of a king to suffer for others; and
+it is one which we are discharging thoroughly."
+
+She had indeed at this time sufferings to which it is characteristic of
+her undaunted courage that she never makes the slightest allusion in her
+letters. Of all the Jacobin party, one of the most blood-thirsty was a
+wretch named Marat.[7] At the very outset of the Revolution he had
+established a newspaper to which he gave the name of _The People's
+Friend_, and the staple topic of which was the desirableness of bloodshed
+and massacre. He had been exasperated at the receptions given to the royal
+family at the festival of July; and for some weeks afterward his efforts
+were directed to inflame the populace to a new riot, in which the king and
+queen should be dragged into Paris from St. Cloud, as in 1789 they had
+been dragged in from Versailles, and which should end in the murder of the
+queen, the ministers, and several hundreds of other innocent persons; and
+his denunciations very nearly bore a part of their intended fruit. The
+royal family had hardly returned to St. Cloud, when a man named Rotondo
+was apprehended in the inner garden, who confessed that he had made his
+way into it with the express design of assassinating Marie Antoinette, a
+design which was only balked by the fortunate accident of a heavy shower
+which prevented her from leaving the house; and a week or two afterward a
+second plot was discovered, the contrivers of which designed to poison
+her. Her attendants were greatly alarmed; and her physician furnished
+Madame Campan with an antidote for such poisons as seemed most likely to
+be employed. But Marie Antoinette herself cared little for such
+precautions. Assassination was not the end which she anticipated. On one
+occasion, when she found Madame Campan changing some powdered sugar which,
+it was suspected, might have been tampered with, she thanked her, and
+praised M. Vicq-d'Azyr, the physician by whose instructions Madame Campan
+was acting, but told her that she was giving herself needless trouble.
+"Depend upon it," she added, "they will not employ a grain of poison
+against me. The Brinvilliers[8] do not belong to this age; people now use
+calumny, which is much more effectual for killing people; and it is by
+calumny that they will work my destruction.[9] But even thus, if my death
+only secures the throne to my son, I shall willingly die."
+
+One of the measures which Mirabeau strongly urged, and as to which Marie
+Antoinette hesitated, balancing the difficulties to which it was not
+unlikely to give rise against the advantages which were more obvious, was
+arranged without her intervention. Necker had but one panacea for all the
+ills of a defective constitution or an ill-regulated government--the
+re-establishment of the finances of the country; and, as public confidence
+is indispensable to national credit, the troubles of the last year had
+largely increased the embarrassments of the Treasury. He was also but
+scantily endowed with personal courage. In the denunciations of Marat he
+had not been spared, and by the beginning of September fear had so
+predominated over every other feeling in his mind that he resolved to quit
+a country which, as he was not one of her sons, seemed to him to have no
+such claim on his allegiance that he should imperil his life for her sake.
+But in carrying out his determination, he exhibited a strange
+forgetfulness, not only of the respect due to his royal master as king,
+but also of all the ordinary rules of propriety; for he did not resign his
+office into the hands of the sovereign from whom he had received it, but
+he announced his retirement to the Assembly, sending the president of the
+week a letter in which he attributed his reasons for the step partly to
+his health, which he described as weak, and partly to the "mortal
+anxieties of his wife, as virtuous as she was dear to his heart." It was
+hardly to be wondered at that the members present were moved rather to
+laughter than to sympathy by this sentimental effusion. They took no
+notice of the letter, and passed to the order of the day; and certainly,
+if it afforded evidence of his amiable disposition, it supplied proof at
+least equally strong of the weakness of his character, and of his
+consequent unfitness for any post of responsibility at such a time.
+
+It was more to his credit that he at the same time placed in the treasury
+a sum of two millions of francs to cover any incorrectness which might be
+discovered or suspected in his accounts, and any loss which might be
+sustained from the depreciation of the paper money lately issued under his
+administration, though not with his approbation. All the rest of his
+colleagues retired at the same time, except the foreign secretary, M.
+Montmorin. They had recently been attacked with great violence in the
+Assembly by a combination of the most extreme democrats and the most
+extreme Royalists, the latter of whom accused them of having betrayed the
+royal authority by unworthy accessions. But, though, in the division which
+had taken place they had been supported by a considerable majority, they
+feared a repetition of the attack, and resigned their offices; in some
+degree undoubtedly weakening their royal master by their retirement, since
+those by whom he found himself compelled to replace them had still less of
+his confidence. Two--Duport de Tertre, Keeper of the Seals, and Duportail,
+Minister of War--were creatures of La Fayette, and the first mentioned was
+notoriously unfriendly to the queen. Two others--Lambert, the successor of
+Necker, and Fleurieu, the Minister of Marine--were under the influence of
+Barnave and the Jacobins. The only member of the new ministry who was in
+the least degree acceptable to Louis was M. de Lessart, the Minister of
+the Interior; but he, though loyal in purpose, was of too moderate talents
+for his appointment to add any real strength to the royal cause.
+
+Marie Antoinette, however, paid but little attention to these ministerial
+changes; she disregarded them--and her view was not unsound--as but the
+displacement of one set of weak men by another set equally weak; and she
+saw, too, that the Assembly had established so complete a mastery over the
+Government, that even men of far greater ability and force of character
+would have been impotent for good. Her whole dependence was on Mirabeau;
+and his course at this time was so capricious and erratic that it often
+caused her more perplexity and alarm than pleasure or confidence. He
+regarded himself as having a very difficult part to play. He could not
+conceal from himself that he was no longer able to lead the Assembly as he
+had done at first, except when he was urging it along a road which it
+desired to take. In spite of one of his most brilliant efforts of
+eloquence, he had recently been defeated in an endeavor to preserve to the
+king the right of peace and war; and, to regain his ascendency, he more
+than once in the course of the autumn supported measures to which the king
+and queen had the greatest repugnance, and made speeches so inflammatory
+that even his own friend, La Marck, was indignant at his language, and
+expostulated with him with great earnestness. He justified himself by
+explaining his view[10] that no man in the country could at present bring
+the people back to reasonable notions; that they could only at this moment
+be governed by flattering their prejudices; that the king must trust to
+time alone; and that his own sole prospect of being of use to the crown
+lay in his preservation of his popularity till the favorable moment should
+arrive, even if, to preserve that popularity, it were necessary for him at
+times still to appear a supporter of revolutionary principles. It is not
+impossible that the motives which he thus described did really influence
+him; but it was not strange that Marie Antoinette should fail to
+appreciate such refined subtlety. She had looked forward to his taking a
+bold, straightforward course in defense of Royalist principles; and she
+could hardly believe in the honesty of a man who for any object whatever
+could seem to disregard or to despise them. Her feelings may be shown by
+some extracts from one of her letters to the emperor written just after
+one of Mirabeau's most violent outbursts, apparently his speech in support
+of a motion that the fleet should be ordered to hoist the tricolor flag.
+
+"October 22d, 1790.
+
+"We are again fallen back into chaos and all our old distrust. Mirabeau
+had sent the king some notes, a little violent in language, but well
+argued, on the necessity of preventing the usurpations of the Assembly ...
+when, on a question concerning the fleet, he delivered a speech suited
+only to a violent demagogue, enough to frighten all honest men. Here,
+again, all our hopes from that quarter are overthrown. The king is
+indignant, and I am in despair. He has written to one of his friends, in
+whom I have great confidence, a man of courage and devoted to us, an
+explanatory letter, which seems to me neither an explanation nor an
+excuse. The man is a volcano which would set an empire on fire; and we are
+to trust to him to put out the conflagration which is devouring us. He
+will have a great deal to do before we can feel confidence in him again.
+La Marck defends Mirabeau, and maintains that if at times he breaks away,
+he is still in reality faithful to the monarchy ... The king will not
+believe this. He was greatly irritated yesterday. La Marck says that he
+has no doubt that Mirabeau thought that he was acting well in speaking as
+he did, to throw dust in the eyes of the Assembly, and so to obtain
+greater credit when circumstances still more grave should arise. O my God!
+if we have committed faults, we have sadly expiated them.[11]"
+
+And before the end of the year, the royal cause had fresh difficulties
+thrown in its way by the perverse and selfish wrongheadedness of the
+emigrant princes, who were already evincing an inclination to pursue
+objects of their own, and to disown all obedience to the king, on the plea
+that he was no longer master of his policy or of his actions. They showed
+such open disregard of his remonstrances that, in December, as Marie
+Antoinette told the emperor, Louis had written both to the Count d'Artois
+and to the King of Sardinia (in whose dominions the count was at the
+time), that, if his brothers persisted in their designs, "he should be
+compelled to disavow them peremptorily, and summon all his subjects who
+were still faithful to him to return to their obedience. She hoped," she
+said, "that that would make them pause. It seemed certain to her that no
+one but those on the spot, no one but themselves, could judge what moments
+and what circumstances were favorable for action, so as to put an end to
+their own miseries and to those of France. And it will be then," she
+concludes, "my dear brother, that I shall reckon on your friendship, and
+that I shall address myself to you with the confidence with which I am
+inspired by the feelings of your heart, which are well known to me, and by
+the good-will which you have shown us on all occasions.[12]"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+Louis and Marie Antoinette contemplate Foreign Intervention.--The Assembly
+passes Laws to subordinate the Church to the Civil Power.--Insolence of La
+Fayette.--Marie Antoinette refuses to quit France by Herself.--The
+Jacobins and La Fayette try to revive the Story of the Necklace.--Marie
+Antoinette with her Family.--Flight from Paris is decided on.--The Queen's
+Preparations and Views.--An Oath to observe the new Ecclesiastical
+Constitution is imposed on the Clergy.--The King's Aunts leave France.
+
+
+The last sentence of the letter just quoted points to a new hope which the
+king and she had begun to entertain of obtaining aid from foreign princes.
+As it can hardly have been suggested to them by any other advisers, we may
+probably attribute the origination of the idea to the queen, who was
+naturally inclined to rate the influence of the empire highly, and to rely
+on her brother's zeal to assist her confidently. And Louis caught at it,
+as the only means of extricating him from a religious difficulty which was
+causing him great distress, and which appeared to him insurmountable by
+any means which he could command in his own country. As has been already
+seen, he had had no hesitation in yielding up his own prerogatives, and in
+making any concessions or surrenders which the Assembly required, so long
+as they touched nothing but his own authority. He had even (which was a
+far greater sacrifice in his eyes) sanctioned the votes which had deprived
+the Church of its property; but, in the course of the autumn the Assembly
+passed other measures also, which appeared to him absolutely inconsistent
+with religion. They framed a new ecclesiastical constitution which not
+only reduced the number of bishops (which, indeed, in France, as in all
+other Roman Catholic countries, had been unreasonably excessive), but
+which also vested the whole patronage of the Church in the municipal
+authorities, and generally subordinated the Church to the civil law. And
+having completed these arrangements, which to a conscientious Roman
+Catholic bore the character of sacrilege, they required the whole body of
+the clergy to accept them, and to take an oath to observe them faithfully.
+
+Louis was in a great strait. Many of the chief prelates appealed to him
+for protection, which he thought his duty as a Christian man bound him to
+afford them. But the protection which they implored could only be given by
+refusal of the royal assent to the bill. And he could not disguise from
+himself that such an exercise of his veto would furnish a pretext to his
+enemies for more violent denunciations of himself and the queen than had
+yet been heard. He had also, though his personal safety was at all times
+very slightly regarded by him, begun to feel himself a prisoner, at the
+mercy of his enemies. La Fayette, as Commander-in-chief of the National
+Guard of Paris, had the protection of the royal palace intrusted to him;
+and he availed himself of this charge, not as the guardian of the royal
+family, but rather as their jailer,[1] placing his sentries so as to be
+spies and a restraint upon all their movements, and seeking every
+opportunity to gain an ignoble popularity by an ostentatious disregard of
+all their wishes, and of all courtesy, not to say decency, in his behavior
+to them.[2] And these considerations led the king, not only to authorize
+the Baron de Breteuil, who, as we have seen, had fled from the country in
+the previous year, to treat with any foreign princes who might he willing
+to exert themselves in his cause, but even to write, with his own hand, to
+the principal sovereigns, informing them that "in spite of his acceptance
+of the Constitution, the factious portion of his subjects openly
+manifested their intention of destroying the monarchy," and suggesting the
+idea of "an armed congress of the principal powers of Europe, supported by
+an armed force, as the best measure to arrest the progress of factions, to
+re-establish order in France, and to prevent the evils which were
+devouring his country from seizing on the other states of Europe.[3]"
+
+The historians of the democratic party have denounced with great severity
+the conduct of Louis in thus appealing to foreign aid, as a proof that, in
+spite of his acceptance of the Constitution, he was meditating a counter-
+revolution. The whole tenor of his and the queen's correspondence proves
+that this charge is groundless; but it is equally certain that it was an
+impolitic step, one wholly opposed to every idea of Constitutional
+principles, of which the very foundation must always be perfect freedom
+from foreign influence, and from foreign connection in the internal
+government of the country.
+
+Fortunately, his secret was well kept, so that no knowledge of this step
+reached the leaders of the popular party; and, however great may have been
+the queen's secret anxieties and fears, she kept them bravely to herself,
+displaying outwardly a serenity and a patience which won the admiration of
+all those who, in foreign countries, were watching the course of events in
+France with interest.[4] When she wept, she wept by herself. Her one
+comfort was that her children were always with her; and though the dauphin
+could only witness without understanding her grief, "remarking on one
+occasion, when in one of his childish books he met the expression 'as
+happy as a queen,' that all queens are not happy, for his mamma wept from
+morning till night." Her daughter was old enough to enter into her
+sorrows; and, as she writes to Madame de Polignac, mingles her own tears
+with hers. She had also the society of her sister-in-law Elizabeth, whom
+she had learned to love with an affection which could not be exceeded even
+by that which she bore her own sister, and which was cordially returned.
+She tells Madame de Polignac that Elizabeth's calmness is one great relief
+and support to them all; and Elizabeth can not find adequate words to
+express to one of her correspondents her admiration for the queen's "piety
+and resignation, which alone enable her to bear up against troubles such
+as no one before has ever known."
+
+But amidst all her grief she cherishes hope--hope that the people (the
+"good people," as she invariably terms them) will return to their senses;
+and her other habitual feeling of benevolence, though she can now only
+exert it in forming projects for conferring further benefits on them when
+tranquillity should be restored. The feeling shows itself even in letters
+which have no reference to her own position. There had been discontent and
+signs of insurrection in the Netherlands which Mercy's recent letters led
+her to believe were passing away; and her congratulations to her brother
+on this peaceful result dwell on the happiness "which it is to be able to
+pardon one's subjects without shedding one drop of blood, of which
+sovereigns are bound to be always careful.[5]"
+
+Her brother, and many of her friends in France, were at this time pressing
+her to quit the country, professing to believe that if her enemies knew
+that she was out of their reach, they would be less vehement in their
+hostility to the king; but she felt that such a course would be both
+unworthy of her, as timid and selfish, and in every way injurious rather
+than beneficial to her husband. It could not save his authority, which was
+what the Jacobins made it their first object to destroy; and it would
+deprive him of the support of her affection and advice, which he
+constantly needed.
+
+"Pardon me, I beg of you," she replied to Leopold, "if I continue to
+reject your advice to leave Paris. Consider that I do not belong to
+myself. My duty is to remain where Providence has placed me, and to oppose
+my body, if the necessity should arise, to the knives of the assassins who
+would fain reach the king. I should be unworthy of the name of our mother,
+which is as dear to you as to me, if danger could make me desert the king
+and my children.[6]"
+
+We have seen that Marie Antoinette dreaded calumny more than the knife or
+poison of the assassin; and there could hardly have been a greater proof
+how well founded her apprehensions were, and how unscrupulous her enemies,
+than is afforded by the fact that, in the latter part of this year, they
+actually brought back Madame La Mothe to Paris with the purpose of making
+a demand for a re-investigation of the whole story of the fraud on the
+jeweler--a pretense for reviving the libelous stories to the disparagement
+of the queen, the utter falsehood and absurdity of which had been
+demonstrated to the satisfaction of the whole world four years before. Nor
+was it wholly a Jacobin plot. La Fayette himself was, to a certain extent,
+an accomplice in it. As commander of the National Guard of the city, it
+was his duty to apprehend one who was an escaped convict; but instead of
+doing so he preferred identifying himself with her, and on one occasion
+had what Mirabeau rightly called the inconceivable insolence to threaten
+the queen with a divorce on the ground of unfaithfulness to her husband.
+She treated his insinuations with the dignity which became herself, and
+the scorn which they and their utterers deserved; and he found that his
+conduct had created such general disgust among all people who made the
+slightest pretense to decency, that he feared to lose his popularity if he
+did not disconnect himself from the plotters. Accordingly, he separated
+himself from the lady, though he still forbore to arrest her, and for some
+time confined himself to his old course of heaping on the royal family
+these petty annoyances and insults, which he could inflict with impunity
+because they were unobserved except by his victims. It is remarkable,
+however, that Mirabeau, who held him in a contempt which, however
+deserved, had in it some touch of rivalry and envy, believed that the
+queen was not really so much the object of his animosity as the king. In
+his eyes "all the manoeuvres of La Fayette were so many attacks on the
+queen; and his attacks on the queen were so many steps to bring him within
+reach of the king. It was the king whom he really wanted to strike; and he
+saw that the individual safety of one of the royal pair was as inseparable
+from that of the other as the king was from his crown.[7]" And this
+opinion of Mirabeau is strongly corroborated by the Count de la Marck,
+who, a few weeks later, had occasion to go to Alsace, and who took great
+pains to ascertain the general state of public feeling in the districts
+through which he passed. During his absence he was in constant
+correspondence with those whom he had left behind, and he reports with
+great satisfaction that in no part of the country had he found the very
+slightest ill-feeling toward the queen. It was in Paris alone that the
+different libels against her were forged, and there alone that they found
+acceptance; and, manifestly referring to the projected departure from
+Paris, he expresses his firm conviction that the moment that she is at
+liberty, and able to show herself in the provinces, she will win the
+confidence of all classes.[8]
+
+However greatly Mirabeau would, on other grounds, have preferred personal
+intercourse with the court, he thought that his power of usefulness
+depended so entirely on his connection with it being unsuspected, that he
+did not think it prudent to solicit interviews with the queen. But he kept
+up a constant communication with the court, sometimes by notes and
+elaborate memorials, addressed indeed to Louis, but intended for Marie
+Antoinette's perusal and consideration; and sometimes by conversations
+with La Marck, which the count was expected to repeat to her. But, in all
+the counsels thus given, the thing most to be remarked is the high opinion
+which they invariably display of the queen's resolution and ability. Every
+thing depends on her; it is from her alone that he wishes to receive
+instructions; it is her resolution that must supply the deficiencies of
+all around her. When he urges that a line of conduct should be adopted
+calculated to render their majesties more popular; that they should show
+themselves more in public; that they should walk in the most frequented
+places; that they should visit the hospitals, the artisans' workshops, and
+make themselves friends by acts of charity and generosity, it is to her
+that he looks to carry out his suggestions, and to her affability and
+presence of mind that he trusts for the success which is to result from
+them;[9] and La Marck is equally convinced that "her ability and
+resolution are equal to the conduct of affairs of the first importance."
+
+Meantime her health continued good. It showed her strength of mind that
+she never intermitted the recreations which contributed to her strength,
+about which she was especially anxious, that she might at all times be
+ready to act on any emergency; but rode with Elizabeth with great
+regularity in the Bois de Boulogne, even in the depth of the winter; and,
+while watching with her habitual vigilance of affection over the education
+of her children, she found a pleasant relaxation for herself in providing
+them with amusement also; often arranging parties, to which other children
+of the same age were invited, and finding amusement herself from watching
+their gambols in the long corridor of the Tuileries, their blindman's-buff
+and hide-and-seek.[10]
+
+The new year opened with grave plans for their extrication from their
+troubles--plans requiring the utmost forethought, ingenuity, and secrecy
+to bring them to a successful issue; and also with fresh injuries and
+insults from the Assembly and the municipal authorities, which every week
+made the necessity of promptitude in carrying such plans out more
+manifest. Mirabeau, as we have seen, had from the very first recommended
+that the king and his family should withdraw from Paris. In his eyes such
+a step was the indispensable preliminary to all other measures; and some
+of the earliest of the queen's letters in 1791 show that the resolution to
+leave the turbulent city had at last been taken. But though what he
+recommended was to be done, it was not to be done as he recommended; yet
+there was a manliness about the course of action which he proposed which
+would of itself have won the queen's preference, if she had not been
+forced to consider not what was best and fittest, but what it was most
+easy to induce him on whom the final choice must impend, the king, to
+adopt. Mirabeau advised that the king should depart publicly, in open day,
+"like a king," as he expressed himself,[11] and he affirmed his conviction
+that it would in all probability be quite unnecessary to remove farther
+than Compiegne; but that the moment that it should be known that the king
+was out of Paris, petitions demanding the re-establishment of order would
+flock in from every quarter of the kingdom, and public opinion, which was
+for the most part royalist, would compel the Assembly to modify the
+Constitution which it had framed, or, if it should prove refractory, would
+support the king in dissolving it and convoking another.
+
+But this was too bold a step for Louis to decide on. He anticipated that
+the Assembly or the mob might endeavor to prevent such a movement by
+force, which could only be repelled by force; and force he was resolved
+never to employ. The only alternative was to flee secretly; and in the
+course of January, Mercy learns that that plan has been adopted, and that
+Compiegne is not considered sufficiently distant from Paris, but that some
+fortified place will be selected; Valenciennes being the most likely, as
+he himself imagined, since, if farther flight should become necessary, it
+would be easy from thence to cross the frontier into the Belgian dominions
+of the queen's brother. But if Valenciennes had ever been thought of, it
+was rejected on that very account; for Louis had learned from English
+history that the withdrawal of James II. from his kingdom had been alleged
+as one reason for declaring the throne vacant; and he was resolved not to
+give his enemies any plea for passing a similar resolution with respect to
+himself. Valenciennes was so celebrated as a frontier town, that the mere
+fact of his fixing himself there might easily be represented as an
+evidence of his intention to quit the kingdom. But there was a small town
+of considerable strength named Montmedy, in the district under the command
+of the Marquis de Bouille, which afforded all the advantages of
+Valenciennes, and did not appear equally liable to the same objections.
+Montmedy, therefore, was fixed upon; and, in the very first week of
+February, Marie Antoinette announced the decision to Mercy; and began her
+own preparations by sending him a jewel-case full of those diamonds which
+were her private property. She explained to him at considerable length the
+reasons which had dictated the choice. The very smallness of Montmedy was
+in itself a recommendation, since it would prevent any one from thinking
+it likely to be selected as a refuge. It was also so near Luxembourg that,
+in the present temper of the nation, which regarded the Austrian power
+with "a panic fear," any addition which M. de Bouille might make to either
+the garrison or to his supplies would seem only a wise precaution against
+the much-dreaded foreigner. Moreover, the troops in that district were
+among the most loyal and well-disposed in the whole army; and if the king
+should find it unsafe to remain long at Montmedy, he would have a
+trustworthy escort to retreat to Alsace.
+
+She also explained the reasons which had led them to decide on quitting
+Paris secretly by night. If they started in the daytime, it would be
+necessary to have detachments of troops planted at different spots on
+their road to protect them. But M. de Bouille could not rely on all his
+own regiments for such a service, and still less on the National Guards in
+the different towns; while to bring up fresh forces from distant quarters
+would attract attention, and awaken suspicions beforehand which might be
+fatal to the enterprise. Montmedy, therefore, had been decided on, and the
+plans were already so far settled that she could tell Mercy that they
+should take Madame de Tourzel with them, and travel in one single
+carriage, which they had never been seen to use before.
+
+Their preparations had even gone beyond these details, minute as they
+were. The king was already collecting materials for a manifesto which he
+designed to publish the moment that he found himself safely out of Paris.
+It would explain the reasons for his flight; it would declare an amnesty
+to the people in general, to whom it would impute no worse fault than that
+of being misled (none being excepted but the chief leaders of the disloyal
+factions; the city of Paris, unless it should at once return to its
+ancient tranquillity; and any persons or bodies who might persist in
+remaining in arms). To the nation in general the manifesto would breathe
+nothing but affection. The Parliaments would be re-established, but only
+as judicial tribunals, which should have no pretense to meddle with the
+affairs of administration or finance. In short, the king and she had
+determined to take his declaration of the 23d of June[12] as the basis of
+the Constitution, with such modifications as subsequent circumstances
+might have suggested. Religion would be one of the matters placed in the
+foreground.
+
+So sanguine were they, or rather was she, of success, that she had even
+taken into consideration the principles on which future ministries should
+be constituted; and here for the first time she speaks of herself as
+chiefly concerned in planning the future arrangements. "In private we
+occupy ourselves with discussing the very difficult choice which we shall
+have to make of the persons whom we shall desire to call around us when we
+are at liberty. I think that it will be best to place a single man at the
+head of affairs, as M. Maurepas was formerly; and if it be settled in this
+way, the king would thus escape having to transact business with each
+individual minister separately, and affairs would proceed more uniformly
+and more steadily. Tell me what you think of this idea. The fit man is not
+easy to find, and the more I look for him, the greater inconveniences do I
+see in all that occur to me."
+
+She proceeds to discuss foreign affairs, the probable views and future
+conduct of almost every power in Europe--of Holland, Prussia, Spain,
+Sweden, England; still showing the lingering jealousy which she
+entertained of the British Government, which she suspected of wishing to
+detach the chivalrous Gustavus from the alliance of France by the offer of
+a subsidy. But she is sanguine that, "though some may he glad to see the
+influence of France diminished, no wise statesman in any country can
+desire her ruin or dismemberment. What is going on in France would be an
+example too dangerous to other countries, if it were left unpunished.
+Their cause is the cause of all kings, and not a simple political
+difficulty.[13]"
+
+The whole letter is a most remarkable one, and fully bears out the
+eulogies which all who had an opportunity of judging pronounced on her
+ability. But the most striking reflection which it suggests is with what
+admirable sagacity the whole of the arrangements for the flight of the
+royal family had been concerted, and with what judgment the agents had
+been chosen, since, though the enterprise was not attempted till more than
+four months after this letter was written, the secret was kept through the
+whole of that time without the slightest hint of it having been given, or
+the slightest suspicion of it having been conceived, by the most watchful
+or the most malignant of the king's enemies.
+
+Yet during the winter and early spring the conduct of the Jacobin party in
+the Assembly, and of the Parisian mob whom they were keeping in a constant
+state of excitement, increased in violence; while one occurrence which
+took place was, in Mirabeau's opinion, especially calculated to prompt a
+suspicion of the king's intentions. Louis had at, last, and with extreme
+reluctance, sanctioned, the bill which required the clergy to take an oath
+to comply with the new ecclesiastical arrangements, in the vain hope that
+the framers of it would be content with their triumph, and would forbear
+to enforce it by fixing any precise date for administering the oath. But,
+at the end of January, Barnave obtained from the Assembly a decree that it
+should be taken within twenty-four hours, under the penalty of deprivation
+of all their preferments to all who should refuse it; the clerical members
+of the Assembly were even threatened by the mob in the galleries with
+instant death if they declined or even delayed to swear. And as very few
+of any rank complied, the main body of the clergy was instantly stripped
+of all their appointments and reduced to beggary, and a large proportion
+of them fled at once from the kingdom. Those who took the oath, and who in
+consequence were appointed to the offices thus vacated, were immediately
+condemned and denounced by the pope; and the consequence was that a great
+number of their flocks fled with their old priests, not being able to
+reconcile to their consciences to stay and receive the sacrament and rites
+of the Church from ministers under the ban of its head.
+
+Among those who thus fled were the king's two aunts, the Princesses
+Adelaide and Victoire. Bigotry was their only virtue; and they determined
+to seek shelter in Rome. Louis highly disapproved of the step, which, as
+Mirabeau,[14] in a very elaborate and forcible memorial which he drew up
+and submitted to him, pointed out, might be very dangerous for the king
+and queen as well as for themselves, since it could be easily represented
+by the evil-minded as a certain proof that they also were designing to
+flee. And he even recommended that Louis should formally notify to the
+Assembly that he disapproved of his aunts' journey, and should make it a
+pretext for demanding a law which should give him the power of regulating
+the movements of the members of his family.
+
+The flight of the princesses, however, did not, as it turned out, cause
+any inconvenience to the king or queen, though it did endanger themselves;
+for, though they were furnished with passports, the municipal authorities
+tried to stop them at Moret; and at Arnay-le-Duc the mob unharnessed their
+horses and detained them by force They appealed to the Assembly by letter;
+Alexander Lameth, on this occasion uniting with the most violent Jacobins,
+was not ashamed to move that orders should be dispatched to send them back
+to Paris: but the body of the Assembly had not yet descended to the
+baseness of warring with women; and Mirabeau, who treated the proposal as
+ridiculous, and overwhelmed the mover with his wit, had no difficulty in
+procuring an order that the fugitives, "two princesses of advanced age and
+timorous consciences," as he called them, should be allowed to proceed on
+their journey.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+The Mob attacks the Castle at Vincennes.--La Fayette saves it.--He insults
+the Nobles who come to protect the King.--Perverseness of the Count
+d'Artois and the Emigrants.--Mirabeau dies.--General Sorrow for his
+death.--He would probably not have been able to arrest the Revolution.--
+The Mob prevent the King from visiting St. Cloud.--The Assembly passes a
+Vote to forbid him to go more than twenty Leagues from Paris.
+
+
+The mob, however, was more completely under Jacobin influence; and, at the
+end of February, Santerre collected his ruffians for a fresh tumult; the
+object now being the destruction of the old castle of Vincennes, which for
+some time had been almost unoccupied. La Fayette, whose object at this
+time was apparently regulated by a desire to make all parties acknowledge
+his influence, in a momentary fit of resolution marched a body of his
+National Guard down to save the old fortress, in which he succeeded,
+though not without much difficulty, and even some danger. He found he had
+greatly miscalculated his influence, not only over the populace, but over
+his own soldiers. The rioters fired on him, wounding some of his staff;
+and at first many of the soldiers refused to act against the people. His
+officers, however, full of indignation, easily quelled the spirit of
+mutiny; and, when subordination was restored, proposed to the general to
+follow up his success by marching at once back into the city and seizing
+the Jacobin demagogues who had caused the riot. There was little doubt
+that the great majority of the citizens, in their fear of Santerre and his
+gang, would joyfully have supported him in such a measure; but La
+Fayette's resolution was never very consistent nor very durable. He became
+terrified, not, indeed, so much at the risk to his life which he had
+incurred, as at the symptom that to resist the mob might cost him his
+popularity; and to appease those whom he might have offended, he proceeded
+to insult the king. A report had got abroad, which was not improbably well
+founded, that Louis's life had been in danger, and that an assassin had
+been detected while endeavoring to make his way into the Tuileries; and
+the report had reached a number of nobles, among whom D'Espremesnil, once
+so vehement a leader of the Opposition in Parliament, was conspicuous, who
+at once hastened to the palace to defend their sovereign. It was not
+strange that he and Marie Antoinette should receive them graciously; they
+had not of late been used to such warm-hearted and prompt displays of
+attachment. But the National Guards who were on duty were jealous of the
+cordial and honorable reception which those Nobles met with; they declared
+that to them alone belonged the task of defending the king; though they
+took so little care to perform it that they had allowed a gang of drunken
+desperadoes to get possession of the outer court of the palace, where they
+were menacing all aristocrats with death. Louis became alarmed for the
+safety of his friends, and begged them to lay aside their arms; and they
+had hardly done so when La Fayette arrived. He knew that the mob was
+exasperated with him for his repression of their outrages in the morning,
+and that some of his soldiers had not been well pleased at being compelled
+to act against the rioters. So now, to recover their good-will, he handed
+over the weapons of the Nobles, which were only pistols, rapiers, and
+daggers, to the National Guard; and after reproaching D'Espremesnil and
+his companions for interfering with the duties of his troops, he drove
+them down the stairs, unarmed and defenseless as they were, among the
+drunken and infuriated mob. They were hooted and ill-treated; but not only
+did he make no attempt to protect them, but the next day he offered them a
+gratuitous insult by the publication of a general order, addressed to his
+own National Guard, in which he stigmatized their conduct as indecent,
+their professed zeal as suspicious, and enjoined all the officials of the
+palace to take care that such persons were not admitted in future. "The
+king of the Constitution," he said, "ought to be surrounded by no
+defenders but the soldiers of liberty."
+
+Marie Antoinette had good reason to speak as she did the next week to
+Mercy; though we can hardly fail to remark, as a singular proof of the
+strength of her political prejudices, and of the degree in which she
+allowed them to blind her to the objects and the worth of the few honest
+or able men whom the Assembly contained, that she still regards the
+Constitutionalists as only one degree less unfavorable to the king's
+legitimate authority than the Jacobins. And we shall hereafter see that to
+this mistaken estimate she adhered almost to the end. "Mischief," she
+says, "is making progress so rapid that there is reason to fear a speedy
+explosion, which can not fail to be dangerous to us, if we ourselves do
+not guide it There is no middle way; either we must remain under the sword
+of the factions, and consequently be reduced to nothing, if they get the
+upper hand, or we must submit to be fettered under the despotism of men
+who profess to be well-intentioned, but who always have done, and always
+will do us harm. This is what is before us, and perhaps the moment is
+nearer than we think, if we can not ourselves take a decided line, or lead
+men's opinions by our own vigor and energetic action. What I here say is
+not dictated by any exaggerated notions, nor by any disgust at our
+position, nor by any restless desire to be doing something. I perfectly
+feel all the dangers and risks to which we are exposed at this moment. But
+I see that all around us affairs are so full of terror that it is better
+to perish in trying to save ourselves than to allow ourselves to be
+utterly crushed in a state of absolute inaction.[1]"
+
+And she held the same language to her brother, the emperor, assuring him
+that "the king and herself were both convinced of the necessity of acting
+with prudence, but there were cases in which dilatoriness might ruin every
+thing; and that the factious and disloyal were prosecuting their objects
+with such celerity, aiming at nothing less than the utter subversion of
+the kingly power, that it would be extremely dangerous not to offer a
+resistance to their plans.[2]" And referring to her project of foreign
+aid, she reported to him that she had promises of assistance from both
+Spain and Switzerland, if they could depend on the co-operation of the
+empire.
+
+And still the emigrant princes were adding to her perplexity by their
+perverseness. She wrote herself to the Count d'Artois to expostulate with
+him, and to entreat him "not to abandon himself to projects of which the
+success, to say the least, was doubtful, and which would expose himself to
+danger without the possibility of serving the king.[3]" No description of
+the relative influence of the king and queen at this time can be so
+forcible as the fact that it was she who conducted all the correspondence
+of the court, even with the king's brothers. But her remonstrances had no
+influence. We may not impute to the king's brothers any intention to
+injure him; but unhappily they had both not only a mean idea of his
+capacity, but a very high one, much worse founded, of their own; and full
+of self-confidence and self-conceit, they took their own line, perfectly
+regardless of the suspicions to which their perverse and untractable
+conduct exposed the king, carrying their obstinacy so far that it was not
+without difficulty, that the emperor himself, though they were in his
+dominions, was able to restrain their machinations.
+
+Meanwhile, the queen was steadily carrying on the necessary arrangements
+for flight. Money had to be provided, for which trustworthy agents were
+negotiating in Switzerland and Holland, while some the emperor might be
+expected to furnish. Mirabeau marked out for himself what he regarded as a
+most important share in the enterprise, undertaking to defend and justify
+their departure to the Assembly, and nothing doubting that he should be
+able to bring over the majority of the members to his view of that
+subject, as he had before prevailed upon them to sanction the journey of
+the princesses. But in the first days of April all the hopes of success
+which had been founded on his cooperation and support were suddenly
+extinguished by his death. Though he had hardly entered upon middle age, a
+constant course of excess had made him an old man before his time. In the
+latter part of March he was attacked by an illness which his physicians
+soon pronounced mortal, and on the 2d of April he died. He had borne the
+approach of death with firmness, professing to regret it more for the sake
+of his country than for his own. He was leaving behind him no one, as he
+affirmed, who would he able to arrest the Revolution as he could have
+done; and there can be no doubt that the great bulk of the nation did
+place confidence in his power to offer effectual resistance to the designs
+of the Jacobins. The various parties in the State showed this feeling
+equally by the different manner in which they received the intelligence.
+The court and the Royalists openly lamented him. The Jacobins, the
+followers of Lameth, and the partisans of the Duke of Orleans, exhibited
+the most indecent exultation.[4] But the citizens of Paris mourned for
+him, apparently, without reference to party views. They took no heed of
+the opposition with which he had of late often defeated the plots of the
+leaders whom they had followed to riot and treason. They cast aside all
+recollection of the denunciations of him as a friend to the court with
+which the streets had lately rung. In their eyes he was the
+personification of the Revolution as a whole; to him, as they viewed his
+career for the last two years, they owed the independence of the Assembly,
+the destruction of the Bastile, and of all other abuses; and through him
+they doubted not still to obtain every thing that was necessary for the
+completion of their freedom.
+
+His remains were treated with honors never before paid to a subject. He
+lay in state; he had a public funeral. His body was laid in the great
+Church of St. Genevieve, which, the very day before, had been renamed the
+Pantheon, and appropriated as a cemetery for such of her illustrious sons
+as France might hereafter think worthy of the national gratitude. Yet,
+though his great confidant and panegyrist, M. Dumont,[5] has devoted an
+elaborate argument to prove that he had not overestimated his power to
+influence the future; and though the Russian embassador, M. Simolin, a
+diplomatist of extreme acuteness, seems to imply the same opinion by his
+pithy saying that "he ought to have lived two years longer, or died two
+years earlier," we can hardly agree with them. La Marck, as has been seen,
+even when first opening the negotiation for his connection with the court,
+doubted whether he would be able to undo the mischief which he had
+acquiesced in, measures not of reform nor of reconstruction, but of total
+abolition and destruction, are in their very nature irrevocable and
+irremediable. The nobility was gone; he had not resisted its suppression.
+The Church was gone; he had himself been among the foremost of its
+assailants. How, even if he had wished it, could he have undone these
+acts? and if he could not, how, without those indispensable pillars and
+supports, could any monarchy endure? That he was now fully alive to the
+magnitude of the dangers which encompassed both throne and people, and
+that he would have labored vigorously to avert them, we may do him the
+justice to believe. But it seems not so probable that he would have
+succeeded, as that he would have added one more to the list of these
+politicians who, having allowed their own selfish aims to carry them
+beyond the limits of prudence and justice, have afterward found it
+impossible to retrace their steps, but have learned to their shame and
+sorrow that their rashness has but led to the disappointment of their
+hopes, the permanent downfall of their own reputations, and the ruin of
+what they would gladly have defended and preserved. And, on the whole, it
+is well that from time to time such lessons should be impressed upon the
+world. It is well that men of lofty genius and pure patriotism should
+learn, equally with the most shallow empiric or the most self-seeking
+demagogue, that false steps in politics can rarely be retraced; that
+concessions once made can seldom, if ever, be recalled, but are usually
+the stepping-stones to others still more extensive; that what it would
+have been easy to preserve, it is commonly impossible to repair or to
+restore.
+
+He had been laid in the grave only a fortnight, when, as if on purpose to
+show how utterly defenseless the king now was, the Jacobins excited the
+mob and the assembly to inflict greater insults on him than had been
+offered even by the attack on Versailles, or by any previous vote. As
+Easter, which was unusually late this year, approached, Louis became
+anxious to spend a short time in tranquillity and holy meditation; and,
+since the tumultuousness of the city was not very favorable for such a
+purpose, he resolved to pass a fortnight at St. Cloud. But when he was
+preparing to set out, a furious mob seized the horses and unharnessed
+them; the National Guards united with the rioters, refusing to obey La
+Fayette's orders to clear the way for the royal carriage, and the king and
+queen were compelled to dismount and to return to their apartments; while,
+a day or two afterward, the Assembly came to a vote which seemed as if
+designed for an express sanction of this outrage, and which ordained that
+the king should not be permitted ever to move more than twenty leagues
+from Paris.
+
+Of all the decrees which it had yet enacted, this, in some sense, may be
+regarded as the most monstrous. It was not only passing a penal sentence
+on the royal family such as in no country or age any but convicted
+criminals had even been subjected to, but it was an insult and an injury
+to every part of the kingdom except the capital, which, by an intolerable
+assumption, it treated as if it were the whole of France. Joseph, as has
+been seen, had wisely pointed out to his brother-in-law that it was one,
+and no unimportant part, of a sovereign's duty to visit the different
+provinces and chief cities of his kingdom, and Louis had in one instance
+acted on his advice. We have seen how gladly he was received by the
+citizens of Cherbourg, and what advantages they promised themselves from
+his having thus made himself personally acquainted with their situation
+and wants and prospects; and we can not doubt that other towns and cities
+shared this feeling, nor that it was well founded, and that the
+acquisition by a king of a personal knowledge of the resources and
+capabilities and interests of the great cities, of agriculture,
+manufactures, and commerce, is a benefit to the whole community; but of
+this every province and every city but Paris was now to be deprived. It
+was to be an offense to visit Rouen, or Lyons, or Bordeaux; to examine
+Riquet's canal or Vauban's fortifications. The king was the only person in
+the kingdom to whom liberty of movement was to be denied; and the peasants
+of every province, and the citizens of every other town, were to be
+refused for a single day the presence of their sovereign, whom the
+Parisians thus claimed a right to keep as a prisoner in their own
+district.
+
+It is hardly strange that such open attacks on their liberty made a deeper
+impression on the queen, and even on the phlegmatic disposition of the
+king, than any previous act of violence, or that it increased their
+eagerness to escape with as little delay as possible. Indeed, the queen
+regarded the public welfare as equally concerned with their own in their
+safe establishment in some town to which they should also be able to
+remove the Assembly, so that that body as well as themselves should be
+protected from the fatal influence of the clubs of Paris, and of the
+populace which was under the dominion of the clubs.[6] Accordingly, on the
+20th of April, she writes to the emperor[7] that "the occurrence which has
+just taken place has confirmed them more than ever in their plans. The
+very guards who surrounded them are the persons who threaten them most.
+Their very lives are not safe; but they must appear to submit to every
+thing till the moment comes when they can act; and in the mean time their
+captivity proves that none of their actions are done by their own accord."
+And she urges her brother at once to move a strong body of troops toward
+some of his fortresses on the Belgian frontier--Arlon, Vitron, or Mons--in
+order to give M. de Bouille a pretext for collecting troops and munitions
+of war at Montmedy. "Send me an immediate answer on this point; let me
+know, too, about the money; our position is frightful, and we must
+absolutely put an end to it next month. The king desires it even more than
+I do."
+
+As May proceeds she presses on her preparations, and urges the emperor to
+accelerate his, especially the movements of his troops; but the Count
+d'Artois and his followers are a terrible addition to her anxieties.
+Leopold had told her that the ancient minister, Calonne, always restless
+and always unscrupulous, was now with the count, and was busily stirring
+him up to undertake some enterprise or other;[8] and her reply shows how
+justly she dreads the results of such an alliance. "The prince, the Count
+d'Artois, and all those whom they have about them, seem determined to be
+doing something. They have no proper means of action, and they will ruin
+us, without our having the slightest connection with their plans. Their
+indiscretion, and the men who are guiding them, will prevent our
+communicating our secret to them till the very last moment."
+
+To Mercy she is even more explicit in her description of the imminence of
+the danger to which the king and she are now exposed than she had been to
+her brother. As the time for attempting to escape grew nearer, the
+embassador became the more painfully impressed with the danger of the
+attempt. Failure, as it seems to him, will be absolutely fatal. He asks
+her anxiously whether the necessity is such that it has become
+indispensable to risk such a result;[9] and she, in an answer of
+considerable length and admirable clearness of expression and argument,
+explains her reasons for deciding that it is absolutely unavoidable: "The
+only alternative for us, especially since the 18th of April,[10] is either
+blindly to submit to all that the factions require, or to perish by the
+sword which is forever suspended over our heads. Believe me, I am not
+exaggerating the danger; you know that my notion used to be, as long as I
+could cherish it, to trust to gentleness, to time, and to public opinion.
+But now all is changed, and we must either perish or take the only line
+which remains to us. We are far from shutting our eyes to the fact that
+this line also has its perils; but, if we must die, it will be at least
+with glory, and in having done all that we could for our duty, for honor,
+and for religion.... I believe that the provinces are less corrupted than
+the capital; but it is always Paris which gives the tone to the whole
+kingdom. We should greatly deceive ourselves if we fancied that the events
+of the 18th of April, horrible as they were, produced any excitement in
+the provinces. The clubs and the affiliations lead France where they
+please; the right-thinking people, and those who are dissatisfied with
+what is taking place, either flee from the country or hide themselves,
+because they are not the stronger party, and because they have no
+rallying-point. But when the king can show himself freely in a fortified
+place, people will be astonished to see the number of dissatisfied people
+who will then come forward, who, till that time, are groaning in silence;
+but the longer we delay, the less support we shall have....
+
+"Let us resume. You ask two questions: 1st. Is it possible or useful to
+wait? No; by the explanation of our position which I gave at the beginning
+of this letter, I have sufficiently proved the impossibility.... As to the
+usefulness, it could only be useful on the supposition that we could count
+on a new legislative body.... 2d. Admitting the necessity of acting
+promptly, are we sure of means to escape; of a place to retreat to, and of
+having a party strong enough to maintain itself for two months by its own
+resources? I have answered this question several times. It is more than
+probable that the king, once escaped from here, and in a place of safety,
+will have, and will very soon find, a very strong party. The means of
+escape depend on a flight the most immediate and the most secret. There
+are only four persons who are acquainted with our secret; and those whom
+we mean to take with us will not know it till the very moment. None of our
+own people will attend us; and at a distance of only thirty or thirty-five
+leagues we shall find some troops to protect our march, but not enough to
+cause us to be recognized till we reach the place of our destination.
+
+"....I can easily conceive the repugnance which, on political grounds, the
+emperor would feel to allowing his troops to enter France.... But if their
+movement is solicited by his brother-in-law, his ally, whose life,
+existence, and honor are in danger, I conceive the case is very different;
+and as to Brabant, that province will never be quiet till this country is
+brought back to a different state. It is, then, for himself also that my
+brother will be working in giving us this assistance, which is so much the
+more valuable to us, that his troops will serve as an example to ours, and
+will even be able to restrain them.
+
+"And it is with this view that the person[11] of whom I spoke to you in my
+letter in cipher demands their employment for a time ... We can not delay
+longer than the end of this month. By that time I hope we shall have a
+decisive answer from Spain. But till the very instant of our departure we
+must do everything that is required of us, and even appear to go to meet
+them. It is one way, perhaps the only one, to lull the mob to sleep and to
+save our lives."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+Plans for the Escape of the Royal Family.--Dangers of Discovery.--
+Resolution of the Queen.--The Royal Family leave the Palace.--They are
+recognized at Ste. Menehould.--Are arrested at Varennes.--Tumult in the
+City, and in the Assembly.--The King and Queen are brought back to Paris.
+
+
+Marie Antoinette, as we have seen, had been anxious that their departure
+from Paris should not be delayed beyond the end of May, and De Bouille had
+agreed with her; but enterprises of so complicated a character can rarely
+be executed with the rapidity or punctuality that is desired, and it was
+not till the 20th of June that this movement, on which so much depended,
+was able to be put in execution. Often during the preceding weeks the
+queen's heart sunk within her when she reflected on the danger of
+discovery, whether from the acuteness of her enemies or the treachery of
+pretended friends; and even more when she pondered on the character of the
+king himself, so singularly unfitted for an undertaking in which it was
+not the passive courage with which he was amply endowed, but daring
+resolution, promptitude, and presence of mind, which were requisite. She
+was cheered, however, by repeated letters from the emperor, showing the
+warm and affectionate interest which he took in the result of the
+enterprise, and promising with evident sincerity "his own most cordial
+co-operation in all that could tend to her and her husband's success,
+when the time should come for him to show himself."
+
+But her main reliance was on herself; and all who were privy to the
+enterprise knew well that it was on her forethought and courage that its
+success wholly depended. Those who were privy to it were very few; and it
+is a singular proof how few Frenchmen, even of the highest rank, could be
+trusted at this time, that of these few two were foreigners--a Swede, the
+Count de Fersen, whose name has been mentioned in earlier chapters of this
+narrative, and (an English writer may be proud to add) an Englishman, Mr.
+Craufurd. In such undertakings the simplest arrangements are the safest;
+and those devised by the queen and her advisers, the chief of whom were De
+Fersen and De Bouille, were as simple as possible. The royal fugitives
+were to pass for a traveling party of foreigners. A passport signed by M.
+Montmorin, who still held the seals of the Foreign Department, was
+provided for Madame de Tourzel, who, assuming the name of Madame de Korff,
+a Russian baroness, professed to be returning to her own country with her
+family and her ordinary equipage. The dauphin and his sister were
+described as her children, the queen as their governess; while the king
+himself, under the name of Durand, was to pass as their servant. Three of
+the old disbanded Body-guard, MM. De Valory, De Malden, and De Moustier,
+were to attend the party in the disguise of couriers; and, under the
+pretense of providing for the safe conveyance of a large sum of money
+which was required for the payment of the troops, De Bouille undertook to
+post a detachment of soldiers at each town between Chalons and Montmedy,
+through which the travelers were to pass.
+
+Some of the other arrangements were more difficult, as more likely to lead
+to a betrayal of the design. It was, of course, impossible to use any
+royal carriage, and no ordinary vehicle was large enough to hold such a
+party. But in the preceding year De Fersen had had a carriage of unusual
+dimensions built for some friends in the South of Europe, so that he had
+no difficulty now in procuring another of similar pattern from the same
+maker; and Mr. Craufurd agreed to receive it into his stables, and at the
+proper hour to convey it outside the barrier.
+
+Yet in spite of the care displayed in these arrangements, and of the
+absolute fidelity observed by all to whom the secret was intrusted, some
+of the inferior attendants about the court suspected what was in
+agitation. The queen herself, with some degree of imprudence, sent away a
+large package to Brussels; one of her waiting-women discovered that she
+and Madame Campan had spent an evening in packing up jewels, and sent
+warning to Gouvion, an aid-de-camp of La Fayette, and to Bailly, the
+mayor, that the queen at last was preparing to flee. Luckily Bailly had
+received so many similar notices that he paid but little attention to
+this; or perhaps he was already beginning to feel the repentance, which he
+afterward exhibited, at his former insolence to his sovereign, and was not
+unwilling to contribute to their safety by his inaction; while Gouvion was
+not anxious to reveal the source from which he had obtained his
+intelligence. Still, though nothing precise was known, the attention of
+more than one person was awakened to the movements of the royal family,
+and especially that of La Fayette, who, alarmed lest his prisoners should
+escape him, redoubled his vigilance, driving down to the palace every
+night, and often visiting them in their apartments to make himself certain
+of their presence. Six hundred of the National Guard were on duty at the
+Tuileries, and sentinels were placed at the end of every passage and at
+the foot of every staircase; but fortunately a small room, with a secret
+door which led into the queen's chamber, as it had been for some time
+unoccupied, had escaped the observation of the officers on guard, and that
+passage therefore offered a prospect of their being able to reach the
+courtyard without being perceived.[1]
+
+On the morning of the day appointed for the great enterprise, all in the
+secret were vividly excited except the queen. She alone preserved her
+coolness. No one could have guessed from her demeanor that she was on the
+point of embarking in an undertaking on which, in her belief, her own life
+and the lives of all those dearest to her depended. The children, who knew
+nothing of what was going on, went to their usual occupations--the dauphin
+to his garden on the terrace, Madame Royale to her lessons; and Marie
+Antoinette herself, after giving some orders which were to be executed in
+the course of the next day or two, went out riding with her sister-in-law
+in the Bois de Boulogne. Her conversation throughout the day was light and
+cheerful. She jested with the officer on guard about the reports which she
+understood to be in circulation about some intended flight of the king,
+and was relieved to find that he totally disbelieved them. She even
+ventured on the same jest with La Fayette himself, who replied, in his
+usual surly fashion, that such a project was constantly talked of; but
+even his rudeness could not discompose her.
+
+As the hour drew near she began to prepare her children. The princess was
+old enough to be talked to reasonably, and she contented herself,
+therefore, with warning her to show no surprise at any thing that she
+might see or hear. The dauphin was to be disguised as a girl, and it was
+with great glee that he let the attendants dress him, saying that he saw
+that they were going to act a play. The royal supper usually took place
+soon after nine; at half-past ten the family separated for the night, and
+by eleven their attendants were all dismissed; and Marie Antoinette had
+fixed that hour for departing, because, even if the sentinels should get a
+glimpse of them, they would be apt to confound them with the crowd which
+usually quit the palace at that time.
+
+Accordingly, at eleven o'clock the Count de Fersen, dressed as a coachman,
+drove an ordinary job-carriage into the court-yard; and Marie Antoinette,
+who trusted nothing to others which she could do herself, conducted Madame
+de Tourzel and the children down-stairs, and seated them safely in the
+carriage. But even her nerves nearly gave way when La Fayette's coach,
+brilliantly lighted, drove by, passing close to her as he proceeded to the
+inner court to ascertain from the guard that every thing was in its usual
+condition. In an agony of fright she sheltered herself behind some
+pillars, and in a few minutes the marquis drove back, and she rejoined the
+king, who was awaiting her summons in his own apartment, while one of the
+disguised Body-guards went for the Princess Elizabeth. Even the children
+were inspired with their mother's courage. As the princess got into the
+carriage she trod on the dauphin, who was lying in concealment at the
+bottom, and the brave boy spoke not a word; while Louis himself gave a
+remarkable proof how, in spite of the want of moral and political
+resolution which had brought such miseries on himself and his country, he
+could yet preserve in the most critical moments his presence of mind and
+kind consideration for others. He was half way down-stairs when he
+returned to his room. M. Valory, who was escorting him, was dismayed when
+he saw him turn back, and ventured to remind him how precious was every
+instant. "I know that," replied the kind-hearted monarch; "but they will
+murder my servant to-morrow for having aided my escape;" and, sitting down
+at his table, he wrote a few lines declaring that the man had acted under
+his peremptory orders, and gave the note to him as a certificate to
+protect him from accusation. When all the rest were seated, the queen took
+her place. De Fersen drove them to the Porte St. Martin, where the great
+traveling-carriage was waiting, and, having transferred them to it, and
+taken a respectful leave of them, he fled at once to Brussels, which, more
+fortunate than those for whom he had risked his life, he reached in
+safety.
+
+For a hundred miles the royal fugitives proceeded rapidly and without
+interruption. One of the supposed couriers was on the box, another rode by
+the side of the carriage, and the third went on in advance to see that the
+relays were in readiness. Before midday they reached Chalons, the place
+where they were to be met by the first detachment of De Bouille's troops;
+and, when the well-known uniforms met her eye, Marie Antoinette for the
+first time gave full expression to her feelings. "Thank God, we are
+saved!" she exclaimed, clasping her hands; the fervor of her exclamation
+bearing undesigned testimony to the greatness of the fears which, out of
+consideration for others, she had hitherto kept to herself; but in truth
+out of this employment of the troops arose all their subsequent disasters.
+
+De Bouille had been unwilling to send his detachments so far forward,
+pointing out that the notice which their arrival in the different towns
+was sure to attract would do more harm than their presence as a protection
+could do good. But his argument had been overruled by the king himself,
+who apprehended the greatest danger from the chance of being overtaken,
+and expected it, therefore, to increase with every hour of the journey. De
+Bouille's fears, however, were found to be the best justified by the
+event. In more than one town, even in the few hours that had elapsed since
+the arrival of the soldiers, there had been quarrels between them and the
+towns-people; in others, which was still worse, the populace had made
+friends with them and seduced them from their loyalty, so that the
+officers in command had found it necessary to withdraw them altogether;
+and anxiety at their unexpected absence caused Louis more than once to
+show himself at the carriage window. More than once he was recognized by
+people who knew him and kept his counsel; but Drouet, the postmaster at
+Ste. Menehould, a town about one hundred and seventy miles from Paris, was
+of a less loyal disposition. He had lately been in the capital, where he
+had become infected with the Jacobin doctrines. He too saw the king's
+face, and on comparing his somewhat striking features with the stamp on
+some public documents which he chanced to have in his pocket, became
+convinced of his identity. He at once reported to the magistrates what he
+had seen, and with their sanction rode forward to the next town, Clermont,
+hoping to be able to collect a force sufficient to stop the royal carriage
+on its arrival there. But the king traveled so fast that he had quit
+Clermont before Drouet reached it, and he even arrived at Varennes before
+his pursuer. Had he quit that place also he would have been in safety, for
+just beyond it De Bouille had posted a strong division which would have
+been able to defy all resistance. But Varennes, a town on the Oise, was so
+small as to have no post-house, and by some mismanagement the royal party
+had not been informed at which end of the town they were to find the
+relay. The carriage halted while M. Valory was making the necessary
+inquiries; and, while it was standing still, Drouet rode up and forbade
+the postilions to proceed. He himself hastened on through the town,
+collected a few of the towns-people, and with their aid upset a cart or
+two on the bridge to block up the way; and, having thus made the road
+impassable, he roused the municipal authorities, for it was nearly
+midnight, and then, returning to the royal carriage, he compelled the
+royal family to dismount and follow him to the house of the mayor, a petty
+grocer, whose name was Strausse. The magistrates sounded the tocsin: the
+National Guard beat to arms: the king and queen were prisoners.
+
+How they were allowed to remain so is still, after all the explanations
+that have been given, incomprehensible. Two officers with sixty hussars,
+all well disposed and loyal, were in a side street of the town waiting for
+their arrival, of which they were not aware. Six of the troopers actually
+passed the travelers in the street as they were proceeding to the mayor's
+house, but no one, not even the queen, appealed to them for succor; or
+they could have released them without an effort, for Drouet's whole party
+consisted of no more than eight unarmed men. And when, an hour afterward,
+the officers in command learned that the king was in the town in the hands
+of his enemies, instead of at once delivering him, they were seized with a
+panic: they would not take on themselves the responsibility of acting
+without express orders, but galloped back to De Bouille to report the
+state of affairs. In less than an hour three more detachments, amounting
+in all to above one hundred men, also reached the town; and their
+commanders did make their way to the king, and asked his orders. He could
+only reply that he was a prisoner, and had no orders to give; and not one
+of the officers had the sense to perceive that the fact of his announcing
+himself a prisoner was in itself an order to deliver him.
+
+One word of command from Louis to clear the way for him at the sword's
+point would yet have been sufficient; but he had still the same invincible
+repugnance as ever to allow blood to be shed in his quarrel. He preferred
+peaceful means, which could not but fail. With a dignity arising from his
+entire personal fearlessness, he announced his name and rank, his reasons
+for quitting Paris and proceeding to Montmedy; declaring that he had no
+thought of quitting the kingdom, and demanded to be allowed to proceed on
+his journey. While the queen, her fears for her children overpowering all
+other feelings, addressed herself with the most earnest entreaties to the
+mayor's wife, declaring that their very lives would be in danger if they
+should be taken back to Paris, and imploring her to use her influence with
+her husband to allow them to proceed. Neither Strausse nor his wife was
+ill-disposed toward the king, but had not the courage to comply with the
+request of the royal couple whom, after a little time, the mayor and his
+wife could not have allowed to proceed, however much they might have
+wished it; for the tocsin had brought up numbers of the National Guard,
+who were all disloyal; while some of the soldiers began to show a
+disinclination to act against them. And so matters stood for some hours; a
+crowd of towns-people, peasants, National Guards, and dragoons thronging
+the room; the king at times speaking quietly to his captors; the queen
+weeping, for the fatigue of the journey, and the fearful disappointment at
+being thus baffled at the last moment, after she had thought that all
+danger was passed, had broken down even her nerves. At first she had tried
+to persuade Louis to act with resolution; but when, as usual, she failed,
+she gave way to despair, and sat silent, with touching, helpless sorrow,
+gazing on her children, who had fallen asleep.
+
+At seven o'clock on the morning of the 22d a single horseman rode into the
+town. He was an aid-de-camp of La Fayette. On the morning of the 21st the
+excitement had been great in Paris when it became known that the king had
+fled. The mob rose in furious tumult. They forced their way into the
+Tuileries, plundering the palace and destroying the furniture. A
+fruit-woman took possession of the queen's bed, as a stall to range her
+cherries on, saying that to-day it was the turn of the nation; and a
+picture of the king was torn down from the walls, and, after being stuck
+up in derision outside the gates for some time, was offered for sale to
+the highest bidder.[2] In the Assembly the most violent language was used.
+An officer whose name has been preserved through the eminence which after
+his death was attained by his widow and his children, General Beauharnais,
+was the president; and as such, he announced that M. Bailly had reported
+to him that the enemies of the nation had carried off the king. The whole
+Assembly was roused to fury at the idea of his having escaped from their
+power. A decree was at once drawn up in form, commanding that Louis should
+be seized wherever he could be found, and brought back to Paris. No one
+could pretend that the Assembly had the slightest right to issue such an
+order; but La Fayette, with the alacrity which he always displayed when
+any insult was to be offered to the king or queen, at once sent it off by
+his own aid-de-camp, M. Romeuf, with instructions to see that it was
+carried out The order was now delivered to Strausse; the king, with
+scarcely an attempt at resistance, declared his willingness to obey it;
+and before eight o'clock he and his family, with their faithful
+Body-guard, now in undisguised captivity, were traveling back to Paris.
+
+When was there ever a journey so miserable as that which now brought its
+sovereigns back to that disloyal and hostile city! The National Guard of
+Varennes, and of other towns through which they passed, claimed a right to
+accompany them; and as they were all infantry, the speed of the carriage
+was limited to their walking pace. So slowly did the procession advance,
+that it was not till the fourth day that it reached the barrier; and, in
+many places on the road, a mob had collected in expectation of their
+arrival, and aggravated the misery of their situation by ferocious threats
+addressed to the queen, and even to the little dauphin. But at Chalons
+they were received with respect by the municipal authorities; the Hotel de
+Ville had been prepared for their reception: a supper had been provided.
+The queen was even entreated to allow some of the principal ladies of the
+city to be presented to her; and, as the next day was the great Roman
+Catholic festival of the Fete Dieu, they were escorted with all honor to
+hear mass in the cathedral, before they resumed their journey. Even the
+National Guard were not all hostile or insolent. At Epernay, though a
+menacing crowd surrounded the carriage as they dismounted, the commanding
+officer took up the dauphin in his arms to carry him in safety to the door
+of the hotel; comforting the queen at the same time with a loyal whisper
+well suited to her feelings, "Despise this clamor, madame; there is a God
+above all."
+
+But, miserable as their journey was, soon after leaving Chalons it became
+more wretched still. They were no longer to be allowed the privilege of
+suffering and grieving by themselves. The Assembly had sent three of its
+members to take charge of them, selecting, as might have been expected,
+two who were known as among their bitterest enemies--Barnave, and a man
+named Petion; the third, M. Latour Maubourg, was a plain soldier, who
+might be depended on for carrying out his orders with resolution. In one
+respect those who made the choice were disappointed. Barnave, whose
+hostility to the king and queen had been chiefly dictated by personal
+feelings, was entirely converted by the dignified resignation of the
+queen, and from this day renounced his republicanism; and, though he
+adhered to what were known as Constitutionalist views, was ever afterward
+a zealous advocate of both the monarch and the monarchy. But Petion took
+every opportunity of insulting Louis, haranguing him on the future
+abolition of royalty, and reproaching him for many of his actions, and for
+what he believed to be his feelings and views for the future.
+
+It was the afternoon of the 25th when they came in sight of Paris. So
+great had been Marie Antoinette's mental sufferings that in those few days
+her hair had turned white; and fresh and studied humiliations were yet in
+store for her. The carriage was not allowed to take the shortest road, but
+was conducted some miles round, that it might be led in triumph down the
+Champs Elysees, where a vast mob was waiting to feast their eyes on the
+spectacle, whose display of sullen ill-will had been bespoken by a notice
+prohibiting any one from taking off his hat to the king, or uttering a
+cheer. The National Guard were forbidden to present arms to him; and it
+seemed as if they interpreted this order as a prohibition also against
+using them in his defense; for, as the carriage approached the palace, a
+gang of desperate ruffians, some of whom were recognized as among the most
+ferocious of the former assailants of Versailles, forced their way through
+their ranks, pressed up against the carriage, and even mounted on the
+steps. Barnave and Latour Maubourg, fearing that they intended to break
+open the doors, placed themselves against them; but they contented
+themselves with looking in at the window, and uttering sanguinary threats.
+Marie Antoinette became alarmed--not for herself, but for her children.
+They had so closed up every avenue of air that those within were nearly
+stifled, and the youngest, of course, suffered most. She let down a glass,
+and appealed to those who were crowding round: "For the love of God," she
+exclaimed, "retire; my children are choking!" "We will soon choke you,"
+was the only reply they vouchsafed to her. At last, however, La Fayette
+came up with an armed escort, and they were driven off; but they still
+followed the carriage up to the very gate of the palace with yells of
+insult. And it had a stranger follower still: behind the royal carriage
+came an open cabriolet, in which sat Drouet, with a laurel crown on his
+head,[3] as if the chief object of the procession wore to celebrate his
+triumph over his king.
+
+The mob was even hoping to add to its impressiveness by the slaughter of
+some immediate victims--not of the king and queen, for they believed them
+to be destined to public execution; but they were eager to massacre the
+faithful Body-guards, who had been brought back, bound, on the box of the
+carriage; and they would undoubtedly have carried out their bloody purpose
+had not the queen remembered them, and, as she was dismounting, entreated
+Barnave and La Fayette to protect them. Though during the last three days
+many things had had their names altered,[4] the Tuileries had been spared.
+It was still in name a royal palace, but those who now entered it knew it
+for their prison. The sun was setting, the emblem of the extinction of
+their royalty, as they ascended the stairs to find such rest as they
+might, and to ponder in privacy for this one night over their fatal
+disappointment, and their still more fatal future.
+
+Yet, though their return was full of ignominy and wretchedness, though
+their home had become a prison, the only exit from which was to be the
+scaffold, still, if posthumous renown can compensate for miseries endured
+in this life; if it be worth while to purchase, even by the most terrible
+and protracted sufferings, an undying, unfading memory of the most
+admirable virtues--of fidelity, of truth, of patience, of resignation, of
+disinterestedness, of fortitude, of all the qualities which most ennoble
+and sanctify the heart--it may be said, now that her agonies have long
+been terminated, and that she has been long at rest, that it was well for
+Marie Antoinette that she had failed to reach Montmedy, and that she had
+thus fallen again, without having to reproach herself in any single
+particular, into the hands of her enemies. As a prisoner to the basest of
+mankind, as victim to the most ferocious monsters that have ever disgraced
+humanity, she has ever commanded, and she will never cease to command, the
+sympathy and admiration of every generous mind. But the case would have
+been widely different had Louis and she found the refuge which they sought
+with the loyal and brave De Bouille. Their arrival in his camp could not
+have failed to be a signal for civil war; and civil war, under such
+circumstances as those of France at that time, could have had but one
+termination--their defeat, dethronement, and expulsion from the country.
+In a foreign land they might, indeed, have found security, but they would
+have enjoyed but little happiness. Wherever he may be, the life of a
+deposed and exiled sovereign must be one of ceaseless mortification. The
+greatest of the Italian poets has well said that the recollection of
+former happiness is the bitterest aggravation of present misery; and not
+only to the fugitive monarch himself, but to those who still preserve
+their fidelity to him, and to the foreign people to whom he is indebted
+for his asylum, the recollection of his former greatness will ever be at
+hand to add still further bitterness to his present humiliation. The most
+friendly feeling his misfortunes can ever excite is a contemptuous pity,
+such as noble and proud minds must find it harder to endure than the
+utmost virulence of hatred and enmity.
+
+From such a fate, at least, Marie Antoinette was saved. During the
+remainder of her life her failure did indeed condemn her to a protraction
+of trial and agony such as no other woman has ever endured; but she always
+prized honor far above life, and it also opened to her an immortality of
+glory such as no other woman has ever achieved.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+Marie Antoinette's Feelings on her Return.--She sees Hopes of
+Improvement.--The 17th of July.--The Assembly inquire into the King's
+Conduct on leaving Paris.--They resolve that there is no Reason for taking
+Proceedings.--Excitement in Foreign Countries.--The Assembly proceeds to
+complete the Constitution.--It declares all the Members Incapable of
+Election to the New Assembly.--Letters of Marie Antoinette to the Emperor
+and to Mercy.--The Declaration of Pilnitz.--The King accepts the
+Constitution.--Insults offered to him at the Festival of the Champ de
+Mars.--And to the Queen at the Theatre.--The First or Constituent Assembly
+is dissolved.
+
+
+It was eminently characteristic of Marie Antoinette that her very first
+act, the morning after her return, was to write to De Fersen, to inform
+him that she was safe and well in health; but though she had roused
+herself for that effort of gratitude and courteous kindness, for some days
+she seemed stupefied by grief and disappointment, and unable to speak or
+think for a single moment of any thing but the narrow chance which had
+crushed her hopes, and changed success, when it had seemed to be secured,
+into ruin; and, if ever she could for a moment drive the feeling from her
+mind, her enemies took care to force it back upon her every hour. Before
+they reached the Tuileries, La Fayette had obtained from the Assembly
+authority to place guards wherever he might think fit; and no jailer ever
+took more rigorous precautions for the safe-keeping of the most desperate
+criminals than this man of noble birth, but most ignoble heart[1], now
+practiced toward his king and queen. Sentinels were placed along every
+passage of the palace, and, that they might have their prisoners
+constantly in sight, the door of every room was kept open day and night.
+The queen was not allowed even to close her bed-chamber, and a soldier was
+placed so as at all times to command a sight of the whole room; the only
+moment that the door was permitted to be shut being a short period each
+morning while she was dressing.
+
+But after a time she rallied, and even began again to think the future not
+wholly desperate. She always looked at the most promising side of affairs,
+and the first shock of the anguish felt at Varennes had scarcely passed
+away, when, with irrepressible sanguineness, she began to look around her
+and search for some foundation on which to build fresh hopes. She even
+thought that she had found it in the divisions which were becoming daily
+more conspicuous in the Assembly itself. She had yet to learn that at such
+times violence always overpowers moderation, and that the worse men are,
+the more certain are they to obtain the upper hand.
+
+The divisions among her enemies were indeed so furious as to justify at
+one time the expectation that one party would destroy the other. The
+Jacobins summoned a vast meeting, whose members they fixed beforehand at a
+hundred thousand citizens, to meet on Sunday, the 17th of July, to
+petition the Assembly to dethrone the king. On the appointed day, long
+before the hour fixed for the meeting, a fierce riot took place, the
+causes and even the circumstances of which have never been clearly
+ascertained, but which soon became marked with scenes of extraordinary
+violence. La Fayette, who tried to crush it in the bud, was pelted and
+fired at. Bailly hung out the red flag, the token of martial law being
+proclaimed, at the Hotel de Ville, The mob pelted the National Guard. The
+National Guard, too much exasperated and alarmed to obey La Fayette's
+order to fire over the people's heads, at one volley shot down a hundred
+of the rioters. The Jacobin leaders fled in alarm. Robespierre, who had
+been one of the chief organizers of the tumult, being also one of the
+basest of cowards, was the most terrified of all, and fled for shelter to
+his admirer, of congenial spirit, Madame Roland, whose protection he
+afterward repaid by sending her to the scaffold. The riot was quelled, and
+the officers of the National Guard urged La Fayette to take advantage of
+the opportunity, and lead them on to close by force the club of the
+Jacobins, and another of equal ferocity, known as the Cordeliers[2],
+lately founded by the fiercest of the Jacobins, Danton, and a butcher
+named Legendre, who boasted of his ferocity as his only title to interfere
+in the Government. If he had been honest in his professions of a desire to
+save the monarchy, La Fayette would have adopted their advice, for it had
+already become plain to every one that the existence of these clubs was
+incompatible with the preservation of the kingly authority; but his
+imbecile love of popularity made him fear to offend even such a body of
+miscreants as the followers of Danton and Robespierre, and he professed to
+believe that he had given them a sufficient lesson, and had so convinced
+them of his power to crush them that they would be grateful to him for
+sparing them, and learn to act with more moderation in future.
+
+The decision of the Assembly also on the question, of the king's conduct
+in leaving Paris was not without its encouragement to one of the queen's
+disposition. She herself had been interrogated by commissioners appointed
+by the Assembly to inquire into the circumstances connected with the
+transaction, and her statement has been preserved. With her habitual
+anxiety to conceal from others the king's incapacity and want of
+resolution, she represented herself as acting wholly under his orders. "I
+declare," said she, "that as the king desired to quit Paris with his
+children, it would have been unnatural for me to allow any thing to
+prevent me from accompanying him. During the last two years, I have
+sufficiently proved, on several occasions, that I should never leave him;
+and what in this instance determined me most was the assurance which I
+felt that he would never wish to quit the kingdom. If he had had such a
+desire, all my influence would have been exerted to dissuade him from such
+a purpose[3]." And she proceeded further to exculpate all their
+attendants. She declared that Madame de Tourzel, who had been ill for some
+weeks, had never received her orders till the very day of the departure.
+She knew not whither she was going, and had taken no luggage, so that the
+queen herself had been forced to lend her some clothes. The three
+Body-guards were equally ignorant, and the waiting-women. Though it was
+true, she said, that the Count and Countess de Provence had gone to
+Flanders, they had only taken that course to avoid interfering with the
+relays which were required by the king, and had intended to rejoin him at
+Montmedy. The king's own statement tallied with hers in every respect,
+though it was naturally more explicit as to his motives and intentions;
+and his innocence of purpose was so irresistibly demonstrated, that,
+though Robespierre, in the most sanguinary speech which, he had ever yet
+uttered, demanded that he should be brought to trial, not concealing his
+desire that it should end in his condemnation; and though Petion, and a
+wretch named Buzot, a warm admirer and intimate friend of Madame Roland,
+demanded his deposition and the proclamation of a republic, Barnave had no
+difficulty in carrying the Assembly with him in opposition to their
+violence; and it was finally resolved that nothing which had happened
+furnished grounds for taking proceedings against any member of the royal
+family. It was ordered at the same time that De Bouille should be arrested
+and impeached; but when he found that nothing could be effected for the
+deliverance of the king, he had fled across the frontiers, and was safe
+from their malice.
+
+Meanwhile, the unconstitutional and unprecedented violence which had been
+offered to the king naturally created the greatest excitement and
+indignation in all foreign countries. A month before the late expedition,
+the emperor had addressed a formal note to M. Montmorin, as Secretary of
+State, declaring that he would regard any ill-treatment of his sister as
+an injury done to himself;[4] and now[5] the chivalrous Gustavus of Sweden
+proposed to address to the Assembly a joint letter of warning from all the
+sovereigns of Europe, to declare that they would all make common cause
+with the King of France if any attempt were made to offer him further
+violence. But even the Austrian ministers regarded such a declaration as
+more likely to aggravate than to diminish the dangers of those whom it was
+designed to serve; and the queen herself preferred waiting for a time, to
+see the result of the strife between the rival parties in the Assembly.
+
+The Assembly was at this time fully occupied with the completion of the
+Constitution, a work for which it had but little time left, since its own
+duration had been fixed at two years, which would expire in September; and
+also with the consideration of a question concerning the composition of
+the next Assembly which had been lately brought forward, and on which the
+queen was unfortunately misled into using her influence to procure a
+decision which was undoubtedly, in its eventual consequences, as
+disastrous to the king's fortunes as it was irreconcilable with common
+sense. Robespierre brought forward a resolution that no members of the
+existing Assembly should be eligible for a seat in that by which it was to
+be replaced. It was in reality a resolution to exclude from the new
+Assembly not only every one who had any parliamentary or legislative
+experience, but also all the adherents or friends of the throne, and to
+place the coming elections wholly in the power of the Jacobins.
+Robespierre was willing to be excluded himself from a conviction, that,
+with such an Assembly as would surely be returned, the Jacobin Club would
+practically exercise all the power of the State. But the Constitutional
+party, who saw that it was aimed at them, opposed it with great vigor; and
+would probably have been able to defeat it if the Royalist members who
+still retained their seats would have consented to join them. Unhappily
+the queen took the opposite view. With far more acuteness, penetration,
+and fertility of imagination than are usually given to women, or to men
+either, she had still in some degree the defect common to her sex, of
+being prone to confine her views to one side of a question; and to
+overrule her reason by her feelings and prejudices. Though she
+acknowledged the service which Barnave had rendered by defeating those who
+had wished to bring the king and herself to trial, she, nevertheless,
+still regarded the Constitutionalists in general with deep distrust as the
+party which desired to lower, and had lowered, the authority and dignity
+of the throne; and, viewing the whole Assembly with not unnatural
+antipathy, she fancied that one composed wholly of new members could not
+possibly be, more unfriendly to the king's person and government, and
+might probably be far better disposed toward them. She easily brought the
+king to adopt her views, and exerted the whole of her influence to secure
+the passing of the decree, sending agents to canvass those deputies who
+were opposed to it. With the Royalist members, the Extreme Right, her
+voice was law, and, by the unnatural union of them and the Jacobins, the
+resolution was carried.
+
+It is the more singular that she should have been willing thus, as it
+were, to proscribe the members of the present Assembly, because, in a very
+remarkable letter which she wrote to her brother the emperor at the end of
+July, she founds the hopes for the future, which she expresses with a
+degree of sanguineness which can hardly fail to be thought strange when
+the events of June are remembered, on the conduct of the Assembly itself.
+The letter is too long to quote at full length, but a few extracts from it
+will help us in our task of forming a proper estimate of her character,
+from the unreserved exposition which it contains of her feelings, both
+past and present, with her views and hopes for the future, even while she
+keenly appreciates the difficulties of the king's position; and from the
+unabated eagerness for the welfare of France which it displays in every
+reflection and suggestion. That she still considers the imperial alliance
+of great importance to the welfare of both nations will surprise no one.
+The suspension of the royal authority which the Assembly had decreed on
+the 26th of June had been removed on the decision that the king was not to
+be proceeded against. Yet her first sentence shows that she was still
+subjected to cruel and lawless tyranny, which even hindered her
+correspondence with her own relations. A queen might have expected to be
+able to write in security to another sovereign; a sister to a brother; but
+La Fayette and those in authority regarded the rights of neither royalty
+nor kindred.
+
+"A friend, my dear brother, has undertaken to convey this letter to you,
+for I myself have no means of giving you news of my health. I will not
+enter into details of what preceded our departure. You have already known
+all the reasons for it. During the events which befell us on our journey,
+and in the situation in which we were immediately after our return to
+Paris, I was profoundly distressed. After I recovered from the first shock
+of the agitation which they produced, I set myself to work to reflect on
+what I had seen; and I have endeavored to form a clear idea of what, in
+the actual state of affairs, the king's interests are, and what the
+conduct is which they prescribe to me. My ideas have been formed by a
+combination of motives which I will proceed to explain to you.
+
+"...The situation of affairs here has greatly changed since our journey.
+The National Assembly was divided into a multitude of parties. Far from
+order being re-established, every day seemed to diminish the power of the
+law. The king, deprived of all authority, did not even see any possibility
+of recovering it on the completion of the Constitution through the
+influence of the Assembly, since that body itself was every day losing
+more the respect of the people. In short, it was impossible to see any end
+to disorder.
+
+"To-day, circumstances present much more hope. The men who have the
+greatest influence in affairs are united together, and have openly
+declared for the preservation of the monarchy and the king, and for the
+re-establishment of order. Since their union, the efforts of the seditious
+have been defeated by a great superiority of strength. The Assembly has
+acquired a consistency and an authority in every part of the kingdom,
+which it seems disposed to use to establish the observance of the laws and
+to put an end to the Revolution. At this moment the most moderate men, who
+have never ceased to be opposed to revolutionary acts, are uniting,
+because they see in union the only prospect of enjoying in safety what the
+Revolution has left them, and of putting an end to the troubles of which
+they dread the continuance. In short, every thing seems at this moment to
+contribute to put an end to the agitations and commotions to which France
+has been given over for the last two years. This termination of them,
+however, natural and possible as it is, will not give the Government the
+degree of force and authority which I regard as necessary; but it will
+preserve us from greater misfortunes; it will place us in a situation of
+greater tranquillity, and, when men's minds have recovered from their
+present intoxication, perhaps they will see the usefulness of giving the
+royal authority a greater range.
+
+"This, in the course which matters are now taking, is what one can foresee
+for the future, and I compare this result with what we could promise
+ourselves from a line of conduct opposed to the wishes which the nation
+displays. In that ease I see an absolute impossibility of obtaining any
+thing except by the employment of a superior force; and on this last
+supposition I will say nothing of the personal dangers which the king, my
+son, and I myself may have to encounter. But what could be the
+consequences but some enterprise, the issue of which is uncertain, and the
+ultimate result of which, whatever it might be, presents disasters such as
+one can not endure to contemplate? The army is in a bad state from want of
+leaders and of subordination; but the kingdom is full of armed men, and
+their imagination is so inflamed that it is impossible to foresee what
+they might do, and the number of victims who might be sacrificed.... It is
+impossible, when one sees what is going on here, to calculate what might
+be the effects of their despair. I only see, in the events which might
+arise out of such an attempt, but very doubtful prospects of success, and
+the certainty of great miseries for every one....
+
+"If the Revolution should be terminated in the manner of which I have
+spoken, then it will be important that the king shall acquire, in a solid
+manner, the confidence and consideration which alone can give a real
+strength to the royal authority. No means are so well calculated to
+procure them for him as the influence which we might have over one of your
+resolutions[6] which would contribute to insure peace to France, and to
+dispel disquietude, which are so much the more grievous for the whole
+world, that they are among the principal obstacles to the re-establishment
+of public tranquillity. The share which in that way we should have in the
+termination of these troubles would win over to us all men of moderate
+temper, while the others, especially the chiefs of the Revolution, would
+attach themselves to us because of the sincere and efficacious inclination
+which we should have shown to conduct matters to the end, which they all
+wish for. Your own interests seem to me also to have a place in this
+system of conduct. The National Assembly, before separating, will desire,
+in concert with the king, to determine the alliances to which France is to
+continue attached; and the power of Europe which shall be the first to
+recognize the Constitution, after it has been accepted by the king, will
+undoubtedly be the one with which the Assembly will be inclined to form
+the closest alliance; and to these general views I might add the means
+which I myself have to dispose men's minds to maintain this alliance--
+means which will be extremely strengthened, if you share my view of the
+present circumstances.
+
+"I can not doubt that the chiefs of the Revolution, who have supported the
+king in the last crisis, will be desirous to assure to him the
+consideration and respect necessary to the exercise of his authority, and
+that they will see in a close alliance of France with that power with
+which he is connected by ties of blood, a means of combining his dignity
+with the interests of the nation, and in that way of consolidating and
+strengthening a Constitution of which they all agree that the majesty of
+the king is one essential foundation.
+
+"I do not know if, independently of all other reasons, the king will not
+find in that feeling and in the inclinations of the nation, when it has
+recovered its calmness, more deference, and a temper more favorable to
+him, than he could expect from the majority of those Frenchmen who are at
+present out of the kingdom.[7]"
+
+And a letter which she wrote to Mercy a fortnight later is perhaps even
+more worthy of attention, as supplying abundant proof, if proof were
+needed, of the good-will and good faith which were the leading principles
+of herself and the king in all their dealings with the Assembly. Since her
+letter to her brother, matters had been proceeding rapidly. She had found
+some means of treating more directly than on any previous occasion, not
+only with Barnave, but with the far more unscrupulous A. Lameth; and the
+Assembly had made such progress in completing the Constitution that it was
+on the point of submitting it to the king for his acceptance. We have seen
+in Marie Antoinette's letter to the emperor that she was convinced of the
+necessity of Louis signifying that acceptance, and she adhered to that
+view of the policy to be pursued, though the last touches given to the
+Constitution had rendered many of its articles far more unreasonable than
+she had anticipated, and though the great English statesman, Burke, whose
+"Reflections" of the preceding year had naturally caused him to be
+regarded as one of the ablest advisers on whom she could rely, forwarded
+to her an earnest exhortation to induce her husband to reject it. He
+implored her "to have nothing to do with traitors." Using the argument
+which, to one so sensitive for her honor as Marie Antoinette, was well
+calculated to exert an almost irresistible influence over her mind, he
+declared that "her resolution at this most critical moment was to decide
+whether her glory was to be maintained, and her distresses to cease, or
+whether" (and he begged pardon for ever mentioning such an alternative)
+"shame and affliction were to be her portion for the rest of her life;"
+and he declared that "if the king should accept the Constitution, both
+king and queen were ruined forever."
+
+The great writer was, as in more than one other instance of his career,
+too earnest in his conviction that principles were at stake in the course
+which he recommended, to consider whether that course were safe for those
+on whom he urged it, or even practicable. But Marie Antoinette, as one on
+whose decision the very lives of her husband and her child might depend,
+felt bound to consider, in the first place, how far her adoption of the
+advice thus tendered might endanger both; and, accordingly, while
+expressing to Mercy the full extent of her repugnance to the system of
+government, if indeed it deserved the name of a system, which the new
+Constitution had framed, she shows that her disapproval of it has in no
+degree led her to change her mind on the practical question of the course
+which the king should pursue. She justifies her decision to Mercy in a
+most elaborate letter, in which the whole position is surveyed with
+admirable good sense.[8]
+
+"Our position is this: We are now on the point of having the Constitution
+brought to us for acceptance. It is in itself so monstrous that it is
+impossible that it should be long maintained. But, in the position in
+which we are, can we risk refusing it? No; and I will prove it to you. I
+am not speaking of the personal dangers which we should run. We have fully
+shown by the journey which we undertook two months ago that we do not take
+our own safety into account when the public welfare is at stake. But this
+Constitution is so intrinsically bad that it can only acquire consistence
+from any resistance which we might oppose to it. Our business, therefore,
+is to take a middle course, which may save our honor, and may put us in
+such a position that the people may come back to us when once their eyes
+are opened, and they have become weary of the existing state of affairs. I
+think also that it is necessary that, when they have presented the act to
+the king, he should keep it by him a few days; for he is not supposed to
+know what it is till it has been presented to him in all legal form; and
+that then he should summon the Commissioners before him, not to make any
+comments, not to demand any alterations, which perhaps might not be
+admitted, and which would be interpreted as an admission that he approved
+of the basis, but to declare that his opinions are not changed; that, in
+his declaration of the 20th of June,[9] he proved the absolute
+impossibility of governing under the new system, and that he is still of
+the same mind; but that, for the sake of the tranquillity of his country,
+he sacrifices himself; and that, as his people and the nation stake their
+happiness on his accepting it, he does not hesitate to signify that
+acceptance; and that the sight of their happiness will speedily make him
+forget the cruel and bitter griefs which they have inflicted on him and on
+his family.
+
+"But if we take this line we must adhere to it; and, above all things, we
+must avoid any step which can create distrust, and we must move on, so to
+say, always with the law in our hand. I promise you that this is the best
+way to give them an early disgust at the Constitution. The mischief is,
+that for this we shall want an able and a trustworthy ministry.... Several
+people urge us to reject the act, and the king's brothers press upon him
+every day that it is indispensable to do so, and affirm that we shall be
+supported. By whom?" And she proceeds to examine the situation and policy
+of Spain, of the empire of England, and of Prussia, to prove that from
+none of them is there any hope of active aid, while to trust to the
+emigrants would be the worst expedient of all, because "we should then
+fall into a new slavery worse than the first, since, while we should
+appear to be in some degree indebted to them, we should not be able to
+extricate ourselves from their toils. They already prove this when they
+refuse to listen to the persons who are in our confidence, on the pretext
+that they do not trust them, while they seek to force us to give ourselves
+up to M. de Calonne, who, I fear, in all that he does is guided by nothing
+but his own ambition, his private enmities, and his habitual levity,
+thinking every thing he wishes not only possible, but already done.
+
+"... One circumstance worthy of remark is that in all these discussions on
+the Constitution the people take no interest, and concern themselves
+solely about their own affairs, limiting their wishes to having a
+Constitution and getting rid of the aristocrats... As to our acceptance of
+the Constitution, it is impossible for any thinking being to avoid seeing
+that we are not free. But it is essential that we should not awaken a
+suspicion of our feelings in the monsters who surround us. Let me know
+where the emperor's forces are and what is their present position. In
+every case the foreign powers can alone save us. The army is lost. There
+is no money. There is no bond, no curb which can restrain the populace,
+which is everywhere armed. Even the chiefs of the Revolution, when they
+wish to speak of order, are not listened to. This is the deplorable
+condition in which we are placed. Add that we have not a single friend--
+that every one betrays us, some out of hatred, others out of weakness or
+ambition. In short, I actually am reduced to dread the day when they will
+have the appearance of giving us a kind of freedom. At least, in the state
+of nullity in which we are at present, no one can reproach us.... You know
+the character of the person with whom I have to do.[10] At the last
+moment, when one seems to have convinced him, an argument, a word, will
+make him change his mind before any one suspects it. This is the reason
+why many expedients can not be even attempted."
+
+On the 21st she hears that the Charter will be presented at the end of the
+week, and she repeats her fears that the conduct of the emigrants may
+involve them in fresh troubles. "It is essential that the French, and most
+especially the brothers of the king, should keep in the background, and
+allow the foreign princes to act by themselves. But no entreaty, no
+argument from us will induce them to do so. The emperor must insist upon
+it. It is the only way in which he can serve us. You know yourself the
+mischievous wrong-headedness and evil designs of the emigrants. The
+cowards! after having abandoned us, they seek to make us expose ourselves
+alone to danger, and serve nothing but their interests. I do not accuse
+the king's brothers; I believe their hearts and their intentions to be
+pure, but they are surrounded and guided by ambitious men who will ruin
+them after having first ruined us." ... On the 26th she hears that it will
+still be a week before the Constitution is brought to the king. "It is
+impossible, considering our position, that the king should refuse to
+accept it. You may depend upon this being true, since I say it. You know
+my character sufficiently to be sure that it would incline me rather to a
+noble and bold course. We have no resource but in the foreign powers. They
+must come to our assistance; but it is the emperor who must put himself at
+the head of every thing, and manage every thing.... I declare to you that
+matters are now come to such a state that it would be better to be king of
+a single province than of a kingdom so abandoned and disordered as this. I
+shall endeavor, if I can, to send the emperor information on all these
+matters. But, in the mean time, do you tell him all that you consider
+necessary to prove to him that we have no longer any resource except in
+him, and that our happiness, our existence, and that of my child depend on
+him alone, and on his prudence and promptitude in action.[11]"
+
+And, however she from time to time caught at momentary hopes arising from
+other sources, the only one on which she placed any permanent reliance
+were the affection and power of her brother; and that hope, in the course
+of the winter, was cut from under her by his death.[12] Yet so correct was
+her judgment and appreciation of sound political principles, or, perhaps
+we might say, so keen was her sense of what was due to the independence
+and dignity of France, in spite of its present disloyalty, that a report
+that the emperor and Prussia had, by implication, claimed a right to
+dictate to France in matters of her internal government drew from her a
+warm remonstrance. As sovereign and brother she conceived that Leopold had
+a right to interfere to insure the safety of his own sister and of a
+brother sovereign; but she never desired him to interpose for any other
+object. From her childhood, as we have seen more than once, she had
+learned to regard the Prussian character and Prussian designs with
+abhorrence. And in a letter to Mercy of the 12th of September, after
+expressing an earnest hope that the emperor will not allow himself to be
+guided by "the cunning of Calonne, and the detestable policy of Prussia,"
+she adds, "It is said here that in the agreement signed at Pilnitz,[13]
+the two powers engage never to permit the new French Constitution to be
+established. There certainly are things which foreign powers have a right
+to oppose, but, as to what concerns the internal laws of a country, every
+nation has a right to adopt those which suit it. They would be wrong,
+therefore, to intervene in such a matter; and all the world would see in
+such an act a proof of the intrigues of the emigrants.[14]"
+
+She proceeds to tell him that all is settled. The king had adopted the
+line which she had marked out for him in her former letter. The
+Constitution had been presented to him on the 3d of September. He had
+taken a few days to consider it, not with the idea of proposing the
+slightest alteration, but in order to avoid the appearance of acting under
+compulsion; and, on the same day on which she wrote to Mercy, he was
+drawing up a letter to the Assembly, to announce his intention of visiting
+the Assembly to give it his royal assent in due form. But, though she
+would not have had him act otherwise, she can not announce this apparent
+termination of the contest without some natural expressions of grief and
+indignation.
+
+"At last the die is cast. All that we have now to do is to regulate the
+future progress and conduct of affairs as circumstances may permit. I only
+wish that others would regulate their conduct by mine. But even in our own
+inner circle we have great difficulties and great conflicts. Pity me: I
+assure you that it requires more courage to support the condition in which
+I am placed than to encounter a pitched battle. And the more so that I do
+not deceive myself, and that I see nothing but misery in the want of
+energy shown by some, and the evil designs of others. My God! is it
+possible that, endowed as I am with force of character, and feeling as I
+do so thoroughly the blood which runs in my veins, I should yet be
+destined to pass my days in such an age and with such men! But, for all
+this, never believe that my courage is deserting me. Not for my own sake,
+but for the sake of my child, I will support myself, and I will fulfill to
+the end my long and painful career, I can no longer see what I am writing.
+Farewell.[15]"
+
+Tears, we may suppose, were blinding her eyes, in spite of all her
+fortitude. There was no exaggeration in her declaration to the Empress
+Catherine of Russia, with whom at this time she was in frequent
+communication, that the "distrust which was shown by all around them was a
+moral and continual death, a thousand times worse than that physical death
+which was a release from all miseries.[16]" And in the same letter she
+explains that to remove this distrust was one principal object which the
+king and she had in view in all their measures. Yet, in spite of all his
+concessions, the week was not to pass without fresh insults being offered
+to the king, which shocked even his phlegmatic apathy. The letter which he
+sent to the Assembly to announce his compliance with its wishes was indeed
+received with acclamations which, if not sincere, were at least loud, and
+apparently unanimous; and, as if in reply to it, La Fayette proposed and
+carried a motion that the Assembly should pass an act of amnesty for all
+political offenses; and a magnificent festival was appointed to be held in
+the Champ de Mars on the following Sunday, in celebration of the joyful
+event. But, after the first brief excitement had passed away, the Jacobin
+faction recovered its ascendency, and contrived to make that very
+festival, which was designed to express the gratitude of the nation, an
+occasion of further humiliation to the unhappy Louis. Every arrangement
+for the day was discussed in a spirit of the bitterest disloyalty. When
+the question was raised, which in any other Assembly that ever met in the
+world would have been thought needless, what attitude the members were to
+preserve while the king was taking the prescribed oath to observe the
+Constitution, a hundred voices shouted out that they should all keep their
+seats, and that the king should swear, standing and bare-headed; and when
+one deputy of high reputation, M. Malouet, remonstrated against such a
+vote, arguing that so to treat the chief of the State would be a greater
+insult to the nation than even to himself, a deputy from Brittany cried
+out that M. Malouet and those who thought with him might receive Louis on
+their knees, if they liked, but that the rest of the Assembly should be
+seated.
+
+And, in accordance with the feeling thus shown, every mark of respect was
+studiously withheld from the unhappy monarch, and every care was taken to
+show him that every deputy considered himself his equal. Two chairs
+exactly similar were provided for him and for the president; and when,
+after taking the oath and affixing his signature to the act, the king
+resumed his seat, the president, who, having to reply to him in a short
+address, had at first risen for that purpose, on seeing that Louis
+retained his seat, sat down beside him, and finished his speech in that
+position. Louis felt the affront. He contained himself while in the hall,
+and while the members were conducting him back to the palace, which they
+presently did amidst the music of military bands and the salutes of
+artillery. But when his escort had left him, and he reached his own
+apartments, his pride gave way. The queen with the dauphin had been
+present in a box hastily fitted up for her, and had followed him back. He
+felt for her more than for himself. Bursting into tears, he said, "It is
+all over. You have seen my humiliation. Why did I ever bring you into
+France for such degradation?" And the queen, while endeavoring to console
+him, turned to Madame de Campan, who has recorded the scene, and dismissed
+her from her attendance.[17] "Leave us," she said, "leave us to
+ourselves." She could not bear that even that faithful servant should
+remain to be a witness to the despair and prostration of her sovereign.
+
+The very rejoicings were turned by the agents of the Jacobins into
+occasions for further outrages. The whole city was illuminated, and the
+sovereigns yielded to the entreaties of the popular leaders, to drive
+through the streets and the Champs Elysees to see the illumination. The
+populace, who believed the Revolution at an end and their freedom secured,
+cheered them heartily as they passed; but at every cry of "Vive le roi," a
+stentorian voice, close to the royal carriage, shouted out, "Not so: Vive
+la nation!" and the queen, though it was plain that the ruffian had been
+hired thus to outrage them, almost fainted with terror at his ferocity. A
+few days afterward, the insults were renewed even more pointedly. The
+royal family went in state to the opera, where, before their arrival, the
+Jacobins had packed the pit with a gang of their own hirelings, whose
+unpowdered hair made them conspicuous objects.[18] The opera was one of
+Gretry's, "Les Evenements Imprevus," in which one of the duets contains
+the line "Ah, comme j'aime ma maitresse." Madame Dugazon, a popular singer
+of the day, as she uttered the words, bowed toward the royal box, and
+instantly the whole pit was in a fury. "No mistress for us! no master!
+Liberty!" The whole house was in an uproar. The king's partisans and
+adherents replied with loyal cheers, "Vive le roi! Vive la reine!" The pit
+roared out, "No master! no queen!" and the Jacobins even proceeded to acts
+of violence toward all who refused to join in their cry. Blows were
+struck, and it became necessary to send for a company of the Guard to
+restore order.
+
+Yet when, on the last day of the month, the king visited the Assembly[19]
+to declare its dissolution, the president addressed him in terms of the
+most loyal gratitude, affirming that by his acceptance of the
+Constitution, he had earned the blessings of all future generations; and
+when he quitted the hall, the populace escorted the royal carriage back to
+the palace with vociferous cheers. Though, in the eyes of impartial
+observers, this display of returning good-will was more than
+counterbalanced when, as the members of the Assembly came out, some of the
+Royalists and Constitutionalists were hooted, and some of the fiercest
+Jacobins were greeted with still more enthusiastic acclamations.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+Composition of the New Assembly.--Rise of the Girondins,--Their Corruption
+and Eventual Fate.--Vergniaud's Motions against the King.--Favorable
+Reception of the King at the Assembly, and at the Opera.--Changes in the
+Ministry.--The King's and Queen's Language to M. Bertrand de Moleville.--
+The Count de Narbonne.--Petion is elected Mayor of Paris.--Scarcity of
+Money, and Great Hardships of the Royal Family.--Presents arrive from
+Tippoo Sahib.--The Dauphin.--The Assembly passes Decrees against the
+Priests and the Emigrants.--Misconduct of the Emigrants.--Louis refuses
+his Assent to the Decrees.--He issues a Circular condemning Emigration.
+
+
+The new Assembly met on the 1st of October, and its composition afforded
+the Royalists, or even the Constitutionalists, the party that desired to
+stand by the Constitution which had just been ratified, very little
+prospect of a re-establishment of tranquillity. The mischievous effect of
+the vote which excluded members of the last Assembly from election was
+seen in the very lists of those who had been returned. In the whole number
+there were scarcely a dozen members of noble or gentle birth; the number
+of ecclesiastics was equally small; while property was as little
+represented as the nobility or the Church. It was reckoned that of the
+whole body scarcely fifty possessed two thousand francs a year. The
+general youth of the members was as conspicuous as their poverty; half of
+them had hardly attained middle age; a great many were little more than
+boys. The Jacobins themselves, who, before the elections, had reckoned on
+swaying their decisions by terror, could hardly have anticipated a result
+which would place the entire body so wholly at their mercy.
+
+But what was still move ominous of evil was the rise of a new party, known
+as that of the Girondins, from the circumstance of some of its most
+influential members coming from the Gironde, one of the departments which
+the late Assembly had carved out of the old province of Gascony. It was
+not absolutely a new party, since the foundations of it had been laid,
+during the last two months of the old Assembly, by Petion and a low-born
+pamphleteer named Brissot, who, as editor of a newspaper to which he gave
+the name of _Le Patriote Francais_, rivaled the most blood-thirsty of the
+Jacobins in exciting the worst passions of the populace. But Petion and
+Brissot had only sown the seeds. The opening of the new Assembly at once
+gave it growth and vigor, when the deputies from the Gironde plunged into
+the arena of debate, and showed an undeniable superiority in eloquence to
+every other party. The chiefs, Vergniaud, Gensonne, and Gaudet, were
+lawyers who had never obtained any practice. Isnard, the first man to make
+an open profession of atheism in the Assembly, was the son of a perfumer
+in Provence. They were adventurers as utterly without principle as without
+resources. And their first thought appears to have been to make money of
+the king's difficulties, and to sell themselves to him. They applied to
+the Minister of the Interior, M. de Lessart, proposing to place the whole
+of their influence at the service of the Government, on condition of his
+securing each of them a pension of six thousand francs a month.[1] M. de
+Lessart would not have objected to buy them, but he thought the price
+which they set upon themselves too high; and as they adhered to their
+demand, the negotiation went off, and they resolved to revenge themselves
+on his royal master with all the malice of disappointed rapacity.
+
+As none of them had any force of character, they fell under the influence
+of the wife of one of their number, a small manufacturer, named Roland,
+the same who, as we have already seen, was the first to raise the cry of
+blood in France, and to recommend the assassination of the king and queen
+while they were still in fancied security at Versailles. Under the
+direction of this fierce woman, whose ferocity was rendered more
+formidable by her undoubted talents, the Girondins began an internecine
+war with the king, who had refused them the wages which they had asked.
+They planned and carried out the sanguinary attacks on the palace in the
+summer of the next year. They brought Louis to the scaffold by the
+unanimity of their votes. Yet it would have been more fortunate for
+themselves as well as for him had they been less exorbitant in their
+demands, and had they connected themselves with the Government as they
+desired. For though they succeeded in their treason, though Madame Roland
+saw the accomplishment of her wish in the murder of the king and queen,
+their success was equally fatal to themselves. Almost all of them perished
+on the same scaffold to which they had consigned their virtuous
+sovereigns, meeting a fate in one respect worse even than theirs, from the
+infamy of the names which they have left behind them.
+
+Yet for a few days it seemed as if their malignity would miss its aim.
+They did not wait a single day before displaying it; but, at the
+preliminary meeting of the Assembly, before it was opened for the dispatch
+of business, Vergniaud proposed to declare it illegal to speak of the king
+as his majesty, or to address him as "sire;" while another deputy, named
+Couthon, who at first belonged to the same party, though he afterward
+joined the Jacobins, carried a motion that, when Louis came to open the
+Assembly, the president should occupy the place of honor, and the second
+seat should be allotted to the sovereign.
+
+Still, for a moment it seemed as if they had overshot their mark, and as
+if the more loyal party would be able to withstand and defeat them. The
+Assembly itself was compelled to repeal its recent votes, since Louis,
+whom indignation for once inspired with greater firmness than he usually
+displayed, refused to open the new Assembly in person unless he were to be
+received with the honors to which his rank entitled him. The offensive
+resolutions were canceled; and, when he had therefore opened the session
+in a dignified and conciliatory speech which was chiefly of his own
+composition, the president, M. Pastoret, a member of the Constitutional
+party, replied in a language which was not only respectful, but
+affectionate. The Constitution, he said, had given the king friends in
+those who were formerly only styled his subjects. The Assembly and the
+nation felt the need of his love. As the Constitution had rendered him the
+greatest monarch in the world, so his attachment to it would place him
+among the kings most beloved by their people.
+
+And it seemed as if the Parisians in general shared to the full the loyal
+sentiments uttered by M. Pastoret. Writing the same week to her brother,
+Marie Antoinette, with a confidence which could only spring from a sincere
+attachment to the whole nation, reiterated her old opinion that "the good
+citizens and good people had always in their hearts been friendly to the
+king and herself;[2]" and expressed her belief that since the acceptance
+of the Constitution the people "had again learned to trust them." She was
+"far from giving herself up to a blind confidence. She knew that the
+disaffected had not abandoned their treasonable purposes; but, as the king
+and she herself were resolved to unite themselves in sincere good faith to
+the people, it was impossible but that, when their real feelings were
+known, the bulk of the people should return to them. The mischief was that
+the well-meaning knew not how to act in concert."
+
+It did seem as if she were correct in her estimate of the feelings of the
+citizens, when, in the evening of the day on which Louis had opened the
+Assembly, the whole royal family, including the two children, went to the
+opera; and, as if with express design to ratify the loyal language of the
+president of the Assembly, the whole audience greeted them with a most
+enthusiastic reception. More than once they interrupted the performance
+with loud cheers for both king and queen; and as the pleasure of children
+is always an attractive sight, they sympathized especially with the
+delight of the little dauphin, their future king, as they all then thought
+him, who, being new to such a spectacle, only took his eyes off the stage
+to imitate the gestures of the actors to his mother, and draw her
+attention to them.
+
+In more than one of her letters the queen had vehemently deplored the want
+of a stronger ministry than of late had been in the king's service. It was
+a natural complaint, though in fact the ability or want of ability
+displayed by the ministers was a matter of but slight practical
+importance, so completely had the Assembly engrossed the whole power of
+the State; but in the course of the autumn some changes were made, one of
+which for a time certainly added to the comfort of the sovereigns. M.
+Montmorin retired; M. de Lessart was transferred to his office; and M.
+Bertrand de Moleville, who was entirely new to official life, became the
+minister of marine. The whole kingdom did not contain a man more attached
+to the king and queen. But he combined statesman-like prudence with his
+loyalty; and his conduct before he took office elicited a very remarkable
+proof of the singleness of mind and purpose with which the king and queen
+had accepted the Constitution. M. Bertrand had previously refused office,
+and was very unwilling to take it now; and he frankly told Louis that he
+could not hope to be of any real service to him unless he knew the plans
+which the king might have formed with respect to the Constitution, and the
+line of conduct which he desired his ministers to observe on the subject;
+and Louis told him distinctly that though "he was far from regarding the
+Constitution as a masterpiece, and though he thought it easy to reform it
+advantageously in many particulars, yet he had sworn to observe it as it
+was, and that he was bound to be, and resolved to be, strictly faithful to
+his oath; the more so because it seemed to him that the most exact
+observance of the Constitution was the surest method to lead the nation to
+understand it in all its bearings; when the people themselves would
+perceive the character of the changes in it which it was desirable to
+make."
+
+M. Bertrand expressed his warm approval of the wisdom of such a policy,
+but thought it so important to know how far the queen coincided in her
+husband's sentiments that he ventured to put the question to his majesty.
+The king assured him that he had been speaking her sentiments as well as
+his own, and that he should hear them from her own lips; and accordingly
+the queen immediately granted the new minister an audience, in which,
+after expressing, with her habitual grace and kindness, her feeling that,
+by accepting office at such a time, he was laying both the king and
+herself under a personal obligation, she added, "The king has explained to
+you his intentions with respect to the Constitution; do not you think that
+the only plan for him to follow is to be faithful to his oath?"
+"Undoubtedly, madame." "Well, you may depend upon it that nothing will
+make us change. Have courage, M. Bertrand; I hope that, with patience,
+firmness, and consistency, all is not yet lost.[3]"
+
+Nor was M. Bertrand the only one of the ministers who received proofs of
+the resolution of the queen to adhere steadily to the Constitution. There
+was also a new minister of war, the Count de Narbonne, as firmly attached
+to the persons of the sovereigns as M. Bertrand himself, though in
+political principle more inclined to the views of the Constitutionalists
+than to those of the extreme Royalists. He was likewise a man of
+considerable capacity, eloquent and fertile in resources; but he was
+ambitious and somewhat vain; and he was so elated at the approval
+expressed by the Assembly of a report on the military resources of the
+kingdom which he laid before it soon after his appointment, that he
+obtained an audience of the queen, the object of which was to convince her
+that the only means of saving the State was to confer on a man of talent,
+energy, sagacity, and activity, who enjoyed the confidence of the Assembly
+and of the nation, the post of prime minister; and he admitted that he
+intended to designate himself by this description. Marie Antoinette,
+though fully aware of the desirableness of having a single man of ability
+and firmness at the head of the administration, was for a moment surprised
+out of her habitual courtesy. She could not forbear a smile, and in plain
+terms asked him "if he were crazy.[4]" But she proceeded with her usual
+kindness to explain to him the impracticability of the scheme which he had
+suggested, and the foundation of her argument was an explanation that such
+an appointment would be a violation of the Constitution, which forbade the
+king to create any new ministerial office. And the count deserves to have
+it mentioned to his honor that the rebuff which he had received in no
+degree cooled his attachment to the king and queen, or the zeal with which
+he labored for their service.
+
+We have no information how far the new minister coincided in a step which
+the queen took in the course of November, and which is commonly ascribed
+to her judgment alone. Before its dissolution, the late Assembly had
+broken up the National Guard of Paris into separate legions, and had
+suppressed the appointment of commander-in-chief of the forces; and La
+Fayette, whom this measure had left without employment, feeling keenly the
+diminution of his importance, and instigated by the restlessness common to
+men of moderate capacity, conceived the hope of succeeding Bailly in the
+mayoralty of Paris, which that magistrate was on the point of resigning.
+
+It had become a post of great consequence, since the extent to which the
+authority of the crown had been pared away tended to make the mayor the
+absolute dictator of the capital; and consequently the Jacobins were
+anxious to secure the office for one of the extreme Revolutionary party,
+and set up Petion as a rival candidate. The election belonged to the
+citizens, and, as in the city the two parties possessed almost equal
+strength, it was soon seen that the court, which had by no means lost its
+influence among the tradesmen and shop-keepers, had the power of deciding
+the contest in favor of the candidate for whom it should pronounce, Marie
+Antoinette declared for Petion. She knew him to be a Jacobin,[5] but he
+was so devoid of any reputation for ability that she did not fear him.
+Nor, except that he had behaved with boorish disrespect and ill-manners
+during their melancholy return from Varennes, had she any reason for
+suspecting him of any special enmity to the king.
+
+But La Fayette, though always loud in his professions of loyalty, had
+never lost an opportunity of offering personal insults to both the king
+and herself. It was to his shameful neglect (to put his conduct in the
+most favorable light) that she justly attributed the danger to which she
+had been exposed at Versailles, and the compulsion which had been put upon
+the king to take up his residence in Paris; and, not to mention a constant
+series of petty insults which he had heaped on both Louis and herself, and
+on the Royalists as a body, he had given unmistakable proofs of his
+personal animosity toward the king by his conduct on the 21st of June, and
+by the indecent rigor with which he treated them both after their return
+from Varennes. Even when he was loudest in the profession of his desire
+and power to influence the Assembly in the king's favor, one of his own
+friends had told him to his face that he was insincere,[6] and that Louis
+could not and ought not to trust his promises; and every part of his
+conduct toward the royal pair was stamped with duplicity as well as with
+ill-will. It was not strange, therefore, indeed it was fully consistent
+with the honest openness of Marie Antoinette's own character, that she
+should prefer an open enemy to a pretended friend. She even believed what,
+from the very commencement of the Revolution, many had suspected, that La
+Fayette cherished views of personal ambition, and aimed at reviving the
+old authority of a Maire du Palais over a Roi Faineant[7]. She therefore
+directed her friends to throw their weight into the scale in favor of
+Petion, who was accordingly elected by a great majority, while the
+marquis, greatly chagrined, retired for a time to his estate in Auvergne.
+
+The victory, however, was an unfortunate one for the court. It contributed
+to increase the confidence of its enemies; and, as their instinct showed
+them that it was from the resolution of the queen that they had the most
+formidable opposition to dread, it was against her that, from their first
+entrance into the Assembly, Vergniaud and his friends specially exerted
+themselves; Vergniaud openly contending that the inviolability of the
+sovereign, which was an article of the new Constitution, applied only to
+the king himself, and in no degree to his consort; while in the Jacobin
+and Cordelier Clubs the coarsest libels were poured forth against her with
+unremitting perseverance to stimulate and justify the most obscene and
+ferocious threats. The coarsest ruffians in a street quarrel never used
+fouler language of one another than these men of education applied to the
+pure-minded and magnanimous lady whose sole offense was that she was the
+wife of their kind-hearted king.
+
+And, in addition to this daily increase of their danger which such
+denunciations could not fail to augment, the royal family were now
+suffering inconveniences which even those whose measures had caused them
+had never designed. They were in the most painful want of money. The
+agitation of the last two years had rendered the treasury bankrupt. The
+paper money, which now composed almost the whole circulation of the
+country, was valueless. While, as it was in this paper money (assignats,
+as the notes were called, as being professedly secured by assignments on
+the royal domains and on the ecclesiastical property which had been
+confiscated), that the king's civil list was paid, at the latter end of
+each month it was not uncommon for him and the queen to be absolutely
+destitute. It was with great reluctance that they accepted loans from
+their loyal adherents, because they saw no prospect of being able to repay
+them; but had they not availed themselves of this resource, they would at
+times have wanted absolute necessaries.[8]
+
+The royal couple still kept their health, the king's apathy being in this
+respect as beneficial as the queen's courage: they still rode a great deal
+when the weather was favorable; and on one occasion, at the beginning of
+1792, the queen, with her sister-in-law and her daughter, went again to
+the theatre. The opera was the same which had been performed at the visit
+in October; but this time the Jacobins had not been forewarned so as to
+pack the house, and Madame du Gazon's duet was received with enthusiasm.
+Again, as she sung "Ah, que j'aime ma maitresse!" she bowed to the royal
+box, and the audience cheered. As if in reply to one verse, "Il faut les
+rendre heureux," "Oui, oui!" with lively unanimity, came from all parts of
+the house, and the singers were compelled to repeat the duet four times.
+"It is a queer nation this of ours," says the Princess Elizabeth, in
+relating the scene to one of her correspondents, "but we must allow that
+it has very charming moments.[9]"
+
+A somewhat curious episode to divert their minds from these domestic
+anxieties was presented by an embassy from the brave and intriguing Sultan
+of Mysore, the celebrated Tippoo Sahib, who sought to engage Louis to lend
+him six thousand French troops, with whose aid he trusted to break down
+the ascendency which England was rapidly establishing in India. Tippoo
+backed his request, in the Oriental fashion, by presents, though not such
+as, in the opinion of M. Bertrand, were quite worthy of the giver or of
+the receiver. To the king he sent some diamonds, but they were yellow,
+ill-cut, and ill-set; and the rest of the offering was composed of a few
+pieces of embroidered silk, striped cloth, and cambric: while the queen's
+present consisted of nothing more valuable than a few bottles of perfume
+of no very exquisite quality, and a few boxes of powdered scents, pastils,
+and matches. The king and queen gave nearly the whole present to M.
+Bertrand for his grandchildren, the queen only reserving a bottle of attar
+of rose and a couple of pieces of cambric; and that chiefly to afford a
+pretext for seeing M. Bertrand once or twice, without his reception being
+imputed to a desire to promote some Austrian intrigue; for the Jacobins
+had lately revived the clamor against Austrian influence with greater
+vehemence than ever.
+
+As M. Bertrand had grandchildren, he could well appreciate the pleasure of
+the queen at an incident which closed one of his audiences. While he was
+thus receiving her commands, the little dauphin, "beautiful as an angel,"
+as the minister describes him, was capering about the room in high
+delight, brandishing a wooden sword, a new toy which had just been given
+him. An attendant called him to go to supper; and he bounded toward the
+door. "How is this, my boy?" said Marie Antoinette, calling him back; "are
+you going off without making M. Bertrand a bow?" "Oh, mamma," said the
+little prince, still skipping about, and smiling, "that is because I know
+well that M. Bertrand is one of our friends.... Good-evening, M.
+Bertrand." "Is not he a nice child?[10]" said the queen, after he had left
+the room. "He is very happy to be so young. He does not feel what we
+suffer, and his gayety does us good." Alas! that which was now perhaps her
+only pleasure--the contemplation of her child's opening grace and
+amiability--before long became even an addition to her affliction, as the
+probabilities increased that the madness of the people and the wickedness
+of their leaders would deprive him of the inheritance, to preserve which
+to him was the principal object of all her cares and exertions.
+
+But these moments of gratification were becoming fewer as time went on.
+Each month, each week brought fresh and increasing anxieties to engross
+all her thoughts. As the Girondin leaders began to feel their strength,
+the votes of the Assembly became more violent. One day it passed a fresh
+decree against the priests, depriving all who refused to take the oath to
+the new ecclesiastical constitution of the stipends for which their former
+preferments had been commuted, placing them under strict supervision, and
+declaring them liable to instant banishment if they should venture to
+exercise their functions in private. Another day it vented its wrath upon
+the emigrants, summoning the Count de Provence by name to return at once
+to France; and, with respect to the rest of the body, now very numerous,
+declaring their conduct in being assembled on the frontier of the kingdom
+in a state of readiness for war in itself an act of treason; and
+condemning to death and confiscation of their estates all who should fail
+to return to their native land before a stated day.
+
+But in these decrees the advocates of violence had for the moment gone too
+far--they had outrun the feelings of the nation. The emigrants, indeed,
+neither deserved nor found sympathy in any quarter. The main body of them
+was at this time settled at Coblentz, where their conduct was such that it
+is hard to say whether it were more offensive to their country, more
+injurious to their king, or more discreditable to themselves. They could
+not even act in harmony. The king's two brothers established rival courts,
+with a mistress at the head of each. Madame de Balbi still ruled the Count
+de Provence; Madame de Polastron was the presiding genius of the coterie
+of the Count d'Artois. The two ladies, regarding each other with bitter
+jealousy, agitated the whole town with their rivalries and wranglings, and
+agreed in nothing but in their endeavors to excite some foreign sovereign
+or other to make war upon their native land. It was in vain that Louis
+himself first entreated them, and, when he found his entreaties were
+disregarded, commanded his brothers to return. They positively refused
+obedience to his order, telling him, in language which can only be
+characterized as that of studied insult, that he was writing under
+coercion; that his letter did not express his real views, and that "their
+honor, their duty, even their affection for him, alike forbade them to
+obey him.[11]" The queen could not command, but she wrote to them more
+than one letter of most earnest entreaty, and, as the princes founded part
+of their hopes on the co-operation of the Northern sovereigns, she wrote
+also to the empress and to Gustavus, pressing both, and especially the
+King of Sweden,[12] to restrain them; but they were too headstrong and
+full of their own projects to listen to her entreaties any more than to
+the king's commands, and did not even take the trouble to conceal their
+negotiations with foreign powers, nor their object, which could be nothing
+but war.
+
+It was impossible that such conduct steadily pursued by the king's own
+brothers could be any thing but most pernicious to his cause. It could not
+fail to excite suspicions of his own good faith. It supplied the Jacobins
+with pretexts for putting fresh restraints on his authority; and it
+frightened even the Constitutionalists, since it was plain that civil war
+must ensue, with, very probably, the addition of foreign war also, if
+these machinations of the emigrants were not suppressed.
+
+Still, these sweeping proscriptions of entire classes were not yet to the
+taste of the nation. Petitions from the country, and even one from the
+department of the Seine, were presented to Louis, begging him to refuse
+his assent to the decree against the priests; and the feeling which they
+represented was so strong, and the reputation of some of the petitioners
+stood so high for ability and influence, that the ministers believed that
+he could safely refuse his sanction to both the votes. Even without their
+advice he would have rejected the decree against the priests, as one
+absolutely incompatible with his reverence for religion and its ministers;
+and his conduct on this subject supplies one more striking parallel to the
+history of the great English rebellion; since there can hardly be a more
+precise resemblance between events occurring in different ages and
+different countries than is afforded by the resistance made by Charles to
+the last vote of the London Parliament against the bishops, and this
+resistance of Louis to the will of the Assembly on behalf of the priests,
+and by the fatal effect which, in each case, their conscientious and
+courageous determination had upon the fortunes of the two sovereigns.
+
+Louis therefore put his veto on both the decrees, with the exception of
+that clause in the act against the emigrants which summoned his brothers
+to return to the kingdom. But, that no one might pretend to fancy that he
+either approved of the conduct of the emigrants or sympathized with their
+principles or designs, he issued a circular letter to the governors of the
+different sea-ports, in which he remonstrated most earnestly with the
+sailors, numbers of whom, as it was reported in Paris, were preparing to
+follow their example. He pointed out in it that those who thus deserted
+their country mistook their duty to that country, to him as their king,
+and to themselves; that the present aspect of the nation, desirous to
+return to order and to submission to the law, removed every pretext for
+such conduct. He set before them his own example, and bid them remain at
+their posts, as he was remaining at his; and, in language more impressive
+than that of command, he exhorted them not to turn a deaf ear to his
+prayers; and at the same time he addressed letters to the electors of
+Treves and Mayence, and to the other petty German princes whose
+territories, bordering on the Rhine, were the principal resort of the
+emigrants, requiring them to cease to give them shelter, and announcing
+that if they should refuse to remove them from their dominions he should
+consider their refusal a sufficient ground for war; while, to show that he
+did not intend this menace to be a dead letter, he soon afterward
+announced to the Assembly that he had ordered a powerful army of a hundred
+and fifty thousand men to be moved toward the frontier, under the command
+of Marshal Luckner, Marshal Rochambeau, and General La Fayette, and he
+invited the members to vote a levy of fifty thousand more men to raise the
+force of the nation to its full complement.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+Death of Leopold.--Murder of Gustavus of Sweden.--Violence of Vergniaud.
+--The Ministers resign.--A Girondin Ministry is appointed.--Character of
+Dumouriez.--Origin of the Name Sans-culottes.--Union of Different Parties
+against the Queen.--War is declared against the Empire.--Operations in the
+Netherlands.--Unskillfulness of La Fayette.--The King falls into a State
+of Torpor.--Fresh Libels on the Queen.--Barnave's Advice.--Dumouriez has
+an Audience of the Queen.--Dissolution of the Constitutional Guard.--
+formation of a Camp near Paris.--Louis adheres to his Refusal to assent to
+the Decree against the Priests.--Dumouriez resigns his Office, and takes
+command of the Army.
+
+
+War of some kind--foreign war, civil war, or both combined--had
+apparently become inevitable; and Marie Antoinette deceived herself if she
+thought that the armed congress of sovereigns, for which she was above all
+things anxious, could lead to any other result. In any ease, a congress
+must have produced one consequence which she deprecated as much as any
+other, a waste of time, while, as she truly said, her enemies never wasted
+a moment. Nor, with the very different views of the policy to be pursued,
+which the emperor and the King of Prussia entertained (Frederick being an
+advocate of an armed intervention in the affairs of France, which Leopold
+opposed as impracticable, and, if practicable, impolitic), was it easy to
+see how a congress could have brought those monarchs to agree on any
+united system of action. But all projects of that kind necessarily fell to
+the ground in consequence of the death of the emperor, which took place,
+after a very short illness, on the 1st of March, 1792; and before the end
+of the same month the royal family lost another warm friend in Gustavus of
+Sweden, who was assassinated in the very midst of preparations which he
+confidently hoped might contribute to deliver his brother sovereign from
+his troubles.
+
+Marie Antoinette spoke truly when she said that the enemies of the crown
+never lost time. The very prospect of war increased the divisions of the
+Assembly, since the Jacobins were undisguisedly averse to it. Not one of
+their body had any reputation for skill in arms, so that in the event of
+war it was evident that the chief commands, both in army and navy, must be
+conferred on persons unconnected with them; while the Girondins, though,
+as far as was yet known, equally destitute of members possessed of any
+military ability, looked on war as favorable to their designs, whatever
+might be the issue of a campaign. They were above all things eager for the
+destruction of the monarchy, and they reckoned that if the French army
+were victorious, its success would disable those who were most willing and
+might be most able to support the throne; while, if the enemy should
+prevail, it would be easy to represent their triumph as the fruit of the
+mismanagement, if not of the treachery, of the king's generals and
+ministers; and the opposition of these two parties was at this time so
+notorious that the queen thought it favorable to the king, since each
+would be eager to preserve him as a possible ally against its adversaries.
+It is for her husband's and her child's safety that she expresses anxiety,
+never for her own. With respect to herself her uniform language is that of
+fearlessness. She does not for a moment conceal from her correspondents
+her sense of the dangers which surround her. She has not only open
+hostility to fear, but treachery, which is far worse; and she declares
+that "a perpetual imprisonment in a solitary tower on the sea-shore would
+be a less cruel fate than that which she daily endures from the wickedness
+of her enemies and the weakness of her friends. Every thing menaces an
+inevitable catastrophe; but she is prepared for every thing. She has
+learned from her mother not to fear death. That may as well come to-day as
+to-morrow. She only fears for her dear children, and for those she loves;
+and high among those whom she loves she places her sister-in-law
+Elizabeth, who is always an angel aiding her to support her sorrows, and
+who, with her poor, dear children, never quits her.[1]"
+
+A long continuance of sorrows and fears, such as had now for nearly three
+years pressed upon the writer of this letter, would so wear away and break
+down ordinary souls that, when a crisis came, they would be found wholly
+unequal to grapple with it; and we may therefore the better form some idea
+of the strength of mind and almost superhuman fortitude of this admirable
+queen, if, from time to time, we fix our attention on these not
+exaggerated complaints, for indeed the misfortunes that elicited them
+admit of no exaggeration; and then remember that, after so long a period
+of such uninterrupted suffering, her spirit was so far from being broken,
+that, as increasing dangers and horrors thickened around her, her courage
+seemed to increase also. Her faithful attendant, Madame de Campan, has
+remarked that her troubles had not even affected her temper; that no one
+ever saw her out of humor. In every respect, to the very last, she showed
+herself superior to the utmost malice of her enemies.
+
+The news of the death of Leopold, whose son and successor, Francis, was
+but three-and-twenty years of age, gave fresh encouragement to his
+sister's enemies. The intelligence had hardly reached Paris when Vergniaud
+began to prepare the way for a fresh assault on the crown by a
+denunciation of the ministers, while the Jacobins and Cordeliers made an
+open attack upon another club which the Constitutionalists had lately
+formed under the name of Les Feuillants, holding its meetings in a convent
+of the Monks of St. Bernard,[2] and closed it by main force. Though
+several soldiers, and La Fayette among them, were members of the
+Feuillants, they made no resistance; they only applied to Petion, as mayor
+of the city, for protection; and that worthy magistrate refused them aid,
+telling them that though the law forbade them to be attacked, the voice of
+the people was against them, and to that voice he was bound to listen.
+
+The ministers fell before Vergniaud, and the unhappy king had no resource
+but to choose their successors from the party which had triumphed over
+them. The absurd law by which the last Assembly had excluded its members
+from office was still in force, so that the orator himself and his
+colleagues could obtain no personal promotion; but they were able to
+nominate the new ministers, who, with but one exception, were all men
+equally devoid of ability and reputation, and therefore were the better
+fitted to be the tools of those to whom they owed their preferment. The
+names of three were Lacoste, Degraves, and Duranton, of whom nothing
+beyond their names is known. A fourth was Roland, who was indeed known,
+though not for any abilities of his own, but as the husband of the woman
+who, as has been already mentioned, was the first person in the whole
+nation to raise the cry for the murder of the king and queen, and whose
+fierce thirst for blood so predominated over every other feeling that a
+few weeks afterward she even began to urge the assassination of the only
+one among her husband's colleagues who was possessed of the slightest
+ability because his views did not altogether coincide with her own.
+
+General Dumouriez, whom she thus honored by singling him out for her
+especial hatred, was an exception to his colleagues in several points. He
+was a man of middle age, who enjoyed a good reputation, not only for
+military skill, but also for diplomatic sagacity and address, earned as
+far back as the latter years of the preceding reign; and he was so far
+from being originally imbued with revolutionary principles that, when, in
+the summer of 1789, a mutinous spirit first appeared among the troops in
+Paris, he volunteered to place his services at the king's disposal,
+recommending measures of vigor and resolution, which, if they had been
+adopted, might have quelled the spirit of rebellion, and have changed the
+whole subsequent history of the nation. But as Necker had rejected
+Mirabeau a few weeks before, so he also rejected Dumouriez; and discontent
+at the treatment which he received from the minister, and which seemed to
+prove that active employment, of which he was desirous, could only be
+obtained through some other influence, drove the general into the ranks of
+the Revolutionary party. He now accepted the post of foreign secretary in
+the new ministry; but the connection with the enemies of the monarchy was
+uncongenial to his taste; and, after a short time, the frequent
+intercourse with Louis, which was the necessary consequence of his
+appointment, and the conviction of the king's perfect honesty and
+patriotism which this intercourse forced upon him, revived his old
+feelings of loyalty, and, so long as he remained in office, he honestly
+endeavored to avert the evils which he foresaw, and to give the advice and
+to support the policy by which, in his honest belief, it was alone
+possible for Louis to preserve his authority.
+
+Dumouriez was a gentleman in birth and manners; but his colleagues had so
+little of either the habits or appearance of decent society that the
+attendants on the royal family gave them the name of the Sans-culottes;
+and this name, meant originally to describe the absence of the ordinary
+court dress, without which no previous ministers had ever ventured to
+appear in the presence of royalty, was presently adopted as a distinctive
+title by the whole body of the extreme revolutionists, who knew the value
+of a name under which to bind their followers together.[3]
+
+The attacks on the ministry were accompanied with more direct attacks on
+the king and queen themselves than had ever been ventured on in the former
+Assembly. By this time the system of espial and treachery by which they
+were surrounded had become so systematic that they could not even send a
+messenger to their nephew, the emperor, except under a feigned name;[4]
+and the Baron de Breteuil, who announced his mission to Francis, reported
+to him at the same time that the chiefs of the Assembly were proposing to
+pass votes suspending the "king from his functions, and to separate the
+queen from him on the ground that an impeachment was to be presented
+against both, as having solicited the late emperor to form a confederacy
+among the great powers of Europe in favor of the royal prerogative." The
+queen was, in fact, now, as always, more the object of their hatred than
+her husband, and toward the end of March a reconciliation of all her
+enemies took place, that the attack upon her might be combined with a
+strength that should insure its success. The Marquis de Condorcet, a man
+of some eminence in philosophy, as the word had been understood since the
+reign of the Encyclopedists, and closely connected with the Girondins,
+though not formally enrolled in their party, gave a supper, at which the
+Duc d'Orleans formally reconciled himself to La Fayette; and both, in
+company with Brissot and the Abbe Sieyes, who of late had scarcely been
+heard of, drew up an indictment against the queen.[5] Their malignity even
+went the length of resolving to separate the dauphin from his mother, on
+the plea of providing for his education; but the means which the Girondins
+took to secure their triumph for the moment defeated them. La Fayette did
+not keep the secret. One of his friends gave information to the king of
+the plot that was in contemplation, and the next day the
+Constitutionalists mustered in the Assembly in such strength that neither
+Girondins nor Jacobins dared bring forward the infamous proposal.
+
+But Louis and Marie Antoinette reasonably regarded the attack on them as
+only postponed, not as defeated or abandoned. They began to prepare for
+the worst. They burned most of their papers, and removed into the custody
+of friends whom they could trust those which they regarded as too valuable
+to destroy; and at the same time they sent notice to their partisans to
+cease writing to them. They could neither venture to send nor to receive
+letters. They believed that at this time the plan of their enemies was to
+terrify them into repeating their attempt to escape; an attempt of which
+the espial and treachery with which they were surrounded would have
+insured the failure, but which would have given the Jacobins a pretext for
+their trial and condemnation. But this scheme they could themselves defeat
+by remaining at their posts. Patience and courage was their only possible
+defense, and with those qualities they were richly endowed.
+
+A vital difference of principle distinguished the old from the new
+ministry: the former had wished to preserve, the majority of the latter
+were resolved to destroy, the throne; and the means by which each sought
+to attain its end were as diametrically opposite as the ends themselves.
+Bertrand and De Lessart, the ministers who, in the late administration,
+had enjoyed most of the king and queen's confidence, had been studious to
+preserve peace, believing that policy to be absolutely essential for the
+safety of Louis himself. Because they entertained the same opinion, the
+new ministers were eager for war; and, unhappily Dumouriez, in spite of
+his desire to uphold the throne, was animated by the same feeling. His own
+talents and tastes were warlike, and his office enabled him to gratify
+them in this instance. For the conciliatory tone which De Lessart had
+employed toward the Imperial Government, he now substituted a language not
+only imperious, but menacing. Prince Kaunitz, who still presided over the
+administration at Vienna, attached though he was to the system of policy
+which he had inaugurated under Maria Teresa, could not avoid replying in a
+similar strain, until at last, on the 20th of April, Louis, sorely against
+his will, was compelled to announce to the Assembly that all his efforts
+for the preservation of peace had failed, and to propose an instant
+declaration of war.
+
+The declaration was voted with enthusiasm; but for some time it brought
+nothing but disaster. The campaign was opened in the Netherlands, where
+the Austrians, taken by surprise, were so weak in numbers that it seemed
+certain that they would be driven from the country without difficulty or
+delay. Marshal Beaulieu, their commander-in-chief, had scarcely twenty
+thousand men, while the Count de Narbonne had left the French army in so
+good a condition that Degraves, his successor, was able to send a hundred
+and thirty thousand men against him; and Dumouriez furnished him with a
+plan for an invasion of the Netherlands, which, if properly carried out,
+would have made the French masters of the whole country in a few days. But
+the largest division of the army, to which the execution of the most
+important portions of the intended operations was intrusted, had been
+placed under the command of La Fayette, who proved equally devoid of
+resolution and of skill. Some of his regiments showed a disorderly and
+insubordinate temper. One battalion first mutinied and murdered some of
+its officers, and then disgraced itself by cowardice in the field. Another
+displayed an almost equal want of courage; and La Fayette, disheartened
+and perplexed, though the number of his troops still more than doubled
+those opposed to him, retreated into France, and remained there in a state
+of complete inactivity.
+
+But, as has been said before, disaster was almost as favorable to the
+political views of the Girondins as success, while it added to the dangers
+of the sovereigns by encouraging the Jacobins, who were elated at the
+failure of a general so hateful to them as La Fayette. They now adopted a
+party emblem, a red cap; and the Duc d'Orleans and his son, the Duc de
+Chartres,[6] assumed it, and with studied insult paraded in it up and down
+the gardens of the palace, under the queen's windows; and if the two
+factions did not formally coalesce, they both proceeded with greater
+boldness than ever toward their desired object, not greatly differing as
+to the means by which it was to be attained.
+
+The palace was now indeed a scene of misery. The king's apathy was
+degenerating into despair. At one time he was so utterly prostrated that
+he remained for ten days absolutely silent, never uttering a word except
+to name his throws when playing at backgammon with Elizabeth. At last the
+queen roused him from his torpor, throwing herself at his feet, and
+mingling caresses with her expostulations; entreating him to remember what
+he owed to his family, and reminding him that, if they must perish, it was
+better at least to perish with honor, and be king to the last, than to
+wait passively till assassins should come and murder them in their own
+rooms. She herself was in a condition in which nothing but her indomitable
+courage prevented her from utterly breaking down. Sleep had deserted her.
+By day she rarely ventured out-of-doors. Riding she had given up, and she
+feared to walk in the garden of the Tuileries, even in the little portion
+marked off for the dauphin's playground, lest she should expose herself to
+the coarse insults which, the basest of hirelings were ever on the watch
+to offer her.[7] She could not even venture to go openly to mass at
+Easter, but was forced to arrange for one of her chaplains to perform the
+service for her before daylight. Balked of their wish to offer her
+personal insults, her enemies redoubled their diligence in inventing and
+spreading libels. The demagogues of the Palais Royal revived the stories
+of her subservience to the interests of Austria, and even sent letters
+forged in her name to different members of the Assembly, inviting them to
+private conferences with her in the apartments of Madame de Lamballe. But
+she treated all such attacks with lofty disdain, and was even greatly
+annoyed when she learned that the chief of the police, with the king's
+sanction, had bought up a life of Madame La Mothe, in which that infamous
+woman pretended to give a true account of the affair of her necklace, and
+had had it burned in the manufactory of Sevres. She thought, with some
+reason, that to take a step which seemed to show a dread of such attacks
+was the surest way to encourage more of them, and that apparent
+indifference to them was the only line of action consistent with her
+innocence or with her dignity.
+
+The increasing dangers of her position moved the pity of some who had once
+been her enemies, and sharpened their desire to serve her. Barnave, who
+probably overrated his present influence[8] in many letters pressed his
+advice upon her; of which the substance was that she should lay aside her
+distrust of the Constitutionalist party, and, with the king, throw herself
+wholly on the Constitution, to which the nation was profoundly attached.
+He even admitted that it was not without defects; but held out a hope
+that, with the aid of the Royalists, he and his friends might be able to
+amend them, and in time to re-invest the throne with all necessary
+splendor. And the queen was so touched by his evident earnestness that she
+granted him an audience, and assured him of her esteem and confidence.
+Barnave was partly correct in his judgment, but he overlooked one
+all-essential circumstance. There is no doubt that he spoke truly when he
+declared that the nation in general was attached to the Constitution; but
+he failed to give sufficient weight to the consideration that the Jacobins
+and Girondins were agreed in seeking to overthrow it, and that for that
+object they were acting with a concert and an energy to which he and his
+party were strangers.
+
+Dumouriez too was equally earnest in his desire to serve the king and her,
+with far greater power to be useful than Barnave. He too was admitted to
+an audience, of which he has left us an account which, while it shows both
+his notions of the state of the country and of the rival parties, and also
+his own sincerity, is no less characteristic of the queen herself.
+Admitted to her presence, he found her, as he describes the interview,
+looking very red, walking up and down the room with impetuous strides, in
+an agitation which presaged a stormy discussion. The different events
+which had taken place since the king in the preceding autumn had ratified
+the Constitution, the furious language held in, and the violent measures
+carried by, the Assembly, had evidently changed her belief in the
+possibility of attempting, even for a short time, to carry on the
+Government under the conditions imposed by that act. She came toward him
+with an air which was at once majestic and yet showed irritation, and
+said:
+
+"You, sir, are all-powerful at this moment; but it is only by the favor of
+the people, which soon breaks its idols to pieces. Your existence depends
+on your conduct. You are said to have great talents. You must see that
+neither the king nor I can endure all these novelties nor the
+Constitution. I tell you this frankly. Now choose your side."
+
+To this fervid apostrophe Dumouriez replied in a tone which he intended to
+combine a sorrowful tenderness with loyal respect:
+
+"Madame," said he, "I am overwhelmed with the painful confidence which
+your majesty has reposed in me. I will not betray it; but I am placed
+between the king and the nation, and I belong to my country. Permit me to
+represent to you that the safety of the king, of yourself, and of your
+august children is bound up with the Constitution, as well as is the
+re-establishment of the king's legitimate authority. You are both
+surrounded with enemies who are sacrificing you to their own interests."
+The unfortunate queen, shocked as well as surprised at this opposition to
+her views, replied, raising her voice,  "That will not last; take care of
+yourself."  "Madame," replied he, in his turn, "I am more than fifty years
+old. My life has been passed in countless dangers, and when I took office
+I reflected deeply that its responsibility was not the greatest of its
+perils." "This was alone wanting," cried out the queen, with an accent of
+indignant grief, and as if astonished herself at her own vehemence.
+
+"This alone was wanting to calumniate me! You seem to suppose that I am
+capable of causing you to be assassinated!" and she burst into tears.
+Dumouriez was as agitated as she was. "God forbid," he replied, "that I
+should do you such an injustice!" And he added some flattering expressions
+of attachment, such as he thought calculated to soothe a mind so proud,
+yet so crushed. And presently she calmed herself, and came up to him,
+putting her hand on his arm; and he resumed: "Believe me, madame, I have
+no object in deceiving you; I abhor anarchy and crime as much as you do.
+Believe me, I have experience; I am better placed than your majesty for
+judging of events. This is not a short-lived popular movement, as you seem
+to think. It is the almost unanimous insurrection of a great nation
+against inveterate abuses. There are great factions which fan this flame.
+In all factions there are many scoundrels and many madmen. In the
+Revolution I see nothing but the king and the entire nation. Every thing
+which tends to separate them tends to their mutual ruin: I am laboring as
+much as I can to reunite them. It is for you to help me. If I am an
+obstacle to your designs, and if you persist in thinking so, tell me so.
+and I will at once send in my resignation to the king, and will retire
+into a corner to grieve over the fate of my country and of you."  And he
+concludes his narrative by expressing his belief that he had regained the
+queen's confidence by his frank explanation of his views, while he himself
+in his turn was evidently fascinated by the affability with which, after a
+brief further conversation, she dismissed him.[9] Though, if we may trust
+Madame de Campan, Marie Antoinette was not as satisfied as she had seemed
+to be, but declared that it was not possible for her to place confidence
+in his protestations when she recollected his former language and acts,
+and the party with which he was even now acting.
+
+Madame de Campan probably gives a more correct report of the queen's
+feelings than the general himself, whom the consciousness of his own
+integrity of purpose very probably misled into believing that he had
+convinced her of it. But, though, if Marie Antoinette did listen to his
+professions and advice with some degree of mistrust, she undoubtedly did
+him less than justice: she can hardly be blamed for indulging such a
+feeling, when it is remembered in what an atmosphere of treachery she had
+lived for the last three years. Undoubtedly Dumouriez, though not a
+thorough-going Royalist like M. Bertrand, was not only in intention an
+honest and friendly counselor, but was by far the ablest adviser who had
+had access to her since the death of Mirabeau, and in one respect was a
+more judicious and trustworthy adviser than even that brilliant and
+fertile statesman; since he did not fall into the error of miscalculating
+what was practical, or of overrating his own influence with the Assembly
+or the nation.
+
+Yet, had the king and queen adopted his views ever so unreservedly, it may
+well be doubted whether they would have averted or even deferred the fate
+which awaited them. The leaders of the two parties, before whose union
+they fell, had as little attachment to the new Constitution as the queen.
+The moment that they obtained the undisputed ascendency, they trampled it
+underfoot in every one of its provisions. Constitution or no Constitution,
+they were determined to overthrow the throne and to destroy those to whom
+it belonged; and to men animated with such a resolution it signified
+little what pretext might be afforded them by any actions of their
+destined victims. The wolf never yet wanted a plea for devouring the lamb.
+
+One of the first fruits of the union between the Jacobins and the
+Girondins was the preparation of an insurrection. The Assembly did not
+move fast enough for them. It might be still useful as an auxiliary, but
+the lead in the movement the clubs assumed to themselves. Their first care
+was to deprive the king of all means of resistance, and with this view to
+get rid of the Constitutional Guard, the commander of which was still the
+gallant Duke de Brissac, a noble-minded and faithful adherent of Louis
+amidst all his distresses. But it was not easy to find any ground for
+disbanding a force which was too small to be formidable to any but
+traitors; and the pretext which was put forward was so preposterous that
+it could excite no feeling but that of amusement, if the object aimed at
+were not too serious and shocking for laughter. At Easter the dauphin had
+presented the mess of the regiment with a cake, one of the ornaments of
+which was a small white flag taken from among his own toys. Petion now
+issued orders to search the officers' quarters for this child's flag, and,
+when it was found, one of the Jacobin members was not ashamed to produce
+it to the Assembly as a proof that the court was meditating a counter-
+revolution and a massacre of the patriots, and to propose the instant
+dissolution of the Guard. The motion was carried, though some of the
+Constitutionalist party had the honesty to oppose it, as one which could
+have only regicide for its object; and Louis did not dare refuse it his
+assent.
+
+He was now wholly disarmed. To render his defeat in the impending struggle
+more certain, one of the ministers, Servan, himself proposed a levy of
+twenty thousand fresh soldiers, to be stationed permanently at Paris, and
+this motion also was passed. Again Louis could not venture to withhold his
+sanction from the bill, though he comforted himself by dismissing the
+mover, with two of his colleagues, Roland and Claviere. Roland's dismissal
+had indeed become indispensable, since, on the preceding day, he had had
+the audacity to write him an insolent letter, composed by his ferocious
+wife, which in express terms threatened him with death "if he did not give
+satisfaction to the Revolution.[10]" Nor was Madame Roland inclined to be
+satisfied with the murder of the king and queen. As has been already
+mentioned, she at the same time urged upon her submissive husband the
+assassination of Dumouriez, who, having intelligence of her enmity, began
+in self-defense to connect himself with the Jacobins. On the dismissal of
+Roland and the others, he had exchanged the foreign port-folio for that of
+war, and was practically the prime minister, being in fact the only one
+whom Louis admitted to any degree of confidence; but this arrangement
+lasted less than a single week. Louis had yielded to and adopted his
+advice on every point but one. He had sanctioned the dismissal of the
+Constitutional Guard, and the formation of the new body of troops, which,
+no one doubted, was intended to be used against himself; but he was as
+firmly convinced as ever that his religious duty bound him to refuse his
+assent to the decree against the priests, and he refused to do a violence
+to his conscience, and to commit what he regarded as a sin. But this very
+decree was the one which Dumouriez regarded as the most dangerous one for
+him to reject, as being that which the Assembly was most firmly resolved
+to make law; and, as his most vigorous remonstrances failed to shake the
+king's resolution on this point, he resigned his post as a minister, and
+repaired to the Flemish frontier to take the command of the army, which
+greatly needed an able leader.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+The Insurrection of June 20th.
+
+
+Both Jacobins and Girondins felt that the departure of Dumouriez from
+Paris had removed a formidable obstacle from their path, and they at once
+began to hurry forward the preparations for their meditated insurrection.
+The general gave in his resignation on the 15th of June, and the 20th was
+fixed for an attack on the palace, by which its contrivers designed to
+effect the overthrow of the throne, if not the destruction of the entire
+royal family. It was organized with unusual deliberation. The meetings of
+conspirators were attended not only by the Girondin leaders, to whom
+Madame Roland had recently added a new recruit, a young barrister from the
+South, named Barbaroux, remarkable for his personal beauty, and, as was
+soon seen, for a pitiless hardness of heart, and energetic delight in
+deeds of cruelty that, even in that blood-thirsty company, was equaled by
+few; with them met all those as yet most notorious for ferocity--Danton
+and Legendre, the founders of the Cordeliers; Marat, daily, in his obscene
+and blasphemous newspaper, clamoring for wholesale bloodshed; Santerre,
+odious as the sanguinary leader of the very first outbreaks of the
+Revolution; Rotondo, already, as we have seen, detected in attempting to
+assassinate the queen; and Petion, who thus repaid her preference of him
+to La Fayette, which had placed him in the mayoralty, whose duties he was
+now betraying. Some, too, bore a part in the foul conspiracy as partisans
+of the Duc d'Orleans, who were generally understood to have instructions
+to be lavish of their master's gold, the vile prince hoping that the
+result of the outbreak would be the assassination of his cousin, and his
+own elevation to the vacant throne. In their speeches they gave Louis the
+name of Monsieur Veto, in allusion to the still legal exercise of his
+prerogative, by which he had sought to protect the priests; while the
+queen was called Madame Veto, though in fact she had finally joined
+Dumouriez in urging her husband to give his royal assent to the decree
+against them, not, as thinking it on any pretense justifiable, but as
+believing, with the general, in the impossibility of maintaining its
+rejection. Yet nothing could more completely prove the absolute innocence
+and unimpeachable good faith of both king and queen than the act of his
+enemies in giving them this nickname; so clear an evidence was it that
+they could allege nothing more odious against them than the possession by
+Louis, in a most modified degree, of a prerogative which, without any
+modification at all, has in every country been at all times regarded as
+indispensable to, and inseparable from, royalty; and the exercise of it
+for the defense of a body of men of whom none could deny the entire
+harmlessness.
+
+On the night of the 19th the appointed leaders of the different bands into
+which the insurgents were to be divided separated; the watch-word,
+"Destruction to the palace," was given out; and all Paris waited in
+anxious terror for the events of the morrow. Louis was as well aware as
+any of the citizens of the intended attack, and prepared for it as for
+death. On the afternoon of the 19th he wrote to his confessor to desire
+him to come to him at once. "He had never," he said, "had such need of his
+consolations. He had done with this world, and his thoughts were now fixed
+on Heaven alone. Great calamities were announced for the morrow; but he
+felt that he had courage to meet them." And after the holy man had left
+him, as he gazed on the setting sun he once more gave utterance to his
+forebodings. "Who can tell," said he, "whether it be not the last that I
+shall ever see?" The Royalists felt his danger almost as keenly as
+himself, but were powerless to prevent it by any means of their own. The
+Duke de Liancourt, who had some title to be listened to by the
+Revolutionary party, since no one had been more zealous in promoting the
+most violent measures of the first Assembly, pressed earnestly on Petion
+that his duty as mayor bound him to call out the National Guards, and so
+prevent the intended outbreak, but was answered by sarcasms and insults;
+while Vergniaud, from the tribune of the Assembly itself, dared to deride
+all who apprehended danger.
+
+On the morning of the 20th, daylight had scarcely dawned when twenty
+thousand men, the greater part of whom were armed with some weapon or
+other--muskets, pikes, hatchets, crowbars, and even spits from the
+cook-shops forming part of their equipment--assembled on the place where
+the Bastile had stood. Santerre was already there on horseback as their
+appointed leader; and, when all were collected and marshaled in three
+divisions, they began their march. One division had for its chief the
+Marquis de St. Huruge, an intimate friend and adherent of the Duc
+d'Orleans; at the head of another, a woman of notorious infamy, known as
+La Belle Liegeoise, clad in male attire, rode astride upon a cannon;
+while, as it advanced, the crowd was every moment swelled by vast bodies
+of recruits, among whom were numbers of women, whose imprecations in
+ferocity and foulness surpassed even the foulest threats of the men.
+
+The ostensible object of the procession was to present petitions to the
+king and the Assembly on the dismissal of Roland and his colleagues from
+the administration, and on the refusal of the royal assent to the decree
+against the priests. The real design of those who had organized it was
+more truthfully shown by the banners and emblems borne aloft in the ranks.
+"Beware the Lamp,[1]" was the inscription on one. "Death to Veto and his
+wife," was read upon another. A gang of butchers carried a calf's heart on
+the point of a pike, with "The Heart of an Aristocrat" for a motto. A band
+of crossing-sweepers, or of men who professed to be such, though the
+fineness of their linen was inconsistent with the rags which were their
+outward garments, had for their standard a pair of ragged breeches, with
+the inscription, "Tremble, tyrants; here are the Sans-culottes." One gang
+of ruffians carried a model of a guillotine. Another bore aloft a
+miniature gallows with an effigy of the queen herself hanging from it. So
+great was the crowd that it was nearly three in the afternoon before the
+head of it reached the Assembly, where its approach had raised a debate on
+the propriety of receiving any petition at all which was to be presented
+in so menacing a guise; M. Roederer, the procurator-syndic, or chief legal
+officer of the department of Paris, recommending its rejection, on the
+ground that such a procession was illegal, not only because of its avowed
+object of forcing its way to the king, but also because it was likely to
+lead into acts of violence even if it had not premeditated them.
+
+His arguments were earnestly supported by the constitutionalists, and
+opposed and ridiculed by Vergniaud. But before the discussion was over,
+the rioters, who had now reached the hall, took the decision into their
+own hands, forced open the door, and put forward a spokesman to read what
+they called a petition, but which was in truth a sanguinary denunciation
+of those whom it proclaimed the enemies of the nation, and of whom it
+demanded that "the land should be purged." Insolent and ferocious as it
+was, it, however, coincided with the feelings of the Girondins, who were
+now the masters of the Assembly. One orator carried a motion that the
+petitioners should receive what were called the honors of the Assembly;
+or, in other words, should be allowed to enter the hall with their arms
+and defile before them. They poured in with exulting uproar. Songs, half
+blood-thirsty and half obscene, gestures indicative some of murder, some
+of debauchery, cries of "Vive la nation!" interspersed with inarticulate
+yells, were the sounds, the guillotine and the queen upon the gallows were
+the sights, which were thought in character with the legislature of a
+people which still claimed to be regarded as the pattern of civilization
+by all Europe. Evening approached before the last of the rabble had passed
+through the hall; and by that time the leading ranks were in front of the
+Tuileries.
+
+There were but scanty means of resisting them. A few companies of the
+National Guard formed the whole protection of the palace; and with them
+the agents of Orleans and the Girondins had been briskly tampering all the
+morning. Many had been seduced. A few remained firm in their loyalty; but
+those on whom the royal family had the best reason to rely were a band of
+gentlemen, with the veteran Marshal de Noailles at their head, who had
+repaired to the Tuileries in the morning to furnish to their sovereign
+such defense as could be found in their loyal and devoted gallantry. Some
+of them besides the old marshal, the Count d'Hervilly, who had commanded
+the cavalry of the Constitutional Guard, and M. d'Acloque, an officer of
+the National Guard, brought military experience to aid their valor, and
+made such arrangements as the time and character of the building rendered
+practicable to keep the rioters at bay. But the utmost bravery of such a
+handful of men, for they were no more, and even the more solid resistance
+of iron gates and barriers, were unavailing against the thousands that
+assailed them. Exasperated at finding the gates closed against them, the
+rioters began to beat upon them with sledge-hammers. Presently they were
+joined by Sergent and Panis, two of the municipal magistrates, who ordered
+the sentinels to open the gates to the sovereign people. The sentinels
+fled; the gates were opened or broken down; the mob seized one of the
+cannons which stood in the Place du Carrousel, carried it up the stairs of
+the palace, and planted it against the door of the royal apartments; and,
+while they shouted out a demand that the king should show himself, they
+began to batter the door as before they had battered the gates, and
+threatened, if it should not yield to their hatchets, to blow it down with
+cannon-shot.
+
+Fear of personal danger was not one of the king's weaknesses. The hatchets
+beat down the outer door, and, as it fell, he came forth from the room
+behind, and with unruffled countenance accosted the ruffians who were
+pouring through it. His sister, the Princess Elizabeth, was at his side.
+He had charged those around him to keep the queen back; and she, knowing
+how special an object of the popular hatred and fury she was, with a
+fortitude beyond that which defies death, remained out of sight lest she
+should add to his danger. For a moment the mob, respecting, in spite of
+themselves, the calm heroism with which they were confronted, paused in
+their onset; but those in front were pushed on by those behind, and pikes
+were leveled and blows were aimed at both the king and the princess, whom
+they mistook for the queen. At first there were but one or two attendants
+at the king's side, but they were faithful and brave men. One struck down
+a ruffian who was lifting his weapon to aim a blow at Louis himself. A
+pike was even leveled at his sister, when her equerry, M. Bousquet, too
+far off to bring her the aid of his right hand, called out, "Spare the
+princess." Delicate as were her frame and features, Elizabeth was worthy
+of her blood, and as dauntless as the rest. She turned to her preserver
+almost reproachfully: "Why did you undeceive him? it might have saved the
+queen." But after a few seconds, Acloque with some grenadiers of the
+National Guard on whom he could still rely, hastened up by a back
+staircase to defend his sovereign; and, with the aid of some of the
+gentlemen who had come with the Marshal de Noailles, drew the king back
+into a recess formed by a window; and raised a rampart of benches in front
+of him, and one still more trustworthy of their own bodies. They would
+gladly have attacked the rioters and driven them back, but were restrained
+by Louis himself. "Put up your swords," said he; "this crowd is excited
+rather than wicked." And he addressed those who had forced their way into
+the room with words of condescending conciliation. They replied with
+threats and imprecations; and sought to force their way onward, pressing
+back by their mere numbers and weight the small group of loyal champions
+who by this time had gathered in front of him.
+
+So great was the uproar that presently a report reached the main body of
+the insurgents, who were still in the garden beneath, that Louis had been
+killed; and they mingled shouts of triumph with cheers for Orleans as
+their new king, and demanded that the heads of the king and queen should
+be thrown down to them from the windows; but no actual injury was
+inflicted on Louis, though he owed his safety more to his own calmness
+than even to the devotion of his guards. One ruffian threatened him with
+instant death if he did not at once grant every prayer contained in their
+petition. He replied, as composedly as if he had been on his throne at
+Versailles, that the present was not the time for making such a demand,
+nor was this the way in which to make it. The dignity of the answer seemed
+to imply a contempt for the threateners, and the mob grew more uproarious.
+"Fear not, sire," said one of Acloque's grenadiers, "we are around you."
+The king took the man's hand and placed it on his heart, which was beating
+more calmly than that of the soldier himself. "Judge yourself," said he,
+"if I fear." Legendre, the butcher, raised his pike as if to strike him,
+while he reproached him as a traitor and the enemy of his country. "I am
+not, and never have been aught but the sincerest friend of my people," was
+the gentle but fearless answer. "If it be so, put on this red cap," and
+the butcher thrust one into his hand on the end of his pike, prepared, as
+Louis believed, to plunge the weapon itself into his breast if he refused.
+The king put it on, and so little regarded it that he forgot to remove it
+again, as he afterward repented that he had not done, thinking that his
+conduct in allowing it to remain on his head bore too strong a resemblance
+to fear or to an unworthy compromise of his dignity.
+
+But still the uproar increased, and above it rose loud cries for the
+queen, till at last she also came forward. As yet, from the motives that
+have already been mentioned, she had consented to remain out of sight; but
+each explosion of the mob increased her unwillingness to keep back. It
+was, she felt, her duty to be always at the king's side; if need be, to
+die with him; to stand aloof was infamy; and at last, as the demands for
+her appearance increased, even those around her confessed that it might be
+safer for her to show herself. The door was thrown open, and, leading
+forth her children, from whom she refused to part, and accompanied by
+Madame de Tourzel, Madame de Lamballe, and others of her ladies, the most
+timid of whom seemed as if inspired by her example, Marie Antoinette
+advanced and took her place by the side of her husband, and, with head
+erect and color heightened by the sight of her enemies, faced them
+disdainfully. As lions in their utmost rage have recoiled before a man who
+has looked them steadily in the face, so did even those miscreants quail
+before their pure and high-minded queen. At first it seemed as if her
+bitterest enemies were to be found among her own sex. The men were for a
+moment silenced; but a young girl, whose appearance was not that of the
+lowest class, came forward and abused her in coarse and furious language,
+especially reviling her as "the Austrian." The queen, astonished at
+finding such animosity in one apparently tender and gentle, condescended
+to expostulate with her. "Why do you hate me? I have never injured you."
+"You have not injured me, but it is you who cause the misery of the
+nation." "Poor child," replied Marie Antoinette, "they have deceived you.
+I am the wife of your king, the mother of your dauphin, who will be your
+king. I am a Frenchwoman in every feeling of my heart. I shall never again
+see Austria. I can only be happy or unhappy in France, and I was happy
+when you loved me." The girl was melted by her patience and gentleness.
+She burst into tears of shame, and begged pardon for her previous conduct.
+"I did not know you," she said; "I see now that you are good.[2]" Another
+asked her, "How old is your girl?" "She is old enough," replied the queen,
+"to feel acutely such scenes as these." But, while these brief
+conversations were going on, the crowd kept pressing forward. One officer
+had drawn a table in front of the queen as she advanced, so as to screen
+her from actual contact with any of the rioters, but more than one of them
+stretched across it as if to reach her. One fellow demanded that she
+should put a red cap, which he threw to her, on the head of the dauphin,
+and, as she saw the king wearing one, she consented; but it was too large
+and fell down the child's face, almost stifling him with its thickness.
+Santerre himself reached across and removed it, and, leaning with his
+hands on the table, which shook beneath his vehemence, addressed her with
+what he meant for courtesy. "Princess," said he, "do not fear. The French
+people do not wish to slay you. I promise this in their name." Marie
+Antoinette had long ago declared that her heart had become French; it was
+too much so for her to allow such a man's claim to be the spokesman of the
+nation. "It is not by such as you," she replied, with lofty scorn; "it is
+not by such as you that I judge of the French people, but by brave men
+like these;" and she pointed to the gentlemen who were standing round her
+as her champions, and to the faithful grenadiers. The well-timed and
+well-deserved compliment roused them to still greater enthusiasm, but
+already the danger was passing away.
+
+The Assembly had seen with indifference the departure of the mob to attack
+the Tuileries, and had proceeded with its ordinary business as if nothing
+were likely to happen which could call for its interference. But when the
+uproar within the palace became audible in the hall, the Count de Dumas,
+one of the very few men of noble birth who had been returned to this
+second Assembly, with a few other deputies of the better class, hastened
+to see what was taking place, and, quickly returning, reported the king's
+imminent danger to their colleagues. Dumas gave such offense by the
+boldness of his language that some of the Jacobins threatened him with
+violence, but he refused to be silenced; and his firmness prevailed, as
+firmness nearly always did prevail in an Assembly where, though there were
+many fierce and vehement blusterers, there were very few men of real
+courage. In compliance with his vehement demand for instant action, a
+deputation of members was sent to take measures for the king's safety; and
+then, at last, Petion, who had carefully kept aloof while there seemed to
+be a chance of the king being murdered, now that he could no longer hope
+for such a consummation, repaired to the palace and presented himself
+before him. To him he had the effrontery to declare that he had only just
+become apprised of his situation. From the Assembly, at a later hour in
+the evening, he claimed the credit of having organized the riot. But Louis
+would not condescend to pretend to believe him. "It was extraordinary," he
+replied, "that Petion should not have earlier known what had lasted so
+long." Even he could not but be for a moment abashed at the king's
+unwonted expression of indignation. But he soon recovered himself, and
+with unequaled impudence turned and thanked the crowd for the moderation
+and dignity with which they had exercised the right of petition, and bid
+them "finish the day in similar conformity with the law, and retire to
+their homes." They obeyed. The interference of the deputies had convinced
+their leaders that they could not succeed in their purpose now. Santerre,
+whose softer mood, such as it had been, had soon passed away, muttered
+with a deep oath that they had missed their blow, but must try it again
+hereafter. For the present he led off his brigands; the palace and gardens
+were restored to quiet, though the traces of the assault to which they had
+been exposed could not easily be effaced; and Louis and his family were
+left in tranquillity to thank God for their escape, but to forebode also
+that similar trials were in store for them, all of which, it was not
+likely, would have so innocent a termination.[3]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+Feelings of Marie Antoinette.--Different Plans are formed for her Escape.
+--She hopes for Aid from Austria and Prussia.--La Fayette comes to Paris.
+--His Mismanagement.--An Attempt is made to assassinate the Queen.--The
+Motion of Bishop Lamourette.--The Feast of the Federation.--La Fayette
+proposes a Plan for the King's Escape.--Bertrand proposes Another.--Both
+are rejected by the Queen.
+
+
+We can do little more than guess at the feelings of Marie Antoinette after
+such a day of horrors. She could scarcely venture to write a letter, lest
+it should fall into hands for which it was not intended, and be
+misinterpreted so as to be mischievous to herself and to her
+correspondents. And two brief notes--one on the 4th of July to Mercy, and
+one written a day or two later to the Landgravine of Hesse-Darmstadt--are
+all that, so far as we know, proceeded from her pen in the sad period
+between the two attacks on the palace. Brief as they are, they are
+characteristic as showing her unshaken resolution to perform her duty to
+her family, and proving at the same time how absolutely free she was from
+any delusion as to the certain event of the struggle in which she was
+engaged. No courage was ever more entirely founded on high and virtuous
+principle, for no one was ever less sustained by hope. To Mercy she says:
+
+"July 4th, 1792.
+
+"You know the occurrences of the 20th of June. Our position becomes every
+day more critical. There is nothing but violence and rage on one side,
+weakness and inactivity on the other. We can reckon neither on the
+National Guard nor on the army. We do not know whether to remain in Paris,
+or to throw ourselves into some other place. It is more than time for the
+powers to speak out boldly. The 14th of July and the days which will
+follow it may become days of general mourning for France, and of regret to
+the powers who will have been too slow in explaining themselves. All is
+lost if the factions are not arrested in their wickedness by fear of
+impending chastisement. They are resolved on a republic at all risks. To
+arrive at that, they have determined to assassinate the king. It would be
+necessary that any manifesto[1] should make the National Assembly and
+Paris responsible for his life and the lives of his family.
+
+"In spite of all these dangers, we will not change our resolution. You may
+depend on this as much as I depend on your attachment. It is a pleasure to
+me to believe that you allow me a share of the attachment which bound you
+to my mother. And this is a moment to give me a great proof of it, in
+saving me and mine, if there be still time.[2]"
+
+The letter to the landgravine was one of reply to a proposal which that
+princess, who had long been one of her most attached friends, had lately
+made to her, that she should allow her brother, Prince George of
+Darmstadt, to carry out a plan by which, as he conceived, he could convey
+the queen and her children safely out of Paris; the enterprise being, as
+both he and his sister flattered themselves, greatly facilitated by the
+circumstance that the prince's person was wholly unknown in the French
+capital.
+
+"July, 1792.[3]
+
+"Your friendship and your anxiety for me have touched my very inmost soul.
+The person[4] who is about to return to you will explain the reasons which
+have detained him so long. He will also tell you that at present I do not
+dare to receive him in my own apartment. Yet it would have been very
+pleasant to talk to him about you, to whom I am so tenderly attached. No,
+my princess, while I feel all the kindness of your offers, I can not
+accept them. I am vowed for life to my duties, and to those beloved
+persons whose misfortunes I share, and who, whatever people may say of
+them, deserve to be regarded with interest by all the world for the
+courage with which they support their position. The bearer of this letter
+will be able to give you a detailed account of what is going on at
+present, and of the spirit of this place where we are living. I hear that
+he has seen much, and has formed very correct ideas. May all that we are
+now doing and suffering one day make our children happy! This is the only
+wish that I allow myself. Farewell, my princess; they have taken from me
+every thing except my heart, which will always remain constant in its love
+for you. Be sure of this; the loss of your love would be an evil which I
+could not endure. I embrace you tenderly. A thousand compliments to all
+yours. I am prouder than ever of having been born a German."
+
+In her mention of the 14th of July as likely to bring fresh dangers, she
+is alluding to the announcement of an intention of the Jacobins to hold a
+fresh festival to commemorate the destruction of the Bastile on the
+anniversary of that exploit; a celebration which she had ample reason to
+expect would furnish occasion for some fresh tumult and outrage. And we
+may remark that in one of these letters she rests her whole hope on
+foreign assistance; while in the other, she rejects foreign aid to escape
+from her almost hopeless position. But the key to her feeling in both
+cases is one and the same. Above all things she was a devoted, faithful
+wife and mother. To herself and her own safety she never gave a thought.
+Her first duty, she rightly judged, was to the king, and she looked to
+such a manifesto as she desired Austria and Prussia to issue, backed by
+the movements of a powerful army, as the measure which afforded the best
+prospect of saving her husband, who could hardly be trusted to save
+himself; while, for the very same reason, she refused to fly without him,
+even though flight might have saved her children, her son and heir, as
+well as herself, because it would have increased her husband's danger. In
+each case her decision was that of a brave and devoted wife, not perhaps
+in both instances judicious; for when Prussia did mingle in the contest,
+as it did in the first week in July, it evidently increased the perils of
+Louis, if indeed they were capable of aggravation, by giving the Jacobins
+a plea for raising the cry "that the country was in danger." But in the
+second case, in her refusal to flee, and to leave her husband by himself
+to confront the existing and impending dangers, she judged rightly and
+worthily of herself; and the only circumstance that has prevented her from
+receiving the credit due for her refusal to avail herself of Prince
+George's offer is that throughout the whole period of the Revolution her
+acts of disinterestedness and heroism are so incessant that single deeds
+of the kind are lost in the contemplation of her entire career during this
+long period of trial.
+
+It was the peculiar ill-fortune of Louis that more than once the very
+efforts made by people who desired to assist him increased his perils. The
+events of the 20th of June had shocked and alarmed even La Fayette. From
+the beginning of the Revolution he had vacillated between a desire for a
+republic and for a limited monarchy on something like the English pattern,
+without being able to decide which to prefer. He had shown himself willing
+to court a base popularity with the mob by heaping uncalled-for insults on
+the king and queen. But though he had coquetted with the ultra-
+revolutionists, and allowed them to make a tool of him, he had not nerve
+for the villainies which it was now clear that they meditated. He had no
+taste for bloodshed; and, though gifted with but little acuteness, he saw
+that the success of the Jacobins and Girondins would lead neither to a
+republic nor to a limited monarchy, but to anarchy; and he had discernment
+enough to dread that. He therefore now sincerely desired to save the
+king's life, and even what remained of his authority, especially if he
+could so order matters that their preservation should be seen to be his
+own work. He was conscious also that he could reckon on many allies in any
+effort which he might make for the prevention of further outrages. The
+more respectable portion of the Parisians viewed the recent outrages with
+disgust, sharpened by personal alarm. The dominion of Santerre and his
+gangs of destitute desperadoes was manifestly fraught with destruction to
+themselves as well as to the king. The greater part of the army under his
+command shared these feelings, and would gladly have followed him to Paris
+to crush the revolutionary clubs, and to inflict condign punishment on the
+authors and chief agents in the late insurrection. If he had but had the
+skill to avail himself of this favorable state of feeling, there can be
+little doubt that it was in his power at this moment to have established
+the king in the full exercise of all the authority vested in him by the
+Constitution, or even to have induced the Assembly to enlarge that
+authority. He so mismanaged matters that he only increased the king's
+danger, and brought general contempt and imminent danger on himself
+likewise. His enemies had more than once accused him of wishing to copy
+Cromwell. His friends had boasted that he would emulate Monk. But if he
+was too scrupulous for the audacious wickedness of the one, he proved
+himself equally devoid of the well-calculating shrewdness of the other.
+If, subsequently, he had any reason to congratulate himself on the result
+of his conduct, it was that, like the stork in the fable, after be had
+thrust his head into the mouth of the wolf, he was allowed to draw it out
+again in safety.
+
+Louis's enemies had abundantly shown that they did not lack boldness. If
+they were to be defeated, it could only be by action as bold as their own.
+Unhappily, La Fayette's courage had usually found vent rather in
+blustering words than in stout deeds; and those were the only weapons he
+could bring himself to employ now. He resolved to remonstrate with the
+Assembly; but instead of bringing up his army, or even a detachment, to
+back his remonstrance, he came to Paris with a single aid-de-camp, and, on
+the 28th of June, presented himself at the bar of the Assembly and
+demanded an audience. A fortnight before he had written a letter to the
+president, in which he had denounced alike the Jacobin leaders of the
+clubs and the Girondin ministers, and had called on the Assembly to
+suppress the clubs; a letter which had produced no effect except to unite
+the two parties against whom it was aimed more closely together, and also
+to give them a warning of his hostility to them, which, till he was in a
+position to show it by deeds, it would have been wiser to have avoided.
+
+He now repeated by word of mouth the statements and arguments which he had
+previously advanced in writing, with the addition of a denunciation of the
+recent insurrection and its authors, whom, he insisted, the Assembly was
+bound instantly to prosecute. His speech was not ill received; for the
+Constitutionalists, who knew what he designed to say, had mustered in full
+force, and had packed the galleries beforehand with hired clappers; and
+many even of the Deputies who did not belong to that party cheered him, so
+obvious to all but the most desperate was the danger to the whole State,
+if Santerre and his brigands should be allowed to become its masters. But
+they cared little for a barren indignation which had no more effectual
+weapon than reproaches. He had said enough to exasperate, but had not done
+enough to intimidate; while those whom he denounced had greater boldness
+and presence of mind than he, and had the forces on which they relied for
+support at hand and available. They instantly turned the latter on
+himself, and in their turn denounced him for having left his army without
+leave. He was frightened, or at least perplexed, by such a charge. He made
+no reply, but seemed like one stupefied; and it was only through the
+eloquence of one of his friends, M. Ramond, that he was saved from the
+impeachment with which Guadet and Vergniaud openly threatened him for
+quitting the army without leave.
+
+Ramond's oratory succeeded in carrying through the Assembly a motion in
+his favor, and several companies of the National Guard and a vast
+multitude of the citizens showed their sympathy with his views by
+escorting him with acclamations to his hotel. But neither their evident
+inclination to support him, nor even the danger with which he himself had
+been threatened, could give him resolution and firmness in action. For a
+moment he made a demonstration as if he were prepared to secure the
+success of his designs by force. He proposed that the king should the next
+morning review Acloque's companies of the National Guard, after which he
+himself would harangue them on their duty to the king and Constitution.
+But the Girondins persuaded Petion to exert his authority, as mayor, to
+prohibit the review. La Fayette was weak enough to submit to the
+prohibition; and, quickened, it is said, by intelligence that Petion was
+preparing to arrest him, the next day retired in haste from Paris and
+rejoined the army.
+
+He had done the king nothing but harm. He had shown to all the world that
+though the Royalists and Constitutionalists might still be numerically the
+stronger party, for all purposes of action they were by far the weaker. He
+had encouraged those whom he had intended to daunt, and strengthened those
+whom he had hoped to crush; and they, in consequence, proceeded in their
+treasons with greater boldness and openness than ever. Marie Antoinette,
+as we have seen, had expressed her belief that they designed to
+assassinate Louis, and she now employed herself, as she had done once
+before, in quilting him a waistcoat of thickness sufficient to resist a
+dagger or a bullet; though so incessant was the watch which was set on all
+their movements that it was with the greatest difficulty that she could
+find an opportunity of trying it on him. But it was not the king, but she
+herself, who was the victim whom the traitors proposed to take off in such
+a manner; and in the second week of July a man was detected at the foot of
+the staircase leading to her apartments, disguised as a grenadier, and
+sufficiently equipped with murderous weapons. He was seized by the guard,
+who had previous warning of his design; but was instantly rescued by a
+gang of ruffians like himself, who were on the watch to take advantage of
+the confusion which might be expected to arise from the accomplishment of
+his crime.
+
+Meanwhile the Assembly wavered, hesitated, and did nothing; the Girondins
+and Jacobins were fertile in devising plots, and active in carrying them
+out. One day, as if seized with a panic at some report of the strength of
+the Austrian and Prussian armies, the Assembly again passed a vote
+declaring the country in danger; on another, roused by a letter which a
+Madame Gouges, a daughter of a fashionable dress-maker, a lady of more
+notoriety than reputation, but who cultivated a character for philosophy,
+took upon herself to write to them, and still more by a curiously
+sentimental speech of the Bishop of Lyons, with the appropriate name of
+Lamourette,[5] the members bound themselves to have for the future but one
+heart and one sentiment; and for some minutes Jacobins, Girondins,
+Constitutionalists, and Royalists were rushing to and fro across the floor
+of the hall in a frenzy of mutual benevolence, embracing and kissing one
+another, and swearing an eternal friendship. They even sent a message to
+Louis to beg him to come and witness this new harmony. He came at once.
+With his disposition, it was not strange that he yielded to the illusion
+of the strange spectacle which he beheld. He shed tears of joy, declared
+the complete agreement of his sentiments with theirs, and predicted that
+their union would save France. They escorted him back to the Tuileries
+with cheers, and the very same evening, after a stormy debate, which was a
+remarkable commentary on the affection which they had just vowed to one
+another, they set him at defiance, insulting him by annulling some decrees
+to which he had given his assent, and passing a vote of confidence in
+Petion as mayor.
+
+The Feast of the Federation, as it was called, passed off quietly. The
+king again recognized the Constitution before the altar erected in the
+Champ de Mars, and, as he drove back to the palace, the populace
+accompanied him the whole way, never ceasing their acclamations of "Vivent
+le roi et la reine![6]" till they had dismounted and returned to their
+apartments. Such a close of the day had been expected by no one. La
+Fayette, who seems at last to have become really anxious to save the lives
+of the king and queen, and to have been seriously convinced that they were
+in danger, had now formally opened a communication with the court. He
+concerted his plans with Marshal Luckner, and had learned so much wisdom
+from his recent failure that he now placed no reliance on any thing but a
+display of superior force. He accordingly proposed to Louis to bring up a
+battalion of picked men from his and the marshal's armies to escort him to
+the Champ de Mars; and, judging that, even if the feast should pass off
+without any fresh danger, the king could never be considered permanently
+safe while he remained in Paris, he recommended that on the next day,
+Louis, still under the protection of the same troops, should announce to
+the Assembly his departure for Compiegne, and should at once quit the
+capital for that town, to which trusty officers would in the mean time
+have brought up other divisions of the army in sufficient strength to set
+all disaffected and seditious spirits at defiance.
+
+The plan was at all events well conceived, but it was declined. Louis did
+not apparently distrust the marquis's good faith, but he doubted his
+ability to carry out an enterprise requiring an energy and decision of
+which no part of La Fayette's career had given any indication; while the
+queen distrusted his loyalty even more than his capacity. One of those
+with whom she took counsel expressed his opinion of the marquis's real
+object by saying that he might save the monarch, but not the monarchy; and
+she replied that his head was still full of republican notions which he
+had brought from America, and refused to place the slightest confidence in
+him. We may suspect that she did not do him entire justice, and may rather
+believe, with Louis, that he was now acting in good faith; but, with a
+recollection of all that she had suffered at his hands, we can not wonder
+at her continued distrust of him.[A7]
+
+But his was not the only plan proposed for the escape of the royal family.
+Bertrand de Moleville, though no longer Louis's minister, retained his
+undiminished confidence, and he had found a place which he regarded as
+admirably suited for a temporary retreat--the Castle of Gaillon, near the
+left bank of the Seine, in Normandy, the people of which province were
+almost universally loyal. It was within the twenty leagues from Paris
+which the Assembly had fixed for the limit of the royal journeys; while
+yet, in case of the worst, it was likewise within easy distance of the
+coast. An able engineer officer had pronounced it to be thoroughly
+defensible; and the Count d'Hervilly, with other officers of proved
+courage and presence of mind, undertook the arrangement of all the
+military measures necessary for the safe escort of the entire royal
+family, which they themselves were willing to conduct, with the aid of
+some detachments of the Swiss Guards; while the necessary funds were
+provided by the loyal devotion of the Duke de Liancourt, who placed a
+million of francs at his sovereign's disposal, and of one or two other
+nobles who came forward with almost equally lavish offerings. Louis
+certainly at first regarded the plan with favor, and, in the opinion of M.
+Bertrand, it would not have been difficult to induce him to adopt it, if
+the queen could have been brought over to a similar view.
+
+Unhappily several motives combined to disincline her to it. The
+insurrection which the Girondins[8] were preparing had originally been
+fixed for the 29th of July; but, a few days before, M. Bertrand learned
+that it had been postponed till the 10th of August. This gave him time to
+mature his arrangements, all of which, as he reckoned, could be completed
+in time for the king to leave Paris on the evening of the 8th. But before
+that day arrived news had reached the court that the Duke of Brunswick,
+the Prussian commander-in-chief, had put his army in motion, and that he
+was not likely to meet any obstacle sufficient to prevent him from
+marching at once on Paris; a measure which, to quote the language of M.
+Bertrand, "the queen was too anxious to see accomplished to hesitate at
+believing in its execution.[9]" And at the same time some of the Jacobin
+leaders--Danton, Petion, and Santerre--had opened communications with the
+Government, and had undertaken for a large bribe to prevent the threatened
+outbreak. The money had been paid to them, and Marie Antoinette more than
+once boasted to her attendants that they were now safe, as having gained
+over Danton; placing the firmer reliance on this mode of extrication
+because it coincided with her belief that the mutual jealousy of the two
+parties would dispose one of them at least eventually to embrace the cause
+of the king, as their beat ally against the other. The result seems to
+show that the Jacobins only took the bribe the more effectually to lull
+their destined victims into a false security.
+
+A third consideration, and that apparently not the weakest, was Marie
+Antoinette's rooted dislike of the Constitutionalist party. In their rants
+the Duc de Liancourt had taken his seat in the first Assembly; though, as
+he assured M. Bertrand, the king himself was aware that his object in so
+doing had been to serve his majesty in the most effectual manner; and he
+was also the statesman whose advice had mainly contributed to induce the
+king to visit Paris after the destruction of the Bastile, a step which she
+had always regarded as the forerunner and cause of some of the most
+irremediable encroachments of the Revolutionists. Even the duke's present
+devotion to the king's cause could not entirely efface from her mind the
+impression that he was not in his heart friendly to the royal authority.
+She urged these arguments on the king. The last probably weighed with him
+but little: the two former he felt as strongly as the queen herself; and
+he delayed his decision, sending word to M. Bertrand that he had resolved
+to defer his departure "till the last extremity.[10]" His faithful servant
+was in amazement. "When," he exclaimed, "was the last extremity to be
+looked for, if it had not already come?" But his astonishment was turned
+to absolute despair when the next day M. Montmorin informed him that the
+project had been entirely given up, the queen herself remarking "that M.
+Bertrand overlooked the circumstance that he was throwing them altogether
+into the hands of the Constitutionalists."
+
+She has been commonly blamed for this decision, as that which was the
+chief cause of all the subsequent calamities which overwhelmed her and the
+whole family. Yet it is not difficult to understand the motives which
+influenced her, and it is impossible to refrain from regarding them with
+sympathy. She was now at the decisive moment of a crisis which might well
+perplex the clearest head. There could be no doubt that the coming
+insurrection would be the turning-point of the long conflict which had now
+lasted three years; and it was a conflict in which her husband's throne
+was certainly at stake, perhaps even his and her own life. They had indeed
+been so for three years; and throughout the whole contest her view had
+constantly been that honor was still dearer than life; and honor she
+identified with the preservation of her husband's crown, her children's
+inheritance. Mirabeau had said that she would not care to save her life if
+she could not save the crown also; and, though she can not have decided
+without a terrible conflict of feeling, her decision was now in conformity
+with Mirabeau's judgment of her. In the preceding year the journey to
+Varennes had been treated by the Republicans as a plea for pronouncing the
+deposition of the king; and, though they were defeated then, they were
+undoubtedly stronger in the new Assembly. On the other hand, she suspected
+that they themselves had some misgivings as to the chance of a second
+attack on the palace being more successful than the former one had proved;
+and that the openness with which the preparations for it were announced
+was intended to terrify Louis and herself into a second flight; and she
+might not unreasonably infer that what their enemies desired was not the
+wisest course for them to adopt. To fly would evidently be to leave the
+whole field in both the Assembly and the city open to their enemies. It
+might save their lives, but it would almost to a certainty forfeit the
+crown. To stay and face the coming danger might indeed lose both, but it
+might also save both; and she determined rather to risk all, both crown
+and life, in the endeavor to save all, rather than to save the one by the
+deliberate sacrifice of the other. It was a gallant and unselfish
+determination: if in one point of view it was unwise, it was at least
+becoming her lofty lineage, and consistent with her heroic character.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+Preparation for a New Insurrection.--Barbaroux brings up a Gang from
+Marseilles.--The King's last Levee.--The Assembly rejects a Motion for the
+Impeachment of La Fayette.--It removes some Regiments from Paris.--
+Preparations of the Court for Defense.--The 10th of August.--The City is
+in Insurrection.--Murder of Mandat.--Louis reviews the Guards.--He takes
+Refuge with the Assembly.--Massacre of the Swiss Guards.--Sack of the
+Tuileries.--Discussions in the Assembly.--The Royal Authority is
+suspended.
+
+
+The die was cast. Nothing was left but to wait, with such patience as
+might be, for the coming explosion, which was sure not to be long
+deferred. Madame de Stael has said that there never can be a conspiracy,
+in the proper sense of the word, in Paris; and that if there could be one,
+it would be superfluous, since every one at all times follows the
+majority, and no one ever keeps a secret. But on this occasion the chief
+movers of sedition studiously discarded all appearance of concealment.
+Vergniaud, Guadet, and Gensonne wrote the king a letter couched in terms
+of the most insolent defiance, and signed with all their names, in which
+they openly announced to him that an insurrection was organized which
+should be abandoned if he replaced Roland and his colleagues in the
+ministry, but which should surely break on the palace and overwhelm it if
+he refused. And Barbaroux, who had promised Madame Roland to bring up from
+Marseilles and other towns in the south a band of men capable of any
+atrocity, had collected a gang of five hundred miscreants, the refuse of
+the galleys and the jails, and paraded them in triumph through the
+streets, which their arrival was destined and intended to deluge with
+blood.
+
+And yet Louis, or, to speak more correctly, Marie Antoinette, for it was
+with her that every decision rested, preferred to face the impending
+struggle in Paris. She still believed that the king had many friends in
+whose devotion and gallantry he could confide to the very death. On
+Sunday, the 5th of August, the very last Sunday which he was ever to
+behold as the acknowledged sovereign of the land, his levee was attended
+by a more than usually numerous and brilliant company; though the gayety
+appropriate to such a scene was on this occasion clouded over by the
+anxiety for their royal master and mistress which sobered every one's
+demeanor, and spread a gloom over every countenance. And three days later
+both the Assembly and the National Guard displayed feelings which, to so
+sanguine a temper as hers, seemed to show a disposition to make a stout
+resistance to the further progress of disorder. The Assembly, by a
+majority of more than two to one, rejected a motion made by Vergniaud for
+the impeachment of La Fayette for his conduct in June; and when the mob
+fell upon those who had voted against it, as they came out of the hall,
+the National Guard came promptly to their rescue, and inflicted severe
+chastisement on the foremost of the rioters.
+
+The vote of the Assembly may be said to have been the last it ever gave
+for any object but the promotion of anarchy. It more than neutralized its
+effect the very next day, when it passed a decree for the immediate
+removal of three regiments of the line which were quartered in Paris. It
+even at first included in its resolution the Swiss Guards also; but was
+subsequently compelled to withdraw that clause, since an old treaty with
+Switzerland expressly secured to the republic the right of always
+furnishing a regiment for the honorable service of guarding the palace.
+And at the same time, as if to punish the National Guard for its conduct
+on the previous day, another vote broke up the staff of that force;
+cashiered its finest companies, the grenadiers and the mounted troopers,
+on the plea that such distinctions were inconsistent with equality; and
+filled up the vacancies with men who were the very dregs of the city, many
+of whom were, in fact, secret agents of the Jacobins, by whose aid they
+hoped to spread disaffection through the entire force.
+
+The afternoon of the 9th was passed in anxious preparation by both the
+conspirators and those whom they were about to attack. The king and queen
+were not destitute of faithful adherents, whom their very danger only
+rendered the more zealous to place all their strength, their valor, and,
+as they truly foreboded, their lives, at the disposal of their honored and
+threatened sovereigns. The veteran Marshal de Mailly, one of those gallant
+nobles whose devoted loyalty had been so scandalously insulted by La
+Fayette[1] in the spring of the preceding year, though now eighty years of
+age, hastened to the defense of his royal master and mistress, and brought
+with him a chivalrous phalanx of above a hundred gentlemen, all animated
+with the same self-sacrificing heroism, as his own, to fight, or, if need
+should be, to die for their king and queen, though they had no arms but
+their swords. It seemed fortunate, too, that the command of the National
+Guard for the day fell by rotation to an officer named Mandat, a man of
+high professional skill, intrepid courage, and unshaken in his zeal for
+the royal cause, though in former days the constitutionalists had reckoned
+him among their adherents. His brigade numbered about two thousand four
+hundred men, on most of whom he could thoroughly rely. And it was no
+slight proof of his force of character and energy, as well as of his
+address, that, as the National Guard could not be employed out of the
+routine of their regular duty without a special authorisation from the
+civil power, he contrived to extort from Petion, as mayor of the city, a
+formal authority to augment his brigade for the special occasion, and, if
+force should be used against him, to repel it by force.
+
+The Swiss Guard of about a thousand men were all trustworthy; and there
+was also a small body of heavy cavalry of the gendarmery who had proved
+true enough to resist all the seductions of the conspirators. There were
+likewise a few cannon. In all, nearly four thousand men could be mustered
+for the defense of the palace; a force, if well equipped and well led, not
+inadequate to the task of holding it out for some time against any number
+of undisciplined assailants. But they were not well armed. They were
+nearly destitute of ammunition, and Mandat's most vehement entreaties and
+remonstrances could not wring out from Petion an order for a supply of
+cartridges, though, as he told him, several companies had not four rounds
+left, some had only one; and though it was notorious that the police had
+served out ammunition to the Marseillese, who had no claim to a single
+bullet. Still less were they well led; for at such a crisis every thing
+depended on the king's example, and Louis was utterly wanting to himself.
+
+As night approached, the agitation in the palace, and still more in the
+city, grew more and more intense. It was a brilliant and a warm night. By
+ten o'clock the mob began to cluster in the streets, many only curious and
+anxious from uncertain fear; those in the secret hastening toward the
+point of rendezvous. The rioters also had cannon, and by eleven their
+artillery-men had taken charge of their guns. The conspirators had got
+possession of all the churches; and as the hour of midnight struck, a
+single cannon-shot gave the signal, and from every steeple and tower in
+the city the fatal tocsin began to peal. The insurrection was begun.
+
+Petion, who, from some motive which is not very intelligible, wished to
+save appearances, and who, though in fact he had been eager in promoting
+the insurrection, pretended innocence of all complicity in it even to the
+Assembly, whom he was aware that he was not deceiving, on the first sound
+of the bells repaired to the Hotel de Ville. He found, as indeed he was
+aware that he should find, a strange addition to the Municipal Council.
+The majority of the sections of the city had declared themselves in
+insurrection; had passed resolutions that they would no longer obey the
+existing magistrates; and had appointed a body of commissioners to
+overbear them, trusting in the cowardice of the majority, and in the
+willing acquiescence and co-operation of Danton and the other members of
+the party of violence. The commissioners seized on a room in the Hotel by
+the side of the regular council-room, and their first measures were marked
+with a cunning and unscrupulousness which largely contributed to the
+success of their more active comrades in the streets. Even Petion himself
+was not wicked enough or resolute enough for them. The authority which
+Mandat had wrung from him on the previous morning was, in their eyes, a
+proof of unpardonable weakness. He might be terrified into issuing some
+other order which might disconcert or at least impede their plans; and
+accordingly they put him under a kind of honorable arrest, and sent him to
+his own house under the guard of an armed force, which was instructed to
+allow no one access to him; and at the same time they sent an order in his
+name to Mandat to repair to the Hotel de Ville, to concert with them the
+measures necessary for the safety of the city.
+
+Had he acted on his own judgment, Mandat would have disregarded the
+summons; but M. Roederer urged upon him that he was bound to comply with
+an order brought in the name of the mayor. Accordingly he repaired to the
+Hotel de Ville, and gave to the Municipal Council so distinct an account
+of his measures, and of his reason for taking them, that, though Danton
+and some of his more factious colleagues reproached him for exhibiting
+what they called a needless distrust of the people, the majority of the
+Council approved of his conduct, and dismissed him to return to his
+duties. But as he quit their chamber, he was dragged before the other
+body, the Commissioners of the Sections,[2] and subjected to another
+examination, which, as a matter of course, they conducted with every kind
+of insult and violence. The Municipal Council sent down a deputation to
+remonstrate with them; they rose on the Council and expelled them from
+their own council-chamber by main force, and then sent off Mandat to
+prison, whither, a few minutes later, they dispatched a gang of assassins
+to murder him.
+
+The news of his death soon reached the Tuileries, where it struck a chill
+even into the firm heart of the queen,[3] who had deservedly placed great
+reliance on his fidelity and resolution. She had now to trust to the valor
+and loyalty of the troops themselves, though thus deprived of their
+commander; and, as a last hope, she persuaded the king to go down and
+review them, hoping that his presence might animate the faithful, and
+perhaps fix the waverers. Louis consented, as he would have consented to
+any course that was recommended to him; but on such occasions more depends
+on the grace and spirit with which a thing is done than on the act itself,
+and grace and spirit were now less than ever to be looked for in the
+unhappy Louis. He visited first the courts of the palace, and the
+Carrousel, and then the gardens, at whose different entrances strong
+detachments of troops were stationed. When he first appeared he was
+greeted by one general cheer of "Vive le roi!" But as he passed along the
+ranks the unanimity and loyalty began to disappear. Even of those
+regiments which were still true to him the cheers were faint, as if half
+suppressed by alarm; while many companies mingled shouts for "the nation"
+with those for himself, and individual soldiers murmured audibly, "Down
+with the Veto!" or, "Long live the Sans-culottes!" secure that their
+officers would not venture to reprove, much less to chastise them. The
+Swiss Guard alone showed enthusiasm in their loyalty and resolution in
+their demeanor.
+
+But when he reached the artillery, on whom perhaps most depended, many of
+the gunners made no secret of their disaffection. Some even quit their
+ranks to offer him personal insults, doubling their fists in his face, and
+shouting out the coarsest threats which the Revolution had yet taught
+them. Both cheers and insults the hapless king received with almost equal
+apathy. The despair which was in his heart was shown in his dress, which
+had no military character or decoration, but was a suit of plain violet
+such as was never worn by kings of France but on occasions of mourning. It
+was to no purpose that the queen put a sword into his hand, and exhorted
+him to take the command of the troops himself, and to show himself ready
+to fight in person for his crown. It was only once or twice that he could
+even be brought to utter a few words of acknowledgment to those who
+treated him with respect, of expostulation to those who insulted and
+threatened him; and presently, pale, and, as it seemed, exhausted with
+that slight effort, he returned to his apartments.
+
+The queen was almost in despair. She told Madame de Campan that all was
+lost; that the king had shown no energy; that such a review as that had
+done harm rather than good. All that could now be done was for her to show
+herself not wanting to the occasion, nor to him. Her courage rose with the
+imminence of the danger. Those who beheld her, as with dilating eyes and
+heightened color she listened to the unceasing tumult, and, repressing
+every appearance of alarm, strove with unabated energy to rouse her
+husband, and to fortify the good disposition of the loyal friends around
+her, have described in terms of enthusiastic admiration the majestic
+dignity of her demeanor at this trying moment. She had need of all her
+presence of mind; for even among those who were most faithful to her
+dissensions were springing up. At the first alarm Marshal de Mailly and
+his company of gallant nobles and gentlemen had hastened to her side; but
+the National Guards were jealous of them. It seemed as if they expected to
+be allowed to remain nearest to the royal person; and the soldiers
+disdained to yield the post of honor to men who were not in uniform, and
+whom, as they were mostly in court dress, they even disliked as
+aristocrats. They besought the queen to dismiss them. "Never!" she
+replied; and, trusting rather that the example of their self-sacrificing
+devotion might stimulate those who thus complained, and full of that royal
+magnanimity which feels that it confers honor on those whom it trusts, and
+that it has a right to look for the loyalty of its servants even to the
+death, she added, "They will serve with you, and share your dangers. They
+will fight with you in the van, in the rear, where you will. They will
+show you how men can die for their king."
+
+But meanwhile the insurgents were rapidly approaching the palace, and
+already the tramp of the leading column might be heard. The tocsin had
+continued its ominous sound throughout the night, and at six in the
+morning the main body of the insurgents, twenty thousand strong, and well
+armed--for the new council had opened to them the stores of the arsenal--
+began their march under the command of Santerre. As they advanced they
+were joined by the Marseillese, who had been quartered in a barrack near
+the Hall of the Cordeliers, and their numbers were further swelled by
+thousands of the populace. Soon after eight they reached the Carrousel,
+forced the gates, and pressed on to the royal court, the National Guard
+and Swiss falling back before them to the entrance to the royal
+apartments, where the more confined space seemed to afford a better
+prospect of making an effectual resistance.
+
+But already the palace was deserted by those who were the intended objects
+of the attack. Roederer, and one or two of the municipal magistrates, in
+whom the indignity with which the new commissioners of the sections had
+treated them had excited a feeling of personal indignation, had been
+actively endeavoring to rouse the National Guards to an energetic
+resistance; but they had wholly failed. Those who listened to them most
+favorably would only promise to defend themselves if attacked, while some
+of the artillery-men drew the charges from their guns and extinguished
+their matches. Roederer, whom the strange vicissitudes of the crisis had
+for the moment rendered the king's chief adviser, though there seems no
+reason to doubt his good faith, was not a man of that fiery courage which
+hopes against hope, and can stimulate waverers by its example. He saw that
+if the rioters should succeed in storming the palace, and should find the
+king and his family there, the moment that made them masters of their
+persons would be the last of their lives and of the monarchy. He returned
+into the palace to represent to Louis the utter hopelessness of making any
+defense, and to recommend him, as his sole resource, to claim the
+protection of the Assembly. The queen, who, to use her own words, would
+have preferred being nailed to the walls of the palace to seeking a refuge
+which she deemed degrading, pointed to the soldiers, and showed by her
+gestures that they were the only protectors whom it became them to look
+to. Roederer assured her that they could not he relied on. She seemed
+unconvinced. He almost forgot his respect in his earnestness. "If you
+refuse, madame, you will be guilty of the blood of the king, of your two
+children; you will destroy yourself, and every soul within the palace."
+While she was still hesitating between her feeling of shame and her
+anxiety for those dearest to her, the king gave the word. "Let us go,"
+said he. "Let us give this last proof of our devotion to the
+Constitution." The princess spoke. "Could Roederer answer for the king's
+life?" He affirmed that he would answer for it with his own. The queen
+repeated the question. "Madame," he replied, "we will answer for dying at
+your side--that is all that we can promise." "Let us go," said Louis, and
+moved toward the door. Even at the last moment, one officer, M. Boscari,
+commander of a battalion of the National Guard, known as that of Les
+Filles St. Thomas, whose loyalty no disaster had ever been able to shake,
+implored him to change his mind. His men, united to the Swiss, would be
+able, he said, to cut a way for the royal family to the Rouen road; the
+insurgents were all on the other side of the city, and nothing could
+resist him. But again, as on all previous occasions, Louis rejected the
+brave advice. He pleaded the risk to which he should expose those dearest
+to him, and led them to almost certain death in committing them to the
+Assembly. Some of De Mailly's gentlemen gathered round him to accompany
+him; but such an escort seemed to Roederer likely to provoke additional
+animosity, and at his entreaty Louis trusted himself to a company of his
+faithful Swiss and to a detachment of the National Guard, who formed
+themselves into an escort to conduct him to the Assembly, whose hall
+looked into one side of the palace garden.
+
+The minister for foreign affairs walked at his side. The queen leaned on
+the arm of M. Dubouchage, the minister of marine, and with the other hand
+led the dauphin. The Princess Elizabeth and the princess royal followed
+with another minister. And thus, with the Princess de Lamballe, Madame de
+Tourzel, and one or two other ministers and attendants, the royal family
+left the palace of their ancestors, which only one of them was ever to
+behold again. As they quit the saloon, moved down the stairs, and crossed
+the garden, their every step was one toward a downfall and a destruction
+which could never be retraced. Marie Antoinette felt it to be so, and, as
+she reached the foot of the staircase, cast restless and anxious glances
+around, looking perhaps even then for any prospect of succor or of
+effectual resistance which might present itself. One of the Swiss
+misunderstood her, and with rude fidelity endeavored to encourage her.
+"Fear nothing, madame," said he, "your majesty is surrounded by honest
+citizens." She laid her hand on her heart. "I do fear nothing," and passed
+on without another word.
+
+As they crossed the garden the king broke the silence. "How unusually
+early," he remarked, "the leaves fall this year!" To those who heard him,
+the bareness which he remarked seemed an omen of the fate which awaited
+himself, about to be stripped of his royal dignity; perhaps even, like
+some superfluous crowder of the grove, to fall beneath the axe. The
+Assembly had already been deliberating whether it should invite him to
+take refuge with them when they heard that he was approaching. It was
+instantly voted that a deputation should be sent to meet him, which, after
+a few words of respectful salutation, fell in behind. A vast crowd was
+collected outside the doors of the hall. They hooted the king, and, still
+more bitterly, the queen, as they advanced. "Down with Veto!" was the
+chief cry; but mingled with it were still more unmanly insults, invoking
+more especially death on all the women. But the Guards kept the mob at a
+distance, though when they reached the hall the Jacobins made an effort to
+deprive them of that protection. They declared that it was illegal for
+soldiers to enter the hall, as indeed it was; yet without them the princes
+must at the last moment have been exposed to all the fury of the mob. At
+this critical moment Roederer showed both fidelity and presence of mind.
+He implored the deputies to suspend the law which forbade the entrance of
+the troops, and, while the Jacobins were reviling him and his proposal, he
+pretended to suppose that it had been agreed to, and led forward a
+detachment of soldiers who cleared the way. One grenadier look up the
+dauphin in his arms and carried him in; and, although the pressure of the
+crowd was extreme, at last the whole family were placed within the hall in
+such safety as the Assembly was able or disposed to afford them.
+
+Louis bore himself not without dignity. His words were few but calm. "I am
+come here to prevent a great crime. I think I can not be better placed,
+nor more safely, gentlemen, than among you." The president, who happened
+to be Vergniaud, while appearing to desire to give him confidence, yet
+avoided uttering a single word, except the simple address of "sire," which
+should be a recognition of the royal dignity, if indeed his speech was not
+a studied disavowal of it. Louis might reckon, he said, on the firmness of
+the National Assembly: its members had sworn to die in support of the
+rights of the people and of the constituted authorities: and then, on the
+plea that the Assembly must continue its deliberations, and that the law
+forbade them to be conducted in the presence of the sovereign, he assigned
+him and his family a little box behind the president's chair, which was
+usually set apart for the reporters of the debates. A Jacobin deputy
+proposed their removal into one of the committee-rooms, with the idea, as
+he afterward boasted, that it would be easy there to admit a band of
+assassins to murder them all; but Vergniaud and his party divined his
+object and overruled him. It might seem that the Girondins, though they
+had been the original promoters and chief organizers of the insurrection,
+were as yet disposed to be content with the overthrow of the throne, and
+had not arrived at the hardihood which can not be sated without murder;
+and it is a remarkable instance of the rapidity with which unprincipled
+men sink deeper and deeper into iniquity, that they who now exerted
+themselves successfully to save the life of Louis, five months afterward
+were as unanimous as the most ferocious Jacobins in destroying him.
+
+One object of Louis in abandoning his palace had been to save the lives of
+the National Guards and of the Swiss, by withdrawing them from what he
+regarded as an unequal combat with the infuriated multitude; and of the
+National Guard the greater part did escape, drawing off silently in small
+detachments, when the sovereign whom it had been their duty to defend,
+seemed no longer to require their service. But the Swiss remained bravely
+at their posts around the royal staircase, though, as they abstained from
+provoking the rioters by any active opposition, which now seemed to have
+no object, they hoped that they might escape attack. But the mob and
+Santerre were bent on their destruction. Some of the insurgents tried to
+provoke them by threats. Some endeavored to tamper with them to desert
+their allegiance. But an accidental interruption suddenly terminated their
+brief period of inaction. In the confusion a pistol went off, and the
+Swiss fancied it was meant as a signal for an assault upon them. Thinking
+that the time was come to defend their own lives, they leveled their
+muskets and fired: they charged down the steps, driving the insurgents
+before them like sheep; they cleared the inner or royal court, forced
+their way into the Carrousel, recovered the cannon which were posted in
+the large square, and were so completely victorious that, had there been
+any superior officer at hand to direct their movements, they might even
+now have checked the insurrection.
+
+There might even have been some hope had not Louis himself actually
+interfered to check their exertions. Hearing what they had accomplished,
+the gallant D'Hervilly made his way to them, and called on them to follow
+him to the rescue of the king. They hesitated, unwilling to leave their
+wounded comrades to the mercy of their enemies; but their hesitation was
+brief, for it was put an end to by the wounded men themselves, who bid
+them hasten forward; their duty, they told them, was to save the king; for
+themselves, they could but die where they lay.[4] There were still plenty
+of gallant spirits to do their duty to the king, if he could but have been
+persuaded to take a right view of his duty to himself and to them.
+
+The Swiss gladly obeyed D'Hervilly's summons. Forming in close order, and
+as steady as on parade, they marched through the garden, one battalion
+moving toward the end opposite to the palace, where there was a
+draw-bridge which it was essential to secure; the other following
+D'Hervilly to the Assembly hall. Nothing could resist their advance: they
+forced their way up the stairs; and in a few moments a young officer, M.
+de Salis, at the head of a small detachment, sword in hand, entered the
+chamber. Some of the deputies shrieked and fled, while others, more calm,
+reminded him that armed men were forbidden to enter the hall, and ordered
+him to retire. He refused, and sent his subaltern to the king for orders.
+But Louis still held to his strange policy of non-resistance. Even the
+terrible scenes of the morning, and the deliberate attack of an armed mob
+upon his palace, had failed to eradicate his unwillingness to authorize
+his own Guards to fight in his behalf, or to convince him that when his
+throne (perhaps even his life and the lives of all his family) was at
+stake, it was nobler to struggle for victory, and, if defeated, to die
+with arms in his hands, than tamely to sit still and be stripped of his
+kingly dignity by brigands and traitors. Could he but have summoned energy
+to put himself at the head of his faithful Guards, as we may be sure that
+his brave wife urged him to do; could he have even sent them one
+encouraging order, one cheering word, there still might have been hope;
+for they had already proved that no number of Santerre's ruffians could
+stand before them.[5] But Louis could not even now bring himself to act;
+he could only suffer. His command to the officer, the last he ever issued,
+was for the whole battalion to lay down their arms, to evacuate the
+palace, and to retire to their barracks. He would not, he said, that such
+brave men should die. They knew that in fact he was consigning them to
+death without honor; but they were loyal to the last. They obeyed, though
+their obedience to the first part of the order rendered the last part
+impracticable. They laid down their arms, and were at once made prisoners;
+and the fate of prisoners in such hands as those of their captors was
+certain. A small handful, consisting, it is said, of fourteen men, escaped
+through the courage of one or two friends, who presently brought them
+plain clothes to exchange for their uniforms, but before night all the
+rest were massacred.
+
+Not more fortunate were their comrades of the other battalion, except in
+falling by a more soldier-like death. Though no longer supported by the
+detachment under D'Hervilly, they succeeded in forcing their way to the
+draw-bridge. It was held by a strong detachment of the National Guard, who
+ought to have received them as comrades, but who had now caught the
+contagion of successful treason, and fired on them as they advanced. But
+the gallant Swiss, in spite of their diminished numbers still invincible,
+charged through them, forced their way across the bridge into the Place
+Louis XV., and there formed themselves into square, resolved to sell their
+lives dearly. It was all that was left to them to do. The mounted
+gendarmery, too, came up and turned against them. Hemmed in on all sides,
+they fell one after another; Louis, who had refused to let them die for
+him, having only given their death the additional pang that it had been of
+no service to him.
+
+The retreat of the king had left the Tuileries at the mercy of the
+rioters. Furious to find that he had escaped them, they wreaked their rage
+on the lifeless furniture, breaking, hewing, and destroying in every way
+that wantonness or malice could devise. Different articles which had
+belonged to the queen were the especial objects of their wrath. Crowds of
+the vilest women arrayed themselves in her dresses, or defiled her bed.
+Her looking-glasses were broken, with imprecations, because they had
+reflected her features. Her footmen were pursued and slaughtered because
+they had been wont to obey her. Nor were the monsters who slew them
+contented with murder. They tore the dead bodies into pieces; devoured the
+still bleeding fragments, or deliberately lighted fire and cooked them;
+or, hoisting the severed limbs on pikes, carried them in fiendish triumph
+through the streets.
+
+And while these horrors were going on in the palace, the tumult in the
+Assembly was scarcely less furious. The majority of the members--all,
+indeed, except the Girondins and Jacobins, who were secure in their
+alliance with the ringleaders--were panic-stricken. Many fled, but the
+rest sat still, and in terrified helplessness voted whatever resolutions
+the fiercest of the king's enemies chose to propose. It was an ominous
+preliminary to their deliberations that they admitted a deputation from
+the commissioners of the sections into the hall, where Guadet, to whom
+Vergniaud had surrendered the president's chair, thanked them for their
+zeal, and assured them that the Assembly regarded them as virtuous
+citizens only anxious for the restoration of peace and order. They were
+even formally recognized as the Municipal Council; and then, on the motion
+of Vergniaud, the Assembly passed a series of resolutions, ordering the
+suspension of Louis from all authority; his confinement in the Luxembourg
+Palace; the dismissal and impeachment of his ministers; the re-appointment
+of Roland and those of his colleagues whom he had dismissed, and the
+immediate election of a National Convention. A large pecuniary reward was
+even voted for the Marseillese, and for similar gangs from one or two
+other departments which had been brought up to Paris to take a part in the
+insurrection.
+
+Yet so deeply seated were hope and confidence in the queen's heart, so
+sanguine was her trust that out of the mutual enmity of the populace and
+the Assembly safety would still be wrought for the king and the monarchy,
+that even while the din of battle was raging outside the hall, and inside
+deputy after deputy was rising to heap insults on the king and on herself,
+or to second Vergniaud's resolutions for his formal degradation, she could
+still believe that the tide was about to turn in her favor. While the
+uproar was at its height she turned to D'Hervilly, who still kept his
+post, faithful and fearless, at his master's side. "Well, M. d'Hervilly,"
+said she, with an air, as M. Bertrand, who tells the story, describes it,
+of the most perfect security, "did we not do well not to leave Paris?" "I
+pray God," said the brave noble, "that your majesty may be able to ask me
+the same question in six months' time.[6]" His foreboding was truer than
+her hopes. In less than six months she was a desolate, imprisoned widow,
+helplessly awaiting her own fate from her husband's murderers.
+
+All these resolutions of Vergniaud, all the ribald abuse with which
+different members supported them, the unhappy sovereigns were condemned to
+hear in the narrow box to which they had been removed. They bore the
+insults, the queen with her habitual dignity, the king with his inveterate
+apathy; Louis even speaking occasionally with apparent cheerfulness to
+some of the deputies. The constant interruptions protracted the
+discussions through the entire day. It was half-past three in the morning
+before the Assembly adjourned, when the king and his family were removed
+to the adjacent Convent of the Feuillants, where four wretched cells had
+been hastily furnished with camp-beds, and a few other necessaries of the
+coarsest description. So little was any attempt made to disguise the fact
+that they were prisoners, that their own domestic servants were not
+allowed the next day to attend them till they had received a formal ticket
+of admittance from the president. Yet even in this extremity of distress
+Marie Antoinette thought of others rather than of herself; and when at
+last her faithful attendant, Madame de Campan, obtained access to her, her
+first words expressed how greatly her own sorrows were aggravated by the
+thought that she had involved in them those loyal friends whose attachment
+merited a very different recompense.[7]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+Indignities to which the Royal Family are subjected.--They are removed to
+the Temple.--Divisions in the Assembly.--Flight of La Fayette.--Advance of
+the Prussians.--Lady Sutherland supplies the Dauphin with Clothes.--Mode
+of Life in the Temple.--The Massacres of September.--The Death of the
+Princess de Lamballe.--Insults are heaped on the King and Queen.--The
+Trial of the King.--His Last Interview with his Family.--His Death.
+
+
+From the 11th of August the life of Marie Antoinette is almost a blank to
+us. We may be even thankful that it is so, and that we are spared the
+details, in all their accumulated miseries, of a series of events which
+are a disgrace to human nature. For month after month the gentle,
+benevolent king, whom no sovereign ever exceeded in love for his people,
+or in the exercise of every private virtue; the equally pure-minded,
+charitable, and patriotic queen, who, to the somewhat passive excellences
+of her husband added fascinating graces and lofty energies of which he was
+unhappily destitute, were subjected to the most disgusting indignities, to
+the tyranny of the vilest monsters who ever usurped authority over a
+nation, and to the daily insults of the meanest of their former subjects,
+who thought to make a merit with their new masters of their brutality to
+those whose birthright had been the submission and reverence of all around
+them.
+
+Vergniaud's motion had only extended to the suspension of the king from
+his functions till the meeting of the Convention; but no one could doubt
+that that suspension would never be taken off, and that Louis was in fact
+dethroned. Marie Antoinette never deceived herself on the point, and,
+retaining the opinion as to the fate of deposed monarchs which she had
+expressed three years before, pronounced that all was over with them. "My
+poor children," said she, apostrophizing the little dauphin and his
+sister, "it is cruel to give up the hope of transmitting to you so noble
+an inheritance, and to have to say that all is at an end with ourselves;"
+and, lest any one else should have any doubt on the subject, the Assembly
+no longer headed its decrees with any royal title, but published them in
+the name of the nation. In one point the resolutions of the 10th were
+slightly departed from. The municipal authorities reported that the
+Luxembourg had so many outlets and subterranean passages, that it would be
+difficult to prevent the escape of a prisoner from that palace; and
+accordingly the destination of the royal family was changed to the Temple.
+Thither, after having been compelled to spend two more days in the
+Assembly, listening to the denunciations and threats of their enemies,
+whom even the knowledge that they were wholly in their power failed to
+pacify, they were conveyed on the 13th; and they never quit it till they
+were dragged forth to die.
+
+The Temple had been, as its name imported, the fortress and palace of the
+Knights Templars, and, having been erected by them in the palmy days of
+their wealth and magnificence, contained spacious apartments, and
+extensive gardens protected from intrusion by a lofty wall, which
+surrounded the whole. It was not, unfit for, nor unaccustomed to, the
+reception of princes; for the Count d'Artois had fitted up a portion of it
+for himself whenever he visited the capital. And to his apartments those
+who had the custody of the king and queen at first conducted them. But the
+new Municipal Council, whom the recent events had made the real masters of
+Paris, considered those rooms too comfortable or too honorable a lodging
+for any prisoners, however royal; and the same night, before they could
+retire to rest, and while Louis was still occupying himself in
+distributing the different apartments among the members of his family and
+the few attendants who were allowed to share his captivity, an order was
+sent down to remove them all into a small dilapidated tower which had been
+used as a lodging for some of the count's footmen, but whose bad walls and
+broken windows rendered it unfit for even the servants of a prince.
+Besides their meanness and ruinous condition, the number of the rooms it
+contained was so scanty, that for the first few days the only room that
+could be found for the Princess Elizabeth was an old, disused kitchen; and
+even after that was remedied, she was forced to share her new chamber,
+though it was both small and dark, with her niece, Madame Royale; while
+the dauphin's bed was placed by the side of the queen's, in one which was
+but little large.[1] And the dungeon-like appearance of the entire place
+impressed the whole family with the idea that it was not intended that
+they should remain there long, but that an early death was preparing for
+them.
+
+Even this distress was speedily aggravated by a fresh severity. Four days
+afterward an order was sent down which commanded the removal of all their
+attendants, with the exception of one or two menial servants. Madame de
+Tourzel, the governess of the royal children, was driven away with the
+coarsest insults. The Princess de Lamballe, that most faithful and
+affectionate friend of the queen, was rudely torn from her embrace by the
+municipal officers; and, though no offense was even imputed to her, was
+dragged off to a prison, where she was soon to pay the forfeit of her
+loyalty with her blood.
+
+From this time forth the king and queen were completely cut off from the
+outer world. They were treated with a rigor which in happier countries is
+not even experienced by convicted criminals. They were forbidden to
+receive letters or newspapers; and presently they were deprived of pens,
+ink, and paper; though they would neither have desired to write nor
+receive letters which would have been read by their jailers, and could
+only have exposed their correspondents to danger. After a few days they
+were even deprived of the attendance of all their servants but two[2]--a
+faithful valet named Clery (fidelity such as his may well immortalize his
+name), to whom we are indebted for the greater part of the scanty
+knowledge which we possess of the fate of the captive princes as long as
+Louis himself was permitted to live; and Turgy, a cook, who, by an act of
+faithful boldness, had obtained a surreptitious entrance into the Temple,
+and whose services seemed to have escaped notice, though at a later period
+they proved of no trivial importance.
+
+Had they but known what was passing in the Assembly, Marie Antoinette
+would in all probability have still found matter for some comfort and hope
+in the fierce mutual strife of the Jacobins and Girondins, which for some
+weeks kept the Assembly in a constant state of agitation; and she would
+have found even greater encouragement in the dissatisfaction which in many
+departments the people expressed at the late events; and in the conduct of
+La Fayette's army, which at first cordially approved of and supported the
+town-council and magistrates of Sedan, who arrested and threw into prison
+the commissioners whom the Assembly had sent to announce the suspension of
+the royal authority. But the intelligence of that demonstration in their
+favor never reached them, nor that of its suppression a few days later;
+when La Fayette, who, as on a former occasion, had committed himself to
+measures beyond his strength to carry out, was forced to fly from the
+country, and by a strange violation of military law was thrown into an
+Austrian prison. Nor again, when for a moment the Duke of Brunswick
+appeared likely to realize the hopes on which Marie Antoinette had built
+so confidently, and by the capture of Longwy seemed to have opened to
+himself the road to Paris, did any tidings of his achievement come to the
+ears of those who had felt such deep interest in his operations. After a
+time the ingenuity of Clery found a mode of obtaining for them some little
+knowledge of what was passing outside, by contriving that some of his
+friends should send criers to cry an abstract of the news contained in the
+daily journals under his windows, which he in his turn faithfully reported
+to them while employed in such menial offices about their persons as took
+off the attention of their guards, who day and night maintained an
+unceasing espial on all their actions and even words.
+
+From the very first they had to endure strange privations for princes.
+They had not a sufficient supply of clothes; the little dauphin, in
+particular, would have been wholly unprovided, had not the English
+embassadress, Lady Sutherland, whose son was of a similar age and size,
+sent in a stock of such as she thought might be wanted. But as the
+garments thus received wore out, and as all means of replacing them were
+refused, the queen and princess were reduced to ply their own needles
+diligently to mend the clothes of the whole family, that they might not
+appear to their jailers, or to the occupants of the surrounding houses,
+who from their windows could command a view of the garden in which they
+took their daily walks, absolutely ragged.
+
+Such enforced occupation must indeed in some degree have been welcome as a
+relief from thought, which their unbroken solitude left them but too much
+leisure to indulge. Clery has given us an account of the manner in which
+their day was parceled out.[3] The king rose at six, and Clery, after
+dressing his hair, descended to the queen's chamber, which was on the
+story below, to perform the same service for her and for the rest of the
+family. And the hour so spent brought with it some slight comfort, as he
+could avail himself of that opportunity to mention any thing that he might
+have learned of what was passing out-of-doors, or to receive any
+instructions which they might desire to give him. At nine they breakfasted
+in the king's room. At ten they came down-stairs again to the queen's
+apartments, where Louis occupied himself in giving the dauphin lessons in
+geography, while Marie Antoinette busied herself in a corresponding manner
+with Madame Royale. But, in whatever room they were, their guards were
+always present; and when, at one o'clock, they went down-stairs to walk in
+the garden, they were still accompanied by soldiers: the only member of
+the family who was not exposed to their ceaseless vigilance being the
+little dauphin, who was allowed to run up and down and play at ball with
+Clery, without a soldier thinking it necessary to watch all his movements
+or listen to all his childish exclamations. At two dinner was served, and
+regularly at that hour the odious Santerre, with two other ruffians of the
+same stamp, whom he called his aids-de-camp, visited them to make sure of
+their presence and to inspect their rooms; and Clery remarked that the
+queen never broke her disdainful silence to him, though Louis often spoke
+to him, generally to receive some answer of brutal insult. After dinner,
+Louis and Marie Antoinette would play piquet or backgammon; as, while they
+were thus engaged, the vigilance of their keepers relaxed, and the noise
+of shuffling the cards or rattling the dice afforded them opportunities of
+saying a few words in whispers to one another, which at other times would
+have been overheard. In the evening the queen and the Princess Elizabeth
+read aloud, the books chosen being chiefly works of history, or the
+masterpieces of Corneille and Racine, as being most suitable to form the
+minds and tastes of the children; and sometimes Louis himself would seek
+to divert them from their sorrows by asking the children riddles, and
+finding some amusement in their attempts to solve them. At bed-time the
+queen herself made the dauphin say his prayers, teaching him especially
+the duty of praying for others, for the Princess de Lamballe, and for
+Madame de Tourzel, his governess; though even those petitions the poor boy
+was compelled to utter in whispers, lest, if they were repeated to the
+Municipal Council, he should bring ruin on those whom he regarded as
+friends. At ten the family separated for the night, a sentinel making his
+bed across the door of each of their chambers, to prevent the possibility
+of any escape.
+
+In this way they passed a fortnight, when the monotony of their lives was
+fearfully disturbed. The Jacobins had established their ascendency. They
+had created a Revolutionary Tribunal, which at once began its course of
+wholesale condemnation, sending almost every one who was brought before it
+to the scaffold with merely a form of trial; the guillotine being erected,
+as it was said, _en permanence_, that the deaths of the victims might
+never be delayed for want of means to execute them; while, that a
+succession of victims might never be wanting, Danton, in his new character
+of Minister of Justice, instituted a search of every house for arms or
+papers, or any thing which might afford evidence or even suggest a
+suspicion that the owners disliked or feared the new authorities.
+
+But it was not enough to strike terror into all the peaceful citizens. The
+Girondins had always been objects of jealous rivalry to the Jacobins.
+Fanatical and relentless as they were in their cruelty, they had recently
+given proofs that they disapproved of the furious blood-thirstiness that
+was beginning to decimate the city, and they had carried the Assembly with
+them in a vote for the dissolution of the new Municipal Council. At the
+same time, intelligence of the Prussian successes readied the capital,
+intelligence which, it seemed possible, might animate the Royalists to
+some fresh effort; and, lest they should find means of reconciling
+themselves to Vergniaud and his party, the Jacobins and Cordeliers
+resolved to give both a lesson by a deed of blood which should strike
+terror into them. We may spare ourselves the pain of relating the horrors
+of the September massacre, when, for more than four days, gangs of men
+worse than devils, and of women unsexed by profligacy and cruelty till
+they had become worse even than the men, gave themselves up to the work of
+indiscriminate slaughter, deluging the streets with blood, and where they
+could spare time, aggravating the pangs of death by superfluous tortures.
+It will be sufficient for our purpose to record the fate of one of the
+most innocent of all the victims, who owed her death to the fact that she
+had long been the queen's most chosen friend, and whose murder was gloated
+over with special ferocity by the monsters who perpetrated it, as enabling
+them to inflict an additional pang on her wretched friend and mistress.
+
+Madame de Lamballe, as we have seen, had accompanied the queen to the
+Temple on the first day of her captivity, and had subsequently been
+removed to one of the city prisons known as La Force. It was on the
+prisoners in the different places of confinement that the work of death
+was to be done: and she had been specially marked out for slaughter, not
+solely because she was beloved by Marie Antoinette, but also, it was
+understood, because, as she was very rich, and sister-in-law to the Duc
+d'Orleans, that detestable prince desired to add her inheritance to his
+OWD already vast riches. She was dragged before Hebert, one of the foulest
+of the Jacobin crew, who had taken his seat at the gate of the prison to
+preside over the trials, as they were called, of the prisoners in La
+Force. "Swear," said he, "devotion to liberty and to the nation, and
+hatred to the king and queen, and you shall live." "I will take the first
+oath," she replied, "but the second never; it is not in my heart. The king
+and queen I have ever loved and honored." Almost before she had finished
+speaking she was pushed into the gate-way. One ruffian struck her from
+behind with his sabre. She fell. They tore her into pieces. A letter of
+the queen's fell from her hair, in which she had hidden it. The sight of
+it redoubled the assassins' fury. They stuck her head on a pike, and
+carried it in triumph to the Palais Royal to display it to D'Orleans, who
+was feasting with some of the companions of his daily orgies, and then
+proceeded to the Temple to brandish it before the eyes of the queen.
+
+It was about three o'clock.[4] Dinner had just been removed, and the king
+and queen were sitting down to play backgammon, when horrid shouts were
+heard in the street. One of the soldiers on guard in the room, who had not
+yet laid aside every feeling of humanity, closed the window and even drew
+the curtain. Another of different temper insisted that Louis should come
+to the window and show himself. As the uproar increased, the queen rose
+from her seat, and the king asked what was the matter. "Well," said the
+man, "since you wish to know, they want to show you the head of Madame de
+Lamballe." No event that had yet occurred had struck the queen with such
+anguish. The uproar increased. Those who bore the head had wished even to
+force the doors, and bring their trophy, still bleeding, into the very
+room where the royal family were, and were only prevented by a compromise
+which permitted them to parade it round their tower in triumph. As the
+shouts died away, Petion's secretary arrived with a small sum of money
+which had been issued for the king's use. He noticed that the queen stood
+all the time that he was in the room, and fancied she assumed that
+attitude out of respect to the mayor. She had never stirred since she had
+heard of the princess's death, but had stood rooted, as it were, to the
+ground, stupefied and speechless with horror and anguish. It was long
+before she could be restored; and all through the night the rest of the
+princesses, if at least they could have slept, was broken by her sobs,
+which never ceased.
+
+As time passed on, the prospects of the unhappy prisoners became still
+more gloomy. On the 21st of September the Convention met, and its first
+act was to abolish royalty and declare the government a republic, and an
+officer was instantly sent to make proclamation of the event under the
+Temple walls; and, as if the establishment of a republic authorized an
+increase of insolence on the part of the guards of the prisoners, the
+insults to which they were subjected grew more frequent and more gross.
+Sentences both menacing and indecent were written on the walls where they
+must catch their eye: the soldiers puffed their tobacco-smoke in the
+queen's face as she passed, or placed their seats in the passages so much
+in her way that she could hardly avoid stumbling over their legs as she
+went down to the garden. Sometimes they even assailed her with direct
+abuse, calling her the assassin of the people, who in their turn would
+assassinate her. More than once the whole family had to submit to a
+personal search, and to empty their pockets, when the officers who made
+the search carried off whatever they chose to term suspicious, especially
+their knives and scissors, so that, when at work, the queen and princess
+were forced to bite off the threads with their teeth. And amidst all this
+misery no one ever heard Marie Antoinette utter a word to lament her own
+fate, or to ask pity for herself. She mourned over her husband's fall; she
+pitied Elizabeth, to whom malice itself could not impute a share in the
+wrongs of which Danton and Vergniaud had taught the people to complain.
+Most of all did she bewail the ruined prospects of her son; and more than
+once she brought tears into Clery's eyes by the earnest tenderness with
+which she implored him to provide for the safety of the noble child after
+his parents should have been destroyed.
+
+The insults increased, each being an additional omen of the future. The
+most painful injuries were reserved for the queen. Toward the end of
+October the dauphin was removed from her apartment to that of the king,
+that she might thus be deprived of the comfort of ministering to his daily
+wants. But Louis himself was not spared. One day an order came down to
+deprive him of his sword; on another he was stripped of his different
+decorations and orders of knighthood. The system of espial, too, was
+carried out with increased severity. Their linen, when it came hack from
+the washer-woman, and even their washing-bills, were held to the fire to
+see if any invisible ink had been employed to communicate with them. Their
+loaves and biscuits were cut asunder lest they should contain notes. The
+end was approaching. A week or two later the king was removed to another
+tower, and was only permitted to see his family during a certain portion
+of the day. At last it was determined to bring him to trial. On the 11th
+of December he was suddenly informed that he was to be brought before the
+Convention; and from that day forth he was cut off from all intercourse
+with his family, even his wife being forbidden to see or hear from him.
+The barbarous restriction afforded him one more opportunity of showing his
+amiable unselfishness and fortitude. The regulation had been made by the
+Municipal Council, not by the Assembly; and its inhuman and unprecedented
+severity, coupled with a jealousy of the Council, as seeking to usurp the
+whole authority of the State, induced the Assembly to rescind it, and to
+grant permission, for Louis to have the dauphin and his sister with him.
+Yet, lest these innocent children should prove messengers of conspiracy
+between him and the queen and Elizabeth, it was ordered at the same time
+that, so long as they were allowed to visit him, they should be separated
+from their mother and their aunt; and Louis, though never in greater need
+of comfort, thought it so much better for the children themselves that
+they should be with the queen, that for their sakes he renounced their
+society, and allowed the decree of the Council to be carried out in all
+its pitiless cruelty.
+
+And, again, we may spare ourselves from dwelling on the details of what,
+in hideous mockery, was called the king's trial, though it was in fact a
+mere ceremonious prelude to his murder, which had been determined on
+before it began. Deep as is the disgrace with which it has forever covered
+the nation which tolerated such an abomination, it was relieved by some
+incidents which did honor to the country and to human nature. The
+murderers of Louis, in their ignoble pedantry, wearied the ear with
+appeals to the examples of the ancient Romans, of Decius[5] and of Brutus.
+But no Roman ever gave a nobler proof of contempt of danger, and devotion
+to duty, than was afforded by the intrepid lawyers, Malesherbes, De Seze,
+and Tronchet, who voluntarily undertook the king's defense, though Louis
+himself warned them that their utmost efforts would be fruitless, and
+would only bring destruction on themselves without saving him. One member,
+too, of the Convention, Lanjuinais, though originally he had been a member
+of the Breton Club, and had latterly been generally regarded as connected
+with the Girondins, made more than one eloquent effort in the king's
+behalf, provoking the Jacobins and Girondins to their very wildest fury by
+his contemptuous defiance of their menaces. And even when the verdict was
+being given; when Jacobins, Girondins, and Cordeliers, Robespierre,
+Vergniaud, Danton, and the infamous Duc d'Orleans were vying with one
+another in the eagerness with which they pushed forward to record their
+votes of condemnation; and when a mob of hired ruffians, who thronged the
+hall, were cheering every vote for death, and holding daggers to the
+throat of every one from whom they apprehended a contrary judgment; one
+noble of frail body, but of a spirit worthy of his birth and rank, the
+Marquis de Villette, laughed in the faces of his threateners, looked the
+assassins in the face, and told them that he would not obey their orders,
+and that they dared not kill him; and with a loud voice pronounced a vote
+of acquittal.
+
+But no courage or devotion of a few honest men could save Louis. One vote
+by an immense majority pronounced him guilty; a second refused all appeal
+to the people; a third, by a majority of fifty voices, condemned him to
+death. And on the morning of the 20th of January, 1793, Louis was roused
+from his bed to hear his sentence, and to learn that it was to be carried
+out the next day.
+
+While the trial lasted, the queen and those with her had been kept in
+almost absolute ignorance of what was taking place. They never, however,
+doubted what the result would be,[6] so that it was scarcely a shock to
+them when they heard the news-men crying the sentence under their windows
+--the only mercy that was shown to either the prisoner who was to die, or
+to those who were to survive him, being that they were allowed once more
+to meet on earth. At eight in the evening the queen, his children, and his
+sister were to be allowed to visit him. He prepared for the interview with
+astonishing calmness, making the arrangements so deliberately that, when
+he noticed that Clery had placed a bottle of iced water on the table, he
+bid him change it, lest, if the queen should require any, the chill should
+prove injurious to her health. Even that last interview was not allowed to
+pass wholly without witnesses, since the Municipal Council refused, even
+on such an occasion, to relax their regulation that their guards were
+never to lose sight-of the king; and all that was permitted was that he
+might retire with his family into an inner room which had a glass door, so
+that, though what passed must be seen, their last words might not be
+overheard. His daughter, Madame Royale, now a girl of fourteen, and old
+enough, as her mother had said a few months before, to realize the misery
+of the scenes which she daily saw around her, has left us an account of
+the interview, necessarily a brief one, for the queen and princess were
+too wretched to say much. Louis wept when he announced to them how short
+was the time which he had to live, but his tears were those of pity for
+the desolation of those he loved, and not of fear for himself. He was
+even, in some sense, a willing victim, for, as he told them, it had been
+proposed to save him by appealing to the primary Assemblies of the nation;
+but he had refused his consent to a step which must throw the whole
+country into confusion, and might be the cause of civil war. He would
+rather die than risk the bringing of such calamities on his people. He
+even sought to comfort the queen by making some excuses for the monsters
+who had condemned him; and his last words to his family were an entreaty
+to forgive them; to his son, an injunction never to seek to revenge his
+death, even, if some change of fortune should enable him to do so.
+
+The queen said nothing, but sat clinging to him in speechless agony. At
+last he begged them to retire, that he might seek rest to prepare himself
+for the morrow; and then she spoke, to beg that at least they might meet
+again the next morning. "Yes," said he, "at eight o'clock." "Why not at
+seven?" asked she. "Well, then, at seven." But, after she had left him he
+determined to avoid this second meeting, not so much because he feared its
+unnerving himself, but because he felt that the second parting must be too
+terrible for her.
+
+When she returned to her own chamber she had scarcely strength left to
+place the dauphin in his bed. She threw herself, dressed as she was, on
+her own bed, where her sister-in-law and daughter heard her, as the little
+princess describes her state, "shivering with cold and grief the whole
+night long.[7]"
+
+Even if she could have slept, her rest would soon have been disturbed by
+the movement of troops, the beating of the drums, and the heavy roll of
+the cannon passing through the street. For the miscreants who bore sway in
+the city knew well that the crime which they were about to commit was
+viewed with horror by the great majority of the nation, and even of the
+Parisians, and to the last moment were afraid of a rescue. But no one
+could interpose between Louis and his doom; and the next intelligence of
+him that reached his wife, who was waiting the whole morning in painful
+anxiety for the summons to see him once more, was that he had perished
+beneath the fatal guillotine, and that she was a widow.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+The Queen is refused Leave to see Clery.--Madame Royale is taken Ill.--
+Plans are formed for the Queen's Escape by MM. Jarjayes, Toulan, and by
+the Baron de Batz.--Marie Antoinette refuses to leave her Son.--Illness of
+the young King.--Overthrow of the Girondins.--Insanity of the Woman
+Tison.--Kindness of the Queen to her.--Her Son is taken from her, and
+intrusted to Simon.--His Ill-treatment.--The Queen is removed to the
+Conciergerie.--She is tried before the Revolutionary Tribunal.--She is
+condemned.--Her last Letter to the Princess Elizabeth.--Her Death and
+Character.
+
+
+Shouts in the streets announced to her and those around her that all was
+over. All the morning she had alarmed the princesses by the speechless,
+tearless stupor into which she seemed plunged; but at last she roused
+herself, and begged to see Clery, who had been with Louis till he left the
+Temple, and who, therefore, she hoped, might have some last message for
+her, some last words of affection, some parting gift. And so indeed he
+had;[1] for the last act of Louis had been to give that faithful servant
+his seal for the dauphin, and his ring for the queen, with a little packet
+containing portions of her hair and those of his children which he had
+been in the habit of wearing. And he had bid him tell them all--"the
+queen, his dear children, and his sister--that he had promised to see them
+that morning, but that he had desired to save them the pain of so cruel a
+separation. How much," he continued, "does it cost me to go without
+receiving their last embraces! You must bear to them my last farewell."
+
+But even the poor consolation of receiving these sad tokens of unchanged
+affection was refused to her. The Council refused Clery admittance to her,
+and seized the little trinkets and the packet of hair. The king's last
+words never reached her. But a few days afterward, Toulan, one of the
+commissioners of the Council, who sympathized with her bereavement, found
+means to send her the ring and seal.[2] Her sister and her daughter were
+the more anxious that she should see Clery, from the hope that
+conversation with him might bring on a flood of tears, which would have
+given her some relief. But her own fortitude was her best support.
+Miserable as she was, hopeless as she was, it was characteristic of her
+magnanimous courage that she did not long give way to womanly
+lamentations. She recollected that she had still duties to perform to the
+living, to her daughter and sister, and, above all, to her son, now her
+king, whom, if some happier change of fortune, when the nation should have
+recovered from its present madness, should replace him on his father's
+throne, it must be her care to render worthy of such a restoration. She
+began to apply herself diligently to the work of giving him lessons such
+as his father had given him, mingling them with the constant references to
+that father's example, which she never ceased to hold up to him, dwelling
+with the emphatic exaggeration of lasting affection on his gentleness, his
+benevolence, his love for his subjects; qualities which, in truth, he had
+possessed in sufficient abundance, had he but been gifted with the courage
+and firmness indispensable to secure to his people the benefits he wished
+them to enjoy.
+
+She had too, for a time, another occupation. The princess royal was, as
+she had said not long before, of an age to feel keenly the miseries of her
+parents, and the agitation into which she had been thrown had its natural
+effect upon her health. Her own language on the subject affords a striking
+proof how well Marie Antoinette had succeeded in imbuing her with her own
+forgetfulness of self. As she has recorded the occurrence in her journal,
+"Fortunately her affliction increased her illness to so serious a degree
+as to cause a favorable diversion to her mother's despair.[3]"
+
+Youth, however, and a strong constitution prevailed, and the little
+princess recovered; while other matters also for a time claimed a large
+share of her mother's attention. For herself, Marie Antoinette felt, as
+she well might feel, that, come what would, happiness and she were forever
+parted; and the death to which she never doubted that her enemies destined
+her could hardly have been anticipated by her as any thing but a relief,
+if she had thought only of her own feelings. But, again, she had others to
+think of besides herself--of her children. And she presently learned that
+others were thinking of her, and were willing (it should rather be said
+were eager and proud) to encounter any danger, if they might only have the
+happiness and honor of securing and saving her whom they still regarded as
+their queen. Two had long been attached to the royal household: the wife
+of M. de Jarjayes, a gentleman of ancient family in Dauphine, had been one
+of Marie Antoinette's waiting-women, and he himself, since the fatal
+expedition to Varennes, had been employed by Louis on several secret
+missions. From the moment that his royal master was brought before the
+Convention he had despaired of his life, and had, therefore, bent all his
+thoughts on the preservation of the queen. M. Turgy, the second, was in a
+humbler rank of life. He was, as we have seen, one of the officers of the
+kitchen; but in the household of a king of France even the cooks had
+pretensions to gentle blood. A third was a man named Toulan, who had
+originally been a music-seller in Paris, but had subsequently obtained
+employment under the Municipal Council, and was now a commissioner, with
+duties which brought him into constant contact with the imprisoned queen.
+Either he had never in his heart been her enemy, or he had been converted
+by the dignified fortitude with which she bore her miseries, and by the
+irresistible fascination which even in prison she still exercised over all
+whose hearts had not been hardened by fanatical wickedness against every
+manly or honest feeling; he won the queen's confidence by the most welcome
+service, which has been already mentioned, of conveying to her her
+husband's seal and ring. She gave him a letter to recommend him to the
+confidence of Jarjayes; and their combined ingenuity devised a plan for
+the escape of the whole family. It was in their favor that a man, who came
+daily to look to the lamps, usually brought with him his two sons, who
+nearly matched the size of the royal children. And Jarjayes and Toulan,
+aided by another of the municipal commissioners, named Lepitre, who had
+also learned to abhor the indignities practiced on fallen royalty, had
+prepared full suits of male attire for the queen and princess, with red
+scarfs and sashes as were worn by the different commissioners, of whom
+there were too many for all of them to be known to the sentinels; and also
+clothes for the two children, ill-fitting and shabby, to resemble the
+dress of the lamp-lighter's boys. Passports, too, by the aid of Lepitre,
+whose duties lay in the department which issued them, were provided for
+the whole family; and after careful discussion of the arrangements to be
+adopted when once the prisoners were clear of the Temple, it was settled
+that they should take the road to Normandy in three cabriolets, which
+would be less likely to attract notice than any larger and less ordinary
+carriage.
+
+The end of February or the beginning of March was fixed for the attempt;
+but before that time the Government and the people had become greatly
+disquieted by the operations of the German armies, which were about to
+receive the powerful assistance of England. Prussia had gained decided
+advantages on the Rhine. An Austrian army, under the Archduke Charles, was
+making formidable progress in the Netherlands. Rumors, also, which soon
+proved to be well founded, of an approaching insurrection in the western
+departments of France, reached the capital. The vigilance with which the
+royal prisoners were watched was increased. Information, too, though of no
+precise character, that they had obtained means of communicating with
+their partisans who were at liberty, was conveyed to the magistrates. And
+at last Jarjayes and Toulan were forced to abandon the idea of effecting
+the escape of the whole family, though they were still confident that they
+could accomplish that of the queen, which they regarded as the most
+important, since it was plain that it was she who was in the most
+immediate danger. Elizabeth, as disinterested as herself, besought her to
+embrace their offers, and to let her and the children, as being less
+obnoxious to the Jacobins, take their chance of some subsequent means of
+escape, or perhaps even mercy.
+
+But such a flight was forbidden alike by Marie Antoinette's sense of duty
+and by her sense of honor, if indeed the two were ever separated in her
+mind. Honor forbade her to desert her companions in misery, whose danger
+might even be increased by the rage of her jailers, exasperated at her
+escape. Duty to her boy forbade it still more emphatically. As his
+guardian, she ought not to leave him; as his mother, she could not. And
+her renunciation of the whole design was conveyed to M. Jarjayes in a
+letter which did honor alike to both by the noble gratitude which it
+expressed, and which was long cherished by his heirs as one of their most
+precious possessions, till it was destroyed, with many another valuable
+record, when Paris a second time fell under the rule of wretches scarcely
+less detestable than the Jacobins whom they imitated.[4] It was written by
+stealth, with a pencil; but no difficulties or hurry, as no acuteness of
+disappointment or depth of distress, could rob Marie Antoinette of her
+desire to confer pleasure on others, or of her inimitable gracefulness of
+expression. Thus she wrote:
+
+"We have had a pleasant dream, that is all. I have gained much by still
+finding, on this occasion, a new proof of your entire devotion to me. My
+confidence in you is boundless. And on all occasions you will always find
+strength of mind and courage in me. But the interest of my son is my sole
+guide; and, whatever happiness I might find in being out of this place, I
+can not consent to separate myself from him. In what remains, I thoroughly
+recognize your attachment to me in all that you said to me yesterday. Rely
+upon it that I feel the kindness and the force of your arguments as far as
+my own interest is concerned, and that I feel that the opportunity can not
+recur. But I could enjoy nothing if I were to leave my children; and this
+idea prevents me from even regretting my decision.[5]"
+
+And to Toulan she said that "her sole desire was to be reunited to her
+husband whenever Heaven should decide that her life was no longer
+necessary to her children." He was greatly afflicted, but he could no
+longer be of use to her. Her last commission to him was to convey to her
+eldest brother-in-law, the Count de Provence, her husband's ring and seal,
+that they might be in safer custody than her own, and that she or her son
+might reclaim them, if either should ever be at liberty. She gave Toulan
+also, as a memorial of her gratitude, a small gold box, one of the few
+trinkets which she still possessed, and which, unhappily, proved a fatal
+present. In the summer of the next year it was found in his possession,
+its history was ascertained, and he was sent to the scaffold for the sole
+offense of having and valuing a relic of his murdered sovereign.
+
+Nor was this the only plan formed for the queen's rescue. The Baron de
+Batz was a noble of the purest blood in France, seneschal of the Duchy of
+Albret, and bound by ancient ties of hereditary friendship to the king, as
+the heir of Henry IV., whose most intimate confidence had been enjoyed by
+his ancestor. He was still animated by all the antique feelings of
+chivalrous loyalty, and from the first breaking-out of the troubles of the
+Revolution he had brought to the service of his sovereign the most
+absolute devotion, which was rendered doubly useful by an inexhaustible
+fertility of resource, and a presence of mind that nothing could daunt or
+perplex. On the fatal 21st of January, he had even formed a project of
+rescuing Louis on his way to the scaffold, which failed, partly from the
+timidity of some on whose co-operation he had reckoned, and partly, it is
+said, from the reluctance of Louis himself to countenance an enterprise
+which, whatever might be its result, must tend to fierce conflict and
+bloodshed. Since his sovereign's death he had bent all the energies of his
+mind to contrive the escape of the queen, and he had so far succeeded that
+he had enlisted in her cause two men whose posts enabled them to give must
+effectual resistance: Michonis, who, like Toulan, was one of the
+commissioners of the Council; and Cortey, a captain of the National Guard,
+whose company was one of those most frequently on duty at the Temple. It
+seemed as if all that was necessary to be done was to select a night for
+the escape when the chief outlets of the Temple should be guarded by
+Cortey's men; and De Batz, who was at home in every thing that required
+manoeuvre or contrivance, had provided dresses to disguise the persons of
+the whole family while in the Temple, and passports and conveyances to
+secure their escape the moment they were outside the gates. Every thing
+seemed to promise success, when at the last moment secret intelligence
+that some plan or other was in agitation was conveyed to the Council. It
+was not sufficient to enable them to know whom they were to guard against
+or to arrest, but it was enough to lead them to send down to the Temple
+another commissioner whose turn of duty did not require his presence
+there, but whose ferocious surliness of temper pointed him out as one not
+easily to be either tricked or overborne. He was a cobbler, named Simon,
+the very same to whose cruel superintendence the little king was presently
+intrusted.
+
+He came down the very evening that every thing was arranged for the escape
+of the hapless family. De Batz saw that all was over if he staid, and
+hesitated for a moment whether he should blow out his brains, and try to
+accomplish the queen's deliverance by force; but a little reflection
+showed him that the noise of fire-arms would bring up a crowd of enemies
+beyond his ability to overpower, and it soon appeared that it would tax
+all his resources to secure his own escape. He achieved that, hoping still
+to find some other opportunity of being useful to his royal mistress; but
+none offered. The Assembly did him the honor to set a price on his head;
+and at last he thought himself fortunate in being able to save himself.
+Those who had co-operated with him had worse fortune. Those in authority
+had no proofs on which to condemn them; but in those days suspicion was a
+sufficient death-warrant. Michonis and Cortey were suspected, and in the
+course of the next year a belief that they had at least sympathized with
+the queen's sorrows sent them both to the scaffold.
+
+With the failure of De Batz every project of escape was abandoned; and a
+few weeks later the queen congratulated herself that she had refused to
+flee without her boy, since in the course of May he was seized with
+illness which for some days threatened to assume a dangerous character.
+With a brutality which, even in such monsters as the Jacobin rulers of the
+city, seems almost inconceivable, they refused to allow him the attendance
+of M. Brunier, the physician who had had the charge of his infancy. It
+would be a breach of the principles of equality, they said, if any
+prisoner were permitted to consult any but the prison doctor. But the
+prison doctor was a man of sense and humanity, as well as of professional
+skill. He of his own accord sought the advice of Brunier; and the poor
+child recovered, to be reserved for a fate which, even in the next few
+weeks, was so foreshadowed, that his own mother must almost have begun to
+doubt whether his restoration to health had been a blessing to her or to
+himself.
+
+The spring was marked by important events. Had one so high-minded been
+capable of exulting in the misfortunes of even her worst enemies, Marie
+Antoinette might have triumphed in the knowledge that the murderers of her
+husband were already beginning that work of mutual destruction which in
+little more than a year sent almost every one of them to the same scaffold
+on which he had perished. The jealousies which from the first had set the
+Jacobins and Girondins at variance had reached a height at which they
+could only be extinguished by the annihilation of one party or the other.
+They had been partners in crime, and so far were equal in infamy; but the
+Jacobins were the fiercer and the readier ruffians; and, after nearly two
+months of vehement debates in the Convention, in which Robespierre
+denounced the whole body of the Girondin leaders as plotters of treason
+against the State, and Vergniaud in reply reviled Robespierre as a coward,
+the Jacobins worked up the mob to rise in their support. The Convention,
+which hitherto had been divided in something like equality between the two
+factions, yielded to the terror of a new insurrection, and on the 2d of
+June ordered the arrest of the Girondin leaders. A very few escaped the
+search made for them by the officers--Roland, to commit suicide;
+Barbaroux, to attempt it; Petion and Buzot reached the forests to be
+devoured by congenial wolves. Lanjuinais,[6] whom the decree of the
+Convention had identified with them, but who, even in the moments of the
+greatest excitement, had kept himself clear of their wickedness and
+crimes, was the only one of the whole body who completely eluded the rage
+of his enemies. The rest, with Madame Roland, the first prompter of deeds
+of blood, languished in their well-deserved prisons till the close of
+autumn, when they all perished on the same scaffold to which they had sent
+their innocent sovereign.[7]
+
+But it may be that Marie Antoinette never learned their fall; though that
+if she had, pity would at least have mingled with, if it had not
+predominated over, her natural exultation, she gave a striking proof in
+her conduct toward one from whom she had suffered great and constant
+indignities. From the time that her own attendants were dismissed, the
+only person appointed to assist Clery in his duties were a man and woman
+named Tison, chosen for that task on account of their surly and brutal
+tempers, in which the wife exceeded her husband. Both, and especially the
+woman, had taken a fiendish pleasure in heaping gratuitous insults on the
+whole family; but at last the dignity and resignation of the queen
+awakened remorse in the woman's heart, which presently worked upon her to
+such a degree that she became mad. In the first days of her frenzy she
+raved up and down the courtyard declaring herself guilty of the queen's
+murder. She threw herself at Marie Antoinette's feet, imploring her
+pardon; and Marie Antoinette not only raised her up with her own hand, and
+spoke gentle words of forgiveness and consolation to her, but, after she
+had been removed to a hospital, showed a kind interest in her condition,
+and amidst all her own troubles found time to write a note to express her
+anxiety that the invalid should have proper attention.[8]
+
+But very soon a fresh blow was struck at the hapless queen which made her
+indifferent to all else that could happen, and even to her own fate, of
+which it may be regarded as the precursor. At ten o'clock on the 3d of
+July, when the little king was sleeping calmly, his mother having hung a
+shawl in front of his bed to screen his eyes from the light of the candle
+by which she and Elizabeth were mending their clothes, the door of their
+chamber was violently thrown open, and six commissioners entered to
+announce to the queen that the Convention had ordered the removal of her
+boy, that he might he committed to the care of a tutor--the tutor named
+being the cobbler, Simon, whose savageness of disposition was sufficiently
+attested by the fact of his having been chosen on the recommendation of
+Marat. At this unexpected blow, Marie Antoinette's fortitude and
+resignation at last gave way. She wept, she remonstrated, she humbled
+herself to entreat mercy. She threw her arms around her child, and
+declared that force itself should not tear him from her. The commissioners
+were not men likely to feel or show pity. They abused her; they threatened
+her. She begged them rather to kill her than take her son. They would not
+kill her, but they swore that they would murder both him and her daughter
+before her eyes if he were not at once surrendered. There was no more
+resistance. His aunt and sister took him from the bed and dressed him. His
+mother, with a voice choked by her sobs, addressed him the last words he
+was ever to hear from her. "My child, they are taking you from me; never
+forget the mother who loves you tenderly, and never forget God! Be good,
+gentle, and honest, and your father will look down on you from heaven and
+bless you!" "Have you done with this preaching?" said the chief
+commissioner. "You have abused our patience finely," another added; "the
+nation is generous, and will take care of his education." But she had
+fainted, and heard not these words of mocking cruelty. Nothing could touch
+her further.
+
+If it be not also a mockery to speak of happiness in connection with this
+most afflicted queen, she was happy in at least not knowing the details of
+the education which was in store for the noble boy whose birth had
+apparently secured for him the most splendid of positions, and whose
+opening virtues seemed to give every promise that he would be worthy of
+his rank and of his mother. A few days afterward Simon received his
+instructions from a committee of the Convention, of which Drouet, the
+postmaster of Ste. Menehould, was the chief. "How was he to treat the wolf
+cub?" he asked (it was one of the mildest names he ever gave him). "Was he
+to kill him?" "No." "To poison him?" "No." "What then?" "He was to get rid
+of him,[9]" and Simon carried out this instruction by the most unremitting
+ill-treatment of his pupil. He imposed upon him the most menial offices;
+he made him clean his shoes; he reviled him; he beat him; he compelled him
+to wear the red cap and jacket which had been adopted as the Revolutionary
+dress; and one day, when his mother obtained a glimpse of him as he was
+walking on the leads of the tower to which he had been transferred, it
+caused her an additional pang to see that he had been stripped of the suit
+of mourning for his father, and had been clothed in the garments which, in
+her eyes, were the symbol, of all that was most impious and most
+loathsome.
+
+All these outrages were but the prelude of the final blow which was to
+fall on herself; and it shows how great was the fear with which her lofty
+resolution had always had inspired the Jacobins--fear with such natures
+being always the greatest exasperation of hatred and the keenest incentive
+to cruelty--that, when they had resolved to consummate her injuries by her
+murder, they did not leave her in the Temple as they had left her husband,
+but removed her to the Conciergerie, which in those days, fitly
+denominated the Reign of Terror, rarely led but to the scaffold. On the
+night of the 1st of August (the darkest hours were appropriately chosen
+for deeds of such darkness) another body of commissioners entered her
+room, and woke her up to announce that they had come to conduct her to the
+common prison. Her sister and her daughter begged in vain to be allowed to
+accompany her. She herself scarcely spoke a word, but dressed herself in
+silence, made up a small bundle of clothes, and, after a few words of
+farewell and comfort to those dear ones who had hitherto been her
+companions, followed her jailers unresistingly, knowing, and for her own
+sake certainly not grieving, that she was going to meet her doom. As she
+passed through the outer door it was so low that she struck her head. One
+of the commissioners had so much decency left as to ask if she was hurt.
+"No," she replied, "nothing now can hurt me.[10]" Six weeks later, an
+English gentleman saw her in her dungeon. She was freely exhibited to any
+one who desired to behold her, on the sole condition--a condition worthy
+of the monsters who exacted it, and of them alone--that he should show no
+sign of sympathy or sorrow.[11] "She was sitting on an old worn-out chair
+made of straw which scarcely supported her weight. Dressed in a gown which
+had once been white, her attitude bespoke the immensity of her grief,
+which appeared to have created a kind of stupor, that fortunately rendered
+her less sensible to the injuries and reproaches which a number of inhuman
+wretches were continually vomiting forth against her."
+
+Even after all the atrocities and horrors of the last twelve months, the
+news of the resolution to bring her to a trial, which, it was impossible
+to doubt, it was intended to follow up by her execution, was received as a
+shook by the great bulk of the nation, as indeed by all Europe. And
+Necker's daughter, Madame de Stael, who, as we have seen, had been
+formerly desirous to aid in her escape, now addressed an energetic and
+eloquent appeal to the entire people, calling on all persons of all
+parties, "Republicans, Constitutionalists, and Aristocrats alike, to unite
+for her preservation." She left unemployed no fervor of entreaty, no depth
+of argument. She reminded them of the universal admiration which the
+queen's beauty and grace had formerly excited, when "all France thought
+itself laid under an obligation by her charms;[12]" of the affection that
+she had won by her ceaseless acts of beneficence and generosity. She
+showed the absurdity of denouncing her as "the Austrian"--her who had left
+Vienna while still little more than a child, and had ever since fixed her
+heart as well as her home in France. She argued truly that the vagueness,
+the ridiculousness, the notorious falsehood of the accusations brought
+against her were in themselves her all-sufficient defense. She showed how
+useless to every party and in every point of view must be her
+condemnation. What danger could any one apprehend from restoring to
+liberty a princess whose every thought was tenderness and pity? She
+reproached those who now held sway in France with the barbarity of their
+proscriptions, with governing by terror and by death, with having
+overthrown a throne only to erect a scaffold in its place; and she
+declared that the execution of the queen would exceed in foulness all the
+other crimes that they had yet committed. She was a foreigner, she was a
+woman; to put her to death would be a violation of all the laws of
+hospitality as well as of all the laws of nature. The whole universe was
+interesting itself in the queen's fate. Woe to the nation which knew
+neither justice nor generosity! Freedom would never be the destiny of such
+a people.[13]
+
+It had not been from any feeling of compunction or hesitation that those
+who had her fate in their hands left her so long in her dungeon, but from
+the absolute impossibility of inventing an accusation against her that
+should not be utterly absurd and palpably groundless. So difficult did
+they find their task, that the jailer, a man named Richard, who, when
+alone, ventured to show sympathy for her miseries, sought to encourage her
+by the assurance that she would be replaced in the Temple. But Marie
+Antoinette indulged in no such illusion. She never doubted that her death
+was resolved on. "No," she replied to his well-meant words of hope, "they
+have murdered the king; they will kill me in the same way. Never again
+shall I see my unfortunate children, my tender and virtuous sister." And
+the tears which her own sufferings could not wring from her flowed freely
+when she thought of what they were still enduring.
+
+But at last the eagerness for her destruction overcame all difficulties or
+scruples. The principal articles of the indictment charged her with
+helping to overthrow the republic and to effect the reestablishment of the
+throne; with having exerted her influence over her husband to mislead his
+judgment, to render him unjust to his people, and to induce him to put his
+veto on laws of which they desired the enactment; with having caused
+scarcity and famine; with having favored aristocrats; and with having kept
+up a constant correspondence with her brother, the emperor; and the
+preamble and the peroration compared her to Messalina, Agrippina,
+Brunehaut, and Catherine de' Medici--to all the wickedest women of whom
+ancient or modern history had preserved a record. Had she been guided by
+her own feelings alone, she would have probably disdained to defend
+herself against charges whose very absurdity proved that they were only
+put forward as a pretense for a judgment that had been previously decided
+on. But still, as ever, she thought of her child, her fair and good son,
+her "gentle infant," her king. While life lasted she could never wholly
+relinquish the hope that she might see him once again, perhaps even that
+some unlooked-for chance (none could be so unexpected as almost every
+occurrence of the last four years) might restore him and her to freedom,
+and him to his throne; and for his sake she resolved to exert herself to
+refute the charges, and at least to establish her right to acquittal and
+deliverance.
+
+Louis had been tried before the Convention. Marie Antoinette was to be
+condemned by the, if possible, still more infamous court that had been
+established in the spring under the name of the Revolutionary Tribunal;
+and on the 13th of October she was at last conducted before a small
+sub-committee, and subjected to a private examination. To every question
+she gave firm and clear answers.[14] She declared that the French people
+had indeed been deceived, but not by her or by her husband. She affirmed
+"that the happiness of France always had been, and still was, the first
+wish of her heart;" and that "she should not even regret the loss of her
+son's throne, if it led to the real happiness of the country." She was
+taken back to her cell. The next day the four judges of the tribunal took
+their seats in the court. Fouquier-Tinville, the public prosecutor, a man
+whose greed of blood stamped him with an especial hideousness, even in
+those days of universal barbarity, took his seat before them; and eleven
+men, the greater part of whom had been carefully picked from the very
+dregs of the people--journeymen carpenters, tailors, blacksmiths, and
+discharged policemen--were constituted the jury.
+
+Before this tribunal--we will not dignify it with the name of a court of
+justice--Marie Antoinette, the widow Capet, as she was called in the
+indictment, was now brought. Clad in deep mourning for her murdered
+husband, and aged beyond her years by her long series of sorrows, she
+still preserved the fearless dignity which became her race and rank and
+character. As she took her place at the bar and cast her eyes around the
+hall, even the women who thronged the court, debased as they were, were
+struck by her lofty demeanor. "How proud she is!" was the exclamation, the
+only sign of nervousness that she gave being that, as those who watched
+her closely remarked, she moved her fingers up and down on the arm of her
+chair, as if she had been playing on the harpsichord. The prosecutor
+brought up witness after witness; some whom it was believed that some
+ancient hatred, others whom it was expected that some hope of pardon for
+themselves, might induce to give evidence such as was required. The Count
+d'Estaing had always been connected with her enemies. Bailly, once Mayor
+of Paris, as has been seen, had sought a base popularity by the wantonness
+of the unprovoked insults which he had offered to the king. Michonis knew
+that his head was imperiled by suspicions of his recent desire to assist
+her. But one and all testified to her entire innocence of the different
+charges which they had been brought forward to support, and to the
+falsehood of the statements contained in the indictment. Her own replies,
+when any question was addressed to herself, were equally in her favor.
+When accused of having been the prompter of the political mesures of the
+king's government, her answer could not be denied to be in accordance with
+the law: "That she was the wife and subject of the king, and could not be
+made responsible for his resolutions and actions." When charged with
+general indifference or hostility to the happiness of the people, she
+affirmed with equal calmness, as she had previously declared at her
+private examination, that the welfare of the nation had been, and always
+was, the first of her wishes.
+
+Once only did a question provoke an answer in any other tone than that of
+a lofty imperturbable equanimity. She had not known till that moment the
+depth of her enemies' wickedness, or the cruelty with which her son's mind
+had been dealt with, worse ten thousand times than the foulest tortures
+that could be applied to the body. Both her children had been subjected to
+an examination, in the hope that something might be found to incriminate
+her in the words of those who might hardly be able to estimate the exact
+value of their expressions. The princess had been old enough to baffle the
+utmost malice of her questioners; and the boy had given short and plain
+replies from which nothing to suit their purpose could be extracted, till
+they forced him to drink brandy, and, when he was stupefied with drink,
+compelled him to sign depositions in which he accused both the queen and
+Elizabeth of having trained him in lessons of vice. At first, horror at so
+monstrous a charge had sealed the queen's lips; but when she gave no
+denial, a juryman questioned her on the subject, and insisted on an
+answer. Then at last Marie Antoinette spoke in sublime indignation. "If I
+have not answered, it was because nature itself rejects such an accusation
+made against a mother. I appeal from it to every mother who hears me."
+
+Marie Antoinette had been allowed two counsel, who, perilous as was the
+duty imposed upon them, cheerfully accepted it as an honor; but it was not
+intended that their assistance should be more than nominal. She had only
+known their names on the evening preceding the trial; but when she
+addressed a letter to the President of the Convention, demanding a
+postponement of the trial for three days, as indispensable to enable them
+to master the case, since as yet they had not had time even to read the
+whole of the indictment, adding that "her duty to her children bound her
+to leave nothing undone which was requisite for the entire justification
+of their mother," the request was rudely refused; and all that the lawyers
+could do was to address eloquent appeals to the judges and jurymen, being
+utterly unable, on so short notice, to analyze as they deserved the
+arguments of the prosecutor or the testimony by which he had professed to
+support them. But before such a tribunal it signified little what was
+proved or disproved, or what was the strength or weakness of the arguments
+employed on either side. It was long after midnight of the second day that
+the trial concluded. The jury at once pronounced the prisoner guilty. The
+judges as instantly passed sentence of death, and ordered it to be
+executed the next morning.
+
+It was nearly five in the morning of the 16th of October when the favorite
+daughter of the great Empress-queen, herself Queen of France, was led from
+the court, not even to the wretched room which she had occupied for the
+last ten weeks, but to the condemned cell, never tenanted before by any
+but the vilest felons. Though greatly exhausted by the length of the
+proceedings, she had heard the sentence without betraying the slightest
+emotion by any change of countenance or gesture. On reaching her cell she
+at once asked for writing materials. They had been withheld from her for
+more than a year, but they were now brought to her; and with them she
+wrote her last letter to that princess whom she had long learned to love
+as a sister of her own, who had shared her sorrows hitherto, and who, at
+no distant period, was to share the fate which was now awaiting herself.
+
+"16th October, 4.30 A.M.
+
+"It is to you, my sister, that I write for the last time. I have just been
+condemned, not to a shameful death, for such is only for criminals, but to
+go and rejoin your brother. Innocent like him, I hope to show the same
+firmness in my last moments. I am calm, as one is when one's conscience
+reproaches one with nothing. I feel profound sorrow in leaving my poor
+children: you know that I only lived for them and for you, my good and
+tender sister. You who out of love have sacrificed everything to be with
+us, in what a position do I leave you! I have learned from the proceedings
+at my trial that my daughter was separated from you. Alas! poor child; I
+do not venture to write to her; she would not receive my letter. I do not
+even know whether this will reach you. Do you receive my blessing for both
+of them. I hope that one day when they are older they may be able to
+rejoin you, and to enjoy to the full your tender care. Let them both think
+of the lesson which I have never ceased to impress upon them, that the
+principles and the exact performance of their duties are the chief
+foundation of life; and then mutual affection and confidence in one
+another will constitute its happiness. Let my daughter feel that at her
+age she ought always to aid her brother by the advice which her greater
+experience and her affection may inspire her to give him. And let my son
+in his turn render to his sister all the care and all the services which
+affection can inspire. Let them, in short, both feel that, in whatever
+positions they may be placed, they will never be truly happy but through
+their union. Let them follow our example. In our own misfortunes how much
+comfort has our affection for one another afforded us! And, in times of
+happiness, we have enjoyed that doubly from being able to share it with a
+friend; and where can one find friends more tender and more united than in
+one's own family? Let my son never forget the last words of his father,
+which I repeat emphatically; let him never seek to avenge our deaths. I
+have to speak to you of one thing which is very painful to my heart, I
+know how much pain the child must have caused you. Forgive him, my dear
+sister; think of his age, and how easy it is to make a child say whatever
+one wishes, especially when he does not understand it.[15] It will come to
+pass one day, I hope, that he will better feel the value of your kindness
+and of your tender affection for both of them. It remains to confide to
+you my last thoughts. I should have wished to write them at the beginning
+of my trial; but, besides that they did not leave me any means of writing,
+events have passed so rapidly that I really have not had time.
+
+"I die in the Catholic Apostolic and Roman religion, that of my fathers,
+that in which I was brought up, and which I have always professed. Having
+no spiritual consolation to look for, not even knowing whether there are
+still in this place any priests of that religion[16] (and indeed the place
+where I am would expose them to too much danger if they were to enter it
+but once), I sincerely implore pardon of God for all the faults which I
+may have committed during my life. I trust that, in his goodness, he will
+mercifully accept my last prayers, as well as those which I have for a
+long time addressed to him, to receive my soul into his mercy. I beg
+pardon of all whom I know, and especially of you, my sister, for all the
+vexations which, without intending it, I may have caused you. I pardon all
+my enemies the evils that they have done me. I bid farewell to my aunts
+and to all my brothers and sisters. I had friends. The idea of being
+forever separated from them and from all their troubles is one of the
+greatest sorrows that I suffer in dying. Let them at least know that to
+my latest moment I thought of them.
+
+"Farewell, my good and tender sister. May this letter reach you. Think
+always of me; I embrace you with all my heart, as I do my poor dear
+children. My God, how heart-rending it is to leave them forever! Farewell!
+farewell! I must now occupy myself with my spiritual duties, as I am not
+free in my actions. Perhaps they will bring me a priest; but I here
+protest that I will not say a word to him, but that I will treat him as a
+person absolutely unknown."
+
+Her forebodings were realized; her letter never reached Elizabeth, but was
+carried to Fouquier, who placed it among his special records. Yet, if in
+those who had thus wrought the writer's destruction there had been one
+human feeling, it might have been awakened by the simple dignity and
+unaffected pathos of this sad farewell. No line that she ever wrote was
+more thoroughly characteristic of her. The innocence, purity, and
+benevolence of her soul shine through every sentence. Even in that awful
+moment she never lost her calm, resigned fortitude, nor her consideration
+for others. She speaks of and feels for her children, for her friends, but
+never for herself. And it is equally characteristic of her that, even in
+her own hopeless situation, she still can cherish hope for others, and can
+look forward to the prospect of those whom she loves being hereafter
+united in freedom and happiness. She thought, it may be, that her own
+death would be the last sacrifice that her enemies would require. And for
+even her enemies and murderers she had a word of pardon, and could address
+a message of mercy for them to her son, who, she trusted, might yet some
+day have power to show that mercy she enjoined, or to execute the
+vengeance which with her last breath she deprecated.
+
+She threw herself on her bed and fell asleep. At seven she was roused by
+the executioner. The streets were already thronged with a fierce and
+sanguinary mob, whose shouts of triumph were so vociferous that she asked
+one of her jailers whether they would tear her to pieces. She was assured
+that, as he expressed it, they would do her no harm. And indeed the
+Jacobins themselves would have protected her from the populace, so anxious
+were they to heap on her every indignity that would render death more
+terrible. Louis had been allowed to quit the Temple in his carriage. Marie
+Antoinette was to be drawn from the prison to the scaffold in a common
+cart, seated on a bare plank; the executioner by her side, holding the
+cords with which her hands were already bound. With a refinement of
+barbarity, those who conducted the procession made it halt more than once,
+that the people might gaze upon her, pointing her out to the mob with
+words and gestures of the vilest insult. She heard them not; her thoughts
+were with God: her lips were uttering nothing but prayers. Once for a
+moment, as she passed in sight of the Tuileries, she was observed to cast
+an agonized look toward its towers, remembering, perhaps, how reluctantly
+she had quit it fourteen months before. It was midday before the cart
+reached the scaffold. As she descended, she trod on the executioner's
+foot. It might seem to have been ordained that her very last words might
+be words of courtesy. "Excuse me, sir," she said, "I did not do it on
+purpose;" and she added, "make haste." In a few moments all was over.
+
+Her body was thrown into a pit in the common cemetery, and covered with
+quicklime to insure its entire destruction. When, more than twenty years
+afterward, her brother-in-law was restored to the throne, and with pious
+affection desired to remove her remains and those of her husband to the
+time-honored resting-place of their royal ancestors at St. Denis, no
+remains of her who had once been the admiration of all beholders could be
+found beyond some fragments of clothing, and one or two bones, among which
+the faithful memory of Chateaubriand believed that he recognized the mouth
+whose sweet smile had been impressed on his memory since the day on which
+it acknowledged his loyalty on his first presentation, while still a boy,
+at Versailles.
+
+Thus miserably perished, by a death fit only for the vilest of criminals,
+Marie Antoinette, the daughter of one sovereign, the wife of another, who
+had never wronged or injured one human being. No one was ever more richly
+endowed with all the charms which render woman attractive, or with all the
+virtues that make her admirable. Even in her earliest years, her careless
+and occasionally undignified levity was but the joyous outpouring of a
+pure innocence of heart that, as it meant no evil, suspected none; while
+it was ever blended with a kindness and courtesy which sprung from a
+genuine benevolence. As queen, though still hardly beyond girlhood when
+she ascended the throne, she set herself resolutely to work by her
+admonitions, and still more effectually by her example, to purify a court
+of which for centuries the most shameless profligacy had been the rule and
+boast; discountenancing vice and impiety by her marked reprobation, and
+reserving all her favor and protection for genius and patriotism, and
+honor and virtue. Surrounded at a later period by unexampled dangers and
+calamities, she showed herself equal to every vicissitude of fortune, and
+superior to its worst frowns. If her judgment occasionally erred, it was
+in cases where alternatives of evil were alone offered to her choice, and
+in which it is even now scarcely possible to decide what course would have
+been wiser or safer than that which she adopted. And when at last the long
+conflict was terminated by the complete victory of her combined enemies--
+when she, with her husband and her children, was bereft not only of power,
+but even of freedom, and was a prisoner in the hands of those whose
+unalterable object was her destruction--she bore her accumulated miseries
+with a serene resignation, an intrepid fortitude, a true heroism of soul,
+of which the history of the world does not afford a brighter example.
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+[1] One entitled "Marie-Antoinette, correspondance secrete entre Marie-
+Therese et le Comte Mercy d'Argenteau, avec des lettres de Marie-Therese
+et de Marie-Antoinette." (The edition referred to in this work is the
+greatly enlarged second edition in three volumes, published at Paris,
+1875.) The second is entitled "Marie-Antoinette, Joseph II., and Leopold
+II," published at Leipsic, 1866.
+
+[2] Entitled "Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette, et Madame Elizabeth," in six
+volumes, published at intervals from 1864 to 1873.
+
+[3] In his "Nouveau Lundi," March 5th, 1866, M. Sainte-Beuve challenged M.
+Feuillet de Conches to a more explicit defense of the authenticity of his
+collection than he had yet vouchsafed; complaining, with some reason, that
+his delay in answering the charges brought against it "was the more
+vexatious because his collection was only attacked in part, and in many
+points remained solid and valuable." And this challenge elicited from M.F.
+de Conches a very elaborate explanation of the sources from which he
+procured his documents, which he published in the _Revue des Deux Mondes_,
+July 15th, 1866, and afterward in the Preface to his fourth volume. That
+in a collection of nearly a thousand documents he may have occasionally
+been too credulous in accepting cleverly executed forgeries as genuine
+letters is possible, and even probable; in fact, the present writer
+regards it as certain. But the vast majority, including all those of the
+greatest value, can not be questioned without imputing to him a guilty
+knowledge that they were forgeries--a deliberate bad faith, of which no
+one, it is believed, has ever accused him.
+
+It may be added that it is only from the letters of this later period that
+any quotations are made in the following work; and the greater part of the
+letters so cited exists in the archives at Vienna, while the others, such
+as those, addressed by the Queen, to Madame de Polignac, etc., are just
+such as were sure to be preserved as relics by the families of those to
+whom they were addressed, and can therefore hardly be considered as liable
+to the slightest suspicion.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+[1] Sainte-Beuve, "Nouveaux Lundis," August 8th, 1864.
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+[1] "Histoire de Marie Antoinette," par E. and J. de Goncourt, p. 11.
+
+[2] How popular masked halls were in London at this time may be learned
+from Walpole's "Letters," and especially from a passage in which he gives
+an account of one given by "sixteen or eighteen young Lords" just two
+months before this ball at Vienna.--_Walpole to Mann_, dated February
+27th, 1770. Some one a few years later described the French nation as half
+tiger and half monkey; and it is a singular coincidence that Walpole's
+comment on this masquerading fashion should be, "It is very lucky, seeing
+how much of the tiger enters into the human composition, that there should
+be a good dose of the monkey too."
+
+[3] "Memoires concernant Marie Antoinette," par Joseph Weber (her foster-
+brother), i., p. 6.
+
+[4] "Goethe's Biography," p. 287.
+
+[5] "Memoires de Bachaumont," January 30th, 1770.
+
+[6] La maison du roi.
+
+[7] Chevalier d'honneur. We have no corresponding office at the English
+court.
+
+[8] The king said, "Vous etiez deja de la famille, car votre mere a l'ame
+de Louis le Grand."--SAINTE-BEUVE, _Nouveaux Lundis_, viii., p. 322.
+
+[9] In the language of the French heralds, the title princes of the royal
+family was confined to the children or grandchildren of the reigning
+sovereign. His nephews and cousins were only princes of the blood.
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+[1] The word is Maria Teresa's own; "anti-francais" occurring in more than
+one of her letters.
+
+[2] Quoted by Mme. du Deffand in a letter to Walpole, dated May 19th, 1770
+("Correspondance complete de Mme. du Deffand," ii., p.59).
+
+[3] Mercy to Marie-Therese, August 4th, 1770; "Correspondance secrete
+entre Marie-Therese et la Comte de Mercy Argenteau, avec des Lettres de
+Marie-Therese et Marie Antoinette," par M. le Chevalier Alfred d'Arneth,
+i., p. 29. For the sake of brevity, this Collection will be hereafter
+referred to as "Arneth."
+
+[4] "The King of France is both hated and despised, which seldom happens
+to the same man."--LORD CHESTERFIELD, _Letter to Mr. Dayrolles_, dated May
+19th, 1752.
+
+[5] Maria Teresa died in December, 1780.
+
+[6] Mme. du Deffand, letter of May 19th, 1770.
+
+[7] Chambier, i., p. 60.
+
+[8] Mme. de Campan, i., p. 3.
+
+[9] He told Mercy she was "'vive et un peu enfant, mais," ajouta-t-il,
+"cela est bien de son age.'"--ARNETH, i., p. 11.
+
+[10] Arneth, i., p.9-16
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+[1] Dates 9th and 12th., Arneth, i., pp. 16, 18.
+
+[2] Marly was a palace belonging to the king, but little inferior in
+splendor to Versailles itself, and a favorite residence of Louis XV.,
+because a less strict etiquette had been established there. Choisy and
+Bellevue, which will often be mentioned in the course of this narrative,
+were two others of the royal palaces on a somewhat smaller scale. They
+have both been destroyed. Marly, Choisy, and Bellevue were all between
+Versailles and Paris.
+
+[3] Mem. de Goncourt, quoting a MS. diary of Hardy, p. 35.
+
+[4] De Vermond, who had accompanied her from Vienna as her reader.
+
+[5] See St. Simon's account of Dangeau, i., p. 392.
+
+[6] The Duc de Noailles, brother-in-law of the countess, "l'homme de
+France qui a peut-etre le plus d'esprit et qui connait le mieux son
+souverain et la cour," told Mercy in August that "jugeant d'apres son
+experience et d'apres les qualites qu'il voyait dans cette princesse, il
+etait persuade qu'elle gouvernerait un jour l'esprit du roi."--ARNETH, i.,
+p. 34.
+
+[7] La petite rousse.
+
+[8] "De monter a cheval gate le teint, et votre taille a la longue s'en
+ressentira."--_Marie-Therese a Marie-Antoinette_, Arneth, i., p. 104.
+
+[9] "On fit chercher partout des anes fort doux et tranquilles. Le 21 on
+repeta la promenade sur les anes. Mesdames voulurent etre de la partie
+ainsi que le Comte de Provence et le Comte d'Artois."--_Mercy a Marie-
+Therese_, September 19, 1770, Arneth, i., p. 49.
+
+[10] "Madame la Dauphine, a laquelle le tresor royal doit remettre 6000
+frs. par mois, n'a reellement pas un ecu dont elle peut disposer elle-meme
+et sans le concours de personne" (Octobre 20).--ARNETH, i. p. 69.
+
+[11] "Ses garcons de chambre recoivent cent louis [a louis was twenty-four
+francs, so that the hundred made 2100 francs out of her 6000] par mois
+pour la depense du jeu de S.A.R.; et soit qu'elle perde ou qu'elle gagne,
+on ne revoit rien de cette somme."--ARNETH, i.
+
+[12] "Mme. Adelaide ajouta, 'On voit bien que vous n'etes pas de notre
+sang.'"--ARNETH, i., p. 94.
+
+[13] Arneth, i., p. 95.
+
+[14] "Finalement, Mme. la Dauphine se fait adorer de ses entours et du
+public; il n'est pas encore survenu un seul inconvenient grave dans sa
+conduite."--_Mercy a Marie-Therese_, Novembre 16, Arneth, i., p. 98.
+
+[15] Prince de Ligne, "Mem." ii., p. 79.
+
+[16] Mercy to Maria Teresa, dated November 17th, 1770, Arneth, i., p. 94.
+
+[17] Mercy to Maria Teresa, dated February 25th, 1771, Arneth, i, p. 134.
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+[1] See the "Citizen of the World," Letter 55. Reference has often been
+made to Lord Chesterfield's prediction of the French Revolution. But I am
+not aware that any one has remarked on the equally acute foresight of
+Goldsmith.
+
+[2] Letter of April 16th, 1771, Arneth, i., p. 148.
+
+[3] Arneth, i., p. 186.
+
+[4] Maria Teresa to Marie Antoinette, July 9th, and August 17th, Arneth,
+i., p. 196.
+
+[5] "Ne soyez pas honteuse d'etre allemande jusqu'aux gaucheries.... Le
+Francais vous estimera plus et fera plus de compte sur vous s'il vous
+trouve la solidite et la franchise allemande."--_Maria Teresa to Marie
+Antoinette._ May 8th, 1771, Arneth, i., p. 159.
+
+[6] Walpole's letter to Sir H. Mann, June 8th, 1771, v., p. 301.
+
+[7] Mercy to Maria Teresa, January 23d, 1772, Arneth, i., p. 265.
+
+[8] The Duc de la Vauguyon, who, after the dauphin's marriage, still
+retained his post with his younger brother.
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+[1] Mercy's letter to the empress, August 14th, 1772, Arneth, i., p. 335.
+
+[2] Mercy to Maria Teresa, November 14th, 1772, Arneth, i., p. 307.
+
+[3] Marie Antoinette to Maria Teresa, December 15th, 1772, Arneth, i., p.
+382.
+
+[4] Her sister Caroline, Queen of Naples.
+
+[5] Her brother Leopold, at present Grand Duke of Tuscany, afterward
+emperor. His wife, Marie Louise, was a daughter of Charles III. of Spain.
+
+[6] They, with several of the princes of the blood and some of the peers,
+as already mentioned, had been banished for their opposition to the
+abolition of the Parliaments; but now, in the hopes of obtaining the
+king's consent to his marriage with Madame de Montessan, a widow of
+enormous wealth, the Due d'Orleans made overtures for forgiveness,
+accompanying them, however, with a letter so insolent that it might we be
+regarded as an aggravation of his original offense. According to Madame du
+Deffand (letter to Walpole, December 18th, 1772, vol. ii., p. 283), he was
+only prevented from reconciling himself to the king some months before by
+his son, the Due de Chartres (afterward the infamous Egalite), whom she
+describes as "a young man, very obstinate, and who hopes to play a great
+part by putting himself at the head of a faction." The princes, however,
+in the view of the shrewd old lady, had made the mistake of greatly
+overrating their own importance. "These great princes, since their
+protest, have been just citizens of the Rue St. Denis. No one at court
+ever perceived their absence, and no one in the city ever noticed their
+presence."
+
+[7] Lord Stormont, the English Embassador at Vienna, from which city he
+was removed to Paris. In the preceding September Maria Teresa had
+complained to him of being "animated against her cabinet, from indignation
+at the partition of Poland."
+
+[8] That is, sisters-in-law--the Princesses Clotilde and Elizabeth.
+
+[9] The Hotel-Dieu was the most ancient hospital in Paris. It had already
+existed several hundred years when Philip Augustus enlarged it, and gave
+it the name of Maison de Dieu. Henry IV. and his successors had further
+enlarged it, and enriched it with monuments; and even the revolutionists
+respected it, though when they had disowned the existence of God they
+changed its name to that of L'Hospice de l'Humanite. It had been almost
+destroyed by fire a fortnight before the date of this letter, on the night
+of the 29th of December.
+
+[10] St. Anthony's Day was June 14th, and her name of Antoinette was
+regarded as placing her under his especial protection.
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+[1] They have not, however, been preserved.
+
+[2] Mercy to Maria Teresa, June 16th, 1773, Arneth, i., p. 467.
+
+[3] "Marie Antoinette, Louis XVI., et la Famille Royale", p. 23.
+
+[4] Marie Antoinette to Maria Theresa, July 17th, Arneth, ii., p. 8.
+
+[5] "Histoire de Marie Antoinette," par M. de Goncourt, p. 50. Quoting an
+unpublished journal by M.M. Hardy, in the Royal Library.
+
+[6] It is the name by which she is more than once described in Madame du
+Deffand's letters. See her "Correspondence," ii., p. 357.
+
+[7] Mercy to Maria Teresa, December 11th, 1773, Arneth, ii., p. 81.
+
+[8] "Memoires de Besenval," i., p. 304.
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+[1] Mercy to Maria Teresa, August 14th, 1773, Arneth, ii., p. 31.
+
+[2] The money was a joint gift from herself as well as from him. Great
+distress, arising from the extraordinarily high price of bread, was at
+this time prevailing in Paris.
+
+[3] The term most commonly used by Marie Antoinette in her letters to her
+mother to describe Madame du Barri. She was ordered to retire to the Abbey
+of Pont-aux-Dames, near Meaux. Subsequently she was allowed to return to
+Luciennes, a villa which her royal lover had given her.
+
+[4] Madame de Mazarin was the lady who, by the fulsomeness of her
+servility to Madame du Barri, provoked Madame du Deffand (herself a lady
+not altogether _sans reproche_) to say that it was not easy to carry "the
+heroism of baseness and absurdity farther."
+
+[5] Lorraine had become a French province a few years before, on the death
+of Stanislaus Leczinsky, father of the queen of Louis XV.
+
+[6] Maria Teresa to Marie Antoinette, May 18th, and to Mercy on the same
+day, Arneth, ii., p. 149.
+
+[7] See his letter of 8th May to Maria Teresa. "Il faut que pour la suite
+de son bonheur, elle commence a s'emparer de l'autorite que M. le Dauphin
+n'exercera jamais que d'une facon convenable, et ... ce serait du dernier
+danger et pour l'etat et pour le systeme general que qui ce soit s'emparat
+de M. le Dauphin et qu'il fut conduit par autre que par Madame la
+Dauphine."--ARNETH, ii., p. 137.
+
+[8] "Je parle a l'amie, a la confidente du roi."--_Maria Teresa to Marie
+Antoinette_, May 30th, 1770, Arneth, ii., p. 155.
+
+[9] "Jusqu'a present l'etiquette de cette cour a toujours interdit aux
+reines et princesses royales de manger avec des hommes."--_Mercy to Maria
+Teresa_, June 7th, 1774, Arneth, ii, p. 164
+
+[10] "Elle me traite, a mon arrivee, comme tous les jeunes gens qui
+composaient ses pages, qu'elle comblait de bontes, en leur montrant une
+bienveillance pleine de dignite, mais qu'on pouvait aussi appeler
+maternelle."--_Marie Therese, Memoires de Tilly_, i., p. 25.
+
+[11] Le don, ou le droit, de joyeux avenement.
+
+[12] La ceinture de la reine. It consisted of three pence (deniers) on
+each hogs-head of wine imported into the city, and was levied every three
+years in the capital.--ARNETH, ii, p. 179.
+
+[13] The title "ceinture de la reine" had been given to it because in the
+old times queens and all other ladies had carried their purses at their
+girdles.
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+[1] The title by which the count was usually known: that of the countess
+was madame.
+
+[2] St. Simon, 1709, ch. v., and 1715, ch. i, vols. vii. and xiii., ed.
+1829.
+
+[3] Ibid., 1700, ch xxx., vol. ii., p. 469.
+
+[4] Arneth, ii, p. 206.
+
+[5] Madame de Campan, ch. iv.
+
+[6] Madame de Campan, ch. v., p. 106.
+
+[7] _Id._, p. 101.
+
+[8] "_Sir Peter_. Ah, madam, true wit is more neatly allied to good--
+nature than your ladyship is aware of."--_School for Scandal_, act ii.,
+sc. 2.
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+[1] "Elle avait entierement le defaut contraire [a la prodigalite], et je
+pouvais prouver qu'elle portait souvent l'economie jusqu'a des details
+d'une mesquinerie blamable, surtout dans une souveraine."--MADAME DE
+CAMPAN, ch. v., p. 106, ed. 1858.
+
+[2] Arneth, ii., p. 307.
+
+[3] See the author's "History of France under the Bourbons," iii., p.
+418. Lacretelle, iv., p. 368, affirms that this outbreak, for which in his
+eyes "une pretendue disette" was only a pretext, was "evidemment fomente
+par des hommes puissans," and that "un salaire qui etait paye par des
+hommes qu'on ne pouvait nommer aujourd'hui avec assez de certitude,
+excitait leurs fureurs factices."
+
+[4] La Guerre des Farines.
+
+[5] Arneth, ii., p. 342.
+
+[6] "Souvenirs de Vaublanc," i., p. 231.
+
+[7] August 23d, 1775, No. 1524, in Cunningham's edition, vol. vi., p. 245.
+
+[8] The Prince of Wales and the Duke of York, who were just at this time
+astonishing London with their riotous living.
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+[1] "Gustave III. et la Cour de France," i. p. 279.
+
+[2] The Duc d'Angouleme, afterward dauphin, when the Count d'Artois
+succeeded to the throne as Charles X.
+
+[3] Marie Antoinette to Maria Teresa, August 12th, 1775, Arneth, ii., p.
+366.
+
+[4] "Le projet de la reine etait d'exiger du roi que le Sieur Turgot fut
+chasse, meme envoye a la Bastille ... et il a fallu les representations
+les plus fortes et les plus instantes pour arreter les effets de la colere
+de la Reine."--_Mercy to Maria Teresa_, May 16th, 1776, Arneth, ii., p.
+446.
+
+[5] The compiler of "Marie Antoinette, Louis XVI., et La Famille Royale"
+(date April 24th, 1776) has a story of a conversation between the king and
+queen which illustrates her feeling toward the minister. She had just come
+in from the opera. He asked her "how she had been received by the
+Parisians; if she had had the usual cheers." She made no reply; the king
+understood her silence. "Apparently, madame, you had not feathers enough."
+"I should have liked to have seen you there, sir, with your St. Germain
+and your Turgot; you would have been rudely hissed." St. Germain was the
+minister of war.
+
+[6] Mercy to Maria Teresa, May 16th, 1776, Arneth, ii., p. 446.
+
+[7] January 14th, 1776, Arneth, ii., p. 414.
+
+[8] The ground-floor of the palace was occupied by the shops of jewelers
+and milliners, some of whom were great sufferers by the fire.
+
+[9] In a letter written at the end of 1775, Mercy reports to the empress
+that some of Turgot's economical reforms had produced real discontent
+among those "qui trouvent leur interet dans le desordre," which they had
+vented in scandalous and seditious writings. Many songs of that character
+had come out, some of which were attributed to Beaumarchais, "le roi et la
+reine n'y ont point ete respectes."--_December 17th_, 1775. Arneth, ii, p.
+410.
+
+[10] Mercy to Maria Teresa, November 15th, 1776, Arneth, ii., p. 524.
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+[1] "Le petit nombre de ceux que la Reine appelle 'sa societe'"--_Mercy to
+Marie Teresa_, February 15th, 1777, Arneth, iii., p. 18.
+
+[2] "Il faut cependant convenir que dans ces circonstances si rapprochees
+de la familiarite, la Reine, par un maintien qui tient a son ame, a
+toujours su imprimer a ceux qui l'entouraient une contenance de respect
+qui contrebalancait un peu la liberte des propos."--_Mercy to Maria
+Teresa_, Arneth, ii, p.520.
+
+[3] Brunoy is about fifteen miles from Paris.
+
+[4] "Au reste il est temps pour la sante de la Reine que le carnaval
+finisse. On remarque qu'elle s'en altere, et que sa Majeste maigrit
+beaucoup."--_Marie Therese a Louis XVI._, la date Fevrier 1, 1777, p 101.
+
+[5] Once when he had spoken to her with a severity which alarmed Mercy,
+who feared it might irritate the queen, "Il me dit en riant qu'il en avait
+agi ainsi pour sonder l'ame de la reine, et voir si par la force il n'y
+aurait pas moyen d'obtenir plus que par la douceur."--_Mercy to Maria
+Teresa_, Arneth, iii., p. 79.
+
+[6] Arneth, iii., p. 73.
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+[1] When Mercy remonstrated with her on her relapse into some of her old
+habits from which at first she seemed to have weaned herself, "La seule
+reponse que j'aie obtenu a ete la crainte de s'ennuyer."--_Mercy to Maria
+Teresa_, November 19th, 1777, Arneth, iii., p. 13.
+
+[2] See Marie Antoinette's account to her mother of his quarrel with the
+Duchess de Bourbon at a _bal de l'opera_, Arneth, iii., p. 174.
+
+[3] "Il y a apparence que notre marine dont on s'occupe depuis longtemps
+va bientot etre en activite. Dieu veuille que tous ces mouvements
+n'amenent pas la guerre de terre."--_Marie Antoinette to Maria Teresa_,
+March 18th, 1777, Arneth, iii., p. 174.
+
+[4] "Jamais les Anglais n'ont eu tant de superiorite sur mer; mais ils en
+eurent sur les Francais dans tous les temps."--_Siecle de Louis_, ch xxxv.
+
+[5] The Comte de la Marck, who knew him well, says of him, "Il etait
+gauche dans toutes ses manieres; sa taille etait tres elevee, ses cheveux
+tres roux, il dansait sans grace, montait mal a cheval, et les jeunes gens
+avec lesquels il vivait se montraient plus adroits que lui dans les
+diverses exercices d'alors a la mode." He describes his income as "une
+fortune de 120,000 livres de rente," a little under L5000 a year.--
+_Correspondance entre le Comte de Mirabeau et le Comte de la Marck_, i. p.
+47.
+
+[6] "On a parle de moi dans tous les cercles, meme apres que la bonte de
+la reine m'eut valu le regiment du roi dragons."--_Memoires de ma Main,
+Memoires de La Fayette_, i., p 86.
+
+[7] "La lettre ou Votre Majeste, parlant du Roi de Prusse, s'exprime ainsi
+.... 'cela ferait un changement dans notre alliance, ce qui me donnerait
+la mort,' j'ai vu la reine palir en me lisant cet article."--_Mercy to
+Maria Teresa_, February 18th, 1778, Arneth, iii., p. 170.
+
+[8] See Coxe's "House of Austria," ch. cxxi. The war, which was marked by
+no action or event of importance, was terminated by the treaty of Teschen,
+May 10th, 1779.
+
+[9] "Il n'a pas voulu y consentir, et a toujours ete attentif a exciter
+lui-meme la reine aux choses qu'il jugeait pouvoir lui etre agreables."--
+_Mercy to Maria Teresa_, March 29th, 1778, Arneth, iii., p. 177.
+
+[10] Marie Antoinette to Joseph II, and Leopold II., p. 21, date January
+16th, 1778.
+
+[11] Louis.
+
+[12] Marie Antoinette to Maria Teresa, May 16th, Arneth, iii., p. 200.
+
+[13] Weber, i., p.40.
+
+[14] One of his admirers, seeing his mortification, said to him: "You are
+very simple to have wished to go to court. Do you know what would have
+happened to you? I will tell you. The king, with his usual affability,
+would have laughed in your face, and talked to you of your converts at
+Ferney. The queen would have spoken of your plays. Monsieur would have
+asked you what your income was. Madame would have quoted some of your
+verses. The Countess of Artois would have said nothing at all; and the
+count would have conversed with you about 'the Maid of Orleans.'"--_Marie
+Antoinette, Louis XVI. et la Famille Royale_, p. 125, March 3d.
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+[1] "La cour se precipite pele-mele avec la foule, car l'etiquette de
+France veut que tous entrent a ce moment, que nul ne soit refuse, et que
+le spectacle soit public d'une reine qui va donner un heritier a la
+couronne, ou seulement un enfant au roi."--_Mem. de Goncourt_, p. 105.
+
+[2] Arneth, iii., p. 270.
+
+[3] Madame de Campan, ch. ix.
+
+[4] _Ibid_., ch. ix.
+
+[5] Chambrier, i., p. 394.
+
+[6] "Marie Antoinette, Louis XVI., et la Famille Royale," p. 147, December
+24th, 1778.
+
+[7] _Garde-malades_ was the name given to them.
+
+[8] "Du moment qu'ils [les enfants] peuvent etre a l'air on les y
+accoutume petit a petit, et ils finissent par y etre presque toujours; je
+crois que c'est la maniere la plus saine et la meilleure des les elever."
+
+[9] Letter of Marie Antoinette to Maria Teresa, May 15th, 1779, Arneth,
+iii., p. 311.
+
+[10] Maria Teresa had offered the mediation of the empire to restore peace
+between England and France.
+
+[11] Spain had recently entered into the alliance against England in the
+hope of recovering Gibraltar. And just at the date of this letter the
+combined fleet of sixty-six sail of the line sailed into the Channel,
+while a French army of 50,000 men was waiting at St. Malo to invade
+England so soon as the British Channel fleet should have been defeated;
+but, though Sir Charles Hardy had only forty sail under his orders,
+D'Orvilliers and his Spanish colleague retreated before him, and at the
+beginning of September, from fear of the equinoctial gales, of which the
+queen here speaks with such alarm, retired to their own harbors, without
+even venturing to come to action with a foe of scarcely two-thirds of
+their own strength. See the author's "History of the British Navy," ch.
+xiv.
+
+[12] Letter of September 15th.
+
+[13] Letter of October 14th.
+
+[14] Letter of November 16th.
+
+[15] Letter of November 17th.
+
+[16] Kaunitz had been the prime minister of the empress, who negotiated
+the alliances with France and Russia, which were the preparations for the
+Seven Years' War.
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+[1] "On assure que sa majeste ne joue pas bien; ce que personne, excepte
+le roi, n'a ose lui dire. Au contraire, on l'applaudit a tout rompre."--
+_Marie Antoinette, Louis XVI. et la Famille Royale_ p. 203, date September
+28th, 1780.
+
+[2] In May, 1780, Sir Henry Clinton took Charleston, with a great number
+of prisoners, a great quantity of stores and four hundred guns.--LORD
+STANHOPE'S _History of England_, ch. lxii.
+
+[3] "Cette disposition a ete faite deux ans plutot que ne le comporte
+l'usage etabli pour les enfants de France."--_Mercy to Maria Teresa_,
+October 14th, Arneth, iii. p. 476.
+
+[4] Madame de Campan, ch. ix.
+
+[5] "Gustave III. et la Cour de France," i., p. 349.
+
+[6] An order known as that "du Merite" had been recently distributed for
+foreign Protestant officers, whose religion prevented them from taking the
+oath required of the Knights of the Grand Order of St. Louis.
+
+[7] "Sa figure et son air convenaient parfaitement a un heros de roman,
+mais non pas d'un roman francais; il n'en avait ni le brillant ni
+legerete."--_Souvenirs et Portraits_, par M. de Levis, p. 130.
+
+[8] "La Marck et Mirabeau," p. 32.
+
+[9] See his letter to Lord North proposing peace, date December 1st, 1780.
+Lord Stanhope's "History of England," vol. vii., Appendix, p. 13.
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+[1] "Gustave III. et la Cour de France," i., p. 357.
+
+[2] Chambrier, i., p. 430; "Gustave III.," etc., i., p. 353.
+
+[3] "Gustave III.," etc., i., p. 353.
+
+[4] "Memoires de Weber," i., p. 50.
+
+[5] "On s'arretait dans les rues, on se parlait sans se connaitre."--
+Madame de Campan, ch. ix.
+
+[6] L'Oeil de Boeuf.
+
+[7] Madame de Campan, ch. ix.; "Marie Antoinette, Louis XII., et la
+Famille Royale," p. 238.
+
+[8] "Un soleil d'ete"--Weber, i., p. 53.
+
+[9] La Muette derived its name from _les mues_ of the deer who were reared
+there. It had been enlarged by the Regent d'Orleans, who gave it to his
+daughter, the Duchess de Berri; and it, was the frequent scene of the
+orgies of that infamous father and daughter, while more recently it had
+been known as the Parc aux Cerfs, under which title it had acquired a
+still more infamous reputation.
+
+[10] "Apres le diner il y eut appartement jeu, et la fete fut terminee par
+un feu d'artifice."--Weber, i., p. 57, from whom the greater part of those
+details are taken. For the etiquette of the "jeu," see Madame de Campan,
+ch. ix., p. 17, and 2 ed. 1858.
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+[1] Mercy to Maria Teresa, June 18th, 1780, Arneth iii., p. 440.
+
+[2] Le tabouret. See St. Simon.
+
+[3] See _infra_, the queen's letter to Madame de Tourzel, date July 25th,
+1789.
+
+[4] "Souvenirs de Quarante Ans," by Mademoiselle de Tourzel, p. 20.
+
+[5] "Filia dolorosa."--Chateaubriand.
+
+[6] Napoleon, in 1814, called her the only man of her family.
+
+[7] Madame de Campan, ch. x.
+
+[8] Memoires de Madame d'Oberkirch, i., p. 279
+
+[9] The Marshal Prince de Soubise, whose incapacity and cowardice caused
+the disgraceful rout of Rosbach, was the head of this family; his sister,
+Madame Marsan, as governess of the "children of France", had brought up
+Louis XVI.
+
+[10] "Il [Rohan] a meme menace, si on ne veut pas prendre le bon chemin
+qui lui indique, que ma fille s'en ressentira."--_Marie-Therese a Mercy_,
+August 28th, 1774, Arneth, ii., p. 226.
+
+[11] "Ils paraissent si excedes du grand monde et des fetes, qu'avec
+d'autres petites difficultes qui se sont elevees, nous avons decide qu'il
+n'y aurait rien a Marly."--_Marie Antoinette to Mercy; Marie Antoinette,
+Joseph II., and Leopold II_., p. 27.
+
+[12] "No fewer than five actions were fought in 1782, and the spring of
+1783, by those unwearied foes. De Suffrein's force was materially the
+stronger of the two; it consisted of ten sail of the line, one fifty-gun
+ship, and four frigates; while Sir E. Hughes had but eight sail of the
+line, a fifty-gun ship, and one frigate," See the author's "History of the
+British Navy," i., p. 400.
+
+[13] Weber, i., p. 77. For the importance at this time attached to a
+reception at court, see Chateaubriand, "Memoires d'Outre-tombe," i., p.
+221.
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+[1] Joseph to Marie Antoinette, date September 9th, 1783.--_Marie
+Antoinette, Joseph II., and Leopold II._, p.30, which, to save such a
+lengthened reference, will hereafter be referred to as "Arneth."
+
+[2] She was again expecting a confinement; but, as had happened between
+the birth of Madame Royale and that of the dauphin, an accident
+disappointed her hope, and her third child was not born till 1785.
+
+[3] Date September 29th, 1783, Arneth, p. 35.
+
+[4] Ministre de la maison du roi.
+
+[5] Arneth, p. 38.
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+[1] "Le roi signa une lettre de cachet qui defendait cette
+representation."--Madame de Campan, ch. xi.; see the whole chapter. Madame
+de Campan's account of the queen's inclinations on the subject differs
+from that given by M. de Lomenie, in his "Beaumarchais et son Temps," but
+seems more to be relied on, as she had certainly better means of
+information.
+
+[2] See M. Gaillard's report to the lieutenant of police.--_Beaumarchais
+et son Temps_, ii., p. 313.
+
+[3] "Il n'y a que les petits hommes qui redoutent les petits ecrits."--
+_Act v., scene_ 3.
+
+[4] "Avec _Goddam_ en, Angleterre on ne manque de rien nulle part. Voulez-
+vous tater un bon poulet gras ... _Goddam_ ... Aimez-vous a boire un coup
+d'excellent Bourgogne ou de clairet? rien que celui-ci _Goddam_. Les
+Anglais a la verite ajoutent par-ci par-la autres mots en conversant, mais
+il est bien aise de voir que _Goddam_ est le fond de la langue."--_Act_
+iii., _scene_ 5.
+
+[5] "Gustave III. et la Cour de France," ii., p.22
+
+[6] _Ibid_., p. 35.
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+[1] "De par la reine."
+
+[2] Madame de Campan, ch. xi.
+
+[3] "'La legerete a tout croire et a tout dire des souverains,' ecrit tres
+justement M. Nisard (_Moniteur_ du 22 Janvier, 1886), 'est un des travers
+de notre pays, et comme le defaut de notre qualite de nation monarchique.
+C'est ce travers qui a tue Marie Antoinette par la main des furieux qui
+eurent peut-etre des honnetes gens pour complices. Sa mort devait rendre a
+jamais impossible en France la calomnie politique.'"--Chambrier, i., p.
+494.
+
+[4] "Memoires de la Reine de France," par M. Lafont d'Aussonne, p. 42.
+
+[5] See her letters to Mercy, December 26th, 1784, and to the emperor,
+December 31st, 1784, and February 4th, 1785, Arneth, p. 64, _et seq._
+
+[6] "J'ai ete reellement touchee, de la raison et de la fermete que le roi
+a mises dans cette rude seance."--_Marie Antoinette to Joseph II._, August
+22d, 1785, Arneth, p. 93.
+
+[7] "La calomnie s'est attachee a poursuivre la reine, meme avant cette
+epoque ou l'esprit de parti a fait disparaitre la verite de la terre."--
+Madame de Stael, _Proces de la Reine_, p. 2
+
+[8] Madame de Campan, "Eclaircissements Historiques," p. 461; "Marie
+Antoinette et le Proces du Collier," par M. Emile Campardon, p. 144,
+_seq._
+
+[9] "Permet au Cardinal de Rohan et au dit de Cagliostro de faire imprimer
+et afficher le present arret partout ou bon leur semblera."--Campardon, p.
+152.
+
+[10] "Sans doute le cardinal avait les mains pures de toute fraude; sans
+doute il n'etait pour rien dans l'escroquerie commise par les epoux de La
+Mothe."--Campardon, p. 155.
+
+[11] Campardon, p. 153, quoting Madame de Campan.
+
+[12] The most recent French historian, M.H. Martin, sees in this trial a
+proof of the general demoralization of the whole French nation.
+"L'impression qui en resulte pour nous est l'impossibilite que la reine
+ait ete coupable. Mais plus les imputations dirigees contre elle etaient
+vraisemblables, plus la creance accordee a ces imputations etait
+caracteristique, et attestait la ruine morale de la monarchie. C'etait
+l'ombre du Parc aux Cerfs qui couvrait toujours Versailles."--_Histoire de
+France_, xvi., p. 559, ed. 1860.
+
+[13] Feuillet de Conches, i., p. 161.
+
+[14] Feuillet de Conches, i., p. 162. Some of the critics of M.F. de
+Conches's collection have questioned without sufficient reason the
+probability of there having been any correspondence between the queen and
+her elder sister. But the genuineness of this letter is strongly
+corroborated by a mistake into which no forger would have fallen. The
+queen speaks as if the cardinal had alleged that he had given her a rose;
+while his statement really was that Oliva, personating the queen, had
+dropped a rose at his feet. A forger would have made the letter Correspond
+with the evidence and the fact. The queen, in her agitation, might easily
+make a mistake.
+
+[15] "Il se retira dans son eveche de l'autre cote du Rhin. La sa noble
+conduite fit oublier les torts de sa vie passee," etc.--Campardon, p. 156.
+
+[16] Campardon, p. 156.
+
+[17] It was from Ettenheim that the Duke d'Enghien was carried off in
+March, 1804. The cardinal died in February, 1803.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+[1] "Le duc declarait de son cote a Mr. Elliott que ... si la reine l'eut
+mieux traite il eut peut-etre mieux fait."--Chambrier, i., p.519
+
+[2] Sophie Helene Beatrix, born July 9th, 1786, died June 9th, 1787, F. de
+Conches, i. p. 195.
+
+[3] See her letter to her brother, February, 1788, Arneth, p. 112.
+
+[4] "C'est un vrai enfant de paysan, grand frais et gros."--Arneth, pp.
+113.
+
+[5] Feuillet de Conches, i, p. 195.
+
+[6] Apparently she means the Notables and the Parliament.
+
+[7] The Duc de Guines.
+
+[8] See _ante_, ch. xviii.
+
+[9] "'Il faut,' dit-il, avec un mouvement d'impatience qui lui fit
+honneur, 'que, du moins, l'archeveque de Paris croie en Dieu.'"--
+_Souvenirs par le Duc de Levis_, p. 102.
+
+[10] The continuer of Sismondi's history, A. Renee, however, attributes
+the archbishop's appointment to the influence of the Baron de Breteuil.
+
+[11] "Son grand art consistait a parler a chacun des choses qu'il croyait
+qu'on ignorait."--De Levis, p. 100.
+
+[12] The loan he proposed in June was eighty millions (of francs); in
+October, that which he demanded was four hundred and forty millions.
+
+[13] It is worth noticing that the French people in general did not regard
+the power of arbitrary imprisonment exercised by their kings as a
+grievance. In their eyes it was one of his most natural prerogatives. A
+year or two before the time of which we are speaking, Dr. Moore, the
+author of "Zeluco," and father of Sir John Moore, who fell at Corunna, was
+traveling in France, and was present at a party of French merchants and
+others of the same rank, who asked him many questions about the English
+Constitution, When he said that the King of England could not impose a tax
+by his own authority, "they said, with some degree of satisfaction,
+'Cependant c'est assez beau cela.'"... But when he informed them "that the
+king himself had not the power to encroach upon the liberty of the meanest
+of his subjects, and that if he or the minister did so, damages were
+recoverable in a court of law, a loud and prolonged 'Diable!' issued from
+every mouth. They forgot their own situation, and turned to their natural
+bias of sympathy with the king, who, they all seemed to think, must be the
+most oppressed and injured of manhood. One of them at last, addressing
+himself to the English politician, said, 'Tout ce que je puis vous dire,
+monsieur, c'est que votre pauvre roi est bien a plaindre.'"--_A View of
+the Society and Manners in France_, etc., by Dr. John Moore, vol. i., p.
+47, ed. 1788.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+[1] Feuillet de Conches, i., p. 205.
+
+[2] M. Foulon was about this time made paymaster of the army and navy, and
+was generally credited with ability as a financier; but he was unpopular,
+as a man of ardent and cruel temper, and was brutally murdered by the mob
+in one of the first riots of the Revolution.
+
+[3] The king.
+
+[4] Necker.
+
+[5] Feuillet de Conches, i., p. 214.
+
+[6] _Ibid_., p. 217.
+
+[7] On one occasion when the Marquis de Bouille pointed out to him the
+danger of some of his plans as placing the higher class at the mercy of
+the mob, "dirige par les deux passions les plus actives du coeur humain,
+l'interet et l'amour propre, ... il me repondit froidement, en levant les
+yeux au ciel, qu'il fallait bien compter sur les vertus morales des
+hommes."--_Memoires de M. de Bouille_, p. 70; and Madame de Stael admits
+of her father that he was "se fiant trop, il faut l'avouer, a l'empire de
+la raison," and adds that he "etudia constamment l'esprit public, comme la
+boussole a laquelle les decisions du roi devaient se conformer."--
+_Considerations sur la Revolution Francaise_, i., pp. 171, 172.
+
+[8] Her exact words are "si ... il fasse reculer l'autorite du roi" (if he
+causes the king's authority to retreat before the populace or the
+Parliament).
+
+[9] "Histoire de Marie Antoinette," par M. Montjoye, p. 202.
+
+[10] Madame de Campan, p. 412.
+
+[11] This edict was registered in the "Chambre Syndicate," September 13th,
+1787.--_La Reine Marie Antoinette et la Rev. Francaise, Recherches
+Historiques_, par le Comte de Bel-Castel, p. 246.
+
+[12] There is at the present moment so strong a pretension set up in many
+constituencies to dictate to the members whom they send to Parliament as
+if they were delegates, and not representatives, that it is worth while to
+refer to the opinion which the greatest of philosophical statesman, Edmund
+Burke, expressed on the subject a hundred years ago, in opposition to that
+at a rival candidate who admitted and supported the claim of constituents
+to furnish the member whom they returned to Parliament with "instructions"
+of "coercive authority." He tells the citizens of Bristol plainly that
+such a claim he ought not to admit, and never will. The "opinion" of
+constituents is "a weighty and respectable opinion, which a representative
+ought always to rejoice to hear, and which he ought most seriously to
+consider; but _authoritative instruction_, mandates issued which the
+member is bound blindly and implicitly to obey, to vote, and to argue for,
+though contrary to the clearest conviction of his judgment and his
+conscience; these are things utterly unknown to the laws of this land, and
+which arise from a fundamental mistake of the whole order and tenor of our
+constitution. Parliament is not a _congress_ of embassadors from different
+and hostile interests...but Parliament is a _deliberative_ assembly of
+_one_ nation, with _one_ interest, that of the whole, where not local
+purposes, not local prejudices ought to guide, but the general good
+resulting from the general reason of the whole. You choose a member
+indeed; but when you have chosen him, he is not member of Bristol, but he
+is a member of Parliament."--_General Election Speech at the Conclusion of
+the Poll at Bristol_, November 3d, 1774, Burke's Works, vol. iii., pp. 19,
+20, ed. 1803.
+
+[13] De Tocqueville considers the feudal system in France in many points
+more oppressive than that of Germany.--_Ancien Regime_, p. 43.
+
+[14] Silence des grenouilles. Arthur Young, "Travels in France during
+1787, '88, '89," p. 537. It is singular proof how entirely research into
+the condition of the country and the people of France had been neglected
+both by its philosophers and its statesmen, that there does not seem to
+have been any publication in the language which gave information on these
+subjects. And this work of Mr. Young's is the one to which modern French
+writers, such as M. Alexis de Tocqueville, chiefly refer.
+
+[15] "The _lettres de cachet_ were carried to an excess hardly credible;
+to the length of being sold, with blanks, to be filled up with names at
+the pleasure of the purchaser, who was thus able, in the gratification of
+private revenge, to tear a man from the bosom of his family, and bury him
+in a dungeon, where he would exist forgotten and die unknown."--A. Young,
+p. 532. And in a note he gives an instance of an Englishman, named Gordon,
+who was imprisoned in the Bastile for thirty years without even knowing
+the reason of his arrest.
+
+[16] Arthur Young, writing January 10th, 1790, identifies Les Enrages with
+the club afterward so infamous as the Jacobins. "The ardent democrats who
+have the reputation of being so much republican in principle that they do
+not admit any political necessity for having even the name of the king,
+are called the Enrages. They have a meeting at the Jacobins', the
+Revolution Club which assembles every night in the very room in which the
+famous League was formed in the reign of Henry III." (p. 267).
+
+[17] M. Droz asserts that a collector of such publications bought two
+thousand five hundred in the last three months of 1788, and that his
+collection was far from complete.--_Histoire de Louis XVI_., ii., p. 180.
+
+[18] "Tout auteur s'erige en legislateur."--_Memorial of the Princes to
+the King_, quoted in a note to the last chapter of Sismondi's History, p.
+551, Brussels ed., 1849.
+
+[19] In reality the numbers were even more in favor of the Commons: the
+representatives of the clergy were three hundred and eight, and those of
+the nobles two hundred and eighty-five, making only five hundred and
+ninety-three of the two superior orders, while the deputies of the Tiers-
+Etat were six hundred and twenty-one.--_Souvenirs de la Marquise de
+Crequy_, vii., p. 58.
+
+[20] "Se levant alors, 'Non,' dit le roi, 'ce ne peut etre qu'a
+Versailles, a cause des chasses.'"--LOUIS BLANC, ii., p. 212, quoting
+Barante.
+
+[21] "La reine adopta ce dernier avis [that the States should meet forty
+or sixty leagues from the capital], et elle insista aupres du roi que l'on
+s'eloignat de l'immense population de Paris. Elle craignait des lors que
+le peuple n'influencat les deliberations des deputes."--MADAME DE CAMPAN,
+ch 83.
+
+[22] Chambrier, i., p. 562.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+[1] It was called "L'insurrection du Faubourg St. Antoine."
+
+[2] The best account of this riot is to be found in Dr. Moore's "Views of
+the Causes and Progress of the French Revolution," i., p. 189.
+
+[3] Madame de Campan specially remarks that the disloyal cry of "Vive le
+Duc d'Orleans" came from "les femmes du peuple" (ch. xiii.).
+
+[4] Afterward Louis Philippe, King of the French.
+
+[5] "View of the Causes and Progress of the French Revolution," by Dr.
+Moore, i., p. 144.
+
+[6] The dauphin was too ill to be present. The children were Madame Royale
+and the Duc de Normandie, who became dauphin the next month by the death
+of his elder brother.
+
+[7] "Aucun nom propre, excepte le sien, n'etait encore celebre dans les
+six cents deputes du Tiers."--_Considerations sur la Revolution
+Francaise_, pp. 186, 187
+
+[8] In the first weeks of the session he told the Count de la Marck, "On
+ne sortira plus de la sans un gouvernement plus ou moins semblable a celui
+d'Angleterre."--_Correspondance entre le comte de la Marck_, i., p. 67.
+
+[9] He employed M. Malouet, a very influential member of the Assembly, as
+his agent to open his views to Necker, saying to him, "Je m'adresse donc a
+votre probite. Vous etes lie avec MM. Necker et de Montmorin, vous devez
+savoir ce qu'ils veulent, et s'ils ont un plan; si ce plan est raisonnable
+je le defendrai."--_Correspondance de Mirabeau et La Marck_, i., p. 219.
+
+[10] There is some uncertainty about Mirabeau's motives and connections at
+this time. M. de Bacourt, the very diligent and judicious editor of that
+correspondence with De la Marck which has been already quoted, denies that
+Mirabeau ever received money from the Duc d'Orleans, or that he had any
+connection with his party or his views. The evidence on the other side
+seems much stronger, and some of the statements of the Comte de la Marck
+contained in that volume go to exculpate Mirabeau from all complicity in
+the attack on Versailles on the 9th of October, which seems established by
+abundant testimony.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+[1] A letter of Madame Roland dated the 26th of this very month, July,
+1789, declares that the people "are undone if the National Assembly does
+not proceed seriously and regularly to the trial of the illustrious heads
+[the king and queen], or if some generous Decius does not risk his life to
+take theirs."
+
+[2] This story reached even distant province. On the 24th of July Arthur
+Young, being at Colmar, was assured at the _table-d'hote_ "That the queen
+had a plot, nearly on the point of execution, to blow up the National
+Assembly by a mine, and to march the army instantly to massacre all
+Paris." A French officer presumed but to doubt of the truth of it, and was
+immediately overpowered with numbers of tongues. A deputy had written it;
+they had seen the letter. And at Dijon, a week later, he tells us that
+"the current report at present, to which all possible credit is given, is
+that the queen has been convicted of a plot to poison the king and
+monsieur, and give the regency to the Count d'Artois, to set fire to
+Paris, and blow up the Palais Royal by a mine."--ARTHUR YOUNG'S _Travels,
+etc., in France_, pp. 143, 151.
+
+[3] "Car des ce moment on menacait Versailles d'une incursion de gens
+armes de Paris."--MADAME DE CAMPAN, ch. xiv.
+
+[4] Lacretelle, vol. vii., p. 105.
+
+[5] She meant to say, "Messieurs, je viens remettre entre vos mains
+l'epouse et la famille de votre souverain. Ne souffrez pas que l'on
+desunisse sur la terre ce qui a ete uni dans le ciel."--MADAME DE CAMPAN,
+ch. xiv.
+
+[6] Napoleon seems to have formed this opinion of his political views:
+"Selon M. Gourgaud, Buonaparte, causant a Ste. Helene le traitait avec
+plus de mepris [que Madame de Stael]. 'La Fayette etait encore un autre
+niais. Il etait nullement taille pour le role qu'il avait a jouer....
+C'etait un homme sans talents, ni civils, ni militaires; esprit borne,
+caractere dissimule, domine par des idees vagues de liberte mal digerees
+chez lui; mal concues.'"--_Biographie Universelle_.
+
+[7] In his Memoirs he boasts of the "gaucherie de ses manieres qui ne se
+plierent jamais aux graces de la Cour," p. 7.
+
+[8] See her letter to Mercy, without date, but, apparently written a day
+or two after the king's journey to Paris, Feuillet de Conches, i., p. 238.
+
+[9] "Souvenirs de Quarante Ans" (by Madame de Tourzel's daughter), p. 30.
+
+[10] Feuillet de Conches, i., p. 240.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+[1] "Memoires de la Princesse de Lamballe," i., p. 342.
+
+[2] Les Gardes du Corps.
+
+[3] Louis Blanc, iii., p. 156, quoting the Procedure du Chatelet.
+
+[4] "Souvenirs de la Marquise de Crequy," vol. vii, p. 119.
+
+[5] There is some uncertainty where La Fayette slept that night.
+Lacretelle says it was at the "Maison du Prince de Foix, fort eloignee du
+chateau." Count Dumas, meaning to be as favorable to him as possible,
+places him at the Hotel de Noailles, which is "not one hundred paces from
+the iron gates of the chapel" ("Memoirs of the Count Dumas," p. 159).
+However, the nearer he was to the palace, the more incomprehensible it is
+that he should not have reached the palace the next morning till nearly
+eight o'clock, two hours after the mob had forced their entrance into the
+Cour des Princes.
+
+[6] Weber, i., p. 218.
+
+[7] Le Boulanger (the king), la Boulangere (the queen), et le petit mitron
+(the dauphin).
+
+[8] "Souvenirs de la Marquise de Crequy," vii., p. 123.
+
+[9] Weber, ii, p. 226.
+
+[10] "Souvenirs de Quarante Ans," p. 47.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+[1] Madame de Campan, ch. xv.
+
+[2] F. de Conches, p. 264.
+
+[3] Madam de Campan, ch. xv.
+
+[4] See a letter from M. Huber to Lord Auckland, "Journal and
+Correspondence of Lord Auckland," ii, p. 365.
+
+[5] La Marck et Mirabeau, ii., pp. 90-93, 254.
+
+[6] "Arthur Young's Travels," etc., p. 264; date, Paris, January 4th,
+1790.
+
+[7] Feuillet de Conches, iii., p. 229.
+
+[8] Joseph died February 20th.
+
+[9] "Je me flatte que je la meriterai [l'amitie et confiance] de votre
+part lorsque ma facon de penser et mon tendre attachement pour vous, votre
+epoux, vos enfants, et tout ce qui peut vous interesser vous seront mieux
+connus."--ARNETH, p. 120. Leopold had been for many years absent from
+Germany, being at Florence as Grand Duke of Tuscany.
+
+[10] Feuillet de Conches, iii., p. 260.
+
+[11] As early as the second week in October (La Marck, p. 81, seems to
+place the conversation even before the outrages of October 5th and 6th;
+but this seems impossible, and may arise from his manifest desire to
+represent Mirabeau as unconnected with those horrors), Mirabeau said to La
+Marck, "Tout est perdu, le roi et la reine y periront et vous le verrez,
+la populace battra leurs cadavres."
+
+[12] Lese-nation.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+[1] Arthur Young's "Journal," January 4th, 1790, p. 251.
+
+[2] Feuillet de Conches, i., p. 315.
+
+[3] "Le mal deja fait est bien grave, et je doute que Mirabeau lui-meme
+puisse reparer celui qu'on lui a laisse faire."--_Mirabeau et La Marck_,
+i., p. 100.
+
+[4] La Marck et Mirabeau, i., p. 315.
+
+[5] _Ibid._, p. 111.
+
+[6] Feuillet de Conches, i., p. 345.
+
+[7] Mirabeau et La Marck, i., p. 125.
+
+[8] He alludes to Maria Teresa's appearance at Presburg at the beginning
+of the Silesian war.
+
+[9] "Il lui [a l'Assemblee] importait de faire une epreuve sur toutes les
+Gardes Nationales de France, d'animer ce grand corps dont tous les membres
+etaient encore epars et incoherents, de leur donner une meme impulsion....
+Enfin, de faire sous les yeux de l'Europe une imposante revue des force
+qu'elle pourrait un jour opposer a des rois inquiets ou courrouces."--
+LACRETELLE, vii., p. 359.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+[1] We learn from Dr. Moore that there was a leader with five subaltern
+officers and one hundred and fifty rank and file in each gallery of the
+chamber; that the wages of the latter were from two to three francs a day;
+the subaltern had ten francs, the leaders fifty. The entire expense was
+about a thousand francs a day, a sum which strengthens the suspicion that
+the pay-master (originally, at least) was the Duc d'Orleans.--DR. MOORE'S
+_View of the Causes, etc., of the French Revolution_, i., p. 425.
+
+[2] Mirabeau et La Marck, ii., p. 47.
+
+[3] Feuillet de Conches, i., p. 352.
+
+[4] Marie Antoinette to Mercy, Feuillet de Conches, i., p. 355.
+
+[5] _Ibid_., i., p. 365.
+
+[6] Arneth, p. 140.
+
+[7] It is remarkable that he, like one or two of the Girondin party,
+belonged by birth to the Huguenot persuasion, and Marat had studied
+medicine at Edinburgh.
+
+[8] The Marquise de Brinvilliers had been executed for poisoning several
+of her own relations in the reign of Louis XIV.
+
+[9] Madame de Campan, ch. xvii.; Chambrier, ii., p. 12.
+
+[10] He said to La Marck, "Aucun homme seul ne sera capable de ramener les
+Francais an bon sens, le temps seul peut retablir l'ordre dans les
+esprits," etc., etc.--_ Mirabeau et La Marck_, i., p. 147.
+
+[11] Feuillet de Conches, i., p, 376.
+
+[12] Marie Antoinette to Leopold, date December 11th, 1790, Arneth, p.
+143.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+[1] The Marshal de Bouille, who was La Fayette's cousin, says, in October
+of this year, "L'eveque de Pamiers me fit le tableau de la situation
+malheureux de ce prince et de la famille royale ... que la rigueur et
+durete de La Fayette, devenu leur geolier, rendent de jour en jour plus
+insupportable."--_Memories de De Bouille_, pp. 175, 181. And in June he
+had remarked, "Que sa popularite (de La Fayette) dependait plutot de la
+captivite du roi, qu'il tenait prisonnier, et qui etait sous sa garde, que
+de sa force personnelle, qui n'avait plus d'autre appui que la milice
+Parisienne."
+
+[2] _Ibid_., p. 130.
+
+[3] The letter to the King of Prussia is given by Lamartine; its date is
+December 3d, 1790.--_Histoire des Girondins_, book v., § 12.
+
+[4] Mercy to Marie Antoinette, from The Hague, December 17th, 1790,
+Feuillet de Conches, i., p. 398.
+
+[5] Feuillet de Conches, i., p. 401.
+
+[6] _Ibid., p. 403, date December 27th, 1790.
+
+[7] "Mirabeau et La Marck," ii., pp. 57--61.
+
+[8] Letter to the queen, date February 19th, 1791; "Correspondance de
+Mirabeau et La Marck," ii., p. 229.
+
+[9] "Mirabeau et La Marck," ii., pp. 153, 194, _et passim._
+
+[10] "Souvenirs de Quarante Ans," p. 54.
+
+[11] "Mirabeau aurait prefere que Louis XVI. sortit publiquement, et en
+roi, M. de Bouille pensait de meme."--_Mirabeau et La Marck_, i., p. 172.
+
+[12] 1789, see _ante_, p. 256.
+
+[13] Date February 18th, 1791, Feuillet de Conches, i., p. 465.
+
+[14] "Mirabeau et La Marck," ii., p., 216 date February 3d, 1791.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+[1] Feuillet de Conches, ii., p. 14, date March 7th.
+
+[2] Arneth, p. 146, letter of the queen to Leopold, February 27th, 1791.
+
+[3] Feuillet de Conches, ii., p. 20, date March 20th, 1791.
+
+[4] Letter of M. Simolin, the Russian embassador, April 4th, 1791,
+Feuillet de Conches, ii., p. 31.
+
+[5] "Souvenirs sur Mirabeau," par Etienne Dumont, p. 201.
+
+[6] In her letter to Mercy of August 16th, of which extracts are given in
+ch. xi., she takes credit for having encountered the dangers of the
+journey to Montmedy for the sake of "the public welfare."
+
+[7] Arneth, p. 155.
+
+[8] Letter of Leopold to Marie Antoinette, date May 2d, 1791, Arneth, p.
+162.
+
+[9] "Cette demarche est le terme extreme de reussir ou perir. Les choses
+en sont-elles au point de rendre ce risque indispensable?"--_Mercy to
+Marie Antoinette_, May 11th, 1791, Arneth, p. 163.
+
+[10] The day on which the king and she had been prevented from going to
+St. Cloud.
+
+[11] The king.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+[1] Chambrier, ii., p. 86-88.
+
+[2] Lamartine's "Histoire des Girondins," ii., p. 15.
+
+[3] Moore's "View," ii., p. 367.
+
+[4] The Palais Royal had been named the Palais National. All signs with
+the portraits of the king or queen, all emblems of royalty, had been torn
+down. A shop-keeper was even obliged to erase his name from his shop
+because it was Louis.--MOORE'S _View_, etc., ii., p. 356.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+[1] A certain set of writers in this country at one time made La Fayette a
+subject for almost unmixed eulogy, with such earnestness that it may be
+worth while to reproduce the opinion expressed of him by the greatest of
+his contemporaries--a man as acute in his penetration into character as he
+was stainless in honor--the late Duke of Wellington. In the summer of
+1815, he told Sir John Malcolm that "he had used La Fayette like a dog, as
+he merited. The old rascal," said he, "had made a false report of his
+mission to the Emperor of Russia, and I possessed complete evidence of his
+having done so. I told him, the moment he entered, of this fact; I did not
+even state it in the most delicate manner. I told him he must be sensible
+he had made a false report. He made no answer." And the duke bowed him out
+of the room with unconcealed scorn.--Kaye's _Life of Sir J. Malcolm_, ii.,
+p. 109.
+
+[2] Lamartine calls the Cordeliers the Club of Coups-de-main, as he calls
+the Jacobins the Club of Radical Theories.--_Histoire des Girondins_,
+xvi., p. 4.
+
+[3] Dr. Moore, ii., p. 372; Chambrier, ii., p. 142.
+
+[4] Mercy to Marie Antoinette, May 16th, Feuillet de Conches, ii., p. 60.
+
+[5] _Ibid._, p. 140.
+
+[6] A resolution, that is, to recognize the Constitution.
+
+[7] Arneth, p. 188; Feuillet de Conches, ii, p. 186.
+
+[8] The letter took several days to write, and was so interrupted that
+portions of it have three different dates affixed, August 16th, 21st,
+26th. Mercy's letter, which incloses Burke's memorial, is dated the 20th,
+from London, so that the first portion of the queen's letter can not be
+regarded as an intentional answer to Burke's arguments, though it is so,
+as embodying all the reasons which influenced the queen.
+
+[9] The manifesto which he left behind him when starting for Montmedy.
+
+[10] The king.
+
+[11] Feuillet de Conches, ii., p. 228; Arneth, p. 203.
+
+[12] The Emperor Leopold died March 1st, 1792.
+
+[13] The declaration of Pilnitz, drawn up by the emperor and the King of
+Prussia at a personal interview, August 21st, 1791, did not in express
+words denounce the new Constitution (which, in fact, they had not seen),
+but, after declaring "the situation of the King of France to be a matter
+of common interest to all European sovereigns," and expressing a hope that
+"the reality of that interest will be duly appreciated by the other powers
+whose assistance they invoke," they propose that those other powers "shall
+employ, in conjunction with their majesties, the most efficacious means,
+in order to enable the King of France to consolidate in the most perfect
+liberty the foundation of a monarchical government, conformable alike to
+the rights of sovereigns and the well-being of the French nation."--
+Alison, ch. ix., Section 90.
+
+[14] Arneth, p. 208.
+
+[15] _Ibid_, p. 210; Feuillet de Conches, ii., p. 325.
+
+[16] Letter, date December 3d, 1791. Feuillet de Conches, iv., p. 278.
+
+[17] Madame de Campan, ch xix.
+
+[18] "Leurs touffes de cheveux noirs volaient dans la salle, eux seuls a
+cette epoque avaient quitte l'usage de poudrer les cheveux."--_Note on the
+Passage by Madame de Campan_, ch xix.
+
+[19] This first Assembly, as having framed the Constitution, is often
+called the Constituent Assembly; the second, that which was about to meet,
+being distinguished as the Legislative Assembly.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+[1] "Memoires Particuliers," etc., par A.F. Bertrand de Moleville, i., p.
+355. Brissot, Isnard, Vergniaud, Gaudet, and an infamous ecclesiastic, the
+Abbe Fauchet, are those whom he particularly mentions, adding: "Mais M.
+de Lessart trouva que c'etait les payer trop cher, et comme ils ne
+voulurent rien rabattre de leur demande, cette negociation n'eut aucune
+suite, et ne produisit d'autre effet que d'aigrir davantage ces cinq
+deputes contre ce ministre."
+
+[2] Feuillet de Conches, ii., p.414, date October 4th: "Je pense qu'au
+fond le bon bourgeois et le bon peuple ont toujours ete bien pour nous."
+
+[3] "Memoires Particuliers," etc., par A.F. Bertrand de Moleville, i., p.
+10-12. It furnishes a striking proof of the general accuracy of Dr.
+Moore's information, that he, in his "View" (ii., p. 439), gives the name
+account of this conversation, his work being published above twenty years
+before that of M. Bertrand de Moleville.
+
+[4] "La reine lui repondit par un sourire de pitie, et lui demanda s'il
+etait fou.... C'est par la reine elle-meme que, le lendemain de cette
+etrange scene, je fus instruit de tous les details que je viens de
+rapporter."--BERTRAND DE MOLEVILLE, i., p. 126.
+
+[5] She herself called him so on this occasion, and he belonged to the
+Jacobin Club; but he was also one of the Girondin party, of which, indeed,
+he was one of the founders, and it was as a Girondin that he was afterward
+pursued to death by Robespierre.
+
+[6] Narrative of the Comte Valentin Esterhazy, Feuillet de Conches, iv.,
+p. 40.
+
+[7] The queen spoke plainly to her confidants: "M. de La Fayette will only
+be the Mayor of Paris that he may the sooner become Mayor of the Palace.
+Petion is a Jacobin, a republican; but he is a fool, incapable of ever
+becoming the leader of a party. He would be a nullity as mayor, and,
+besides, the very interest which he knows we take in his nomination may
+bind him to the king."--Lamartine's _Histoire des Girondins_ vi., p.22.
+
+[8] "Elle [Madame d'Ossun, dame d'atours de la reine] m'a dit, il y a
+trois semaines, que le roi et la reine avaiet ete neuf jours sans un sou."
+_Letter of the Prince de Nassau-Siegen to the Russian Empress Catherine_,
+Feuillet de Conches, iv., p. 316; of also Madame de Campan, ch. xxi.
+
+[9] Letter of the Princess to Madame de Bombelles, Feuillet de Conches,
+v., p.267.
+
+[10] "N'est-il pas bien gentil, mon enfant?"--_Memoires Particuliers_, p.
+235.
+
+[11] See two most insolent letters from the Count de Provence and Count
+d'Artois to Louis XVI, Feuillet de Conches, v., pp. 260, 261.
+
+[12] Feuillet de Conches, iv., p. 291
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+[1] Letter to Madame de Polignac, March 17th, Feuillet de Conches, v., p.
+337.
+
+[2] The Monks of St. Bernard were known as Feuillants, from Feuillans, a
+village in Languedoc where their principal convent was situated.
+
+[3] Lamartine, "Histoire des Girondins," xiii., p.18.
+
+[4] The messenger was M. Goguelat: he took the name of M. Daumartin, and
+adhered to the cause of his sovereigns to the last moment of their lives.
+
+[5] Letter of the Count de Fersen, who was at Brussels, to Gustavus (who,
+however, was dead before it could reach him), dated March 24th, 1792. In
+many respects the information De Fersen sends to his king tallies
+precisely with that sent by Breteuil to the emperor; he only adds a few
+circumstances which had not reached the baron.
+
+[6] Afterward Louis Philippe, King of the French, who was himself driven
+from the throne by insurrection above half a century afterward.
+
+[7] Madame de Campan, ch. xx.
+
+[8] _Ibid._, ch. XIX.
+
+[9] "Vie de Dumouriez," ii, p. 163, quoted by Marquis de Ferrieres,
+Feuillet de Conches, and several other writers.
+
+[10] Even Lamartine condemns the letter, the greater part of which he
+inserts in his history as one in which "the threat is no less evident than
+the treachery."--_Histoire des Girondins,_ xiii., p. 16.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+[1] "Gare la Lanterne," alluding to the use of the chains to which the
+street-lamps were suspended as gibbets.
+
+[2] Madame de Campan, ch. xxi.
+
+[3] Dumas, "Memoirs of his Own Time," i., p. 353.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+[1] To be issued by the foreign powers.
+
+[2] Feuillet de Conches, vi., p. 192, and Arneth, p. 265.
+
+[3] The day is not mentioned. "Lettres de la Reine Marie Antoinette a la
+Landgravine Louise," etc. p. 47.
+
+[4] The bearer was Prince George himself, but she does not venture to name
+him more explicitly.
+
+[5] Lamourette might correspond to the English name Lovekin.
+
+[6] Letter of the Princess Elizabeth, date July 16th, 1792, Feuillet de
+Conches, vi., p. 215.
+
+[7] It is remarkable, however, that, if we are to take Lamartine as a
+guide in any respect, and he certainly was not in intention unfavorable to
+La Fayette, the marquis was even now playing a double game. Speaking of
+this very proposal, he says: "La Fayette himself did not disguise his
+ambition for a protectorate under Louis XVI. At the very moment when he
+seemed devoted to the preservation of the king he wrote thus to his
+confidante, La Colombe: 'In the matter of liberty I do not trust myself
+either to the king or any other person, and if he were to assume the
+sovereign, I would fight against him as I did in 1789.'"--_Histoire des
+Girondins_, xvii., p.7 (English translation). It deserves remark, too, if
+his words are accurately reported, that the only occasion 1789 on which he
+"fought against" Louis must have been October 5th and 6th, when he
+professed to be using every exertion for his safety.
+
+[8] M. Bertrand expressly affirms the insurrection of August 10th to have
+been almost exclusively the work of the Girondin faction.--_Memoires
+Particuliers,_ ii., p. 122.
+
+[9] _Memoires Particuliers,_ ii., p. 132.
+
+[10] "Memoires Particuliers," p. 111.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+[1] See _ante_.
+
+[2] "Histoire de la Terreur," par Mortimer Ternaux, ii., p. 269. For the
+transactions of this day, and of the following months, he is by far the
+most trustworthy guide, as having had access to official documents of
+which earlier writers were ignorant. But he admits the extreme difficulty
+of ascertaining the precise details and time of each event. And it is not
+easy in every instance to reconcile his account with that of Madame de
+Campan, on whom for many particulars he greatly relies. He differs from
+her especially as to the hour at which the different occurrences of this
+day took place. For instance, he says (p. 268, note 2) that Mandat left
+the Tuileries a little after five, while Madame de Campan says it was four
+o'clock when the queen told her he had been murdered. Both, however, agree
+that it was soon after eight o'clock when the king left the palace.
+
+[3] "A quatre heures la reine sortit de la chambre du roi, et vint nous
+dire qu'elle n'esperait plus rien; que M. Mandat venait d'etre
+assassine."--MADAME DE CAMPAN, ch. xxi.
+
+[4] "La Terreur," viii., p. 4.
+
+[5] It is clear that this is the opinion formed by M Mortimer Ternaux. He
+sums up the fourth chapter of his eighth book with the conclusion that "le
+palais de la royaute ne fut pas enleve de vive force, mais abandonne par
+ordre de Louis XVI." And in a note he affirms that the entire number of
+killed and wounded on the part of the rioters did not exceed one hundred
+and sixty "en chiffres ronds."
+
+[6] Bertrand de Moleville, ch. xxvii.
+
+[7] Madame de Campan, ch. xxi.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+[1] "Dernieres Annees du Regne et de la Vie de Louis XVI.," par Francois
+Hue, p. 336.
+
+[2] For about a fortnight they had two, both men--Hue, the valet to the
+dauphin, as well as Clery; but Hue was removed on the 2d of September. He,
+as well as Clery, has left an account of the imprisonment till the day of
+his dismissal.
+
+[3] "Journal de ce qui s'est passe a la tour du Temple," etc. p.28, _seq._
+
+[4] "Memoires Particuliers," par Madame la Duchesse d'Angouleme, p. 21.
+
+[5] Decius was the hero whose example was especially invoked by Madame
+Roland. The historians of his own country had never accused him of
+murdering any one; but she, in the very first month of the Revolution, had
+called, with a very curious reading of history, for "some generous Decius
+to risk his life to take theirs" (the lives of the king and queen).
+
+[6] The princess told Clery, "La reine et moi nous nous attendons a tout,
+et nous ne nous faisons aucune illusion sur le sort qu'on prepare au roi,"
+etc.--CLERY, p. 106.
+
+[7] "Memoires" de la Duchesse d'Angouleme, p. 53.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+[1] Clery's "Journal," p. 169.
+
+[2] In March, having an opportunity of communicating with the Count de
+Provence, she sent these precious memorials to him for safer custody, with
+a joint letter from herself and her three fellow-prisoners: "Having a
+faithful person on whom we can depend, I profit by the opportunity to send
+to my brother and friend this deposit, which may not be intrusted to any
+other hands. The bearer will tell you by what a miracle we were able to
+obtain these precious pledges. I reserve the name of him who is so useful
+to us, to tell it you some day myself. The impossibility which has
+hitherto existed of sending you any intelligence of us, and the excess of
+our misfortunes, make us feel more vividly our cruel separation. May it
+not lie long. Meanwhile I embrace you as I love you, and you know that
+that is with all my heart.--M.A." A line is added by the princess royal,
+and signed by her brother, as king, as well as by herself: "I am charged
+for my brother and myself to embrace you with all my heart.--M.T. [MARIA
+TERESA], LOUIS." And another by the Princess Elizabeth: "I enjoy
+beforehand the pleasure which you will feel in receiving this pledge of
+love and confidence. To be reunited to you and to see you happy is all
+that I desire. You know if I love you. I embrace you with all my heart.--
+E." The letters were shown by the Count de Provence to Clery, whom he
+allowed to take a copy of them.--CLERY'S _Journal_, p. 174.
+
+[3] "Memoires" de la Duchesse d'Angouleme, p. 56.
+
+[4] It was burned in 1871, in the time of the Commune.
+
+[5] Feuillet de Conches, vi., p. 499. The letter is neither dated nor
+signed.
+
+[6] Lanjuinais had subsequently the singular fortune of gaining the
+confidence of both Napoleon and Lounis XVIII. The decree against him was
+reversed in 1795, and he became a professor at Rennes. Though he had
+opposed the making of Napoleon consul for life, Napoleon gave him a place
+in his Senate; and at the first restoration, in 1814, Louis XVIII named
+him a peer of France. He died in 1827.
+
+[7] Some of the apologists of the Girondins--nearly all the oldest
+criminals of the Revolution have found defenders, except perhaps Marat and
+Robespierre--have affirmed that the Girondins, though they had not courage
+to give their votes to save the life of Louis, yet hoped to save him by
+voting for an appeal to the people; but the order in which the different
+questions were put to the Convention is a complete disproof of this plea.
+The first question put was, Was Louis guilty? They all voted "Oui"
+(Lacretelle, x., p. 403). But though on the second question, whether this
+verdict should be submitted to the people for ratification, many of them
+did vote for such an appeal being made, yet after the appeal had been
+rejected by a majority of one hundred and forty-two, and the third
+question, "What penalty shall be inflicted on Louis?" (Lacretelle, x., p.
+441) was put to the Convention, they all except Lanjuinais voted for
+"death." The majorities were, on their question, 683 to 66; on the second,
+423 to 281; on the third, 387 to 334; so that on this last, the fatal
+question, it would have been easy for the Girondins to have turned the
+scale. And Lamartine himself expressly affirms (xxxv., p.5) that the
+king's life depended on the Girondin vote, and that his death was chiefly
+owing to Vergniaud.
+
+[8] Goncourt, p. 370, quoting "Fragments de Turgy."
+
+[9] "S'en defaire."--_Louis XVII., sa Vie, son Agonie, sa Mort_, par M. de
+Beauchesne, quoting Senart. See Croker's "Essays on the Revolution," p.
+266.
+
+[10] Duchesse d'Angouleme, p. 78.
+
+[11] See a letter from Miss Chowne to Lord Aukland, September 23d, 1793,
+Journal, etc., of Lord Aukland, ii., p. 517.
+
+[12] "Le peuple la recut non seulement comme une reine adoree, mais il
+semblait aussi qu'il lui savait gre d'etre charmante," p.5, ed. 1820.
+
+[13] Great interest was felt for her in England. In October Horace Walpole
+writes: "While assemblies of friends calling themselves _men_ are from day
+to day meditating torment and torture for his [Louis XVI.'s] heroic widow,
+on whom, with all their power and malice, and with every page, footman,
+and chamber-maid of hers in their reach, and with the rack in their hands,
+they have not been able to fix a speck. Nay, do they not talk of the
+inutility of evidence? What other virtue ever sustained such an ordeal?"
+Walpole's testimony in such a matter is particularly valuable, because he
+had not only been intimately acquainted with all the gossip of the French
+capital for many years, but also because his principal friends in France
+did not belong to the party which might have been expected to be most
+favorable to the queen. Had there been the very slightest foundation for
+the calumnies which had been propagated against her, we may be sure that
+such a person as Madame du Deffand would not only have heard them, but
+would have been but too willing to believe them. His denunciation of them
+is a proof that she knew their falsehood.
+
+[14] Goncourt, p. 388, quoting _La Quotidienne_ of October 17th, 18th.
+
+[15] The depositions which the little king had been compelled to sign
+contained accusations of his aunt as well as of his mother.
+
+[16] As we shall see in the close of the letter, she did not regard those
+priests who had taken the oath imposed by the Assembly, but which the Pope
+had condemned, as any longer priests.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+Abbe De Mandoux; De Sabran;
+  De Sieyes;
+  De Vermond.
+Abolition of titles of honour.
+Addresses presented from Paris and from the States of Languedoc.
+Adelaide, Princess, intrigues of;
+  afflicted with the small-pox;
+  flight of.
+Admiral de Coligny;
+  d'Orvilliers;
+  du Chaffault;
+  Keppel;
+  Rodney.
+Ailesbury, Lady.
+Alliance formed with the United States;
+  with Russia and Prussia;
+  with Spain.
+American war, the.
+Anglomania in Paris.
+_Anglomanie_, a name given to English fashions.
+Anti-Austrian feeling in Paris.
+Antoinette, Marie. See _Marie Antoinette_.
+Arbitrary powers of the sovereign of France.
+Archbishop Lomenie de Brienne.
+Archduke Maximilian visits his sister.
+Arpay-de-Duc, where the king's aunts were detained.
+Arnould, Mademoiselle.
+Arrest of Cardinal Rohan.
+Assassination of Gustavus III. of Sweden.
+Assembly, parties in the, "the Right," "the Left," and "the Plain,";
+  abolishes all privileges August 4th, 1789;
+  disorders in the;
+  tyranny of the;
+  meeting of the new.
+Austria, antagonistic feeling against;
+  Emperor Joseph of, visits France _incognito_;
+  writes to his sister, the Queen of France, on European politics;
+  Austria, Maria Teresa, Empress of;
+  death of Joseph II., Emperor of;
+  influence of, in France, causes jealousy;
+  remonstrating by the Emperor Leopold with the French  Government;
+  Death of Leopold;
+  war declared against.
+Autun, Bishop of.
+Axel de Fersen, Count.
+
+Bagatelle, a house belonging to the Comte d'Artois, which was built in
+sixty days.
+Bailli de Suffrein.
+Bailly, M., and the National Guard;
+  effrontery of.
+"Baker," a name given to the king.
+Balbi, Countess de.
+Balloons introduced into France by Montgolfier.
+Banquet at the Hotel de Ville on account of the birth of the dauphin.
+Barbaroux, M.
+"Barber of Seville," play of the.
+Barnave, M. and the Constitutionalists;
+  gives advice to the queen.
+Baron de Batz;
+  de Besenval;
+  de Breteuil.
+Baroness de Stael.
+Barri, Countess du, jealous of Marie Antoinette;
+  sent to a convent.
+Bastile, attack on the, 1789;
+  and murder of the governor;
+  anniversary of the capture of.
+Battle of Brandywine.
+Batz, Baron de.
+Bavaria, affairs in;
+  at the death of the elector 1777.
+Beauharnais, General.
+Beaulieu, Marshal.
+Beaumarchais, M.
+Beauty of Marie Antoinette.
+Beauvau, M. de, and the Opposition.
+Bertrand, M..
+Besenval, Baron de;
+  and the Reveillon riot.
+Birth of Duc d'Angouleme;
+  of the Princess Marie-Therese Charlotte (Madame Royale);
+  of the dauphin, son of Marie Antoinette.
+Bishop Lamourette;
+  Talleyrand.
+Body-guard, ball given by the;
+  and the Versailles mob;
+  protecting the court.
+Boehmer, the court jeweler.
+Boille, Marquis de;
+  flies from France.
+Boutourlin's, M., attacks on M. Necker.
+Brandywine, Battle of.
+Breteuil, Baron de;
+  appointed prime minister;
+  and foreign intervention.
+Breton Club.
+Brienne, Lomenie de, Archbishop of Toulouse.
+Brissac, Duc de.
+Brissot, M..
+Broglie, Marshal de.
+Brunier, M..
+Brunoy, entertainment given at.
+Brunswick, Duke of.
+Brunswick, Prince Ferdinand of.
+Burke's description of the beauty of the queen.
+Buzot, M..
+
+Calonne, M. de;
+  dismissed from the office of finance minister.
+Campan, Madame de.
+Cap, red, of liberty.
+Cape St. Vincent.
+Capet, name given to the queen before the trial.
+Cardinal de Rohan.
+Carlisle, Lord, receiving a challenge from La Fayette in 1778.
+Carnival of 1777.
+Castle of Gaillon.
+Chaffault, Admiral du.
+Challenge sent by Marquis de La Fayette to Lord Carlisle.
+Chalons, and the reception of the king on his arrest.
+Champs de Mars, fete in the, in celebration of the anniversary of the
+capture of the Bastile.
+Chantilly, festivities at.
+Charity shown by Louis XVI. and the queen during the winter of 1788-9.
+Charleston, capture of.
+Chartres, Duc de and Duc d'Orleans recalled from banishment;
+  and the Comte d'Artois establish horse-racing;
+  displays cowardice as rear-admiral;
+  refused marriage with Madame Royale;
+  and the red cap of liberty.
+Chevalier d'Assas, story of the.
+Chinon, M. de.
+Choiseul, Duc de;
+  dismissal of;
+  recall from banishment.
+Choisy, private parties at.
+Clergy, oppression of the.
+Clery, M., refused audience with the queen.
+Clinton, Sir Harry.
+Clootz, Anacharsis, heads a deputation.
+Clostercamp, the scene of the heroism displayed by the Chevalier d'Assas.
+Clotilde, Princess, marriage of the.
+Clubs, political, springing up at Paris.
+Coigny, Duc de.
+Coligny, Admiral de, and Count de Mirabeau.
+Compiegne.
+Comte d'Artois;
+  de la Marck;
+  de Mercy;
+Condorcet, Marquis de.
+Constitution, completing the, by the Assembly;
+  acceptance of the, by the king.
+Constitutional guard, dissolution of the.
+Constitutionalists, or "the Plain".
+Conti, Prince de.
+Cordeliers, the.
+Cortey, M..
+Count d'Estaing;
+  de Fersen;
+  d'Hervilly;
+  de Grasse;
+  de Luxembourg;
+  de Maurepas;
+  de Mirabeau;
+  de Narbonne;
+  de Roche-Aymer;
+  de Rosenberg;
+  de Stedingk;
+  de St. Priest;
+  de Vaudreuil;
+  Esterhazy.
+Countess de Balbi;
+  du Barri;
+  de Grammont;
+  de Monnier;
+  de la Mothe;
+  de Noailles;
+  de Polignac;
+  de Provence.
+"Coupe-tetes," the.
+Court supper-parties.
+Couthon, M.
+Craufurd, Mr.
+
+D'Agoust, Marquis.
+D'Aiguillon, Duc.
+Dames de la Halle.
+D'Angouleme, Duc, birth of.
+D'Artois, Comte, marriage of the; and;
+  the Duc de Chartres establish horse-racing;
+  his character;
+  shielding the Duc de Chartres;
+  watching at the queen's bedside during her illness;
+  shows contempt for the commercial orders;
+  flees from Paris;
+  misconduct of the;
+  refuses to return to France.
+D'Assas, Chevalier, story of the.
+Dauphin, proposal of marriage of Marie Antoinette to the;
+  early education of the;
+  introduction to;
+  married at Versailles, Mary 16th, 1770;
+  letter from Maria Teresa to the;
+  admiration of the, for his wife;
+  and the Count de Provence, characters of the;
+  birth of the, son of Louis XVI.;
+  death of the, son of Louis XVI., June 4th, 1789, and succeeded by his
+    brother;
+  and M. Bertrand.
+Deane, Silas.
+Death of Francis, Emperor of Germany;
+  of Louis XV.;
+  of Voltaire;
+  of Cardinal de Rohan, at Ettenheim;
+  of Princess Sophie, daughter of the queen;
+  of the Dauphin, son of Louis XVI., June 4th, 1789;
+  of Joseph II., Emperor of Austria;
+  of Count de Mirabeau;
+  of Leopold, Emperor of Austria.
+Debt, the queen finds herself in.
+Declaration of Pilnitz.
+Defeat of De Grasse by Admiral Rodney.
+Degraves, M.
+De Launay, M., governor of the Bastile, death of.
+Des Huttes, M.
+D'Espremesnil, Duval.
+De Stael, Baroness.
+D'Estaing, Count.
+Destruction of the Spanish squadron by the British at Cape St. Vincent
+De Varicourt, M.
+D'Hervilly, Count.
+D'Huillier, M.
+Disorders in the Assembly.
+Dissolution of the Constitutional Guard.
+Distress and discontent in France in 1771;
+  general, caused by the severity of the winter of 1788-89.
+D'Oberkirch, Madame
+Donkey-riding;
+  horse-riding.
+D'Orleans, Duc, and the Duc de Chartres recalled from banishment;
+  and the Archduke Maximilian;
+  shows hostility to the queen;
+  and the presidency of the club "Les Enrages";
+  and the Reveillon riot;
+  and the Versailles mob;
+  leaves France for England;
+  and the red cap.
+D'Ormesson, M.
+D'Orvilliers, Admiral.
+Duc d'Aiguillon;
+  d'Angouleme;
+  de Brissac;
+  de Chartres;
+  de Choisseu;
+  de Coigny; de la Feuillade;
+  de Maine;
+  de la Vauguyon;
+  de Liancourt;
+  d'Orleans;
+  de Richelieu.
+Dugazon, Madame.
+Duke of Brunswick;
+  of Normandy;
+  Paul of Russia;
+  of Tarouka.
+Dumont, M.
+Dumouriez, General, character of;
+  and the queen;
+  resigns his position as minister, and takes command of the army.
+Duportail, M.
+Duranton, M.
+Durepaire, M.
+Durfort, Marquis de.
+Duverney, Paris.
+
+Education, the queen's views of.
+Emigrant princes, misconduct of the.
+Emigration from France repugnant to Louis XVI.
+Emperor Francis of Germany;
+  Joseph of Austria;
+  Leopold of Austria.
+Empress Catherine, of Russia;
+  Maria Teresa, of Austria.
+Encore, the first.
+Epigram of Metastasio.
+Ermenonville, the burial-place of Rousseau.
+Escape from prison by the Countess de la Mothe;
+  the royal family preparing to;
+  arrested at Varennes and brought back.
+Esterhazy, Count.
+Etiquette, strictness of court;
+  relaxation of.
+Ettenheim, Cardinal de Rohan dies at.
+Execution of M. de Favras.
+Expenses, court, retrenchment in.
+Expostulation of the Emperor Maximilian with his sister.
+
+Factious conduct of the princes of the blood.
+Fall of Turgot.
+Favras, M. de, execution of.
+Feast of the Federation.
+Federation, Feast of the.
+Ferdinand, Duke, of Brunswick.
+Fersen, Count Axel de.
+Feudal system, the, in France and its need of reform.
+Feuillade's, Duc de la, statue of Louis XIV.
+Feuillants, les.
+Figaro, the Marriage of, the play of.
+Fire at the Hotel Dieu;
+  at the Palace of Justice.
+Fire-works, explosion of, at Paris.
+First impressions of the French Court.
+Flanders, the regiment of, arrives at Versailles.
+Fleurieu, M.
+Fleury, Joly de.
+Flight from Paris decided on.
+Fontainebleau, the peasant at;
+  grand review at.
+Fontanges, M., de.
+Forgeries of the Queen's name committed.
+Fouquier, Tinville.
+France and Germany, feelings in, regarding Marie Antoinette's marriage;
+  distress and discontent in.
+Francis, Emperor of Germany, death of.
+Frost, severe, ant the Seine frozen over.
+
+Gaillon, Castle of.
+Gambling, court.
+Garden-parties given at the Trianon.
+General Beauharnais;
+  Dumouriez.
+General rejoicings.
+Gensonne, M.
+Germany, death of Francis, emperor of;
+  and France, feelings in regarding Marie Antoinette's marriage.
+Gibraltar, siege of.
+Gifts of Le Joyeuse Avenement and La Ceinture de la Reine renounced.
+Girondins, rise of the;
+  fall of the.
+Gluck appointed to teach the harpsichord;
+  visits Paris.
+Goethe.
+Goldsmith's prediction of a French revolution.
+Grains, war of the.
+Grammont, Countess de.
+Grasse, Count de.
+Gaudet, M.
+Guimenee, Princess de.
+Guines, Duc de.
+Gustavus III., King of Sweden, at the French court.
+
+Horse-racing by Comte d' Artois.
+Hotel de Ville, banquet at the, on account of the birth of the dauphin;
+  storming of the, by the insurgents, July 1789.
+Hotel Dieu, great fire at.
+Hughes, Sir E., fights with M. de Suffrein.
+Hunting-field, Marie Antoinette in the.
+Huttes, M. des.
+
+Illuminations in Paris at the birth of the dauphin.
+Income, settlement of.
+Indictment drawn up against the queen.
+Inscription on a snow pyramid erected in gratitude by the Parisians for
+the charity they received from their queen in the winter of 1788-'89.
+Insolence shown to the queen by a virago.
+Insurgents, the, under Santerre.
+Insurrection in Paris, July, 1789;
+  of June 20th 1792;
+  of August 5th, 1792.
+Intrigues formed against Marie Antoinette;
+  of Madame Adelaide.
+"Iphigenie," opera of.
+
+Jacobin Club, the.
+Jarjayes, Madame de.
+Jason and Medea, tapestry representing the history of.
+Jealousy shown by the queen's favorites;
+  of the Countess du Barri;
+  of the aunts;
+  of Austrian influence.
+Jewelry and Boehmer, the court jeweler.
+Josephine Louise, Princess of Savoy, married to the Count de Provence.
+Joseph, Emperor of Austria, visits France _incognito_;
+  writes to his sister on European politics;
+  death of.
+Jussieu, Bernard de.
+Justice, remarkable, always shown by the queen.
+
+Kaunitz, Prince.
+Keppel, Admiral.
+King Gustavus III. of Sweden visits the French court.
+Korff, Madame de.
+
+La Belle Liegeoise.
+Lacoste, M.
+Lacy, Marshal.
+Lady Ailesbury; Sutherland.
+La Fayette, Marquis de; and the National Guard;
+  and Mirabeau;
+  demands the suppression of titles;
+  offered the sword of the Constable of France, which he declines;
+  shows insolence to the royal family;
+  threatens the queen with a divorce;
+  saves the castle at Vincennes;
+  insults the nobles who come to protect the king;
+  his urgency to bring back the king, who had been arrested in his flight;
+  arrogance of;
+  shows personal animosity to the king;
+  ordered to prepare for foreign service;
+  unskillfulness of;
+  shows much deficiency in military tactics;
+  appears before the Assembly, and
+  narrowly escapes impeachment;
+  proposes a plan for the royal family to escape;
+  flies from France, and is thrown into an Austrian prison.
+Lamballe, Princess de.
+Lambel, M.
+Lambert, M.
+Lameth, Alexander.
+Lameth, Charles.
+Lamoignon, M.
+Lamourette, Bishop, makes a motion in the Assembly.
+La Muette, at Choisy, palace of.
+Lanjuinais, M.
+Leopold, Emperor of Austria, remonstrates with the French government.
+_Le Patriote Francais_.
+Lepitre, M.
+Les Enrages, a political club formed under the presidency of the Duc
+d'Orleans.
+"Les Evenements Imprevus".
+Lessart, M.
+Letters from Maria Teresa to her daughter. See _Maria Teresa_.
+  From Marie Antoinette to her mother.  See _Marie Antoinette_.
+Liancourt, Duc de.
+Libelous attacks on the queen.
+Liberty, Restorer of French, a title given to the king.
+Lichtenstein, Prince de, sent as envoy from Austria.
+Lomenie de Brienne, Archbishop of Toulouse, appointed prime minister;
+  resigns office.
+Lord Carlisle;
+  Stormont.
+Lorraine, Prince of;
+  death of.
+Lorraine, Princess of, at the State ball.
+Louis XIV., the Duc de la Feuillade's statue of.
+Louis XV., character and life of;
+  apathy of;
+  catches the smallpox;
+  death of.
+Louis XVI, receives homage on the death
+  of his grandfather;
+  influenced by his aunts;
+  gives the pavilion of the Little Trianon to the queen;
+  compared to Louis XII. and Henry IV.;
+  crowned at Rheims;
+  concludes an alliance with the United States;
+  exempts from the poll-tax all those unable to pay on the occasion of the
+    birth of the dauphin;
+  visits Cherbourg;
+  orders the arrest of two members of Parliament, and also the closing-up
+    of the House;
+  conspicuous for his charity during the winter of 1788-89;
+  concedes the chief demands of the Commons;
+  opens the States in person, May 5th, 1789;
+  loses his eldest son, the dauphin, June 4th, 1789;
+  grants reforms to the States;
+  removes Necker;
+  withdraws the troops from Paris;
+  visits Paris, and appeals to the populace, July 17th, 1789;
+  invites Necker to return;
+  called the "Restorer of French Liberty,";
+  sends his plate to be melted down for the benefit of the starving
+    citizens;
+  adheres to his conciliatory policy before the mob at Versailles;
+  fixes his residence at Paris;
+  accepts the Constitution so far as it has been settled;
+  accepts the services of the Count de Mirabeau;
+  offers La Fayette the sword of the Constable of France, which he
+    declines;
+  appears at the fete at the Champs de Mars;
+  contemplates foreign intervention;
+  decides to remove to Montmedy;
+  report of attempted assassination of;
+  reproves the nobles for coming to his aid;
+  forbidden to remove more than twenty leagues from Paris;
+  urged to escape;
+  escapes, and is arrested and brought back;
+  acceptance of the new Constitution by the king;
+  dissolves the first constituent assembly;
+  refuses his assent to the decrees against the priests and emigrants;
+  issues a circular condemning emigration;
+  apathy of;
+  made to put on the red cap of liberty;
+  a plot to assassinate;
+  appears at the Feast of Federation;
+  holds his last ball, August 5th, 1792;
+  reviews the troops for the last time;
+  appeals to the Assembly for protection;
+  receives notice that his authority is a nullity;
+  made prisoner with his wife and family;
+  sent to the Temple;
+  trial of;
+  insults offered to;
+  condemned to death;
+  execution of.
+Louvre, visit by the dauphin and dauphiness to the.
+Luckner, Marshal.
+Luxembourg, Count de, and the military banquet at Versailles.
+Luzerne, M. de.
+
+"MADAME DEFICIT," a nickname given to the queen.
+Madame Royale refused in marriage to the Duc de Chartres.
+Maillard, M., and the insurgents of 1789.
+Mailly, Marshal de.
+Maine, Duke de.
+Malesherbes, M.
+Malouet, M.
+Mandat, M.; assassination of.
+Mandense, Abbe.
+Marat, M., denounces the queen.
+Marchioness de Tourzel.
+Marck, Count de la.
+Maria Teresa, Empress of Austria, her habits and life;
+  her feelings at the departure of her daughter;
+  letter from, to the dauphin;
+  letter of advice to her daughter;
+  appoints Comte de Mercy as Embassador to France;
+  letters from Marie Antoinette to;
+  advice to Marie Antoinette;
+  disapproval of her daughter appearing in the hunting field;
+  expresses her approval of her daughter's liberality;
+  receives a letter from her daughter on her state entrance into Paris;
+  anxieties about her daughter since her accession as queen of France;
+  cautions her daughter against extravagances;
+  admonishes her daughter;
+  solicits an alliance between France and Austria against Prussia;
+  writes about the birth of her daughter's child;
+  death of.
+Marie Antoinette, importance of, in the French Revolution of 1789;
+  estimation of her character formed from her correspondences;
+  her birth, November 2d, 1755;
+  her childhood;
+  projects for her marriage;
+  her education;
+  proposal of marriage to the dauphin;
+  leaves Vienna April 26th, 1770;
+  Strasburg, reception at;
+  at Soissons;
+  meeting the king and dauphin at Compiegne;
+  visits the Princess Louise at the Convent of St. Denis;
+  married at Versailles, May 16th, 1770;
+  difficulties in the path of;
+  courage in her conduct;
+  letter of advice from her mother;
+  her sympathy with the sufferers at the fire-work explosion at Paris and
+    with the peasant at Fontainebleau pleases the king and the people;
+  description of her physical appearance;
+  writes to her mother, giving her first impressions of the court and of
+    her own position and prospects;
+  dislike to the court etiquette;
+  intrigues formed against;
+  jealousy of the aunts;
+  addresses from Paris and the states of Languedoc;
+  gaining popularity;
+  expresses a wish to learn to ride;
+  donkey-riding;
+  settlement of income upon;
+  introduces sledging parties into France;
+  gains admiration from her husband;
+  advice of Maria Teresa;
+  growing preference of Louis XV. for;
+  becomes a horse-woman;
+  applying herself to study;
+  taste for music acquired by;
+  appears at a review at Fontainebleau;
+  in the hunting-field;
+  writes to her mother early in 1773;
+  liberality shown by, to the sufferers by the fire at the Hotel Dieu;
+  receives approval from her mother;
+  expresses her feelings about Poland;
+  state entrance of, into Paris;
+  writes to her mother;
+  presiding at the banquet of the Dames de la Halle;
+  visiting the Parisian theatres;
+  writes to her mother on the death of Louis XV.;
+  shows her good character upon her accession as queen of France;
+  procures the recall from banishment of the Duc de Choiseul;
+  receives from the king the pavilion of the Little Trianon;
+  desires for private friendships and constant amusements;
+  accused of Austrian preferences;
+  receives increased allowance as queen;
+  visited by the Archduke Maximilian;
+  writes to her mother on the coronation of the king;
+  gives garden parties at Trianon;
+  beauty of;
+  shows her mortification at not having children;
+  speaks disparagingly of the king;
+  writes to her mother extolling the French people;
+  indulges at the play-table;
+  finds herself in debt and forgeries of her name committed;
+  receives the Duke of Dorset and others with favor;
+  receives a visit from her brother, the Emperor of Austria;
+  writes to her mother concerning the emperor's visit;
+  receives a letter of advice from her brother on his departure from
+    France;
+  inviting the king's ministers to the Little Trianon;
+  writes political letters;
+  expects to become a mother;
+  declines to receive Voltaire on his return to France;
+  gives birth to a daughter, whom she names Marie Therese Charlotte;
+  goes to Notre Dame Cathedral to return thanks;
+  goes in a hackney-coach to a bal d'opera;
+  is attacked by measles;
+  writes to her mother about the war between France and England;
+  studies politics;
+  engages in private theatricals;
+  writes to her mother in the midst of her troubles;
+  exhibits great grief at the death of her mother;
+  gives birth to a son, the dauphin of France;
+  on education;
+  receives M. de Suffrein with great honor;
+  receives a letter from her brother, the Emperor of Austria, on European
+    politics, and replies to it;
+  St. Cloud is bought for;
+  gives birth to the Duke of Normandy;
+  finds that her name has been forged and misrepresentations made for
+    procuring a necklace made by Boehmer;
+  receives a visit from her sister, the Princess of Teschen;
+  is treated with hostility by the Duc d'Orleans;
+  receives the nickname of "Madame Deficit";
+  loses her second daughter, the Princess Sophie;
+  writes two political letters to the Duchess de Polignac;
+  writes to Mercy on the present political state of affairs, August 19th,
+    1788;
+  conspicuous for her charity during a severe winter;
+  has serious views about the demands of the commons;
+  refuses to accept the Duc de Chartres for husband to her daughter Madame
+    Royale;
+  attends the opening of the States;
+  loses her eldest son, the dauphin, June 4th, 1780;
+  writes to the Duchess de Polignac on the States' affairs;
+  writes to the Marchioness de Tourzel, intrusting to her the education
+    of her children;
+  rejects Barnave's overtures;
+  is remarkable for her bravery;
+  writes to Mercy about her feelings at the present aspect of affairs;
+  receives insolence from a virago;
+  feels the death of her brother, the Emperor Joseph II. of Austria;
+  writes to her brother Leopold, who succeeded Joseph II.;
+  refuses to give evidence against the mob rioters;
+  shows kind feeling toward the widowed Marchioness de Favras;
+  makes a speech to the deputies;
+  is well received at the theatre;
+  receives the services of the Count de Mirabeau;
+  interviews him;
+  shows her presence of mind at the fete at the Champ de Mars;
+  writes to Mercy about the difficulty of managing Mirabeau;
+  has to bid farewell to Mercy, who is removed to the Hague;
+  gives audience to Prince de Lichtenstein;
+  denounced by Marat;
+  attempts made to assassinate;
+  writes to the Emperor of Austria, her brother Leopold, October 22d,
+    1790;
+  refuses to quit France by herself;
+  is threatened with a divorce by La Fayette;
+  writes to the Comte d'Artois, expostulating with him;
+  writes to her  brother to send troops to intervene;
+  escapes from Paris with her family, and is arrested and brought back;
+  writes to De Fersen;
+  writes to her brother, Emperor Leopold;
+  sends a letter to Mercy about the Revolution;
+  writes to Mercy about the declaration of Pilnitz and the Constitution;
+  declares her feelings in a letter to the Empress Catherine of Russia;
+  M. Bertrand and the queen;
+  receives news of the death of her brother Leopold, the Emperor of
+    Austria;
+  direct attacks made against;
+  Dumouriez speaks his mind strongly to;
+  appears before the insurrectionists at the Tuileries, June 20th, 1793;
+  writes to Mercy, July 4th, 1792;
+  receives proposals for her escape;
+  writes to the Landgravine Louise;
+  employs her time in quilting her husband a waistcoat to resist a dagger
+    or a bullet;
+  attempt made to assassinate;
+  determines to sacrifice personal safety to loss of the crown and
+    Constitution;
+  made prisoner with her husband;
+  plans formed for the escape of, fail;
+  additional insults offered to;
+  has a trial and is sentenced;
+  writes a final letter to the Princess Elizabeth;
+  is executed;
+  her remains treated with indignity;
+  summary of the character of.
+Maritime superiority possessed by England.
+Marly, palace at.
+Marmier, Madame de.
+Marquis d'Agoust;
+  de Bouille;
+  de Condorcet;
+  de Durfort;
+  de La Fayette;
+  de Montesquieu;
+  de Savonieres;
+  de St. Huruge;
+  de Vaudreuil.
+"Marriage of Figaro." the play of the.
+Marriage of Marie Antoinette to the Dauphin of France, May 16, 1770;
+  feelings in Germany and France regarding the.
+Marsan, Madame de.
+Marseillese, the.
+Marshal Beaulieu;
+  de Broglie;
+  de Mailly;
+  Lacy;
+  Luckner;
+  Rochambeau.
+Maubourg, M. Latour.
+Maurepas, Count de.
+Maximillan, Archduke, visits his sister.
+Mazarin, Madame de.
+Measles, the queen is attacked by the.
+Mercy, Comte de, appointed as embassador to France;
+  reports to Maria Teresa;
+  position and influence of, upon the accession of Louis XVI.;
+  receives letters from the queen on the political state of affairs;
+  replies to the same;
+  introduces Count de Mirabeau to the queen;
+  receives letter from the queen about Mirabeau;
+  is removed to the Hague;
+  the queen writes urgently to.
+Metastasio, epigram of.
+Michonis, M.
+Miomandre, M.
+Mirabeau, Count de, and court etiquette;
+  and his conjugal rights;
+  his character his behavior at the opening of the States;
+  drives Necker from office, and presents a petition to the king to
+    withdraw the troops from Paris;
+  changes his views;
+  his services accepted by the court;
+  denounced by the Jacobin club;
+  interviews the queen, and is pleased with her;
+  interviews the Count de la Marck;
+  great difficulty in managing;
+  retires from office;
+  stands by the queen;
+  death of;
+  funeral of.
+Mob at Versailles.
+Moleville, M. Bertrand de.
+Monnier, Countess de, and the Count de Mirabeau.
+Montesquieu, Marquis de.
+Montgolfier's balloons introduced.
+Montmedy.
+Montmorency, Viscount Matthieu de.
+Montmorin, M..
+Montsabert, M., arrest of.
+Moreau, M..
+Mothe, Countess de la.
+Murder of Mandat;
+  of the Princess de Lamballe.
+Music, great taste for, exhibited by the dauphiness.
+Mutiny in the Marquis de Bouille's army.
+Mutual jealousies of the queen's favorites.
+Mysore, Tippoo Sahib, sultan of.
+
+Narbonne, Count de.
+"National Assembly," the, first proposed.
+National Guard, formation of the;
+  fires on the people.
+Necker, M.;
+  retires from the ministry;
+  invited to rejoin, and declines;
+  appointed prime mister;
+  aims at popularity;
+  convokes the States-general;
+  resumes office.
+Necklace made by Boehmer, the court jeweler;
+  story of the, revived.
+Noailles, Countess de.
+Normandy, Duke of.
+Notables, the Calonne, assembles;
+  Lomenie de Brienne dismisses.
+Notre Dame, public thanksgiving at, on account of the birth of Madame
+  Royale;
+  also on the occasion of the birth of the dauphin.
+
+Oliva, Mademoiselle, and the great necklace forgery case.
+Opera of "Iphigenie en Aulide" performed in Paris.
+Opinion of foreign nations.
+Outrages in the provinces in 1789.
+Overthrow of the Girondins.
+
+Paris Duverney.
+Paris, fire-work explosion at;
+  state entrance of the dauphin and Marie Antoinette into;
+  great scarcity in, September, 1789;
+  riots in;
+  and the Reveillon riot;
+  riots in, July, 1789;
+  the court removes to;
+  insurrection in, June 20th, 1792;
+  riots in, August 5th, 1792.
+Parliament, violence of the;
+  arrest of two of its members;
+  closing-up of, by the king's order;
+  recall of, by Necker.
+Pastoret, M..
+Paul, Grand Duke of Russia, visits the French court with his wife.
+Peace restored between Prussia and Austria;
+  between France and England.
+Peasant, the, at Fontainebleau.
+_People's Friend, The_, a newspaper published by the Revolutionists.
+Petion, M..
+Pilnitz, declaration of.
+Poland, the partition of.
+Polastron, Madame de.
+Polignac, Countess de.
+Political clubs springing up in Paris.
+Poll-tax, exemptions from, made by Louis XVI..
+Popularity of Marie Antoinette, increasing.
+Prince Charles of Lorraine, death of;
+  de Conti;
+  de Lichtenstein sent as envoy from Austria;
+  Ferdinand of Brunswick;
+  Kaunitz;
+  Cardinal Louis de Rohan.
+Princess Adelaide;
+  Clotilde;
+  de Guimenee;
+  de Lamballe;
+  Josephine Louise of Savoy;
+  of Lorraine;
+  Sophie of France;
+  of Teschen;
+  Victoire.
+Private theatricals.
+Provence, Count de, married to the Princess Josephine Louise of Savoy.
+Provence, Countess de.
+Provinces, outrages in the.
+Prussia allies with Russia.
+  and the declaration of Pilnitz.
+Public thanksgiving at the birth of Madame Royale;
+  at the birth of the dauphin.
+
+Race-course established in the Bois de Boulogne.
+Ramond, M..
+Red cap of liberty worn.
+Reform, the necessity of, generally admitted;
+  granted by Louis XVI..
+Rejoicings, general, in France at the birth of the princess;
+  at the birth of the dauphin.
+Republic declared.
+"Restorer of French Liberty," title given to the king.
+Retaux de Villette.
+Retrenchment in court expenditure.
+Reveillon, M., and the Paris riot.
+Revolution of 1789 commenced.
+Revolutionary tribunal;
+  trial of the queen.
+Rheims, coronation of Louis XVI. at.
+Richelieu, Duc de.
+Ride, Marie Antoinette expresses a wish to learn to;
+  donkey-riding.
+Riding, donkey;
+  horse.
+Riots, formidable in some of the provinces;
+  in Paris;
+  the Reveillon, in Paris;
+  in Paris, July, 1789;
+  in Paris, June 20th, 1792;
+  in Paris, August 5th, 1792;
+Robespierre, M.
+Rochambeau, Marshal.
+Roche-Aymer, Count de.
+Rodney, Admiral.
+Roederer, M.
+Rohan, Cardinal Prince de.
+Roland, Madame, urging secret assassinations of the king and queen;
+  and Robespierre;
+  death of.
+Romenf, M.
+"Rose of the North," a name given to the Countess de Fersen.
+Rosenburg, Count de.
+Rousseau, Jean Jacques.
+Royal family, the, preparing to escape;
+  arrested;
+  authority suspended.
+Royalists, the name first used as a reproach.
+Russia allies with Prussia;
+  Grand Duke of, visits the French court;
+  Catherine Empress of.
+
+Sabran, Abbe de.
+Sahib, Tippoo, Sultan of Mysore.
+Salis, M. de.
+Sans-culottes.
+Santerre, M., and the attack on the Bastille;
+  and the Paris insurrection;
+  and the insurgents.
+Sartines, M. de.
+Savonieres, Marquis de.
+Scarcity of food in Paris in September, 1789.
+Schoenbrunn, retreat at.
+Seine, water-parties on the;
+  frozen over.
+Seven Years' War, the.
+Severity of the winter of 1788-'89 much felt in France.
+Seville, the Barber of, the play of.
+Seze, M. de.
+Sieyes, Abbe.
+Simolin, M.
+Simon M., and the young king.
+Sir Edward Hughes.
+Sledging-parties.
+Small-pox caught by Louis XV.;
+  caught by Madame Adelaide.
+Snow pyramids and obelisks erected, and inscriptions made on them showing
+  the French people's gratitude for the charity displayed by the queen in
+  the winter of 1788-'89.
+Soissons.
+Songs of the Dames de la Halle on the occasion of the birth of the
+  dauphin.
+Sophie Helene Beatrice, Princess, born July 9th, 1786, died June 9th 1787.
+Sovereign of France, arbitrary powers of the.
+Spain and France form an alliance against the British.
+Spanish squadron destroyed by the British.
+St Anthony's Day.
+St. Cloud, visit of the dauphin and dauphiness to;
+  purchased for the queen.
+St Huruge, Marquis de.
+St. Priest, Count de.
+St. Targeau, M. de.
+St Menehould, the king recognized at, while escaping from France.
+Stael, Baroness de, at the opening of the States;
+  and the queen's last days.
+States-general, need for a meeting of the;
+  opening of the, by Louis XVI., May 5th, 1789;
+  uproar in.
+Statue of Louis XIV., by the Duc de la Feuillade.
+Stedingk, Count de.
+Stormont, Lord.
+Strasburg, reception at.
+Strausse, M.
+Successes of the English in America.
+Suffrein, Bailli de, fights with Sir E. Hughes.
+Sultan of Mysore.
+Supper-parties, court.
+Sutherland, Lady, supplies clothes for the dauphin.
+Sweden, Gustavus III., King of, at the French court;
+  assassination of the King of.
+Swedish nobles received at the French court
+Swiss Guard, under Count d'Hervilly; murder of the.
+
+Taboureau des Reaux.
+Talleyrand, Bishop of Autun.
+Tarouka's, Duka of, wager.
+Taxes imposed on the accession of a king and queen renounced.
+Tea, introduction of, into France
+Temple, the
+Teresa, Maria. See _Maria Teresa_
+Tertre, Duport de.
+Teschen, peace of;
+  Princess of, visits her sister, the queen, in 1786.
+Thanksgiving, public, at the Cathedral of Notre Dame.
+"The Handsome," a name given to the Count Axel de Fersen.
+Theatre, tumult at the.
+Theatres, the dauphin and dauphiness visiting the Parisian.
+Theatricals, private.
+Tison, Madam, and the queen.
+Titles of honor, abolition of.
+Tocqueville's, M. Alexis de, opinion of the feudal system in France.
+Toulan, M., and Marie Antoinette.
+Toulouse, Lomenie de Brienne, Archbishop of.
+Tourzel, Marchioness de;
+  the queens writes, intrusting her children to the care of;
+  assumes the name of Madame de Korff.
+Trial of Cardinal de Rohan and others for forgery;
+  of the king, December 11th, 1792.
+Trianon, Little, pavilion of the, given to the queen;
+  the queen at the;
+  parties at the;
+  festivities at the;
+  the queen improving the.
+Tricolor flag adopted in Paris.
+Tronchet, M.
+Tuileries, shabbiness of the, and removal of the court to the.
+Turgot, A.R.J.;
+  dismissal from office.
+Turgy, M.
+
+Usages, French and Austrian.
+
+Valenciennes, a frontier town.
+Valory, M.
+Varennes, the king is arrested at, in his flight from Paris.
+Varicourt, M. de
+Vaudreuil, Count de.
+Vaudreuil, Marquis de.
+Vauguyon, Duc de la.
+Vergennes, Count de.
+Vergniaud, M.
+Vermond, Abbe de.
+Versailles, Marie Antoinette and Louis married at, May 16th, 1770;
+  less frequented;
+  winter of 1779.
+Veto, debates on the;
+  "Monsieur" and "Madame," nicknames to the king and queen.
+Victoire, Princess.
+Vienna, Marie Antoinette, leaving, April 26th, 1770.
+_Ville de Paris_, ship.
+Villette, Marquis de.
+Vincennes, castle at, attacked by the mob.
+Violence of the Parliament.
+Viscount Matthieu de Montmorency.
+Volatile character of the queen.
+Voltaire's remark about the maritime superiority of England; return to
+  France, and his death.
+
+Walpole's, Horace, observations on the beauty of the queen.
+War of the Grains;
+  the Seven Years';
+  the American;
+  between France and England;
+  declared against Austria.
+Water-parties on the Seine.
+West Indies, French successes in the.
+Winter of 1783, severity of;
+  of 1788-89, much distress in France in the.
+
+
+The End
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life of Marie Antoinette, Queen of
+France, by Charles Duke Yonge
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARIE ANTOINETTE ***
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