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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Memoirs of Louis XV. and XVI., Volume 4
+by Madame du Hausset, and of an Unknown English Girl and the Princess Lamballe
+
+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 Memoirs of Louis XV. and XVI., Volume 4
+       Being Secret Memoirs of Madame du Hausset, Lady's Maid to Madame de
+       Pompadour, and of an Unknown English Girl and The Princess Lamballe
+       
+
+Author: Madame du Hausset, and of an Unknown English Girl and the Princess Lamballe
+
+Release Date: December 3, 2004 [EBook #3879]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOUIS XV. AND XVI. ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+MEMOIRS OF LOUIS XV. AND XVI.
+
+Being Secret Memoirs of Madame du Hausset,
+Lady's Maid to Madame de Pompadour,
+and of an unknown English Girl
+and the Princess Lamballe
+
+
+
+
+BOOK 4.
+
+
+
+SECTION V.
+
+
+"The accession of Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette to the crown of France
+took place (May 10, 1774) under the most propitious auspices!
+
+"After the long, corrupt reign of an old debauched Prince, whose vices
+were degrading to himself and to a nation groaning under the lash of
+prostitution and caprice, the most cheering changes were expected from
+the known exemplariness of his successor and the amiableness of his
+consort.  Both were looked up to as models of goodness.  The virtues of
+Louis XVI. were so generally known that all France hastened to
+acknowledge them, while the Queen's fascinations acted like a charm on
+all who had not been invincibly prejudiced against the many excellent
+qualities which entitled her to love and admiration.  Indeed, I never
+heard an insinuation against either the King or Queen but from those
+depraved minds which never possessed virtue enough to imitate theirs, or
+were jealous of the wonderful powers of pleasing that so eminently
+distinguished Marie Antoinette from the rest of her sex.
+
+"On the death of Louis XV. the entire Court removed from Versailles to
+the palace of La Muette, situate in the Bois de Boulogne, very near
+Paris.  The confluence of Parisians, who came in crowds joyfully to hail
+the death of the old vitiated Sovereign, and the accession of his adored
+successors, became quite annoying to the whole Royal Family.  The
+enthusiasm with which the Parisians hailed their young King, and in
+particular his amiable young partner, lasted for many days.  These
+spontaneous evidences of attachment were regarded as prognostics of a
+long reign of happiness.  If any inference can be drawn from public
+opinion, could there be a stronger assurance than this one of
+uninterrupted future tranquility to its objects?
+
+"To the Queen herself it was a double triumph.  The conspirators, whose
+depravity had been labouring to make her their victim, departed from the
+scene of power.  The husband, who for four years had been callous to her
+attractions, became awakened to them.  A complete change in the domestic
+system of the palace was wrought suddenly.  The young King, during the
+interval which elapsed between the death and the interment of his
+grandfather, from Court etiquette was confined to his apartments.  The
+youthful couple therefore saw each other with less restraint.  The
+marriage was consummated.  Marie Antoinette from this moment may date
+that influence over the heart (would I might add over the head and
+policy!) of the King, which never slackened during the remainder of their
+lives.
+
+"Madame du Barry was much better dealt with by the young King, whom she
+had always treated with the greatest levity, than she, or her numerous
+courtiers, expected.  She was allowed her pension, and the entire
+enjoyment of all her ill-gotten and accumulated wealth; but, of course,
+excluded from ever appearing at Court, and politically exiled from Paris
+to the Chateau aux Dames.
+
+"This implacable foe and her infamous coadjutors being removed from
+further interference in matters of State by the expulsion of all their
+own Ministers, their rivals, the Duc de Choiseul and his party, by whom
+Marie Antoinette had been brought to France, were now in high expectation
+of finding the direction of the Government, by the Queen's influence,
+restored to that nobleman.  But the King's choice was already made.  He
+had been ruled by his aunts, and appointed Ministers suggested by them
+and his late grandfather's friends, who feared the preponderance of the
+Austrian influence.  The three ladies, Madame la Marechale de Beauveau,
+the Duchesse de Choiseul, and the Duchesse de Grammont, who were all
+well-known to Louis XVI. and stood high in his opinion for many excellent
+qualities, and especially for their independent assertion of their own
+and the Dauphine's dignity by retiring from Court in consequence of the
+supper at which Du Barry was introduced these ladies, though received on
+their return thither with peculiar welcome, in vain united their efforts
+with those of the Queen and the Abbe Vermond, to overcome the prejudice
+which opposed Choiseul's reinstatement.  It was all in vain.  The royal
+aunts, Adelaide especially, hated Choiseul for the sake of Austria, and
+his agency in bringing Marie Antoinette to France; and so did the King's
+tutor and governor, the Duc de Vauguyon, who had ever been hostile to any
+sort of friendship with Vienna; and these formed a host impenetrable even
+to the influence of the Queen, which was opposed by all the leaders of
+the prevailing party, who, though they were beginning externally to
+court, admire, and idolize her, secretly surrounded her by their noxious
+and viperous intrigues, and, while they lived in her bosom, fattened on
+the destruction of her fame!
+
+"One of the earliest of the paltry insinuations against Marie Antoinette
+emanated from her not counterfeiting deep affliction at the decease of
+the old King.  A few days after that event, the Court received the
+regular visits of condolence and congratulation of the nobility, whose
+duty prescribes their attendance upon such occasions; and some of them,
+among whom were the daughters of Louis XV., not finding a young Queen of
+nineteen hypocritically bathed in tears, on returning to their abodes
+declared her the most indecorous of Princesses, and diffused a strong
+impression of her want of feeling.  At the head of these detractors were
+Mesdames de Guemenee and Marsan, rival pretenders to the favours of the
+Cardinal de Rohan, who, having by the death of Louis XV. lost their
+influence and their unlimited power to appoint and dismiss Ministers,
+themselves became ministers to their own evil geniuses, in calumniating
+her whose legitimate elevation annihilated their monstrous pretensions!
+
+"The Abbe Vermond, seeing the defeat of the party of the Duc de Choiseul,
+by whom he had been sent to the Court of Vienna on the recommendation of
+Brienne, began to tremble for his own security.  As soon as the Court had
+arrived at Choisy, and he was assured of the marriage having been
+consummated, he obtained, with the Queen's consent, an audience of the
+King, for the purpose of soliciting his sanction to his continuing in his
+situation.  On submitting his suit to the King, His Majesty merely gave a
+shrug of the shoulders, and turned to converse with the Duc d'Aiguillon,
+who at that moment entered the room.  The Abbe stood stupefied, and the
+Queen, seeing the crestfallen humour of her tutor, laughed and cheered
+him by remarking, 'There is more meaning in the shrug of a King than in
+the embrace of a Minister.  The one always promises, but is seldom
+sincere; the other is generally sincere, but never promises.'  The Abbe,
+not knowing how to interpret the dumb answer, finding the King's back
+turned and his conversation with D'Aiguillon continuing, was retiring
+with a shrug of his own shoulders to the Queen, when she exclaimed,
+good-humouredly, to Louis, laughing and pointing to the Abbe, 'Look!
+look! see how readily a Church dignitary can imitate the good Christian
+King, who is at the head of the Church.'  The King, seeing the Abbe still
+waiting, said, dryly, 'Monsieur, you are confirmed in your situation,'
+and then resumed his conversation with the Duke.
+
+"This anecdote is a sufficient proof that LOUIS XVI.  had no
+prepossession in favour of the Abbe Vermond, and that it was merely not
+to wound the feelings of the Queen that he was tolerated.  The Queen
+herself was conscious of this, and used frequently to say to me how much
+she was indebted to the King for such deference to her private choice, in
+allowing Vermond to be her secretary, as she did not remember the King's
+ever having held any communication with the Abbe during the whole time he
+was attached to the service, though the Abbe always expressed himself
+with the greatest respect towards the King.
+
+"The decorum of Marie Antoinette would not allow her to endure those
+public exhibitions of the ceremony, of dressing herself which had been
+customary at Court.  This reserve was highly approved by His Majesty; and
+one of the first reforms she introduced, after the accession, was in the
+internal discipline of her own apartment.
+
+"It was during one of the visits, apart from Court etiquette, to the
+toilet of the Queen, that the Duchesse de Chartres, afterwards Duchesse
+d'Orleans, introduced the famous Mademoiselle Bertin, who afterwards
+became so celebrated as the Queen's milliner--the first that was ever
+allowed to approach a royal palace; and it was months before Marie
+Antoinette had courage to receive her milliner in any other than the
+private apartment which, by the alteration Her Majesty had made in the
+arrangements of the household, she set apart for the purpose of dressing
+in comfort by herself and free from all intruders.
+
+"Till then the Queen was not only very plain in her attire, but very,
+economical--a circumstance which, I have often heard her say, gave great
+umbrage to the other Princesses of the Court of Versailles, who never
+showed themselves, from the moment they rose till they returned to bed,
+except in full dress; while she herself made all her morning visits in a
+simple white cambric gown and straw hat.  This simplicity, unfortunately,
+like many other trifles, whose consequences no foresight would have
+predicted, tended much to injure Marie Antoinette, not only with the
+Court dandies, but the nation; by whom, though she was always censured,
+she was as suddenly imitated in all she wore or did.
+
+"From the private closet, which Marie Antoinette reserved to herself, and
+had now opened to her milliner, she would retire, after the great points
+of habiliment were accomplished, to those who were waiting with memorials
+at her public toilet, where the hairdresser would finish putting the
+ornaments in Her Majesty's hair.
+
+"The King made Marie Antoinette a present of Le Petit Trianon.  Much has
+been said of the extravagant expense lavished by her upon this spot.  I
+can only declare that the greater part of the articles of furniture which
+had not been worn out by time or were not worm or moth-eaten, and her own
+bed among them, were taken from the apartments of former Queens, and some
+of them had actually belonged to Anne of Austria, who, like Marie
+Antoinette, had purchased them out of her private savings.  Hence it is
+clear that neither of the two Queens were chargeable to the State even
+for those little indulgences which every private lady of property is
+permitted from her husband, without coming under the lash of censure.
+
+"Her allowance as Queen of France was no more than 300,000 francs.  It is
+well known that she was generous, liberal, and very charitable; that she
+paid all her expenses regularly respecting her household, Trianon, her
+dresses, diamonds, millinery, and everything else; her Court
+establishment excepted, and some few articles, which were paid by the
+civil list.  She was one of the first Queens in Europe, had the first
+establishment in Europe, and was obliged to keep up the most refined and
+luxurious Court in Europe; and all upon means no greater than had been
+assigned to many of the former bigoted Queens, who led a cloistered life,
+retired from the world without circulating their wealth among the nation
+which supplied them with so large a revenue; and yet who lived and died
+uncensured for hoarding from the nation what ought at least to have been
+in part expended for its advantage.
+
+"And yet of all the extra expenditure which the dignity and circumstances
+of Marie Antoinette exacted, not a franc came from the public Treasury;
+but everything out of Her Majesty's private purse and savings from the
+above three hundred thousand francs, which was an infinitely less sum
+than Louis XIV. had lavished yearly on the Duchesse de Montespan, and
+less than half what Louis XV. had expended on the last two favourites, De
+Pompadour and Du Barry.  These two women, as clearly appeared from the
+private registers, found among the papers of Louis XV. after his death,
+by Louis XVI. (but which, out of respect for the memory of his
+grandfather, he destroyed), these two women had amassed more property in
+diamonds and other valuables than all the Queens of France from the days
+of Catherine de Medicis up to those of Marie Antoinette.
+
+"Such was the goodness of heart of the excellent Queen of Louis XVI.,
+such the benevolence of her character, that not only did she pay all the
+pensions of the invalids left by her predecessors, but she distributed in
+public and private charities greater sums than any of the former Queens,
+thus increasing her expenses without any proportionate augmentation of
+her resources."
+
+[Indeed, could Louis XVI. have foreseen--when, in order not to expose the
+character of his predecessor and to honour the dignity of the throne and
+monarchy of France, he destroyed the papers of his grandfather--what an
+arm of strength he would have possessed in preserving them, against the
+accusers of his unfortunate Queen and himself, he never could have thrown
+away such means of establishing a most honourable contrast between his
+own and former reigns.  His career exhibits no superfluous expenditure.
+Its economy was most rigid.  No sovereign was ever more scrupulous with
+the public money. He never had any public or private predilection; no
+dilapidated Minister for a favourite: no courtesan intrigue.  For gaming
+he had no fondness; and, if his abilities were not splendid, he certainly
+had no predominating vices.]
+
+NOTE:
+
+[I must once more quit the journal of the Princess.  Her Highness here
+ceases to record particulars of the early part of the reign of Louis
+XVI., and everything essential upon those times is too well known to
+render it desirable to detain the reader by an attempt to supply the
+deficiency.  It is enough to state that the secret unhappiness of the
+Queen at not yet having the assurance of an heir was by no means weakened
+by the impatience of the people, nor by the accouchement of the Comtesse
+d'Artois of the Duc d'Angouleme.  While the Queen continued the intimacy,
+and even held her parties at the apartments of the Duchess that she might
+watch over her friend, even in this triumph over herself, the poissardes
+grossly insulted her in her misfortune, and coarsely called on her to
+give heirs to the throne!
+
+A consolation, however, for the unkind feeling of the populace was about
+to arise in the delights of one of her strongest friendships. I am come
+to the epoch when Her Majesty first formed an acquaintance with the
+Princesse de Lamballe.
+
+After a few words of my own on the family of Her Highness, I shall leave
+her to pursue her beautiful and artless narrative of her parentage, early
+sorrows, and introduction to Her Majesty, unbroken.
+
+The journal of the history of Marie Antoinette, after this slight
+interruption for the private history of her friend, will become blended
+with the journal of the Princesse de Lamballe, and both thenceforward
+will proceed in their course together, like their destinies, which from
+that moment never became disunited.]
+
+
+
+
+SECTION VI.
+
+
+[MARIA THERESA LOUISA CARIGNAN, Princess of Savoy, was born at Turin on
+the 8th September, 1749.  She had three sisters; two of them were married
+at Rome, one to the Prince Doria Pamfili, the other to the Prince
+Colonna; and the third at Vienna, to the Prince Lobkowitz, whose son was
+the great patron of the immortal Haydn, the celebrated composer.
+
+The celebrated Haydn was, even at the age of 74, when I last saw him at
+Vienna, till the most good-humoured bon vivant of his age.  He delighted
+in telling the origin of his good fortune, which he said he entirely owed
+to a bad wife.
+
+When he was first married, he said, finding no remedy against domestic
+squabbles, he used to quit his bad half and go and enjoy himself with his
+good friends, who were Hungarians and Germans, for weeks together.  Once,
+having returned home after a considerable absence, his wife, while he was
+in bed next morning, followed her husband's example: she did even more,
+for she took all his clothes, even to his shoes, stockings, and small
+clothes, nay, everything he had, along with her!  Thus situated, he was
+under the necessity of doing something to cover his nakedness; and this,
+he himself acknowledged, was the first cause of his seriously applying
+himself to the profession which has since made his name immortal.
+
+He used to laugh, saying, "I was from that time so habituated to study
+that my wife, often fearing it would injure me, would threaten me with
+the same operation if I did not go out and amuse myself; but then," added
+he, "I was grown old, and she was sick and no longer jealous."  He spoke
+remarkably good Italian, though he had never been in Italy, and on my
+going to Vienna to hear his "Creation," he promised to accompany me back
+to Italy; but he unfortunately died before I returned to Vienna from
+Carlsbad.
+
+She had a brother also, the Prince Carignan, who, marrying against the
+consent of his family, was no longer received by them; but the
+unremitting and affectionate attention which the Princesse de Lamballe
+paid to him and his new connexions was an ample compensation for the loss
+he sustained in the severity of his other sisters.
+
+With regard to the early life of the Princesse de Lamballe, the arranger
+of these pages must now leave her to pursue her own beautiful and artless
+narrative unbroken, up to the epoch of her appointment to the household
+of the Queen.  It will be recollected that the papers of which the
+reception has been already described in the introduction formed the
+private journal of this most amiable Princess; and those passages
+relating to her own early life being the most connected part of them, it
+has been thought that to disturb them would be a kind of sacrilege.
+After the appointment of Her Highness to the superintendence of the
+Queen's household, her manuscripts again become confused, and fall into
+scraps and fragments, which will require to be once more rendered clear
+by the recollections of events and conversations by which the preceding
+chapters have been assisted.]
+
+"I was the favourite child of a numerous family, and intended, almost at
+my birth--as is generally the case among Princes who are nearly allied to
+crowned heads--to be united to one of the Princes, my near relation, of
+the royal house of Sardinia.
+
+"A few years after this, the Duc and Duchesse de Penthievre arrived at
+Turin, on their way to Italy, for the purpose of visiting the different
+Courts, to make suitable marriage contracts for both their infant
+children.
+
+"These two children were Mademoiselle de Penthievre, afterwards the
+unhappy Duchesse d'Orleans, and their idolised son, the Prince de
+Lamballe.
+
+[The father of Louis Alexander Joseph Stanislaus de Bourbon Penthievre,
+Prince de Lamballe, was the son of Comte de Toulouse, himself a natural
+son of Louis XIV. and Madame de Montespan, who was considered as the most
+wealthy of all the natural children, in consequence of Madame de
+Montespan having artfully entrapped the famous Mademoiselle de
+Moutpensier to make over her immense fortune to him as her heir after her
+death, as the price of liberating her husband from imprisonment in the
+Bastille, and herself from a ruinous prosecution, for having contracted
+this marriage contrary to the express commands of her royal cousin, Louis
+XIV.--Vide Histoire de Louis XIV. par Voltaire.]
+
+"Happy would it have been both for the Prince who was destined to the
+former and the Princess who was given to the latter, had these
+unfortunate alliances never taken place.
+
+"The Duc and Duchesse de Penthievre became so singularly attached to my
+beloved parents, and, in particular, to myself, that the very day they
+first dined at the Court of Turin, they mentioned the wish they had
+formed of uniting me to their young son, the Prince de Lamballe.
+
+"The King of Sardinia, as the head of the house of Savoy and Carignan,
+said there had been some conversation as to my becoming a member of his
+royal family; but as I was so very young at the time, many political
+reasons might arise to create motives for a change in the projected
+alliance.  'If, therefore, the Prince de Carignan,' said the King, 'be
+anxious to settle his daughter's marriage, by any immediate matrimonial
+alliance, I certainly shall not avail myself of any prior engagement, nor
+oppose any obstacle in the way of its solemnisation.'
+
+"The consent of the King being thus unexpectedly obtained by the Prince,
+so desirable did the arrangement seem to the Duke and Duchess that the
+next day the contract was concluded with my parents for my becoming the
+wife of their only son, the Prince de Lamballe.
+
+"I was too young to be consulted.  Perhaps had I been older the result
+would have been the same, for it generally happens in these great family
+alliances that the parties most interested, and whose happiness is most
+concerned, are the least thought of.  The Prince was, I believe, at
+Paris, under the tuition of his governess, and I was in the nursery,
+heedless, and totally ignorant of my future good or evil destination!
+
+"So truly happy and domestic a life as that led by the Duc and Duchesse
+de Penthievre seemed to my family to offer an example too propitious not
+to secure to me a degree of felicity with a private Prince, very rarely
+the result of royal unions!  Of course, their consent was given with
+alacrity.  When I was called upon to do homage to my future parents, I
+had so little idea, from my extreme youthfulness, of what was going on
+that I set them all laughing, when, on being asked if I should like to
+become the consort of the Prince de Lamballe, I said, 'Yes, I am very
+fond of music!' No, my dear,' resumed the good and tender-hearted Duc de
+Penthievre, 'I mean, would you have any objection to become his
+wife?'--'No, nor any other person's!' was the innocent reply, which
+increased the mirth of all the guests at my expense.
+
+"Happy, happy days of youthful, thoughtless innocence, luxuriously felt
+and appreciated under the thatched roof of the cottage, but unknown and
+unattainable beneath the massive pile of a royal palace and a gemmed
+crown!  Scarcely had I entered my teens when my adopted parents strewed
+flowers of the sweetest fragrance to lead me to the sacred altar, that
+promised the bliss of busses, but which, too soon, from the foul
+machinations of envy, jealousy, avarice, and a still more criminal
+passion, proved to me the altar of my sacrifice!
+
+"My misery and my uninterrupted grief may be dated from the day my
+beloved sister-in-law, Mademoiselle de Penthievre, sullied her hand by
+its union with the Duc de Chartres.--[Afterwards Duc d'Orleans, and the
+celebrated revolutionary Philippe Egalite.]--From that moment all
+comfort, all prospect of connubial happiness, left my young and
+affectionate heart, plucked thence by the very roots, never more again to
+bloom there.  Religion and philosophy were the only remedies remaining.
+
+"I was a bride when an infant, a wife before I was a woman, a widow
+before I was a mother, or had the prospect of becoming one!  Our union
+was, perhaps, an exception to the general rule.  We became insensibly the
+more attached to each other the more we were acquainted, which rendered
+the more severe the separation, when we were torn asunder never to meet
+again in this world!
+
+"After I left Turin, though everything for my reception at the palaces of
+Toulouse and Rambouillet had been prepared in the most sumptuous style of
+magnificence, yet such was my agitation that I remained convulsively
+speechless for many hours, and all the affectionate attention of the
+family of the Duc de Penthievre could not calm my feelings.
+
+"Among those who came about me was the bridegroom himself, whom I had
+never yet seen.  So anxious was he to have his first acquaintance
+incognito that he set off from Paris the moment he was apprised of my
+arrival in France and presented himself as the Prince's page.  As he had
+outgrown the figure of his portrait, I received him as such; but the
+Prince, being better pleased with me than he had apprehended he should
+be, could scarcely avoid discovering himself.  During our journey to
+Paris I myself disclosed the interest with which the supposed page had
+inspired me.  'I hope,' exclaimed I, 'my Prince will allow his page to
+attend me, for I like him much.'
+
+"What was my surprise when the Duc de Penthievre presented me to the
+Prince and I found in him the page for whom I had already felt such an
+interest!  We both laughed and wanted words to express our mutual
+sentiments.  This was really love at first sight.
+
+[The young Prince was enraptured at finding his lovely bride so superior
+in personal charms to the description which had been given of her, and
+even to the portrait sent to him from Turin.  Indeed, she must have been
+a most beautiful creature, for when I left her in the year 1792, though
+then five-and-forty years of age, from the freshness of her complexion,
+the elegance of her figure, and the dignity of her deportment, she
+certainly did not appear to be more than thirty.  She had a fine head of
+hair, and she took great pleasure in showing it unornamented.  I remember
+one day, on her coming hastily from the bath, as she was putting on her
+dress, her cap falling off, her hair completely covered her!
+
+The circumstances of her death always make me shudder at the recollection
+of this incident!  I have been assured by Mesdames Mackau, de Soucle, the
+Comtesse de Noailles (not Duchesse, as Mademoiselle Bertin has created
+her in her Memoirs of that name), and others, that the Princesse de
+Lamballe was considered the most beautiful and accomplished Princess at
+the Court of Louis XV., adorned with all the grace, virtue, and elegance
+of manner which so eminently distinguished her through life.]
+
+"The Duc de Chartres, then possessing a very handsome person and most
+insinuating address, soon gained the affections of the amiable
+Mademoiselle Penthievre.  Becoming thus a member of the same family, he
+paid me the most assiduous attention.  From my being his sister-in-law,
+and knowing he was aware of my great attachment to his young wife, I
+could have no idea that his views were criminally levelled at my honour,
+my happiness, and my future peace of mind.  How, therefore, was I
+astonished and shocked when he discovered to me his desire to supplant
+the legitimate object of my affections, whose love for me equalled mine
+for him!  I did not expose this baseness of the Duc de Chartres, out of
+filial affection for my adopted father, the Duc de Penthievre; out of the
+love I bore his amiable daughter, she being pregnant; and, above all, in
+consequence of the fear I was under of compromising the life of the
+Prince, my husband, who I apprehended might be lost to me if I did not
+suffer in silence.  But still, through my silence he was lost--and oh,
+how dreadfully!  The Prince was totally in the dark as to the real
+character of his brother-in-law.  He blindly became every day more and
+more attached to the man, who was then endeavouring by the foulest means
+to blast the fairest prospects of his future happiness in life!  But my
+guardian angel protected me from becoming a victim to seduction,
+defeating every attack by that prudence which has hitherto been my
+invincible shield.
+
+"Guilt, unpunished in its first crime, rushes onward, and hurrying from
+one misdeed to another, like the flood-tide, drives all before it!  My
+silence, and his being defeated without reproach, armed him with courage
+for fresh daring, and he too well succeeded in embittering the future
+days of my life, as well as those of his own affectionate wife, and his
+illustrious father-in-law, the virtuous Duc de Penthievre, who was to all
+a father.
+
+"To revenge himself upon me for the repulse he met with, this man
+inveigled my young, inexperienced husband from his bridal bed to those
+infected with the nauseous poison of every vice!  Poor youth!  he soon
+became the prey of every refinement upon dissipation and studied
+debauchery, till at length his sufferings made his life a burthen, and he
+died in the most excruciating agonies both of mind and body, in the arms
+of a disconsolate wife and a distracted father--and thus, in a few short
+months, at the age of eighteen, was I left a widow to lament my having
+become a wife!
+
+"I was in this situation, retired from the world and absorbed in grief,
+with the ever beloved and revered illustrious father of my murdered lord,
+endeavouring to sooth his pangs for the loss of those comforts in a child
+with which my cruel disappointment forbade my ever being blest--though,
+in the endeavour to soothe, I often only aggravated both his and my own
+misery at our irretrievable loss--when a ray of unexpected light burst
+upon my dreariness.  It was amid this gloom of human agony, these
+heartrending scenes of real mourning, that the brilliant star shone to
+disperse the clouds which hovered over our drooping heads,--to dry the
+hot briny tears which were parching up our miserable vegetating
+existence--it was in this crisis that Marie Antoinette came, like a
+messenger sent down from Heaven, graciously to offer the balm of comfort
+in the sweetest language of human compassion.  The pure emotions of her
+generous soul made her unceasing, unremitting, in her visits to two
+mortals who must else have perished under the weight of their
+misfortunes.  But for the consolation of her warm friendship we must have
+sunk into utter despair!
+
+"From that moment I became seriously attached to the Queen of France. She
+dedicated a great portion of her time to calm the anguish of my poor
+heart, though I had not yet accepted the honour of becoming a member of
+Her Majesty's household.  Indeed, I was a considerable time before I
+could think of undertaking a charge I felt myself so completely incapable
+of fulfilling.  I endeavoured to check the tears that were pouring down
+my cheeks, to conceal in the Queen's presence the real feelings of my
+heart, but the effort only served to increase my anguish when she had
+departed.  Her attachment to me, and the cordiality with which she
+distinguished herself towards the Duc de Penthievre, gave her a place in
+that heart, which had been chilled by the fatal vacuum left by its first
+inhabitant; and Marie Antoinette was the only rival through life that
+usurped his pretensions, though she could never wean me completely from
+his memory.
+
+"My health, from the melancholy life I led, had so much declined that my
+affectionate father, the Duc de Penthievre, with whom I continued to
+reside, was anxious that I should emerge from my retirement for the
+benefit of my health.  Sensible of his affection, and having always
+honoured his counsels, I took his advice in this instance.  It being in
+the hard winter, when so many persons were out of bread, the Queen, the
+Duchesse d'Orleans, the Duc de Penthievre, and myself, introduced the
+German sledges, in which we were followed by most of the nobility and the
+rich citizens.  This afforded considerable employment to different
+artificers.  The first use I made of my own new vehicle was to visit, in
+company with the Duc de Penthievre, the necessitous poor families and our
+pensioners.  In the course of our rounds we met the Queen.
+
+"'I suppose,' exclaimed Her Majesty, 'you also are laying a good
+foundation for my work!  Heavens!  what must the poor feel!  I am wrapped
+up like a diamond in a box, covered with furs, and yet I am chilled with
+cold!'
+
+"'That feeling sentiment,' said the Duke, 'will soon warm many a cold
+family's heart with gratitude to bless Your Majesty!'
+
+"'Why, yes,' replied Her Majesty, showing a long piece of paper
+containing the names of those to whom she intended to afford relief, 'I
+have only collected two hundred yet on my list, but the cure will do the
+rest and help me to draw the strings of my privy purse!  But I have not
+half done my rounds.  I daresay before I return to Versailles I shall
+have as many more, and, since we are engaged in the same business, pray
+come into my sledge and do not take my work out of my hands!  Let me have
+for once the merit of doing something good!'
+
+"On the coming up of a number of other vehicles belonging to the sledge
+party, the Queen added, 'Do not say anything about what I have been
+telling you!' for Her Majesty never wished what she did in the way of
+charity or donations should be publicly known, the old pensioners
+excepted, who, being on the list, could not be concealed; especially as
+she continued to pay all those she found of the late Queen of Louis XV.
+She was remarkably delicate and timid with respect to hurting the
+feelings of any one; and, fearing the Duc de Penthievre might not be
+pleased at her pressing me to leave him in order to join her, she said,
+'Well, I will let you off, Princess, on your both promising to dine with
+me at Trianon; for the King is hunting, not deer, but wood for the poor,
+and he will see his game off to Paris before he comes back:
+
+"The Duke begged to be excused, but wished me to accept the invitation,
+which I did, and we parted, each to pursue our different sledge
+excursions.
+
+"At the hour appointed, I made my appearance at Trianon, and had the
+honour to dine tete-a-tete with Her Majesty, which was much more
+congenial to my feelings than if there had been a party, as I was still
+very low-spirited and unhappy.
+
+"After dinner, 'My dear Princess,' said the Queen to me, 'at your time of
+life you must not give yourself up entirely to the dead.  You wrong the
+living.  We have not been sent into the world for ourselves.  I have felt
+much for your situation, and still do so, and therefore hope, as long as
+the weather permits, that you will favour me with your company to enlarge
+our sledge excursions.  The King and my dear sister Elizabeth are also
+much interested about your coming on a visit to Versailles.  What think
+you of our plan.
+
+"I thanked Her Majesty, the King, and the Princess, for their kindness,
+but I observed that my state of health and mind could so little
+correspond in any way with the gratitude I should owe them for their
+royal favours that I trusted a refusal would be attributed to the fact of
+my consciousness how much rather my society must prove an annoyance and a
+burthen than a source of pleasure.
+
+"My tears flowing down my cheeks rapidly while I was speaking, the Queen,
+with that kindness for which she was so eminently distinguished, took me
+by the hand, and with her handkerchief dried my face.
+
+"'I am,' said the Queen, I about to renew a situation which has for some
+time past lain dormant; and I hope, my dear Princess, therewith to
+establish my own private views, in forming the happiness of a worthy
+individual.'
+
+"I replied that such a plan must insure Her Majesty the desired object
+she had in view, as no individual could be otherwise than happy under the
+immediate auspices of so benevolent and generous a Sovereign.
+
+"The Queen, with great affability, as if pleased with my observation,
+only said, 'If you really think as you speak, my views are accomplished.'
+
+"My carriage was announced, and I then left Her Majesty, highly pleased
+at her gracious condescension, which evidently emanated from the kind
+wish to raise my drooping spirits from their melancholy.
+
+"Gratitude would not permit me to continue long without demonstrating to
+Her Majesty the sentiments her kindness had awakened in my heart.
+
+"I returned next day with my sister-in-law, the Duchesse d'Orleans, who
+was much esteemed by the Queen, and we joined the sledge parties with Her
+Majesty.
+
+"On the third or fourth day of these excursions I again had the honour to
+dine with Her Majesty, when, in the presence of the Princesse Elizabeth,
+she asked me if I were still of the same opinion with respect to the
+person it was her intention to add to her household?
+
+"I myself had totally forgotten the topic and entreated Her Majesty's
+pardon for my want of memory, and begged she would signify to what
+subject she alluded.
+
+"The Princesse Elizabeth laughed.  'I thought,' cried she, 'that you had
+known it long ago!  The Queen, with His Majesty's consent, has nominated
+you, my dear Princess (embracing me), superintendent of her household.'
+
+"The Queen, also embracing me, said, 'Yes; it is very true.  You said the
+individual destined to such a situation could not be otherwise than
+happy; and I am myself thoroughly happy in being able thus to contribute
+towards rendering you so.'
+
+"I was perfectly at a loss for a moment or two, but, recovering myself
+from the effect of this unexpected and unlooked for preferment, I thanked
+Her Majesty with the best grace I was able for such an unmerited mark of
+distinction.
+
+"The Queen, perceiving my embarrassment, observed, 'I knew I should
+surprise you; but I thought your being established at Versailles much
+more desirable for one of your rank and youth than to be, as you were,
+with the Duc de Penthievre; who, much as I esteem his amiable character
+and numerous great virtues, is by no means the most cheering companion
+for my charming Princess.  From this moment let our friendships be united
+in the common interest of each other's happiness.'
+
+"The Queen took me by the hand.  The Princesse Elizabeth, joining hers,
+exclaimed to the Queen, 'Oh, my dear sister!  let me make the trio in
+this happy union of friends!'
+
+"In the society of her adored Majesty and of her saint-like sister
+Elizabeth I have found my only balm of consolation!  Their graciously
+condescending to sympathise in the grief with which I was overwhelmed
+from the cruel disappointment of my first love, filled up in some degree
+the vacuum left by his loss, who was so prematurely ravished from me in
+the flower of youth, leaving me a widow at eighteen; and though that loss
+is one I never can replace or forget, the poignancy of its effect has
+been in a great degree softened by the kindnesses of my excellent
+father-in-law, the Duc de Penthievre, and the relations resulting from my
+situation with, and the never-ceasing attachment of my beloved royal
+mistress."
+
+
+
+
+SECTION VII.
+
+
+[The connexion of the Princesse de Lamballe with the Queen, of which she
+has herself described the origin in the preceding chapter, proved so
+important in its influence upon the reputation and fate of both these
+illustrious victims, that I must once more withdraw the attention of the
+reader, to explain, from personal observation and confidential
+disclosures, the leading causes of the violent dislike which was kindled
+in the public against an intimacy that it would have been most fortunate
+had Her Majesty preferred through life to every other.
+
+The selection of a friend by the Queen, and the sudden elevation of that
+friend to the highest station in the royal household, could not fail to
+alarm the selfishness of courtiers, who always feel themselves injured by
+the favour shown to others.  An obsolete office was revived in favour of
+the Princesse de Lamballe.  In the time of Maria Leckzinska, wife of
+Louis XV., the office of superintendent, then held by Mademoiselle de
+Clermont, was suppressed when its holder died.  The office gave a control
+over the inclinations of Queens, by which Maria Leckzinska was sometimes
+inconvenienced; and it had lain dormant ever since.  Its restoration by a
+Queen who it was believed could be guided by no motive but the desire to
+seek pretexts for showing undue favour, was of course eyed askance, and
+ere long openly calumniated.
+
+The Comtesse de Noailles, who never could forget the title the Queen gave
+her of Madame Etiquette, nor forgive the frequent jokes which Her Majesty
+passed upon her antiquated formality, availed herself of the opportunity
+offered by her husband's being raised to the dignity of Marshal of
+France, to resign her situation on the appointment of the Princesse de
+Lamballe as superintendent.  The Countess retired with feelings
+embittered against her royal mistress, and her annoyance in the sequel
+ripened into enmity.  The Countess was attached to a very powerful party,
+not only at Court but scattered throughout the kingdom.  Her discontent
+arose from the circumstance of no longer having to take her orders from
+the Queen direct, but from her superintendent.  Ridiculous as this may
+seem to an impartial observer, it created one of the most powerful
+hostilities against which Her Majesty had afterwards to contend.
+
+Though the Queen esteemed the Comtesse de Noailles for her many good
+qualities, yet she was so much put out of her way by the rigour with
+which the Countess enforced forms which to Her Majesty appeared puerile
+and absurd, that she felt relieved, and secretly gratified, by her
+retirement.  It will be shown hereafter to what an excess the Countess
+was eventually carried by her malice.
+
+One of the popular objections to the revival of the office of
+superintendent in favour of the Princesse de Lamballe arose from its
+reputed extravagance.  This was as groundless as the other charges
+against the Queen.  The etiquettes of dress, and the requisite increase
+of every other expense, from the augmentation of every article of the
+necessaries as well as the luxuries of life, made a treble difference
+between the expenditure of the circumscribed Court of Maria Leckzinska
+and that of Louis XVI.; yet the Princesse de Lamballe received no more
+salary than had been allotted to Mademoiselle de Clermont in the selfsame
+situation half a century before.
+
+(And even that salary she never appropriated to any private use of her
+own, being amply supplied through the generous bounty of her
+father-in-law, the Duc de Penthievre; and latterly, to my knowledge, so
+far from receiving any pay, she often paid the Queen's and Princesse
+Elizabeth's bills out of her own purse.)
+
+So far from possessing the slightest propensity either to extravagance in
+herself or to the encouragement of extravagance in others, the Princesse
+de Lamballe was a model of prudence, and upon those subjects, as indeed
+upon all others, the Queen could not have had a more discreet counsellor.
+She eminently contributed to the charities of the Queen, who was the
+mother of the fatherless, the support of the widow, and the general
+protectress and refuge of suffering humanity.  Previously to the purchase
+of any article of luxury, the Princess would call for the list of the
+pensioners: if anything was due on that account, it was instantly paid,
+and the luxury dispensed with.
+
+She never made her appearance in the Queen's apartments except at
+established hours.  This was scrupulously observed till the Revolution.
+Circumstances then obliged her to break through forms. The Queen would
+only receive communications, either written or verbal, upon the subjects
+growing out of that wretched crisis, in the presence of the Princess; and
+hence her apartments were open to all who had occasion to see Her
+Majesty.  This made their intercourse more constant and unceremonious.
+But before this, the Princess only went to the royal presence at fixed
+hours, unless she had memorials to present to the King, Queen, or
+Ministers, in favour of such as asked for justice or mercy.  Hence,
+whenever the Princess entered before the stated times, the Queen would
+run and embrace her, and exclaim: "Well, my dear Princesse de Lamballe!
+what widow, what orphan, what suffering or oppressed petitioner am I to
+thank for this visit?  for I know you never come to me empty-handed when
+you come unexpectedly!"  The Princess, on these occasions, often had the
+petitioners waiting in an adjoining apartment, that they might instantly
+avail themselves of any inclination the Queen might show to see them.
+
+Once the Princess was deceived by a female painter of doubtful character,
+who supplicated her to present a work she had executed to the Queen.  I
+myself afterwards returned that work to its owner. Thenceforward, the
+Princess became very rigid in her inquiries, previous to taking the least
+interest in any application, or consenting to present any one personally
+to the King or Queen.  She required thoroughly to be informed of the
+nature of the request, and of the merit and character of the applicant,
+before she would attend to either.  Owing to this caution Her Highness
+scarcely ever after met with a negative.  In cases of great importance,
+though the Queen's compassionate and good heart needed no stimulus to
+impel her to forward the means of justice, the Princess would call the
+influence of the Princesse Elizabeth to her aid; and Elizabeth never sued
+in vain.
+
+Marie Antoinette paid the greatest attention to all memorials.  They were
+regularly collected every week by Her Majesty's private secretary, the
+Abbe Vermond.  I have myself seen many of them, when returned from the
+Princesse de Lamballe, with the Queen's marginal notes in her own
+handwriting, and the answers dictated by Her Majesty to the different,
+officers of the departments relative to the nature of the respective
+demands.  She always recommended the greatest attention to all public
+documents, and annexed notes to such as passed through her hands to
+prevent their being thrown aside or lost.
+
+One of those who were least satisfied with the appointment of the
+Princesse de Lamballe to the office of superintendent was her
+brother-in-law, the Duc d'Orleans, who, having attempted her virtue on
+various occasions and been repulsed, became mortified and alarmed at her
+situation as a check to his future enterprise.
+
+At one time the Duc and Duchesse d'Orleans were most constant and
+assiduous in their attendance on Marie Antoinette.  They were at all her
+parties.  The Queen was very fond of the Duchess.  It is supposed that
+the interest Her Majesty took in that lady, and the steps to which some
+time afterwards that interest led, planted the first seeds of the
+unrelenting and misguided hostility which, in the deadliest times of the
+Revolution, animated the Orleanists against the throne.
+
+The Duc d'Orleans, then Duc de Chartres, was never a favourite of the
+Queen.  He was only tolerated at Court on account of his wife and of the
+great intimacy which subsisted between him and the Comte d'Artois.  Louis
+XVI. had often expressed his disapprobation of the Duke's character,
+which his conduct daily justified.
+
+The Princesse de Lamballe could have no cause to think of her
+brother-in-law but with horror.  He had insulted her, and, in revenge at
+his defeat, had, it was said, deprived her, by the most awful means, of
+her husband.  The Princess was tenderly attached to her sister-in-law,
+the Duchess.  Her attachment could not but make her look very
+unfavourably upon the circumstance of the Duke's subjecting his wife to
+the humiliation of residing in the palace with Madame de Genlis, and
+being forced to receive a person of morals so incorrect as the guardian
+of her children.  The Duchess had complained to her father, the Duc de
+Penthievre, in the presence of the Princesse de Lamballe, of the very
+great ascendency Madame de Genlis exercised over her husband; and had
+even requested the Queen to use her influence in detaching the Duke from
+this connexion.
+
+(It was generally understood that the Duke had a daughter by Madame de
+Genlis.  This daughter, when grown up, was married to the late Irish Lord
+Robert Fitzgerald.)
+
+But she had too much gentleness of nature not presently to forget her
+resentment.  Being much devoted to her husband, rather than irritate him
+to further neglect by personal remonstrance, she determined to make the
+best of a bad business, and tolerated Madame de Genlis, although she made
+no secret among her friends and relations of the reason why she did so.
+Nay, so far did her wish not to disoblige her husband prevail over her
+own feelings as to induce her to yield at last to his importunities by
+frequently proposing to present Madame de Genlis to the Queen.  But
+Madame de Genilis never could obtain either a public or a private
+audience. Though the Queen was a great admirer of merit and was fond of
+encouraging talents, of which Madame de Genlis was by no means deficient,
+yet even the account the Duchess herself had given, had Her Majesty
+possessed no other means of knowledge, would have sealed that lady's
+exclusion from the opportunities of display at Court which she sought so
+earnestly.
+
+There was another source of exasperation against the Duc d'Orleans; and
+the great cause of a new and, though less obtrusive, yet perhaps an
+equally dangerous foe under all the circumstances, in Madame de Genlis.
+The anonymous slander of the one was circulated through all France by the
+other; and spleen and disappointment feathered the venomed arrows shot at
+the heart of power by malice and ambition. Be the charge true or false,
+these anonymous libels were generally considered as the offspring of this
+lady: they were industriously scattered by the Duc d'Orleans; and their
+frequent refutation by the Queen's friends only increased the malignant
+industry of their inventor.
+
+An event which proved the most serious of all that ever happened to the
+Queen, and the consequences of which were distinctly foreseen by the
+Princesse de Lamballe and others of her true friends, was now growing to
+maturity.
+
+The deposed Court oracle, the Comtesse de Noailles, had been succeeded as
+literary leader by the Comtesse Diane de Polignac. She was a favourite of
+the Comte d'Artois, and was the first lady in attendance upon the
+Countess, his wife.
+
+(The Comtesse Diane de Polignac had a much better education, and
+considerably more natural capacity, than her sister-in-law, the Duchess,
+and the Queen merely disliked her for her prudish affectation.  The
+Comtesse d'Artois grew jealous of the Count's intimacy with the Comtesse
+Diane.  While she considered herself as the only one of the Royal Family
+likely to be mother of a future sovereign, she was silent, or perhaps too
+much engrossed by her castles in the air to think of anything but
+diadems; but when she saw the Queen producing heirs, she grew out of
+humour at her lost popularity, and began to turn her attention to her
+husband's Endymionship to this now Diana!  When she had made up her mind
+to get her rival out of her house, she consulted one of the family; but
+being told that the best means for a wife to keep her husband out of
+harm's way was to provide him with a domestic occupation for his leisure
+hours at home, than which nothing could be better than a handmaid under
+the same roof, she made a merit of necessity and submitted ever after to
+retain the Comtesse Diane, as she had been prudently advised. The
+Comtesse Diane, in consequence, remained in the family even up to the
+17th October, 1789, when she left Versailles in company with the De
+Polignacs and the D'Artois, who all emigrated together from France to
+Italy and lived at Stria on the Brenta, near Venice, for some time, till
+the Comtesse d'Artois went to Turin.)
+
+The Queen's conduct had always been very cool to her.  She deemed her a
+self-sufficient coquette.  However, the Comtesse Diane was a constant
+attendant at the gay parties which were then the fashion of the Court,
+though not greatly admired.
+
+The reader will scarcely need to be informed that the event to which I
+have just alluded is the introduction by the Comtesse Diane of her
+sister-in-law, the Comtesse Julie de Polignac, to the Queen; and having
+brought the record up to this point I here once more dismiss my own pen
+for that of the Princesse de Lamballe.
+
+It will be obvious to every one that I must have been indebted to the
+conversations of my beloved patroness for most of the sentiments and
+nearly all the facts I have just been stating; and had the period on
+which she has written so little as to drive me to the necessity of
+writing for her been less pregnant with circumstances almost entirely
+personal to herself, no doubt I should have found more upon that period
+in her manuscript.  But the year of which Her Highness says so little was
+the year of happiness and exclusive favour; and the Princess was above
+the vanity of boasting, even privately in the self-confessional of her
+diary.  She resumes her records with her apprehensions; and thus
+proceeds, describing the introduction of the Comtesse Julie de Polignac,
+regretting her ascendency over the Queen, and foreseeing its fatal
+effects.]
+
+"I had been only a twelvemonth in Her Majesty's service, which I believe
+was the happiest period of both our lives, when, at one of the Court
+assemblies, the Comtesse Julie de Polignac was first introduced by her
+sister-in-law, the Comtesse Diane de Polignac, to the Queen.
+
+"She had lived in the country, quite a retired life, and appeared to be
+more the motherly woman, and the domestic wife, than the ambitious Court
+lady, or royal sycophant.  She was easy of access, and elegantly plain in
+her dress and deportment.
+
+"Her appearance at Court was as fatal to the Queen as it was propitious
+to herself!
+
+"She seemed formed by nature to become a royal favourite, unassuming,
+remarkably complaisant, possessing a refined taste, with a good-natured
+disposition, not handsome, but well formed, and untainted by haughtiness
+or pomposity.
+
+"It would appear, from the effect her introduction had on the Queen, that
+her domestic virtues were written in her countenance; for she became a
+royal favourite before she had time to become a candidate for royal
+favour.
+
+"The Queen's sudden attachment to the Comtesse Julie produced no
+alteration in my conduct, while I saw nothing extraordinary to alarm me
+for the consequences of any particular marked partiality, by which the
+character and popularity of Her Majesty might be endangered.
+
+"But, seeing the progress this lady made in the feelings of the Queen's
+enemies, it became my duty, from the situation I held, to caution Her
+Majesty against the risks she ran in making her favourites friends; for
+it was very soon apparent how highly the Court disapproved of this
+intimacy and partiality: and the same feeling soon found its way to the
+many-headed monster, the people, who only saw the favourite without
+considering the charge she held.  Scarcely had she felt the warm rays of
+royal favour, when the chilling blasts of envy and malice began to nip it
+in the bud of all its promised bliss.  Even long before she touched the
+pinnacle of her grandeur as governess of the royal children the blackest
+calumny began to show itself in prints, caricatures, songs, and pamphlets
+of every description.
+
+"A reciprocity of friendship between a Queen and a subject, by those who
+never felt the existence of such a feeling as friendship, could only be
+considered in a criminal point of view.  But by what perversion could
+suspicion frown upon the ties between two married women, both living in
+the greatest harmony with their respective husbands, especially when both
+became mothers and were so devoted to their offspring?  This boundless
+friendship did glow between this calumniated pair calumniated because the
+sacredness and peculiarity of the sentiment which united them was too
+pure to be understood by the grovelling minds who made themselves their
+sentencers.  The friend is the friend's shadow.  The real sentiment of
+friendship, of which disinterested sympathy is the sign, cannot exist
+unless between two of the same sex, because a physical difference
+involuntarily modifies the complexion of the intimacy where the sexes are
+opposite, even though there be no physical relations.  The Queen of
+France had love in her eyes and Heaven in her soul.  The Duchesse de
+Polignac, whose person beamed with every charm, could never have been
+condemned, like the Friars of La Trappe, to the mere memento mori.
+
+"When I had made the representations to Her Majesty which duty exacted
+from me on perceiving her ungovernable partiality for her new favourite,
+that I might not importune her by the awkwardness naturally arising from
+my constant exposure to the necessity of witnessing an intimacy she knew
+I did not sanction, I obtained permission from my royal mistress to visit
+my father-in-law, the Duc de Penthievre, at Rambouillet, his
+country-seat.
+
+"Soon after I arrived there, I was taken suddenly ill after dinner with
+the most excruciating pains in my stomach.  I thought myself dying.
+Indeed, I should have been so but for the fortunate and timely discovery
+that I was poisoned certainly, not intentionally, by any one belonging to
+my dear father's household; but by some execrable hand which had an
+interest in my death.
+
+"The affair was hushed up with a vague report that some of the made
+dishes had been prepared in a stew-pan long out of use, which the clerk
+of the Duke's kitchen had forgotten to get properly tinned.
+
+"This was a doubtful story for many reasons.  Indeed, I firmly believe
+that the poison given me had been prepared in the salt, for every one at
+table had eaten of the same dish without suffering the smallest
+inconvenience.
+
+"The news of this accident had scarcely arrived at Versailles, when the
+Queen, astounded, and, in excessive anxiety, instantly sent off her
+physician, and her private secretary, the Abbe Vermond, to bring me back
+to my apartments at Versailles, with strict orders not to leave me a
+moment at the Duke's, for fear of a second attempt of the same nature.
+Her Majesty had imputed the first to the earnestness I had always shown
+in support of her interests, and she seemed now more ardent in her
+kindness towards me from the idea of my being exposed through her means
+to the treachery of assassins in the dark.  The Queen awaited our coming
+impatiently, and, not seeing the carriages return so quickly as she
+fancied they ought to arrive, she herself set off for Rambouillet, and
+did not leave me till she had prevailed on me to quit my father-in-law's,
+and we both returned together the same night to Versailles, where the
+Queen in person dedicated all her attention to the restoration of my
+health.
+
+"As yet, however, nothing in particular had discovered that splendour for
+which the De Polignacs were afterwards so conspicuous.
+
+"Indeed, so little were their circumstances calculated for a Court life,
+that when the friends of Madame de Polignac perceived the growing
+attachment of the young Queen to the palladium of their hopes, in order
+to impel Her Majesty's friendship to repair the deficiencies of fortune,
+they advised the magnet to quit the Court abruptly, assigning the want of
+means as the motive of her retreat.  The story got wind, and proved
+propitious.
+
+"The Queen, to secure the society of her friend, soon supplied the
+resources she required and took away the necessity for her retirement.
+But the die was cast.  In gaining one friend she sacrificed a host.  By
+this act of imprudent preference she lost forever the affections of the
+old nobility.  This was the gale which drove her back among the breakers.
+
+"I saw the coming storm, and endeavoured to make my Sovereign feel its
+danger.  Presuming that my example would be followed, I withdrew from the
+De Polignac society, and vainly flattered myself that prudence would
+impel others not to encourage Her Majesty's amiable infatuation till the
+consequences should be irretrievable.  But Sovereigns are always
+surrounded by those who make it a point to reconcile them to their
+follies, however flagrant, and keep them on good terms with themselves,
+however severely they may be censured by the world.
+
+"If I had read the book of fate I could not have seen more distinctly the
+fatal results which actually took place from this unfortunate connexion.
+The Duchess and myself always lived in the greatest harmony, and equally
+shared the confidence of the Queen; but it was my duty not to sanction
+Her Majesty's marked favouritism by my presence.  The Queen often
+expressed her discontent to me upon the subject.  She used to tell me how
+much it grieved her to be denied success in her darling desire of uniting
+her friends with each other, as they were already united in her own
+heart.  Finding my resolution unalterable, she was mortified, but gave up
+her pursuit.  When she became assured that all importunity was useless,
+she ever after avoided wounding my feelings by remonstrance, and allowed
+me to pursue the system I had adopted, rather than deprive herself of my
+society, which would have been the consequence had I not been left at
+liberty to follow the dictates of my own sense of propriety in a course
+from which I was resolved that even Her Majesty's displeasure should not
+make me swerve.
+
+"Once in particular, at an entertainment given to the Emperor Joseph at
+Trianon, I remember the Queen took the opportunity to repeat how much she
+felt herself mortified at the course in which I persisted of never making
+my appearance at the Duchesse de Polignac's parties.
+
+"I replied, 'I believe, Madame, we are both of us disappointed; but Your
+Majesty has your remedy, by replacing me by a lady less scrupulous.'
+
+"'I was too sanguine,' said the Queen, 'in having flattered myself that I
+had chosen two friends who would form, from their sympathising and
+uniting their sentiments with each other, a society which would embellish
+my private life as much as they adorn their public stations.'
+
+"I said it was by my unalterable friendship and my loyal and dutiful
+attachment to the sacred person of Her Majesty that I had been prompted
+to a line of conduct in which the motives whence it arose would impel me
+to persist while I had the honour to hold a situation under Her Majesty's
+roof.
+
+"The Queen, embracing me, exclaimed, 'That will be for life, for death
+alone can separate us!'
+
+"This is the last conversation I recollect to have had with the Queen
+upon this distressing subject.
+
+"The Abbe Vermond, who had been Her Majesty's tutor, but who was now her
+private secretary, began to dread that his influence over her, from
+having been her confidential adviser from her youth upwards, would suffer
+from the rising authority of the all-predominant new favourite.
+Consequently, he thought proper to remonstrate, not with Her Majesty, but
+with those about her royal person.  The Queen took no notice of these
+side-wind complaints, not wishing to enter into any explanation of her
+conduct.  On this the Abbe withdrew from Court.  But he only retired for
+a short time, and that to make better terms for the future.  Here was a
+new spring for those who were supplying the army of calumniators with
+poison.  Happy had it been, perhaps, for France and the Queen if Vermond
+had never returned.  But the Abbe was something like a distant country
+cousin of an English Minister, a man of no talents, but who hoped for
+employment through the power of his kinsman.  'There is nothing on hand
+now,' answered the Minister, 'but a Bishop's mitre or a Field-marshal's
+staff.'--'Oh, very well,' replied the countryman; 'either will do for me
+till something better turns up.' The Abbe, in his retirement finding
+leisure to reflect that there was no probability of anything 'better
+turning up' than his post of private secretary, tutor, confidant, and
+counsellor (and that not always the most correct) of a young and amiable
+Queen of France, soon made his reappearance and kept his jealousy of the
+De Polignacs ever after to himself.
+
+"The Abbe Vermond enjoyed much influence with regard to ecclesiastical
+preferments.  He was too fond of his situation ever to contradict or
+thwart Her Majesty in any of her plans; too much of a courtier to assail
+her ears with the language of truth; and by far too much a clergyman to
+interest himself but for Mother Church.
+
+"In short, he was more culpable in not doing his duty than in the
+mischief he occasioned, for he certainly oftener misled the Queen by his
+silence than by his advice."
+
+
+
+
+SECTION VIII.
+
+
+"I have already mentioned that Marie Antoinette had no decided taste for
+literature.  Her mind rather sought its amusements in the ball-room, the
+promenade, the theatre, especially when she herself was a performer, and
+the concert-room, than in her library and among her books.  Her coldness
+towards literary men may in, some degree be accounted for by the disgust
+which she took at the calumnies and caricatures resulting from her
+mother's partiality for her own revered teacher, the great Metastasio.
+The resemblance of most of Maria Theresa's children to that poet was
+coupled with the great patronage he received from the Empress; and much
+less than these circumstances would have been quite enough to furnish a
+tale for the slanderer, injurious to the reputation of any exalted
+personage.
+
+"The taste of Marie Antoinette for private theatricals was kept up till
+the clouds of the Revolution darkened over all her enjoyments.
+
+"These innocent amusements were made subjects of censure against her by
+the many courtiers who were denied access to them; while some, who were
+permitted to be present, were too well pleased with the opportunity of
+sneering at her mediocrity in the art, which those, who could not see
+her, were ready to criticise with the utmost severity.  It is believed
+that Madame de Genlis found this too favourable an opportunity to be
+slighted.  Anonymous satires upon the Queen's performances, which were
+attributed to the malice of that authoress, were frequently shown to Her
+Majesty by good-natured friends.  The Duc de Fronsac also, from some
+situation he held at Court, though not included in the private household
+of Her Majesty at Trianon, conceiving himself highly injured by not being
+suffered to interfere, was much exasperated, and took no pains to prevent
+others from receiving the infection of his resentment.
+
+"Of all the arts, music was the only one which Her Majesty ever warmly
+patronised.  For music she was an enthusiast.  Had her talents in this
+art been cultivated, it is certain from her judgment in it that she would
+have made very considerable progress.  She sang little French airs with
+great taste and feeling.  She improved much under the tuition of the
+great composer, her master, the celebrated Sacchini.  After his death,
+Sapio was named his successor; but, between the death of one master and
+the appointment of another, the revolutionary horrors so increased that
+her mind was no longer in a state to listen to anything but the howlings
+of the tempest.
+
+"In her happier days of power, the great Gluck was brought at her request
+from Germany to Paris.  He cost nothing to the public Treasury, for Her
+Majesty paid all his expenses out of her own purse, leaving him the
+profits of his operas, which attracted immense sums to the theatre.
+
+"Marie Antoinette paid for the musical education of the French singer,
+Garat, and pensioned him for her private concerts.
+
+"Her Majesty was the great patroness of the celebrated Viotti, who was
+also attached to her private musical parties.  Before Viotti began to
+perform his concertos, Her Majesty, with the most amiable condescension,
+would go round the music saloon, and say, 'Ladies and gentlemen, I
+request you will be silent, and very attentive, and not enter into
+conversation, while Mr. Viotti is playing, for it interrupts him in the
+execution of his fine performance.
+
+"Gluck composed his Armida in compliment to the personal charms of Marie
+Antoinette.  I never saw Her Majesty more interested about anything than
+she was for its success.  She became a perfect slave to it.  She had the
+gracious condescension to hear all the pieces through, at Gluck's
+request, before they were submitted to the stage for rehearsal.  Gluck
+said he always improved his music after he saw the effect it had upon Her
+Majesty.
+
+"He was coming out of the Queen's apartment one day, after he had been
+performing one of these pieces for Her Majesty's approbation, when I
+followed and congratulated him on the increased success he had met with
+from the whole band of the opera at every rehearsal.  'O my dear
+Princess!' cried he, 'it wants nothing to make it be applauded up to the
+seven skies but two such delightful heads as Her Majesty's and your
+own.'--'Oh, if that be all,' answered I, 'we'll have them painted for
+you, Mr. Gluck!'--'No, no, no!  you do not understand me,' replied Gluck,
+'I mean real, real heads.  My actresses are very ugly, and Armida and her
+confidential lady ought to be very handsome:
+
+"However great the success of the opera of Armida, and certainly it was
+one of the best productions ever exhibited on the French stage, no one
+had a better opinion of its composition than Gluck himself.  He was quite
+mad about it.  He told the Queen that the air of France had invigorated
+his musical genius, and that, after having had the honour of seeing Her
+Majesty, his ideas were so much inspired that his compositions resembled
+her, and became alike angelic and sublime!
+
+"The first artist who undertook the part of Armida was Madame Saint
+Huberti.  The Queen was very partial to her.  She was principal female
+singer at the French opera, was a German by birth, and strongly
+recommended by Gluck for her good natural voice.  At Her Majesty's
+request, Gluck himself taught Madame Saint Huberti the part of Armida.
+Sacchini, also, at the command of Marie Antoinette, instructed her in the
+style and sublimity of the Italian school, and Mdlle. Benin, the Queen's
+dressmaker and milliner, was ordered to furnish the complete dress for
+the character.
+
+"The Queen, perhaps, was more liberal to this lady than to any other
+actress upon the stage.  She had frequently paid her debts, which were
+very considerable, for she dressed like a Queen whenever she represented
+one.
+
+"Gluck's consciousness of the merit of his own works, and of their
+dignity, excited no small jealousy, during the getting up of Armida, in
+his rival with the public, the great Vestris, to whom he scarcely left
+space to exhibit the graces of his art; and many severe disputes took
+place between the two rival sharers of the Parisian enthusiasm.  Indeed,
+it was at one time feared that the success of Armida would be endangered,
+unless an equal share of the performance were conceded to the dancers.
+But Gluck, whose German obstinacy would not give up a note, told Vestris
+he might compose a ballet in which he would leave him his own way
+entirely; but that an artist whose profession only taught him to reason
+with his heels should not kick about works like Armida at his pleasure.
+'My subject,' added Gluck, 'is taken from the immortal Tasso.  My music
+has been logically composed, and with the ideas of my head; and, of
+course, there is very little room left for capering.  If Tasso had
+thought proper to make Rinaldo a dancer he never would have designated
+him a warrior.'
+
+"Rinaldo was the part Vestris wished to be allotted to his son.  However,
+through the interference of the Queen, Vestris prudently took the part as
+it had been originally finished by Gluck.
+
+"The Queen was a great admirer and patroness of Augustus Vestris, the god
+of dance, as he was styled.  Augustus Vestris never lost Her Majesty's
+favour, though he very often lost his sense of the respect he owed to the
+public, and showed airs and refused to dance.  Once he did so when Her
+Majesty was at the opera.  Upon some frivolous pretext he refused to
+appear.  He was, in consequence, immediately arrested.  His father,
+alarmed at his son's temerity, flew to me, and with the most earnest
+supplications implored I would condescend to endeavour to obtain the
+pardon of Her Majesty.  'My son,' cried he, 'did not know that Her
+Majesty had honoured the theatre with her presence.  Had he been aware of
+it, could he have refused to dance for his most bounteous benefactress?
+I, too, am grieved beyond the power of language to describe, by this mal
+apropos contretemps between the two houses of Vestris and Bourbon, as we
+have always lived in the greatest harmony ever since we came from
+Florence to Paris.  My son is very sorry and will dance most bewitchingly
+if Her Majesty will graciously condescend to order his release!'
+
+"I repeated the conversation verbatim, to Her Majesty, who enjoyed the
+arrogance of the Florentine, and sent her page to order young Vestris to
+be set immediately at liberty.
+
+"Having exerted all the wonderful powers of his art, the Queen applauded
+him very much.  When Her Majesty was about leaving her box, old Vestris
+appeared at the entrance, leading his son to thank the Queen.
+
+"'Ah, Monsieur Vestris,' said the Queen to the father, you never danced
+as your son has done this evening.'
+
+"'That's very natural, Madame,' answered old Vestris, 'I never had a
+Vestris, please Your Majesty, for a master.'
+
+"'Then you have the greater merit,' replied the Queen, turning round to
+old Vestris--'Ah, I shall never forget you and Mademoiselle Guimard
+dancing the minuet de la cour.'
+
+"On this old Vestris held up his head with that peculiar grace for which
+he was so much distinguished.  The old man, though ridiculously vain, was
+very much of a gentleman in his manners.  The father of Vestris was a
+painter of some celebrity at Florence, and originally from Tuscany."
+
+
+
+
+SECTION IX.
+
+
+"The visit of the favourite brother of Marie Antoinette, the Emperor
+Joseph the Second, to France, had been long and anxiously expected, and
+was welcomed by her with delight.  The pleasure Her Majesty discovered at
+having him with her is scarcely credible; and the affectionate tenderness
+with which the Emperor frequently expressed himself on seeing his
+favourite sister evinced that their joys were mutual.
+
+"Like everything else, however, which gratified and obliged the Queen,
+her evil star converted even this into a misfortune.  It was said that
+the French Treasury, which was not overflowing, was still more reduced by
+the Queen's partiality for her brother.  She was accused of having given
+him immense sums of money; which was utterly false.
+
+"The finances of Joseph were at that time in a situation too superior to
+those of France to admit of such extravagance, or even to render it
+desirable.  The circumstance which gave a colour to the charge was this:
+
+"The Emperor, in order to facilitate the trade of his Brabant subjects,
+had it in contemplation to open the navigation of the Scheldt.  This
+measure would have been ruinous to many of the skippers, as well as to
+the internal commerce of France.  It was considered equally dangerous to
+the trade and navigation of the North Hollanders.  To prevent it,
+negotiations were carried on by the French Minister, though professedly
+for the mutual interest of both countries, yet entirely at the
+instigation and on account of the Dutch.  The weighty argument of the
+Dutch to prevent the Emperor from accomplishing a purpose they so much
+dreaded was a sum of many millions, which passed by means of some monied
+speculation in the Exchange through France to its destination at Vienna.
+It was to see this affair settled that the Emperor declared in Vienna his
+intention of taking France in his way from Italy, before he should go
+back to Austria.
+
+"The certainty of a transmission of money from France to Austria was
+quite enough to awaken the malevolent, who would have taken care, even
+had they inquired into the source whence the money came, never to have
+made it public.  The opportunity was too favourable not to be made the
+pretext to raise a clamour against the Queen for robbing France to favour
+and enrich Austria.
+
+"The Emperor, who had never seen me, though he had often heard me spoken
+of at the Court of Turin, expressed a wish, soon after his arrival, that
+I should be presented to him.  The immediate cause of this let me
+explain.
+
+"I was very much attached to the Princesse Clotilde, whom I had caused to
+be united to Prince Charles Emanuel of Piedmont.  Our family had, indeed,
+been principally instrumental in the alliances of the two brothers of the
+King of France with the two Piedmontese Princesses, as I had been in the
+marriage of the Piedmontese Prince with the Princess of France.  When the
+Emperor Joseph visited the Court of Turin he was requested when he saw me
+in Paris to signify the King of Sardinia's satisfaction at my good
+offices.  Consequently, the Emperor lost no time in delivering his
+message.
+
+"When I was just entering the Queen's apartment to be presented, 'Here,'
+said Her Majesty, leading me to the Emperor, 'is the Princess,' and, then
+turning to me, exclaimed, 'Mercy, how cold you are!' The Emperor answered
+Her Majesty in German, 'What heat can you expect from the hand of one
+whose heart resides with the dead?' and subjoined, in the same language,
+'What a pity that so charming a head should be fixed on a dead body.'
+
+"I affected to understand the Emperor literally, and set him and the
+Queen laughing by thanking His Imperial Majesty for the compliment.
+
+"The Emperor was exceedingly affable and full of anecdote.  Marie
+Antoinette resembled him in her general manners.  The similitude in their
+easy openness of address towards persons of merit was very striking. Both
+always endeavoured to encourage persons of every class to speak their
+minds freely, with this difference, that Her Majesty in so doing never
+forgot her dignity or her rank at Court.  Sometimes, however, I have seen
+her, though so perfect in her deportment with inferiors, much intimidated
+and sometimes embarrassed in the presence of the Princes and Princesses,
+her equals, who for the first time visited Versailles: indeed, so much as
+to give them a very incorrect idea of her capacity. It was by no means an
+easy matter to cause Her Majesty to unfold her real sentiments or
+character on a first acquaintance.
+
+"I remember the Emperor one evening at supper when he was exceedingly
+good-humoured, talkative, and amusing.  He had visited all his Italian
+relations, and had a word for each, man, woman, or child--not a soul was
+spared.  The King scarcely once opened his mouth, except to laugh at some
+of the Emperor's jokes upon his Italian relations.
+
+"He began by asking the Queen if she punished her husband by making him
+keep as many Lents in the same year as her sister did the King of Naples.
+The Queen not knowing what the Emperor meant, he explained himself, and
+said, 'When the King of Naples offends his Queen she keeps him on short
+commons and 'soupe maigre' till he has expiated the offence by the
+penance of humbling himself; and then, and not till then, permits him to
+return and share the nuptial rights of her bed.'
+
+"'This sister of mine,' said the Emperor, 'is a proficient Queen in the
+art of man training.  My other sister, the Duchess of Parma, is equally
+scientific in breaking-in horses; for she is constantly in the stables
+with her grooms, by which she 'grooms' a pretty sum yearly in buying,
+selling, and breaking-in; while the simpleton, her husband, is ringing
+the bells with the Friars of Colorno to call his good subjects to Mass.
+
+"'My brother Leopold, Grand Duke of Tuscany, feeds his subjects with
+plans of economy, a dish that costs nothing, and not only saves him a
+multitude of troubles in public buildings and public institutions, but
+keeps the public money in his private coffers; which is one of the
+greatest and most classical discoveries a Sovereign can possibly
+accomplish, and I give Leopold much credit for his ingenuity.
+
+"'My dear brother Ferdinand, Archduke of Milan, considering he is only
+Governor of Lombardy, is not without industry; and I am told, when out of
+the glimpse of his dragon the holy Beatrice, his Archduchess, sells his
+corn in the time of war to my enemies, as he does to my friends in the
+time of peace.  So he loses nothing by his speculations!'
+
+"The Queen checked the Emperor repeatedly, though she could not help
+smiling at his caricatures.
+
+"'As to you, my dear Marie Antoinette,' continued the Emperor, not
+heeding her, 'I see you have made great progress in the art of painting.
+You have lavished more colour on one cheek than Rubens would have
+required for all the figures in his cartoons.' Observing one of the
+Ladies of Honour still more highly rouged than the Queen, he said, 'I
+suppose I look like a death's head upon a tombstone, among all these
+high-coloured furies.'
+
+"The Queen again tried to interrupt the Emperor, but he was not to be put
+out of countenance.
+
+"He said he had no doubt, when he arrived at Brussels, that he should
+hear of the progress of his sister, the Archduchess Maria Christina, in
+her money negotiations with the banker Valkeers, who made a good stock
+for her husband's jobs.
+
+"'If Maria Christina's gardens and palace at Lakin could speak,' observed
+he, 'what a spectacle of events would they not produce!  What a number of
+fine sights my own family would afford!
+
+"'When I get to Cologne,' pursued the Emperor, there I shall see my great
+fat brother Maximilian, in his little electorate, spending his yearly
+revenue upon an ecclesiastical procession; for priests, like opposition,
+never bark but to get into the manger; never walk empty-handed; rosaries
+and good cheer always wind up their holy work; and my good Maximilian, as
+head of his Church, has scarcely feet to waddle into it.  Feasting and
+fasting produce the same effect.  In wind and food he is quite an
+adept--puffing, from one cause or the other, like a smith's bellows!'
+
+"Indeed, the Elector of Cologne was really grown so very fat, that, like
+his Imperial mother, he could scarcely walk.  He would so over-eat
+himself at these ecclesiastical dinners, to make his guests welcome,
+that, from indigestion, he would be puffing and blowing, an hour
+afterwards, for breath.
+
+"'As I have begun the family visits,' continued the Emperor, 'I must not
+pass by the Archduchess Mariana and the Lady Abbess at Clagenfurt; or,
+the Lord knows, I shall never hear the end of their klagens.--[A German
+word which signifies complaining.]--The first, I am told, is grown so
+ugly, and, of course, so neglected by mankind, that she is become an
+utter stranger to any attachment, excepting the fleshy embraces of the
+disgusting wen that encircles her neck and bosom, and makes her head
+appear like a black spot upon a large sheet of white paper.  Therefore
+klagen is all I can expect from that quarter of female flesh, and I dare
+say it will be levelled against the whole race of mankind for their want
+of taste in not admiring her exuberance of human craw!
+
+"'As to the Lady Abbess, she is one of my best recruiting sergeants. She
+is so fond of training cadets for the benefit of the army that they learn
+more from her system in one month than at the military academy at
+Neustadt in a whole year.  She is her mother's own daughter.  She
+understands military tactics thoroughly.  She and I never quarrel, except
+when I garrison her citadel with invalids.  She and the canoness,
+Mariana, would rather see a few young ensigns than all the staffs of the
+oldest Field-marshals!'
+
+"The Queen often made signs to the Emperor to desist from thus exposing
+every member of his family, and seemed to feel mortified; but the more
+Her Majesty endeavoured to check his freedom, and make him silent, the
+more he enlarged upon the subject.  He did not even omit Maria Theresa,
+who, he said, in consequence of some papers found on persons arrested as
+spies from the Prussian camp, during the seven years' war, was reported
+to have been greatly surprised to have discovered that her husband, the
+Emperor Francis I., supplied the enemy's army with all kinds of provision
+from her stores.
+
+"The King scarcely ever answered excepting when the Emperor told the
+Queen that her staircase and antechamber at Versailles resembled more the
+Turkish bazars of Constantinople
+
+[It was an old custom, in the passages and staircase of all the royal
+palaces, for tradespeople to sell their merchandise for the accommodation
+of the Court.]
+
+than a royal palace.  'But,' added he, laughing, 'I suppose you would not
+allow the nuisance of hawkers and pedlars almost under your nose, if the
+sweet perfumes of a handsome present did not compensate for the
+disagreeable effluvia exhaling from their filthy traffic.'
+
+"On this, Louis XVI., in a tone of voice somewhat varying from his usual
+mildness, assured the Emperor that neither himself nor the Queen derived
+any advantage from the custom, beyond the convenience of purchasing
+articles inside the palace at any moment they were wanted, without being
+forced to send for them elsewhere.
+
+"'That is the very reason, my dear brother,' replied Joseph, 'why I would
+not allow these shops to be where they are.  The temptation to lavish
+money to little purpose is too strong; and women have not philosophy
+enough to resist having things they like, when they can be obtained
+easily, though they may not be wanted.'
+
+"'Custom,' answered the King--
+
+"'True,' exclaimed the Queen, interrupting him; custom, my dear brother,
+obliges us to tolerate in France many things which you, in Austria, have.
+long since abolished; but the French are not to be: treated like the
+Germans.  A Frenchman is a slave to habit.  His very caprice in the
+change of fashion proceeds more from habit than genius or invention. His
+very restlessness of character is systematic; and old customs and
+national habits in a nation virtually spirituelle must not be trifled
+with.  The tree torn up by the roots dies for want of nourishment; but,
+on the contrary, when lopped carefully only of its branches the pruning
+makes it more valuable to the cultivator and more pleasing to the
+beholder.  So it is with national prejudices, which are often but the
+excrescences of national virtues.  Root them out and you root out virtue
+and all.  They must only be: pruned and turned to profit.  A Frenchman is
+more easily killed than subdued.  Even his follies generally spring from
+a high sense of national dignity and honour, which foreigners cannot but
+respect.'
+
+"The Emperor Joseph while in France mixed in all sorts of society, to
+gain information with respect, to the popular feeling towards his sister,
+and instruction as to the manners and modes of life and thinking of the
+French.  To this end he would often associate with the lowest of the
+common people, and generally gave them a louis for their loss of time in
+attending to him.
+
+"One day, when he was walking with the young Princesse Elizabeth and
+myself in the public gardens at Versailles and in deep conversation with
+us, two or three of these louis ladies came up to my side and, not
+knowing who I was, whispered, 'There's no use in paying such attention to
+the stranger: after all, when he has got what he wants, he'll only give
+you a louis apiece and then send you about your business.'"
+
+
+
+
+SECTION X.
+
+
+"I remember an old lady who could not bear to be told of deaths.  'Psha!
+Pshaw!' she would exclaim.  'Bring me no tales of funerals!  Talk of
+births and of those who are likely to be blest with them!  These are the
+joys which gladden old hearts and fill youthful ones with ecstasy!  It is
+our own reproduction in children which makes us quit the world happy and
+contented; because then we only retire to make room for another race,
+bringing with them all those faculties which are in us decayed; and
+capable, which we ourselves have ceased to be, of taking our parts and
+figuring on the stage of life so long as it may please the Supreme
+Manager to busy them in earthly scenes!  Then talk no more to me of weeds
+and mourning, but show me christenings and all those who give employ to
+the baptismal font!'
+
+"Such also was the exulting feeling of Marie Antoinette when she no
+longer doubted of her wished-for pregnancy.  The idea of becoming a
+mother filled her soul with an exuberant delight, which made the very
+pavement on which she trod vibrate with the words, 'I shall be a mother!
+I shall be a mother!'  She was so overjoyed that she not only made it
+public throughout France but despatches were sent off to all her royal
+relatives.  And was not her rapture natural?  so long as she had waited
+for the result of every youthful union, and so coarsely as she had been
+reproached with her misfortune!  Now came her triumph.  She could now
+prove to the world, like all the descendants of the house of Austria,
+that there was no defect with her.  The satirists and the malevolent were
+silenced.  Louis XVI., from the cold, insensible bridegroom, became the
+infatuated admirer of his long-neglected wife.  The enthusiasm with which
+the event was hailed by all France atoned for the partial insults she had
+received before it.  The splendid fetes, balls, and entertainments,
+indiscriminately lavished by all ranks throughout the kingdom on this
+occasion, augmented those of the Queen and the Court to a pitch of
+magnificence surpassing the most luxurious and voluptuous times of the
+great and brilliant Louis XIV.  Entertainments were given even to the
+domestics of every description belonging to the royal establishments.
+Indeed, so general was the joy that, among those who could do no more,
+there could scarcely be found a father or mother in France who, before
+they took their wine, did not first offer up a prayer for the prosperous
+pregnancy of their beloved Queen.
+
+"And yet, though the situation of Marie Antoinette was now become the
+theme of a whole nation's exultation, she herself, the owner of the
+precious burthen, selected by Heaven as its special depositary, was the
+only one censured for expressing all her happiness!
+
+
+
+
+
+"Those models of decorum, the virtuous Princesses, her aunts, deemed it
+highly indelicate in Her Majesty to have given public marks of her
+satisfaction to those deputed to compliment her on her prosperous
+situation.  To avow the joy she felt was in their eyes indecent and
+unqueenly.  Where was the shrinking bashfulness of that one of these
+Princesses who had herself been so clamorous to Louis XV.  against her
+husband, the Duke of Modena, for not having consummated her own marriage?
+
+"The party of the dismissed favourite Du Barry were still working
+underground.  Their pestiferous vapours issued from the recesses of the
+earth, to obscure the brightness of the rising sun, which was now rapidly
+towering to its climax, to obliterate the little planets which had once
+endeavoured to eclipse its beautiful rays, but were now incapable of
+competition, and unable to endure its lustre.  This malignant nest of
+serpents began to poison the minds of the courtiers, as soon as the
+pregnancy was obvious, by innuendoes on the partiality of the Comte
+d'Artois for the Queen; and at length, infamously, and openly, dared to
+point him out as the cause?
+
+"Thus, in the heart of the Court itself, originated this most atrocious
+slander, long before it reached the nation, and so much assisted to
+destroy Her Majesty's popularity with a people, who now adored her
+amiableness, her general kind-heartedness, and her unbounded charity.
+
+"I have repeatedly seen the Queen and the Comte d'Artois together under
+circumstances in which there could have been no concealment of her real
+feelings; and I can firmly and boldly assert the falsehood of this
+allegation against my royal mistress.  The only attentions Marie
+Antoinette received in the earlier part of her residence in France were
+from her grandfather and her brothers-in-law.  Of these, the Comte
+d'Artois was the only one who, from youth and liveliness of character,
+thoroughly sympathised with his sister.  But, beyond the little freedoms
+of two young and innocent playmates, nothing can be charged upon their
+intimacy,--no familiarity whatever farther than was warranted by their
+relationship.  I can bear witness that Her Majesty's attachment for the
+Comte d'Artois never differed in its nature from what she felt for her
+brother the Emperor Joseph.
+
+[When the King thought proper to be reconciled to the Queen after the
+death of his grandfather, Louis XV., and when she became a mother, she
+really was very much attached to Louis XVI., as may be proved from her
+never quitting him, and suffering all the horrid sacrifices she endured,
+through the whole period of the Revolution, rather than leave her
+husband, her children, or her sister.  Marie Antoinette might have saved
+her life twenty times, had not the King's safety, united with her own and
+that of her family, impelled her to reject every proposition of
+self-preservation.]
+
+"It is very likely that the slander of which I speak derived some colour
+of probability afterwards with the million, from the Queen's
+thoughtlessness, relative to the challenge which passed between the Comte
+d'Artois and the Duc de Bourbon.  In right of my station, I was one of
+Her Majesty's confidential counsellors, and it became my duty to put
+restraint upon her inclinations, whenever I conceived they led her wrong.
+In this instance, I exercised my prerogative decidedly, and even so much
+so as to create displeasure; but I anticipated the consequences, which
+actually ensued, and preferred to risk my royal mistress's displeasure
+rather than her reputation.  The dispute, which led to the duel, was on
+some point of etiquette; and the Baron de Besenval was to attend as
+second to one of the parties.  From the Queen's attachment for her royal
+brother, she wished the affair to be amicably arranged, without the
+knowledge either of the King, who was ignorant of what had taken place,
+or of the parties; which could only be effected by her seeing the Baron
+in the most private manner.  I opposed Her Majesty's allowing any
+interview with the Baron upon any terms, unless sanctioned by the King.
+This unexpected and peremptory refusal obliged the Queen to transfer her
+confidence to the librarian, who introduced the Baron into one of the
+private apartments of Her Majesty's women, communicating with that of the
+Queen, where Her Majesty could see the Baron without the exposure of
+passing any of the other attendants.  The Baron was quite gray, and
+upwards of sixty years of age!  But the self-conceited dotard soon caused
+the Queen to repent her misplaced confidence, and from his unwarrantable
+impudence on that occasion, when he found himself alone with the Queen,
+Her Majesty, though he was a constant member of the societies of the De
+Polignacs, ever after treated him with sovereign contempt.
+
+"The Queen herself afterwards described to me the Baron's presumptuous
+attack upon her credulity. From this circumstance I thenceforward totally
+excluded him from my parties, where Her Majesty was always a regular
+visitor.
+
+"The coolness to which my determination not to allow the interview gave
+rise between Her Majesty and myself was but momentary.  The Queen had too
+much discernment not to appreciate the basis upon which my denial was
+grounded, even before she was convinced by the result how correct had
+been my reflection.  She felt her error, and, by the mediation of the
+Duke of Dorset, we were reunited more closely than ever, and so, I trust,
+we shall remain till death!
+
+"There was much more attempted to be made of another instance, in which I
+exercised the duty of my office, than the truth justified--the nightly
+promenades on the terrace at Versailles, or at Trianon.  Though no
+amusement could have been more harmless or innocent for a private
+individual, yet I certainly, disapproved it for a Queen, and therefore
+withheld the sanction of my attendance.  My sole objection was on the
+score of dignity.  I well knew that Du Barry and her infamous party were
+constant spies upon the Queen on every occasion of such a nature; and
+that they would not fail to exaggerate her every movement to her
+prejudice.  Though Du Barry could not form one of the party, which was a
+great source of heartburning, it was easy for her, under the
+circumstances, to mingle with the throng.  When I suggested these
+objections to the Queen, Her Majesty, feeling no inward cause of
+reproach, and being sanctioned in what she did by the King himself,
+laughed at the idea of these little excursions affording food for
+scandal.  I assured Her Majesty that I had every reason to be convinced
+that Du Barry was often in disguise, not far from the seat where Her
+Majesty and the Princesse Elizabeth could be overheard in their most
+secret conversations with each other.  'Listeners,' replied the Queen,
+'never hear any good of themselves.'
+
+"'My dear Lamballe,' she continued, 'you have taken such a dislike to
+this woman that you cannot conceive she can be occupied but in mischief.
+This is uncharitable.  She certainly has no reason to be dissatisfied
+with either the King or myself.  We have both left her in the full
+enjoyment of all she possessed, except the right of appearing at Court or
+continuing in the society her conduct had too long disgraced.'
+
+"I said it was very true, but that I should be happier to find Her
+Majesty so scrupulous as never to give an opportunity even for the
+falsehoods of her enemies.
+
+"Her Majesty turned the matter off, as usual, by saying she had no idea
+of injuring others, and could not believe that any one would wantonly
+injure her, adding, 'The Duchess and the Princesse Elizabeth, my two
+sisters, and all the other ladies, are coming to hear the concert this
+evening, and you will be delighted.'
+
+"I excused myself under the plea of the night air disagreeing with my
+health, and returned to Versailles without ever making myself one of the
+nocturnal members of Her Majesty's society, well knowing she could
+dispense with my presence, there being more than enough ever ready to
+hurry her by their own imprudence into the folly of despising criticisms,
+which I always endeavoured to avoid, though I did not fear them.  Of
+these I cannot but consider her secretary as one.  The following
+circumstance connected with the promenades is a proof:
+
+"The Abbe Vermond was present one day when Marie Antoinette observed that
+she felt rather indisposed.  I attributed it to Her Majesty's having
+lightened her dress and exposed herself too much to the night air.
+'Heavens, madame!' cried the Abbe, 'would you always have Her Majesty
+cased up in steel armour, and not take the fresh air, without being
+surrounded by a troop of horse and foot, as a Field-marshal is when going
+to storm a fortress?  Pray, Princess, now that Her Majesty, has freed
+herself from the annoying shackles of Madame Etiquette (the Comtesse de
+Noailles), let her enjoy the pleasure of a simple robe and breathe freely
+the fresh morning dew, as has been her custom all her life (and as her
+mother before her, the Empress Maria Theresa, has done and continues to
+do, even to this day), unfettered by antiquated absurdities!  Let me be
+anything rather than a Queen of France, if I must be doomed to the
+slavery of such tyrannical rules!'
+
+"'True; but, sir,' replied I, 'you should reflect that if you were a
+Queen of France, France, in making you mistress of her destinies, and
+placing you at the head of her nation, would in return look for respect
+from you to her customs and manners.  I am born an Italian, but I
+renounced all national peculiarities of thinking and acting the moment I
+set my foot on French ground.'
+
+"'And so did I,' said Marie Antoinette.
+
+"'I know you did, Madame,' I answered; but I am replying to your
+preceptor; and I only wish he saw things in the same light I do.  When we
+are at Rome, we should do as Rome does.  You have never had a regicide
+Bertrand de Gurdon, a Ravillac or a Damiens in Germany; but they have
+been common in France, and the Sovereigns of France cannot be too
+circumspect in their maintenance of ancient etiquette to command the
+dignified respect of a frivolous and versatile people.'
+
+"The Queen, though she did not strictly adhere to my counsels or the
+Abbe's advice, had too much good sense to allow herself to be prejudiced
+against me by her preceptor; but the Abbe never entered on the propriety
+or impropriety of the Queen's conduct before me, and from the moment I
+have mentioned studiously avoided, in my presence, anything which could
+lead to discussion on the change of dress and amusements introduced by
+Her Majesty.
+
+"Although I disapproved of Her Majesty's deviations from established
+forms in this, or, indeed, any respect, yet I never, before or after,
+expressed my opinion before a third person.
+
+"Never should I have been so firmly and so long attached to Marie
+Antoinette, had I not known that her native thorough goodness of heart
+had been warped and misguided, though acting at the same time with the
+best intentions, by a false notion of her real innocence being a
+sufficient shield against the public censure of such innovations upon
+national prejudices, as she thought prayer to introduce,--the fatal error
+of conscious rectitude, encouraged in its regardlessness of appearances
+by those very persons who well knew that it is only by appearances a
+nation can judge of its rulers.
+
+"I remember a ludicrous circumstance arising from the Queen's innocent
+curiosity, in which, if there were anything to blame, I myself am to be
+censured for lending myself to it so heartily to satisfy Her Majesty.
+
+"When the Chevalier d'Eon was allowed to return to France, Her Majesty
+expressed a particular inclination to see this extraordinary character.
+From prudential as well as political motives, she was at first easily
+persuaded to repress her desire.  However, by a most ludicrous
+occurrence, it was revived, and nothing would do but she must have a
+sight of the being who had for some time been the talk of every society,
+and at the period to which I allude was become the mirth of all Paris.
+
+"The Chevalier being one day in a very large party of both sexes, in
+which, though his appearance had more of the old soldier in it than of
+the character he was compelled 'malgre lui',
+
+[It may be necessary to observe here that the Chevalier, having for some
+particular motives been banished from France, was afterwards permitted to
+return only on condition of never appearing but in the disguised dress of
+a female, though he was always habited in the male costume underneath
+it.]
+
+to adopt, many of the guests having no idea to what sex this nondescript
+animal really belonged, the conversation after dinner happened to turn on
+the manly exercise of fencing.  Heated by a subject to him so
+interesting, the Chevalier, forgetful of the respect due to his assumed
+garb, started from his seat, and, pulling up his petticoats, threw
+himself on guard.  Though dressed in male attire underneath, this sudden
+freak sent all the ladies--and many of the gentlemen out of the room in
+double--quick time.  The Chevalier, however, instantly recovering from
+the first impulse, quietly pat down his, upper garment, and begged pardon
+in, a gentlemanly manner for having for a moment deviated from the forma
+of his imposed situation.  All, the gossips of Paris were presently
+amused with the story, which, of coarse, reached the Court, with every
+droll particular of the pulling up and clapping down the cumbrous
+paraphernalia of a hoop petticoat.
+
+"The King and Queen, from the manner in which they enjoyed the tale when
+told them (and certainly it lost nothing in the report), would not have
+been the least amused of the party had they been present.  His Majesty
+shook the room with laughing, and the Queen, the Princesse Elizabeth, and
+the other ladies were convulsed at the description.
+
+"When we were alone, 'How I should like,' said the Queen, 'to see this
+curious man-woman!'--'Indeed,' replied I, 'I have not less curiosity than
+yourself, and I think we may contrive to let Your Majesty have a peep at
+him--her, I mean!--without compromising your dignity, or offending the
+Minister who interdicted the Chevalier from appearing in your presence. I
+know he has expressed the greatest mortification, and that his wish to
+see Your Majesty is almost irrepressible.'
+
+"'But how will you be able to contrive this without its being known to
+the King, or to the Comte de Vergennes, who would never forgive me?'
+exclaimed Her Majesty.
+
+"'Why, on Sunday, when you go to chapel, I will cause him, by some means
+or other, to make his appearance, en grande costume, among the group of
+ladies who are generally waiting there to be presented to Your Majesty.'
+
+"'Oh, you charming creature!' said the Queen.  'But won't the Minister
+banish or exile him for it?'
+
+"'No, no!  He has only been forbidden an audience of Your Majesty at
+Court,' I replied.
+
+"In good earnest, on the Sunday following, the Chevalier was dressed en
+costume, with a large hoop, very long train, sack, five rows of ruffles,
+an immensely high powdered female wig, very beautiful lappets, white
+gloves, an elegant fan in his hand, his beard closely shaved, his neck
+and ears adorned with diamond rings and necklaces, and assuming all the
+airs and graces of a fine lady!
+
+"But, unluckily, his anxiety was so great, the, moment the Queen made her
+appearance, to get a sight of Her Majesty, that, on rushing before the
+other ladies, his wig and head-dress fell off his head; and, before they
+could be well replaced, he made so, ridiculous a figure, by clapping
+them, in his confusion, hind part before, that the King, the Queen, and
+the whole suite, could scarcely refrain from laughing; aloud in the
+church.
+
+"Thus ended the long longed for sight of this famous man-woman!
+
+"As to me, it was a great while before I could recover myself.  Even now,
+I laugh whenever I think of this great lady deprived of her head
+ornaments, with her bald pate laid bare, to the derision of such a
+multitude of Parisians, always prompt to divert themselves at the expense
+of others.  However, the affair passed off unheeded, and no one but the
+Queen and myself ever knew that we ourselves had been innocently the
+cause of this comical adventure.  When we met after Mass, we were so
+overpowered, that neither of us could speak for laughing.  The Bishop who
+officiated said it was lucky he had no sermon to preach that day, for it
+would have been difficult for him to have recollected himself, or to have
+maintained his gravity.  The ridiculous appearance of the Chevalier, he
+added, was so continually presenting itself before him during the service
+that it was as much as he could do to restrain himself from laughing, by
+keeping his eyes constantly riveted on the book.  Indeed, the oddity of
+the affair was greatly heightened when, in the middle of the Mass, some
+charitable hand having adjusted the wig of the Chevalier, he re-entered
+the chapel as if nothing had happened, and, placing himself exactly
+opposite the altar, with his train upon his arm, stood fanning himself, a
+la coquette, with an inflexible self-possession which only rendered it
+the more difficult for those around him to maintain their composure.
+
+"Thus ended the Queen's curiosity.  The result only made the Chevalier's
+company in greater request, for every one became more anxious than ever
+to know the masculine lady who had lost her wig!"
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+Fatal error of conscious rectitude
+Feel themselves injured by the favour shown to others
+Listeners never hear any good of themselves
+Only retire to make room for another race
+Regardlessness of appearances
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Memoirs of Louis XV. and XVI.,
+Volume 4, by Madame du Hausset, and of an Unknown English Girl and the Princess Lamballe
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOUIS XV. AND XVI. ***
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