[5] The compiler of 'Marie Antoinette, Louis XVI., et La Famille Royale' (date April 24th, 1776) has a story of a conversation between the king and queen which illustrates her feeling toward the minister. She had just come in from the opera. He asked her 'how she had been received by the Parisians; if she had had the usual cheers.' She made no reply; the king understood her silence. 'Apparently, madame, you had not feathers enough.' 'I should have liked to have seen you there, sir, with your St. Germain and your Turgot; you would have been rudely hissed.' St. Germain was the minister of war.
[6] Mercy to Maria Teresa, May 16th, 1776, Arneth, ii., p. 446.
[7] January 14th, 1776, Arneth, ii., p. 414.
[8] The ground-floor of the palace was occupied by the shops of jewelers and milliners, some of whom were great sufferers by the fire.
[9] In a letter written at the end of 1775, Mercy reports to the empress that some of Turgot's economical reforms had produced real discontent among those 'qui trouvent leur interet dans le desordre,' which they had vented in scandalous and seditious writings. Many songs of that character had come out, some of which were attributed to Beaumarchais, 'le roi et la reine n'y ont point ete respectes.'-
[10] Mercy to Maria Teresa, November 15th, 1776, Arneth, ii., p. 524.
CHAPTER XII. [1] 'Le petit nombre de ceux que la Reine appelle 'sa societe''-Mercy to Marie Teresa, February 15th, 1777, Arneth, iii., p. 18.
[2] 'Il faut cependant convenir que dans ces circonstances si rapprochees de la familiarite, la Reine, par un maintien qui tient a son ame, a toujours su imprimer a ceux qui l'entouraient une contenance de respect qui contrebalancait un peu la liberte des propos.'-
[3] Brunoy is about fifteen miles from Paris.
[4] 'Au reste il est temps pour la sante de la Reine que le carnaval finisse. On remarque qu'elle s'en altere, et que sa Majeste maigrit beaucoup.'-
[5] Once when he had spoken to her with a severity which alarmed Mercy, who feared it might irritate the queen, 'Il me dit en riant qu'il en avait agi ainsi pour sonder l'ame de la reine, et voir si par la force il n'y aurait pas moyen d'obtenir plus que par la douceur.'-
[6] Arneth, iii., p. 73.
CHAPTER XIII. [1] When Mercy remonstrated with her on her relapse into some of her old habits from which at first she seemed to have weaned herself, 'La seule reponse que j'aie obtenu a ete la crainte de s'ennuyer.'-Mercy to Maria Teresa, November 19th, 1777, Arneth, iii., p. 13.
[2] See Marie Antoinette's account to her mother of his quarrel with the Duchess de Bourbon at a
[3] 'Il y a apparence que notre marine dont on s'occupe depuis longtemps va bientot etre en activite. Dieu veuille que tous ces mouvements n'amenent pas la guerre de terre.'-
[4] 'Jamais les Anglais n'ont eu tant de superiorite sur mer; mais ils en eurent sur les Francais dans tous les temps.'-
[5] The Comte de la Marck, who knew him well, says of him, 'Il etait gauche dans toutes ses manieres; sa taille etait tres elevee, ses cheveux tres roux, il dansait sans grace, montait mal a cheval, et les jeunes gens avec lesquels il vivait se montraient plus adroits que lui dans les diverses exercices d'alors a la mode.' He describes his income as 'une fortune de 120,000 livres de rente,' a little under L5000 a year.-
[6] 'On a parle de moi dans tous les cercles, meme apres que la bonte de la reine m'eut valu le regiment du roi dragons.'-
[7] 'La lettre ou Votre Majeste, parlant du Roi de Prusse, s'exprime ainsi .... 'cela ferait un changement dans notre alliance, ce qui me donnerait la mort,' j'ai vu la reine palir en me lisant cet article.'-
[8] See Coxe's 'House of Austria,' ch. cxxi. The war, which was marked by no action or event of importance, was terminated by the treaty of Teschen, May 10th, 1779.
[9] 'Il n'a pas voulu y consentir, et a toujours ete attentif a exciter lui-meme la reine aux choses qu'il jugeait pouvoir lui etre agreables.'-
[10] Marie Antoinette to Joseph II, and Leopold II., p. 21, date January 16th, 1778.
[11] Louis.
[12] Marie Antoinette to Maria Teresa, May 16th, Arneth, iii., p. 200.
[13] Weber, i., p.40.
[14] One of his admirers, seeing his mortification, said to him: 'You are very simple to have wished to go to court. Do you know what would have happened to you? I will tell you. The king, with his usual affability, would have laughed in your face, and talked to you of your converts at Ferney. The queen would have spoken of your plays. Monsieur would have asked you what your income was. Madame would have quoted some of your verses. The Countess of Artois would have said nothing at all; and the count would have conversed with you about 'the Maid of Orleans.''-
CHAPTER XIV. [1] 'La cour se precipite pele-mele avec la foule, car l'etiquette de France veut que tous entrent a ce moment, que nul ne soit refuse, et que le spectacle soit public d'une reine qui va donner un heritier a la couronne, ou seulement un enfant au roi.'-Mem. de Goncourt, p. 105.
[2] Arneth, iii., p. 270.
[3] Madame de Campan, ch. ix.
[4]
[5] Chambrier, i., p. 394.
[6] 'Marie Antoinette, Louis XVI., et la Famille Royale,' p. 147, December 24th, 1778.
[7]
[8] 'Du moment qu'ils [les enfants] peuvent etre a l'air on les y accoutume petit a petit, et ils finissent par y etre presque toujours; je crois que c'est la maniere la plus saine et la meilleure des les elever.'
[9] Letter of Marie Antoinette to Maria Teresa, May 15th, 1779, Arneth, iii., p. 311.
[10] Maria Teresa had offered the mediation of the empire to restore peace between England and France.
[11] Spain had recently entered into the alliance against England in the hope of recovering Gibraltar. And just at the date of this letter the combined fleet of sixty-six sail of the line sailed into the Channel, while a French army of 50,000 men was waiting at St. Malo to invade England so soon as the British Channel fleet should have been defeated; but, though Sir Charles Hardy had only forty sail under his orders, D'Orvilliers and his Spanish colleague retreated before him, and at the beginning of September, from fear of the equinoctial gales, of which the queen here speaks with such alarm, retired to their own harbors, without even venturing to come to action with a foe of scarcely two-thirds of their own strength. See the author's 'History of the British Navy,' ch. xiv.
[12] Letter of September 15th.
[13] Letter of October 14th.
[14] Letter of November 16th.
[15] Letter of November 17th.
[16] Kaunitz had been the prime minister of the empress, who negotiated the alliances with France and Russia, which were the preparations for the Seven Years' War.
CHAPTER XV. [1] 'On assure que sa majeste ne joue pas bien; ce que personne, excepte le roi, n'a ose lui dire. Au contraire, on l'applaudit a tout rompre.'- Marie Antoinette, Louis XVI. et la Famille Royale p. 203, date September 28th, 1780.
[2] In May, 1780, Sir Henry Clinton took Charleston, with a great number of prisoners, a great quantity of stores and four hundred guns.-LORD STANHOPE'S
[3] 'Cette disposition a ete faite deux ans plutot que ne le comporte l'usage etabli pour les enfants de France.'-
[4] Madame de Campan, ch. ix.
