Marie Antoinette and Her Son

her fair Versailles and loved Trianon for one day, and had gone to Paris, in order to exhibit herself and the young prince whom she had borne to the ki

with her three children, and every one who recognized her had greeted her with a cheerful huzzah, and followed her on the long road to Notre Dame, at

ung Duke of Normandy. By her side, in the front part of the carriage, sat her other two children-Therese, the princess royal, the first-born daughter, and the dauphin Louis, the presumptive heir of the much loved King Louis the Sixteenth. The good king had not acc

and receive from them their thanks for the happiness which you have given to me and to them. I will not go with you, for I wish that you should be the sole recipient of the enthusiasm of the people

in front of the church had been changed into a dark, tumultuous sea, which dashed its raging black waves into all the streets debouching on the square, and was filling all Paris with its roar, its swell, its thunder roll. Yes, all Paris was there, in order to look upon Marie Antoinette, who, at this hour, was not the queen, but the fair woman;

housands upon thousands of throats there sounded forth the loud ringing shout, "Long live the

delight. She rose from her seat, and with a gesture of inimitable grace took the youngest son from the arms of the nurse, and lifted him high in the air, in order to display this last token of her happiness and her motherly pride to the Parisians, who had not yet seen the child.

acle with perfect rapture, and their shouting

verywhere from the mass. "What a wo

which the enthusiasm of her subjects had transported her. She surrendered the child again to the arms of his nurse, and sank down quickly like a frightened dov

mmunicating this order, Marie Antoinette turned to her daughter. "Now, Therese," asked she,

ears shook her proud little he

people look very dirty and

feared lest the men who pressed the carriage so closely as almost to

e, and whose head almost touched the princess, a man with a blazing, determined face, and small, piercing

ery to ride about in splendid carriages. But we have to work, and we have to suffer, that we may be able to pay our taxes. For if we did no

child, and does not know what she is saying. She will learn from her parents, howev

ied the man, gruffly;

nothing

of her father, and to drink to our good health," said the queen, laying at the same time

ce in the large, dirty hand which was extended to her. But when she wanted to draw back her

a deriding laugh; "I wonder what would bec

, anxiously, "order the man

on, but dropped the

e hand of a working man. It would be a great deal better to keep

ed the queen to the coachman

closely, and listened breathlessly to the conversation of the queen

people again expressed their thanks with loud acclamations, and praised her beauty and the beauty of her children. Bu

multitude, Simon the cobbler stood watching it with his mocking smile. H

th this Austrian wo

rkably crooked and dwarfed young man, whose unnaturally large head was set upon narrow, depressed shoulde

t the result was a mere grimace, which made his unnaturally large mouth, with its thick, colorl

ugly!" exclaimed the stranger, as Simo

r you talk French, and see you standing up straight like one of us, I should th

disguised myself today as a man in order to look at this Austrian woman with her young

in love with her," ejaculated t

ll God to witness?" as

s so great a misfort

tri

d not to love the queen, although it may he before man, and that it is not the first time that, it has been atoned for by

nger. "Then give me your hand, and acc

"I do not know you, and yet you call yourself,

elves children of the same gracious and good mother who makes no difference between her children, but loves them all with equal intensity and equal devotion, and it i

with it, it is not true. For if we were all alike, and were all brothers, why should the king ride rou

herefore he wants to make his enemies, the sons of Freedom, to be his servants, his slaves, and to bind our arms wit

t do it. The king has the power to hold us in his fetters; and this fine lady, Madame Freedom, of whom you say tha

ice; "but the day of a rising is at hand, and shows with a laughing face

e cobbler. "Those who are going to be destroyed b

ot know it; for the divinity which means to destroy them has smitten them with blindness. There is this queen,

d Simon; "the queen does not work at a

he has nice friends, too, to help her in it, and to draw up the threads for this royal spider, and so get ready what

I have nothing to do with the court, a

have nothing to do with the court. I have gone into palaces, and I shall come out again, but I promise you that my exit shall make more stir than my entranc

e cobbler; "you are a comical rogue,

adame, who have come out to meet you, are all your lovers.' Now she takes this expression of Besenval in earnest, and wants to make every Parisian a lo

ss it in such right good earnest, that it shall always bear the marks of it. You wer

me, and a jolly lover. Our queen likes handsome men, and everybody knows that she is one o

s! What w

d, and the dear people had a right to enter, and could walk near the queen in the moonlight, and hear the fine music which was concealed behind the hedges. You just ask the good-looking officer of the lancers, who sat one evening on a bench b

owd besides. What right have they to strut and swell, and put on airs, while we have to work and suffer from morning till night? Why is their life nothing but jollity, and ours nothing but misery? I thin

fore whom the people, or, as they call them, the rabble, are to fall upon their knees. But patience, patience! There will come a time when they wi

ere here," shouted the

ere when they meet

stranger. "The time will come, and if you wish you can contri

l me, for I am read

ok at me so astonished, brother. There are already a good number of knife- sharpeners in the good city of Paris, and if you w

hat is your name?" asked the c

of the Count d'Artoi

Mar

supposed you were a hostler or a coachman. It must be a

stable-keepers of the dear Artois have favored with a liberal dispensation of their lash. So, come this evening to me, not only that I may introduce you to good society, but come if you are sick. I will restore you, and it shall cost you nothing. I cure my brothers of the people without any pay, for it is not the right thing for brothers to take money one of another. So, brother S

rode away quickly, in spite of not being able to lift h

d, on which a high, black felt hat just kept its position, seemed to amuse him excessively. All at once a th

arat!" he shouted, brea

d looked around with

rled he, "and who is ca

bler, panting. "I have been running after

ong fingers." I have my handkerchief and the piece of black

only two-the Duke de Coigny and Lord Adhemar. You see I have a good memory, and retain all that you told me. So give me the name of the third one, for I will confess to you tha

can tell all these little stories about the queen and the court, and it will be a real pleasure to me to tell you any such matters as these to communicate to y

t can happen there? That is nothing at all but a t

thless little mouse-nest, where virtue, honor, and worth get hectored to death, is not large enough for her. Yes, yes, that fine, great palace of the French kings, the noble St. Cloud, is now the heritage and possession of this fine Austri

rd put up at all the royal gardens, and everywhere the public is ordered, in the

not enough for us that a king sits upon our neck, and imposes his commands upon us and binds us. We have now another ruler in France, prescribing laws and writing herself sovereign. We have a new police regulation in the name of the queen, a state within the state. Oh, the spider is making a jolly mesh of it! In the Trianon

ng," cried the cobbler, raisin

the king's livery; but in St. Cloud, the Swiss guards at the gates, the palace servants, in one word, the entire menial corps, array themselves in the queen's livery; and if you are walking in the park of St. Cl

arat," said Simon, eagerly. "It knows very lit

ave told yon, and make it your duty that it be talked

," said Simon, cheerily," but you have not

omes to a high position. While King Louis the Fifteenth, that monster of vice, was living, Besenval was only colonel of the Swiss guard, and all he could do was once in a while to take part in the orgies at the Eoil de Boeuf. But now the quee

ng, and I thank you; but I hope that you will tell me mor

r the queen takes good care that we shall always have material

mon, nodding confidentially to him. "I will not detain you any lo

nd the next corner. Marat looked after him with

t, whom no one now knows, and who creeps around in your stables like a poisonous rat, shall confront you as a power before which you shall shrink away and throw yourselves trembling into the dust. There shall go by no day in which I and my friends shall not win soldiers for our side, and the silly, simple fool, Marie Antoinette, makes it an easy thing for us. Go on committing your childish pranks, which, when the time shall threaten a little, will justify the most villanous deeds and the most shameless acts, and I will keep the run of all the turns of the times, and th