almoner the Abbé de Sabran, a man of excellent character, of noble birth,
and already named for the bishopric about to be established at Nancy.

"Although it pleased God that I should be born in the rank which I this
day occupy, still I can not forbear admiring the bounty of Providence in
choosing me, the youngest of your daughters, for the noblest kingdom in
Europe. I feel more than ever what I owe to the tenderness of my august
mother, who expended such pains and labor in procuring for me this
splendid establishment. I have never so greatly longed to throw myself at
her feet, to embrace her, to lay open my whole soul to her, and to show
her how entirely it is filled with respect and tenderness and gratitude."

It is impossible to read these glowing words, so full of the joy and hope
of youth, and breathing a confidence of happiness apparently so
well-founded, since it was built on a resolution to use the power placed
in the writer's hands for the welfare of the people over whom it was to
be exerted, without reflecting how painful a contrast to the hopes now
expressed is presented by the reality of the destiny in store for her
and her husband. At the moment he was as little disturbed by forebodings
of evil as his queen, and willingly yielded to her request to add a few
lines with his own hand to the empress, that, on so momentous an
occasion as his accession she might not be left to gather his feelings
solely from her report of them. The postscript of the letter is
accordingly their joint performance, he evidently desiring to gratify
Maria Teresa by praise of her daughter; and she, while pleased at his
acquiescence, not concealing her amusement at the clumsiness, or, to say
the least, the rusticity, of some of his expressions.

P.S. in the king's hand: "I am very glad, my dear mamma, to find an
occasion to prove to you my tenderness and my attachment. I should be very