maintained between the sovereign and the subordinate members of the royal
family, and especially an order of the king that his brothers and sisters
were not in private intercourse to address him as his majesty, had grated
on the empress's sense of the distance always to be preserved between a
monarch and the very highest of his subjects. And she had complained that
reports had reached her that "there was no distinction between the queen
and the other princesses; and that the familiarity subsisting in the court
was extreme." But Marie Antoinette replied, in defense of the king and
herself, that there was "great exaggeration in these reports, as indeed
there was about every thing that went on at the court; that the
familiarity spoken of was seen but by very few. It is not for me," she
said, "to judge; but it seems to me that what exists among us is only the
air of kindly affection and gayety which is suitable to our age. It is
true that the Count d'Artois" (who had been the special subject of some of
the empress's unfavorable comments) "is very lively and very giddy, but I
can always keep him in order. As for my aunts, no one can any longer say
that they lead me; and as for monsieur and madame, I am very far from
placing entire confidence in them.

"I must confess that I am fond of amusement, and am not very greatly
inclined to grave subjects. I hope, however, to improve by degrees; and,
without ever mixing myself up in intrigues, to qualify myself gradually to
be of service to the king when he makes me his confidante, since he treats
me at all times with the most perfect affection."

Her reflections on the impulsiveness and impatience of the French
character, and of the difficulties which those qualities placed in the
path of their rulers, justify the praises which Mercy had lavished on her
sagacity, for it is evident that to them the chief troubles of her later
years may be clearly traced. And it is difficult to avoid agreeing with