Family.--Schönbrunn.--Death of the Emperor.--Projects for the Marriage of
the Archduchess.--Her Education.--The Abbé de Vermond.--Metastasio.--
Gluck.


The most striking event in the annals of modern Europe is unquestionably
the French Revolution of 1789--a Revolution which, in one sense, may be
said to be still in progress, but which, is a more limited view, may be
regarded as having been, consummated by the deposition and murder of the
sovereign of the country. It is equally undeniable that, during its first
period, the person who most attracts and rivets attention is the queen.
One of the moat brilliant of modern French writers[1] has recently
remarked that, in spite of the number of years which have elapsed since
the grave closed over the sorrows of Marie Antoinette, and of the almost
unbroken series of exciting events which have marked the annals of France
in the interval, the interest excited by her story is as fresh and
engrossing as ever; that such as Hecuba and Andromache were to the
ancients, objects never named to inattentive ears, never contemplated
without lively sympathy, such still is their hapless queen to all honest
and intelligent Frenchmen. It may even be said that that interest has
increased of late years. The respectful and remorseful pity which her fate
could not fail to awaken has been quickened by the publication of her
correspondence with her family and intimate friends, which has laid bare,
without disguise, all her inmost thoughts and feelings, her errors as well
as her good deeds, her weaknesses equally with her virtues. Few, indeed,
even of those whom the world regards with its highest favor and esteem,
could endure such an ordeal without some diminution of their fame. Yet it
is but recording the general verdict of all whose judgment is of value, to
affirm that Marie Antoinette has triumphantly surmounted it; and that the
result of a scrutiny as minute and severe as any to which a human being