caused them to wave as if they were the natural produce of the garden.[5]

In this superb conveyance Marie Antoinette passed on under a succession of
triumphal arches to the gates of Strasburg, which, on this auspicious
occasion, seemed as if it desired to put itself forward as the
representative of the joy of the whole nation by the splendid cordiality
of its welcome. Whole regiments of cavalry, drawn up in line of battle,
received her with a grand salute as she advanced. Battery after battery
pealed forth along the whole extent of the vast ramparts; the bells of
every church rang out a festive peal; fountains ran with wine in the Grand
Square. She proceeded to the episcopal palace, where the archbishop, the
Cardinal de Rohan, with his coadjutor, the Prince Louis de Rohan (a man
afterward rendered unhappily notorious by his complicity in a vile
conspiracy against her) received her at the head of the most august
chapter that the whole land could produce, the counts of the cathedral, as
they were styled; the Prince of Lorraine being the grand dean, the
Archbishop of Bordeaux the grand provost, and not one post in the chapter
being filled by any one below the rank of count. She held a court for the
reception of all the female nobility of the province. She dined publicly
in state; a procession of the municipal magistrates presented her a sample
of the wines of the district; and, as she tasted the luscious offering,
the coopers celebrated what they called a feast of Bacchus, waving their
hoops as they danced round the room in grotesque figures.

It was a busy day for her, that first day of her arrival on French soil.
From the dinner-table she went to the theatre; on quitting the theatre,
she was driven through the streets to see the illuminations, which made
every part of the city as bright as at midday, the great square in front
of the episcopal palace being converted into a complete garden of
fire-works; and at midnight she attended a ball which the governor of the