but the grand-master, who comes in to advertise the empress of the
approach of the emperor. His imperial majesty did me the honour of
speaking to me in a very obliging manner; but he never speaks to any
of the other ladies; and the whole passes with a gravity and air of
ceremony that has something very formal in it. The empress Amelia,
dowager of the late emperor Joseph, came this evening to wait on the
reigning empress, followed by the two arch-duchesses her daughters,
who are very agreeable young princesses. Their imperial majesties
rose and went to meet her at the door of the room, after which she
was seated in an armed (sic) chair, next the empress, and in the same
manner at supper, and there the men had the permission of paying
their court. The arch-duchesses sat on chairs with backs without
arms. The table was entirely served, and all the dishes set on by
the empress's maids of honour, which are twelve young ladies of the
first quality. They have no salary, but their chamber at court,
where they live in a sort of confinement, not being suffered to go to
the assemblies or public places in town, except in compliment to the
wedding of a sister maid, whom the empress always presents with her
picture set in diamonds. The three first of them are called _Ladies
of the Key_, and wear gold keys by their sides; but what I find most
pleasant, is the custom, which obliges them, as long as they live,
after they have left the empress's service, to make her some present
every year on the day of her feast. Her majesty is served by no
married women but the _grande maitresse_, who is generally a widow of
the first quality, always very old, and is at the same time groom of
the stole, and mother of the maids. The dressers are not, at all, in
the figure they pretend to in England, being looked upon no otherwise
than as downright chambermaids. I had an audience next day Of the
empress mother, a princess of great virtue and goodness, but who
picques herself too much on a violent devotion. She is perpetually