of words, caballed against ministers, and treated passing events with
levity. The queen, intoxicated with the adulation of those around her,
urged the king to recall the next day what he had conceded on the
previous evening. Her hand was felt in all the transactions of the
government: her apartments were the focus of a perpetual conspiracy
against the government; the nation detected it, and ultimately detested
her.

Her name became for the people the phantom of all counter-revolution. We
are apt to calumniate what we fear. She was depicted under the features
of a Messalina. The most infamous pamphlets were in circulation; the
most scandalous anecdotes were credited. She may be accused of
tenderness, but never of depravity. Lovely, young, and adored, if her
heart did not remain insensible, her innermost feelings, innocent
perhaps, never gave just ground for open scandal. History has its
modesty, and we will not violate it.


XIV.

On the days of the 5th and 6th of October the queen perceived (too late)
the enmity of the people; her heart must have been full of vengeance.
Emigration commenced, and she viewed it favourably. All her friends were
at Coblentz; she was believed to be in close connection with them, and
this belief was true. Stories of an Austrian committee were busily
spread amongst the people. The queen was accused of conspiring for the
destruction of the nation, who at every moment demanded her head. A
people in revolt must have some one to hate, and they handed over to her
the queen. Her name was the theme of their songs of rage. One woman was
the enemy of a whole nation, and her pride disdained to undeceive them.