first night of the marriage, and before the King
had retired, the queen begged Childeric to look
from one of the palace windows which opened on a
park, and tell what he saw there. Childeric
looked out and, much terrified, reported to the
princess that he had seen tigers and lions.
Basine sent him a second time to look out.
This time the prince only saw bears and wolves,
and the third time he perceived only cats and dogs,
fighting and combating each other. Then Basine
said to him: I will give you an explanation of what
you have seen: The first figure shows you your
successors, who will excel you in courage and power;
the second represents another race which will be
illustrious for their conquests, and which will augment
your kingdom for many centuries; but the third denotes
the end of your kingdom, which will be given over to pleasures
and will lose to you the friendship of your subjects;
and this because the little animals signify a people who,
emancipated from fear of princes, will massacre them and
make war upon each other."

Louis read the prediction and passed the paper to the Countess:
"After us the end of the world," said she gaily. The King laughed,
but the abbe de Beauvais celebrated high mass at Versailles after
the carnival of 1774, and dared to say, in righteous anger: "This
carnival is the last; yet forty days and Nineveh shall perish."
Louis turned pale. "Is it God who speaks thus?" murmured he,
raising his eyes to the altar. The next day he went to the hunt
in grand style, but from that evening he was afraid of solitude