in a place indicated by the countess, the meeting of the queen and
the cardinal should take place. The cardinal was to put on the
simple, unpretending dress of a citizen of Paris, a blue cloth coat,
a round hat, and high leather boots. The cardinal, full of
inexpressible delight at this, could, notwithstanding, scarcely
believe that the queen would show him this intoxicating mark of her
favor; upon which the Countess Valois, laughing, showed him a letter
of the queen, directed to her, on gold-bordered paper, and signed
like the note which he had received before--" Marie Antoinette of
France." In this note the queen requested her dear friend to go
carefully to work to warn the cardinal to speak softly during the
interview, because there were ears lurking in the neighborhood, and
not to come out from the thicket till the queen should give a sign.

After reading this letter, the cardinal had no more doubts, but
surrendered himself completely to his joy, his impatience, and
longed for the appointed hour to arrive. At last this hour came,
and, in company with the countess, the cardinal, arrayed in the
appointed dress, repaired in a simple hired carriage to Versailles.
The countess led him to the terrace of the palace, where she
directed the cardinal to hide behind a clump of laurel-trees, and
then left him, in order to inform the queen, who walked every
evening in the park, in company with the Count and Countess
d'Artois, of the presence of the cardinal, and to conduct her to
him. The latter now remained alone, and, with loud-beating heart,
listened to every sound, and, moving gently around, looked down the
long alley which ran between the two fountains, in order to catch
sight of the approach of the queen. It was a delightful evening; the
full moon shone in golden clearness from the deep-blue sky, and
illuminated all the objects in the neighborhood with a light like