forgot it."

"Madame, they ought never to forget it," replied the duchess,
softly. "With all their love for your majesty, your friends ought
never to forget that reverence is due you as much as love, and
subjection as much as friendship. They ought never to make
themselves your majesty's equals; and if your majesty, in the grace
of your fair and gentle heart, designs to condescend to us and make
yourself like us, yet we ought never to be so thoughtless as to
raise ourselves to you, and want to make ourselves the equals of our
queen."

"Oh, Julia! you pain me--you pain me unspeakably," sighed Marie
Antoinette, pressing her hand to her heart, as if she wanted to keep
back the tears which would mount into her eyes.

"Your majesty knows," continued the duchess, with her gentle, and
yet terribly quiet manner, "your majesty knows how modestly I make
use of the great confidence which you most graciously bestow upon
me; how seldom and how tremblingly my lips venture to utter the dear
name of my queen, of whom I may rightly talk only in intimate
converse with your exalted mother and your royal husband. Your
majesty knows further--"

"Oh! I know all, all," interrupted the queen, sadly. "I know that it
is not the part of a queen to be happy, to love, to be loved, to
have friends. I know that you all, whom I have so tenderly loved,
feel yourselves more terrified than benefited; I know, that with
this confession, happiness has withdrawn from me. I look into the
future and see the dark clouds which are descending, and threatening