family. Madame, allow me first to disburden myself of something that
has been committed to me. My noble and pious sister, Madame Louise,
has given me this letter for your majesty, and in her name I ask our
royal niece to read the same at once and in my presence."

She drew from the great reticule, which was attached to her arm by
its silken cords, a sealed letter, and handed it to the queen.

But Marie Antoinette did not raise her hand to receive it, but shook
her head as if in refusal, and yet with so eager a motion that her
elaborate coiffure fairly trembled.

"I beg your pardon, madame," said she, earnestly, "but I cannot
receive this letter from the prioress of the Carmelite convent at
St. Denis; for you well know that when Madame Louise sent me some
years ago, through your highness, a letter which I read, that I
never again will receive and read letters from the prioress. Have
the goodness, then, to take this back to the sender."

"You know, madame, that this is an affront directed against a
princess of France!" was the emphatic reply.

"I know, madame, that that letter which I then received from Madame
Louise was an affront directed by the princess against the Queen of
France, and I shall protect the majesty of my station from a similar
affront. Unquestionably this letter is similar in tone to that one.
That one contained charges which went so far as to involve open
condemnation, and contained proffers of counsel which meant little
less than calumny. [Footnote: Gondrecourt, "Histoire de Marie
Antoinette," p. 59.] And what would this be likely to contain