different, which your highness takes the trouble to bring to me?"

"Well," cried Madame Adelaide, angrily, "its purport may be similar
to that of the former letter; for, unfortunately, the causes are the
same, and we may not wonder if the effects are also the same."

"Ah! one can easily see that your highness knows the contents of the
letter," said Marie Antoinette, smiling, "and you will therefore
certainly pardon me for not reading it. It was unquestionably
written in the presence of your highness, in the pious cell of the
prioress. She gave over for a while her prayers for the repose of
the departed king, in order to busy herself a little with worldly
things, and to listen to the calumnies which Madame Adelaide, or the
Count de Provence, or the Cardinal de Kohan, or some other of the
enemies of my person, have sought to hurl against the Queen of
France."

"Calumnies!" replied Madame Adelaide, with an angry flash in her
eyes. "Would to God, madame, that it were calumnies with which we
have to do, and that all these things which trouble and disturb us
were only malicious calumnies, and not sober facts!"

"And will your highness not have the goodness to communicate these
facts to me?" said the queen, undisturbed, but smiling, and so only
increasing the anger of the princess.

"These facts are of so varied kinds that it would be a difficult
thing to choose out any separate ones among them," cried she, with
fiery tone. "Every day, every hour of the life of your majesty,
brings new facts to light."