shepherdess, and permits the ladies of her court, who ought to
appear before her with bended knee and with downcast eyes, to clothe
themselves like her, and to put on the same bearing as the queen's!
I speak of those orgies where the king, enchanted by the charms of
his wife, and allured by her coquetry, so far forgets his royal rank
as even to take part himself in this stupid frivolity, and to bear a
share in this trivial masquerading. And this queen, whose loud
laughter fills the groves of Trianon, and who sometimes finds her
pleasure in imitating the lowing of cows or the bleating of goats--
this queen will afterward put on the bearing of a statesman, and
will, with those hands which have just got through arranging an
'allegorical head-dress,' dip into the machinery of state,
interrupting the arrangements of her entertainments to busy herself
with politics, to set aside old, cherished ministers, to bring her
friends and favorites into their places, and to make the king the
mere executor of her will."

"Madame," said the queen, as glowing with anger and with eyes of
flame she rose from her seat--"madame, this is going too far, this
oversteps the bounds that every one, even the princesses of the
royal house, owe to their sovereign. I have allowed you to subject
to your biting criticism my outer life, my pleasures, and my dress,
but I do not allow you to take in hand my inner life--my relations
to my husband and my personal honor. You presume to speak of my
favorites. I demand of you to name them, and if you can show that
there is one man to whom I show any other favor than a gracious
queen may show to a servant, a subject whom she can honor and trust,
I desire that you would give his name to the king, and that a close
investigation be made into the case. I have friends; yes, thank
Heaven! I have friends who prize me highly, and who are every hour