risen in time to behold the rising of the sun at Versailles, in
company with her whole court. The king loves me, and Madame Adelaide
is no longer the political counsellor of the king; the ministers
will no longer be appointed according to her dictate, and the great
questions of the cabinet are decided without appealing to her! I
know that this is a new offence which you lay to my charge, and that
by your calumniations and suspicions you make me suffer the penalty
for it. I know that the Count de Provence stoops to direct epigrams
and pamphlets against his sister-in-law, his sovereign, and through
the agency of his creatures to scatter them through Paris. I know
that in his saloons all the enemies of the queen are welcome, and
that charges against me are made without rebuke, and that there the
weapons are forged with which I am assailed. But take care lest some
day these weapons be turned against you! It is you who are
imperilling the kingdom, and undermining the throne, for you do not
hesitate setting before the people an example that nothing is sacred
to you; that the dignity of the throne no longer has an existence,
but that it may be denied with vile insinuations, and the most
poisonous arrows directed against those who wear the crown of St.
Louis on their head. But all you, the aunts, the brothers of the
king, and the whole swarm of their intimates and dependents, you are
all undermining the monarchy, for you forget that the foreigner, the
Austrian, as you call her--that she is Queen of France, your
sovereign, your lord, and that you are nothing better than her
subjects. You are criminals, you are high traitors!"

"Madame," cried the Princess Adelaide, "Madame, what language is
this that--"

"It is the language of a woman in reply to a calumniator, the