Yes, this music is Gluck's. It is the overture to his new opera of
'Alcestes,' which he sent me from Venice to submit to your majesty.
These tones shall speak for the master, and entreat for him the
protection of the queen."

"You have not addressed the queen, but my own heart," said Marie
Antoinette, with gentle, deeply moved voice. "It was a greeting from
my home, a greeting from my teacher, who is at the same time the
greatest composer of Europe. Oh, I am proud of calling myself his
pupil. But Gluck needs no protection; it is much more we who need
the protection which he affords us in giving us the works of his
genius. I thank you, count," continued Marie Antoinette, turning to
Vaudreuil with a pleasant smile.

"This is a great pleasure which you have prepared for me. But
knowing, as I now do, that this is Gluck's music, I do not dare to
play another note; for, to injure a note of his writing, seems to me
like treason against the crown. I will practise this piece, and then
some day we will play it to the whole court. And now, my honored
guests, if it pleases you, we go to meet the king. Gentlemen, let
each one choose his lady, for we do not want to go in state
procession, but by different paths."

All the gentlemen present rushed toward the queen, each desirous to
have the honor of waiting upon her. Marie Antoinette thanked them
all with a pleasant smile, and took the arm of the eldest gentleman
there, the Baron de Besenval.

"Come, baron," said she, "I know a new path, which none of these
gentry have learned, and I am sure that we shall be the first to