expressed their thanks with loud acclamations, and praised her
beauty and the beauty of her children. But Marie Antoinette was no
longer carried beyond herself by these words of praise, and did not
rise again from her seat.

While the royal carriage was disappearing in the tumult and throng
of the multitude, Simon the cobbler stood watching it with his
mocking smile. He felt a hand upon his arm, and heard a voice asking
the scornful question:

"Are you in love with this Austrian woman, Master Simon?"

The cobbler quickly turned round to confront the questioner. He saw,
standing by his side, a little, remarkably crooked and dwarfed young
man, whose unnaturally large head was set upon narrow, depressed
shoulders, and whose whole appearance made such an impression upon
the cobbler that the latter laughed outright.

"Not beautiful, am I?" asked the stranger, and he tried to join in
the laugh of the cobbler, but the result was a mere grimace, which
made his unnaturally large mouth, with its thick, colorless lips,
extend from one ear to the other, displaying two fearful rows of
long, greenish teeth.

"Not beautiful at all, am I? Dreadfully ugly!" exclaimed the
stranger, as Simon's laughter mounted higher and higher.

"You are somewhat remarkable, at least," replied the cobbler. "If I
did not hear you talk French, and see you standing up straight like
one of us, I should think you were the monstrous toad in the fable