who had joined in her harmless amusement in her village there, were
changed! They had cast aside the idyllic masks with which the good-
natured and confiding queen had deceived herself. They were no
longer friends, no longer devoted servants; they were mere place-
hunters, intriguers, flatterers, not acting out of love, but out of
selfishness.

Yet the queen would not believe this; she continued to be the tender
friend of her friends, trusted them, depended upon their love, was
happy in their neighborhood, and let herself be led by them just as
the king let himself be led by her.

They set ministers aside, appointed new ones, placed their favorites
in places of power, and drove their opponents into obscurity.

But there came a day when the queen began to see that she was not
the ruler but the ruled,--when she saw that she was not acting out
her own will, but was tyrannized over by those who had been made
powerful through her favor.

"I have been compelled to take part in political affairs," said she,
"because the king, in his noble, good-humored way, has too little
confidence in himself, and, out of his self-distrust, lets himself
be controlled by the opinions of others. And so it is best that I
should be his first confidante, and that he should take me to be his
chief adviser, for his interests are mine, and these children are
mine, and surely no one can speak more truly and honestly to the
King of France than his queen, his wife, the mother of his children!
And so if the king is not perfectly independent, and feels himself
too weak to stand alone, and independently to exert power, he ought