former case, by such as had risen, though by accident, still regularly to
their places--but by myrmidons of the prevailing power, to whom Their
Majesties were compelled to submit, because their rulers willed it. All
orders of nobility were abolished. All the Court ladies, not attached to
the King and Queen personally, abandoned the Court. No one would be seen
at the Queen's card-parties, once so crowded, and so much sought after.
We were entirely reduced to the family circle. The King, when weary of
playing with the Princesse Elizabeth and the Queen, would retire to his
apartments without uttering a word, not from sullenness, but overcome by
silent grief.

"The Queen was occupied continually by the extensive correspondence she
had to carry on with the foreign Sovereigns, the Princes, and the
different parties. Her Majesty once gave me nearly thirty letters she
had written in the course of two days, which were forwarded by my cara
Inglesina--cara indeed! for she was of the greatest service.

"Her Majesty slept very little. But her courage never slackened; and
neither her health, nor her general amiableness, was in the least
affected. Though few persons could be more sensible than herself to
poignant mortification at seeing her former splendour hourly decrease,
yet she never once complained. She was, in this respect, a real stoic.

"The palace was now become, what it still remains, like a police office.
It was filled with spies and runners. Every member of the Assembly, by
some means or other, had his respective emissary. All the antechambers
were peopled by inveterate Jacobins, by those whose greatest pleasure was
to insult the ears and minds of all whom they considered above themselves
in birth, or rank, or virtue. So completely were the decencies of life
abolished, that common respect was withheld even from the Royal Family.