Adelade. This removal, the result of an order of precedence not to be
violated, was not the less displeasing to Madame Adelaide, who established
a separate party for play in her apartments, and scarcely ever went to
that which not only the Court in general, but also the royal family, were
expected to attend. The full-dress visits to the King on his 'debotter'
were continued. High mass was attended daily. The airings of the
Princesses were nothing more than rapid races in berlins, during which
they were accompanied by Body Guards, equerries, and pages on horseback.
They galloped for some leagues from Versailles. Calashes were used only
in hunting.

The young Princesses were desirous to infuse animation into their circle
of associates by something useful as well as pleasant. They adopted the
plan of learning and performing all the best plays of the French theatre.
The Dauphin was the only spectator. The three Princesses, the two
brothers of the King, and Messieurs Campan, father and son, were the sole
performers, but they endeavoured to keep this amusement as secret as an
affair of State; they dreaded the censure of Mesdames, and they had no
doubt that Louis XV. would forbid such pastimes if he knew of them. They
selected for their performance a cabinet in the entresol which nobody had
occasion to enter.

A kind of proscenium, which could be taken down and shut up in a closet,
formed the whole theatre. The Comte de Provence always knew his part with
imperturbable accuracy; the Comte d'Artois knew his tolerably well, and
recited elegantly; the Princesses acted badly. The Dauphiness acquitted
herself in some characters with discrimination and feeling. The chief
pleasure of this amusement consisted in all the costumes being elegant and
accurate. The Dauphin entered into the spirit of these diversions, and
laughed heartily at the comic characters as they came on the scene; from