and the simplicity with which he used to go and solicit the first
chamberlain to obtain permission to return to the nuptial bed, when the
angry Queen had banished him from it. The time which he was made to wait
for this reconciliation was calculated between the Queen and her
chamberlain, and always proportioned to the gravity of the offence. He
also related several very amusing stories relative to the Court of Parma,
of which he spoke with no little contempt. If what this Prince said of
those Courts, and even of Vienna, had been written down, the whole would
have formed an interesting collection. The Emperor told the King that the
Grand Duke of Tuscany and the King of Naples being together, the former
said a great deal about the changes he had effected in his State. The
Grand Duke had issued a mass of new edicts, in order to carry the precepts
of the economists into execution, and trusted that in so doing he was
labouring for the welfare of his people. The King of Naples suffered him
to go on speaking for a long time, and then casually asked how many
Neapolitan families there were in Tuscany. The Duke soon reckoned them
up, as they were but few. "Well, brother," replied the King of Naples, "I
do not understand the indifference of your people towards your great
reforms; for I have four times the number of Tuscan families settled in my
States that you have of Neapolitan families in yours."

The Queen being at the Opera with the Emperor, the latter did not wish to
show himself; but she took him by the hand, and gently drew him to the
front of the box. This kind of presentation to the public was most warmly
received. The performance was "Iphigenia in Aulis," and for the second
time the chorus, "Chantons, celebrons notre Reine!" was called for with
universal plaudits.

A fete of a novel description was given at Petit Trianon. The art with
which the English garden was not illuminated, but lighted, produced a