that minister the suppression of the Jesuits, and who had always been
hostile to a treaty of alliance with Austria, influenced the minds of
Mesdames. The Duc de La Vauguyon, the young Dauphin's governor, infected
them with the same prejudices.

Such was the state of the public mind when the young Archduchess Marie
Antoinette arrived at the Court of Versailles, just at the moment when the
party which brought her there was about to be overthrown.

Madame Adelaide openly avowed her dislike to a princess of the House of
Austria; and when M. Campan, my father-in-law, went to receive his orders,
at the moment of setting off with the household of the Dauphiness, to go
and receive the Archduchess upon the frontiers, she said she disapproved
of the marriage of her nephew with an archduchess; and that, if she had
the direction of the matter, she would not send for an Austrian.




CHAPTER II.


MARIE ANTOINETTE JOSEPHE JEANNE DE LORRAINE, Archduchess of Austria,
daughter of Francois de Lorraine and of Maria Theresa, was born on the 2d
of November, 1755, the day of the earthquake at Lisbon; and this
catastrophe, which appeared to stamp the era of her birth with a fatal
mark, without forming a motive for superstitious fear with the Princess,
nevertheless made an impression upon her mind. As the Empress already had
a great number of daughters, she ardently desired to have another son, and
playfully wagered against her wish with the Duc de Tarouka, who had