[8] “Je parle a l’amie, a la confidente du roi.”—­Maria Teresa to Marie Antoinette, May 30th, 1770, Arneth, ii., p. 155.

[9] “Jusqu’a present l’etiquette de cette cour a toujours interdit aux reines et princesses royales de manger avec des hommes.”—­Mercy to Maria Teresa, June 7th, 1774, Arneth, ii, p. 164

[10] “Elle me traite, a mon arrivee, comme tous les jeunes gens qui composaient ses pages, qu’elle comblait de bontes, en leur montrant une bienveillance pleine de dignite, mais qu’on pouvait aussi appeler maternelle.”—­Marie Therese, Memoires de Tilly, i., p. 25.

[11] Le don, ou le droit, de joyeux avenement.

[12] La ceinture de la reine.  It consisted of three pence (deniers) on each hogs-head of wine imported into the city, and was levied every three years in the capital.—­ARNETH, ii, p. 179.

[13] The title “ceinture de la reine” had been given to it because in the old times queens and all other ladies had carried their purses at their girdles.

CHAPTER IX

[1] The title by which the count was usually known:  that of the countess was madame.

[2] St. Simon, 1709, ch. v., and 1715, ch. i, vols. vii. and xiii., ed. 1829.

[3] Ibid., 1700, ch xxx., vol. ii., p. 469.

[4] Arneth, ii, p. 206.

[5] Madame de Campan, ch. iv.

[6] Madame de Campan, ch. v., p. 106.

[7] Id., p. 101.

[8] “Sir Peter.  Ah, madam, true wit is more neatly allied to good—­ nature than your ladyship is aware of.”—­School for Scandal, act ii., sc. 2.

CHAPTER X

[1] “Elle avait entierement le defaut contraire [a la prodigalite], et je pouvais prouver qu’elle portait souvent l’economie jusqu’a des details d’une mesquinerie blamable, surtout dans une souveraine.”—­MADAME DE CAMPAN, ch. v., p. 106, ed. 1858.

[2] Arneth, ii., p. 307.

[3] See the author’s “History of France under the Bourbons,” iii., p. 418.  Lacretelle, iv., p. 368, affirms that this outbreak, for which in his eyes “une pretendue disette” was only a pretext, was “evidemment fomente par des hommes puissans,” and that “un salaire qui etait paye par des hommes qu’on ne pouvait nommer aujourd’hui avec assez de certitude, excitait leurs fureurs factices.”

[4] La Guerre des Farines.

[5] Arneth, ii., p. 342.

[6] “Souvenirs de Vaublanc,” i., p. 231.

[7] August 23d, 1775, No. 1524, in Cunningham’s edition, vol. vi., p. 245.

[8] The Prince of Wales and the Duke of York, who were just at this time astonishing London with their riotous living.

CHAPTER XI

[1] “Gustave III. et la Cour de France,” i. p. 279.

[2] The Duc d’Angouleme, afterward dauphin, when the Count d’Artois succeeded to the throne as Charles X.