“The Abbe Vermond, who had been Her Majesty’s tutor, but who was now her private secretary, began to dread that his influence over her, from having been her confidential adviser from her youth upwards, would suffer from the rising authority of the all-predominant new favourite.  Consequently, he thought proper to remonstrate, not with Her Majesty, but with those about her royal person.  The Queen took no notice of these side-wind complaints, not wishing to enter into any explanation of her conduct.  On this the Abbe withdrew from Court.  But he only retired for a short time, and that to make better terms for the future.  Here was a new spring for those who were supplying the army of calumniators with poison.  Happy had it been, perhaps, for France and the Queen if Vermond had never returned.  But the Abbe was something like a distant country cousin of an English Minister, a man of no talents, but who hoped for employment through the power of his kinsman.  ’There is nothing on hand now,’ answered the Minister, ’but a Bishop’s mitre or a Field-marshal’s staff.’—­’Oh, very well,’ replied the countryman; ’either will do for me till something better turns up.’  The Abbe, in his retirement finding leisure to reflect that there was no probability of anything ’better turning up’ than his post of private secretary, tutor, confidant, and counsellor (and that not always the most correct) of a young and amiable Queen of France, soon made his reappearance and kept his jealousy of the De Polignacs ever after to himself.

“The Abbe Vermond enjoyed much influence with regard to ecclesiastical preferments.  He was too fond of his situation ever to contradict or thwart Her Majesty in any of her plans; too much of a courtier to assail her ears with the language of truth; and by far too much a clergyman to interest himself but for Mother Church.

“In short, he was more culpable in not doing his duty than in the mischief he occasioned, for he certainly oftener misled the Queen by his silence than by his advice.”

SECTION VIII.

“I have already mentioned that Marie Antoinette had no decided taste for literature.  Her mind rather sought its amusements in the ball-room, the promenade, the theatre, especially when she herself was a performer, and the concert-room, than in her library and among her books.  Her coldness towards literary men may in, some degree be accounted for by the disgust which she took at the calumnies and caricatures resulting from her mother’s partiality for her own revered teacher, the great Metastasio.  The resemblance of most of Maria Theresa’s children to that poet was coupled with the great patronage he received from the Empress; and much less than these circumstances would have been quite enough to furnish a tale for the slanderer, injurious to the reputation of any exalted personage.

“The taste of Marie Antoinette for private theatricals was kept up till the clouds of the Revolution darkened over all her enjoyments.