rendered Marie Antoinette so grateful that it may justly be said she divided her heart between the governess and the governed.  Habit soon made it necessary for her existence that she should dedicate the whole of her time, not taken up in public ceremonies or parties, to the cultivation of the minds of her children.  Conscious of her own deficiency in this respect, she determined to redeem this error in her offspring.  The love of the frivolous amusements of society, for which the want of higher cultivation left room in her mind, was humoured by the gaieties of the Duchesse de Polignac’s assemblies; while her nobler dispositions were encouraged by the privileges of the favourite’s station.  Thus, all her inclinations harmonising with the habits and position of her friend, Marie Antoinette literally passed the greatest part of some years in company with the Duchesse de Polignac,—­either amidst the glare and bustle of public recreation, or in the private apartment of the governess and her children, increasing as much as possible the kindness of the one for the benefit and comfort of the others.  The attachment of the Duchess to the royal children was returned by the Queen’s affection for the offspring of the Duchess.  So much was Her Majesty interested in favour of the daughter of the Duchess, that, before that young lady was fifteen years of age, she herself contrived and accomplished her marriage with the Duc de Guiche, then ’maitre de ceremonie’ to Her Majesty, and whose interests were essentially, promoted by this alliance.

[The Duc de Guiche, since Duc de Grammont, has proved how much he merited the distinction he received, in consequence of the attachment between the Queen and his mother-in-law, by the devotedness with which he followed the fallen fortunes of the Bourbons till their restoration, since which he has not been forgotten.  The Duchess, his wife, who at her marriage was beaming with all the beauties of her age, and adorned by art and nature with every accomplishment, though she came into notice at a time when the Court had scarcely recovered itself from the debauched morals by which it had been so long degraded by a De Pompadour and a Du Barry, has yet preserved her character, by the strictness of her conduct, free from the censorious criticisms of an epoch in which some of the purest could not escape unassailed.  I saw her at Pyrmont in 1803; and even then, though the mother of many children, she looked as young and beautiful as ever.  She was remarkably well educated and accomplished, a profound musician on the harp and pianoforte, graceful in her conversation, and a most charming dancer.  She seemed to bear the vicissitudes of fortune with a philosophical courage and resignation not often to be met with in light-headed French women.  She was amiable in her manners, easy of access, always lively and cheerful, and enthusiastically attached to the country whence she was then excluded.  She constantly accompanied the wife of the late Louis