[Brother to the Abbe, whose pride was so great at this honour conferred on his relative, that he never spoke of him without denominating him Monsieur mon frere, d’accoucher de sa Majeste, Vermond.]

as to be the first to distinguish the sex of the new-born infant, and if she should be delivered of a Dauphin to say, in Italian, ’Il figlio e nato.’

“Her Majesty was, however, foiled even in this the most blissful of her desires.  She was delivered of a daughter instead of a Dauphin.

“From the immense crowd that burst into the apartment the instant Vermond said, The Queen is happily delivered, Her Majesty was nearly suffocated.  I had hold of her hand, and as I said ‘La regina e andato’, mistaking ‘andato’ for ‘nato’, between the joy of giving birth to a son and the pressure of the crowd, Her Majesty fainted.  Overcome by the dangerous situation in which I saw my royal mistress, I myself was carried out of the room in a lifeless state.  The situation of Her Majesty was for some time very doubtful, till the people were dragged with violence from about her, that she might have air.  On her recovering, the King was the first person who told her that she was the mother of a very fine Princess.

“‘Well, then,’ said the Queen, ’I am like my mother, for at my birth she also wished for a son instead of a daughter; and you have lost your wager:’  for the King had betted with Maria Theresa that it would be a son.

“The King answered her by repeating the lines Metastasio had written on that occasion.

“’Io perdei:  l’augusta figlia
A pagar, m’a condemnato;
Ma s’e ver the a voi somiglia
Tutto il moudo ha guadagnato.’”

[The Princesse de Lamballe again ceased to be constantly about the Queen.  Her danger was over, she was a mother, and the attentions of disinterested friendship were no longer indispensable.  She herself about this time met with a deep affliction.  She lost both of her own parents; and to her sorrows may, in a great degree, be ascribed her silence upon the events which intervened between the birth of Madame and that of the Dauphin.  She was as assiduous as ever in her attentions to Her Majesty on her second lying-in.  The circumstances of the death of Maria Theresa, the Queen’s mother, in the interval which divided the two accouchements, and Her Majesty’s anguish, and refusal to see any but De Lamballe and De Polignac, are too well known to detain us longer from the notes of the Princess.  It is enough for the reader to know that the friendship of Her Majesty for her superintendent seemed to be gradually reviving in all its early enthusiasm, by her unremitting kindness during the confinements of the Queen, till, at length, they became more attached than ever.  But, not to anticipate, let me return to the narrative.]

“The public feeling had undergone a great change with respect to Her Majesty from the time of her first accouchement.  Still, she was not the mother of a future King.  The people looked upon her as belonging to them more than she had done before, and faction was silenced by the general delight.  But she had not yet attained the climax of her felicity.  A second pregnancy gave a new excitement to the nation; and, at length, on the 22nd October, 1781, dawned the day of hope.