“At this crisis the dissipation of the Duc de Guemenee caused him to become a bankrupt.  I know not whether it can be said in principle, but certainly it may in property, ’It is an ill wind that blows no one any good.’  The Princess, his wife, having been obliged to leave her residence at Versailles, in consequence of the Duke’s dismissal from the King’s service on account of the disordered state of his pecuniary circumstances, the situation of governess to the royal children became necessarily vacant, and was immediately transferred to the Duchesse de Polignac.  The Queen, to enable her friend to support her station with all the eclat suitable to its dignity, took care to supply ample means from her own private purse.  A most magnificent suite of apartments was ordered to be arranged, under the immediate inspection of the Queen’s maitre d’hotel, at Her Majesty’s expense.

“Is there anything on earth more natural than the lively interest which inspires a mother towards those who have the care of her offspring?  What, then, must have been the feelings of a Queen of France who had been deprived of that blessing for which connubial attachments are formed, and which, vice versa, constitutes the only real happiness of every young female, what must have been, I say, the ecstasy of Marie Antoinette when she not only found herself a mother, but the dear pledges of all her future bliss in the hands of one whose friendship allowed her the unrestrained exercise of maternal affection,—­a climax of felicity combining not only the pleasures of an ordinary mother, but the greatness, the dignity, and the flattering popularity of a Queen of France.

“Though the pension of the Duchesse de Polignac was no more than that usually allotted to all former governesses of the royal children of France, yet circumstances tempted her to a display not a little injurious to her popularity as well as to that of her royal mistress.  She gave too many pretexts to imputations of extravagance.  Yet she had neither patronage, nor sinecures, nor immunities beyond the few inseparable from the office she held, and which had been the same for centuries under the Monarchy of France.  But it must be remembered, as an excuse for the splendour of her establishment, that she entered her office upon a footing very different from that of any of her predecessors.  Her mansion was not the quiet, retired, simple household of the governess of the royal children, as formerly:  it had become the magnificent resort of the first Queen in Europe; the daily haunt of Her Majesty.  The Queen certainly visited the former governess, as she had done the Duchesse de Duras and many other frequenters of her Court parties; but she made the Duchesse de Polignac’s her Court; and all the courtiers of that Court, and, I may say, the great personages of all France, as well as the Ministers and all foreigners of distinction, held there their usual rendezvous; consequently, there was nothing wanting but the guards in attendance in the Queen’s apartments to have made it a royal residence suitable for the reception of the illustrious personages that were in the constant habit of visiting these levees, assemblies, balls, routs, picnics, dinner, supper, and card parties.