Some time after the marriage entertainments the Dauphiness made her entry into Paris, and was received with transports of joy.  After dining in the King’s apartment at the Tuileries, she was forced, by the reiterated shouts of the multitude, with whom the garden was filled, to present herself upon the balcony fronting the principal walk.  On seeing such a crowd of heads with their eyes fixed upon her, she exclaimed, “Grand-Dieu! what a concourse!”—­“Madame,” said the old Duc de Brissac, the Governor of Paris, “I may tell you, without fear of offending the Dauphin, that they are so many lovers.” 2 The Dauphin took no umbrage at either acclamations or marks of homage of which the Dauphiness was the object.  The most mortifying indifference, a coldness which frequently degenerated into rudeness, were the sole feelings which the young Prince then manifested towards her.  Not all her charms could gain even upon his senses.  This estrangement, which lasted a long time, was said to be the work of the Duc de La Vauguyon.

The Dauphiness, in fact, had no sincere friends at Court except the Duc de Choiseul and his party.  Will it be credited that the plans laid against Marie Antoinette went so far as divorce?  I have been assured of it by persons holding high situations at Court, and many circumstances tend to confirm the opinion.  On the journey to Fontainebleau, in the year of the marriage, the inspectors of public buildings were gained over to manage so that the apartment intended for the Dauphin, communicating with that of the Dauphiness, should not be finished, and a room at the extremity of the building was temporarily assigned to him.  The Dauphiness, aware that this was the result of intrigue, had the courage to complain of it to Louis XV., who, after severe reprimands, gave orders so positive that within the week the apartment was ready.  Every method was tried to continue or augment the indifference which the Dauphin long manifested towards his youthful spouse.  She was deeply hurt at it, but she never suffered herself to utter the slightest complaint on the subject.  Inattention to, even contempt for, the charms which she heard extolled on all sides, nothing induced her to break silence; and some tears, which would involuntarily burst from her eyes, were the sole symptoms of her inward sufferings discoverable by those in her service.

Once only, when tired out with the misplaced remonstrances of an old lady attached to her person, who wished to dissuade her from riding on horseback, under the impression that it would prevent her producing heirs to the crown, “Mademoiselle,” said she, “in God’s name, leave me in peace; be assured that I can put no heir in danger.”

The Dauphiness found at the Court of Louis XV., besides the three Princesses, the King’s daughters, the Princes also, brothers of the Dauphin, who were receiving their education, and Clotilde and Elisabeth, still in the care of Madame de Marsan, governess of the children of France.  The elder of the two latter Princesses, in 1777, married the Prince of Piedmont, afterwards King of Sardinia.  This Princess was in her infancy, so extremely large that the people nicknamed her ‘gros Madame.’