The features of Louis XVI. were noble enough, though somewhat melancholy in expression; his walk was heavy and unmajestic; his person greatly neglected; his hair, whatever might be the skill of his hairdresser, was soon in disorder.  His voice, without being harsh, was not agreeable; if he grew animated in speaking he often got above his natural pitch, and became shrill.  The Abbe de Radonvilliers, his preceptor, one of the Forty of the French Academy, a learned and amiable man, had given him and Monsieur a taste for study.  The King had continued to instruct himself; he knew the English language perfectly; I have often heard him translate some of the most difficult passages in Milton’s poems.  He was a skilful geographer, and was fond of drawing and colouring maps; he was well versed in history, but had not perhaps sufficiently studied the spirit of it.  He appreciated dramatic beauties, and judged them accurately.  At Choisy, one day, several ladies expressed their dissatisfaction because the French actors were going to perform one of Moliere’s pieces.  The King inquired why they disapproved of the choice.  One of them answered that everybody must admit that Moliere had very bad taste; the King replied that many things might be found in Moliere contrary to fashion, but that it appeared to him difficult to point out any in bad taste?

[The King, having purchased the Chateau of Rambouillet from the Duc de Penthievre, amused himself with embellishing it.  I have seen a register entirely in his own handwriting, which proves that he possessed a great variety of information on the minutiae of various branches of knowledge.  In his accounts he would not omit an outlay of a franc.  His figures and letters, when he wished to write legibly, were small and very neat, but in general he wrote very ill.  He was so sparing of paper that he divided a sheet into eight, six, or four pieces, according to the length of what he had to write.  Towards the close of the page he compressed the letters, and avoided interlineations.  The last words were close to the edge of the paper; he seemed to regret being obliged to begin another page.  He was methodical and analytical; he divided what he wrote into chapters and sections.  He had extracted from the works of Nicole and Fenelon, his favourite authors, three or four hundred concise and sententious phrases; these he had classed according to subject, and formed a work of them in the style of Montesquieu.  To this treatise he had given the following general title:  “Of Moderate Monarchy” (De la Monarchie temperee), with chapters entitled, “Of the Person of the Prince;” “Of the Authority of Bodies in the State;” “Of the Character of the Executive Functions of the Monarchy.”  Had he been able to carry into effect all the grand precepts he had observed in Fenelon, Louis XVI. would have been an accomplished monarch, and France a powerful kingdom.  The King used to accept the speeches his ministers presented