nd this challenge elicited from M.F.
de Conches a very elaborate explanation of the sources from which he
procured his documents, which he published in the _Revue des Deux Mondes_,
July 15th, 1866, and afterward in the Preface to his fourth volume. That
in a collection of nearly a thousand documents he may have occasionally
been too credulous in accepting cleverly executed forgeries as genuine
letters is possible, and even probable; in fact, the present writer
regards it as certain. But the vast majority, including all those of the
greatest value, can not be questioned without imputing to him a guilty
knowledge that they were forgeries--a deliberate bad faith, of which no
one, it is believed, has ever accused him.

It may be added that it is only from the letters of this later period that
any quotations are made in the following work; and the greater part of the
letters so cited exists in the archives at Vienna, while the others, such
as those, addressed by the Queen, to Madame de Polignac, etc., are just
such as were sure to be preserved as relics by the families of those to
whom they were addressed, and can therefore hardly be considered as liable
to the slightest suspicion.

CHAPTER I.

[1] Sainte-Beuve, "Nouveaux Lundis," August 8th, 1864.

CHAPTER II.

[1] "Histoire de Marie Antoinette," par E. and J. de Goncourt, p. 11.

[2] How popular masked halls were in London at this time may be learned
from Walpole's "Letters," and especially from a passage in which he gives
an account of one given by "sixteen or eighteen young Lords" just two
months before this ball at Vienna.--_Walpole to Mann_, dated February
27th, 1770. Some one a few years later described the French nation as half
tiger and half monkey; and it is a singular coincidence that Walpole's
comment on this masquerading fashion should be, "It is very lucky, seeing
how much of the tiger enters into the human composition, that there should
be a good dose of the monkey too."

[3] "Memoires concernant Marie Antoinette," par Joseph Weber (her foster-
brother), i., p. 6.

[4] "Goethe's Biography," p. 287.

[5] "Memoires de Bachaumont," January 30th, 1770.

[6] La maison du roi.

[7] Chevalier d'honneur. We have no corresponding office at the English
court.

[8] The king said, "Vous etiez deja de la famille, car votre mere a l'ame
de Louis le Grand."--SAINTE-BEUVE, _Nouveaux Lundis_, viii., p. 322.

[9] In the language of the French heralds, the ti