ot fear half as much harm to his pupil from her enmity as from the
pretended affection of the aunts, who, from a mixture of folly and
treachery, were unwearied in their attempts to keep her at a distance
from the king, by inspiring her with a fear of him, for which his
disposition, which had as much good-nature in it as was compatible with
weakness, gave no ground whatever. Indeed, the mischief they did was not
confined to their influence over her, if Mercy was correct in his belief
that it was their disagreeable tempers and manners which at this time,
and for the remainder of the reign, prevented Louis from associating
more with his family, which, had all been like the dauphiness, he would
have preferred to do.

It would probably have been in vain that Mercy remonstrated against her
submitting as she did to the aunts, had he not been at all times able to
secure the co-operation of the empress, who placed the most implicit
confidence in his judgment in all matters relating to the French court,
and remonstrated with her daughter energetically on the want of proper
self-respect which was implied in her surrendering her own judgment to
that of the aunts, as if she were a slave or a child. And Marie
Antoinette replied to her mother in a tone of such mingled submissiveness
and affection as showed how sincere was her desire to remove every shade
of annoyance from the empress's mind; and which may, perhaps, lead to a
suspicion that even her subservience to the aunts proceeded in a great
degree from her anxiety to win the good-will of every one, and from the
kindness which could not endure to thwart those with whom she was much
associated; though at the same time she complained to the ambassador that
her mother wrote without sufficient knowledge of the difficulties with
which she was surrounded. But she had too deep an affection and reverence
for her mother to allow her words to fall to the ground; and gradually
Mercy began to see a difference in her conduct, and a greater inclination
to assert her own independence, which was the feeling that above all
others he thought most desirable to foster in her.

Another topic which we find constantly urged in the empress's letters
would seem strangely inconsistent with Marie Antoinette's position, if we
did not remember how very young she still was. For her mother writes to
her in many respects as if she were still at school, and continually
inculcates on her the necessity of profiting