ertain to be led by some one or other, while it would in the
highest degree endanger the maintenance of the alliance between France and
Austria (which, coinciding with the judgment of his imperial mistress, he
regarded as the most important of all political objects), and be most
injurious to the welfare of France and to her own personal comfort, if
that leader should be any one but the queen.[7]

But, as we have seen, he could not prevent Louis from yielding at times to
other influences. Taking the same view of the situation as the empress, if
indeed Maria Teresa had not adopted it from him, he had urged Marie
Antoinette to prevent any change in the ministry being made at first, in
which it is highly probable that she did not coincide with him, though
equally likely that Maurepas was not the minister whom she would have
preferred. Another piece of advice which he gave was, however, taken, and
with the happiest effect The poorer classes in Paris and its neighborhood
were suffering from a scarcity which almost amounted to a famine; and,
before the death of Louis XV., Mercy had recommended that the first
measure of the new reign should be one which should lower the price of
bread. That counsel was too entirely in harmony with the active
benevolence of the new monarch to be neglected. The necessary edicts were
issued. In twenty-four hours the price of the loaf was reduced by
two-fifths, and Mercy had the satisfaction of hearing the relief
generally attributed to the influence of the new queen.

It can not he supposed that the king knew either the opinion which the
empress and the embassador had formed of his capacity and disposition, or
the advice which they had consequently given to the queen. But he very
early began to show that he himself also appreciated his wife's quickness
of intelligence and correctness of judgment. Maria Teresa, in pressing on
her daughter her opinion of the general character of the policy which the
interest of France required, explained her view of her daughter's position
to be that she was "the friend and confidante of the king.[8]" And June
had hardly arrived before he began to discuss all his plans and
difficulties with her; while she spared his pride and won his further
confidence by avoiding all appearances of pressing for it, as if her
advice were necessary to him, but at the same time showing with what
satisfaction she received it. To those who solicited her intervention, her
language was mo