in
danger, and the fear for them turned her sick, while Madame de Lamballe
fainted away. But when she perceived the truth, the qualm passed away, and
she rewarded them handsomely for their ducking; begging, however, that it
might not be repeated, and assuring them that she needed no such proof to
convince her of their dutiful and faithful loyalty.

But the craving for excitement which was bred and nourished by the
continuance of her unnatural position with respect to her husband in some
parts of his treatment of her, was threatening to produce a very
pernicious effect by leading her to become a gambler. Some of those ladies
whom she admitted to her intimacy were deeply infected with this fatal
passion; and one of the most mischievous and intriguing of the whole
company, the Princess de Guimenee, introduced a play-table at some of her
balls, which she induced Marie Antoinette to attend. At first the queen
took no share in the play; as she had hitherto borne none, or only a
formal part, in the gaming which, as we have seen, had long been a
recognized feature in court entertainments; but gradually the hope of
banishing vexation, if only by the substitution of a heavier care, got
dominion over her, and in the autumn of 1776 we find Mercy commenting on
her losses at lansquenet and faro, at that time the two most fashionable
round games, the stakes at which often rose to a very considerable amount.
Though she continued to indulge in this unhealthy pastime for some time,
in Mercy's opinion she never took any real interest in it. She practiced
it only because she wished to pass the time, and to drive away thought;
and because the one accomplishment she wanted was the art of refusing. She
even carried her complaisance so far as to allow professed gaming-table
keepers to be brought from Paris to manage a faro-bank in her apartments,
where the play was often continued long after midnight. It was not the
least evil of this habit that it unavoidably left the king, who never quit
his own apartments in the evening, to pass a great deal of time by
himself; but, as if to make up for his coldness in one way, he was most
indulgent in every other, and seemed to have made it a rule never to
discountenance any thing which could amuse her. His behavior to her, in
Mercy's eyes, seemed to resemble servility; "it was that of the most
attentive courtier," and was carried so far as to treat with marked
distinction persons whose character he was kn