ty was prompted by a desire to drive from her mind disappointments and
mortifications of which few suspected the existence, but which were only
the more keenly felt because she was compelled to keep them to herself;
but it is certain that during the first eight or ten years of her
residence in France there was little in her habits and conduct, however
amiable and attractive, which could have led her warmest friends to
discern in her the high qualities which she was destined to exhibit before
its close.

Presently, however, she becomes a mother; and in this new relation we
begin to perceive glimpses of a loftier nature. From the moment of the
birth of her first child, she performed those new duties which, perhaps
more than any others, call forth all the best and most peculiar virtues of
the female heart in such a manner as to add esteem and respect to the
good-will which her affability and courtesy had already inspired;
recognizing to the full the claims which the nation had upon her, that
she should, in person, superintend the education of her children, and
especially of her son as its future ruler; and discharging that sacred
duty, not only with the most affectionate solicitude, but also with the
most admirable judgment.

But years so spent were years of happiness; and, though such may suffice
to display the amiable virtues, it is by adversity that the grander
qualities of the head and heart are more strikingly drawn forth. To the
trials of that stern inquisitress, Marie Antoinette was fully exposed in
her later years; and not only did she rise above them, but the more
terrible and unexampled they were, the more conspicuous was the
superiority of her mind to fortune. It is no exaggeration to say that the
history of the whole world has preserved no record of greater heroism, in
either sex, than was shown by Marie Antoinette during the closing years of
her life. No courage was ever put to the proof by such a variety and such
an accumulation of dangers and miseries; and no one ever came out of an
encounter with even far inferior calamities with greater glory. Her moral
courage and her physical courage were equally tried. It was not only that
her own life, and lives far dearer to her than her own, were exposed to
daily and hourly peril, or that to this danger were added repeated
vexations of hopes baffled and trusts betrayed; but these griefs were
largely aggravated by the character and conduct of those nearest to her.
In