, even volunteering
suggestions of a change in the king's habits; as when he recommended him,
as a part of his kingly duty, to visit the different provinces, sea-ports,
cities, and manufacturing towns of his kingdom, so as to acquaint himself
generally with the feelings and resources of the people. Louis listened
with attention. If there was any case in which the emperor's advice was
thrown away, it was, if the queen's suspicions were correct, when he
recommended to the king a line of conduct adverse to her influence.

Mercy had told the emperor that Louis was devotedly attached to the queen,
but that he feared her at least as much as he loved her; and Joseph would
have desired to see some of this fear transferred to and felt by her; and
showed his wish that the king should exert his legitimate authority as a
husband to check those habits of his wife of which they both disapproved,
and which she herself did not defend. But, even if Louis did for a moment
make up his mind to adopt a tone of authority, his resolution faded away
in his wife's presence before her superior resolution; and to the end of
their days she continued to be the leader, and he to follow her guidance.

It need hardly be told that so august a visitor had entertainments given
in his honor. The king gave banquets at Versailles, the queen less formal
parties at her Little Trianon, though gayeties were not much to Joseph's
taste; and, at a visit which his sister compelled him to pay to the opera,
he remained ensconced at the back of her box till she dragged him forward,
and, as if by main force, presented him to the audience. The whole theatre
resounded with applause, expressed in such a way as to mark that it was to
the queen's brother, fully as much as to the emperor, that the homage was
paid. The opera was "Iphigenie," the chorus in which, "_Chantons,
celebrons notre reine_," had by this time been almost as fully adopted, as
the expression of the national loyalty, as "God save the Queen" is in
England. But even on its first performance it had not been hailed with
more rapturous cheering than shook the whole house on this occasion; and
Joseph had the satisfaction of believing that his sister's hold on the
affection and on the respect of the Parisians was securely established.

He was less pleased at the races in the Bois de Boulogne, which he visited
the next day. No inconsiderable part of Mercy's disapproval of such
gatherings had been founded on the im