hich could
contribute to their sovereign's happiness to pay any regard to the
calamities of another capital, and the courtly poet was but giving
utterance to the unanimous feeling of her subjects when he spoke of the
princess's birth as calculated to diffuse universal joy. Daughters had
been by far the larger part of Maria Teresa's family, so that she was,
consequently, anxious for another son; and, knowing her wishes, the Duke
of Tarouka, one of the nobles whom she admitted to her intimacy, laid her
a small wager that they would be realized by the sex of the expected
infant. He lost his bet, but felt some embarrassment, in devising a
graceful mode of paying it. In his perplexity, he sought the advice of the
celebrated Metastasio, who had been for some time established at Vienna as
the favorite poet of the court, and the Italian, with the ready wit of his
country, at once supplied him with a quatrain, which, in her
disappointment itself, could mid ground for compliment:

"Io perdei; l' augusta figlia
A pagar m' ha condannato;
Ma s'e ver che a voi somiglia,
Tutto il mondo ha guadagnato."

The customs of the imperial court had undergone a great change since the
death of Charles VI. It had been pre-eminent for pompous ceremony, which
was thought to become the dignity of the sovereign who boasted of being
the representative of the Roman Caesars. But the Lorraine princes had been
bred up in a simpler fashion; and Francis had an innate dislike to all
ostentation, while Maria Teresa had her attention too constantly fixed on
matters of solid importance to have much leisure to spare for the
consideration of trifles. Both husband and wife greatly preferred to their
gorgeous palace at Vienna a smaller house which they possessed in the
neighborhood, called Schoenbrunn, where they could lay aside their state,
and enjoy the unpretending pleasures of domestic and rural life,
cultivating their garden, and, as far as the imperious calls of public
affairs would allow them time, watching over the education of their
children, to whom the example of their own tastes and habits was
imperceptibly affording the best of all lessons, a preference for simple
and innocent pleasures.

In this tranquil retreat, the childhood of Marie Antoinette was happily
passed; her bright looks, which already gave promise of future loveliness,
her quick intelligence, and her affectionate disposition combining to make
her the special favorite of her pa