l not
venture to say more on the subject, lest I should be reopening a sorrow
for which you have so much cause to grieve.... The capture of
Charleston[2] is a most disastrous event, both for the facilities it will
afford the English and for the encouragement which it will give to their
pride. It is perhaps still more serious because of the miserable defense
made by the Americans. One can hope nothing from such bad troops."

It is curious to contrast the angry jealousy which she here betrays of our
disposition and policy as a nation, with the partiality which, as we have
seen, she showed for the agreeable qualities of individual Englishmen. But
her uneasiness on this subject led to practical results, by inducing her
to add her influence to that of a party which was discontented with the
ministry; and was especially laboring to persuade the king to make a
change in the War Department, and to dismiss the Prince de Montbarey,
whose sole recommendation for the office of secretary of state seemed to
be that he was a friend of the prime minister, and to give his place to
the Count de Segur. The change was made, as any change was sure to be made
in favor of which she personally exerted herself; even the partisans of M.
de Maurepas himself were forced to allow that the new minister was in
every respect far superior to his predecessor; and Mercy was desirous that
she should procure the dismissal of Maurepas also, thinking it of great
importance to her own comfort that the prime minister should be bound to
her interests.

But she was far more anxious on other subjects. Nearly two years had now
elapsed since the birth of the princess royal; and there was as yet no
prospect of a companion to her, so that the Count d'Artois began to make
arrangements for the education of his infant son, the Duc d'Angouleme,
with a premature solicitude, which was evidently designed to point the
child out to the nation as its future sovereign.[3] The queen was greatly
annoyed; and, to add to her vexation, one of the teething illnesses to
which children are subject at this time threw the little princess into
convulsions, which, to a mother's anxiety, seemed even dangerous to her
life; though in a day or two that apprehension passed away.

But these hopes of D'Artois and his flatterers again filled the court with
intrigues. In the course of the summer she was made highly indignant by
finding that news from the court, with malicious comments, were sent f