e the impression the queen's beauty
had made upon her and all her fellow-travelers. "The queen was marvelously
beautiful; she fascinated every eye. It was absolutely impossible for any
one to display a greater grace and nobility of demeanor.[8]" Madame
d'Oberkirch, like herself, was German by birth; and Marie Antoinette
begged her to speak German to her, that she might refresh her recollection
of her native language; but she found that she had almost forgotten it.
"Ah," said she, "German is a fine language; but French, in the mouths of
my children, seems to me the finest language in the world." And in the
same spirit of entire adoption of French feelings, and even of French
prejudices, she declared to the baroness that though the Rhine and the
Danube were both noble rivers, the Seine was so much more beautiful that
it had made her forget them both.

But her preference for every thing French did not make her neglect the
duties of hospitality to her foreign visitors; she wished rather that they
should carry with them as fixed an idea as she herself entertained of the
superiority of France to their own country, in this as in every other
particular. And she gave two magnificent entertainments in their honor at
the Little Trianon, displaying the beauties of her garden by day, and also
by night, by an illumination of extraordinary splendor. They were highly
delighted with the beauty and the novelty of a scene such as they had
never before witnessed; but her pleasure was in a great degree marred by
the indecent boldness of one whose sacred profession, as well as his
ancient lineage, ought to have restrained him from such misconduct, though
it was but too completely in harmony with his previous life. Prince Louis
de Rohan was a descendant of the great Duke de Sully, and a member of a
family which, during the last reign, had possessed an influence at court
which was surpassed by that of no other house among the French nobles.[9]
He himself had reaped the full advantage of its interest. As we have
already seen, he had been coadjutor of Strasburg when Marie Antoinette
passed through that city on her way to France in 1770. He had subsequently
been promoted to the rank of cardinal; and, though he was notoriously
devoid of capacity, yet through the influence of his relations, and that
of Madame du Barri, with whom they maintained an intimate connection, he
had obtained the post of embassador to the court of Vienna, where he had
made h