a well-timed compliment to
her mother, introduced her to the dauphin; and, when they reached the
palace, he also presented to her his more distant relatives, the princes
and princesses of the blood,[9] the Duc d'Orleans and his son, the Duc de
Chartres, destined hereafter to prove one of the foulest and most
mischievous of her enemies; the Duc de Bourbon, the Princes of Conde and
Conti, and one lady whose connection with royalty was Italian rather than
French, but to whom the acquaintance, commenced on this day, proved the
cause of a miserable and horrible death, the beautiful Princesse de
Lamballe.

Compiegne, however, was not to be honored by the marriage ceremony. The
next morning the whole party started for Versailles, turning out of the
road, at the express request of the archduchess herself, to pay a brief
visit to the king's youngest daughter, the Princess Louise, who had taken
on herself the Carmelite vows, and resided in the Convent of St. Denis.
The request had been suggested by Choiseul, who was well aware that the
princess shared the dislike entertained by her more worldly sisters to the
house of Austria; but it was accepted as a personal compliment by the king
himself, who was already fascinated by her charms, which, as he affirmed,
surpassed those of her portrait, and was predisposed to view all her words
and actions in the most favorable light. Avoiding Paris, which Louis, ever
since the riots of 1750, had constantly refused to enter, they reached the
hunting-lodge of La Muette, in the Bois de Boulogne, for supper. Here she
made the acquaintance of the brothers and sisters of her future husband,
the Counts of Provence and Artois, both destined, in their turn, to
succeed him on the throne; of the Princess Clotilde, who may be regarded
as the most fortunate of her race, in being saved by a foreign marriage
and an early death from witnessing the worst calamities of her family and
her native land; of the Princess Elizabeth, who was fated to share them in
all their bitterness and horror; and (a strangely incongruous sequel to
the morning visit to the Carmelite convent), the Countess du Barri also
came into her presence, and was admitted to sup at the royal table; as if,
even at the very moment when he might have been expected to conduct
himself with some degree of respectful decency to the pure-minded young
girl whom he was receiving into his family, Louis XV. was bent on
exhibiting to the whole world his incu