ignorance.
Everybody flattered her; every one yielded to her in the days of her
prosperity; so that she knew no will but her own, till some mistake,
which it was to late to set right, showed her how she had been deceived.
Even during the happiest years of her life, while all appeared to go
well, she was perpetually getting into scrapes, and making enemies; and
we shall see, by-and-by, how, on one occasion, her inexperience cost, in
its consequences, the lives of herself and all her family but one.

Of her many mistakes, however, none were so fatal as that of concluding
that all was well because no one told her to the contrary,--of passing
her days in splendour and pleasure, giving her whole mind to acting
plays, masquerading, and inventing new amusements, and now and then
providing for dependents by giving a licence to sell some necessary
article dear to the poor, while the poor were growing desperate with
famine. She was careless and selfish, but she was not hard-hearted; for
whenever she witnessed misery she hastened to relieve it, often
sacrificing her own pleasures for the purpose; but the people,
hunger-bitten and in rags, seeing her splendour, and hearing reports of
far more than was actually true, believed her hard-hearted; and from
being proud of her, and devoted to her, when she entered France as a
bride, they learned at last to hate her from the bottom of their souls.

There would be no end to the story of how many attendants the queen had,
and what were the formalities observed among them. We will only briefly
go over the history of a day, in order fully to understand how great was
the reverse when she became a prisoner.

The queen was awakened regularly at eight o'clock, at which hour her
first lady of the bed-chamber entered the room, sad came within the gilt
railing which surrounded the bed, bringing in one hand a pincushion, and
in the other the book containing patterns of all the queen's dresses, of
which she had usually thirty-six for each season, besides muslin and
other common dresses. The queen marked with pins the three she chose to
wear in the course of that day;--one during the morning, another at
dinner, and a third in the evening,--at a card-party, a ball, or the
theatre. The book was then delivered to a footman, who carried it to
the lady of the wardrobe. She took down from the shelves and drawers
these dresses and their trimmings; while another woman filled a basket
with the linen, etc