er this event, M. Roland
committed suicide by stabbing himself through the heart.

[Signature: Ella Wheeler Wilcox.]

MARIE ANTOINETTE

By Mrs. OCTAVIUS FREIRE OWEN

(1755-1793)

[Illustration: Marie Antoinette.]

Maria Theresa, the Empress of Austria, was not highly educated; and
she was incapable of directing the studies of her children, although
by precept and example she laid the foundation of characters, all of
which became more or less remarkable. Marie Antoinette, her youngest
child, was perhaps the most neglected. She once innocently caused
the dismissal of her governess, through a confession that all the
letters and drawings shown to her mother, in proof of her
improvement, had been previously traced with a pencil. At fifteen
her knowledge of Italian, studied under Metastasio, was the only
branch of her education which had been fairly attended to, if we
except considerable conversance with the "Lives of the Saints" and
other legendary lore, the favorite fictions of monastic compilers.
Nature had, nevertheless, done much for the young archduchess; she
possessed great facility for learning, and was not slow in taking
advantage of opportunities for improvement when they were afforded.
In person she was most attractive. "Beaming with freshness," says
Madame Campan, "she appeared to all eyes more than beautiful. Her
walk partook at once of the noble character of the princesses of her
house and of the graces of the French; her eyes were mild, her smile
lovely. It was impossible to refrain from admiring her aerial
deportment; her smile was sufficient to win the heart; and in this
enchanting being, in whom the splendor of French gayety shone forth,
an indescribable but august serenity--perhaps, also, the somewhat
proud position of her head and shoulders--betrayed the daughter of
the Caesars." Such, according to her affectionate chronicler,
appeared Marie Antoinette, when her nuptials were celebrated at
Versailles with the Dauphin of France.

Superstitious minds discovered fatal omens from the earliest years
of the hapless dauphiness. She had begun ill by first drawing breath
upon the very day of the earthquake of Lisbon; this made a great
impression on the mother, and later upon the child also. Another
incident was not less discouraging: the empress had "protected a
person named Gassner," who fancied himself inspired, and affected to
predict events. "Tell me," she said to him one day, "whether my
Ant