lves
with the form and the etiquette that had become traditional in France.
They might be panders, or stock-jobbers, or sellers of political
offices; yet they must none the less have wit and grace and outward
nobility of manner.

There was also a tradition regarding the French queen. However loose in
character the other women of the court might be, she alone, like
Caesar's wife, must remain above suspicion. She must be purer than the
pure. No breath, of scandal must reach her or be directed against her.

In this way the French court, even under so dissolute a monarch as
Louis XV., maintained its hold upon the loyalty of the people. Crowds
came every morning to view the king in his bed before he arose; the
same crowds watched him as he was dressed by the gentlemen of the
bedchamber, and as he breakfasted and went through all the functions
which are usually private. The King of France must be a great actor. He
must appear to his people as in reality a king-stately, dignified, and
beyond all other human beings in his remarkable presence.

When the Dauphin and Marie Antoinette came to the French court King
Louis XV. kept up in the case the same semblance of austerity. He
forbade these children to have their sleeping-apartments together. He
tried to teach them that if they were to govern as well as to reign
they must conform to the rigid etiquette of Paris and Versailles.

It proved a difficult task, however. The little German princess had no
natural dignity, though she came from a court where the very strictest
imperial discipline prevailed. Marie Antoinette found that she could
have her own way in many things, and she chose to enjoy life without
regard to ceremony. Her escapades at first would have been thought mild
enough had she not been a "daughter of France"; but they served to
shock the old French king, and likewise, perhaps even more, her own
imperial mother, Maria Theresa.

When a report of the young girl's conduct was brought to her the
empress was at first mute with indignation. Then she cried out:

"Can this girl be a child of mine? She surely must be a changeling!"

The Austrian ambassador to France was instructed to warn the Dauphiness
to be more discreet.

"Tell her," said Maria Theresa, "that she will lose her throne, and
even her life, unless she shows more prudence."

But advice and remonstrance were of no avail. Perhaps they might have
been had her husband possessed a stronger character; but the