the nursery. Every morning her
physician, Van Swieter, visited the young imperial family, and then
presented a formal statement of their condition to the strong-minded
mother. Yet the empress was very desirous of having it understood that
she was the most faithful of parents. Whenever any foreign ambassador
arrived at Vienna, the empress would contrive to have an interview, as
it were by accident, when she had collected around her her interesting
family. As the illustrious stranger retired the children also retired to
their nursery.

One of the daughters, Josepha, was betrothed to the King of Naples. A
few days before she was to leave Vienna the queen required her, in
obedience to long established etiquette, to descend into the tomb of her
ancestors and offer up a prayer. The sister-in-law, the Emperor Joseph's
wife, had just died of the small-pox, and her remains, disfigured by
that awful disease, had but recently been deposited in the tomb. The
timid maiden was horror-stricken at the requirement, and regarded it as
her death doom. But an order from Maria Theresa no one was to disobey.
With tears filling her eyes, she took her younger sister, Maria
Antoinette, upon her knee, and said,

"I am about to leave you, Maria, not for Naples, but to die. I must
visit the tomb of our ancestors, and I am sure that I shall take the
small-pox, and shall soon be buried there." Her fears were verified. The
disease, in its most virulent form, seized her, and in a few days her
remains were also consigned to the tomb.

In May, 1770, Maria Antoinette, then but fifteen years of age, and
marvelously beautiful, was married to the young dauphin of France,
subsequently the unhappy Louis XVI. As she left Vienna, for that throne
from which she was to descend to the guillotine, her mother sent by her
hand the following letter to her husband:

"Your bride, dear dauphin, is separated from me. As she has ever been my
delight so will she be your happiness. For this purpose have I educated
her; for I have long been aware that she was to be the companion of your
life. I have enjoined upon her, as among her highest duties, the most
tender attachment to your person, the greatest attention to every thing
that can please or make you happy. Above all, I have recommended to her
humility towards God, because I am convinced that it is impossible for
us to contribute to the happiness of the subjects confided to us,
without love to Him who breaks the scepte