nes employed all
means within the reach of powerful ministers in order to ruin her in the
opinion of the public.

The Queen's accouchement approached; Te Deums were sung and prayers
offered up in all the cathedrals. On the 11th of December, 1778, the
royal family, the Princes of the blood, and the great officers of State
passed the night in the rooms adjoining the Queen's bedchamber. Madame,
the King's daughter, came into the world before mid-day on the 19th of
December.--[Marie Therese Charlotte (1778-1861), Madame Royale; married in
1799 Louis, Duc d'Angouleme, eldest son of the Comte d'Artois.]--The
etiquette of allowing all persons indiscriminately to enter at the moment
of the delivery of a queen was observed with such exaggeration that when
the accoucheur said aloud, "La Reine va s'accoucher," the persons who
poured into the chamber were so numerous that the rush nearly destroyed
the Queen. During the night the King had taken the precaution to have the
enormous tapestry screens which surrounded her Majesty's bed secured with
cords; but for this they certainly would have been thrown down upon her.
It was impossible to move about the chamber, which was filled with so
motley a crowd that one might have fancied himself in some place of public
amusement. Two Savoyards got upon the furniture for a better sight of the
Queen, who was placed opposite the fireplace.

The noise and the sex of the infant, with which the Queen was made
acquainted by a signal previously agreed on, as it is said, with the
Princesse do Lamballe, or some error of the accoucheur, brought on
symptoms which threatened fatal consequences; the accoucheur exclaimed,
"Give her air--warm water--she must be bled in the foot!" The windows
were stopped up; the King opened them with a strength which his affection
for the Queen gave him at the moment. They were of great height, and
pasted over with strips of paper all round. The basin of hot water not
being brought quickly enough, the accoucheur desired the chief surgeon to
use his lancet without waiting for it. He did so; the blood streamed out
freely, and the Queen opened her eyes. The Princesse de Lamballe was
carried through the crowd in a state of insensibility. The valets de
chambre and pages dragged out by the collar such inconsiderate persons as
would not leave the room. This cruel custom was abolished afterwards. The
Princes of the family, the Princes of the blood, the chancellor, and the