elt, and
the share she appropriated in the improvement. One day Louis XVI. saluted
her ladies with more kindness than usual, and the Queen laughingly said to
them, "Now confess, ladies, that for one so badly taught as a child, the
King has saluted you with very good grace!"

The Queen hated M. de La Vauguyon; she accused him alone of those points
in the habits, and even the sentiments, of the King which hurt her. A
former first woman of the bedchamber to Queen Maria Leczinska had
continued in office near the young Queen. She was one of those people who
are fortunate enough to spend their lives in the service of kings without
knowing anything of what is passing at Court. She was a great devotee;
the Abbe Grisel, an ex-Jesuit, was her director. Being rich from her
savings and an income of 50,000 livres, she kept a very good table; in her
apartment, at the Grand Commun, the most distinguished persons who still
adhered to the Order of Jesuits often assembled. The Duc de La Vauguyon
was intimate with her; their chairs at the Eglise des Reollets were placed
near each other; at high mass and at vespers they sang the "Gloria in
Excelsis" and the "Magnificat" together; and the pious virgin, seeing in
him only one of God's elect, little imagined him to be the declared enemy
of a Princess whom she served and revered. On the day of his death she ran
in tears to relate to the Queen the piety, humility, and repentance of the
last moments of the Duc de La Vauguyon. He had called his people
together, she said, to ask their pardon. "For what?" replied the Queen,
sharply; "he has placed and pensioned off all his servants; it was of the
King and his brothers that the holy man you bewail should have asked
pardon, for having paid so little attention to the education of princes on
whom the fate and happiness of twenty-five millions of men depend.
Luckily," added she, "the King and his brothers, still young, have
incessantly laboured to repair the errors of their preceptor."

The progress of time, and the confidence with which the King and the
Princes, his brothers, were inspired by the change in their situation
since the death of Louis XV., had developed their characters. I will
endeavour to depict them.

The features of Louis XVI. were noble enough, though somewhat melancholy
in expression; his walk was heavy and unmajestic; his person greatly
neglected; his hair, whatever might be the skill of his hairdresser, was
soon in disor