omposed of the most important, daring,
and consummate intriguers that the court of France had ever seen.
She escaped the guillotine, and by doing so escaped the attention of
posterity.

Mme. de Lamballe, who wrote nothing, did nothing, effected nothing,
is better known to the world at large, is more respected and honored,
than is Mme. de Polignac or even the great salon leaders such as Mme.
de Genlis or Mlle. de Lespinasse. She owes this prominence to her
undying devotion to her queen, to her marvellous beauty, and to her
tragic death on the guillotine. She was not even bright or witty,
the essentials of greatness among French women--not one _bon mot_ has
survived her; but she may well be placed by the side of her queen
for one sublime virtue, too rare in those days,--chastity. She was
Princess of Sardinia; upon the request of the Duke of Penthievre to
Louis XV. to select a wife for his son, the Prince of Lamballe, she
was chosen. A year after the marriage the prince died; and although
the marriage had not been a happy one, because of the dissolute life
of the prince, his wife forgave him, and "sorrowed for him as though
he deserved it."

When in 1768 the queen died, two parties immediately formed, the
object of both of them being to provide Louis XV. with a wife: one may
be called the reform party, striving to keep the old king in the paths
of decency; while the other was composed of the typical eighteenth
century intriguers, endeavoring to revive the "grand old times." The
candidate of the former was Mme. de Lamballe, that of the latter, the
dissolute Duchesse du Barry. This state of affairs was made possible
by the disagreement of the political and social schemes of the court
and ministry. Soon after, in 1770, the king negotiated the marriage
of Marie Antoinette and the dauphin, and from that time began the
friendship of the future queen and the Princesse de Lamballe. Entering
the unfamiliar circle of this highly debauched court, the young
dauphiness sought a sympathetic friend, and found her in the princess.
No figure in that society was more disinterested and unselfishly
devoted. In all the queen's undertakings, fetes, and other amusements,
she was inseparable from the princess, who was indeed a rare exception
to the majority of the women of that time.

The friendship of these two women was uninterrupted, save for a period
extending from 1778 to 1785, when Mme. de Polignac and her set of
intriguers succeeded in