and vilification of her enemies. While
dauphiness, her actions could not cause the nation's reproach or
arouse public resentment; as queen, however, her behavior was subject
to the strictest rules of etiquette, and she was responsible for
the morals and general tone of her court. This responsibility Marie
Antoinette failed to realize until it was too late.

Upon the accession of Louis XVI., a clean sweep was made of the
licentious and discredited agents of Mme. du Barry, and a new ministry
was created. The former mistress, with her lover, the Duc d'Aiguillon,
was banished, although Mme. Adelaide succeeded in having Maurepas,
uncle of the Duc d'Aiguillon, made minister. Marie Antoinette had
little interest in the appointment after she failed to gain the honor
for her favorite, De Choiseul, who had negotiated her marriage.

The queen then proceeded to carry out her long-cherished wishes for
society dinners at which she could preside. Her every act, however,
was governed by inflexible laws of etiquette, some of which she most
impatiently suffered, but many of which she impatiently put aside.
With this manner of entertaining begins her reign as queen of taste
and fashion, for Louis XVI. left to his wife the responsibility of
organizing all entertainments, and her aspiration was to make the
court of France the most splendid in the world. From that time on, all
her movements, her apparel, her manners, to the minutest detail, were
imitated by the court ladies. This custom, of course, led to reckless
extravagance among the nobility, for whenever Marie Antoinette
appeared in a new gown, which was almost daily, the ladies of the
nobility must perforce copy it.

Tidings of these extravagances of the queen and her court in
time reached the empress-mother in Vienna. Marie Therese severely
reproached her daughter, writing: "My daughter, my dear daughter, the
first queen--is she to grow like this? The idea is insupportable to
me." Yet, "to speak the exact truth," said her counsellor, Mercy, when
writing to the empress-mother, "there is less to complain of in the
evil which exists than in the lack of all the good which might exist."
It is chronicled to her credit that all her expenditure was not upon
herself alone, but that she was equally lavish when she attempted
charity.

Her first political act, the removal of Turgot, was disastrous. She
thought she was humoring public opinion, which was strongly against
the minister on accoun