irectly opposite the door
by which their Majesties entered--Mr. Calvert felt a shock of surprise.
Surrounded by all the pomp and circumstance of a most imposing
ceremonial and seen across the vast Salle des Menus, Louis XVI. had
appeared to the young American kingly enough. But this large, awkward,
good-natured-looking man who now made his way quietly and with a
shambling gait into the brilliant room, crowded with the most splendid
courtiers of Europe, had no trace of majesty about him, unless it was a
certain look of benignity and kindliness that shone in the light-blue
eyes. His dress of unexpected simplicity and the unaffected style of his
whole deportment were unlocked for by Calvert. Indeed, but for the
splendid decorations he wore and the humility of his courtiers, the
young gentleman would have found it hard to believe himself in such
exalted company, and thought privately that General Washington or Mr.
Jefferson or many another great American whom he had known had a more
commanding presence and a more noble countenance than this descendant of
kings.

But if Louis XVI was awkward and unprepossessing he had the kindest
manners in the world, and when Mr. Jefferson presented Mr. Calvert to
His Majesty as "son jeune et bien-aime secretaire, qui avait servi dans
la guerre de l'independence sous le drapeau de la France, commande par
Monsieur de Lafayette, pour qu'il avait un respect le plus profond et
une amitie la plus vive," the young man was quite overcome by the
graciousness of his reception and retained for the rest of his life a
very lively impression of the King's kind treatment of him. He never had
speech with that unhappy, but well-intentioned, ruler but once
afterward, and very possibly 'twas as much the memory of the courtesy
shown him as the wish to see justice done and royalty in distress
succored that made him, on the occasion of his second interview, offer
himself so ardently in the dangerous service of the King.

Perhaps it was the presence at his side of his beautiful consort that
accentuated all of Louis's awkwardness. As Mr. Calvert bowed low before
the Queen, Marie Antoinette, he thought to himself that surely there was
no other princess in all Europe to compare with her, and but one beauty.
Certain it was that she bore herself with a pride of race, a majesty, a
divine grace that were peerless. It must have been some such queen as
this who first inspired the artists with the idea of representing th