natural charms and acquired abilities of his daughters would one day call
them to be the ornaments of the most distinguished Courts in Europe, and
he thought it prudent not to instil early prejudices in favour of
peculiar forms of religion which might afterwards present an obstacle to
their aggrandisement.

[The first daughter of the Duke of Wirtemberg was the first wife of the
present Emperor of Austria. She embraced the Catholic faith and died
very young, two days before the Emperor Joseph the Second, at Vienna.
The present Empress Dowager, late wife to Paul, became a proselyte to the
Greek religion on her arrival at Petersburg. The son of the Duke of
Wirtemburg, who succeeded him in the Dukedom, was a Protestant, it being
his interest to profess that religion for the security of his
inheritance. Prince Ferdinand, who was in the Austrian service, and a
long time Governor of Vienna, was a Catholic, as he could not otherwise
have enjoyed that office. He was of a very superior character to the
Duke, his brother. Prince Louis, who held a commission under the
Prussian Monarch, followed the religion of the country where he served,
and the other Princes, who were in the employment of Sweden and other
countries, found no difficulty in conforming themselves to the religion
of the Sovereigns under whom they served. None of them having any
established forms of worship, they naturally embraced that which conduced
most to their aggrandisement, emolument, or dignity.]

"The notorious vices of the King of Denmark, and his total neglect both
of his young Queen, Carolina Matilda, and of the interest of his distant
dominions, while in Paris, created a feeling in the Queen's mind towards
that house which was not a little heightened by her disgust at the King
of Sweden, when he visited the Court of Versailles. This King, though
much more crafty than his brother-in-law, the King of Denmark, who
revelled openly in his depravities, was not less vicious. The deception
he made use of in usurping part of the rights of his people, combined
with the worthlessness and duplicity, of his private conduct, excited a
strong indignation in the mind of Marie Antoinette, of which she was
scarcely capable of withholding the expression in his presence.

"It was during the visit of the Duke and Duchess of the North, that the
Cardinal de Rohan again appeared upon the scene. For eight or ten years
he had never been allowed to show himself at Court,