III. 1782. were repeatedly applied to, to discover the authors of CHAP. these atrocious fabrications, but they professed themselves unable to furnish any clue to the mystery: it soon became evident that the libels proceeded from an elevated source, and that the attempts to discover their authors were counterworked by opposite influences, more powerful even than that of the court in the straitened state of its finances.. The effect of these efforts was soon apparent. The Queen became as unpopular as she had formerly been beloved. All the embarrassments of the treasury were set down to her extravagance; she was commonly called Madame Déficit; and to such a length were the people worked upon, that she could not appear in public without being insulted. In this way a triple object was gained the appetite of the populace for scandal in high 1 Montjoye, life was gratified; the influence of the Queen, whose i. 184, 192. intrepidity and decision of character were already known, 326, 327. was weakened; and a foundation was laid for impugning 411, 440. the legitimacy of the heirs whom she was furnishing to the throne.1 Weber, i. Droz, i. increasing at inflames the against her. Subsequent to 1781 the Queen gave an additional 86. impulse to these calumnies by the increased lead which The Queen's she took in public affairs, and the habits in which, in the influence very innocence of her heart, she indulged at court. With a court all her exalted and noble qualities, she had not the sagacity hostility to discover in what way these misrepresentations, with the existence of which she was well acquainted, were to be averted; and the very purity of her intentions frequently furnished a handle, of which her enemies instantly availed themselves to load her with opprobrium. Her influence with Louis naturally increased, as her position was changed by the birth of the dauphin; and the increasing fondness of the King, which resembled rather that of an ardent lover than of a sedate husband, gave her an evident sway in the council, in which she was now frequently present. Count Ségur, the war minister, who succeeded Count St. Germain, and M. De Castries, the minister of marine, III. 1782. CHAP. who was appointed in 1780, owed their elevation chiefly to her influence; and although she always opposed Calonne's appointment, yet that of the Archbishop of Toulouse was almost entirely owing to her favour and that of the Abbé de Vermond. Courtiers are not slow in discovering where the real sources of power are to be found. The influence of the Queen was soon bruited abroad, and exaggerated, by the hundred tongues of rumour; it was said that she was the true prime minister, that the King was entirely guided by her opinion, and that the cabinet was a mere puppet in her hands. Thenceforward she became the object, not merely of personal but of political hostility; the democrats and revolutionists joined with the courtesans and Orleanists in attacking her measures and reviling her conduct; and that impassioned rancour at power of any kind which had grown up with the spread of republican ideas, averted from the head of the King by the indisputable benevolence and ii. 384, 394. integrity of his character, was all concentrated against Montjoye, i. 192, 194. the indomitable Austrian who was supposed to guide his 1 Besenval, 87. Increased rigour in favour of the aristo cracy in regard to commissions councils. 1 The influence of the Queen in the administration soon made itself felt, not only in the appointments to the ministry, but in the measures of government. The most important of them was an alteration which, during the time old Marshal Ségur was secretary at war, took place in the army. in the qualifications necessary for obtaining commissions. in the army or navy. Considerable laxity in this respect had of late years crept in, arising partly from the increasing weight of the bankers and financiers in the distressed state of the royal treasury, which made it no easy matter to exclude their sons, on the score of birth, from the military career, and partly from the general tendency to liberal ideas, which, since the accession of Louis XVI., had more or less characterised the royal councils. But after the retirement of Necker, and the return to the former system of government, it was considered hazardous CHAP. III. 1771. to permit this laxity to continue; and, accordingly, an edict was obtained from the King, which provided that no one should obtain a commission in the army or navy unless he could trace his nobility back for four generations, Oct. 7, 1781. or a hundred years. This was in effect to restrict them to the old families, and to but a small number even of that privileged body; and it so much limited the class from whom officers could be taken, that it was found impossible to enforce the rule rigidly in practice. In the temper of the public mind, it was abundantly imprudent to revert to such a system under any circumstances; but the evil was aggravated tenfold by the circumstance of the guards, with regard to whom it was rigidly enforced, being permanently stationed in Paris; and in situations, of course, where the private soldiers were continually exposed to the seductions, and liable to be influenced by the opinions, of the citizens, male and female, with whom they were in constant intercourse. Thus, while the officers all belonged to the highest class of the aristocracy, the common men 1 Ségur, i. were daily becoming more democratic; so that it might 119, 120. easily have been foreseen, that on the first serious crisis a De Stael, i. division would arise between them. It will appear in the sequel with what fatal effect this circumstance operated at the decisive crisis of the Revolution.1 Lab. 189. 153. Mon thion, 154. these calum Queen's conduct. Unhappily, the private habits of the Queen, shortly 88. before and after the birth of the princess-royal, were not Aid which calculated to diminish the number of these surmises, or nies received disarm the malignity of her enemies. Her aversion to the from the rigid formality of court etiquette had been early evinced, imprudent and it was with ill-disguised reluctance that she submitted even to the necessary fatigue of receiving the persons presented at the court levées. Jealousies, in regard to precedence, had estranged her from some of the highest nobility the Duc de Chartres was, for very sufficient reasons, never allowed to form one of the intimate circle in which she so much delighted, and spent so large a part of her time; her brother, the Emperor Joseph, and the 1778. CHAP. Grand-duke Maximilian, successively visited Paris, travelIII. ling incognito, notwithstanding which they were allowed the precedence over the French noblesse of the highest rank — a rule which banished a large part of them from the court during the residence of these foreign princes at the metropolis. Above all, the Duchess of Polignac, the confidant of all her thoughts and wishes, and who made, it must be confessed, a most unexceptionable use of her power, excited in the highest degree the jealousy of the old nobility, who beheld with undisguised resentment the Queen fly from the stately splendours of Versailles to take refuge in an elegant domestic circle, in which she threw aside at once the honour, the formality, and the fatigues of her rank. 1 1 Camp. i. 175, 180. Weber, i. 256, 300 89. Nocturnal parties on at Ver sailles. A favourite amusement, which was often resorted to at Versailles during the summer of 1778, furnished additional the terraces food for the malignity and scandal of Paris. During the extreme heats and enchanting weather of that season, when the Queen, in the first month of her pregnancy, was unable to sleep till a late period, she beguiled the weary hours of the night by forming parties who walked out by moonlight on the terraces of Versailles and Trianon, enjoying the delicious coolness of the air, and listening to the noble military bands which played at a little distance. The fame of these nocturnal parties, more agreeable during sultry weather than judicious in a queen, soon spread over Paris. High bribes were offered to the doorkeepers to obtain admission to these magic scenes; gold opened the entrance to some improper characters, occasionally some of the Duc de Chartres' mistresses found their way in; an adventurous youth might boast of having sat on the same * Mad. Cam- bench, and even exchanged words with the Queen, during pan, i. 175, the obscurity of the night, and without his being known. i. 286, 302. The King, worn out with the fatigues of his council, was Montjoye, i. 116, 223. seldom present on these occasions; but the Comte d'Artois 64. and the Comte of Provence always were.2 It may be conceived what food these nocturnal parties, magnified by 224. Weber, Soul. vi. 2, rumour and blackened by the voice of scandal, furnished CHAP. to the malignant jealousy of a corrupted capital.* III. 1778. 90. change of by the Another change took place at this period, at once descriptive of the revolution in general ideas which was Total going forward, and of the influence of the Queen, notwith- ladies dress standing all her unpopularity, over the highest circles in introduced the capital. Her sway over the fashions of female dress Queen. was omnipotent. At one period she introduced the extravagantly high feathers and head-dresses, which soon spread over all Europe, and now appear so strange, as they are portrayed on the immortal canvass of Reynolds; at another, yielding to her horror at etiquette and passion for ease of manner, she brought in that total change of · fashion, characteristic of the spread of ideas of equality, which at once levelled all distinctions of rank, and arrayed the duchess in the same simple muslin garb as the soubrette. There is more in this than a mere change of fashion; it was allied with the revolution which was then going on in the public mind. In the extravagant admiration for Grecian costume, which spread with the growth of republican ideas, is to be discerned the effects of Rousseau's dreams on the social contract, and the forerunner of the 227, 370. levelling ideas of the Revolution. Whatever the Queen Montjoye, introduced was immediately adopted by the fashionable Marie dressmakers of the capital; the ladies of Paris, amidst i. 274, 276. all their jealousy of the Austrian, hastened to imitate all * During all this period, however, her domestic habits with the King remained unchanged—a clear proof of the innocence of her conduct. "Notre jeune et charmante reine, à force d'être sans façon et sans cérémonie, a expulsé de la cour toutes les ridicules entraves de l'antique étiquette. On voit tous les soirs cette aimable princesse parcourir le château, aller faire des visites, tenant le roi sous le bras, avec un seul valet-de-pied portant deux bougies. Quant au nouvel usage des soupers avec les dames et seigneurs titrés ou non, il faut observer que la jeune reine l'a moins provoqué pour le plaisir de souper en grande compagnie, que par une prudence politique bien entendue. C'est à cette ancienne étiquette, suivant laquelle le roi devait souper au retour de la chasse avec tous les chasseurs et sans les princesses, qu'on peut attribuer la débauche de tous les genres à laquelle Louis XV. a été livré dans les vingt dernières années de sa vie ; aujourd'hui le roi n'est séparé de son épouse que quand il va à la chasse, ou quand il tient conseil ; et les vils courtisans qui oseraient essayer de corrompre leur maître n'en trouvent pas le temps."-Correspondance Secrète de la Cour pendant le Règne de Louis XVI., 99. 1 Campan, i. Vie de Antoinette, |