"
"Oh!" exclaimed Madame de Campan, "the proud princess will never
pardon that. Your majesty has now become her irreconcilable enemy,
and she will leave no stone unturned to revenge herself upon you."
"She may attempt to revenge herself upon me," cried the queen, whose
countenance began to brighten up once more. "I fear neither her nor
her whole set. All their arrows will fall powerless at my feet, for
the love of my husband and my pure conscience form the protection
which secures me. And what can these people accomplish against me?
They can slander me, that is all. But their calumnies will, in the
end, prove that it is lies they tell, and no one will give them
confidence more."
"Ah! your majesty does not know the wickedness of the world," sighed
Campan, sadly. "Your majesty believes that the good are not
cowardly, and that the bad are not reckless. Your majesty does not
know that the bad have it in their power to corrupt public opinion;
and that then the good have not the courage to meet this corrupting
influence. But public opinion is a monster that brings the charge,
passes judgment, pronounces the sentence, and inflicts the
punishment in one person. Who thinks lightly of it, arrays against
himself an enemy stronger than a whole army, and less open to
entreaty than death.
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