Those were happy hours which the royal pair spent that day in
Trianon--hours of such bright sunshine that Marie Antoinette quite
forgot the sad clouds of the morning, and gave herself undisturbed
to the enjoyment of this simple, country life. They sat down to a
country dinner--a slight, simple repast, brought together from the
resources of the hen-coop, the mill, and the milk-room. Then the
whole company went out to lie down in the luxuriant grass which grew
on the border of the little grove, and looked at the cows grazing
before them on the meadow, and with stately dignity pursuing the
serious occupation of chewing the cud. But as peasants have
something else to do than to live and enjoy, their mistress, Marie
Antoinette, soon left her resting-place to set her people a good
example in working. The spinning-wheel was brought and set upon a
low stool; Marie Antoinette began to spin. How quickly the wheel
began to turn, as if it were the wheel of fortune--to-day bringing
joy, and to-morrow calamity!
The evening has not yet come, and the wheel of fortune is yet
turning, yet calamity is there.
Marie Antoinette does not yet know it; her eye still beams with joy,
a happy smile still plays upon her rosy lips. She is sitting now
with her company by the lake, with the hook in her hand, and looking
with laughing face and fixed attention at the rod, and crying aloud
as often as she catches a fish.
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