The Duke de Polignac was also chief director of
the post department. His wife, Diana de Polignac, was also maid of
honor to Madame Elizabeth, and Julia de Polignac was governess of
the children of Prance.
They would not believe it; they held it impossible that so unheard-
of a thing should happen, that their income should be reduced. The
whole circle of intimate friends resorted to Trianon, to have an
interview with the queen, to receive from her the assurance that she
would not tolerate such a robbing of her friends, and that she would
induce the king to take back his commands.
The queen, however, for the first time, made a stand against her
friends.
"It is the will of the king," said she, "and I am too happy that the
king has a will, to dare opposing it. May the king reign! It is his
duty and his right, as it is the duty and right of all his subjects
to conform to his wish and be subject to his will."
"But," cried Lord Besenval, "it is horrible to live in a country
where one is not sure but he may lose tomorrow what he holds to-day;
down to this time that has always been the Turkish fashion."
[Footnote: His very words. See Goncourt's "Histoire de Marie
Antoinette," p. 181.]
The queen trembled and raised her great eyes with a look full of
astonishment and pain to Besenval, then to the other friends; she
read upon all faces alienation and unkindly feeling.
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