She took up her cue, and, brandishing it like a
sceptre, cried, "Now, my friends, away with care--"
She ceased, for as she looked around her she saw that her friends
had not obeyed her call. Only the Duke de Coigny, whom she had
specially summoned, had followed the queen into the billiard-room.
A flash of anger shot from the eyes of the queen.
"How!" cried she, aloud, "did my companions not hear that I
commanded them to follow me hither?"
"Your majesty," answered the Duke de Coigny, peevishly, "the ladies
and gentlemen have probably recalled the fact that your majesty once
made it a rule here in Trianon that every one should do as he
pleases, and your majesty sees that they hold more strictly to the
laws than others do."
"My lord," sighed the queen, "do you bring reproaches against me
too? Are you also discontented?"
"And why should I be contented, your majesty?" asked the duke, with
choler. "I am deprived of a post which hitherto has been held for
life, and does your majesty desire that I should be contented? No, I
am not contented. No, I do as the others do. I am full of anger and
pain to see that nothing is secure more, that nothing is stable
more, that one can rely upon nothing more--not even upon the word of
kings."
"My lord duke," cried Marie Antoinette, with flashing anger, "you go
too far, you forget that you are speaking to your queen.
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