Every day I have repeated, 'To Queen Marie Antoinette belongs
my life, for every thing that makes life valuable I owe to her.'
"When my father died, I left Rouen and removed to Paris, there to
pursue my business as a bookseller. My suspicions told me that the
time would soon come when the friends of the queen must rally around
her, and must perhaps put a mask over their faces, in order to
sustain themselves until the days of real danger. That time has now
come, Margaret; the queen is in danger! The tigers have surrounded
the lamb, and it cannot escape. Enemies everywhere, wherever you
look!--enemies even in the palace itself. The Count de Provence, her
own brother-in-law, has for years persecuted her with his epigrams,
because he cannot forgive it in her that the king pays more
attention to her counsels than he does to those of his brother, who
hates the Austrian. The Count d'Artois, formerly the only friend of
Marie Antoinette in the royal family, deserted her when the queen
took ground against the view of the king's brothers in favor of the
double representation of the Third Estate, and persuaded her husband
to comply with the wishes of the nation and call together the
States-General. He has gone over to the camp of her enemies, and
rages against the queen, because she is inclined to favor the wishes
of the people.
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