For this she would defend the monarchy; for this she would contend
against the revolution, until she should either constrain it to
terms or be swallowed up in it.
All her efforts, all her cares, were directed only to this, to
kindle in the king the same courage that animated her, to stir him
with the same fire that burned in her soul. But alas! Louis XVI. was
no doubt a good man and a kind father, but he was no king. He had no
doubt the wish to restore the monarchy, but he lacked the requisite
energy and strong will. Instead of controlling the revolution with a
fiery spirit, he sought to conciliate it by concession and mild
measures; and instead of checking it, he himself went down before
it.
But Marie Antoinette could not and would not give up hope. As the
king would not act, she would act for him; as he would not take part
in politics, she would do so for him. With glowing zeal she plunged
into business, spent many hours each day with the ministers and
dependants of the court, corresponded with foreign lands, with her
brother the Emperor Leopold, and her sister, Queen Caroline of
Naples, wrote to them in a cipher intelligible only to them, and
sent the letters through the hands of secret agents, imploring of
them assistance and help for the monarchy.
In earnest labor, in unrelieved care and business, the queen's days
now passed; she sang, she laughed no more; dress had no longer
charms for her; she had no more conferences with Mademoiselle
Bertin, her milliner; her hairdresser, M.
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