On the tabouret, now occupied
by her sister-in-law, Madame Elizabeth, De Dillon has often sat--the
handsome Dillon, and his glowing, admiring looks have often,
perhaps, in spite of his own will, said more to the queen than she
allowed herself to understand, as her heart thrilled in sweet pain
and secret raptures under those glances! How pure and innocent is
the face which now looks out from this chair--the face of an angel
who bears God in his heart and on his countenance.
"Pray for me; pray that God may let me drink of Lethe, that I may
forget all that has ever been! Pray that I may be satisfied with
what remains, and that my heart may how in humility and patience!"
Thus thought the queen as she began to sing, not one of her great
arias which she had studied with Garat, and which the court used to
applaud, but one of those lovely little songs, full of feeling and
melody, which did not carry one away in admiration, but which filled
the heart with joy and deep emotion.
With suspended breath, and great eyes directed fixedly to Marie
Antoinette, the dauphin listened, but gradually his eyes fell, and
motionless and with grave face the child sat in his arm-chair.
Marie Antoinette saw it, and began to sing one of those cradle-songs
of the "Children's Friend," which Berquin had written, and Gretry
had set to music so charmingly.
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