The prince answered
all these questions quickly and correctly. After every answer he
cast an inquiring glance at the queen, and when he read in her looks
that his answer had been correct, his eyes brightened, and his
cheeks glowed with pleasure.
"Our dauphin is really very learned," cried one of the deputies. "I
should like to know whether he has paid any attention yet to the
arts. Do you love music, my little prince?"
"Ah, sir," answered the dauphin, eagerly, "whoever has heard mamma
sing and play, must love music!"
"Do you sing too, prince?"
The dauphin raised his eyes to his mother. "Mamma," he asked, "shall
I sing the prayer of this morning?"
Marie Antoinette nodded. "Sing it, my son, for perhaps God heard it
this morning, and has graciously answered it."
The dauphin sank upon his knees, and folding his hands, he raised
his head and turned his blue eyes toward heaven, and, with a sweet
voice and a mild, smiling look, he sang these words:
"Ciel, entends la priere Qu'ici je fais; Conserve un si boil pere A
ses sujets." [Footnote: See Beauchesne, vol. i., p. 146. This scene
is historical. Sees Hue, "Dernioree Anneesde Louis XVI." This prayer
is from the opera so much admired at that time, "Peter the Great" "O
Heaven, accept the prayer, I offer here; Unto his subjects spare My
father dear.
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