joyous acknowledgments *! To what bold achievements did these speeches lead the hearer's hopes! Where now is the navy of France? Where are now its ships and its crews? In the month of May, of the same year, the Queen sent to Paris an order to give a great number of unhappy parents their liberty, who had been imprisoned for not having paid the month's nursing of their respective children. -In June, she set about establishing at Versailles an asylum for poor mothers and their offspring, similar to that which the minister of S. Sulpice had instituted in his parish. The object which the beneficence of the Queen thus suddenly selected was generally remarked; all * An instance of this kind occurred in the visit which three' illustrious females, whose beauty, wit, and amiable deportment rendered them the ornament of the French Court, made to Brest to view the glorious wreck of the Surveillante. These were, the Princess of Bouillon, the Princess of Hénin, and the Duchess of Biron-after having loaden the sailors with their bounty, one of the ladies asked them, Why they did not nail their flag to the mast as the English had done?"Princess," replied one of the brave fellows, " Ho 66 nour supported it for us." See the Courier de l'Europe, Oct. 1779. ranks were eager to divine the reason, and at length conceived they had discovered it, but dreaded lest they might be mistaken in their conjecture. The month of July arrived, and confirmed all their hopes. The King ordered Te Deum to be sung in the chapel at Versailles, announcing that his beloved wife and partner of his throne was in the fourth month of her pregnancy. -Let us awhile recur to the records of the times, and we shall perceive how absolutely this amiable Queen reigned in the hearts of her subjects. Who can avoid being struck with the affecting simplicity, the natural tenderness, that appear throughout the letter which the good Louis XVI. wrote to the Archbishop of Paris?" The Queen's (6 pregnancy is an assurance, that the blessing "of GOD is upon us: The law that we have "prescribed to ourselves to submit to his Pro"vidence all the events of our reign, prompts us to inform you by this letter that your di"recting a special prayer for the preservation of "the Queen, and of the object of our hopes, "will be very agreeable to us." This worthy prelate in his mandatory letter thus expressed himself: "The Queen has al ready interested Heaven in her favour by an act of charity, at the remembrance of which all hearts must be moved. If the prayers of the poor are so efficacious, what may we not hope from those of so many unfortunate persons unexpectedly liberated and restored to their families, to their children who were crying to their fathers for support, while they were the innocent cause of their imprisonment? Prayers were also put up with great fervor to Almighty God, by all the various communions of Christians, and by all the religious societies, whose peculiar modes of worship, whether more or less private in their nature, the spirit of charity tolerated in France. Here, I confess, my heart is shaken with tender emotion and grief, my eyes fill with tears and obscure my sight, while I trace the following prayer which the Avignon Jews, resident at Paris, read every week. "May He who blessed our holy mothers, who "visited his servants Sarah and Hannah in thei, "affliction, bless with his support, visit with "his comforting grace, and in his almighty power "Arch-Duchess of Austria, Queen of France, the well-beloved and favourite object of her people's joy. May the King of Kings keep her " in his especial favour; may He, in his mercy, "fulfil the desire of her heart, and grant to his "servant to bear a race of men, mighty and vir "tuous; may He preserve the fruit of her body, "and cause her to bear Kings and rulers of na❝tions; may she be a joyful mother, and become "as a fruitful vine; may the ardent wishes of the "French not be frustrated, that they may be"hold the branch come forth of the lineage of "the Bourbons; may this branch grow in fa- . "vour with God and man, worthy of its parent's name, and that of its ancestry; and may "those whose eyes shall see it know that the "branch is blessed of the Lord!" you, O who then were born to France *; you, who henceforth remain the only one of those branches, which from time to time have filled with hope the bosoms of Louis XVI. of MARIAANTOINETTA, and of the French people; you, who are at this instant present to my mind's eye, Madame Royale, now Duchess of Angoulême. |