made, and to have the certificates of my application and good conduct laid before her; she was satisfied with the report; and, when I was no more than nineteen, gave me a place in the chancery department of Bohemia and Austria, adding to it a pension. At the age of twentytwo years I came into office; and every year, till I entered my twenty-seventh, Maria-Theresa, who was anxious I should be deserving of her bounty, increased my salary and her own private gifts, rendering my good-fortune still more acceptable from its holding out to my view a proof of her being thoroughly satisfied with my conduct, and how much I enjoyed of her honorable esteem.

Thus become the object of the beneficence of so great a Sovereign, I could not think of leaving her Court. Still, notwithstanding all her goodness, and although I likewise had to boast of the good-will of my superiors, and of the friendship of several persons of distinction; notwithstanding I lived in the bosom of my family, with a father and mother universally respected, whose affections were all my own, and which my heart returned; yet, after all, it was with great difficulty I restrained the eager wish of my soul to go and throw myself at the

feet of my foster-sister; and this desire made me uneasy while any thing appeared to smile around me.

The death of the Empress-Queen overwhelmed me with grief, and was followed by that of several persons highly deserving of my veneration as well as of my gratitude; at length, not only my pension, but that of my mother also, were both alike involved in the reform which the new administration carried into execution.-I was, however, well aware that Joseph II. trusted to the generous heart of MARIA-ANTOINETTA to make our losses up to us. The distressing nature of my grief, the necessity of improving my circumstances, the duty which I owed my parents, the pressing intreaties of my friends, all combined to strengthen that sort of natural inclination which I felt to go to France, were it to be only for a few months. I decided at once upon my plan, and, while I was meditating upon the means of putting it into execution, an opportunity offered itself at one of the grand entertainments given at Vienna, in honour of the birth of the Dauphin of France, the first son of Louis XVI, who died a few years after, from the effects of inoculation, at the chateau of Meudon.

The reader may here expect to find several pages filled with slight incidents, but they are such as will give authenticity to my narrative. It consists of circumftances which caused me to be an eye-witness of the French Revolution, and most of which serve to manifest the Queen's goodness.

The public feast I have just mentioned, and which was one of the most magnificent entertainments ever seen in Germany, was given by his Excellency M. the Baron de Breteuil, who, while at the Imperial Court, acquitted himself with so much propriety as representative of the greatness and dignity of the French Monarch.

The Ambaffador had ordered it to be announced, that all those who were desirous of having tickets should send an account of their names, quality, and places of abode, to the secre tary of the embassy's office. I requested four tickets for the Queen's nurse, her husband, and her children. My mother was agreeably surprised by the receipt of a most obliging letter from the Baron de Breteuil, containing an invitation in form, and acquainting her, that he had ordered to be reserved for her a table of twelve covers,

and that she was at liberty to fill up the other places as she should think proper. Highly sensible of a distinction so flattering to us all, we went together a few days after the entertainment to pay our acknowledgments. I spoke for the rest, and concluded my address of thanks, by expressing to M. the Ambassador the irresistible desire I felt to make a journey to Versailles; I begged his protection to aid me in carrying my design into execution. He assured me of it in the most unreserved manner, and was profuse in his kind expressions to my parents, speaking to them of the Queen in the same strain of admiration and affection as they themselves always did-then turning to me, he said, "As for you, my dear Weber, endeavour to "obtain leave of absence from the Emperor, " and I take upon myself to provide for you " when you come to France."

This permission, so necessary to be first obtained from the Emperor, was a matter of some difficult accomplishment. I at first spoke only of three month's leave. The Prince de Kaunitz and the Count de Blumegen interceded for me. At length I carried with me to the Baron de Bretuil a decree, containing the Emperor's permission to pass three months in France.

The Ambassador sat down immediately to his writing-desk, and wrote, while I was present, two letters, one to the Abbé de Vermont, reader to the Queen, and the other to M. Genet, at the head of the interpreter's office in the foreign department; these he put into my hands, unsealed, with the following words" Do you yourself "read, Sir, what I have this moment written on

your account," and he requested me to go to the secretary's office to seal and direct them my self. I know not how more kindness could be added to so much courteous attention.

The Prince de Kaunitz also gave me a letter for the Count de Merie; Madame, the Countess de Brandeis, put into my hands one for her august pupil, MARIA-ANTOINETTA; and on the 16th of October, 1782, I threw myself at the feet of the Queen in the palace of La Muette.

No sooner was she informed of my arrival than she granted me an audience: the instant she saw me, she exclaimed, with an artless kindness of expression, "Good day to you, my fos"ter-brother." She then talked of my mother, with very great tenderness, and of my whole family, and after many questions about Vienna, "We shall meet again," said she; " and I am