The Life of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France | Page 6

We meet with her first, at an age scarcely advanced beyond childhood,
transported from her school-room to a foreign court, as wife to the heir
of one of the noblest kingdoms of Europe. And in that situation we see
her for a while a light-hearted, merry girl, annoyed rather than elated by
her new magnificence; thoughtless, if not frivolous, in her pursuits;
fond of dress; eager in her appetite for amusement, tempered only by an
innate purity of feeling which never deserted her; the brightest features
of her character being apparently a frank affability, and a genuine and
active kindness and humanity which were displayed to all classes and
on all occasions. We see her presently as queen, hardly yet arrived at
womanhood, little changed in disposition or in outward demeanor,
though profiting to the utmost by the opportunities which her increased
power afforded her of proving the genuine tenderness of her heart, by
munificent and judicious works of charity and benevolence; and
exerting her authority, if possible, still more beneficially by protecting
virtue, discountenancing vice, and purifying a court whose shameless
profligacy had for many generations been the scandal of Christendom.
It is probable, indeed, that much of her early levity was prompted by a
desire to drive from her mind disappointments and mortifications of
which few suspected the existence, but which were only the more
keenly felt because she was compelled to keep them to herself; but it is
certain that during the first eight or ten years of her residence in France
there was little in her habits and conduct, however amiable and
attractive, which could have led her warmest friends to discern in her
the high qualities which she was destined to exhibit before its close.
Presently, however, she becomes a mother; and in this new relation we
begin to perceive glimpses of a loftier nature. From the moment of the
birth of her first child, she performed those new duties which, perhaps
more than any others, call forth all the best and most peculiar virtues of
the female heart in such a manner as to add esteem and respect to the

good-will which her affability and courtesy had already inspired;
recognizing to the full the claims which the nation had upon her, that
she should, in person, superintend the education of her children, and
especially of her son as its future ruler; and discharging that sacred duty,
not only with the most affectionate solicitude, but also with the most
admirable judgment.
But years so spent were years of happiness; and, though such may
suffice to display the amiable virtues, it is by adversity that the grander
qualities of the head and heart are more strikingly drawn forth. To the
trials of that stern inquisitress, Marie Antoinette was fully exposed in
her later years; and not only did she rise above them, but the more
terrible and unexampled they were, the more conspicuous was the
superiority of her mind to fortune. It is no exaggeration to say that the
history of the whole world has preserved no record of greater heroism,
in either sex, than was shown by Marie Antoinette during the closing
years of her life. No courage was ever put to the proof by such a variety
and such an accumulation of dangers and miseries; and no one ever
came out of an encounter with even far inferior calamities with greater
glory. Her moral courage and her physical courage were equally tried.
It was not only that her own life, and lives far dearer to her than her
own, were exposed to daily and hourly peril, or that to this danger were
added repeated vexations of hopes baffled and trusts betrayed; but these
griefs were largely aggravated by the character and conduct of those
nearest to her. Instead of meeting with counsel and support from her
husband and his brothers, she had to guide and support Louis himself,
and even to find him so incurably weak as to be incapable of being kept
in the path of wisdom by her sagacity, or of deriving vigor from her
fortitude; while the princes were acting in selfish and disloyal
opposition to him, and so, in a great degree, sacrificing him and her to
their perverse conceit, if we may not say to their faithless ambition. She
had to think for all, to act for all, to struggle for all; and to beat up
against the conviction that her thoughts, and actions, and struggles were
being balked of their effect by the very persona for whom she was
exerting herself; that she was but laboring to save those who would not
be saved. Yet, throughout that protracted agony of more than four years
she bore herself with an unswerving righteousness of purpose and an

unfaltering fearlessness of resolution which