The Life of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France | Page 8

closely an alliance which she had contracted some years before, and on
which she prided herself the more because it had terminated an enmity
of two centuries and a half. From the day on which Charles V,
prevailed over Francis I. in the competition for the imperial crown, the
attitude of the Emperor of Germany and of the King of France to each
other had been one of mutual hostility, which, with but rare exceptions,
had been greatly in favor of the latter country. The very first years of
Maria Teresa's own reign had been imbittered by the union of France
with Prussia in a war which had deprived her of an extensive province;
and she regarded it as one of the great triumphs of Austrian diplomacy
to have subsequently won over the French ministry to exchange the
friendship of Frederick of Prussia for her own, and to engage as her ally
in a war which had for its object the recovery of the lost Silesia. Silesia
was not recovered. But she still clung to the French alliance as fondly
as if the objects which she had originally hoped to gain by it had been
fully accomplished; and, as the heir to the French monarchy was very
nearly of the same age as the young archduchess, she began to entertain
hopes of uniting the two royal families by a marriage which should
render the union between the two nations indissoluble. She mentioned
the project to some of the French visitors at her court, whom she
thought likely to repeat her conversation on their return to their own
country. She took care that reports of her daughter's beauty should from
time to time reach the ears of Louis XV. She had her picture painted by
French artists. She made a proficiency in the French language the
principal object of her education; bringing over some French actors to
Vienna to instruct her in the graces of elocution, and subsequently
establishing as her chief tutor a French ecclesiastic, the Abbé de
Vermond, a man of extensive learning, of excellent judgment, and of
most conscientious integrity. The appointment would have been in
every respect a most fortunate one, had it not been suggested by
Loménie de Brienne, Archbishop of Toulouse, who thus laid the abbé
under an obligation which was requited, to the great injury of France,
nearly twenty years afterward, when M. de Vermond, who still
remained about the person of his royal mistress, had an opportunity of
exerting his influence to make the archbishop prime minister.

Not that her studies were confined to French. Metastasio taught her
Italian; Gluck, whose recently published opera of "Orfeo" had,
established for him a reputation as one of the greatest musicians of the
age, gave her lessons on the harpsichord. But we fear it can not be said
that she obtained any high degree of excellence in these or in any other
accomplishments. She was not inclined to study; and, with the
exception of the abbé, her masters and mistresses were too courtly to be
peremptory with an archduchess. Their favorable reports to the
Empress-queen were indeed neutralized by the frankness with which
their pupil herself confessed her idleness and failure to improve. But
Maria Teresa was too much absorbed in politics to give much heed to
the confession, or to insist on greater diligence; though at a later day
Marie Antoinette herself repented of her neglect, and did her best to
repair it, taking lessons in more than one accomplishment with great
perseverance during the first years of her residence at Versailles,
because, as she expressed herself, the dauphiness was bound to take
care of the character of the archduchess.
There are, however, lessons of greater importance to a child than any
which are given by even the most accomplished masters--those which
flow from the example of a virtuous and sensible mother; and those the
young archduchess showed a greater aptitude for learning. Maria
Teresa had set an example not only to her own family, but to all
sovereigns, among whom principles and practices such as hers had
hitherto been little recognized, of regarding an attention to the personal
welfare of all her subjects, even of those of the lowest class, as among
the most imperative of her duties. She had been accessible to all. She
had accustomed the peasantry to accost her in her walks; she had
visited their cottages to inquire into and relieve their wants. And the
little Antoinette, who, more than any other of her children, seems to
have taken her for an especial model, had thus, from her very earliest
childhood, learned to feel a friendly interest in the well-doing of the
people in general; to think no one too lowly for her notice, to
sympathize with sorrow, to be indignant