Memoirs of Maria Antoinetta ... queen of France and Navarre, tr. by R.C. Dallas

Front Cover

From inside the book

Selected pages

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 98 - Little did I dream when she added titles of veneration to those of enthusiastic, distant, respectful love, that she should ever be obliged to carry the sharp antidote against disgrace concealed in that bosom ; little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fallen upon her in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honour and of cavaliers. I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards to avenge even 192 a look that threatened her with insult.
Page 98 - I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards to avenge even a look that threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists, and calculators, has succeeded; and the glory of Europe is extinguished for ever.
Page 98 - Never, never more, shall we behold that generous loyalty to rank and sex, that proud submission, that dignified obedience, that subordination of the heart which kept alive, even in servitude itself, the spirit of an exalted freedom. The unbought grace of life, the cheap defence of nations, the nurse of manly sentiment and heroic enterprise is gone.
Page 97 - It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then the dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision.
Page 98 - It is gone, that sensibility of principle, that chastity of honour, which felt a stain like a wound, which inspired courage whilst it mitigated ferocity, which ennobled whatever it touched, and under which vice itself lost half its evil, by losing all its grossness.
Page 97 - Versailles; and surely never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she just began to move in -glittering like the morning-star, full of life, and splendor, and joy. Oh! what a revolution! and what an heart must I have, to contemplate without emotion that elevation and that fall!
Page 417 - Ac, veluti magno in populo cum saepe coorta est Seditio, saevitque animis ignobile vulgus, Jamque faces et saxa volant; furor arma ministrat; Turn, pietate gravem ac mentis si forte virum quern Conspexere, silent, arrectisque auribus adstant; Ille regit dictis animos, et pectora mulcet ; Sic cunctus pelagi cecidit fragor, aequora postquam Prospiciens genitor, caeloque invectus aperto, Flectit equos, curruque volans dat lora secundo.
Page 133 - Ere thou go, Give up thy staff': Henry will to himself Protector be ; and God shall be my hope, My stay, my guide, and lanthorn to my feet. And go in peace, Humphrey ; no less belov'd Than when thou wert Protector to thy King.
Page 67 - Here they were placed, as it is the custom of the country, on rich carpets marked with gold and silver flowers. The king and queen were seated at the upper end of the room; and a number of dishes were brought in for dinner. They had not sat long, when a vast number of rats and mice rushed in, helping themselves from almost every dish. The captain wondered at this, and asked if these vermin were not very unpleasant. "Oh, yes...
Page 61 - The king was very fond of mechanicks, and his usual work of recreation was making of locks. The company of locksmiths, belonging to Versailles, came upon this happy occasion to pay their dutiful congratulations, presenting him at the same time with a production of their trade, which they denominated a matterpiece.

Bibliographic information