'Mademoiselle de Lamballe can be no hindrance to your speaking, my lord,' said the queen; 'you have some news from Versailles.' 'I have,' answered the bishop. 'Good or bad? but,' added Marie Antoinette, shaking her beautiful head, 'of course bad.' 'Very bad; indeed, most serious,' said the prelate. 'And my influence with the king is wanted?' 'My royal mistress, unless that influence which your virtue and your charms unite to make irresistible, be exerted to the uttermost, everything will be lost.' 'What is the news, then?' she asked, somewhat impatiently, for the fulsome flattery of the bishop was too much even for her to endure. 'I have just received news by special messenger from the cardinal, that the clergy are resolved on uniting with the Commons. He says----' the bishop drew a letter from his pocket; 'he says:--"I will do the best I can to protract the business, so as to postpone the vote till to-morrow, but I have no hope of putting it off later. The Abbé Maury is speaking against time, and that demagogue Lindet, your Évreux man, is branching off into all kinds of irrelevant subjects; but I insist, the union will be voted by a majority; I leave it to you to communicate with her majesty and consider whether a bold stroke of policy is not the only resource left us. The Archbishop of Paris and I shall post to Marly the moment we are released." Such is his message; and I venture to express my humble opinion that it contains a warning of the most serious description.' 'And if the union does take place?' said the queen, stamping her foot on the gravel, and plucking at a rose in the bouquet she had selected. 'If the union takes place, everything goes. Remember, M. Necker persuaded his majesty to consent to the doubling of the Third Estate. Therefore, the Commons will have a majority over the two other orders; and remember that, once united with the Commons, more than half the clergy will oppose all privileges and break down all rights, so that the last check is removed from the Assembly, which seems to me to be whirling down-hill into sheer democracy as fast as it can go.' 'Go on,' said the queen, pouting. 'The fault lay with M. Necker at the first, in giving to the Commons a double representation.' 'I always thought so,' exclaimed Marie Antoinette.