Maria Antoinette: Makers of HistoryAbbott, John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot)
History
Maria Antoinette: Makers of History
Abbott, John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot)
Marie Antoinette, Queen, consort of Louis XVI, King of France, 1755-1793
Time, however, will diminish the poignancy of every sorrow save those of
remorse. Maria was now again in a regal palace, surrounded with every
luxury which earth could confer. She was young and beautiful. She was
beloved, and almost adored. Every monarch, every prince, every
embassador from a foreign court, delighted to pay her especial honor. No
heart throbbed near her but with the desire to render her some
compensation for the wrongs and the woes which had fallen upon her
youthful and guileless heart. Wherever she appeared, she was greeted
with love and homage. Those who had never seen her would willingly peril
their lives in any way to serve her. Thus was she raised to
consideration, and enshrined in the affections of every soul retaining
one spark of noble feeling. The past receded farther and farther from
her view, the present arose more and more vividly before the eye. Joy
gradually returned to that bosom from which it had so long been a
stranger. The flowers bloomed beautifully before her eyes, the birds
sung melodiously in her ears. The fair face of creation, with mountain,
vale, and river, beguiled her thoughts, and introduced images of peace
and beauty to dispel the hideous phantoms of dungeons and misery. The
morning drive around the beautiful metropolis; the evening serenade; the
moonlight sail; and, above all, the voice of _love_, reanimated her
heart, and roused her affections from the tomb in which they so long had
slumbered. The smile of youth, though still pensive and melancholy,
began to illumine her saddened features. Hope of future joy rose to
cheer her. The Duc d'Angouleme, son of Charles X., sought her as his
bride, and she was led in tranquil happiness to the altar, feeling as
few can feel the luxury of being tenderly beloved.
Upon the fall of Napoleon she returned to France with the Bourbon
family, and again moved, with smiles of sadness, among the brilliant
throng crowding the palaces of her ancestors. The Revolution of 1830,
which drove the Bourbons again from the throne of France, drove Maria
Theresa, now Duchesse d'Angouleme, again into exile. She resided for a
time with her husband in the Castle of Holyrood, in Scotland, under the
name of the Count and Countess of Main; but the climate being too severe
for her constitution, she left that region for Vienna. There she was
received with every possible demonstration of respect and affection. She
now resides in the imperial castle of Prague, a venerated widow, having
passed through three-score years and ten of a more varied life than is
often experienced by mortals. Even to the present hour, her furrowed
cheeks retain the traces, in their pensive expression, of the sorrow
which darkened her early years.
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Transcriber's note:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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