A QUEEN WHO REFUSED TO BE PAINTED -- A FOUR-COURSE DINNER OF FROGS, FROGS, FROGS AND FROGS -- VILLEGGIATURA -- FRENCH REFUGEES AT TURIN -- THEIR HEARTRENDING PLIGHT -- VIENNA -- NEWS OF THE "AWFUL MURDER" OF LOUIS XVI. AND MARIE ANTOINETTE -- BAREFOOT PRINCESS LICHTENSTEIN -- INDUCEMENTS TO VISIT RUSSIA -- JOURNEY THITHER VIA DRESDEN -- THE SISTINE MADONNA. Meanwhile, it being my desire to see France again, I reached Turin with this end in view. The two aunts of Louis XVI. had been kind enough to give me letters to Clotilda, Queen of Sardinia, their niece. They sent word that they very much wished to have a portrait done by me, and consequently, as soon as I was settled, I presented myself before Her Majesty. She received me very well after reading the letters of Princess Adelaide and Princess Victoria. She told me that she regretted having to refuse her aunts, but that, having renounced the world altogether, she must decline being painted. What I saw indeed seemed quite in accord with her statement and her resolve. The Queen of Sardinia had her hair cut short and wore on her head a little cap, which, like the rest of her garb, was the simplest conceivable. Her leanness struck me particularly, as I had seen her when she was very young, before her marriage, when her stoutness was so pronounced that she was called "Fat Milady" in France. Be it that this change was caused by too austere religious practices, or by the sufferings which the misfortunes of her family had made her undergo, the fact was that she had altered beyond recognition. The King joined her in the room where she received me. He was likewise so pale and thin that it was painful to look at them together.