f all fear of his aunts; but they were
luckily absent, so he yielded to the influence which was nearest. The
suppers took place. He and the queen themselves made out the lists of the
guests to be invited, the men being named by him, and the ladies being
selected by the queen. They were a great success; and, as the history of
the affair became known, the court and the Parisians generally rejoiced in
the queen's triumph, and were grateful to her for this as for every other
innovation which had a tendency to break down the haughty barrier which,
during the last two reigns, had been established between the sovereign and
his subjects. Nor were these pleasant informal parties the only instances
in which, great inroads were made on the old etiquette. The Comte de
Mirabeau, a man fatally connected in subsequent years with some of the
most terrible of the insults which were offered to the royal family, about
this time described etiquette as a system invented for the express purpose
of blunting the capacity of the French princes, and fixing them in
position of complete dependence. And Marie Antoinette seems to have
regarded it with similar eyes; her dislike of it being quickened by the
expectations which its partisans and champions entertained that her every
movement was to be regulated by it. And its requirements were sufficiently
burdensome to tax a far better-trained patience that was natural to one
who though a queen, was not yet nineteen. Not only was no guest of the
male sex, except the king, allowed to sit at table with her, but no
man-servant, no male officer of her household, might be present when the
king and she dined together, as indeed usually happened; even his
presence could not sanction the introduction of any other man. The lady
of honor, on her knees, though in full dress, presented him the napkin
to wipe his fingers and filled his glass; ladies in waiting in the same
grand attire changed the plates of the royal pair; and after dinner, as
indeed throughout the day, the queen could not quit one room in the
palace for another, unless some of her ladies were at hand in complete
court dress to attend upon her.[5] These usages, which were in reality
so many chains to restrain all freedom, and to render comfort
impossible, were abolished in the first few months of the new reign;
but, little as was the foundation which they had in common sense, and
equally little as was the addition which they made to the royal dignity,