amber for accounts, a table, pantry, kitchen, and wine-cellars, a
fruitery, a fourriere, a common kitchen, a cabinet, a council;[2109] she
would feel that she was not a princess without all this. There are
274 appointments in the household of the Duc d'Orleans, 210 in that of
Mesdames, 68 in that of Madame Elisabeth, 239 in that of the Comtesse
d'Artois, 256 in that of the Comtesse de Provence, and 496 in that of
the Queen. When the formation of a household for Madame Royale, one
month old, is necessary, "the queen," writes the Austrian ambassador,
"desires to suppress a baneful indolence, a useless affluence of
attendants, and every practice tending to give birth to sentiments of
pride. In spite of the said retrenchment the household of the young
princess is to consist of nearly eighty persons destined to the sole
service of her Royal Highness."[2110] The civil household of Monsieur
comprises 420 appointments, his military household, 179; that of the
Comte d'Artois 237 and his civil household 456.--Three-fourths of them
are for display; with their embroideries and laces, their unembarrassed
and polite expression, their attentive and discreet air, their easy way
of saluting, walking and smiling, they appear well in an antechamber,
placed in lines, or scattered in groups in a gallery; I should have
liked to contemplate even the stable and kitchen array, the figures
filling up the background of the picture. By these stars of inferior
magnitude we may judge of the splendor of the royal sun.
The king must have guards, infantry, cavalry, body-guards, French
guardsmen, Swiss guardsmen, Cent Suisses, light-horse guards, gendarmes
of the guard, gate-guardsmen, in all, 9,050 men,[2111] costing annually
7,681,000 livres. Four companies of the French guard, and two of the
Swiss guard, parade every day in the court of the ministers between the
two railings, and when the king issues in his carriage to go to Paris or
Fontainebleau the spectacle is magnificent. Four trumpeters in front and
four behind, the Swiss guards on one side and the French guards on the
other, form a line as far as it can reach.[2112] The Cent Suisses march
ahead of the horsemen in the costume of the sixteenth century, wearing
the halberd, ruff, plumed hat, and the ample parti-colored striped
doublet; alongside of these are the provost-guard with scarlet facings
and gold frogs, and companies of yeomanry bristling with gold and
silver. The officers of the various
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