ect in their adversity. The great original quarrel
with the king, it will be remembered, was on matters of finance,--about
the vast debts of the State, and the choice of a minister who would
wisely endeavour to reduce these debts, and at the same time to relieve
the people from some of the pressure of taxation. Towards the end of
this year, 1790, the Assembly had decreed the discharge of the debts of
the State; and (whether or not they might prove able to execute what
they decreed) the people were highly delighted. It was the custom to
serenade the royal family on New Year's morning. On this New Year's
day, the band of the National Guard played under the king's windows an
opera air which went to the words, "But our creditors are paid, and we
are consoled." They would play nothing but this air; and finished it,
stopped and resumed, over and over again. They might have been very
sure that the king knew what they meant by playing it at all.

Another New Year's day custom was to present gifts to the royal
children. On this day, some grenadiers of the Parisian guard came,
preceded by military music, to offer a gift to the Dauphin. This gift
was a set of dominoes made of the stone and marble of which parts of the
Bastille had been built. On the lid of the box were engraved some
verses, of which the sense was as follows:--

"These stones of the walls which enclosed so many innocent victims of
arbitrary power, have been made into a toy, to be offered to your
Highness, as a token of the love of the people, and a lesson as to their
strength."

The queen would not allow her son to have this toy. She took it from
him, and gave it into the hands of one of her ladies, desiring her to
preserve it as a curious sign of the times.

If the royal family received insults from people who could not feel for
them, it was equally true that their adherents exasperated the feelings
of persons who quite as little deserved insult. Such was the effect of
mutual prejudice. General Lafayette, still in hopes of bringing the
opposing parties to some understanding, frequently went to the palace of
the Tuileries, where now, during the winter, the royal family were once
more established. As there was little use in conversing with the king
about affairs, these interviews were generally with the queen,--a fact
which prevents our wondering much at the common accusation that the
queen meddled with the government, and did mischief by it. One da