taking long country rides, as she was fond of
horse-exercise. At last, when she was full of gratitude for her
brother's kindness, he begged her to promise not to become a nun before
she was thirty, when, if she still wished it, he would make no further
opposition. She promised. We shall see, by-and-by, what became of this
sweet princess when she was thirty.

She was at this time twenty-three years old. She was a great comfort to
the queen, not concealing from her that she thought the Dauphin was
dying, and the nation growing very savage against the royal family; but
endeavouring to console and strengthen her mind, as religious people are
always the best able to do. The poor queen began to want comfort much.
She went to bed very late now, because she could not sleep; and a little
anecdote shows that her anxieties made her again as superstitious as she
had formerly been, when she dreaded misfortune because she was born on
the day of the great earthquake at Lisbon.

On the table of her dressing-room, four large wax candles were burning
one evening. Before they had burned half-way down, one of them went
out. The lady-in-waiting lighted it. A second went out immediately,
and then a third. The queen in terror grasped the lady's arm, saying,
"If the fourth goes out, I shall be certain that it is all over with
us." The fourth went out. In vain the lady observed that these four
candles had probably been all run in the same mould, and had therefore
the same fault. The queen allowed this to be reasonable, but was still
much impressed by the circumstance.

For one of the impending evils there was no remedy. The Dauphin died
the next June, when the Duke of Normandy, then four years old, became
Dauphin. It may give some idea of the formality of the court
proceedings to mention that, when a deputation of the magistrates of
Paris came, according to custom, to view the lying-in-state, the usher
of the late Dauphin announced to the dead body, as he threw open the
folding-doors, that the magistrates of Paris had come to pay their
respects.

VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER THREE.

THE DAUPHIN LOSES HIS GOVERNESS.

Little Louis had no cause to rejoice in his new honours. Much more
observance was paid to him within the palace, now that he had become
heir to the throne; but out of doors all was confusion: and five weeks
from his brother's death had not passed before the little prince had to
endure one of those fits of terror of