dangers to
admit her of applying herself to reading; the needle was the only
employment which could divert her.

[There was long preserved at Paris, in the house of Mademoiselle
Dubuquois, a tapestry-worker, a carpet worked by the Queen and Madame
Elisabeth for the large room of her Majesty's ground-floor apartments at
the Tuileries. The Empress Josephine saw and admired this carpet, and
desired it might be taken care of, in the hope of one day sending it to
Madame--MADAME CAMPAN.]

She received the Court twice a week before going to mass, and on those
days dined in public with the King; she spent the rest of the time with
her family and children; she had no concert, and did not go to the play
until 1791, after the acceptation of the constitution. The Princesse de
Lamballe, however, had some evening parties in her apartments at the
Tuileries, which were tolerably brilliant in consequence of the great
number of persons who attended them. The Queen was present at a few of
these assemblies; but being soon convinced that her present situation
forbade her appearing much in public, she remained at home, and conversed
as she sat at work. The sole topic of her discourse was, as may well be
supposed, the Revolution. She sought to discover the real opinions of the
Parisians respecting her, and how she could have so completely lost the
affections of the people, and even of many persons in the higher ranks.
She well knew that she ought to impute the whole to the spirit of party,
to the hatred of the Duc d'Orleans, and the folly of the French, who
desired to have a total change in the constitution; but she was not the
less desirous of ascertaining the private feelings of all the people in
power.

From the very commencement of the Revolution General Luckner indulged in
violent sallies against her. Her Majesty, knowing that I was acquainted
with a lady who had been long connected with the General, desired me to
discover through that channel what was the private motive on which
Luckner's hatred against her was founded. On being questioned upon this
point, he answered that Marechal de Segur had assured him he had proposed
him for the command of a camp of observation, but that the Queen had made
a bar against his name; and that this 'par', as he called it, in his
German accent, he could not forget.

The Queen ordered me to repeat this reply to the King myself, and said to
him: "See, Sire, whether I was not right in telling you