rivolous and imprudent,
she was flattered and admired; as soon as she became absolutely
irreproachable, she was overwhelmed with harsh judgments and
expressions of ill will. The first period was during the first years
of the reign of Louis XVI., while he was still all-powerful and
popular; the second phase of her character developed during the
trying days of the king's first fall into disfavor and his ultimate
imprisonment and death. From this account of her career, it will be
seen that Marie Antoinette, as dauphiness and queen, was rather the
victim of fate and the invidious intrigues of a depraved court
than herself an instigator and promulgator of the extravagance and
dissipation of which she was accused.

We must remember the atmosphere into which Marie Antoinette was thrust
upon her arrival in France. One of the first to sup with her was that
most licentious of all royal mistresses, Mme. du Barry, who asked
for the privilege of dining with the new princess--a favor which the
dissipated and weak king granted. Louis XV. was nothing more than
a slave to vice and his mistresses. The king's daughters--Mmes.
Adelaide, Victoire, and Sophie--were pious but narrow-minded women,
resolutely hostile to Mme. du Barry and intriguing against her. The
Comtes de Provence and d'Artois were both pleasure-loving princes of
doubtful character; their sisters--Mmes. Clotilde and Elisabeth--had
no importance. The family was divided against itself, each member
being jealous of the others. The dauphin, being of a retiring
disposition and of a close and self-contained nature, did little to
add to the happiness of the young princess. Thus, she was literally
forced to depend upon her own resources for pleasure and amusement and
was at the mercy of the court, which was never more divided than in
about 1770--the time of her appearance.

At that time there were two parties--the Choiseul, or Austrian,
party, and those who opposed the policy of Choiseul, especially in
the expulsion of the Jesuits; the latter were called the party of the
_devots_ and were led by Chancellor Maupeau and the Duc d'Aiguillon.
This faction, with the mistress--Mme. du Barry--as the motive power,
soon broke up the power of Choiseul. The young and innocent foreign
princess, unschooled in intrigue and politics, could not escape both
political parties; upon her entrance into the French court, she was
immediately classed with one or the other of these rival factions
and thu