scension. Forgive me if this
sounds proud. Worse is to follow. I cannot tell of the incredible favor
of these exalted personages without seeming to be vain. But you well
know that I am not vain.

"About eleven o'clock, a man-servant, dressed in gorgeous livery, came
and told us to follow him. He led us through a great many frescoed
corridors and splendid rooms into a small apartment which was made even
smaller by a Spanish screen placed across it. We were told to wait
there. In a few moments, the Mistress of Ceremonies came. She was very
gracious to us. In a little while, her Majesty entered followed by the
three Princesses. My husband and myself each sank upon the left knee and
kissed the noblest, the most beautiful hand that has ever wielded a
sceptre. The Empress gently bade us rise. Her face and her gracious
manner banished all the timidity and embarrassment we naturally felt in
the presence of so exalted and beautiful a figure as hers. Our fear was
changed to love and confidence. Her Majesty told my husband that she was
afraid to speak German before the Master of that language. 'Our Austrian
dialect is very bad, they say' she added.

"To which my man answered that, fourteen years before, when he listened
to her address at the opening of the Landtag, he had been struck by the
beauty and purity of her German. She spoke, on that occasion, he said,
like a goddess.

"Then the Empress laughed merrily, saying, ''Tis lucky I was not aware
of your presence or I should have been so frightened that I should have
stopped short in my speech.' She asked me how it happened that I became
so learned a woman. I replied, 'I wished to become worthy of the honor
that has this day befallen me in meeting your Majesty. This will forever
be a red-letter day in my life.'

"Her Majesty said, 'You are too modest. I well know that the most
learned woman in Germany stands before me.' My answer to that was,
'According to my opinion, the most learned woman, not of Germany only,
but of all Europe, stands before me as Empress.'

"Her Majesty shook her head. 'Ah, no,' she said, 'my familiar
acquaintance with that woman forces me to say you are mistaken.'"

Maria Theresa's husband joined the group and chatted most affably. Some
of the younger children were called in and properly reverenced. Then the
empress asked the visitors if they would like to see her remaining
babies, upstairs. Of course, the Gottscheds were enchanted at the
thought. Foll