n the royal presence, with a sofa for the
Queen's use, were placed against the walls, according to the formal
custom of the time. The canopy of the bed was adorned with Cupids
playing with garlands and holding gilt lilies, the royal flower."

Other rooms prepared for the Queen faced an inner court, and here with
music, small talk and embroidery she spent contented moments, remote from
the demands of her high estate.

Usually the mistress of Versailles was wakened at eight o'clock by a lady
of the bedchamber, whose first duty it was to proffer a ponderous volume
containing samples of the dresses that were in the royal wardrobe. Marie
Antoinette marked with pins, taken from an embroidered cushion, the
costumes she wished to put on for the various events of the day--the
brocaded and hooped Court dress for the morning mass, the negligee to be
worn during leisure hours in her own living rooms, and the gown to be
donned for evening festivities. These vital matters determined, the
Queen proceeded with her bath and her breakfast of chocolate and rolls.
She was accustomed then to return to bed, and, with her tapestry-work in
hand, receive various persons attached to her service. Physicians,
reader, secretary, came to ask her wishes and do her bidding. At noon
followed the "rising," and the stately progress of the Queen and her
attendants through the Salon of Peace to the dazzling Hall of Mirrors,
where the King awaited her on his way to chapel. Often at this hour
there were admitted to the Grand Gallery of Mirrors respectful groups of
commoners, who gathered to watch the passing of the gracious Marie
Antoinette beside the husband whose uncouth gait and features were ever
in forbidding contrast to her own comely bearing.

Amid all the follies and splendors of life at Versailles appeared the
sturdy American figure of Dr. Benjamin Franklin. In the year 1767 he was
presented at Court on the occasion of his first visit to Paris.

"You see," said he, in a letter to Miss Stevenson, daughter of his
landlady in London, "I speak of the Queen as if I had seen her; and so I
have, for you must know I have been at Court. We went to Versailles last
Sunday, and had the honor of being presented to the King, Louis XV. In
the evening we were at the _Grand Convert_, where the family sup in
public. The table was half a hollow square, the service of gold. . . .
An officer of the Court brought us up through the crowd of spectators,
and pl