To forget the country might pass: but to insult it was too much; it would take revenge.
From that moment discipline was at an end: the privates hobnobbed with their superiors, and it was really a brotherly meeting.
What a pity that the unfortunate King and sorrowful Queen could not witness such a gathering!
Officious servants ran with exaggerated accounts of the festivities to Marie Antoinette and urged that she should go with the young heir to the throne by her side, in the monarch's absence.
"Madam, I entreat you to keep away," pleaded Count Charny. "I have come away from the scene; they are too excited to make it seemly for your Majesty."
She was in one of her sulky, whimsical moods and it suited her to tease Charny by going counter to his advice. She looked at him with disdain and was going to answer him tartly when he respectfully said:
"At least, see what the King says about it."
The King had just returned from hunting.
Marie Antoinette ran to meet him and dragging him with her, in his riding boots and dusty as he was, she led him away, without a glance at Charny, and crying:
"Come, my lord, to see a sight worthy of a King of France's regard!"