He had called his people together, she said, to ask their pardon.

"For what ?" replied the Queen, sharply; "he has placed and pensioned off all his servants; it was of the King and his brothers that the holy man you bewail should have asked pardon, for having paid so little attention to the education of princes on whom the fate and happiness of twenty-five millions of men depend.
Luckily," added she, "the King and his brothers, still young, have incessantly laboured to repair the errors of their preceptor." The progress of time, and the confidence with which the King and the Princes, his brothers, were inspired by the change in their situation since the death of Louis XV., had developed their characters.

I will endeavour to depict them.
The features of Louis XVI.

were noble enough, though somewhat melancholy in expression; his walk was heavy and unmajestic; his person greatly neglected; his hair, whatever might be the skill of his hairdresser, was soon in disorder.

His voice, without being harsh, was not agreeable; if he grew animated in speaking he often got above his natural pitch, and became shrill.