The suppers took place.

He and the queen themselves made out the lists of the guests to be invited, the men being named by him, and the ladies being selected by the queen.

They were a great success; and, as the history of the affair became known, the court and the Parisians generally rejoiced in the queen's triumph, and were grateful to her for this as for every other innovation which had a tendency to break down the haughty barrier which, during the last two reigns, had been established between the sovereign and his subjects.

Nor were these pleasant informal parties the only instances in which, great inroads were made on the old etiquette.

The Comte de Mirabeau, a man fatally connected in subsequent years with some of the most terrible of the insults which were offered to the royal family, about this time described etiquette as a system invented for the express purpose of blunting the capacity of the French princes, and fixing them in position of complete dependence.