CHAPTER XIV.
Birth of Madame Royale .-- Festivities of Thanksgiving .-- The Dames de la Halle at the Theatre .-- Thanksgiving at Notre Dame .-- The King goes to a Bal d'Opera .-- The Queen's Carriage breaks down .-- Marie Antoinette has the Measles .-- Her Anxiety about the War .-- Retrenchments of Expense.
Mercy, while deploring the occasional levity of the queen's conduct, and her immoderate thirst for amusement, had constantly looked forward to the birth of a child as the event which, by the fresh and engrossing occupation it would afford to her mind, would be the surest remedy for her juvenile heedlessness.

And, as we have seen, the absence of any prospect of becoming a mother had, till recently, been a constant source of anxiety and vexation to the queen herself--the one drop of bitterness in her cup, which, but for that, would have been filled with delights.

But this disappointment was now to pass away.

From the moment that it was publicly announced that the queen was in the way to become a mother, one general desire seemed to prevail to show how deep an interest the whole nation felt in the event.

In cathedrals, monasteries, abbeys, universities, and parish churches, masses were celebrated and prayers offered for her safe delivery.