CHAPTER I.
Importance of Marie Antoinette in the Revolution .-- Value of her Correspondence as a Means of estimating her Character .-- Her Birth, November 2d, 1755 .-- Epigram of Metastasio .-- Habits of the Imperial Family .-- Schoenbrunn .-- Death of the Emperor .-- Projects for the Marriage of the Archduchess .-- Her Education .-- The Abbe de Vermond .-- Metastasio .-- Gluck.
The most striking event in the annals of modern Europe is unquestionably the French Revolution of 1789--a Revolution which, in one sense, may be said to be still in progress, but which, is a more limited view, may be regarded as having been, consummated by the deposition and murder of the sovereign of the country.

It is equally undeniable that, during its first period, the person who most attracts and rivets attention is the queen.
One of the moat brilliant of modern French writers[1] has recently remarked that, in spite of the number of years which have elapsed since the grave closed over the sorrows of Marie Antoinette, and of the almost unbroken series of exciting events which have marked the annals of France in the interval, the interest excited by her story is as fresh and engrossing as ever; that such as Hecuba and Andromache were to the ancients, objects never named to inattentive ears, never contemplated without lively sympathy, such still is their hapless queen to all honest and intelligent Frenchmen.

It may even be said that that interest has increased of late years.

The respectful and remorseful pity which her fate could not fail to awaken has been quickened by the publication of her correspondence with her family and intimate friends, which has laid bare, without disguise, all her inmost thoughts and feelings, her errors as well as her good deeds, her weaknesses equally with her virtues.

Few, indeed, even of those whom the world regards with its highest favor and esteem, could endure such an ordeal without some diminution of their fame.