The Life of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France (Classic Reprint)

Correspondence published by M. A rneth, and the six volumes published by M. Feuillet de Conches. M. Arneth stwo collections contain not only a number of letters which passed between the queen, her mother the Empress-queen (M aria Teresa), and her brothers Joseph and Leopold, who successively became emperors after the death of their father; but also a regular series of letters from the imperial embassador at Paris, the Count Mercy d Argenteau, which may almost be said to form a complete history of the court of France, especially in all the transactions in which Marie A ntoinette, whether as dauphiness or queen, was concerned, till the death of Maria Teresa, at Christmas, 1780. The correspondence with her two brothers, the emperors Joseph and Leopold, only ceases with the death of the latter in March, 1792. The collection published by M. Feuillet de Conchesf has been vehemently attacked, as containing a series of clever forgeries rather than of genuine letters. And there does seem reason to believe that in a few instances, chiefly in the earlier portion of the correspondence, the critical acuteness of the editor was imposed upon, and that some of the letters inserted were not written by the persons alleged to be the authors. But of the majority of the letters there seems no solid ground for questioning the authenticity. I ndeed, in the later and more important portion of the correspondence, that which belongs to the period after the death of the Empress-queen, the genuineness of the Queen sletters is continually supported by the collection of M. A rneth, who has himself published many of them, having found them in the archives at Vienna, where M. F. de Conches had previously copied them,J and who refers to others, the publica One entitled Marie-A ntoinette, correspondance secrete entre Marie Ther se et le Comte Mercy d Argenteau, avec des lettres de Marie-T he
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)