J’avais ‘L’Apologie Pour Hérodote,’ en reliûre ancienne, amour De livre provenant de chez la Pompadour Il me le soutira! { 148}
Of Marie Antoinette, with whom our lady book-lovers of the old _régime_ must close, there survive many books. She had a library in the Tuileries, as well as at le petit Trianon. Of all her great and varied collections, none is now so valued as her little book of prayers, which was her consolation in the worst of all her evil days, in the Temple and the Conciergerie. The book is ‘Office de la Divine Providence’ (Paris, 1757, green morocco). On the fly-leaf the Queen wrote, some hours before her death, these touching lines: “Ce 16 Octobre, à 4 h. ½ du matin. Mon Dieu! ayez pitié de moi! Mes yeux n’ont plus de larmes pour prier pour vous, mes pauvres enfants. Adieu, adieu!—MARIE ANTOINETTE.”
There can be no sadder relic of a greater sorrow, and the last consolation of the Queen did not escape the French popular genius for cruelty and insult. The arms on the covers of the prayer-book have been cut out by some fanatic of Equality and Fraternity.
{ 19} “Slate” is a professional term for a severe criticism. Clearly the word is originally “slat,” a narrow board of wood, with which a person might be beaten.
{ 66} _Histoire des Intrigues Amoureuses de Molière_, _et de celles de sa femme_. (_A la Sphère_.) A Francfort, chez Frédéric Arnaud, MDCXCVII. This anonymous tract has actually been attributed to Racine. The copy referred to is marked with a large N in red, with an eagle’s head.
“To Mrs. Robert Laidlaw, Peel. From the Author.”
{ 67b} _Dictys Cretensis_. Apud Lambertum Roulland. Lut. Paris., 1680. In red morocco, with the arms of Colbert.
{ 67c} _L. Annæi Senecæ Opera Omnia_. Lug. Bat., apud Elzevirios. 1649. With book-plate of the Duke of Sussex.
{ 67d} _Stratonis Epigrammata_. Altenburgi, 1764. Straton bound up in one volume with Epictetus! From the Beckford library.
{ 67e} _Opera Helii Eobani Hessi_. Yellow morocco, with the first arms of De Thou. Includes a poem addressed “LANGE, _decus meum_.” Quantity of penultimate “Eobanus” taken for granted, _metri gratiâ_.
{ 68a} _La Journée du Chrétien_. Coutances, 1831. With inscription, “Léon Gambetta. Rue St. Honoré. Janvier 1, 1848.”