MARIE ANTOINETTI'S MILLINER'S BILLS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1694, 24 October 1887, Page 3

MARIE ANTOINETTI'S MILLINER'S BILLS.

Under the above title Mr Sala, m tho " Angaet Fortnightly," giveß *n account of the journal of Memo Ekffe, milliner to the Court of Louis XVI., which haa been recently edited by the Comte da Beiiet. We anVijoin some exfctac's from this interesting article : —

There is faithfully reproduced a drawk>g of a corsage or bodice m pale green eilk which waß 'trammiUed by the Qieen to Madams Pcmpry, the fou> der « f the Ooart milliner's ft> m, 'n serve ac b p<t*t- m fo«- »ny future gowns which Her M&J9-ty Blight order. lo 1880 fhis coreage was submitted by the. two dauphters of M. i-u^noi tct> whose poEßeieioD the garment had come, to the eminent Parisian c •atumiere. Madame Aurelly. This akilfu) «• mp^tress showed the bodice *o her head cut-er, who prononnoed the girth of the Koyn] waist to have been 58 centimatms, and that the exact technical came for the fabric and its hoi was tea-greeD Another well known dressmaker held that tha stnff was pojllt de aoi ant'que ; that the color was eaa- de-NU, and that the Qaoen'B waiac only meaenred 51 ceut mo rea Both Penelopea, however, agreed that at the time tola corsage was consigned to Mdme. Pompey the Queen was growing very itont, and furthermore that the vestment had formerly been adorned with lace and jeweli. From other sources M. de Keiset Inclines to the opinion that the Queen wad not very tall, bat that until embonpoint overtook her, her figure was exquisitely beant:fol ; that her hands, her arms, and her fee* %ure models of symmetry ; that her eyea were blue, fall of charm and •zpreiaion, and, finally, that her forehead was high, reeembling that of her sire the Raiser.

Marie Antoinette had to go to the •otffold m the end, after she had druuk In the Temple and In the Oonciergerie the cop of angaish and ignominy to the drega. ' Yon forget her unequivocal charaoter ; yon forget hervlndubituble tergiversation, wrcngfulnees, and last of away. You see • only a woman with her heart lacerated m a handred placet bereft of faithful consort by a bloody and disgraceful death, accuted by the indescribable villains of the Sections of having corrupted the mind of her young son. As she grows more and more miserable she becomes shabbier and shabbier m ber apparel. For a moment, at the Tnlleries on the 20th of June, 1792, the had been forced to wear, shuddering, tbe bonnet rouge, while the mob shrieked 'Down with Veto and bis wife ! Down with tbe Austrian- ' Two days afterwards •he consoled heeaelf by ordering frrm Madams Eloffe a host of fal-lals, including ■ix of her favorite fichus Anglais. Then came the of the royal f»mily m the Temple, and on the 19h of August the last entry m tbe journal of Madame Eloffs occurs! A certain j Jaiiard is debited with the enm of four lirrei a ruban d'etlenne. When she was removed to the Cone ergerle, Lord Donald Gower's 'my queen, ' Edmund Butke's cynosure of beanty and gracn, bad two dresses, a black and a white one. whloh she wore on alternate days. She had three chemises fine enough m texture and trimmed with lace, but droDpirg into r»ga from over me. Mesnwhie a blessed young creaiure called Baa it waa almost incessantly occupied m mending the linen, .the enoes, and the ttockings of the captive. This girl Bault — rest her acul — was tho daughter of the concierge of tbe prison, and pitied with infinite compassion that most mlrerable woman In tbe doDgeon, discrowned, disgraced, patched and dirty. Tho girl Bau t preserved tbe Queen's tatterß, which were bepged from the prisoner piec>* by piece by furtive. RoyalUts. Tbe ruffian gaolers had tern from her the gold watoh acd the two diamonds tings which she had brought witn hej to the gaol ; bnt they allowed her to keep her wedding ring, and she contriveJ to accrete, m ber bosom a' miniature oi the Dauphin m a little beg made from a canary kid glove which the child bad worn, Sne had also kept a large coik'ng pin, and with thia ahe scratched on tbe whitewashed walls of her cell, side by side with ecriptoral texts, minrjte little schedules of tth items m her daily diminishirg wardrcbe. These were the Ut>t of Mnrie Amoineit«'B milliners' ni'U.'