and his unhappy spouse MARIE ANTOINETTE. Many alterations had
taken place since I was last there and saw the wretched Queen from the
balcony endeavoring to assuage the fierce mob that surged beneath. The
room was not like the room in which I once helped Louis to pull off his
boots, and the delicate perfume that usually pervades the apartments of
French royalty had succumbed to the amalgamated odors of _Schweitzer
Kase_ and _Saur Kraut_.
"It is apparent, sire," said I to WILLIAM, who was sitting there "that
Count BISMARCK has wholly misunderstood the situation in Paris."
"Not a bit of it," said the King; "don't I know well enough they've got
down to two ounces a day for each man, and horse meat at that?
"You forget, sire, their vast supply of asses."
"Do I, indeed? when they've done nothing but develop an unlimited number
of them ever since the war began."
I had an idea then that his majesty must have meant this for sarcasm
though my own experience told me that it was only too true; and it also
occurred to me that I was not in my true station as the representative
of a government of "asses." Nothing but a stern sense of duty prevented
me from clearing out at once under this last harrowing reflection.
Accordingly, I returned to the charge with diminished vigor, assuring
the King that if his army kept on blockading Paris in this cruel sort of
way, the population would soon be dying by thousands.
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