Somebody recommended the Queen, on account of the royalist principles he then professed, to send and inquire for him.

She replied that she was truly grieved at what had happened to M.d'Espremenil, but that mere policy should never induce her to show any particular solicitude about the man who had been the first to make so insulting an attack upon her character .-- MADAME CAMPAN] The Queen was very much dissatisfied with the manner in which M.de Calonne had managed this matter.

The Abbe de Vermond, the most active and persevering of that minister's enemies, saw with delight that the expedients of those from whom alone new resources might be expected were gradually becoming exhausted, because the period when the Archbishop of Toulouse would be placed over the finances was thereby hastened.
The royal navy had resumed an imposing attitude during the war for the independence of America; glorious peace with England had compensated for the former attacks of our enemies upon the fame of France; and the throne was surrounded by numerous heirs.

The sole ground of uneasiness was in the finances, but that uneasiness related only to the manner in which they were administered.

In a word, France felt confident in its own strength and resources, when two events, which seem scarcely worthy of a place in history, but which have, nevertheless, an important one in that of the French Revolution, introduced a spirit of ridicule and contempt, not only against the highest ranks, but even against the most august personages.