The feeling of dread which had seized the young king was more prophetic than the nation's joy.

At the news that Louis XV.

had just heaved his last sigh in the arms of his pious daughters, Louis XVI.

and Maria Antoinette both flung themselves on their knees, exclaiming, "O God, protect us, direct us, we are too young." The monarch's youth did not scare the country, itself everywhere animated and excited by a breath of youth.

There were congratulations on escaping from the well-known troubles of a regency; the king's ingenuous inexperience, moreover, opened a vast field for the most contradictory hopes.