LOUIS XVI. TO THE EMPIRE.

153

prelate for sale which had belonged to Marie-Antoinette. Thislace is described as formed of squares of old point d’Angleterreor de Flandre, each representing a different subject. The beautyof the object and its derivation decided his eminence to speakof it to his colleague, Cardinal de Bonald, these two prelatesunited their resources, bought the lace, and divided it, thus con-secrating to a pious use this relic, which had decorated the queenat the happy period of her life. 9

Fig. 77.

Mudame Adelaide de France. After a (.inure by .Madame Uuiard, dated 1787. Mus. Nat. Versailles.

Mil-

But this extravagance and luxury were now soon to end. Theyears of ’92 and ’93 were approaching. The great nobility ofFrance, who patronised the rich manufactures of the kingdom atthe expense of a peasantry starving on estates they seldom, ifever, visited, were ere long outcasts in foreign climes, eking outa living as best they could, almost envying in their poverty thelate of those who, like their virtuous king and much malignedqueen, had perished on the scaffold. The French Kcvolution wasfatal to the lace trade. For twelve years the manufacture almostceased, and more than thirty different manufactories entirely

* Vote of the Conitesse de Clermont-Tonncrrc, to the French translation of this work.