King, as well as herself, highly valued, alarmed them
much respecting the success of that siege, and made
them apprehensive that, even were the commandant
devoted to them, the civil authority, which by the con-
stitution gave great power to the mayors of towns,
would overrule the military commandant. She was
also very uneasy as to what would take place at Paris
during the interval, and spoke to me of the King's
want of energy, but always in terms expressive of her
veneration for his virtues and her attachment to him-
self. "The King," said she, "is not a coward; he
possesses abundance of passive courage, but he is
overwhelmed by an awkward shyness, a mistrust of
himself, which proceeds from his education as much
as from his disposition. He is afraid to command,
and, above all things, dreads speaking to assembled
numbers. He lived like a child, and always ill at
ease under the eyes of Louis XY., until the age of
twenty-one. This constraint confirmed his timidity.^

1 «< I am oonylnced/' says Bertrand de MoUeyiUe, ** that if LooIb XVI.
