Guardian of Marie Antoinette

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. The letters of the Comte de Mercy-Argenteau are well known to French and Austrian students of history, as the majority of them have been published by the Keeper of the Austrian Imperial Archives. But to readers in this country they will present much that is new and interesting.<br><br>The relative values of the coins mentioned in the accounts have given much trouble to define, as there is no authoritative work on the subject; and opinions differ. This ambiguity is disturbing, as without a clear comprehension of the relative values of these coins the very interesting details of Marie Antoinette's expenditure fail to convey much information. I have, therefore, embodied in Appendix I. the results of the investigations of friends - Mr. Archibald Constable, Mr. Philip Somers-Cocks, and the Vicomte de Manneville - who have kindly aided me, and to whom I here express my thanks for their valuable help.