{"product_id":"2940150340336","title":"The Story of Marie Antoinette","description":"Versailles\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHere, in the palace gardens, where the stately fountains play,\u003cbr\u003eAnd a quiet sunshine bathes the land in the balm of an April day,\u003cbr\u003eIt is pleasant to sit and dream, awhile of the things that have passed away.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor if much has changed, there is much remains and half of the trees that grow\u003cbr\u003eWere planted here in the Bourbon days, when a king was a king, you know\u003cbr\u003eAnd they watched them, all the women and men who walked here long ago;\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDuke and Marquis and Abbe, who lounged on the terrace stair,\u003cbr\u003eWith a stately bow to the wise and great, and a nod to Moliere;\u003cbr\u003eAnd dainty dames with the tarnished names, and the smiles and the powdered hair.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAh! life was life in the palace then, and the world was a gallant place,\u003cbr\u003eWith the polished ways and the pungent phrase and the ruffles, and swords, and lace,\u003cbr\u003eAnd sin was hardly a thing to shun when it beckoned with such a grace.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMusic and wit and laughter, and pleasure enthroned in state,\u003cbr\u003eAnd the gardens bright with a fairy light at many a summer fete;\u003cbr\u003eAnd ruin and famine and death and Hell not half a mile from the gate.!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHell, and they couldn't see it! Death, and they only played!\u003cbr\u003eFor a serf—why a serf was born to serve, and a monarch to be obeyed;\u003cbr\u003eTill the tumbrels came and the guillotine: but at least they were not afraid.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShadows among the shadows, they flit through the checkered ways,\u003cbr\u003eAnd the long, straight walks, where the elm-trees grow, and the time-worn statues gaze\u003cbr\u003eSilent and cold, and grey and old, like the ghosts of forgotten days.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKindly, blundering Louis, and beautiful Antoinette,\u003cbr\u003eWith the royal face, and the human heart, and the tears—could we but forget!\u003cbr\u003eDown there is the little Trianon; perhaps we shall see her yet\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePoor girl-queen! It's hard to be great; and you tried, and we can but try:\u003cbr\u003eBut what you took for the Truth and France was only a painted lie:\u003cbr\u003eDid you know it at last, and understand, when the time had come to die?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNay, I trust you did: for if Truth brings pain, I hold it is better far,\u003cbr\u003eWere it only once, for a moment's space, like the flash of a falling star,\u003cbr\u003eTo pierce the cloud that has dimmed our eyes, and to see things as they are.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor a \"sunshine king\" is a rosily thing when monarch and man are blind,\u003cbr\u003eAnd somebody reaps the whirlwind when others have sowed the wind,\u003cbr\u003eAnd if death and famine stalk through the land, it isn't enough to be kind.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKing and Queen, who were boy and girl, long since, ere the die was cast,\u003cbr\u003eWas it all a riddle too hard to solve? Poor souls! You have wept and passed,\u003cbr\u003eAnd after the din and the strife and sin there is peace, we hope, at the last.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd now the Tricolour triumphs where once the Lilies reigned;\u003cbr\u003eIts red is red with a sea of blood, and the white—ah! the white is stained,\u003cbr\u003eBut a giant lie has been swept away, and France and the world have gained.","brand":"Didactic Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47080061567216,"sku":"2940150340336","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940150340336_p0.jpg?v=1763743098","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940150340336","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}