Note 178:1 — Chapter XIII

There can have been no reason for this abbreviation of the title of the Dauphin and his children, but the circumstance that the letter was liable to be seen in France, and a full statement might be considered disrespectful. The first-named was the Duc de Berri, afterwards Louis XVI.; he was then nine years old. The Count de P. was the Comte de Provence, afterwards Louis XVIII., born in 1755. The Count D'A, was the Comte d'Artois, afterwards Charles X., who died in 1836. Hume has underrated his age, which was six; he was born in 1757. Thus were these children, who made their little speeches to the historian of Charles I., all destined to be, successively, kings of France, and to experience a too intimate acquaintance with such scenes as they found depicted in his "fine history!"