I fell fast asleep after having read the incredible biography of Marie Antoinette. Later on, in the middle of the night, I'd been startled wide awake, having sensed a spiritual presence in the room. It became larger and was gradually coming closer. Looking toward the open doorway of my bedroom, I saw a brightly illuminated light, as if from a candle. There before me stood a pale, flaxen-haired lady in a plain white dress. She seemed to hover in the air and watch over me. She appeared as a vision of loveliness, an angel of mercy. Her voluminous, shiny, wavy, amber hair cascaded down over her shoulders and onto the front of the finely-woven garment she wore. She positively glowed and beamed. She seemed to radiate pure energy. I couldn't help smiling and thinking, how so unlike the style and grace of any woman I'd ever met or seen in person. Then, she abruptly vanished in an instant, thus breaking the spell. The room went completely dark again. It had been like viewing a real person in the mist of a hologram. I rolled over, went back to sleep, and slept soundly for the remainder of the night.
Antonia Fraser picked quite an interesting subject, when she wrote the historical biography, Marie Antoinette: The Journey, which was published in 2001. Marie Antoinette is probably the most famous and memorable Lady in French history, bar none. She began life as the daughter of an Austrian Queen. Her father was the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Pretty powerful stuff, no doubt. Born in the middle 1700's, when the world was ruled by wealthy, omnipotent rulers called monarchs, whose authority supposedly came directly from God, or was at least divinely inspired and unquestioned, Marie Antoinette married the King of France, in an arranged marriage. The idea was to preserve the peace among the various nations, which wanted to maintain their mutually beneficial interests in trade, enterprise, prosperity, and for purposes of expansion throughout the known world.
Selfishness and greed is what usually throws a wrench into the works of the best laid plans, and so it was that many of the nations and principalities were often at war, or preparing for war. At the time of Marie Antoinette's rise to prominence, France's Seven Years' War was just ending and times of peace and prosperity were looming. It just so happens that certain ambitious individuals, often highly organized, over vast geographical regions see this as an opportunity for making themselves as rich and powerful as the monarchs. They do so, by many diversified methods and means. Some publish pulp fiction. Some bake bread and make fried potatoes. Some manufacture durable goods. Some manufacture arms. Some go into the gambling business. Some sell alcohol. Some sell precious metals and jewelry. They build ships. They venture to the New World. They go into Theater, Opera, and Ballet. We call it making progress, today.
To make a long story short, large groups of well-educated individuals, lawyers, professional soldiers, statesmen, and prominent businessmen collaborate, organize, and decide to take over the function of government entirely. They put themselves in power with the intention of ending the rule of the unsuspecting monarchs, associated noblemen, and aristocrats. They plan to cut them out of the picture all together. They call their noble efforts a revolution, and put themselves in power in their place. They become the new ruling class, in effect.
Unfortunately, in the new scheme of things, justice is not often dispensed with fairness and impartiality. The punishment does not always fit the crime. The new system is crude. Inhumane. Cruel and unusual punishment is the order of the day. Government becomes an ugly and unpleasant business. They rob Peter to pay Paul. They don't always pay the piper for his services.
Caught up in the ensuing chaos and madness is King Louis XVI of France, his Queen Marie Antoinette, their family, their associates, and their closest friends. They become libelled, scandalized, and suffer the dire consequences. You can't help but feel sorry for certain adversely affected persons, who are forced to experience life-altering events beyond their control. Many are forced to undergo difficult transitions in their lives, which not all can endure without hardship and suffering. I must admit, after reading Chapter 19, the situation was starting to look bleak. It wasn't looking very promising for the home team, so I impatiently skipped to the Epilogue, looking for redemption, before resuming my reading of the closing chapters.
One curious observation I made, after all was said and done, was that, while modern laboratory technicians, having analyzed surreptitiously-obtained DNA tissue samples from the body of Marie Antoinette's youngest son, they did not explicitly reveal who had been Louis Charles' actual father. Or, maybe I missed something in the rapid reading of this fascinating book. On the other hand, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that someone significant, Marie Antoinette's daughter, Marie Theresa, had somehow survived captivity.
R. Royce somehow obtained a sample of the latest element of the periodic table to be recently discovered, number 131, in the row of super-nova elements. Miners call it star-dust, golden sunshine, or radicon. He wanted to have it independently analyzed, for his own peace of mind, and appraised right away. He wondered, if it is completely stable. Is it safe? And, what is it worth? He did not attempt to open the lead-lined box into which it had been placed, as it sat there ominously on the coffee table in his living room.
"What a novel conversation piece!" said Cornelius Korn, walking in unannounced and spying the object of their curiosity. He was a long-time friend and business associate. "I bet you can't find a Pandora's Box like this one anywhere in China." He knew what was going on. He'd been briefed."
"Are you going to let us in on the big secret?" inquired Raquel, Royce's significant other, and their business associate. "Or are you going to keep us guessing?"
"They don't have an approved name for it, yet. It's so new, that scientists have only assigned it a letter so far, element K. I call it special-K," said Korn. "You aren't going to believe this, but there are already a number of proposed uses for this revolutionary new product. Melting a small quantity of the substance at high temperatures, pouring it into a mold, and allowing it to cool, transforms it into an impervious metal, more durable than gold, and just as pleasing to the eye. Combining the substance with quartz, sand, or other crystalline minerals, under intense heat and pressure, and it can be transformed into gemstones, harder, clearer, more fiery and precious than diamonds."
"So, special-K is quite valuable, then," said Raquel.
"That's not the half of it," continued Korn. "In the form of a fine powdery compound, the chemical substance can be made to dissolve in salt-water or ordinary tap-water."
"That doesn't sound so impressive," interrupted Royce.
"Not to the seasoned mall shopper or average guy in the street," said Korn. "But when you consider some of it's other extraordinary chemical properties, you begin to see it's really strategic usefulness. If properly trained Hazmat teams are able to inject the powdery special-K compound into containers of nuclear material, the compound instantly reacts with the material to form a completely harmless by-product, commonly known as garden-variety fertilizer. In other words, it becomes a manageable, granulated mixture of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium--NPK. Alternatively, the end-product could just as easily be Portland cement, or even masonry bricks. As you know, chemists and chemical engineers are only limited by their imaginations. Essentially, adding Special-K can render nuclear material of all types, into something non-radioactive, non-lethal, and non-threatening, such as ordinary building construction materials."
"In theory, or practice?" asked Royce.
"You'd have to ask Dupont or Dow Chemical about that," said Korn.
"I'm all in favor of better living through chemistry," said Alexis Sue Shell, the fourth member of the bridge club and garden party, having just arrived. "But, I was under the impression that special-K originates from black holes at the edge of the universe."
"That's the next row of elements in the periodic table, the black-hole elements." said Raquel. She could be a highly informative subject matter expert.
"Most people believe that once matter goes into a black-hole, due to the immense pressure of gravitational forces, it never comes out again. The exception is when the black-hole is a hole in the shape of a doughnut. I think of it as a glazed chocolate funnel cake doughnut. Matter goes in, becomes forever transformed, and exits out the opposite side of the funnel. The miners call these black-hole element substances moon-dust," explained Royce. "They also call them crystal moonbeams, because they contain particles of light, like a fire opal."
"They remind me of a lava lamp I once bought at a gift shop on the beach," said Alexis Sue.
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