Painting by Alexander Kucharsky
While organizing emergency measures for a postillion of her carriage who had been hurt in the exercise of his duties, Marie Antoinette addressed those she was giving instructions to as “my friend.”
— My friend, go and bring the doctors.
— My friend, go and fetch a gurney.
— My friend, see if he is conscious.
When the nobles of the Court heard what had happened they commented in admiration, “Surely Maria Teresa would have recognized her daughter in this episode, and Henry IV his heiress.” 
Pierre de Nolhac, Marie-Antoinette Dauphine (Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1898), p. 242. (Nobility.org translation.)
Short Stories on Honor, Chivalry, and the World of Nobility—no. 126
