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+The Project Gutenberg Memoirs of Louis XV./XVI, by Madame Hausset, v2
+#2 in our series by Hausset, Lamballe and an unknown English Girl
+#40 in our series Historic Court Memoirs
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+Title: The Memoirs of Louis XV./XVI, v2
+
+Author: Madame du Hausset, and of an unknown English Girl and the
+Princess Lamballe
+
+Official Release Date: March, 2003  [Etext #3877]
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+[The actual date this file first posted = 07/22/01]
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+Edition: 10
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+Language: English
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+The Project Gutenberg Etext Memoirs of Louis XV./XVI, by Hausset, v2
+********This file should be named cm40b10.txt or cm40b10.zip********
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+
+MEMOIRS OF LOUIS XV. AND XVI.
+
+Being Secret Memoirs of Madame du Hausset,  Lady's Maid to Madame
+de Pompadour, and of an unknown English Girl and the Princess Lamballe
+
+
+
+BOOK 2.
+
+
+Madame sent for me yesterday evening, at seven o'clock, to read something
+to her; the ladies who were intimate with her were at Paris, and M. de
+Gontaut ill.  "The King," said she, "will stay late at the Council this
+evening; they are occupied with the affairs of the Parliament again."
+She bade me leave off reading, and I was going to quit the room, but she
+called out, "Stop."  She rose; a letter was brought in for her, and she
+took it with an air of impatience and ill-humour.  After a considerable
+time she began to talk openly, which only happened when she was extremely
+vexed; and, as none of her confidential friends were at hand, she said to
+me, "This is from my brother.  It is what he would not have dared to say
+to me, so he writes.  I had arranged a marriage for him with the daughter
+of a man of title; he appeared to be well inclined to it, and I,
+therefore, pledged my word.  He now tells me that he has made inquiries;
+that the parents are people of insupportable hauteur; that the daughter
+is very badly educated; and that he knows, from authority not to be
+doubted, that when she heard this marriage discussed, she spoke of the
+connection with the most supreme contempt; that he is certain of this
+fact; and that I was still more contemptuously spoken of than himself.
+In a word, he begs me to break off the treaty.  But he has let me go too
+far; and now he will make these people my irreconcilable enemies.  This
+has been put in his head by some of his flatterers; they do not wish him
+to change his way of living; and very few of them would be received by
+his wife."  I tried to soften Madame, and, though I did not venture to
+tell her so, I thought her brother right.  She persisted in saying these
+were lies, and, on the following Sunday, treated her brother very coldly.
+He said nothing to me at that time; if he had, he would have embarrassed
+me greatly.  Madame atoned for everything by procuring favours, which
+were the means of facilitating the young lady's marriage with a gentleman
+of the Court.  Her conduct, two months after marriage, compelled Madame
+to confess that her brother had been perfectly right.
+
+I saw my friend, Madame du Chiron.  "Why," said she, "is the Marquise so
+violent an enemy to the Jesuits?  I assure you she is wrong.  All
+powerful as she is, she may find herself the worse for their enmity."
+I replied that I knew nothing about the matter.  "It is, however,
+unquestionably a fact; and she does not feel that a word more or less
+might decide her fate."--"How do you mean?"  said I.  "Well, I will
+explain myself fully," said she.  "You know what took place at the time
+the King was stabbed: an attempt was made to get her out of the Castle
+instantly.  The Jesuits have no other object than the salvation of their
+penitents; but they are men, and hatred may, without their being aware of
+it, influence their minds, and inspire them with a greater degree of
+severity than circumstances absolutely demand.  Favour and partiality
+may, on the other hand, induce the confessor to make great concessions;
+and the shortest interval may suffice to save a favourite, especially if
+any decent pretext can be found for prolonging her stay at Court."  I
+agreed with her in all she said, but I told her that I dared not touch
+that string.  On reflecting on this conversation afterwards, I was
+forcibly struck with this fresh proof of the intrigues of the Jesuits,
+which, indeed, I knew well already.  I thought that, in spite of what I
+had replied to Madame du Chiron, I ought to communicate this to Madame de
+Pompadour, for the ease of my conscience; but that I would abstain from
+making any reflection upon it.  "Your friend, Madame du Chiron," said
+she, "is, I perceive, affiliated to the Jesuits, and what she says does
+not originate with herself.  She is commissioned by some reverend father,
+and I will know by whom."  Spies were, accordingly, set to watch her
+movements, and they discovered that one Father de Saci, and, still more
+particularly, one Father Frey, guided this lady's conduct.  "What a
+pity," said Madame to me, "that the Abbe Chauvelin cannot know this."
+He was the most formidable enemy of the reverend fathers.  Madame du
+Chiron always looked upon me as a Jansenist, because I would not espouse
+the interests of the good fathers with as much warmth as she did.
+
+Madame is completely absorbed in the Abbe de Bernis, whom she thinks
+capable of anything; she talks of him incessantly.  Apropos, of this
+Abbe, I must relate an anecdote, which almost makes one believe in
+conjurors.  A year, or fifteen months, before her disgrace, Madame de
+Pompadour, being at Fontainebleau, sat down to write at a desk, over
+which hung a portrait of the King.  While she was, shutting the desk,
+after she had finished writing, the picture fell, and struck her
+violently on the head..  The persons who saw the accident were alarmed,
+and sent for Dr. Quesnay.  He asked the circumstances of the case, and
+ordered bleeding and anodynes.  Just, as she had been bled, Madame de
+Brancas entered,, and saw us all in confusion and agitation, and Madame
+lying on her chaise-longue.  She asked what was the matter, and was told.
+After having expressed her regret, and having consoled her, she said,
+"I ask it as a favour of Madame, and of the King (who had just come in),
+that they will instantly send a courier to the Abbe de Bernis, and that
+the Marquise will have the goodness to write a letter, merely requesting
+him to inform her what his fortune-tellers told him, and to withhold
+nothing from the fear of making her uneasy."  The thing was, done as she
+desired, and she then told us that La Bontemps had predicted, from the
+dregs in the, coffee-cup, in which she read everything, that the, head of
+her best friend was in danger, but that no fatal consequences would
+ensue.
+
+The next day, the Abbe wrote word that Madame Bontemps also said to him,
+"You came into the world almost black," and that this was the fact.  This
+colour, which lasted for some time, was attributed to a picture which
+hung at the foot of his, mother's bed, and which she often looked at.  It
+represented a Moor bringing to Cleopatra a basket of flowers, containing
+the asp by whose bite she destroyed herself.  He said that she also told
+him, "You have a great deal of money about you, but it does not belong to
+you;" and that he had actually in his pocket two hundred Louis for the
+Duc de La Valliere.  Lastly, he informed us that she said, looking in the
+cup, "I see one of your friends--the best--a distinguished lady,
+threatened with an accident;" that he confessed that, in spite of all his
+philosophy, he turned pale; that she remarked this, looked again into the
+cup, and continued, "Her head will be slightly in danger, but of this no
+appearance will remain half an hour afterwards."  It was impossible to
+doubt the facts.  They appeared so surprising to the King, that he
+desired some inquiry to be made concerning the fortune-teller.  Madame,
+however, protected her from the pursuit of the Police.
+
+A man, who was quite as astonishing as this fortune-teller, often visited
+Madame de Pompadour.  This was the Comte de St. Germain, who wished to
+have it believed that he had lived several centuries.
+
+
+     [St. Germain was an adept--a worthy predecessor of Cagliostro, who
+     expected to live five hundred years.  The Count de St. Germain
+     pretended to have already lived two thousand, and, according to him,
+     the account was still running.  He went so far as to claim the power
+     of transmitting the gift of long life.  One day, calling upon his
+     servant to, bear witness to a fact that went pretty far back, the
+     man replied, "I have no recollection of it, sir; you forget that I
+     have only had the honour of serving you for five hundred years."
+
+     St. Germain, like all other charlatans of this sort, assumed a
+     theatrical magnificence, and an air of science calculated to deceive
+     the vulgar.  His best instrument of deception was the
+     phantasmagoria; and as, by means of this abuse of the science of
+     optics, he called up shades which were asked for, and almost always
+     recognised, his correspondence with the other world was a thing
+     proved by the concurrent testimony of numerous witnesses.
+
+     He played the same game in London, Venice, and Holland, but he
+     constantly regretted Paris, where his miracles were never
+     questioned.
+
+     St. Germain passed his latter days at the Court of the Prince of
+     Hesse Cassel, and died at Plewig, in 1784, in the midst of his
+     enthusiastic disciples, and to their infinite astonishment at his
+     sharing the common destiny.]
+
+One day, at her toilet, Madame said to him, in my presence, "What was the
+personal appearance of Francis I.?  He was a King I should have liked."
+--"He was, indeed, very captivating," said St. Germain; and he proceeded
+to describe his face and person as one does that of a man one has
+accurately observed.  "It is a pity he was too ardent.  I could have
+given him some good advice, which would have saved him from all his
+misfortunes; but he would not have followed it; for it seems as if a
+fatality attended Princes, forcing them to shut their ears, those of the
+mind, at least, to the best advice, and especially in the most critical
+moments."--"And the Constable," said Madame, "what do you say of him?"--
+"I cannot say much good or much harm of him," replied he.  "Was the Court
+of Francis I. very brilliant?"--"Very brilliant; but those of his
+grandsons infinitely surpassed it.  In the time of Mary Stuart and
+Margaret of Valois it was a land of enchantment--a temple, sacred to
+pleasures of every kind; those of the mind were not neglected.  The two
+Queens were learned, wrote verses, and spoke with captivating grace and
+eloquence."  Madame said, laughing, "You seem to have seen all this."--
+"I have an excellent memory," said he, "and have read the history of
+France with great care.  I sometimes amuse myself, not by making, but by
+letting it be believed that I lived in old times."--"You do not tell me
+your age, however, and you give yourself out for very old.  The Comtesse
+de Gergy, who was Ambassadress to Venice, I think, fifty years ago, says
+she knew you there exactly what you are now."--"It is true, Madame, that
+I have known Madame de Gergy a long time."--"But, according to what she
+says, you would be more than a hundred"--"That is not impossible," said
+he, laughing; "but it is, I allow, still more possible that Madame de
+Gergy, for whom I have the greatest respect, may be in her dotage."--
+"You have given her an elixir, the effect of which is surprising.
+She declares that for a long time she has felt as if she was only four-
+and-twenty years of age; why don't you give some to the King?"--
+"Ah! Madame," said he, with a sort of terror, "I must be mad to think of
+giving the King an unknown drug."  I went into my room to write down this
+conversation. Some days afterwards, the King, Madame de Pompadour, some
+Lords of the Court, and the Comte de St. Germain, were talking about his
+secret for causing the spots in diamonds to disappear.  The King ordered
+a diamond of middling size, which had a spot, to be brought.  It was
+weighed; and the King said to the Count, "It is valued at two hundred and
+forty louis; but it would be worth four hundred if it had no spot.  Will
+you try to put a hundred and sixty louis into my pocket?"  He examined it
+carefully, and said, "It may be done; and I will bring it you again in a
+month."  At the time appointed, the Count brought back the diamond
+without a spot, and gave it to the King.  It was wrapped in a cloth of
+amianthus, which he took off.  The King had it weighed, and found it but
+very little diminished.  The King sent it to his jeweller by M. de
+Gontaut, without telling him anything of what had passed.  The jeweller
+gave three hundred and eighty louis for it.  The King, however, sent for
+it back again, and kept it as a curiosity.  He could not overcome his
+surprise, and said that M. de St. Germain must be worth millions,
+especially if he had also the secret of making large diamonds out of a
+number of small ones.  He neither said that he had, nor that he had not;
+but he positively asserted that he could make pearls grow, and give them
+the finest water.  The King, paid him great attention, and so did Madame
+de Pompadour.  It was from her I learnt what I have just related.
+M. Queanay said, talking of the pearls, "They are produced by a disease
+in the oyster.  It is possible to know the cause of it; but, be that as
+it may, he is not the less a quack, since he pretends to have the elixir
+vitae, and to have lived several centuries.  Our master is, however,
+infatuated by him, and sometimes talks of him as if his descent were
+illustrious."
+
+I have seen him frequently: he appeared to be about fifty; he was neither
+fat nor thin; he had an acute, intelligent look, dressed very simply, but
+in good taste; he wore very fine diamonds in his rings, watch, and snuff-
+bog.  He came, one day, to visit Madame de Pompadour, at a time when the
+Court was in full splendour, with knee and shoe-buckles of diamonds so
+fine and brilliant that Madame said she did not believe the King had any
+equal to them.  He went into the antechamber to take them off, and
+brought them to be examined; they were compared with others in the room,
+and the Duc de Gontaut, who was present, said they were worth at least
+eight thousand louis.  He wore, at the same time, a snuff-box of
+inestimable value, and ruby sleeve-buttons, which were perfectly
+dazzling.  Nobody could find out by what means this man became so rich
+and so remarkable; but the King would not suffer him to be spoken of with
+ridicule or contempt.  He was said to be a bastard son of the King of
+Portugal.
+
+I learnt, from M. de Marigny, that the relations of the good little
+Marechale (de Mirepoix) had been extremely severe upon her, for what they
+called the baseness of her conduct, with regard to Madame de Pompadour.
+They said she held the stones of the cherries which Madame ate in her
+carriage, in her beautiful little hands, and that she sate in the front
+of the carriage, while Madame occupied the whole seat in the inside.  The
+truth was, that, in going to Crecy, on an insupportably hot day, they
+both wished to sit alone, that they might be cooler; and as to the matter
+of the cherries, the villagers having brought them some, they ate them to
+refresh themselves, while the horses were changed; and the Marechal
+emptied her pocket-handkerchief, into which they had both thrown the
+cherry-stones, out of the carriage window.  The people who were changing
+the horses had given their own version of the affair.
+
+I had, as you know, a very pretty room at Madame's hotel, whither I
+generally went privately.  I had, one day, had visits from two or three
+Paris representatives, who told me news; and Madame, having sent for me,
+I went to her, and found her with M. de Gontaut.  I could not help
+instantly saying to her, "You must be much pleased, Madame, at the noble
+action of the Marquis de ------."  Madame replied, drily, "Hold your
+tongue, and listen to what I have to say to you."  I returned to my
+little room, where I found the Comtesse d'Amblimont, to whom I mentioned
+Madame's reception of me.  "I know what is the matter," said she; "it has
+no relation to you.  I will explain it to you.  The Marquis de -------
+has told all Paris, that, some days ago, going home at night, alone, and
+on foot, he heard cries in a street called Ferou, which is dark, and, in
+great part, arched over; that he drew his sword, and went down the
+street, in which he saw, by the light of a lamp, a very handsome woman,
+to whom some ruffians were offering violence; that he approached, and
+that the woman cried out, 'Save me! save me!' that he rushed upon the
+wretches, two of whom fought him, sword in hand, whilst a third held the
+woman, and tried to stop her mouth; that he wounded one in the arm; and
+that the ruffians, hearing people pass at the end of the street, and
+fearing they might come to his assistance, fled; that he went up to the
+lady, who told him that they were not robbers, but villains, one of whom
+was desperately in love with her; and that the lady knew not how to
+express her gratitude; that she had begged him not to follow her, after
+he had conducted her to a fiacre; that she would not tell him her name,
+but that she insisted on his accepting a little ring, as a token of
+remembrance; and that she promised to see him again, and to tell him her
+whole history, if he gave her his address; that he complied with this
+request of the lady, whom he represented as a charming person, and who,
+in the overflowing of her gratitude, embraced him several times.  This is
+all very fine, so far," said Madame d'Amblimont, "but hear the rest.  The
+Marquis de exhibited himself everywhere the next day, with a black ribbon
+bound round his arm, near the wrist, in which part he said he had
+received a wound.  He related his story to everybody, and everybody
+commented upon it after his own fashion.  He went to dine with the
+Dauphin, who spoke to him of his bravery, and of his fair unknown, and
+told him that he had already complimented the Duc de C---- on the affair.
+I forgot to tell you," continued Madame d'Amblimont, "that, on the very
+night of the adventure, he called on Madame d'Estillac, an old gambler,
+whose house is open till four in the morning; that everybody there was
+surprised at the disordered state in which he appeared; that his bagwig
+had fallen off, one skirt of his coat was cut, and his right hand
+bleeding.  That they instantly bound it up, and gave him some Rota wine.
+Four days ago, the Duc de C---- supped with the King, and sat near M. de
+St. Florentin.  He talked to him of his relation's adventure, and asked
+him if he had made any inquiries concerning the lady.  M. de St.
+Florentin coldly answered, 'No!' and M. de C---- remarked, on asking him
+some further questions, that he kept his eyes firmed on his plate,
+looking embarrassed, and answered in monosyllables.  He asked him the
+reason of this, upon which M. de Florentin told him that it was extremely
+distressing to him to see him under such a mistake.  'How can you know
+that, supposing it to be the fact?' said M. de ------, 'Nothing is more
+easy to prove,' replied M. de St. Florentin.  'You may imagine that, as
+soon as I was informed of the Marquis de ------'s adventure, I set on
+foot inquiries, the result of which was, that, on the night when this
+affair was said to have taken place, a party of the watch was set in
+ambuscade in this very street, for the purpose of catching a thief who
+was coming out of the gaming house; that this party was there four hours,
+and heard not the slightest noise.'  M. de C was greatly incensed at this
+recital, which M. de St. Florentin ought, indeed, to have communicated to
+the King.  He has ordered, or will order, his relation to retire to his
+province.
+
+"After this, you will judge, my dear, whether you were very likely to be
+graciously received when you went open-mouthed with your compliment to
+the Marquise.  This adventure," continued she, "reminded the King of one
+which occurred about fifteen years ago.  The Comte d'E----, who was what
+is called 'enfant d'honneur' to the Dauphin, and about fourteen years of
+age, came into the Dauphin's apartments, one evening, with his bag-wig
+snatched off, and his ruffles torn, and said that, having walked rather
+late near the piece of water des Suisses, he had been attacked by two
+robbers; that he had refused to give them anything, drawn his sword, and
+put himself in an attitude of defence; that one of the robbers was armed
+with a sword, the other with a large stick, from which he had received
+several blows, but that he had wounded one in the arm, and that, hearing
+a noise at that moment, they had fled.  But unluckily for the little
+Count, it was known that people were on the spot at the precise time he
+mentioned, and had heard nothing.  The Count was pardoned, on account of
+his youth.  The Dauphin made him confess the truth, and it was looked
+upon as a childish freak to set people talking about him."
+
+The King disliked the King of Prussia because he knew that the latter was
+in the habit of jesting upon his mistress, and the kind of life he led.
+It was Frederick's fault, as I have heard it said, that the King was not
+his most steadfast ally and friend, as much as sovereigns can be towards
+each other; but the jestings of Frederick had stung him, and made him
+conclude the treaty of Versailles.  One day, he entered Madame's
+apartment with a paper in his hand, and said, "The King of Prussia is
+certainly a great man; he loves men of talent, and, like Louis XIV., he
+wishes to make Europe ring with his favours towards foreign savans.
+There is a letter from him, addressed to Milord Marshal,
+
+     [George Keith, better known under the name of Milord Marshal, was
+     the eldest son of William Keith, Earl Marshal of Scotland.  He was
+     an avowed partisan of the Stuarts, and did not lay down the arms he
+     had taken up in their cause until it became utterly desperate, and
+     drew upon its defenders useless dangers.  When they were driven from
+     their country, he renounced it, and took up his residence
+     successively in France, Prussia, Spain, and Italy.  The delicious
+     country and climate of Valencia he preferred above any other.
+
+     Milord Marshal died in the month of May, 1778.  It was he who said
+     to Madame Geoffrin, speaking of his brother, who was field-marshal
+     in the Prussian service, and died on the field of honour, "My
+     brother leaves me the most glorious inheritance" (he had just laid
+     the whole of Bohemia under contribution); "his property does not
+     amount to seventy ducats."  A eulogium on Milord Marshal, by
+     D'Alembert, is extant.  It is the most cruelly mangled of all his
+     works, by Linguet]
+
+ordering him to acquaint a 'superieur' man of my kingdom (D'Alembert)
+that he has granted him a pension;" and, looking at the letter, he read
+the following words: "You must know that there is in Paris a man of the
+greatest merit, whose fortune is not proportionate to his talents and
+character.  I may serve as eyes to the blind goddess, and repair in some
+measure the injustice, and I beg you to offer on that account.  I flatter
+myself that he will accept this pension because of the pleasure I shall
+feel in obliging a man who joins beauty of character to the most sublime
+intellectual talents."  The King here stopped, on seeing MM. de Ayen and
+de Gontaut enter, and then recommenced reading the letter to them, and
+added, "It was given me by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, to whom it
+was confided by Milord Marshal, for the purpose of obtaining my
+permission for this sublime genius to accept the favour.  But," said the
+King, "what do you think is the amount?"  Some said six, eight, ten
+thousand livres.  "You have not guessed," said the King; "it is twelve
+hundred livres."--"For sublime talents," said the Duc d'Ayen, "it is not
+much.  But the philosophers will make Europe resound with this letter,
+and the King of Prussia will have the pleasure of making a great noise at
+little expense."
+
+The Chevalier de Courten,--[The Chevalier de Courten was a Swiss, and a
+man of talent.]--who had been in Prussia, came in, and, hearing this
+story told, said, "I have seen what is much better than that: passing
+through a village in Prussia, I got out at the posthouse, while I was
+waiting for horses; and the postmaster, who was a captain in the Prussian
+service, showed me several letters in Frederick's handwriting, addressed
+to his uncle, who was a man of rank, promising him to provide for his
+nephews; the provision he made for this, the eldest of these nephews, who
+was dreadfully wounded, was the postmastership which he then held."  M.
+de Marigny related this story at Quesnay's, and added, that the man of
+genius above mentioned was D'Alembert, and that the King had permitted
+him to accept the pension.  He added, that his sister had suggested to
+the King that he had better give D'Alembert a pension of twice the value,
+and forbid him to take the King of Prussia's.  This advice he would not
+take, because he looked upon D'Alembert as an infidel.  M. de Marigny
+took a copy of the letter, which he lent me.
+
+A certain nobleman, at one time, affected to cast tender glances on
+Madame Adelaide.  She was wholly unconscious of it; but, as there are
+Arguses at Court, the King was, of course, told of it, and, indeed, he
+thought he had perceived it himself.  I know that he came into Madame de
+Pompadour's room one day, in a great passion, and said, "Would you
+believe that there is a man in my Court insolent enough to dare to raise
+his eyes to one of my daughters?"  Madame had never seen him so
+exasperated, and this illustrious nobleman was advised to feign a
+necessity for visiting his estates.  He remained there two months.
+Madame told me, long after, that she thought that there were no tortures
+to which the King would not have condemned any man who had seduced one of
+his daughters.  Madame Adelaide, at the time in question, was a charming
+person, and united infinite grace, and much talent, to a most agreeable
+face.
+
+A courier brought Madame de Pompadour a letter, on reading which she
+burst into tears.  It contained the intelligence of the battle of
+Rosbach, which M. de Soubise sent her, with all the details.  I heard her
+say to the Marechal de Belle-Isle, wiping her eyes, "M. de Soubise is
+inconsolable; he does not try to excuse his conduct, he sees nothing but
+the disastrous fortune which pursues him."--"M. de Soubise must, however,
+have many things to urge in his own behalf," said M. de Belle-Isle, "and
+so I told the King."--"It is very noble in you, Marshal, not to suffer an
+unfortunate man to be overwhelmed; the public are furious against him,
+and what has he done to deserve it?"--"There is not a more honourable nor
+a kinder man in the world.  I only fulfil my duty in doing justice to the
+truth, and to a man for whom I have the most profound esteem.  The King
+will explain to you, Madame, how M. de Soubise was forced to give battle
+by the Prince of Sage-Hildbourgshausen, whose troops fled first, and
+carried along the French troops."  Madame would have embraced the old
+Marshal if she had dared, she was so delighted with him.
+
+M. de Soubise, having gained a battle, was made Marshal of France: Madame
+was enchanted with her friend's success.  But, either it was unimportant,
+or the public were offended at his promotion; nobody talked of it but
+Madame's friends.  This unpopularity was concealed from her, and she said
+to Colin, her steward, at her toilet, "Are you not delighted at the
+victory M. de Soubise has gained?  What does the public say of it?  He
+has taken his revenge well."  Colin was embarrassed, and knew not what to
+answer.  As she pressed him further, he replied that he had been ill, and
+had seen nobody for a week.
+
+M. de Marigny came to see me one day, very much out of humour.  I asked
+him the cause.  "I have," said he, "just been intreating my sister not to
+make M. le Normand-de-Mezi Minister of the Marine.  I told her that she
+was heaping coals of fire upon her own head.  A favourite ought not to
+multiply the points of attack upon herself."  The Doctor entered.  "You,"
+said the Doctor, "are worth your weight in gold, for the good sense and
+capacity you have shewn in your office, and for your moderation, but you
+will never be appreciated as you deserve; your advice is excellent; there
+will never be a ship taken but Madame will be held responsible for it to
+the public, and you are very wise not to think of being in the Ministry
+yourself."
+
+One day, when I was at Paris, I went to dine with the Doctor, who
+happened to be there at the same time; there were, contrary to his usual
+custom, a good many people, and, among others, a handsome young Master of
+the Requests, who took a title from some place, the name of which I have
+forgotten, but who was a son of M. Turgot, the 'prevot des marchands'.
+They talked a great deal about administration, which was not very amusing
+to me; they then fell upon the subject of the love Frenchmen bear to
+their Kings.  M. Turgot here joined in the conversation, and said, "This
+is not a blind attachment; it is a deeply rooted sentiment, arising from
+an indistinct recollection of great benefits.  The French nation--I may
+go farther--Europe, and all mankind, owe to a King of France" (I have
+forgotten his name)--[Phillip the Long]-- "whatever liberty they enjoy.
+He established communes, and conferred on an immense number of men a
+civil existence.  I am aware that it may be said, with justice, that he
+served his own interests by granting these franchises; that the cities
+paid him taxes, and that his design was to use them as instruments of
+weakening the power of great nobles; but what does that prove, but that
+this measure was at once useful, politic, and humane?"  From Kings in
+general the conversation turned upon Louis XV., and M. Turgot remarked
+that his reign would be always celebrated for the advancement of the
+sciences, the progress of knowledge, and of philosophy.  He added that
+Louis XV.  was deficient in the quality which Louis XIV.  possessed to
+excess; that is to say, in a good opinion of himself; that he was well-
+informed; that nobody was more perfectly master of the topography of
+France; that his opinion in the Council was always the most judicious;
+and that it was much to be lamented that he had not more confidence in
+himself, or that he did not rely upon some Minister who enjoyed the
+confidence of the nation.  Everybody agreed with him.  I begged M.
+Quesnay to write down what young Turgot had said, and showed it to
+Madame.  She praised this Master of the Requests greatly, and spoke of
+him to the King.  "It is a good breed," said he.
+
+One day, I went out to walk, and saw, on my return, a great many people
+going and coming, and speaking to each other privately: it was evident
+that something extraordinary had happened.  I asked a person of my
+acquaintance what was the matter.  "Alas!" said he, with tears in his
+eyes, "some assassins, who had formed the project of murdering the King,
+have inflicted several wounds on a garde-du-corps, who overheard them in
+a dark corridor; he is carried to the hospital: and as he has described
+the colour of these men's coats, the Police are in quest of them in all
+directions, and some people, dressed in clothes of that colour, are
+already arrested."  I saw Madame with M. de Gontaut, and I hastened home.
+She found her door besieged by a multitude of people, and was alarmed:
+when she got in, she found the Comte de Noailles.  "What is all this,
+Count?"  said she.  He said he was come expressly to speak to her, and
+they retired to her closet together.  The conference was not long.  I had
+remained in the drawing-room, with Madame's equerry, the Chevalier de
+Solent, Gourbillon, her valet de chambre, and some strangers.  A great
+many details were related; but, the wounds being little more than
+scratches, and the garde-du-corps having let fall some contradictions, it
+was thought that he was an impostor, who had invented all this story to
+bring himself into favour.  Before the night was over, this was proved to
+be the fact, and, I believe, from his own confession.  The King came,
+that evening, to see Madame de Pompadour; he spoke of this occurrence
+with great sang froid, and said, "The gentleman who wanted to kill me was
+a wicked madman; this is a low scoundrel."
+
+When he spoke of Damiens, which was only while his trial lasted, he never
+called him anything but that gentleman.
+
+I have heard it said that he proposed having him shut up in a dungeon for
+life; but that the horrible nature of the crime made the judges insist
+upon his suffering all the tortures inflicted upon like occasions.  Great
+numbers, many of them women, had a barbarous curiosity to witness the
+execution; amongst others, Madame de P------, a very beautiful woman,
+and the wife of a Farmer General.  She hired two places at a window for
+twelve Louis, and played a game of cards in the room whilst waiting for
+the execution to begin.  On this being told to the King, he covered his
+eyes with his hands and exclaimed, "Fi, la Vilaine!"  I have been told
+that she, and others, thought to pay their court in this way, and
+signalise their attachment to the King's person.
+
+Two things were related to me by M. Duclos at the time of the attempt on
+the King's life.
+
+The first, relative to the Comte de Sponheim, who was the Duc de Deux-
+Ponts, and next in succession to the Palatinate and Electorate of
+Bavaria.  He was thought to be a great friend to the King, and had made
+several long sojourns in France.  He came frequently to see Madame.
+M. Duclos told us that the Duc de Deux-Ponts, having learned, at Deux-
+Ponts, the attempt on the King's life, immediately set out in a carriage
+for Versailles: "But remark," said he, "the spirit of 'courtisanerie' of
+a Prince, who may be Elector of Bavaria and the Palatinate tomorrow.
+This was not enough.  When he arrived within ten leagues of Paris, he put
+on an enormous pair of jack-boots, mounted a post-horse, and arrived in
+the court of the palace cracking his whip.  If this had been real
+impatience, and not charlatanism, he would have taken horse twenty
+leagues from Paris."--"I don't agree with you," said a gentleman whom I
+did not know; "impatience sometimes seizes one towards the end of an
+undertaking, and one employs the readiest means then in one's power.
+Besides, the Duc de Deux-Ponts might wish, by showing himself thus on
+horseback, to serve the King, to whom he is attached, by proving to
+Frenchmen how greatly he is beloved and honoured in other countries."
+Duclos resumed: "Well," said he, "do you know the story of M. de C-----?
+The first day the King saw company, after the attempt of Damiens, M. de
+C----- pushed so vigorously through the crowd that he was one of the
+first to come into the King's presence, but he had on so shabby a black
+coat that it caught the King's attention, who burst out laughing, and
+said, 'Look at C-----, he has had the skirt of his coat torn off.' M. de
+C----- looked as if he was only then first conscious of his loss, and
+said, 'Sire, there is such a multitude hurrying to see Your Majesty, that
+I was obliged to fight my way through them, and, in the effort, my coat
+has been torn.'--'Fortunately it was not worth much,' said the Marquis de
+Souvre, 'and you could not have chosen a worse one to sacrifice on the
+occasion.'"
+
+Madame de Pompadour had been very judiciously advised to get her husband,
+M. le Normand, sent to Constantinople, as Ambassador.  This would have a
+little diminished the scandal caused by seeing Madame de Pompadour, with
+the title of Marquise, at Court, and her husband Farmer General at Paris.
+But he was so attached to a Paris life, and to his opera habits, that he
+could not be prevailed upon to go.  Madame employed a certain
+M. d'Arboulin, with whom she had been acquainted before she was at Court,
+to negotiate this affair.  He applied to a Mademoiselle Rem, who had been
+an opera-dancer, and who was M. le Normand's mistress.  She made him very
+fine promises; but she was like him, and preferred a Paris life.  She
+would do nothing in it.
+
+At the time that plays were acted in the little apartments, I obtained a
+lieutenancy for one of my relations, by a singular means, which proves
+the value the greatest people set upon the slightest access to the Court.
+Madame did not like to ask anything of M. d'Argenson, and, being pressed
+by my family, who could not imagine that, situated as I was, it could be
+difficult for me to obtain a command for a good soldier, I determined to
+go and ask the Comte d'Argenson.  I made my request, and presented my
+memorial.  He received me coldly, and gave me vague answers.  I went out,
+and the Marquis de V-----, who was in his closet, followed me.  "You wish
+to obtain a command," said he; "there is one vacant, which is promised me
+for one of my proteges; but if you will do me a favour in return, or
+obtain one for me, I will give it to you.  I want to be a police officer,
+and you have it in your power to get me a place."  I told him I did not
+understand the purport of his jest.  "I will tell you," said he;
+"Tartuffe is going to be acted in the cabinets, and there is the part of
+a police officer, which only consists of a few lines.  Prevail upon
+Madame de Pompadour to assign me that part, and the command is yours."
+I promised nothing, but I related the history to Madame, who said she
+would arrange it for me.  The thing was done, and I obtained the command,
+and the Marquis de V----- thanked Madame as if she had made him a Duke.
+
+The King was often annoyed by the Parliaments, and said a very remarkable
+thing concerning them, which M. de Gontaut repeated to Doctor Quesnay in
+my presence.  "Yesterday," said he, "the King walked up and down the room
+with an anxious air.  Madame de Pompadour asked him if he was uneasy
+about his health, as he had been, for some time, rather unwell.  'No,'
+replied he; I but I am greatly annoyed by all these remonstrances.'--
+'What can come of them,' said she, 'that need seriously disquiet Your
+Majesty?  Are you not master of the Parliaments, as well as of all the
+rest of the kingdom?'--'That is true,' said the King; 'but, if it had not
+been for these counsellors and presidents, I should never have been
+stabbed by that gentleman' (he always called Damiens so).  'Ah!  Sire,'
+cried Madame de Pompadour.  'Read the trial,' said he.  'It was the
+language of those gentlemen he names which turned his head.'--'But,' said
+Madame, 'I have often thought that, if the Archbishop--[M. de Beaumont]--
+could be sent to Rome--'--'Find anybody who will accomplish that
+business, and I will give him whatever he pleases.'"  Quesnay said the
+King was right in all he had uttered.  The Archbishop was exiled shortly
+after, and the King was seriously afflicted at being driven to take such
+a step.  "What a pity," he often said, "that so excellent a man should be
+so obstinate."--"And so shallow," said somebody, one day.  "Hold your
+tongue," replied the King, somewhat sternly.  The Archbishop was very
+charitable, and liberal to excess, but he often granted pensions without
+discernment.
+
+     [The following is a specimen of the advantages taken of his natural
+     kindness.  Madame la Caille, who acted the Duennas at the Opera
+     Comique, was recommended to him as the mother of a family, who
+     deserved his protection, The worthy prelate asked what he could do
+     for her.  Monseigneur," said the actress, "two words from your hand
+     to the Duc de Richelieu would induce him to grant me a demi-part."
+     M. de Beaumont, who was very little acquainted with the language of
+     the theatre, thought that a demi-part meant a more liberal portion
+     of the Marshal's alms, and the note was written in the most pressing
+     manner.  The Marshal answered, that he thanked the Archbishop for
+     the interest he took in the Theatre Italien, and in Madame la
+     Caille, who was a very useful person at that theatre; that,
+     nevertheless, she had a bad voice; but that the recommendation of
+     the Archbishop was to be preferred to the greatest talents, and that
+     the demi-part was granted."]
+
+He granted one of an hundred louis to a pretty woman, who was very poor,
+and who assumed an illustrious name, to which she had no right.  The fear
+lest she should be plunged into vice led him to bestow such excessive
+bounty upon her; and the woman was an admirable dissembler.  She went to
+the Archbishop's, covered with a great hood, and, when she left him, she
+amused herself with a variety of lovers.
+
+Great people have the bad habit of talking very indiscreetly before their
+servants.  M. de Gontaut once said these words, covertly, as he thought,
+to the Duc de ------, "That measures had been taken which would,
+probably, have the effect of determining the Archbishop to go to Rome,
+with a Cardinal's hat; and that, if he desired it, he was to have a
+coadjutor."
+
+A very plausible pretext had been found for making this proposition, and
+for rendering it flattering to the Archbishop, and agreeable to his
+sentiments.  The affair had been very adroitly begun, and success
+appeared certain.  The King had the air, towards the Archbishop, of
+entire unconsciousness of what was going on.  The negotiator acted as if
+he were only following the suggestions of his own mind, for the general
+good.  He was a friend of the Archbishop, and was very sure of a liberal
+reward.  A valet of the Duc de Gontaut, a very handsome young fellow, had
+perfectly caught the sense of what was spoken in a mysterious manner.
+He was one of the lovers of the lady of the hundred Louis a year, and had
+heard her talk of the Archbishop, whose relation she pretended to be.  He
+thought he should secure her good graces by informing her that great
+efforts were being made to induce her patron to reside at Rome, with a
+view to get him away from Paris.  The lady instantly told the Archbishop,
+as she was afraid of losing her pension if he went.  The information
+squared so well with the negotiation then on foot, that the Archbishop
+had no doubt of its truth.  He cooled, by degrees, in his conversations
+with the negotiator, whom he regarded as a traitor, and ended by breaking
+with him.  These details were not known till long afterwards.  The lover
+of the lady having been sent to the Bicetre, some letters were found
+among his papers, which gave a scent of the affair, and he was made to
+confess the rest.
+
+In order not to compromise the Duc de Gontaut, the King was told that the
+valet had come to a knowledge of the business from a letter which he had
+found in his master's clothes.  The King took his revenge by humiliating
+the Archbishop, which he was enabled to do by means of the information he
+had obtained concerning the conduct of the lady, his protege.  She was
+found guilty of swindling, in concert with her beloved valet; but, before
+her punishment was inflicted, the Lieutenant of Police was ordered to lay
+before Monseigneur a full account of the conduct of his relation and
+pensioner.  The Archbishop had nothing to object to in the proofs which
+were submitted to him; he said, with perfect calmness, that she was not
+his relation; and, raising his hands to heaven, "She is an unhappy
+wretch," said he, "who has robbed me of the money which was destined for
+the poor.  But God knows that, in giving her so large a pension, I did
+not act lightly.  I had, at that time, before my eyes the example of a
+young woman who once asked me to grant her seventy louis a year,
+promising me that she would always live very virtuously, as she had
+hitherto done.  I refused her, and she said, on leaving me, 'I must turn
+to the left, Monseigneur, since the way on the right is closed against
+me: The unhappy creature has kept her word but too well.  She found means
+of establishing a faro-table at her house, which is tolerated; and she
+joins to the most profligate conduct in her own person the infamous trade
+of a corrupter of youth; her house is the abode of every vice.  Think,
+sir, after that, whether it was not an act of prudence, on my part, to
+grant the woman in question a pension, suitable to the rank in which I
+thought her born, to prevent her abusing the gifts of youth, beauty, and
+talents, which she possessed, to her own perdition, and the destruction
+of others."  The Lieutenant of Police told the King that he was touched
+with the candour and the noble simplicity of the prelate.  "I never
+doubted his virtues," replied the King, "but I wish he would be quiet."
+This same Archbishop gave a pension of fifty louis a year to the greatest
+scoundrel in Paris.  He is a poet, who writes abominable verses; this
+pension is granted on condition that his poems are never printed.  I
+learned this fact from M. de Marigny, to whom he recited some of his
+horrible verses one evening, when he supped with him, in company with
+some people of quality.  He chinked the money in his pocket.  "This is my
+good Archbishop's," said he, laughing; "I keep my word with him: my poem
+will not be printed during my life, but I read it.  What would the good
+prelate say if he knew that I shared my last quarter's allowance with a
+charming little opera-dancer?  'It is the Archbishop, then, who keeps
+me,' said she to me; 'Oh, la! how droll that is!'"  The King heard this,
+and was much scandalised at it.  "How difficult it is to do good!"  said
+he.
+
+The King came into Madame de Pompadour's room, one day, as she was
+finishing dressing.  "I have just had a strange adventure," said he:
+"would you believe that, in going out of my wardroom into my bedroom, I
+met a gentleman face to face?"--"My God!  Sire," cried Madame, terrified.
+"It was nothing," replied he; "but I confess I was greatly surprised: the
+man appeared speechless with consternation.  'What do you do here?' said
+I, civilly.  He threw himself on his knees, saying, 'Pardon me, Sire;
+and, above all, have me searched: He instantly emptied his pockets
+himself; he pulled off his coat in the greatest agitation and terror: at
+last he told me that he was cook to -----, and a friend of Beccari, whom
+he came to visit; that he had mistaken the staircase, and, finding all
+the doors open, he had wandered into the room in which I found him, and
+which he would have instantly left: I rang; Guimard came, and was
+astonished enough at finding me tete-a-tete with a man in his shirt.  He
+begged Guimard to go with him into another room, and to search his whole
+person.  After this, the poor devil returned, and put on his coat.
+Guimard said to me, 'He is certainly an honest man, and tells the truth;
+this may, besides, be easily ascertained.'  Another of the servants of
+the palace came in, and happened to know him.  'I will answer for this
+good man,' said, he, 'who, moreover, makes the best 'boeuf a carlate' in
+the world.'  As I saw the man was so agitated that he could not stand
+steady, I took fifty louis out of my bureau, and said, Here, sir, are
+fifty Louis, to quiet your alarms: He went out, after throwing himself at
+my feet."  Madame exclaimed on the impropriety of having the King's
+bedroom thus accessible to everybody.  He talked with great calmness of
+this strange apparition, but it was evident that he controlled himself,
+and that he had, in fact, been much frightened, as, indeed, he had reason
+to be.  Madame highly approved of the gift; and she was the more right in
+applauding it, as it was by no means in the King's usual manner.  M. de
+Marigny said, when I told him of this adventure, that he would have
+wagered a thousand louis against the King's making a present of fifty,
+if anybody but I had told him of the circumstance.  "It is a singular
+fact," continued he, "that all of the race of Valois have been liberal to
+excess; this is not precisely the case with the Bourbons, who are rather
+reproached with avarice.  Henri IV. was said to be avaricious.  He gave
+to his mistresses, because he could refuse them nothing; but he played
+with the eagerness of a man whose whole fortune depends on the game.
+Louis XIV. gave through ostentation.  It is most astonishing," added he,
+"to reflect on what might have happened.  The King might actually have
+been assassinated in his chamber, without anybody knowing anything of the
+matter and without a possibility of discovering the murderer."  For more
+than a fortnight Madame could not get over this incident.
+
+About that time she had a quarrel with her brother, and both were in the
+right.  Proposals were made to him to marry the daughter of one of the
+greatest noblemen of the Court, and the King consented to create him a
+Duke, and even to make the title hereditary.  Madame was right in wishing
+to aggrandise her brother, but he declared that he valued his liberty
+above all things, and that he would not sacrifice it except for a person
+he really loved.  He was a true Epicurean philosopher, and a man of great
+capacity, according to the report of those who knew him well, and judged
+him impartially.  It was entirely at his option to have had the reversion
+of M. de St. Florentin's place, and the place of Minister of Marine, when
+M. de Machault retired; he said to his sister, at the time, "I spare you
+many vexations, by depriving you of a slight satisfaction.  The people
+would be unjust to me, however well I might fulfil the duties of my
+office.  As to M. de St. Florentin's place, he may live five-and-twenty
+years, so that I should not be the better for it.  Kings' mistresses are
+hated enough on their own account; they need not also draw upon,
+themselves the hatred which is directed against Ministers."  M. Quesnay
+repeated this conversation to me.
+
+The King had another mistress, who gave Madame de Pompadour some
+uneasiness.  She was a woman of quality, and the wife of one of the most
+assiduous courtiers.
+
+A man in immediate attendance on the King's person, and who had the care
+of his clothes, came to me one day, and told me that, as he was very much
+attached to Madame, because she was good and useful to the King, he
+wished to inform me that, a letter having fallen out of the pocket of a
+coat which His Majesty had taken off, he had had the curiosity to read
+it, and found it to be from the Comtesse de ----- who had already yielded
+to the King's desires.  In this letter, she required the King to give her
+fifty thousand crowns in money, a regiment for one of her relations, and
+a bishopric for another, and to dismiss Madame in the space of fifteen
+days, etc.  I acquainted Madame with what this man told me, and she acted
+with singular greatness of mind.  She said to me, "I ought to inform the
+King of this breach of trust of his servant, who may, by the same means,
+come to the knowledge of, and make a bad use of, important secrets; but I
+feel a repugnance to ruin the man: however, I cannot permit him to remain
+near the King's person, and here is what I shall do: Tell him that there
+is a place of ten thousand francs a year vacant in one of the provinces;
+let him solicit the Minister of Finance for it, and it shall be granted
+to him; but, if he should ever disclose through what interest he has
+obtained it, the King shall be made acquainted with his conduct.  By this
+means, I think I shall have done all that my attachment and duty
+prescribe.  I rid the King of a faithless domestic, without ruining the
+individual."  I did as Madame ordered me: her delicacy and address
+inspired me with admiration.  She was not alarmed on account of the lady,
+seeing what her pretentions were.  "She drives too quick," remarked
+Madame, "and will certainly be overturned on the road."  The lady died.
+
+"See what the Court is; all is corruption there, from the highest to the
+lowest," said I to Madame, one day, when she was speaking to me of some
+facts, that had come to my knowledge.  "I could tell you many others,"
+replied Madame; "but the little chamber, where you often remain, must
+furnish you with a sufficient number."  This was a little nook, from,
+whence I could hear a great part of what passed in Madame's apartment.
+The Lieutenant of Police sometimes came secretly to this apartment, and
+waited there.  Three or four persons, of high consideration, also found
+their way in, in a mysterious, manner, and several devotees, who were, in
+their hearts, enemies of Madame de Pompadour.  But these men had not
+petty objects in view: one: required the government of a province;
+another, a seat in the Council; a third, a Captaincy of the, Guards; and
+this man would have obtained it if the Marechale de Mirepoix had not
+requested it for her brother, the Prince de Beauvan.  The Chevalier du
+Muy was not among these apostates; not even the promise of being High
+Constable would have tempted him to make up to Madame, still less to
+betray his master, the Dauphin.  This Prince was, to the last degree,
+weary of the station he held.  Sometimes, when teased to death by
+ambitious people, who pretended to be Catos, or wonderfully devout, he
+took part against a Minister against whom he was prepossessed; then
+relapsed into his accustomed state of inactivity and ennui.
+
+The King used to say, "My son is lazy; his temper is Polonese--hasty and
+changeable; he has no tastes; he cares nothing for hunting, for women, or
+for good living; perhaps he imagines that if he were in my place he would
+be happy; at first, he would make great changes, create everything anew,
+as it were.  In a short time he would be as tired of the rank of King as
+he now is of his own; he is only fit to live 'en philosophe', with clever
+people about him."  The King added, "He loves what is right; he is truly
+virtuous, and does not want under standing."  `
+
+M. de St. Germain said, one day, to the King, "To think well of mankind,
+one must be neither a Confessor, nor a Minister, nor a Lieutenant of
+Police."--"Nor a King," said His Majesty.  "Ah! Sire," replied he, "you
+remember the fog we had a few days ago, when we could not see four steps
+before us.  Kings are commonly surrounded by still thicker fogs,
+collected around them by men of intriguing character, and faithless
+Ministers--all, of every class, unite in endeavouring to make things
+appear to Kings in any, light but the true one."  I heard this from the
+mouth of the famous Comte de St. Germain, as I was attending upon Madame,
+who was ill in bed.  The King was there; and the Count, who was a welcome
+visitor, had been admitted.  There were also present, M. de Gontaut,
+Madame de Brancas, and the Abbe de Bernis.  I remember that the very same
+day, after the Count was gone out, the King talked in a style which gave
+Madame great pain.  Speaking of the King of Prussia, he said, "That is a
+madman, who will risk all to gain all, and may, perhaps, win the game,
+though he has neither religion, morals, nor principles.  He wants to make
+a noise in the world, and he will succeed.  Julian, the Apostate, did the
+same."--"I never saw the King so animated before," observed Madame, when
+he was gone out; "and really the comparison with Julian, the Apostate, is
+not amiss, considering the irreligion of the King of Prussia.  If he gets
+out of his perplexities, surrounded as he is by his enemies, he will be
+one of the greatest men in history."
+
+M. de Bernis remarked, "Madame is correct in her judgment, for she has no
+reason to pronounce his praises; nor have I, though I agree with what she
+says."  Madame de Pompadour never enjoyed so much influence as at the
+time when M. de Choiseul became one of the Ministry.  From the time of
+the Abbe de Bernis she had afforded him her constant support, and he had
+been employed in foreign affairs, of which he was said to know but
+little.  Madame made the Treaty of Sienna, though the first idea of it
+was certainly furnished her by the Abbe.  I have been informed by several
+persons that the King often talked to Madame upon this subject; for my
+own part, I never heard any conversation relative to it, except the high
+praises bestowed by her on the Empress and the Prince de Kaunitz,
+whom she had known a good deal of.  She said that he had a clear head,
+the head of a statesman.  One day, when she was talking in this strain,
+some one tried to cast ridicule upon the Prince on account of the style
+in which he wore his hair, and the four valets de chambre, who made the
+hair-powder fly in all directions, while Kaunitz ran about that he might
+only catch the superfine part of it.  "Aye," said Madame, "just as
+Alcibiades cut off his dog's tail in order to give the Athenians
+something to talk about, and to turn their attention from those things he
+wished to conceal."
+
+Never was the public mind so inflamed against Madame de Pompadour as when
+news arrived of the battle of Rosbach.  Every day she received anonymous
+letters, full of the grossest abuse; atrocious verses, threats of poison
+and assassination.  She continued long a prey to the most acute sorrow,
+and could get no sleep but from opiates.  All this discontent was excited
+by her protecting the Prince of Soubise; and the Lieutenant of Police had
+great difficulty in allaying the ferment of the people.  The King
+affirmed that it was not his fault.  M. du Verney was the confidant of
+Madame in everything relating to war; a subject which he well understood,
+though not a military man by, profession.  The old Marechal de Noailles
+called him, in derision, the General of the flour, but Marechal Saxe,
+one day, told Madame that Du Verney knew more of military matters than
+the old Marshal.  Du Verney once paid a visit to Madame de Pompadour,
+and found her in company with the King, the Minister of War, and two
+Marshals; he submitted to them the plan of a campaign, which was
+generally applauded.  It was through his influence that M. de Richelieu
+was appointed to the command of the army, instead of the Marechal
+d'Estrdes.  He came to Quesnay two days after, when I was with him.
+The Doctor began talking about the art of war, and I remember he said,
+"Military men make a great mystery of their art; but what is the reason
+that young Princes have always the most brilliant success?  Why, because
+they are active and daring.  When Sovereigns command their troops in
+person what exploits they perform!  Clearly, because they are at liberty
+to run all risks."  These observations made a lasting impression on my
+mind.
+
+The first physician came, one day, to see Madame he was talking of madmen
+and madness.  The King was present, and everything relating to disease of
+any kind interested him.  The first physician said that he could
+distinguish the symptoms of approaching madness six months beforehand.
+"Are there any persons about the Court likely to become mad?" said the
+King.--"I know one who will be imbecile in less than three months,"
+replied he.  The King pressed him to tell the name.  He excused himself
+for some time.  At last he said, "It is M. de Sechelles, the Controller-
+General."--"You have a spite against him," said Madame, "because he would
+not grant what you asked"--"That is true," said he, "but though that
+might possibly incline me to tell a disagreeable truth, it would not make
+me invent one.  He is losing his intellects from debility.  He affects
+gallantry at his age, and I perceive the connection in his ideas is
+becoming feeble and irregular."--The King laughed; but three months
+afterwards he came to Madame, saying, "Sechelles gives evident proofs of
+dotage in the Council.  We must appoint a successor to him."  Madame de
+Pompadour told me of this on the way to Choisy.  Some time afterwards,
+the first physician came to see Madame, and spoke to her in private.
+"You are attached to M. Berryer, Madame," said he, "and I am sorry to
+have to warn you that he will be attacked by madness, or by catalepsy,
+before long.  I saw him this morning at chapel, sitting on one of those
+very low little chairs, which are only, meant to kneel upon.  His knees
+touched his chin.  I went to his house after Mass; his eyes were wild,
+and when his secretary spoke to him, he said, 'Hold your tongue, pen.  A
+pen's business is to write, and not to speak.'"  Madame, who liked the
+Keeper of the Seals, was very much concerned, and begged the first
+physician not to mention what he had perceived.  Four days after this,
+M. Berryer was seized with catalepsy, after having talked incoherently.
+This is a disease which I did not know even by name, and got it written
+down for me.  The patient remains in precisely the same position in which
+the fit seizes him; one leg or arm elevated, the eyes wide open, or just
+as it may happen.  This latter affair was known to all the Court at the
+death of the Keeper of the Seals.
+
+When the Marechal de Belle-Isle's son was killed in battle, Madame
+persuaded the King to pay his father a visit.  He was rather reluctant,
+and Madame said to him, with an air half angry, half playful:
+
+          --------"Barbare! don't l'orgueil
+          Croit le sang d'un sujet trop pays d'un coup d'oeil."
+
+The King laughed, and said, "Whose fine verses are those?"--"Voltaire's,"
+said Madame ------.
+
+"As barbarous as I am, I gave him the place of gentleman in ordinary, and
+a pension," said the King.
+
+The King went in state to call on the Marshal, followed by all the Court;
+and it certainly appeared that this solemn visit consoled the Marshal for
+the loss of his son, the sole heir to his name.
+
+When the Marshal died, he was carried to his house on a common hand-
+barrow, covered with a shabby cloth.  I met the body.  The bearers were
+laughing and singing.  I thought it was some servant, and asked who it
+was.  How great was my surprise at learning that these were the remains
+of a man abounding in honours and in riches.  Such is the Court; the dead
+are always in fault, and cannot be put out of sight too soon.
+
+The King said, "M. Fouquet is dead, I hear."--"He was no longer Fouquet,"
+replied the Duc d'Ayen; "Your Majesty had permitted him to change that
+name, under which, however, he acquired all his reputation."  The King
+shrugged his shoulders.  His Majesty had, in fact, granted him letters
+patent, permitting him not to sign Fouquet during his Ministry.  I heard
+this on the occasion in question.  M. de Choiseul had the war department
+at his death.  He was every day more and more in favour.
+
+Madame treated him with greater distinction than any previous Minister,
+and his manners towards her were the most agreeable it is possible to
+conceive, at once respectful and gallant.  He never passed a day without
+seeing her.  M. de Marigny could not endure M. de Choiseul, but he never
+spoke of him, except to his intimate friends.  Calling, one day, at
+Quesnay's, I found him there.  They were talking of M. de Choiseul.  "He
+is a mere 'petit maitre'," said the Doctor, "and, if he were handsome
+just fit to be one of Henri the Third's favourites."  The Marquis de
+Mirabeau and M. de La Riviere came in.  "This kingdom," said Mirabeau,
+"is in a deplorable state.  There is neither national energy, nor the
+only substitute for it--money."--"It can only be regenerated," said La
+Riviere, "by a conquest, like that of China, or by some great internal
+convulsion; but woe to those who live to see that!  The French people do
+not do things by halves."  These words made me tremble, and I hastened
+out of the room.  M. de Marigny did the same, though without appearing at
+all affected by what had been said.  "You heard De La Riviere," said he,
+--"but don't be alarmed, the conversations that pass at the Doctor's are
+never repeated; these are honourable men, though rather chimerical.
+They know not where to stop.  I think, however, they are in the right
+way; only, unfortunately, they go too far."  I wrote this down
+immediately.
+
+The Comte de St. Germain came to see Madame de Pompadour, who was ill,
+and lay on the sofa.  He shewed her a little box, containing topazes,
+rubies, and emeralds.  He appeared to have enough to furnish a treasury.
+Madame sent for me to see all these beautiful things.  I looked at them
+with an air of the utmost astonishment, but I made signs to Madame that I
+thought them all false.  The Count felt for something in his pocketbook,
+about twice as large as a spectacle-case, and, at length, drew out two or
+three little paper packets, which he unfolded, and exhibited a superb
+ruby.  He threw on the table, with a contemptuous air, a little cross of
+green and white stones.  I looked at it and said, "That is not to be
+despised."  I put it on, and admired it greatly.  The Count begged me to
+accept it.  I refused--he urged me to take it.  Madame then refused it
+for me.  At length, he pressed it upon me so warmly that Madame, seeing
+that it could not be worth above forty Louis, made me a sign to accept
+it.  I took the cross, much pleased at the Count's politeness; and, some
+days after, Madame presented him with an enamelled box, upon which was
+the portrait of some Grecian sage (whose name I don't recollect), to whom
+she compared him.  I skewed the cross to a jeweller, who valued it at
+sixty-five Louis.  The Count offered to bring Madame some enamel
+portraits, by Petitot, to look at, and she told him to bring them after
+dinner, while the King was hunting.  He shewed his portraits, after which
+Madame said to him, "I have heard a great deal of a charming story you
+told two days ago, at supper, at M. le Premier's, of an occurrence you
+witnessed fifty or sixty years ago."  He smiled and said, "It is rather
+long."--"So much the better," said she, with an air of delight.  Madame
+de Gontaut and the ladies came in, and the door was shut; Madame made a
+sign to me to sit down behind the screen.  The Count made many apologies
+for the ennui which his story would, perhaps, occasion.  He said,
+"Sometimes one can tell a story pretty well; at other times it is quite a
+different thing."
+
+"At the beginning of this century, the Marquis de St. Gilles was
+Ambassador from Spain to the Hague.  In his youth he had been
+particularly intimate with the Count of Moncade, a grandee of Spain,
+and one of the richest nobles of that country.  Some months after the
+Marquis's arrival at the Hague, he received a letter from the Count,
+entreating him, in the name of their former friendship, to render him the
+greatest possible service.  'You know,' said he, 'my dear Marquis, the
+mortification I felt that the name of Moncade was likely to expire with
+me.  At length, it pleased heaven to hear my prayers, and to grant me a
+son: he gave early promise of dispositions worthy of his birth, but he,
+some time since, formed an unfortunate and disgraceful attachment to the
+most celebrated actress of the company of Toledo.  I shut my eyes to this
+imprudence on the part of a young man whose conduct had, till then,
+caused me unmingled satisfaction.  But, having learnt that he was so
+blinded by passion as to intend to marry this girl, and that he had even
+bound himself by a written promise to that effect, I solicited the King
+to have her placed in confinement.  My son, having got information of the
+steps I had taken, defeated my intentions by escaping with the object of
+his passion.  For more than six months I have vainly endeavoured to
+discover where he has concealed himself, but I have now some reason to
+think he is at the Hague.  The Count earnestly conjured the Marquis to
+make the most rigid search, in order to discover his son's retreat, and
+to endeavour to prevail upon him to return to his home.  'It is an act of
+justice,' continued he, 'to provide for the, girl, if she consents to
+give up the written promise of marriage which she has received, and I
+leave it to your discretion to do what is right for her, as well as to
+determine the sum necessary to bring my son to Madrid in a manner
+suitable to his condition.  I know not,' concluded he, 'whether you are a
+father; if you are, you will be able to sympathise in my anxieties.'
+The Count subjoined to this letter an exact description of his son, and
+the young woman by whom he was accompanied.
+
+"On the receipt of this letter, the Marquis lost not a moment in sending
+to all the inns in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and the Hague, but in vain--he
+could find no trace of them.  He began to despair of success, when the
+idea struck him that a young French page of his, remarkable for his
+quickness and intelligence, might be employed with advantage.  He
+promised to reward him handsomely if he succeeded in finding the young
+woman, who was the cause of so much anxiety, and gave him the description
+of her person.  The page visited all the public places for many days,
+without success; at length, one evening, at the play, he saw a young man
+and woman, in a box, who attracted his attention.  When he saw that they,
+perceived he was looking at them, and withdrew to the back of the box to
+avoid his observation, he felt confident that they were the objects of
+his search.  He did not take his eyes from the bog, and watched every
+movement in it.  The instant the performance ended, he was in the passage
+leading from the boxes to the door, and he remarked that the young man,
+who, doubtless, observed the dress he wore, tried to conceal himself, as
+he passed him, by putting his handkerchief before his face.  He followed
+him, at a distance, to the inn called the Vicomte de Turenne, which he
+saw him and the woman enter; and, being now certain of success, he ran to
+inform the Ambassador.  The Marquis de St. Gilles immediately repaired to
+the inn, wrapped in a cloak, and followed by his page and two servants.
+He desired the landlord to show him to the room of a young man and woman,
+who had lodged for some time in his house.  The landlord, for some time,
+refused to do so, unless the Marquis would give their name.  The page
+told him to take notice that he was speaking to the Spanish Ambassador,
+who had strong reasons for wishing to see the persons in question.  The
+innkeeper said they wished not to be known, and that they had absolutely
+forbidden him to admit anybody into their apartment who did not ask for
+them by name; but that, since the Ambassador desired it, he would show
+him their room.  He then conducted them up to a dirty, miserable garret.
+He knocked at the door, and waited for some time; he then knocked again
+pretty, loudly, upon which the door was half-opened.  At the sight of the
+Ambassador and his suite, the person who opened it immediately closed it
+again, exclaiming that they, had made a mistake.  The Ambassador pushed
+hard against him, forced his way, in, made a sign to his people to wait
+outside, and remained in the room.  He saw before him a very handsome
+young man, whose appearance perfectly, corresponded with the description,
+and a young woman, of great beauty, and remarkably fine person, whose
+countenance, form, colour of the hair, etc., were also precisely those
+described by the Count of Moncade.  The young man spoke first.  He
+complained of the violence used in breaking into the apartment of a
+stranger, living in a free country, and under the protection of its laws.
+The Ambassador stepped forward to embrace him, and said, 'It is useless
+to feign, my dear Count; I know you, and I do not come here--to give pain
+to you or to this lady, whose appearance interests me extremely.'  The
+young man replied that he was totally mistaken; that he was not a Count,
+but the son of a merchant of Cadiz; that the lady was his wife; and, that
+they were travelling for pleasure.  The Ambassador, casting his eyes
+round the miserably furnished room, which contained but one bed, and some
+packages of the shabbiest kind, lying in disorder about the room, 'Is
+this, my dear child (allow me to address you by a title which is
+warranted by my tender regard for your father), is this a fit residence
+for the son of the Count of Moncade?'  The young man still protested
+against the use of any such language, as addressed to him.  At length,
+overcome by the entreaties of the Ambassador, he confessed, weeping, that
+he was the son of the Count of Moncade, but declared that nothing should
+induce him to return to his father, if he must abandon a woman he adored.
+The young woman burst into tears, and threw herself at the feet of the
+Ambassador, telling him that she would not be the cause of the ruin of
+the young Count; and that generosity, or rather, love, would enable her
+to disregard her own happiness, and, for his sake, to separate herself
+from him.  The Ambassador admired her noble disinterestedness.  The young
+man, on the contrary, received her declaration with the most desperate
+grief.  He reproached his mistress, and declared that he would never
+abandon so estimable a creature, nor suffer the sublime generosity of her
+heart to be turned against herself.  The Ambassador told him that the
+Count of Moncade was far from wishing to render her miserable, and that
+he was commissioned to provide her with a sum sufficient to enable her to
+return into Spain, or to live where she liked.  Her noble sentiments, and
+genuine tenderness, he said, inspired him with the greatest interest for
+her, and would induce him to go to the utmost limits of his powers, in
+the sum he was to give her; that he, therefore, promised her ten thousand
+florins, that is to say, about twelve hundred Louis, which would be given
+her the moment she surrendered the promise of marriage she had received,
+and the Count of Moncade took up his abode in the Ambassador's house,
+and promised to return to Spain.  The young woman seemed perfectly
+indifferent to the sum proposed, and wholly absorbed in her lover, and in
+the grief of leaving him.  She seemed insensible to everything but the
+cruel sacrifice which her reason, and her love itself, demanded.  At
+length, drawing from a little portfolio the promise of marriage, signed
+by the Count, 'I know his heart too well,' said she, 'to need it.'  Then
+she kissed it again and again, with a sort of transport, and delivered it
+to the Ambassador, who stood by, astonished at the grandeur of soul he
+witnessed.  He promised her that he would never cease to take the
+liveliest interest in her fate, and assured the Count of his father's
+forgiveness.  'He will receive with open arms,' said he, 'the prodigal
+son, returning to the bosom of his distressed family; the heart of a
+father is an exhaustless mine of tenderness.  How great will be the
+felicity of my friend on the receipt of these tidings, after his long
+anxiety and affliction; how happy do I esteem myself, at being the
+instrument of that felicity?'  Such was, in part, the language of the
+Ambassador, which appeared to produce a strong impression on the young
+man.  But, fearing lest, during the night, love should regain all his
+power, and should triumph over the generous resolution of the lady, the
+Marquis pressed the young Count to accompany him to his hotel.  The
+tears, the cries of anguish, which marked this cruel separation, cannot
+be described; they deeply touched the heart of the Ambassador, who
+promised to watch over the young lady.  The Count's little baggage was
+not difficult to remove, and, that very evening, he was installed in the
+finest apartment of the Ambassador's house.  The Marquis was overjoyed at
+having restored to the illustrious house of Moncade the heir of its
+greatness, and of its magnificent domains.  On the following morning, as
+soon as the young Count was up, he found tailors, dealers in cloth, lace,
+stuffs, etc., out of which he had only to choose.  Two valets de chambre,
+and three laquais, chosen by the Ambassador for their intelligence and
+good conduct, were in waiting in his antechamber, and presented
+themselves, to receive his orders.  The Ambassador shewed the young Count
+the letter he had just written to his father, in which he congratulated
+him on possessing a son whose noble sentiments and striking qualities
+were worthy of his illustrious blood, and announced his speedy return.
+The young lady was not forgotten; he confessed that to her generosity he
+was partly indebted for the submission of her lover, and expressed his
+conviction that the Count would not disapprove the gift he had made her,
+of ten thousand florins.  That sum was remitted, on the same day, to this
+noble and interesting girl, who left the Hague without delay.  The
+preparations for the Count's journey were made; a splendid wardrobe and
+an excellent carriage were embarked at Rotterdam, in a ship bound for
+France, on board which a passage was secured for the Count, who was to
+proceed from that country to Spain.  A considerable sum of money, and
+letters of credit on Paris, were given him at his departure; and the
+parting between the Ambassador and the young Count was most touching.
+The Marquis de St. Gilles awaited with impatience the Count's answer, and
+enjoyed his friend's delight by anticipation.  At the expiration of four
+months, he received this long-expected letter.  It would be utterly
+impossible to describe his surprise on reading the following words,
+'Heaven, my dear Marquis, never granted me the happiness of becoming a
+father, and, in the midst of abundant wealth and honours, the grief of
+having no heirs, and seeing an illustrious race end in my person, has
+shed the greatest bitterness over my whole existence.  I see, with
+extreme regret, that you have been imposed upon by a young adventurer,
+who has taken advantage of the knowledge he had, by some means, obtained,
+of our old friendship.  But your Excellency must not be the sufferer.
+The Count of Moncade is, most assuredly, the person whom you wished to
+serve; he is bound to repay what your generous friendship hastened to
+advance, in order to procure him a happiness which he would have felt
+most deeply.  I hope, therefore, Marquis, that your Excellency will have
+no hesitation in accepting the remittance contained in this letter, of
+three thousand Louis of France, of the disbursal of which you sent me an
+account.'"
+
+The manner in which the Comte de St. Germain spoke, in the characters of
+the young adventurer, his mistress, and the Ambassador, made his audience
+weep and laugh by turns.  The story is true in every particular, and the
+adventurer surpasses Gusman d'Alfarache in address, according to the
+report of some persons present.  Madame de Pompadour thought of having a
+play written, founded on this story; and the Count sent it to her in
+writing, from which I transcribed it.
+
+M. Duclos came to the Doctor's, and harangued with his usual warmth.  I
+heard him saying to two or three persons, "People are unjust to great
+men, Ministers and Princes; nothing, for instance, is more common than to
+undervalue their intellect.  I astonished one of these little gentlemen
+of the corps of the infallibles, by telling him that I could prove that
+there had been more men of ability in the house of Bourbon, for the last
+hundred years, than in any other family."--"You prove that?"  said
+somebody, sneeringly.  "Yes," said Duclos; "and I will tell you how.  The
+great Conde, you will allow, was no fool; and the Duchesse de Longueville
+is cited as one of the wittiest women that ever lived.  The Regent was a
+man who had few equals, in every kind of talent and acquirement.  The
+Prince de Conti, who was elected King of Poland, was celebrated for his
+intelligence, and, in poetry, was the successful rival of La Fare and St.
+Aulaire.  The Duke of Burgundy was learned and enlightened.  His Duchess,
+the daughter of Louis XIV., was remarkably clever, and wrote epigrams and
+couplets.  The Duc du Maine is generally spoken of only for his weakness,
+but nobody had a more agreeable wit.  His wife was mad, but she had an
+extensive acquaintance with letters, good taste in poetry, and a
+brilliant and inexhaustible imagination.  Here are instances enough, I
+think," said he; "and, as I am no flatterer, and hate to appear one, I
+will not speak of the living."  His hearers were astonished at this
+enumeration, and all of them agreed in the truth of what he had said.  He
+added, "Don't we daily hear of silly D'Argenson,
+
+     [Rene LOUIS d'Argenson, who was Minister for Foreign Affairs.  He
+     was the author of 'Considerations sur le Gouvernement', and of
+     several other works, from which succeeding political writers have
+     drawn, and still draw ideas, which they give to the world as new.
+     This man, remarkable not only for profound and original thinking,
+     but for clear and forcible expression, was, nevertheless, D'Argenson
+     la bete.  It is said, however, that he affected the simplicity, and
+     even silliness of manner, which procured him that appellation.  If,
+     as we hope, the unedited memoirs left by Rene d'Argenson will be
+     given to the world, they will be found fully to justify the opinion
+     of Duclos, with regard to this Minister, and the inappropriateness
+     of his nickname.]
+
+because he has a good-natured air, and a bourgeois tone?  and yet, I
+believe, there have not been many Ministers comparable to him in
+knowledge and in enlightened views."  I took a pen, which lay on the
+Doctor's table, and begged M. Duclos to repeat to me all the names he had
+mentioned, and the eulogium he had bestowed on each.  "If," said he, "you
+show that to the Marquise, tell her how the conversation arose, and that
+I did not say it in order that it might come to her ears, and eventually,
+perhaps, to those of another person.  I am an historiographer, and I will
+render justice, but I shall, also, often inflict it."--"I will answer for
+that," said the Doctor, "and our master will be represented as he really
+is.  Louis XIV. liked verses, and patronised poets; that was very well,
+perhaps, in his time, because one must begin with something; but this age
+will be very superior to the last.  It must be acknowledged that Louis
+XV., in sending astronomers to Mexico and Peru, to measure the earth, has
+a higher claim to our respect than if he directed an opera.  He has
+thrown down the barriers which opposed the progress of philosophy, in
+spite of the clamour of the devotees: the Encyclopaedia will do honour to
+his reign."  Duclos, during this speech, shook his head.  I went away,
+and tried to write down all I had heard, while it was fresh.  I had the
+part which related to the Princes of the Bourbon race copied by a valet,
+who wrote a beautiful hand, and I gave it to Madame de Pompadour.  But
+she said to me, "What! is Duclos an acquaintance of yours?  Do you want
+to play the 'bel esprit', my dear good woman?  That will not sit well
+upon you."  The truth is, that nothing can be further from my
+inclination.  I told her that I met him accidentally at the Doctor's,
+where he generally spent an hour when he came to Versailles.  "The King
+knows him to be a worthy man," said she.
+
+Madame de Pompadour was ill, and the King came to see her several times a
+day.  I generally left the room when he entered, but, having stayed a few
+minutes, on one occasion, to give her a glass of chicory water, I heard
+the King mention Madame d'Egmont.  Madame raised her eyes to heaven, and
+said, "That name always recalls to me a most melancholy and barbarous
+affair; but it was not my fault."  These words dwelt in my mind, and,
+particularly, the tone in which they were uttered.  As I stayed with
+Madame till three o'clock in the morning, reading to her a part of the
+time, it was easy for me to try to satisfy my curiosity.  I seized a
+moment, when the reading was interrupted, to say, "You looked dreadfully
+shocked, Madame, when the King pronounced the name of D'Egmont."  At
+these words, she again raised her eyes, and said, "You would feel as I
+do, if you knew the affair."--"It must, then, be deeply affecting, for I
+do not think that it personally concerns you, Madame."--"No," said she,
+"it does not; as, however, I am not the only person acquainted with this
+history, and as I know you to be discreet, I will tell it you.  The last
+Comte d'Egmont married a reputed daughter of the Duc de Villars; but the
+Duchess had never lived with her husband, and the Comtesse d'Egmont is,
+in fact, a daughter of the Chevalier d'Orleans.--[Legitimate son of the
+Regent, Grand Prior of France.]--At the death of her husband, young,
+beautiful, agreeable, and heiress to an immense fortune, she attracted
+the suit and homage of all the most distinguished men at Court.  Her
+mother's director, one day, came into her room and requested a private
+interview; he then revealed to her that she was the offspring of an
+adulterous intercourse, for which her mother had been doing penance for
+five-and-twenty years.  'She could not,' said he, 'oppose your former
+marriage, although it caused her extreme distress.  Heaven did not grant
+you children; but, if you marry again, you run the risk, Madame, of
+transmitting to another family the immense wealth, which does not, in
+fact, belong to you, and which is the price of crime.'
+
+"The Comtesse d'Egmont heard this recital with horror.  At the same
+instant, her mother entered, and, on her knees, besought her daughter to
+avert her eternal damnation.  Madame d'Egmont tried to calm her own and
+her mother's mind.  'What can I do?' said she, to her.  'Consecrate
+yourself wholly to God,' replied the director, 'and thus expiate your
+mother's crime.'  The Countess, in her terror, promised whatever they
+asked, and proposed to enter the Carmelites.  I was informed of it, and
+spoke to the King about the barbarous tyranny the Duchesse de Villars and
+the director were about to exercise over this unhappy young woman; but we
+knew not how to prevent it.  The King, with the utmost kindness,
+prevailed on the Queen to offer her the situation of Lady of the Palace,
+and desired the Duchess's friends to persuade her to endeavour to deter
+her daughter from becoming a Carmelite.  It was all in vain; the wretched
+victim was sacrificed."
+
+Madame took it into her head to consult a fortuneteller, called Madame
+Bontemps, who had told M. de Bernis's fortune, as I have already related,
+and had surprised him by her predictions.  M. de Choiseul, to whom she
+mentioned the matter, said that the woman had also foretold fine things
+that were to happen to him.  "I know it," said she, "and, in return, you
+promised her a carriage, but the poor woman goes on foot still."  Madame
+told me this, and asked me how she could disguise herself, so as to see
+the woman without being known.  I dared not propose any scheme then, for
+fear it should not succeed; but, two days after, I talked to her surgeon
+about the art, which some beggars practise, of counterfeiting sores, and
+altering their features.  He said that was easy enough.  I let the thing
+drop, and, after an interval of some minutes, I said, "If one could
+change one's features, one might have great diversion at the opera,
+or at balls.  What alterations would it be necessary to make in me, now,
+to render it impossible to recognise me?"--"In the first place," said he,
+"you must alter the colour of your hair, then you must have a false nose,
+and put a spot on some part of your face, or a wart, or a few hairs."
+I laughed, and said, "Help me to contrive this for the next ball; I have
+not been to one for twenty years; but I am dying to puzzle somebody, and
+to tell him things which no one but I can tell him.  I shall come home,
+and go to bed, in a quarter of an hour."--"I must take the measure of
+your nose," said he; "or do you take it with wax, and I will have a nose
+made: you can get a flaxen or brown wig."  I repeated to Madame what the
+surgeon had told me: she was delighted at it.  I took the measure of her
+nose, and of my own, and carried them to the surgeon, who, in two days,
+gave me the two noses, and a wart, which Madame stuck under her left eye,
+and some paint for the eyebrows.  The noses were most delicately made, of
+a bladder, I think, and these, with the ether disguises, rendered it
+impossible to recognize the face, and yet did not produce any shocking
+appearance.  All this being accomplished, nothing remained but to give
+notice to the fortuneteller; we waited for a little excursion to Paris,
+which Madame was to take, to look at her house.  I then got a person,
+with whom I had no connection, to speak to a waiting-woman of the
+Duchesse de Ruffec, to obtain an interview with the woman.  She made some
+difficulty, on account of the Police; but we promised secrecy, and
+appointed the place of meeting.  Nothing could be more contrary to Madame
+de Pompadour's character, which was one of extreme timidity, than to
+engage in such an adventure.  But her curiosity was raised to the highest
+pitch, and, moreover, everything was so well arranged that there was not
+the slightest risk.  Madame had let M. de Gontaut, and her valet de
+chambre, into the secret.  The latter had hired two rooms for his niece,
+who was then ill, at Versailles, near Madame's hotel.  We went out in the
+evening, followed by the valet de chambre, who was a safe man, and by the
+Duke, all on foot.  We had not, at farthest, above two hundred steps to
+go.  We were shown into two small rooms, in which were fires.  The two
+men remained in one, and we in the other.  Madame had thrown herself on a
+sofa.  She had on a night-cap, which concealed half her face, in an
+unstudied manner.  I was near the fire, leaning on a table, on which were
+two candles.  There were lying on the chairs, near us, some clothes, of
+small value.  The fortune-teller rang--a little servant-girl let her in,
+and then went to wait in the room where the gentlemen were.  Coffee-cups,
+and a coffee-pot, were set; and I had taken care to place, upon a little
+buffet, some cakes, and a bottle of Malaga wine, having heard that Madame
+Bontemps assisted her inspiration with that liquor.  Her face, indeed,
+sufficiently proclaimed it.  "Is that lady ill?"  said she, seeing Madame
+de Pompadour stretched languidly on the sofa.  I told her that she would
+soon be better, but that she had kept her room for a week.  She heated
+the coffee, and prepared the two cups, which she carefully wiped,
+observing that nothing impure must enter into this operation.  I affected
+to be very anxious for a glass of wine, in order to give our oracle a
+pretext for assuaging her thirst, which she did, without much entreaty.
+When she had drunk two or three small glasses (for I had taken care not
+to have large ones), she poured the coffee into one of the two large
+cups.  "This is yours," said she; "and this is your friends's; let them
+stand a little."  She then observed our hands and our faces; after which
+she drew a looking-glass from her pocket, into which she told us to look,
+while she looked at the reflections of our faces.  She next took a glass
+of wine, and immediately threw herself into a fit of enthusiasm, while
+she inspected my cup, and considered all the lines formed by the dregs of
+the coffee she had poured out.  She began by saying, "That is well--
+prosperity--but there is a black mark--distresses.  A man becomes a
+comforter.  Here, in this corner, are friends, who support you.  Ah! who
+is he that persecutes them?  But justice triumphs--after rain, sunshine--
+a long journey successful.  There, do you see these little bags?  That is
+money which has been paid--to you, of course, I mean.  That is well.  Do
+you see that arm?"--"Yes."--"That is an arm supporting something: a woman
+veiled; I see her; it is you.  All this is clear to me.  I hear, as it
+were, a voice speaking to me.  You are no longer attacked.  I see it,
+because the clouds in that direction are passed off (pointing to a
+clearer spot).  But, stay--I see small lines which branch out from the
+main spot.  These are sons, daughters, nephews--that is pretty well."
+She appeared overpowered with the effort she was making.  At length, she
+added, "That is all.  You have had good luck first--misfortune afterward.
+You have had a friend, who has exerted himself with success to extricate
+you from it.  You have had lawsuits--at length fortune has been
+reconciled to you, and will change no more."  She drank another glass of
+wine.  "Your health, Madame," said she to the Marquise, and went through
+the same ceremonies with the cup.  At length, she broke out, "Neither
+fair nor foul.  I see there, in the distance, a serene sky; and then all
+these things that appear to ascend all these things are applauses.  Here
+is a grave man, who stretches out his arms.  Do you see?--look
+attentively."--"That is true," said Madame de Pompadour, with surprise
+(there was, indeed, some appearance of the kind).  "He points to
+something square that is an open coffer.  Fine weather.  But, look!
+there are clouds of azure and gold, which surround you.  Do you see that
+ship on the high sea?  How favourable the wind is!  You are on board; you
+land in a beautiful country, of which you become the Queen.  Ah! what do
+I see?  Look there--look at that hideous, crooked, lame man, who is
+pursuing you--but he is going on a fool's errand.  I see a very great
+man, who supports you in his arms.  Here, look! he is a kind of giant.
+There is a great deal of gold and silver--a few clouds here and there.
+But you have nothing to fear.  The vessel will be sometimes tossed about,
+but it will not be lost.  Dixi."  Madame said, "When shall I die, and of
+what disease?"--"I never speak of that," said she; "see here, rather but
+fate will not permit it.  I will shew you how fate confounds everything"
+--shewing her several confused lumps of the coffee-dregs.  "Well, never
+mind as to the time, then, only tell me the kind of death."  The fortune-
+teller looked in the cup, and said, "You will have time to prepare
+yourself."  I gave her only two Louis, to avoid doing anything
+remarkable.  She left us, after begging us to keep her secret, and we
+rejoined the Duc de Gontaut, to whom we related everything that had
+passed.  He laughed heartily, and said, "Her coffee-dregs are like the
+clouds--you may see what you please in them."
+
+There was one thing in my horoscope which struck me, that was the
+comforter; because one of my uncles had taken great care of me, and had
+rendered me the most essential services.  It is also true that I
+afterwards had an important lawsuit; and, lastly, there was the money
+which had come into my hands through Madame de Pompadour's patronage and
+bounty.  As for Madame, her husband was represented accurately enough by
+the man with the coffer; then the country of which she became Queen
+seemed to relate to her present situation at Court; but the most
+remarkable thing was the crooked and lame man, in whom Madame thought she
+recognized the Duc de V-----, who was very much deformed.  Madame was
+delighted with her adventure and her horoscope, which she thought
+corresponded very remarkably with the truth.  Two days after, she sent
+for M. de St. Florentin, and begged him not to molest the fortuneteller.
+He laughed, and replied that he knew why she interceded for this woman.
+Madame asked him why he laughed.  He related every circumstance of her
+expedition with astonishing exactness;--[M. de St.  Florentin was
+Minister for Paris, to whom the Lieutenant of Police was accountable.]--
+but he knew nothing of what had been said, or, at least, so he pretended.
+He promised Madame that, provided Bontemps did nothing which called for
+notice, she should not be obstructed in the exercise of her profession,
+especially if she followed it in secret.  "I know her," added he, "and I,
+like other people, have had the curiosity to consult her.  She is the
+wife of a soldier in the guards.  She is a clever woman in her way, but
+she drinks.  Four or five years ago, she got such hold on the mind of
+Madame de Ruffec, that she made her believe she could procure her an
+elixir of beauty, which would restore her to what she was at twenty-five.
+The Duchess pays high for the drugs of which this elixir is compounded;
+and sometimes they are bad: sometimes, the sun, to which they were
+exposed, was not powerful enough; sometimes, the influence of a certain
+constellation was wanting.  Sometimes, she has the courage to assure the
+Duchess that she really is grown handsomer, and actually succeeds in
+making her believe it."  But the history of this woman's daughter is
+still more curious.  She was exquisitely beautiful, and the Duchess
+brought her up in her own house.  Bontemps predicted to the girl, in the
+Duchess's presence, that she would marry a man of two thousand Louis a
+year.  This was not very likely to happen to the daughter of a soldier in
+the guards.  It did happen, nevertheless.  The little Bontemps married
+the President Beaudouin, who was mad.  But, the tragical part of the
+story is, that her mother had also foretold that she would die in
+childbirth of her first child, and that she did actually die in child-
+birth, at the age of eighteen, doubtless under a strong impression of her
+mother's prophecy, to which the improbable event of her marriage had
+given such extraordinary weight.  Madame told the King of the adventure
+her curiosity had led her into, at which he laughed, and said he wished
+the Police had arrested her.  He added a very sensible remark.  "In order
+to judge," said he, "of the truth or falsehood of such predictions, one
+ought to collect fifty of them.  It would be found that they are almost
+always made up of the same phrases, which are sometimes inapplicable, and
+some times hit the mark.  But the first are rarely-mentioned, while the
+others are always insisted on."
+
+I have heard, and, indeed, it is certainly true, that M. de Bridge lived
+on terms of intimacy with Madame, when she was Madame d'Aioles.  He used
+to ride on horseback with her, and, as he is so handsome a man, that he
+has retained the name of the handsome man, it was natural enough that he
+should be thought the lover of a very handsome woman.  I have heard
+something more than this.  I was told that the King said to M. de Bridge,
+"Confess, now, that you were her lover.  She has acknowledged it to me,
+and I exact from you this proof of sincerity."  M. de. Bridge replied,
+that Madame de Pompadour was at liberty to say what she pleased for her
+own amusement, or for any other reason; but that he, for his part, could
+not assert a falsehood; that he had been, her friend; that she was a
+charming companion, and had great talents; that he delighted in her
+society;  but that his intercourse with her had never gone beyond the
+bounds of friendship.  He added, that her husband was present in all
+their parties, that he watched her with a jealous eye, and that he would
+not have suffered him to be so much with her if he had conceived the
+least suspicion of the kind.  The King persisted, and told him he was
+wrong to endeavour to conceal a fact which was unquestionable.  It was
+rumoured, also, that the Abbe de Bernis had been a favoured lover of
+hers.  The said Abbe was rather a coxcomb; he had a handsome face, and
+wrote poetry.  Madame de Pompadour was the theme of his gallant verses.
+He sometimes received the compliments of his friends upon his success
+with a smile which left some room for conjecture, although he denied the
+thing in words.  It was, for some time, reported at Court that she was in
+love with the Prince de Beauvau: he is a man distinguished for his
+gallantries, his air of rank and fashion, and his high play; he is
+brother to the little Marechale: for all these reasons, Madame is very
+civil to him, but there is nothing marked in her behaviour.  She knows,
+besides, that he is in love with a very agreeable woman.
+
+Now that I am on the subject of lovers, I cannot avoid speaking of M. de
+Choiseul.  Madame likes him better than any of those I have just
+mentioned, but he is not her lover.  A lady, whom I know perfectly well,
+but whom I do not chose to denounce to Madame, invented a story about
+them, which was utterly false.  She said, as I have good reason to
+believe, that one day, hearing the King coming, I ran to Madame's closet
+door; that I coughed in a particular manner; and that the King having,
+happily, stopped a moment to talk to some ladies, there was time to
+adjust matters, so that Madame came out of the closet with me and M. de
+Choiseul, as if we had been all three sitting together.  It is very true
+that I went in to carry something to Madame, without knowing that the
+King was come, and that she came out of the closet with M. de Choiseul,
+who had a paper in his hand, and that I followed her a few minutes after.
+The King asked M. de Choiseul what that paper was which he had in his
+hand.  He replied that it contained the remonstrance from the Parliament.
+
+Three or four ladies witnessed what I now relate, and as, with the
+exception of one, they were all excellent women, and greatly attached to
+Madame, my suspicions could fall on none but the one in question, whom I
+will not name, because her brother has always treated me with great
+kindness.  Madame de Pompadour had a lively imagination and great
+sensibility, but nothing could exceed the coldness of her temperament.
+It would, besides, have been extremely difficult for her, surrounded as
+she was, to keep up an intercourse of that kind with any man.  It is true
+that this difficulty would have been diminished in the case of an all-
+powerful Minister, who had constant pretexts for seeing her in private.
+But there was a much more decisive fact--M. de Choiseul had a charming
+mistress--the Princess de R------, and Madame knew it, and often spoke of
+her.  He had, besides, some remains of liking for the Princess de Kinski,
+who followed him from Vienna.  It is true that he soon after discovered
+how ridiculous she was.  All these circumstances combined were, surely,
+sufficient to deter Madame from engaging in a love affair with the Duke;
+but his talents and agreeable qualities captivated her.  He was not
+handsome, but he had manners peculiar to himself, an agreeable vivacity,
+a delightful gaiety; this was the general opinion of his character.  He
+was much attached to Madame, and though this might, at first, be inspired
+by a consciousness of the importance of her friendship to his interest,
+yet, after he had acquired sufficient political strength to stand alone,
+he was not the less devoted to her, nor less assiduous in his attentions.
+He knew her friendship for me, and he one day said to me, with great
+feeling, "I am afraid, my dear Madame du Hausset, that she will sink into
+a state of complete dejection, and die of melancholy.  Try to divert
+her."  What a fate for the favourite of the greatest monarch in
+existence! thought I.
+
+One day, Madame de Pompadour had retired to her closet with M. Berryer.
+Madame d'Amblimont stayed with Madame de Gontaut, who called me to talk
+about my son.  A moment after, M. de Gontaut came in and said,
+"D'Amblimont, who shall have the Swiss guards?"--"Stop a moment," said
+she; "let me call my council----, M. de Choiseul."--"That is not so very
+bad a thought," said M. de Gontaut, "but I assure you, you are the first
+person who has suggested it."  He immediately left us, and Madame
+d'Amblimont said, "I'll lay a wager he is going to communicate my idea to
+M. de Choiseul."  He returned very shortly, and, M. Berrier having left
+the room, he said to Madame de Pompadour, "A singular thought has entered
+d'Amblimont's head."--"What absurdity now?"  said Madame.  "Not so great
+an absurdity neither," said he.  "She says the Swiss guards ought to be
+given to M. de Choiseul, and, really, if the King has not positively
+promised M. de Soubise, I don't see what he can do better."--"The King
+has promised nothing," said Madame, "and the hopes I gave him were of the
+vaguest kind.  I only told him it was possible.  But though I have a
+great regard for M. de Soubise, I do not think his merits comparable to
+those of M. de Choiseul."  When the King came in, Madame, doubtless, told
+him of this suggestion.  A quarter of an hour afterwards, I went into the
+room to speak to her, and I heard the King say, "You will see that,
+because the Duc du Maine, and his children, had that place, he will think
+he ought to have it, on account of his rank as Prince (Soubise); but the
+Marechal de Bassompierre was not a Prince; and, by the bye, the Duc de
+Choiseul is his grandnephew; do you know that?"--"Your Majesty is better
+acquainted with the history of France than anybody," replied Madame.  Two
+days after this, Madame de said to me, "I have two great delights; M. de
+Soubise will not have the Swiss guards, and Madame de Marsan will be
+ready to burst with rage at it; this is the first: and M. de Choiseul
+will have them; this is the greatest."
+
+                    ...........................
+
+[The whole of this passage is in a different handwriting.]
+
+There was a universal talk of a young lady with whom the King was as much
+in love as it was possible for him to be.  Her name was Romans.  She was
+said to be a charming girl.  Madame de Pompadour knew of the King's
+visits, and her confidantes brought her most alarming reports of the
+affair.  The Marechale de Mirepoix, who had the best head in Madame's
+council, was the only one who encouraged her.  "I do not tell you," said
+she, "that he loves you better than her; and if she could be transported
+hither by the stroke of a fairy's wand; if she could entertain him this
+evening at supper; if she were familiar with all his tastes, there would,
+perhaps, be sufficient reason for you to tremble for your power.  But
+Princes are, above all, pre-eminently the slaves of habit.  The King's
+attachment to you is like that he bears to your apartment, your
+furniture.  You have formed yourself to his manners and habits; you know
+how to listen and reply to his stories; he is under no constraint with
+you; he has no fear of boring you.  How do you think he could have
+resolution to uproot all this in a day, to form a new establishment, and
+to make a public exhibition of himself by so striking a change in his
+arrangements?"  The young lady became pregnant; the reports current among
+the people, and even those at Court, alarmed Madame dreadfully.  It was
+said that the King meant to legitimate the child, and to give the mother
+a title.  "All that," said Madame de Mirepoix, "is in the style of Louis
+XIV.--such dignified proceedings are very unlike those of our master."
+Mademoiselle Romans lost all her influence over the King by her
+indiscreet boasting.  She was even treated with harshness and violence,
+which were in no degree instigated by Madame.  Her house was searched,
+and her papers seized; but the most important, those which substantiated
+the fact of the King's paternity, had been withdrawn.  At length she gave
+birth to a son, who was christened under the name of Bourbon, son of
+Charles de Bourbon, Captain of Horse.  The mother thought the eyes of all
+France were fixed upon her, and beheld in her son a future Duc du Maine.
+She suckled him herself, and she used to carry him in a sort of basket to
+the Bois de Boulogne.  Both mother and child were covered with the finest
+laces.  She sat down upon the grass in a solitary spot, which, however,
+was soon well known, and there gave suck to her royal babe.  Madame had
+great curiosity to see her, and took me, one day, to the manufactory at
+Sevres, without telling me what she projected.  After she had bought some
+cups, she said, "I want to go and walk in the Bois de Boulogne," and gave
+orders to the coachman to stop at a certain spot where she wished to
+alight.  She had got the most accurate directions, and when she drew near
+the young lady's haunt she gave me her arm, drew her bonnet over her
+eyes, and held her pocket-handkerchief before the lower part of her face.
+We walked, for some minutes, in a path, from whence we could see the lady
+suckling her child.  Her jet black hair was turned up, and confined by a
+diamond comb.  She looked earnestly at us.  Madame bowed to her, and
+whispered to me, pushing me by the elbow, "Speak to her."  I stepped
+forward, and exclaimed, "What a lovely child!"--"Yes, Madame," replied
+she, "I must confess that he is, though I am his mother."  Madame, who
+had hold of my arm, trembled, and I was not very firm.  Mademoiselle
+Romans said to me, "Do you live in this neighbourhood?"--"Yes, Madame,"
+replied I, "I live at Auteuil with this lady, who is just now suffering
+from a most dreadful toothache."--"I pity her sincerely, for I know that
+tormenting pain well."  I looked all around, for fear any one should come
+up who might recognise us.  I took courage to ask her whether the child's
+father was a handsome man.  "Very handsome, and, if I told you his name,
+you would agree with me."--"I have the honour of knowing him, then,
+Madame?"--"Most probably you do."  Madame, fearing, as I did, some
+rencontre, said a few words in a low tone, apologizing for having
+intruded upon her, and we took our leave.  We looked behind us,
+repeatedly, to see if we were followed, and got into the carriage without
+being perceived.  "It must be confessed that both mother and child are
+beautiful creatures," said Madame--"not to mention the father; the infant
+has his eyes.  If the King had come up while we were there, do you think
+he would have recognised us?"--"I don't doubt that he would, Madame, and
+then what an agitation I should have been in, and what a scene it would
+have been for the bystanders! and, above all, what a surprise to her!"
+In the evening, Madame made the King a present of the cups she had
+bought, but she did not mention her walk, for fear Mademoiselle Romans
+should tell him that two ladies, who knew him, had met her there such a
+day.  Madame de Mirepoix said to Madame, "Be assured, the King cares very
+little about children; he has enough of them, and he will not be troubled
+with the mother or the son.  See what sort of notice he takes of the
+Comte de I-----, who is strikingly like him.  He never speaks of him, and
+I am convinced that he will never do anything for him.  Again and again I
+tell you, we do not live under Louis XIV."  Madame de Mirepoix had been
+Ambassadress to London, and had often heard the English make this remark.
+
+Some alterations had been made in Madame de Pompadour's rooms, and I had
+no longer, as heretofore, the niche in which I had been permitted to sit,
+to hear Caffarelli, and, in later times, Mademoiselle Fel and Jeliotte.
+I, therefore, went more frequently to my lodgings in town, where I
+usually received my friends: more particularly when Madame visited her
+little hermitage, whither M. de Gontaut commonly accompanied her.  Madame
+du Chiron, the wife of the Head Clerk in the War-Office, came to see me.
+"I feel," said she, "greatly embarrassed, in speaking to you about an
+affair, which will, perhaps, embarrass you also.  This is the state of
+the case.  A very poor woman, to whom I have sometimes given a little
+assistance, pretends to be a relation of the Marquise de Pompadour.  Here
+is her petition."  I read it, and said that the woman had better write
+directly to Madame, and that I was sure, if what she asserted was true,
+her application would be successful.  Madame du Chiron followed my
+advice.  The woman wrote she was in the lowest depth of poverty, and I
+learnt that Madame sent her six Louis until she could gain more accurate
+information as to the truth of her story.  Colin, who was commissioned to
+take the money, made inquiries of M. de Malvoiain, a relation of Madame,
+and a very respectable officer.  The fact was found to be as she had
+stated it.  Madame then sent her a hundred louis, and promised her a
+pension of sixty louis a year.  All this was done with great expedition,
+and Madame had a visit of thanks from her poor relation, as soon as she
+had procured decent clothes to come in.  That day the King happened to
+come in at an unusual hour, and saw this person going out.  He asked who
+it was.  "It is a very poor relation of mine," replied Madame.  "She
+came, then, to beg for some assistance?"--"No," said she.  "What did she
+come for, then?"--"To thank me for a little service I have rendered her,"
+said she, blushing from the fear of seeming to boast of her liberality.
+"Well," said the King; "since she is your relation, allow me to have the
+pleasure of serving her too.  I will give her fifty louis a year out of
+my private purse, and, you know, she may send for the first year's
+allowance to-morrow."  Madame burst into tears, and kissed the King's
+hand several times.  She told me this three days afterwards, when I was
+nursing her in a slight attack of fever.  I could not refrain from
+weeping myself at this instance of the King's kindness.  The next day,
+I called on Madame du Chiron to tell her of the good fortune of her
+protege; I forgot to say that, after Madame had related the affair to me,
+I told her what part I had taken in it.  She approved my conduct, and
+allowed me to inform my friend of the King's goodness.  This action,
+which showed no less delicate politeness towards her than sensibility to
+the sufferings of the poor woman, made a deeper impression on Madame's
+heart than a pension of two thousand a year given to herself.
+
+Madame had terrible palpitations of the heart.  Her heart actually seemed
+to leap.  She consulted several physicians.  I recollect that one of them
+made her walk up and down the room, lift a weight, and move quickly.  On
+her expressing some surprise, he said, "I do this to ascertain whether
+the organ is diseased; in that case motion quickens the pulsation; if
+that effect is not produced, the complaint proceeds from the nerves."
+I repeated this to my oracle, Quesnay.  He knew very little of this
+physician, but he said his treatment was that of a clever man.  His name
+was Renard; he was scarcely known beyond the Marais.  Madame often
+appeared suffocated, and sighed continually.  One day, under pretence of
+presenting a petition to M. de Choiseul, as he was going out, I said, in
+a low voice, that I wished to see him a few minutes on an affair of
+importance to my mistress.  He told me to come as soon as I pleased, and
+that I should be admitted.  I told him that Madame was extremely
+depressed; that she gave way to distressing thoughts, which she would not
+communicate; that she, one day, said to me, "The fortune-teller told me I
+should have time to prepare myself; I believe it, for I shall be worn to
+death by melancholy."  M. de Choiseul appeared much affected; he praised
+my zeal, and said that he had already perceived some indications of what
+I told him; that he would not mention my name, but would try to draw from
+her an explanation.  I don't know what he said to her; but, from that
+time, she was much more calm.  One day, but long afterwards, Madame said
+to M. de Gontaut, "I am generally thought to have great influence, but if
+it were not for M. de Choiseul, I should not be able to obtain a Cross of
+St. Louis."
+
+The King and Madame de Pompadour had a very high opinion of Madame de
+Choiseul.  Madame said, "She always says the right thing in the right
+place."  Madame de Grammont was not so agreeable to them; and I think
+that this was to be attributed, in part, to the sound of her voice, and
+to her blunt manner of speaking; for she was said to be a woman of great
+sense, and devotedly attached to the King and Madame de Pompadour.  Some
+people pretended that she tried to captivate the King, and to supplant
+Madame: nothing could be more false, or more ridiculously improbable.
+Madame saw a great deal of these two ladies, who were extremely attentive
+to her.  She one day remarked to the Duc d'Ayen,--[Afterwards Marechal de
+Noaines.] that M. de Choiseul was very fond of his sisters.  "I know it,
+Madame," said he, "and many sisters are the better for that."--"What do
+you mean?"  said she.  "Why," said he, "as the Duc de Choiseul loves his
+sister, it is thought fashionable to do the same; and I know silly girls,
+whose brothers formerly cared nothing about them, who are now most
+tenderly beloved.  No sooner does their little finger ache, than their
+brothers are running about to fetch physicians from all corners of Paris.
+They flatter themselves that somebody will say, in M. de Choiseul's
+drawing-room, "How passionately M. de ------ loves his sister; he would
+certainly die if he had the misfortune to lose her."  Madame related this
+to her brother, in my presence, adding, that she could not give it in the
+Duke's comic manner.  M. de Marigny said, "I have had the start of them
+all, without making so much noise; and my dear little sister knows that I
+loved her tenderly before Madame de Grammont left her convent.  The Duc
+d'Ayen, however, is not very wrong; he has made the most of it in his
+lively manner, but it is partly true."--"I forgot," replied Madame, "that
+the Duke said, 'I want extremely to be in the fashion, but which sister
+shall I take up?  Madame de Caumont is a devil incarnate, Madame de
+Villars drinks, Madame d'Armagnac is a bore, Madame de la Marck is half
+mad.'"--"These are fine family portraits, Duke," said Madame.  The Duc de
+Gontaut laughed, during the whole of this conversation, immoderately.
+Madame repeated it, one day, when she kept her bed.  M. de G----- also
+began to talk of his sister, Madame du Roure.  I think, at least, that is
+the name he mentioned.  He was very gay, and had the art of creating
+gaiety.  Somebody said, he is an excellent piece of furniture for a
+favourite.  He makes her laugh, and asks for nothing either for himself
+or for others; he cannot excite jealousy, and he meddles in nothing.
+He was called the White Eunuch.  Madame's illness increased so rapidly
+that we were alarmed about her; but bleeding in the foot cured her as if
+by a miracle.  The King watched her with the greatest solicitude; and I
+don't know whether his attentions did not contribute as much to the cure
+as the bleeding.  M. de Choiseul remarked, some days after, that she
+appeared in better spirits.  I told him that I thought this improvement
+might be attributed to the same cause.
+
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+Air of science calculated to deceive the vulgar
+Bad habit of talking very indiscreetly before others
+Clouds--you may see what you please in them
+Dared to say to me, so he writes
+Dead always in fault, and cannot be put out of sight too soon
+French people do not do things by halves
+Fresh proof of the intrigues of the Jesuits
+How difficult it is to do good
+I dared not touch that string
+Infinite astonishment at his sharing the common destiny
+Madame made the Treaty of Sienna
+Pension is granted on condition that his poems are never printed
+Pleasure of making a great noise at little expense
+Sending astronomers to Mexico and Peru, to measure the earth
+She always says the right thing in the right place
+She drives quick and will certainly be overturned on the road
+
+
+
+
+End of this Project Gutenberg Etext Memoirs of Louis XV., and XVI., v2
+by Madame du Hausset, and an unknown English girl and Princess Lamballe
+
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