before they knew him. I am told such was the old man's affection for his
country, and persuasion that he ought to do all the good he could, that
he would have gone to Poland if they had offered him the crown. He has
left six hundred thousand livres, and a _rente viagere_ of forty
thousand crowns to the Queen, saved from the sale of his Polish estates,
from his pension of two millions, and from his own liberality. His
buildings, his employment of the poor, his magnificence, and his
economy, were constant topics of admiration. Not only the court-tables
were regularly and nobly served, but he treated, and defrayed his old
enemy's grand-daughter, the Princess Christina, on her journey hither to
see her sister the Dauphiness. When mesdames his grand-daughters made
him an unexpected visit, he was so disturbed for fear it should derange
his finances, which he thought were not in advance, that he shut himself
up for an hour with his treasurer, to find resources; was charmed to
know he should not run in debt, and entertained them magnificently. His
end was calm and gay, like his life, though he suffered terribly, and he
said so extraordinary a life could not finish in a common way. To a lady
who had set her ruffle on fire, and scorched her arm about the same
time, he said, "Madame, nous brulons du même feu." The poor Queen had
sent him the very night-gown that occasioned his death: he wrote to her,
"C'étoit pour me tenir chaud, mais il m'a tenu trop chaud."

[Footnote 1: Stanislaus Leczinski was the father of the queen of Louis
XV. On the conclusion of peace between France and the Empire it was
arranged that the Duke of Lorraine should exchange that duchy for
Tuscany, and that Lorraine should be allotted to Stanislaus, with a
reversion to his daughter and to France after his death.]

Yesterday we had the funeral oration on the Dauphin; and are soon to
have one on Stanislaus. It is a noble subject; but if I had leisure, I