served up in three services, or courses, with entrees and hors
d'oeuvres, exclusive of the fruit, consisted of about twenty
dishes, extremely well dressed by the rotisseur, who is the best
cook I ever knew, in France, or elsewhere; but the plates were not
presented with much order. Our young ladies did not seem to be
much used to do the honours of the table. The most extraordinary
circumstance that I observed on this occasion--as, that all the
French who were present ate of every dish that appeared; and I am
told, that if there had been an hundred articles more, they would
have had a trial of each. This is what they call doing justice to
the founder. Mons. L--y was placed at the head of the table and
indeed he was the oracle and orator of the company; tall, thin,
and weather-beaten, not unlike the picture of Don Quixote after
he had lost his teeth. He had been garde du corps, or life-guardman
at Versailles; and by virtue of this office he was
perfectly well acquainted with the persons of the king and the
dauphin, with the characters of the ministers and grandees, and,
in a word, with all the secrets of state, on which he held forth
with equal solemnity and elocution. He exclaimed against the
jesuits, and the farmers of the revenue, who, he said, had ruined
France. Then, addressing himself to me, asked, if the English did
not every day drink to the health of madame la marquise? I did
not at first comprehend his meaning; but answered in general,
that the English were not deficient in complaisance for the
ladies. "Ah! (cried he) she is the best friend they have in the
world. If it had not been for her, they would not have such
reason to boast of the advantages of the war." I told him the
only conquest which the French had made in the war, was atchieved
by one of her generals: I meant the taking of Mahon. But I did
not choose to prosecute the discourse, remembering that in the