companion, she devoted herself to the interests of her restless
mistress, read to her, talked with her, wrote plays for her, and
was the animating spirit of the famous Nuits Blanches. While the
duchess was in exile she shared her disgrace, refused to betray
her, and was sent to the Bastille for her loyalty. She resigned
herself to her imprisonment with admirable philosophy, amused
herself in the study of Latin, in watching the gambols of a cat
and kitten, and in carrying on a safe and sentimental flirtation
with the fascinating Duc de Richelieu, who occupied an adjoining
cell and passed the hours in singing with her popular airs from
Iphigenie. "Sentimental" is hardly a fitting word to apply to
the coquetries of this remarkably clear and calculating young
woman. She returned with her patroness to Sceaux, found many
admirers, but married finally with an eye to her best worldly
interests, and, it appears, in the main happily--at least, not
unhappily. The shade of difference implies much. She had a
keen, penetrating intellect which nothing escaped, and as it had
the peculiar clearness in which people and events are reflected
as in a mirror, her observations are of great value. "Aside from
the prose of Voltaire, I know of none more agreeable than that of
Mme. de Staal de Launay," said Grimm. Her portrait of her
mistress serves to paint herself as well.

"Mme. la Duchesse du Maine, at the age of sixty years, has yet
learned nothing from experience; she is a child of much talent;
she has its defects and its charms. Curious and credulous, she
wishes to be instructed in all the different branches of
knowledge; but she is contented with their surface. The
decisions of those who educated her have become for her
principles and rules upon which her mind has never formed the