the highest fortunes, and I always thought that he had formed the design
of marrying her. A dukedom would have given him rank; and that, joined
to his place, and to the wealth which she would have had from her mother,
would have made him a man of great importance. The difference of age was
not sufficient to be a great obstacle. People, as usual, said the young
lady was poisoned; for the unexpected death of persons who command a
large portion of public attention always gives birth to these rumours.
The King shewed great regret, but more for the grief of Madame than on
account of the loss itself, though he had often caressed the child, and
loaded her with presents. I owe it, also, to justice, to say that M. de
Marigny, the heir of all Madame de Pompadour's fortune, after the death
of her daughter, evinced the sincerest and deepest regret every time she
was seriously ill. She, soon after, began to lay plans for his
establishment. Several young ladies of the highest birth were thought
of; and, perhaps, he would have been made a Duke, but his turn of mind
indisposed him for schemes either of marriage or ambition. Ten times he
might have been made Prime Minister, yet he never aspired to it. "That
is a man," said Quesnay to me, one day, "who is very little known; nobody
talks of his talents or acquirements, nor of his zealous and efficient
patronage of the arts: no man, since Colbert, has done so much in his
situation: he is, moreover, an extremely honourable man, but people will
not see in him anything but the brother of the favourite; and, because he
is fat, he is thought dull and heavy." This was all perfectly true. M.
de Marigny had travelled in Italy with very able artists, and had
acquired taste, and much more information than any of his predecessors
had possessed. As for the heaviness of his air, it only came upon him
when he grew fat; before that, he had a delightful face. He was then as
handsome as his sister. He paid court to nobody, had no vanity, and
confined himself to the society of persons with whom he was at his ease.
He went rather more into company at Court after the King had taken him to