thing which justly irritated the King and Madame. The King, who wrote a
great deal, had written to Madame de Pompadour a long letter concerning
an assembly of the Chambers of Parliament, and had enclosed a letter of
M. Berrien. Madame was ill, and laid those letters on a little table by
her bedside. M. de Gontaut came in, and gossipped about trifles, as
usual. Madame d'Amblimont also came, and stayed but very little time.
Just as I was going to resume a book which I had been reading to Madame,
the Comtesse d'Estrades entered, placed herself near Madame's bed, and
talked to her for some time. As soon as she was gone, Madame called me,
asked what was o'clock, and said, "Order my door to be shut, the King
will soon be here." I gave the order, and returned; and Madame told me
to give her the King's letter, which was on the table with some other
papers. I gave her the papers, and told her there was nothing else. She
was very uneasy at not finding the letter, and, after enumerating the
persons who had been in the room, she said, "It cannot be the little
Countess, nor Gontaut, who has taken this letter. It can only be the
Comtesse d'Estrades;--and that is too bad." The King came, and was
extremely angry, as Madame told me. Two days afterwards, he sent Madame
d'Estrades into exile. There was no doubt that she took the letter; the
King's handwriting had probably awakened her curiosity. This occurrence
gave great pain to M. d'Argenson, who was bound to her, as Madame de
Pompadour said, by his love of intrigue. This redoubled his hatred of
Madame, and she accused him of favouring the publication of a libel, in
which she was represented as a worn-out mistress, reduced to the vile
occupation of providing new objects to please her lover's appetite. She
was characterised as superintendent of the Parc-aux-cerfs, which was said
to cost hundreds of thousands of louis a year. Madame de Pompadour did,
indeed, try to conceal some of the King's weaknesses, but she never knew
one of the sultanas of that seraglio. There were, however, scarcely ever
more than two at once, and often only one. When they married, they