capacity, according to the report of those who knew him well, and judged
him impartially. It was entirely at his option to have had the reversion
of M. de St. Florentin's place, and the place of Minister of Marine, when
M. de Machault retired; he said to his sister, at the time, "I spare you
many vexations, by depriving you of a slight satisfaction. The people
would be unjust to me, however well I might fulfil the duties of my
office. As to M. de St. Florentin's place, he may live five-and-twenty
years, so that I should not be the better for it. Kings' mistresses are
hated enough on their own account; they need not also draw upon,
themselves the hatred which is directed against Ministers." M. Quesnay
repeated this conversation to me.

The King had another mistress, who gave Madame de Pompadour some
uneasiness. She was a woman of quality, and the wife of one of the most
assiduous courtiers.

A man in immediate attendance on the King's person, and who had the care
of his clothes, came to me one day, and told me that, as he was very much
attached to Madame, because she was good and useful to the King, he
wished to inform me that, a letter having fallen out of the pocket of a
coat which His Majesty had taken off, he had had the curiosity to read
it, and found it to be from the Comtesse de ----- who had already yielded
to the King's desires. In this letter, she required the King to give her
fifty thousand crowns in money, a regiment for one of her relations, and
a bishopric for another, and to dismiss Madame in the space of fifteen
days, etc. I acquainted Madame with what this man told me, and she acted
with singular greatness of mind. She said to me, "I ought to inform the
King of this breach of trust of his servant, who may, by the same means,
come to the knowledge of, and make a bad use of, important secrets; but I
feel a repugnance to ruin the man: however, I cannot permit him to remain