for some time. At last he said, "It is M. de Sechelles, the
Controller-General."--"You have a spite against him," said Madame,
"because he would not grant what you asked"--"That is true," said he,
"but though that might possibly incline me to tell a disagreeable truth,
it would not make me invent one. He is losing his intellects from
debility. He affects gallantry at his age, and I perceive the connection
in his ideas is becoming feeble and irregular."--The King laughed; but
three months afterwards he came to Madame, saying, "Sechelles gives
evident proofs of dotage in the Council. We must appoint a successor to
him." Madame de Pompadour told me of this on the way to Choisy. Some
time afterwards, the first physician came to see Madame, and spoke to her
in private. "You are attached to M. Berryer, Madame," said he, "and I am
sorry to have to warn you that he will be attacked by madness, or by
catalepsy, before long. I saw him this morning at chapel, sitting on one
of those very low little chairs, which are only, meant to kneel upon.
His knees touched his chin. I went to his house after Mass; his eyes
were wild, and when his secretary spoke to him, he said, 'Hold your
tongue, pen. A pen's business is to write, and not to speak.'" Madame,
who liked the Keeper of the Seals, was very much concerned, and begged
the first physician not to mention what he had perceived. Four days
after this, M. Berryer was seized with catalepsy, after having talked
incoherently. This is a disease which I did not know even by name, and
got it written down for me. The patient remains in precisely the same
position in which the fit seizes him; one leg or arm elevated, the eyes
wide open, or just as it may happen. This latter affair was known to all
the Court at the death of the Keeper of the Seals.

When the Marechal de Belle-Isle's son was killed in battle, Madame
persuaded the King to pay his father a visit. He was rather reluctant,
and Madame said to him, with an air half angry, half playful: