for the injured French Queen (his dead mother's kinswoman), to insult
the reigning favourite. Madame de Pompadour sent him billets on that
thick smooth vellum paper of hers, sealed with the arms of France.
The Prince tossed them into the fire and made no answer; it is Pickle
who gives us this information. Maria Theresa later stooped to call
Madame de Pompadour her cousin. Charles was prouder or less politic;
afterwards he stooped like Maria Theresa.

For his part, says d'Argenson, the Prince 'now amused himself with
love affairs. Madame de Guemene almost ravished him by force; they
have quarrelled, after a ridiculous scene; he is living now with the
Princesse de Talmond. He is full of fury, and wishes in everything
to imitate Charles XII. of Sweden and stand a siege in his house like
Charles XII. at Bender.' This was in anticipation of arrest, after
the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, in which his expulsion from France was
one of the conditions. This Princesse de Talmond, as we shall see,
was the unworthy Flora Macdonald of Charles in his later wanderings,
his protectress, and, unlike Flora, his mistress. She was not young;
Madame d'Aiguillon calls her vieille femme in a curious play, 'La
Prison du Prince Charles Edouard Stuart,' written by d'Argenson in
imitation of Shakespeare. {36a} The Princesse, nee Marie
Jablonowski, a cousin of the Queen of France and of Charles, married
Anne Charles Prince de Talmond, of the great house of La Trimouille,
in 1730. She must have been nearly forty in 1749, and some ten years
older than her lover.

We shall later, when Charles is concealed by the Princesse de
Talmond, present the reader with her 'portrait' by the mordant pen of
Madame du Deffand. Here Voltaire's rhymed portrait may be cited: