[2] Quoted by Mme. du Deffand in a letter to Walpole, dated May 19th, 1770 ("Correspondance complete de Mme. du Deffand,” ii., p.59).

[3] Mercy to Marie-Therese, August 4th, 1770; “Correspondance secrete entre Marie-Therese et la Comte de Mercy Argenteau, avec des Lettres de Marie-Therese et Marie Antoinette,” par M. le Chevalier Alfred d’Arneth, i., p. 29.  For the sake of brevity, this Collection will be hereafter referred to as “Arneth.”

[4] “The King of France is both hated and despised, which seldom happens to the same man.”—­LORD CHESTERFIELD, Letter to Mr. Dayrolles, dated May 19th, 1752.

[5] Maria Teresa died in December, 1780.

[6] Mme. du Deffand, letter of May 19th, 1770.

[7] Chambier, i., p. 60.

[8] Mme. de Campan, i., p. 3.

[9] He told Mercy she was “’vive et un peu enfant, mais,” ajouta-t-il, “cela est bien de son age.’”—­ARNETH, i., p. 11.

[10] Arneth, i., p.9-16

CHAPTER IV.

[1] Dates 9th and 12th., Arneth, i., pp. 16, 18.

[2] Marly was a palace belonging to the king, but little inferior in splendor to Versailles itself, and a favorite residence of Louis XV., because a less strict etiquette had been established there.  Choisy and Bellevue, which will often be mentioned in the course of this narrative, were two others of the royal palaces on a somewhat smaller scale.  They have both been destroyed.  Marly, Choisy, and Bellevue were all between Versailles and Paris.

[3] Mem. de Goncourt, quoting a MS. diary of Hardy, p. 35.

[4] De Vermond, who had accompanied her from Vienna as her reader.

[5] See St. Simon’s account of Dangeau, i., p. 392.

[6] The Duc de Noailles, brother-in-law of the countess, “l’homme de France qui a peut-etre le plus d’esprit et qui connait le mieux son souverain et la cour,” told Mercy in August that “jugeant d’apres son experience et d’apres les qualites qu’il voyait dans cette princesse, il etait persuade qu’elle gouvernerait un jour l’esprit du roi.”—­ARNETH, i., p. 34.

[7] La petite rousse.

[8] “De monter a cheval gate le teint, et votre taille a la longue s’en ressentira.”—­Marie-Therese a Marie-Antoinette, Arneth, i., p. 104.

[9] “On fit chercher partout des anes fort doux et tranquilles.  Le 21 on repeta la promenade sur les anes.  Mesdames voulurent etre de la partie ainsi que le Comte de Provence et le Comte d’Artois.”—­Mercy a Marie-Therese, September 19, 1770, Arneth, i., p. 49.

[10] “Madame la Dauphine, a laquelle le tresor royal doit remettre 6000 frs. par mois, n’a reellement pas un ecu dont elle peut disposer elle-meme et sans le concours de personne” (Octobre 20).—­ARNETH, i. p. 69.

[11] “Ses garcons de chambre recoivent cent louis [a louis was twenty-four francs, so that the hundred made 2100 francs out of her 6000] par mois pour la depense du jeu de S.A.R.; et soit qu’elle perde ou qu’elle gagne, on ne revoit rien de cette somme.”—­ARNETH, i.