her aim; she frightened the King by her grand airs, and was incessantly teasing him for money.  Now you, perhaps, may not know that the King would sign an order for forty thousand louis without a thought, and would give a hundred out of his little private treasury with the greatest reluctance.  Lebel, who likes me better than he would a new mistress in my place, either by chance or design had brought a charming little sultana to the Parc-aux-cerfs, who has cooled the King a little towards the haughty Vashti, by giving him occupation, ——­ has received a hundred thousand francs, some jewels, and an estate.  Jannette has rendered me great service, by showing the King extracts from the letters broken open at the post-office, concerning the report that Madame de Coaslin was coming into favour.  The King was much impressed by a letter from an old counsellor of the Parliament, who wrote to one of his friends as follows:  “It is quite as reasonable that the King should have a female friend and confidante—­as that we, in our several degrees, should so indulge ourselves; but it is desirable that he should keep the one he has; she is gentle, injures nobody, and her fortune is made.  The one who is now talked of will be as haughty as high birth can make her.  She must have an allowance of a million francs a year, since she is said to be excessively extravagant; her relations must be made Dukes, Governors of provinces, and Marshals, and, in the end, will surround the King, and overawe the Ministers.”

Madame de Pompadour had this passage, which had been sent to her by M. Jannette, the Intendant of the Police, who enjoyed the King’s entire confidence.  He had carefully watched the King’s look, while he read the letter, and he saw that the arguments of this counsellor, who was not a disaffected person, made a great impression upon him.  Some time afterwards, Madame de Pompadour said to me, “The haughty Marquise behaved like Mademoiselle Deschamps, and she is turned off.”  This was not Madame’s only subject of alarm.  A relation of Madame d’Estrades, wife to the Marquis de C——­, had made the most pointed advances to the King, much more than were necessary for a man who justly thought himself the handsomest man in France, and who was, moreover, a King.  He was perfectly persuaded that every woman would yield to the slightest desire he might deign to manifest.  He, therefore, thought it a mere matter of course that women fell in love with him.  M. de Stainville had a hand in marring the success of that intrigue; and, soon afterwards, the Marquise de C——­, who was confined to her apartments at Marly, by her relations, escaped through a closet to a rendezvous, and was caught with a young man in a corridor.  The Spanish Ambassador, coming out of his apartments with flambeaux, was the person who witnessed this scene.  Madame d’Estrades affected to know nothing of her cousin’s intrigues, and kept up an appearance of the tenderest attachment to Madame de Pompadour,