She is a clever woman in her way, but she drinks.  Four or five years ago, she got such hold on the mind of Madame de Ruffec, that she made her believe she could procure her an elixir of beauty, which would restore her to what she was at twenty-five.  The Duchess pays high for the drugs of which this elixir is compounded; and sometimes they are bad:  sometimes, the sun, to which they were exposed, was not powerful enough; sometimes, the influence of a certain constellation was wanting.  Sometimes, she has the courage to assure the Duchess that she really is grown handsomer, and actually succeeds in making her believe it.”  But the history of this woman’s daughter is still more curious.  She was exquisitely beautiful, and the Duchess brought her up in her own house.  Bontemps predicted to the girl, in the Duchess’s presence, that she would marry a man of two thousand louis a year.  This was not very likely to happen to the daughter of a soldier in the guards.  It did happen, nevertheless.  The little Bontemps married the President Beaudouin, who was mad.  But, the tragical part of the story is, that her mother had also foretold that she would die in child-birth of her first child, and that she did actually die in child-birth, at the age of eighteen, doubtless under a strong impression of her mother’s prophecy, to which the improbable event of her marriage had given such extraordinary weight.  Madame told the King of the adventure her curiosity had led her into, at which he laughed, and said he wished the Police had arrested her.  He added a very sensible remark.  “In order to judge,” said he, “of the truth or falsehood of such predictions, one ought to collect fifty of them.  It would be found that they are almost always made up of the same phrases, which are sometimes inapplicable, and sometimes hit the mark.  But the first are rarely mentioned, while the others are always insisted on.”

I have heard, and, indeed, it is certainly true, that M. de Bridge lived on terms of intimacy with Madame, when she was Madame d’Etioles.  He used to ride on horseback with her, and, as he is so handsome a man that he has retained the name of the handsome man, it was natural enough that he should be thought the lover of a very handsome woman.  I have heard something more than this.  I was told that the King said to M. de Bridge, “Confess, now, that you were her lover.  She has acknowledged it to me, and I exact from you this proof of sincerity.”  M. de Bridge replied, that Madame de Pompadour was at liberty to say what she pleased for her own amusement, or for any other reason; but that he, for his part, could not assert a falsehood; that he had been her friend; that she was a charming companion, and had great talents; that he delighted in her society; but that his intercourse with her had never gone beyond the bounds of friendship.  He added, that her husband was present in all their parties, that he watched her with a jealous eye, and that he would, not have