About 1726, when lovers were numerous and friends plentiful, the death of Lafresnaye occurred at her salon.  In his testament he stated that his death was caused by Mme. de Tencin; however, she was too shrewd, cunning, and careful to be guilty of permitting any weak points to appear in her plots, and it was not difficult for her to clear herself of that charge by the verdict of the judges, who considered the accusation a posthumous vengeance.

The great literary men whom Mme. de Tencin gathered about her, Fontenelle, Montesquieu, Mairan, Marivaux, Helvetius, Marmontel, were called her menagerie, or her betes.  Among them, Marivaux received a pension of one thousand ecus from her, besides drawing at will upon the exchequer of an old maid by the name of Saint-Jean.  Marmontel, desirous of writing tragedies, took lessons from the famous Mlle. Clairon—­at his friend’s expense.  To give a correct idea of the character of woman’s influence upon the literary style of that century, the words of Marmontel may be quoted:  “He who wishes to write with precision, energy, and vigor, may live with man only; but he who in his style wishes to have subtleness, amenity, charm, flexibility, will do well, I think, to live with woman.”

Mme. de Tencin exerted an immense influence upon the men of her circle, especially socially; for example, she married the wealthy M. de La Popeliniere to Mlle. Dancourt.  She was one of the few really consummate diplomats; later on, she became less associated with intrigues, and gave lessons in current diplomacy, with which she was perfectly familiar.  Her counsel to her pupils was to gain friends among women rather than among men.  “For,” she would say, “we do whatever we wish with men; they are so dissipated, or so preoccupied with their personal interests, that to give attention to them would be to neglect your own interests.”

Every New Year’s Day the betes of her menagerie received two yards of velvet, to make knickerbockers to be worn at her receptions; this custom was observed up to the last year of the existence of her salon.  Her receptions were among the first of the kind in France.  Like the majority of salon leaders, she was an authoress of no mean ability.  Her novels were widely read at the time—­Le Siege de Calais and Les Malheurs de l’Amour.  Her memoirs, throwing light upon the intrigues and plots, social animosities, and general state of the society of the time, are historically valuable.  She died in Paris, in 1749.

Among all the great salons, that of Mme. de Tencin was the only one in which gambling was indulged in on a wholesale scale; fortunes changed hands every evening, a large part of the gains always falling to the lot of the hostess, as a sort of “rake off.”  She herself was a professional at the business, and by receiving private information from headquarters, through her famous friend Law, the controleur-general, and her lover Dubois, she was able to acquire an immense fortune which she distributed freely among her friends and favorites.  Her place among the literary salon leaders depends mainly upon her endeavors to advance the interests of the aspiring young authors who were willing to place themselves under her protection.