My son assures me that it is not his intention to make the Abbe Dubois a Cardinal, and that the Abbe himself does not think about it (17th August, 1717).

On the 6th of March, this disagreeable priest came to me and said, “Monseigneur has just nominated me Archbishop of Cambrai.”  I replied, “I congratulate you upon it; but has this taken place today?  I heard of it a week ago; and, since you were seen to take the oaths on your appointment, no one has doubted it.”  It is said that the Duc de Mazarin said, on the Abbe’s first Mass, “The Abbe Dubois is gone to his first communion;” meaning that he had never before taken the communion in all his life.  I embarrassed my son by remarking to him that he had changed his opinion since he told me the Abbe should never become Bishop or Archbishop, and that he did not think of being Cardinal.  My son blushed and answered, “It is very true; but I had good reason for changing my intention.”  “Heaven grant it may be so,” I said, “for it must be by God’s mercy, and not from the exercise of your own reason.”

The Archbishop of Cambrai is the declared enemy of our Abbe Saint-Albin.  The word arch is applicable to all his qualities; he is an arch-cheat, an arch-hypocrite, an arch-flatterer, and, above all, an arch-knave.

It is reported that a servant of the Archbishop of Rheims said to a servant of the Archbishop of Cambrai, “Although my master is not a Cardinal, he is still a greater lord than yours, for he consecrates the Kings.”

“Yes,” replied the Abbe Dubois’ servant, “but my master consecrates the real God, who is still greater than all Kings.”

SECTION XXXIV.—­MR. LAW.

Mr. Law is a very honest and a very sensible man; he is extremely polite to everybody, and very well bred.  He does not speak French ill—­at least, he speaks it much better than Englishmen in general.  It is said that when his brother arrived in Paris, Mr. Law made him a present of three millions (of livres); he has good talents, and has put the affairs of the State in such good order that all the King’s debts have been paid.  He is admirably skilled in all that relates to finance.  The late King would have been glad to employ him, but, as Mr. Law was not a Catholic, he said he ought not to confide in him (19th Sept., 1719).

He (Law) says that, of all the persons to whom he has explained his system, there have been only two who have properly comprehended it, and these are the King of Sicily and my son; he was quite astonished at their having so readily understood it.  He is so much run after, that he has no repose by day or by night.  A Duchess even kissed his hand publicly.

If a Duchess can do this, what will not other ladies do?