The Princesse Maubuisson was astonishingly pleasant and amiable.  I was always delighted to visit her, and never felt myself tired in her society.  I soon found myself in much greater favour than any other of her nieces, because I could converse with her about almost everybody she had known in the whole course of her life, which the others could not.  She used frequently to talk German with me, which she knew very well; and she told me all her adventures.  I asked her how she could accustom herself to the monastic life.  She laughed and said, “I never speak to the nuns but to give orders.”  She had a deaf nun with her in her own chamber, that she might not feel any desire to speak.  She told me that she had always been fond of a country life, and that she still could fancy herself a country girl.  “But,” I asked her, “how do you like getting up and going to church in the middle of the night?” She replied that she did as the painters do, who increase the splendour of their light by the introduction of deep shadows.  She had in general the faculty of giving to all things a turn which deprived them of their absurdity.

I have often heard M. Bernstorff spoken of by a person who was formerly very agreeable to him; I mean the Duchess of Mecklenbourg, the Duc de Luxembourg’s sister.  She praised his talents very highly, and assured me that it was she who gave him to the Duke George William.

The wife of the Marechal de Villars is running after the Comte de Toulouse.  My son is also in her good graces, and is not a whit more discreet.  Marechal de Villars came one day to see me; and, as he pretends to understand medals, he asked to see mine.  Baudelot, who is a very honest and clever man, and in whose keeping they are, was desired to show them; he is not the most cautious man in the world, and is very little acquainted with what is going on at Court.  He had written a dissertation upon one of my medals, in which he proved, against the opinion of other learned men, that the horned head which it displayed was that of Pan and not of Jupiter Ammon.  Honest Baudelot, to display his erudition, said to the Marshal, “Ah, Monseigneur, this is one of the finest medals that Madame possesses:  it is the triumph of Cornificius; he has, you see, all sorts of horns.  He was like you, sir, a great general; he wears the horns of Juno and Faunus.  Cornificius was, as you probably well know, sir, a very able general.”  Here I interrupted him.  “Let us pass on,” I said, “to the other medal; if you stop in this manner at each, you will not have time to show the whole.”

But he, full of his subject, returned to it.  “Ah, Madame,” he went on, “this is worthy of more attention than perhaps any other; Cornificius is, indeed, one of the most rare medals in the world.  Look at it, Madame; I beg you to observe it narrowly; here, you see, is Juno crowned, and she is also crowning this great general.”  All that I could say to him was not sufficient to prevent Baudelot talking to the Marshal of horns.  “Monseigneur,” he said, “is well versed in all these matters, and I want him to see that I am right in insisting that these horns are those of Faunus, not those of Jupiter Ammon.”