We had another distinguished foreigner arrive in France about this time, —­I mean, the Prince of Parma, respecting whom I remember a pleasing adventure.  At Fontainebleau more great dancing-parties are given than elsewhere, and Cardinal d’Estrees wished to give one there in honour of this Prince.  I and many others were invited to the banquet; but the Prince himself, for whom the invitation was specially provided, was forgotten.  The Cardinal had given invitations right and left, but by some omission the Prince had not had one sent to him.  On the morning of the dinner this discovery was made.  The Prince was at once sent to, but he was engaged, and for several days.  The dinner therefore took place without him; the Cardinal was much laughed at for his absence of mind.  He was often similarly forgetful.

The Bishop of Poitiers died at the commencement of this year, and his bishopric was given at Easter to the Abbe de Caudelet.  The Abbe was a very good man, but made himself an enemy, who circulated the blackest calumnies against him.  Amongst other impostures it was said that the Abbe had gambled all Good Friday; the truth being, that in the evening, after all the services were over, he went to see the Marechale de Crequi, who prevailed upon him to amuse her for an hour by playing at piquet.  But the calumny had such effect, that the bishopric of Poitiers was taken from him, and he retired into Brittany, where he passed the rest of his life in solitude and piety.  His brother in the meantime fully proved to Pere de la Chaise the falsehood of this accusation; and he, who was upright and good, did all he could to bestow some other living upon the Abbe, in recompense for that he had been stripped of.  But the King would not consent, although often importuned, and even reproached for his cruelty.

It was known, too, who was the author of the calumny.  It was the Abbe de la Chatre, who for a long time had been chaplain to the King, and who was enraged against everyone who was made bishop before him.  He was a man not wanting in intelligence, but bitter, disagreeable, punctilious; very ignorant, because he would never study, and so destitute of morality, that I saw him say mass in the chapel on Ash Wednesday, after having passed a night, masked at a ball, where he said and did the most filthy things, as seen and heard by M. de La Vrilliere, before whom he unmasked, and who related this to me:  half an hour after, I met the Abbe de la Chatre, dressed and going to the altar.  Other adventures had already deprived him of all chance of being made bishop by the King.