who has suggested it.”  He immediately left us, and Madame d’Amblimont said, “I’ll lay a wager he is going to communicate my idea to M. de Choiseul.”  He returned very shortly, and, M. Berrier having left the room, he said to Madame de Pompadour, “A singular thought has entered d’Amblimont’s head.”—­“What absurdity now?” said Madame.  “Not so great an absurdity neither,” said he.  “She says the Swiss guards ought to be given to M. de Choiseul, and, really, if the King has not positively promised M. de Soubise, I don’t see what he can do better.”—­“The King has promised nothing,” said Madame, “and the hopes I gave him were of the vaguest kind.  I only told him it was possible.  But though I have a great regard for M. de Soubise, I do not think his merits comparable to those of M. de Choiseul.”  When the King came in, Madame, doubtless, told him of this suggestion.  A quarter of an hour afterwards, I went into the room to speak to her, and I heard the King say, “You will see that, because the Duc du Maine, and his children, had that place, he will think he ought to have it, on account of his rank as Prince (Soubise); but the Marechal de Bassompierre was not a Prince; and, by the bye, the Duc de Choiseul is his grandnephew; do you know that?”—­“Your Majesty is better acquainted with the history of France than anybody,” replied Madame.  Two days after this, Madame de said to me, “I have two great delights; M. de Soubise will not have the Swiss guards, and Madame de Marsan will be ready to burst with rage at it; this is the first:  and M. de Choiseul will have them; this is the greatest.”

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[The whole of this passage is in a different handwriting.]

There was a universal talk of a young lady with whom the King was as much in love as it was possible for him to be.  Her name was Romans.  She was said to be a charming girl.  Madame de Pompadour knew of the King’s visits, and her confidantes brought her most alarming reports of the affair.  The Marechale de Mirepoix, who had the best head in Madame’s council, was the only one who encouraged her.  “I do not tell you,” said she, “that he loves you better than her; and if she could be transported hither by the stroke of a fairy’s wand; if she could entertain him this evening at supper; if she were familiar with all his tastes, there would, perhaps, be sufficient reason for you to tremble for your power.  But Princes are, above all, pre-eminently the slaves of habit.  The King’s attachment to you is like that he bears to your apartment, your furniture.  You have formed yourself to his manners and habits; you know how to listen and reply to his stories; he is under no constraint with you; he has no fear of boring you.  How do you think he could have resolution to uproot all this in a day, to form a new establishment, and to make a public exhibition of himself by so striking a change in his arrangements?” The young lady became pregnant; the reports current