[I have seen ladies at the Princesse de Lamballe’s come from these card parties with their laps so blackened by the quantities of gold received in them, that they have been obliged to change their dresses to go to supper.  Many a chevalier d’industree and young military spendthrift has made his harvest here.  Thousands were won and lost, and the ladies were generally the dupes of all those who were the constant speculative attendants.  The Princease de Lamballe did not like play, but when it was necessary she did play, and won or lost to a limited extent; but the prescribed sum once exhausted or gained she left off.  In set parties, such as those of whist, she never played except when one was wanted, often excusing herself on the score of its requiring more attention than it was in her power to give to it and her reluctance to sacrifice her partner; though I have heard Beau Dillon, the Duke of Dorset, Lord Edward Dillon, and many others say that she understood and played the game much better than many who had a higher opinion of their skill in it.  Lord Edward Fitzgerald was admitted to the parties at the Duchesse de Polignac’s on his first coming to Paris; but when his connection with the Duc d’Orleans and Madame de Genlis became known he was informed that his society would be dispensed with.  The famous, or rather the infamous, Beckford was also excluded.]

“Much as some of the higher classes of the nobility felt aggrieved at the preference given by the Queen to the Duchesse de Polignac, that which raised against Her Majesty the most implacable resentment was her frequenting the parties of her favourite more than those of any other of the ‘haut ton’.  These assemblies, from the situation held by the Duchess, could not always be the most select.  Many of the guests who chanced to get access to them from a mere glimpse of the Queen—­whose general good-humour, vivacity, and constant wish to please all around her would often make her commit herself unconsciously and unintentionally—­would fabricate anecdotes of things they had neither seen nor heard; and which never had existence, except in their own wicked imaginations.  The scene of the inventions, circulated against Her Majesty through France, was, in consequence, generally placed at the Duchess’s; but they were usually so distinctly and obviously false that no notice was taken of them, nor was any attempt made to check their promulgation.

“Exemplary as was the friendship between this enthusiastic pair, how much more fortunate for both would it have been had it never happened!  I foresaw the results long, long before they took place; but the Queen was not to be thwarted.  Fearful she might attribute my anxiety for her general safety to unworthy personal views, I was often silent, even when duty bade me speak.  I was, perhaps, too scrupulous about seeming officious or jealous of the predilection shown to the Duchess.  Experience had taught me the inutility of representing consequences, and I had no wish to quarrel with the Queen.  Indeed, there was a degree of coldness towards me on the part of Her Majesty for having gone so far as I had done.  It was not until after the birth of the Duc de Normandie, her third child, in March, 1785, that her friendship resumed its primitive warmth.