M. Quesnay came in for a moment; she told him all this:  and, as he did not appear to take any great interest in it, she asked him if he did not admire great poets.  “Oh, yes; just as I admire great bilboquet players,” said he, in that tone of his, which rendered everything he said diverting.  “I have written some verses, however,” said he, “and I will repeat them to you; they are upon a certain M. Rodot, an Intendant of the Marine, who was very fond of abusing medicine and medical men.  I made these verses to revenge AEsculapius and Hippocrates.

“What do you say to them?” said the Doctor.  My companion thought them very pretty, and the Doctor gave me them in his handwriting, begging me, at the same time, not to give any copies.

Madame de Pompadour joked my companion about her ‘bel-esprit’, but sometimes she reposed confidence in her.  Knowing that she was often writing, she said to her, “You are writing a novel, which will appear some day or other; or, perhaps, the age of Louis XV.:  I beg you to treat me well.”  I have no reason to complain of her.  It signifies very little to me that she can talk more learnedly than I can about prose and verse.

She never told me her real name; but one day I was malicious enough to say to her, “Some one was maintaining, yesterday, that the family of Madame de Mar——­ was of more importance than many of good extraction.  They say it is the first in Cadiz.  She had very honourable alliances, and yet she has thought it no degradation to be governess to Madame de Pompadour’s daughter.  One day you will see her sons or her nephews Farmers General, and her granddaughters married to Dukes.”  I had remarked that Madame de Pompadour for some days had taken chocolate, ’a triple vanille et ambre’, at her breakfast; and that she ate truffles and celery soup:  finding her in a very heated state, I one day remonstrated with her about her diet, to which she paid no attention.  I then thought it right to speak to her friend, the Duchesse de Brancas.  “I had remarked the same thing,” said she, “and I will speak to her about it before you.”  After she was dressed, Madame de Brancas, accordingly, told her she was uneasy about her health.  “I have just been talking to her about it,” said the Duchess, pointing to me, “and she is of my opinion.”  Madame de Pompadour seemed a little displeased; at last, she burst into tears.  I immediately went out, shut the door, and returned to my place to listen.  “My dear friend,” she said to Madame de Brancas, “I am agitated by the fear of losing the King’s heart by ceasing to be attractive to him.  Men, you know, set great value on certain things, and I have the misfortune to be of a very cold temperament.  I, therefore, determined to adopt a heating diet, in order to remedy this defect, and for two days this elixir has been of great service to me, or, at least, I have thought I felt its good effects.”