Madame de Pompadour had many vexations in the midst of all her grandeur.  She often received anonymous letters, threatening her with poison or assassination:  her greatest fear, however, was that of being supplanted by a rival.  I never saw her in a greater agitation than, one evening, on her return from the drawing-room at Marly.  She threw down her cloak and muff, the instant she came in, with an air of ill-humour, and undressed herself in a hurried manner.  Having dismissed her other women, she said to me, “I think I never saw anybody so insolent as Madame de Coaslin.  I was seated at the same table with her this evening, at a game of ‘brelan’, and you cannot imagine what I suffered.  The men and women seemed to come in relays to watch us.  Madame de Coaslin said two or three times, looking at me, ‘Va tout’, in the most insulting manner.  I thought I should have fainted, when she said, in a triumphant tone, I have the ‘brelan’ of kings.  I wish you had seen her courtesy to me on parting.”—­“Did the King,” said I, “show her particular attention?” “You don’t know him,” said she; “if he were going to lodge her this very night in my apartment, he would behave coldly to her before people, and would treat me with the utmost kindness.  This is the effect of his education, for he is, by nature, kind-hearted and frank.”  Madame de Pompadour’s alarms lasted for some months, when she, one day, said to me, “That haughty Marquise has missed her aim; she frightened the King by her grand airs, and was incessantly teasing him for money.  Now you, perhaps, may not know that the King would sign an order for forty thousand louis without a thought, and would give a hundred out of his little private treasury with the greatest reluctance.  Lebel, who likes me better than he would a new mistress in my place, either by chance or design had brought a charming little sultana to the Parc-aux-cerfs, who has cooled the King a little towards the haughty Vashti, by giving him occupation, has received a hundred thousand francs, some jewels, and an estate.  Jannette—­[The Intendant of Police.]—­has rendered me great service, by showing the King extracts from the letters broken open at the post-office, concerning the report that Madame de Coaslin was coming into favour:  The King was much impressed by a letter from an old counsellor of the Parliament, who wrote to one of his friends as follows:  ’It is quite as reasonable that the King should have a female friend and confidante—­as that we, in our several degrees, should so indulge ourselves; but it is desirable that he should keep the one he has; she is gentle, injures nobody, and her fortune is made.  The one who is now talked of will be as haughty as high birth can make her.  She must have an allowance of a million francs a year, since she is said to be excessively extravagant; her relations must be made Dukes, Governors of provinces, and Marshals, and, in the end, will surround the King, and overawe the Ministers.’”