About that time she had a quarrel with her brother, and both were in the right.  Proposals were made to him to marry the daughter of one of the greatest noblemen of the Court, and the King consented to create him a Duke, and even to make the title hereditary.  Madame was right in wishing to aggrandise her brother, but he declared that he valued his liberty above all things, and that he would not sacrifice it except for a person he really loved.  He was a true Epicurean philosopher, and a man of great capacity, according to the report of those who knew him well, and judged him impartially.  It was entirely at his option to have had the reversion of M. de St. Florentin’s place, and the place of Minister of Marine, when M. de Machault retired; he said to his sister, at the time, “I spare you many vexations, by depriving you of a slight satisfaction.  The people would be unjust to me, however well I might fulfil the duties of my office.  As to M. de St. Florentin’s place, he may live five-and-twenty years, so that I should not be the better for it.  Kings’ mistresses are hated enough on their own account; they need not also draw upon, themselves the hatred which is directed against Ministers.”  M. Quesnay repeated this conversation to me.

The King had another mistress, who gave Madame de Pompadour some uneasiness.  She was a woman of quality, and the wife of one of the most assiduous courtiers.

A man in immediate attendance on the King’s person, and who had the care of his clothes, came to me one day, and told me that, as he was very much attached to Madame, because she was good and useful to the King, he wished to inform me that, a letter having fallen out of the pocket of a coat which His Majesty had taken off, he had had the curiosity to read it, and found it to be from the Comtesse de ----- who had already yielded to the King’s desires.  In this letter, she required the King to give her fifty thousand crowns in money, a regiment for one of her relations, and a bishopric for another, and to dismiss Madame in the space of fifteen days, etc.  I acquainted Madame with what this man told me, and she acted with singular greatness of mind.  She said to me, “I ought to inform the King of this breach of trust of his servant, who may, by the same means, come to the knowledge of, and make a bad use of, important secrets; but I feel a repugnance to ruin the man:  however, I cannot permit him to remain near the King’s person, and here is what I shall do:  Tell him that there is a place of ten thousand francs a year vacant in one of the provinces; let him solicit the Minister of Finance for it, and it shall be granted to him; but, if he should ever disclose through what interest he has obtained it, the King shall be made acquainted with his conduct.  By this means, I think I shall have done all that my attachment and duty prescribe.  I rid the King of a faithless domestic, without ruining the individual.”  I did as Madame ordered me:  her delicacy and address inspired me with admiration.  She was not alarmed on account of the lady, seeing what her pretentions were.  “She drives too quick,” remarked Madame, “and will certainly be overturned on the road.”  The lady died.