a quarter of an hour, the creature was to be accounted flesh; but if the gravy remained in an oily state, it might be eaten without scruple.  Madame Victoire immediately made the experiment:  the gravy did not congeal; and this was a source of great joy to the Princess, who was very partial to that sort of game.  The abstinence which so much occupied the attention of Madame Victoire was so disagreeable to her, that she listened with impatience for the midnight hour of Holy Saturday; and then she was immediately supplied with a good dish of fowl and rice, and sundry other succulent viands.  She confessed with such amiable candour her taste for good cheer and the comforts of life, that it would have been necessary to be as severe in principle as insensible to the excellent qualities of the Princess, to consider it a crime in her.

Madame Adelaide had more mind than Madame Victoire; but she was altogether deficient in that kindness which alone creates affection for the great, abrupt manners, a harsh voice, and a short way of speaking, rendering her more than imposing.  She carried the idea of the prerogative of rank to a high pitch.  One of her chaplains was unlucky enough to say ’Dominus vobiscum’ with rather too easy an air; the Princess rated him soundly for it after mass, and told him to remember that he was not a bishop, and not again to think of officiating in the style of a prelate.

Mesdames lived quite separate from the King.  Since the death of Madame de Pompadour he had lived alone.  The enemies of the Duc de Choiseul did not know in what department, nor through what channel, they could prepare and bring about the downfall of the man who stood in their way.  The King was connected only with women of so low a class that they could not be made use of for any delicate intrigue; moreover, the Parc-aux-Cerfs was a seraglio, the beauties of which were often replaced; it was desirable to give the King a mistress who could form a circle, and in whose drawing-room the long-standing attachment of the King for the Duc de Choiseul might be overcome.  It is true that Madame du Barry was selected from a class sufficiently low.  Her origin, her education, her habits, and everything about her bore a character of vulgarity and shamelessness; but by marrying her to a man whose pedigree dated from 1400, it was thought scandal would be avoided.  The conqueror of Mahon conducted this coarse intrigue.

[It appeared at this period as if every feeling of dignity was lost.  “Few noblemen of the French Court,” says a writer of the time, “preserved themselves from the general corruption.  The Marechal de Brissac was one of the latter.  He was bantered on the strictness of his principles of honour and honesty; it was thought strange that he should be offended by being thought, like so many others, exposed to hymeneal disgrace.  Louis XV., who was present, and laughed at his angry fit, said to him:  ’Come, M. de Brissac, don’t be angry; ’tis but a trifling evil; take courage.’—­’Sire,’ replied M. de Brissac, ’I possess all kinds of courage, except that which can brave shame.’”—­Note by the editor.]