“Louis xv., by his dignified carriage, and the amiable yet majestic expression of his features, was worthy to succeed to Louis the Great.  But he too frequently indulged in secret pleasures, which at last were sure to become known.  During several winters, he was passionately fond of ‘candles’ end balls’, as he called those parties amongst the very lowest classes of society.  He got intelligence of the picnics given by the tradesmen, milliners, and sempstresses of Versailles, whither he repaired in a black domino, and masked, accompanied by the captain of his Guards, masked like himself.  His great delight was to go ’en brouette’—­[In a kind of sedan-chair, running on two wheels, and drawn by a chairman.]—­Care was always taken to give notice to five or six officers of the King’s or Queen’s chamber to be there, in order that his Majesty might be surrounded by people on whom he could depend, without finding it troublesome.  Probably the captain of the Guards also took other precautions of this description on his part.  My father-in-law, when the King and he were both young, has often made one amongst the servants desired to attend masked at these parties, assembled in some garret, or parlour of a public-house.  In those times, during the carnival, masked companies had a right to join the citizens’ balls; it was sufficient that one of the party should unmask and name himself.

“These secret excursions, and his too habitual intercourse with ladies more distinguished for their personal charms than for the advantages of education, were no doubt the means by which the King acquired many vulgar expressions which otherwise would never have reached his ears.

“Yet amidst the most shameful excesses the King sometimes suddenly resumed the dignity of his rank in a very noble manner.  The familiar courtiers of Louis xv. had one day abandoned themselves to the unrestrained gaiety, of a supper, after returning from the chase.  Each boasted of and described the beauty of his mistress.  Some of them amused themselves with giving a particular account of their wives’ personal defects.  An imprudent word, addressed to Louis xv., and applicable only to the Queen, instantly dispelled all the mirth of the entertainment.  The King assumed his regal air, and knocking with his knife on the table twice or thrice, ’Gentlemen; said he, ‘here is the King!’

“Those men who are most completely abandoned to dissolute manners are not, on that account, insensible to virtue in women.  The Comtesse de Perigord was as beautiful as virtuous.  During some excursions she made to Choisy, whither she had been invited, she perceived that the King took great notice of her.  Her demeanour of chilling respect, her cautious perseverance in shunning all serious conversation with the monarch, were insufficient to extinguish this rising flame, and he at length addressed a letter to her, worded in the most passionate terms.  This excellent