I shall come to you as soon as ever I have my cong`e, which I trust will be early in February.  I will let you know the moment I can fix my time, because I shall beg you to order a small lodging to be taken for me at no great distance from your palace, and only for a short time, because, if I should like France enough to stay some months I can afterwards accommodate myself to my mind.  I should like to be so near you that I could see you whenever it would not be inconvenient to you, and without being obliged to that intercourse with my countrymen, which I by no means design to cultivate.  If I leave the best company here, it shall not be for the worst.  I am getting out of the world, not coming into it, and shall therefore be most indifferent about their acquaintance, or what they think of my avoiding it.  I come to see you and my Lady Hertford, to escape from politics, and to amuse myself with seeing, which I intend to do with all my eyes.  I abhor show, am not passionately fond of literati, don’t want to know people for a few months, and really think of nothing but some comfortable hours with you, and indulging my curiosity.  Excuse almost a page about myself, but it was to tell you how little trouble I hope to give you.

(699) “Manzoli’s voice was the most powerful and voluminous soprano that had been heard on our stage since the time of Farinelli; and his manner of singing was grand and full of taste and dignity.  The lovers of music in London were more unanimous in approving his voice and talents, than those of any other singer within my memory.”  Burney.—­E.

(700) Elisi, though a great singer, was a still greater actor:  his figure was large and majestic, and he had a great compass of voice.”  Ibid.-E.

(701) Probably Mrs. George Pitt.-C.

(702) Of Grafton.

(703) This is altogether a very mysterious affair:  M. de Vergy was the cause of D’Eon’s violent behaviour at Lord Halifax’s (see ant`e, p. 254, letter 181,); he afterwards took D’Eon’s part, and had the effrontery and the infamy to say, that he was suborned by the French ministry to quarrel with and ruin D’Eon.-C.

(704) Mr. Charles Yorke; but we shall see, in the next letter, that the fact on which all this imputation was built was false.-C.

(705) Edward Legrand, Esq., treasurer to the Duke of Gloucester; as the Hon. C. S. Cadogan was to the Duke of York.-E.

(706) Colonel Henry Clinton, afterwards commander-in-chief in America, and K. B.-E.

(707) Colonel Edward Ligonier, aide-de-camp to the King.-E.

(708) The Countess of Northumberland.-E.

(709) James, third Earl of March, a lord of the bedchamber, who subsequently, in 1778, succeeded to the dukedom of queensberry, and was the last of that title.-E.