Mr. Stanley, who I hope will trouble himself with this, has been most exceedingly kind and obliging to me.  I wish that, instead of my being so much in your ladyship’s debt, you were a little in Mine, and then I would beg you to thank him for me.  Well, but as it is, why should not you, Madam?  He will be charmed to be so paid, and you will not dislike to please him.  In short, I would fain have him know my gratitude; and it is hearing it in the most agreeable way, if expressed by your ladyship.

(873) Madame de S`evign`e’s residence in Paris.-E.

(874) The Cardinal de Richelieu’s heart at the Sorbonne.-E.

(875) Colonel Drumgold was born at Paris in 1730, and died there in 1786.  Dr. Johnson, in giving Boswell an account of his visit to Paris in 1775, made the following mention of him:  “I was just beginning to creep into acquaintance, by means of Colonel Drumgold, a very high man, Sir, head of l,’Ecole Militaire, and a most complete character, for he had first been a professor of rhetoric, and then became a soldier.”  He was The author of “La Gaiet`e,” a poem, and several other pieces.-E.

(876) wife of the Duc de Coss`e Brisac, governor of Paris.  She was a daughter of the Duc de Nivernois.-E.

(877) Madame de S`evign`e thus expresses herself of Louis XIV. after his having taken much notice of her at Versailles.-E.

(878) He means, that the Dauphiness had a resemblance to the Princess Amelia.-E.

(879) This enormous wolf, for wolf it proved to be, gave rise to many extraordinary reports.  The following account of it is from the Gentleman’s Magazine for 1764:  “A very strange description is given in the Paris Gazette of a wild beast that has appeared in the neighbourhood of Langagne and the forest of Mercoire, and has occasioned great consternation.  It has already devoured twenty persons, chiefly Children, and particularly young, girls; and scarce a day passes without some accidents. the terror it occasions prevents the woodcutters from working in the forest. those who have seen him say he is much higher than a wolf, low before, and his feet are armed with talons.  His hair is reddish, his head large, and the muzzle of it shaped like that of a greyhound; his ears are small and straight, his breast wide and of a gray colour; his back streaked with black; and his mouth which is large, is provided with a set of teeth so very sharp that they have taken off several heads as clean as a razor could have done.  He is of amazing swiftness; but when he aims at his prey, he couches so close to the ground that he hardly appears to be bigger than a large fox, and at the distance of one or two fathoms he rises upon his hind legs and springs upon his prey, which he always seizes by the neck or throat.  The consternation is universal throughout the districts where he commits his ravages, and public prayers are offered up upon this occasion.  The Marquis de Morangis has sent out four hundred peasants to destroy this fierce beast; but they have not been able to do it.  He has since been killed by a soldier, and appears to be a hyena.”  E.