Yet how does this agree with Franc`es’s(27) eager protestations that Choiseul’s fate depended on preserving the peace?  How does it agree with the Comptroller-general’s offer of finding funds for the war, and of Choiseul’s proving he could not?—­But how reconcile half the politics one hears?  De Guisnes and Franc`es sent their excuses to the Duchess of Argyle last night; and I suppose the Spaniards, too; for none of them were there.—­Well!  I shall let all this bustle cool for two days; for what Englishman does not sacrifice any thing to go his Saturday out of town?  And yet I am very much interested in this event; I feel much for Madame de Choiseul, though nothing for her Corsican husband; but I am in the utmost anxiety for my dear old friend,(28) who passed every evening with the Duchess, and was thence in great credit; and what is worse, though nobody, I think, can be savage enough to take away her pension, she may find great difficulty to get it paid—­and then her poor heart is so good and warm, that this blow on her friends, at her great age, may kill her.(29) I have had no letter, nor had last post—­whether it was stopped, or whether she apprehended the event, as I imagine—­for every one observed, on Tuesday night, at your brother’s, that Franc`es could not open his mouth.  In short, I am most seriously alarmed about her.

You have seen in the papers the designed arrangements in the law.(30) They now say there is some hitch; but I suppose it turns on some demands, and so will be got over by their being granted.  Mr. Mason, the bard, gave me yesterday, the enclosed memorial, and begged I would recommend it to you.  It is in favour of a very ingenious painter.  Adieu! the sun shines brightly; but it is one o’clock, and it will be set before I get to Twickenham.  Yours ever.

(25) The Chevalier, afterwards Mar`echal de Muy, was offered that place, but declined it.  He eventually filled it in the early part of the reign of Louis XVI.-E.

(26) The Duc de Choiseul was dismissed from the ministry through the intrigues of Madame du Barry, who accused him of an improper correspondence with Spain.—­ E.

(27) Then charg`e des affaires from the French court in London.

(28) It appears by Madame du Deffand’s Letters to Walpole, that she had addressed to him, on the 27th of December, one of considerable length, filled with details relative to the dismissal of the Duc de Choiseul, which took place on the 24th, and the appointment of his successor; but this letter is unfortunately lost.-E.

(29) By the reduction which the Abb`e de Terrai, when he first entered upon the controle g`en`eral, made upon all pensions, Madame du Deffand had lost three thousand livres of income.  To her letter of the 2d of February 1771, announcing this diminution, Walpole made the following generous reply:—­“Je ne saurois souffrir une telle diminution de votre bien.  O`u voulez-vous faire des retranchemens?