d
it should be pricked over a very cold silver dish; if the gravy of the
animal congealed within 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 avo