many respects the princess well
deserved the favor with which she was regarded. Her temper was sweet and
amiable; her character singularly truthful and sincere; and, that she
might never be separated from her friend, the place of superintendent of
the queen's household was revived for her. Some cavilers were disposed to
grumble at the re-establishment of an office which had been suppressed as
useless and costly; but no one could allege that Madame de Lamballe abused
the royal favor, and her share in the calamities of later days justified
the queen's choice by the proof it afforded of the princess's unalterable
fidelity and devotion.

But the countess was a very different character. She had, indeed, a
well-bred air of good humor, but that, with her youth (she was but
twenty years of age), was her only qualification; for her capacity was
narrow, her disposition selfish and grasping, and she was so inveterate
a manoeuvrer, that, when she had no intrigues of her own on foot, she
was always ready to lend herself to the plots of others. What was worse,
she did not enjoy an untainted character. The name of the Comte de
Vaudreuil was often coupled with hers in the scandals of the court. And
the queen, since she could hardly be ignorant of the reports which were
circulated, incurred, by the marked favor which she showed to the
countess, the imputation of shutting her eyes to the frailties of her
friends, and thus showing that dissoluteness was not an insuperable
barrier to her partiality. It was only the earnest remonstrance of Mercy
which prevented her from conferring the place of lady of honor on the
countess; but she allowed her to exert a pernicious influence over her
in many ways, for the countess was unwearied in soliciting appointments
and pensions for her relatives; at times making demands in such numbers,
and of so exorbitant a character, that the queen herself was forced to
admit the impossibility of granting them all, though she still sought to
gratify her to far too great an extent, and would not allow the proved
insatiability of her and her family to open her eyes to her real
character.

It was, however, a far more mischievous submission to the influence of the
countess and her coterie, when she permitted them to prejudice her against
Turgot, whom she had more than once described to her mother as an upright
statesman, and who had constantly shown, so far as he could make
compliance consistent with his duty to the S