appropriate terms. One day, a lady accompanied by a young
officer, having come on a visit, and being obliged to keep them over
night, his valet comes and whispers to him that there is no more
room.--"'Is the bath-room occupied?'--'No, Monseigneur!'--'Are there
not two beds there?'--'Yes, Monseigneur, but they are both in the same
chamber, and that officer. . . '--'Very well, didn't they come together?
Narrow people like you always see something wrong. You will find that
they will get along well together; there is not the slightest reason to
consider the matter.'" And really nobody did object, either the officer
or the lady.--At Granselve, in the Gard, the Bernardines are still more
hospitable.[2265] People resort to the fete of St. Bernard which lasts
a couple of weeks; during this time they dance, and hunt, and act
comedies, "the tables being ready at all hours." The quarters of the
ladies are provided with every requisite for the toilet; they lack
nothing, and it is even said that it was not necessary for any of them
to bring their officer.--I might cite twenty prelates not less gallant,
the second Cardinal de Rohan, the hero of the necklace, M. de Jarente,
bishop of Orleans, who keeps the record of benefices, the young M. de
Grimaldi, bishop of Le Mans, M. de Breteuil, bishop of Montauban, M.
de Cice, archbishop of Bordeaux, the Cardinal de Montmorency,
grand-almoner, M. de Talleyrand, bishop of Autun, M. de Conzie, bishop
of Arras,[2266] and, in the first rank, the Abbe de Saint-Germain des
Pres, Comte de Clermont, prince of the blood, who, with an income
of 370,000 francs succeeds in ruining himself twice, who performs in
comedies in his town and country residences, who writes to Colle in
a pompous style and, who, in his abbatial mansion at Berny, installs
Mademoiselle Leduc, a dancer, to do the honors of his table.--There
is no hypocrisy. In the house of M. Trudaine, four bishops attend the
performance of a piece by Colle entitled "Les accidents ou les Abbes,"
the substance of which, says Colle himself, is so free that he did not
dare print it along with his other pieces. A little later, Beaumarchais,
on reading his "Marriage of Figaro" at the Marechal de Richelieu's
domicile, not expurgated, much more crude and coarse than it is today,
has bishops and archbishops for his auditors, and these, he says, "after
being infinitely amused by it, did me the honor to assure me that they
would state that there was not a singl