the best of kings? A king, in the opinion of which
he was imbued respecting his own person, was a being of a nature by far
too superior to ordinary men for him not to have the right to consider
himself akin to a god. Sad destiny of kings! Vile flatterers are
constantly doing everything necessary to reduce them below the condition
of man.

The Princess of Ardore was delivered about that time of a young prince.
Her husband, the Neapolitan ambassador, entreated Louis XV. to be
god-father to the child; the king consented and presented his god-son
with a regiment; but the mother, who did not like the military career for
her son, refused it. The Marshal de Richelieu told me that he had never
known the king laugh so heartily as when he heard of that singular
refusal.

At the Duchess de Fulvie's I made the acquaintance of Mdlle. Gaussin, who
was called Lolotte. She was the mistress of Lord Albemarle, the English
ambassador, a witty and very generous nobleman. One evening he complained
of his mistress praising the beauty of the stars which were shining
brightly over her head, saying that she ought to know he could not give
them to her. If Lord Albemarle had been ambassador to the court of France
at the time of the rupture between France and England, he would have
arranged all difficulties amicably, and the unfortunate war by which
France lost Canada would not have taken place. There is no doubt that the
harmony between two nations depends very often upon their respective
ambassadors, when there is any danger of a rupture.

As to the noble lord's mistress, there was but one opinion respecting
her. She was fit in every way to become his wife, and the highest
families of France did not think that she needed the title of Lady
Albemarle to be received with distinction; no lady considered it debasing
to sit near her, although she was well known as the mistress of the
English lord. She had passed from her mother's arms to those of Lord
Albemarle at the age of thirteen, and her conduct was always of the
highest respectability. She bore children whom the ambassador
acknowledged legally, and she died Countess d'Erouville. I shall have to
mention her again in my Memoirs.

I had likewise occasion to become acquainted at the Venetian Embassy with
a lady from Venice, the widow of an English baronet named Wynne. She was
then coming from London with her children, where she had been compelled
to go in order to insure them the inheritance of