V., and _galanteries_ were the fashion, rather
than the exception; while for the post of King's favorite there
was a continual rivalry among high-born dames.

Once in this coveted position, the Marquise devoted her energies
to two things, and these she kept ever before her,--the pleasing
of her royal master, and the furthering of her party's interests.
How well she succeeded, this book shows. She entertained and
amused the King by elaborate pageants, in the various chateaux
which she built, or remodelled. Bellevue, Choisy, the Hermitage
at Versailles, Menars, La Celle, Montretout,--these are among
the monuments of her lavish career, and in these palaces she
accumulated costly art objects, such as the Saxe porcelains, the
Boulle marbles, and the sumptuous hangings and fittings which
have later been known as "Pompadour." Herself an artist and
connoisseur, she "set the pace" during a period of unbridled
luxury. She was patroness of the famous Sevres ware. She drew
around her such painters and litterateurs as Bouchardon, Carle
Van Loo, Marmontel, Bernis, Crebillon, and Duclos. To her Voltaire
dedicated his _Tancrede_.

This was her brilliant side; but upon the deplorable side must
be reckoned her extravagance and her meddling in statecraft.
Ambitious for power, she surrounded the doting monarch with her
"creatures"--Rouille, Saint Florentin, Puisieux, Machault. With the
exception of the Duc de Choiseul, her appointees were notoriously
weak--and this at a time when the War of the Austrian Succession
and the Seven Years' War called for strong government. Won over
by the cajoleries of Maria Theresa, who called her "cousin," she
induced the King to accept the Austrian Alliance; and again,
in 1758, despite Bernis and other ministers, she prevailed upon
him to maintain it throughout the disastrous war which was only
ended by the Treaty of Paris. In addition to this, she became
embroiled with the Church party, being especially bitter against
the Jesuits. It is no wonder, therefore, that she left her memory
in the hands of her enemies. It is no wonder that the seeds of
her folly and extravagance, as well as those of her successor, Du
Barry, resulted in the bloody harvest of the Revolution. "Apres
nous le deluge!" ("After us the deluge") was her sinister motto, now
famous in history, and it carried with it the weight of prophecy.

To the end she remained, exteriorally, in full power. In 1752
the Marquise was made Duchesse de Po