As to M. de St.
Florentin's place, he may live five-and-twenty years, so that I
should not be the better for it. Kings' mistresses are hated enough
on their own account; they need not also draw upon themselves the
hatred which is directed against Ministers." M. Quesnay repeated
this conversation to me.

The King had another mistress, who gave Madame de Pompadour some
uneasiness. She was a woman of quality, and the wife of one of
the most assiduous courtiers.

A man in immediate attendance on the King's person, and who had
the care of his clothes, came to me one day, and told me that,
as he was very much attached to Madame, because she was good
and useful to the King, he wished to inform me that, a letter
having fallen out of the pocket of a coat which His Majesty had
taken off, he had had the curiosity to read it, and found it to
be from the Comtesse de ----, who had already yielded to the
King's desires. In this letter, she required the King to give
her fifty thousand crowns in money, a regiment for one of her
relations, and a bishopric for another, and to dismiss, Madame
in the space of fifteen days, etc. I acquainted Madame with what
this man told me, and she acted with singular greatness of mind.
She said to me, "I ought to inform the King of this breach of
trust of his servant, who may, by the same means, come to the
knowledge of, and make a bad use of, important secrets; but I
feel a repugnance to ruin the man: however, I cannot permit him
to remain near the King's person, and here is what I shall do:
Tell him that there is a place of ten thousand francs a year
vacant in one of the provinces; let him solicit the Minister of
Finance for it, and it shall be granted to him; but, if he should
ever disclose through what interest he has obtained it, the King
shall be made acquainted with his conduct. By this means, I think
I shall have done all that my attachment and duty prescribe. I rid
the King of a faithless domestic, without ruining the individual."
I did as Madame ordered me: her delicacy and address inspired
me with admiration. She was not alarmed on account of the lady,
seeing what her pretensions were. "She drives too quick," remarked
Madame, "and will certainly be overturned on the road." The lady
died.

"See what the Court is; all is corruption there, from the highest
to the lowest," said I to Madame, one day, when she was speaking
to me of some facts that had come to my knowledge. "I could tell
you ma