een permitted to sit, to hear Caffarelli, and, in later times,
Mademoiselle Fel and Jeliotte. I, therefore, went more frequently
to my lodgings in town, where I usually received my friends: more
particularly when Madame visited her little hermitage, whither
M. de Gontaut commonly accompanied her. Madame du Chiron, the
wife of the Head Clerk in the War-Office, came to see me. "I
feel," said she, "greatly embarrassed, in speaking to you about
an affair, which will, perhaps, embarrass you also. This is the
state of the case. A very poor woman, to whom I have sometimes
given a little assistance, pretends to be a relation of the Marquise
de Pompadour. Here is her petition." I read it, and said that
the woman had better write directly to Madame, and that I was
sure, if what she asserted was true, her application would be
successful. Madame du Chiron followed my advice. The woman wrote
she was in the lowest depth of poverty, and I learnt that Madame
sent her six louis until she could gain more accurate information
as to the truth of her story. Colin, who was commissioned to
take the money, made inquiries of M. de Malvoisin, a relation
of Madame, and a very respectable officer. The fact was found to
be as she had stated it. Madame then sent her a hundred louis,
and promised her a pension of sixty louis a year. All this was
done with great expedition, and Madame had a visit of thanks from
her poor relation, as soon as she had procured decent clothes
to come in. That day the King happened to come in at an unusual
hour, and saw this person going out. He asked who it was. "It
is a very poor relation of mine," replied Madame. "She came,
then, to beg for some assistance?" "No," said she. "What did
she come for, then?" "To thank me for a little service I have
rendered her," said she, blushing from the fear of seeming to
boast of her liberality. "Well," said the King; "since she is
your relation, allow me to have the pleasure of serving her too.
I will give her fifty louis a year out of my private purse, and,
you know, she may send for the first year's allowance to-morrow."
Madame burst into tears, and kissed the King's hand several times.
She told me this three days afterwards, when I was nursing her
in a slight attack of fever. I could not refrain from weeping
myself at this instance of the King's kindness. The next day,
I called on Madame du Chiron to tell her of the good fortune
of her protegee; I forgot to say that, after Madame