pidemic. The dear duke had found himself
with wolves, and had begun to howl with them. I am sure that he was
astonished at himself when he remembered the signature which he had
given, and the love he had testified for the old parliament, for
which, in fact, he cared no more than Jean de Vert. God knows how he
compensated for this little folly at the chateau. It was by redoubling
his assiduities to the king, and by incessant attentions to me. In
general, those who wished to thrive at court only sought how to make
their courage remembered; M. de Duras was only employed in making his
forgotten.

The prince de Terigny, the comte d'Escars, the duc de Fleury, were not
the least amusing. They kept up a lively strain of conversation, and the
king laughed outrageously. But the vilest of the party was the duc
de Fronsac. Ye gods! what a wretch! To speak ill of him is no sin. A
mangled likeness of his father, he had all his faults with not one of
his merits. He was perpetually changing his mistresses, but it cannot be
said whether it was inconstancy on his part, or disgust on theirs, but
the latter appears to me most probable. Though young, he was devoured by
gout or some other infirmity, but it was called gout out of deference
to the house of Richelieu. They talked of the duchess de ------, whose
husband was said to have poisoned her.

The saints of Versailles--the duc de la Vauguyon, the duc d'Estissac,
and M. de Durfort--did like others. These persons practised religion in
the face of the world, and abstained from loose conversation in presence
of their own families; but with the king they laid aside their religion
and reserve, so that these hypocrites had in the city all the honours
of devotion, and in the royal apartments all the advantages of loose
conduct. As for me, I was at Versailles the same as everywhere else. To
please the king I had only to be myself. I relied, for the future, on
my uniformity of conduct. What charmed him in the evening, would delight
again the next day. He had an equilibrium of pleasure, a balance of
amusement which can hardly be described; it was every day the same
variety; the same journeys, the same fetes, the balls, the theatres,
all came round at fixed periods with the most monotonous regularity. In
fact, the people knew exactly when to laugh and when to look grave.

There was in the chateau a most singular character, the grand master of
the ceremonies of France. His great-grandfather, his gr