cles, and it is not, in my
apprehension, quite decent that Mr. Hughes, Mr. Astley, or Mr. St.
John should be making a profit by Iron Masques, and Toupets stuck
upon Poles.

The D(uke) of Orleans's embassy here is universally considered as
one devised for his own personal safety, and he is equally respected
here and abroad. The subject of his credentials and object of
negotiation had no more in them than to say that his most Xtian
Majesty desired to know how his brother the K(ing) of England did.
The answer to which was, very well, with thanks for his obliging
enquiries. The King speaks to the D(uke) of O(rleans) civilly, mais
il en demeure la. His behaviour to the Duc de Luxembourg(271) and to
other Frenchmen of quality was more distinguished. He talked
yesterday to M. de Luxembourg for an hour and 17 minutes. You know
how exact we courtiers are upon these points.

Charles Fox was at Court, but was scarcely spoke to. Il n'en fut
pour cela plus rebute. He stayed in the apartments till five in the
afternoon. Others of the Opposition were there. Lord North came to
Court with his son-in-law, Mr. D.(272) I must wait for a future
opportunity of paying my court. The Duke has finished his, I
believe, for the present. I expected to have found him here or in
London. He went again into Scotland last Friday, and will not be
returned in a month, and this sans qu'il m'en ait averti. Il faut
avouer que notre Duc, a regard de tous les petits devoirs de la vie,
est fort a son aise. Me de Cambis is also come; il en fourmille, but
all of them almost beggars; some few, I hear, have letters of
credit. Poor Me de Boufflers, as Lady Lucan writes me word, is dans
un etat pitoyable. But for the French, brisons la pour le present.

(270) Marie Charlotte Hippolyte de Saujon, Comtesse de
Boufflers-Rouvel (1724-1800). One of those remarkable women who in
Paris at the end of the eighteenth century united a love of
intellect and literature with a pleasure in society. After being
left a widow in 1764, she lived with the Prince de Conti. She was a
friend of Hume and Rousseau, the rival of Mme. du Deffand. Her salon
in the Temple was a meeting-place for a singular variety of persons,
among whom she was known as Minerva the Wise. Her daughter-in-law,
the Comtesse Emilie de Boufflers, was guillotined in 1794. She
herself was imprisoned, but was released after the death of
Robespierre.

(271) The Due de Luxembourg and his family escaped with difficul