noticed by the king, said if virtue could be made the fashion Madame
Cheverny would have accomplished it.

On that evening began a veritable tempest of pleasure at Chambord, for
I can call it by no other name. I can not say I enjoyed it. First, we
had extra pages of honor, thirty of them, and I had as soon have had
thirty extra devils on my hands. They gave me twice the trouble that
my whole battalion of Uhlans did. Then I had to arrange the entire
business of the hunting--everything, in short, outside of the castle,
and Beauvais had charge of everything inside of it. I seldom got to my
camp bed, next Count Saxe's room, before two o'clock in the morning,
and I was at the stables every morning by daylight.

The first day's diversion was a grand _battue_. The _battue_ was a
magnificent spectacle in the forest, and was not over until late in
the afternoon. Then, on the return to the castle, was organized one of
those wild romps which were the amusement of the court. The
gentlemen, in hunting dress, and winding their silver horns, chased
the ladies through the vast spaces, the winding corridors, the crooked
stairs of the castle, and when caught, the ladies forfeited a kiss, or
a dozen kisses. The little devils of pages were the hounds. These,
being acquainted with the multitude of turns and windings in the
castle, ably assisted the cavaliers, and generally got a box on the
ear for catching a lady, to which the pages responded by kisses on
their own account. It was a very amusing sport, and would have been
harmless if the ladies and gentlemen concerned in it had been angels.
Francezka, to my surprise, took part in it, as in everything else, but
being full of art and finesse, was never caught except by one person,
the aged Marshal Duc de Noailles, who was brave and gallant at the age
of eighty. Gaston Cheverny excelled at this wild and gallant sport,
and the ladies vowed there was no escaping him.

On the first evening of the king's arrival Francezka had a splendid
triumph. Monsieur Voltaire gave _Nanine_ in the theater of the castle,
and Francezka was Nanine, somewhat to Madame du Chatelet's disgust, I
fancy. And for the after piece was _The Tattler_, with the greatest
cast the world ever saw: Francezka as Hortensia, Monsieur Voltaire as
Pasquin, and Count Saxe himself as Clitander.

There were oceans of trouble about this play, and poor Beauvais was
near wild, for Monsieur Voltaire was a troublesome manager, a
trouble