r is desirous of accurately knowing
the reign of Louis XV. should run over the very wretched history of
Lacretelle, merely for the, dates, and afterwards read the two hundred
pages of the naive du Hausset, who, in every half page, overturns half a
dozen misstatements of this hollow rhetorician. Madame du Hausset was
often separated from the little and obscure chamber in the Palace of
Versailles, where resided the supreme power, only by a slight door or
curtain, which permitted her to hear all that was said there. She had
for a 'cher ami' the greatest practical philosopher of that period, Dr.
Quesnay, the founder of political economy. He was physician to Madame de
Pompadour, and one of the sincerest and most single-hearted of men
probably in Paris at the time. He explained to Madame du Hausset many
things that, but for his assistance, she would have witnessed without
understanding.

INTRODUCTION.

A friend of M. de Marigny (the brother of Madame de Pompadour) called on
him one day and found him burning papers. Taking up a large packet which
he was going to throw into the fire "This," said he, "is the journal of a
waiting-woman of my sister's. She was a very estimable person, but it is
all gossip; to the fire with it!" He stopped, and added, "Don't you
think I am a little like the curate and the barber burning Don Quixote's
romances?"--"I beg for mercy on this," said his friend. "I am fond of
anecdotes, and I shall be sure to find some here which will interest me."
"Take it, then," said M. de Marigny, and gave it him.

The handwriting and the spelling of this journal are very bad. It
abounds in tautology and repetitions. Facts are sometimes inverted in
the order of time; but to remedy all these defects it would have been
necessary to recast the whole, which would have completely changed the
character of the work. The spelling and punctuation were, however,
corrected in the original, and some explanatory notes added.

Madame de Pompadour had two waiting-women of good family. The one,
Madame du Hausset, who did not change her name; and another, who assumed
a name, and did not publicly announce her quality. This journal is
evidently the production of the former.

The amours of Louis XV. were, for a long time, covered with the veil of
mystery. The public talked of the Parc-aux-Cerfs, but were acquainted
with none of its details. Louis XIV., who, in the early part of his
reign, had endeavoured to con