him very familiar with me. He talked without any constraint
when I was in the room. During Madame de Pompadour's illness I scarcely
ever left her chamber, and passed the night there. Sometimes, though
rarely, I accompanied her in her carriage with Doctor Quesnay, to whom
she scarcely spoke a word, though he was--a man of great talents. When I
was alone with her, she talked of many affairs which nearly concerned
her, and she once said to me, "The King and I have such implicit
confidence in you, that we look upon you as a cat, or a dog, and go on
talking as if you were not there." There was a little nook, adjoining
her chamber, which has since been altered, where she knew I usually sat
when I was alone, and where I heard everything that was said in the room,
unless it was spoken in a low voice. But when the King wanted to speak
to her in private, or in the presence of any of his Ministers, he went
with her into a closet, by the side of the chamber, whither she also
retired when she had secret business with the Ministers, or with other
important persons; as, for instance, the Lieutenant of Police, the
Postmaster-General, etc. All these circumstances brought to my knowledge
a great many things which probity will neither allow me to tell or to
record. I generally wrote without order of time, so that a fact may be
related before others which preceded it. Madame de Pompadour had a great
friendship for three Ministers; the first was M. de Machault, to whom she
was indebted for the regulation of her income, and the payment of her
debts. She gave him the seals, and he retained the first place in her
regard till the attempt to assassinate the King. Many people said that
his conduct on that occasion was not attributable to bad intentions; that
he thought it his duty to obey the King without making himself in any way
a party to the affair, and that his cold manners gave him the appearance
of an indifference which he did not feel. Madame de Pompadour regarded
him in the light of a faithless friend; and, perhaps, there was some
justice on both sides. But for the Abbe de Bernis; M. de Machault might,
probably, have retained his place.

The second Minister, whom Madame de Pompadour liked, was the Abbe de
Bernis. She was soon disgusted with him when she saw the absurdity of
his conduct. He gave a singular specimen of this on the very day of his
dismissal. He had invited a great many people of distinction to a
splendid ente