he would let me, I
would follow him to Poland." She afterwards talked to me about her
parents, and about M. Lebel, whom she knew by the name of Durand. "My
mother," said she, "kept a large grocer's shop, and my father was a man
of some consequence; he belonged to the Six Corps, and that, as everybody
knows, is an excellent thing. He was twice very near being
head-bailiff." Her mother had become bankrupt at her father's death, but
the Count had come to her assistance, and settled upon her fifteen
hundred francs a year, besides giving her six thousand francs down. On
the sixth day, she was brought to bed, and, according to my instructions,
she was told the child was a girl, though in reality it was a boy; she
was soon to be told that it was dead, in order that no trace of its
existence might remain for a certain time. It was eventually to be
restored to its mother. The King gave each of his children about ten
thousand francs a year. They inherited after each other as they died
off, and seven or eight were already dead. I returned to Madame de
Pompadour, to whom I had written every day by Guimard. The next day, the
King sent for me into the room; he did not say a word as to the business
I had been employed upon; but he gave me a large gold snuff-box,
containing two rouleaux of twenty-five louis each. I curtsied to him,
and retired. Madame asked me a great many questions of the young lady,
and laughed heartily at her simplicity, and at all she had said about the
Polish nobleman. "He is disgusted with the Princess, and, I think, will
return to Poland for ever, in two months."--"And the young lady?" said I.
"She will be married in the country," said she, "with a portion of forty
thousand crowns at the most and a few diamonds." This little adventure,
which initiated me into the King's secrets, far from procuring for me
increased marks of kindness from him, seemed to produce a coldness
towards me; probably because he was ashamed of my knowing his obscure
amours. He was also embarrassed by the services Madame de Pompadour had
rendered him on this occasion.

Besides the little mistresses of the Parc-aux-cerfs, the King had
sometimes intrigues with ladies of the Court, or from Paris, who wrote to
him. There was a Madame de L-----, who, though married to a young and
amiable man, with two hundred thousand francs a year, wished absolutely
to become his mistress. She contrived to have a meeting with him: and
the King,