remedy this defect, and for two days this
elixir has been of great service to me, or, at least, I have thought I
felt its good effects."

The Duchesse de Brancas took the phial which was upon the toilet, and
after having smelt at it, "Fie!" said she, and threw it into the fire.
Madame de Pompadour scolded her, and said, "I don't like to be treated
like a child." She wept again, and said, "You don't know what happened
to me a week ago. The King, under pretext of the heat of the weather,
lay down upon my sofa, and passed half the night there. He will take a
disgust to me and have another mistress."--"You will not avoid that,"
replied the Duchess, "by following your new diet, and that diet will kill
you; render your company more and more precious to the King by your
gentleness: do not repulse him in his fond moments, and let time do the
rest; the chains of habit will bind him to you for ever." They then
embraced; Madame de Pompadour recommended secrecy to Madame de Brancas,
and the diet was abandoned.

A little while after, she said to me, "Our master is better pleased with
me. This is since I spoke to Quesnay, without, however, telling him all.
He told me, that to accomplish my end, I must try to be in good health,
to digest well, and, for that purpose, take exercise. I think the Doctor
is right. I feel quite a different creature. I adore that man (the
King), I wish so earnestly to be agreeable to him! But, alas! sometimes
he says I am a macreuse (a cold-blooded aquatic bird). I would give my
life to please him."

One day, the King came in very much heated. I withdrew to my post, where
I listened. "What is the matter?" said Madame de Pompadour. "The long
robes and the clergy," replied he, "are always at drawn daggers, they
distract me by their quarrels. But I detest the long robes the most. My
clergy, on the whole, is attached and faithful to me; the others want to
keep me in a state of tutelage."--"Firmness," said Madame de Pompadour,
"is the only thing that can subdue them."--"Robert Saint Vincent is an
incendiary, whom I wish I could banish, but that would make a terrible
tumult. On the other hand, the Archbishop is an iron-hearted fellow, who
tries to pick quarrels. Happily, there are some in the Parliament upon
whom I can rely, and who affect to be very violent, but can be softened
upon occasion. It costs me a few abbeys, and a few secret pensions, to
accomplish this. There is a certain V