uld at that period boast an
air at the same time so noble and yet so coquettish, features so imposing
and yet so delicate and playful, or a figure at once so elegant and yet
so supple and undulating: her mother used always to say that a king alone
was worthy of her daughter. Jeanne, it is said, had at in early age what
might be called the presentiment of the throne, at first on account of
this frequently-expressed opinion of her mother's, and afterward because
she fancied she loved the king. "She owned to me," says Voltaire, in his
_Memoirs_, "that she had a s[*illegible] presentiment that she would be
loved by [*illegible] king, and that she had herself a violent
inclination for him." There are certain [*illegible] in life in which
destiny permits itself for a moment, as it were, to be divined.
[* illegible] those who have succeeded in climbing [*illegible] rugged
mountain of human vanities [*illegible ] that from their earliest youth
certain visions and presentiments have ever warned them of their future
glory.

But how was she to attain to this throne of France, the object of her
ambition? This was a difficult question to solve. In the meanwhile she
familiarized herself with what might be considered the life of a queen, a
part which, it must be allowed, she could play to admiration. Beautiful,
witty, intellectual, ever admired and ever listened to, she soon beheld
at her feet all the courtiers of her father's fortune; she gathered
around her, consequently, a brilliant crowd of poets, artists, and
philosophers, over whom she reigned with all the dignity of majesty.

The Fermier-general had a nephew named Lenorman d'Etioles, a young man of
Amiable character, and with the feelings and habits of a gentleman. This
was the reputed heir of the immense wealth of the old Fermier-general,
according to the established laws, though Jeanne had on her side also
some claims to a share of the property. A very simple means was however
devised to prevent all after litigation, namely, by arranging a marriage
between the two young people. Jeanne, as we have already seen, loved the
king, and she married d'Etioles without her feelings in this respect
undergoing any change. Versailles was her horizon, the goal to which she
aspired. D'Etioles, it is said, became deeply enamored of his young
bride; but this passion, which amounted almost to fanaticism, never
touched her heart. To use her own words, she "accepted him with
resignation, as a m