ave permitted her to
approach the holy table, or even have canonized her had she been desirous
of the honor.

Madame de Pompadour was born with noble instincts; her bitterest enemies
have never denied that she possessed the most refined taste in all
matters connected with the arts or letters. She sought to make of Louis
XV. an artist-king; and it must be said to her praise that she ever
strove to rouse him from his habitual indolence and lassitude by leading
his inclinations into healthy channels. But, unfortunately, Louis XV.,
unlike his predecessor, could never understand that great monuments often
make the glory of kings.

The _petits soupers_ of Versailles would occasionally shed a ray of
sunshine, or rather lamp light, over Louis the Fifteenth's habitual
ennui. After supper, chansons, sallies, and repartee, would be the order
of the night. Occasionally at these supper-parties some brilliant things
would be said. One evening, when some one sang a complaint upon the
misfortunes of our first father Adam, the king improvised the following
couplet worthy of the best chansons of Colle:--

Il n'eut qu'une femme avec lui,
Encor c'etait la sienne;
Ici je vois celles d'autrui,
Et ne vois pas la mienne.

Louis XV. had, as we see, his moments of poetical inspiration. Anacreon
could not have sung better than this.

Madame de Pompadour, born in the ranks of the people, and seating herself
unceremoniously on the throne of Blanche of Castille--Madame de
Pompadour, protecting philosophers and suppressing Jesuits, treating the
great powers of the earth with the same _sans facon_ as she did artists
and men of letters,--was one of the thousand causes, petty and, trifling
in themselves, which eventually accelerated the great French Revolution.
Madame Dubarry but imitated her predecessor when she called a noble duke
a _sapajou_ (ape). The _mot_ is pretty well known: "_Annoncez le sapajou
de Madame la Comtesse Dubarry_," said a great lord of the court of Louis
XV. one day. It would be a curious and most amusing task to enrich the
French peerage with all the _sobriquets_ bestowed by the mistresses of
Louis XV. as titles of nobility upon the courtiers of Versailles. More
than one illustrious name, which has been cited by France with pride, has
lost its luster in the tainted atmosphere of Versailles.

"Not only," said Madame de Pompadour; one day to the Abbe de
Bernis,--"not only have I all the nobility at my feet, but e