urrounded with all the more
celebrated revolutionary books of the day, such as the _Encyclopaedia_,
the _Philosophical Dictionary_, the _Spirit of Laws_, and the _Social
Contract_.

Madame de Pompadour, woman-like, loved revenge; and this, it must be
said, was her worst vice. For a word she sent Latude to the Bastille; for
a couplet she exiled the minister Maurepas. Frederick of Prussia took it
into his head one day, in a moment of gayety, to call her Cotillon II.,
instead of Madame la Marquise de Pompadour, and styled her reign of favor
_le regne de Cotillon_; a witticism which so incensed her, that,
according to some writers, we may trace to this petty cause the origin of
the disastrous seven years' war.

The position of Madame de Pompadour at court as first favorite was, by
all accounts, far from being an enviable one; as years rolled on she
found herself necessitated to stoop to all kinds of meannesses, and to
endure all sorts of humiliations, to preserve her already tottering
empire. In order to make friends for herself in the parliament, she
suppressed the Jesuits; and she afterward exiled the parliament in order
to conciliate the clergy. Again, to prevent her royal, but most fickle
minded lover, from choosing another mistress out of the ranks of the
court ladies, she contrived that seraglio, the notorious Parc-aux-cerfs,
"the pillow of Louis the Fifteenth's debaucheries," as Chateaubriand
called it; at the last, hated and despised by all France, Madame de
Pompadour said to Louis XV., "For mercy's sake, keep me near you: I
protect you; I take upon myself all the hatred of France; evil times are
come for kings; so soon as I am gone, all the insults which are now
leveled at Madame de Pompadour will be addressed to the king."

Among the many desperate attempts which were made from time to time to
dethrone her, the following is the most curious:--

M. d'Argenson and Madame d'Estrade had resolved upon raising to the
throne of the favorite the young and beautiful Madame de Choiseul, wife
of the court usher. The intrigue was conducted with so much art that the
king granted an interview. At the hour fixed upon for the meeting a great
agitation reigned in the cabinet of the minister. M. d'Argenson and
Madame d'Estrade awaited the event with anxiety; Quesnai, physician to
the king and to the favorite, was also present. All at once Madame de
Choiseul rushed into the room; Madame d'Estrade ran to meet her with open
arms.