ainted, softening off the colour where
she had laid too much, etc., finished the small figures. When the work
was completed the private drawing-room was decorated with her Majesty's
work; and the firm persuasion of this good Queen that she had painted it
herself was so entire that she left this cabinet, with all its furniture
and paintings, to the Comtesse de Noailles, her lady of honour. She added
to the bequest: 'The pictures in my cabinet being my own work, I hope the
Comtesse de Noailles will preserve them for my sake.' Madame de Noailles,
afterwards Marechale de Mouchy, had a new pavilion constructed in her
hotel in the Faubourg St. Germain, in order to form a suitable receptacle
for the Queen's legacy; and had the following inscription placed over the
door, in letters of gold: 'The innocent falsehood of a good princess.'

"Maria Leczinska could never look with cordiality on the Princess of
Saxony, who married the Dauphin; but the attentive behaviour of the
Dauphiness at length made her Majesty forget that the Princess was the
daughter of a king who wore her father's crown. Nevertheless, although
the Queen now saw in the Princess of Saxony only a wife beloved by her
son, she never could forget that Augustus wore the crown of Stanislaus.
One day an officer of her chamber having undertaken to ask a private
audience of her for the Saxon minister, and the Queen being unwilling to
grant it, he ventured to add that he should not have presumed to ask this
favour of the Queen had not the minister been the ambassador of a member
of the family. 'Say of an enemy of the family,' replied the Queen,
angrily; 'and let him come in.'

"Comte de Tesse, father of the last Count of that name, who left no
children, was first equerry to Queen Maria Leczinska. She esteemed his
virtues, but often diverted herself at the expense of his simplicity. One
day, when the conversation turned on the noble military, actions by which
the French nobility was distinguished, the Queen said to the Count: 'And
your family, M. de Tesse, has been famous, too, in the field.'--'Ah,
Madame, we have all been killed in our masters' service!'--'How rejoiced I
am,' replied the Queen, 'that you have revived to tell me of it.' The son
of this worthy M. de Tesse was married to the amiable and highly gifted
daughter of the Duc d'Ayen, afterwards Marechale de Noailles. He was
exceedingly fond of his daughter-in-law, and never could speak of her
without emotion