Marquise de Pompadour

“ His ennui was the terror of Madame de Pompadour. The problem she had to solve was how to entertain a man who could no longer be amused. The favorite trembled. Here was her favor barely begun, and already she beheld symptoms of indifference and lassitude in her royal lover. D’Argenson writes in 1747: “The Pompadour is about to be dismissed. The King will live with his family.” The Marquise was afraid lest the sovereign, who really had a badly understood but sincere religion at bottom, might some day conclude to be truly devout. ”

“ The Grande Marquise—I may as well be frank with you—womanlike, yearns violently for those silly letters which you hold. She would sell our France for them. There is a chance for you who would serve your country so. Serve it, and yourself—and me. We have no news yet as to your doom, but be sure it is certain. La Pompadour knows all, and if you are stubborn, twenty deaths were too few. I can save you little longer, even were it my will so to do. For myself, the great lady girds at me for being so poor an agent. ”

“ He was an active, vigilant, indefatigable minister; a great statesman; a profound politician; uniting with the sublime qualities of a negociator all those which make a man amiable in society, being a good husband, a good father, and a good friend—in a word, an honest man. Interest, that passion which vilifies the great, found no refuge in his heart. I could willingly compare him to Prince Charles of Lorrain, for the virtues of his mind ”

“ The Marquise recognized the truth of her confidant’s melancholy words: “Ah!” she answered, “my life is like that of a Christian: a perpetual combat.” Strange comparison! Most inexact comparison! for the Christian combats for God, while the favorite was combating for the devil. This, in fact, was the cause of her sadness. The love of God consoles one for all sacrifices; but woe to the woman who makes herself the slave of a man! Madame de Pompadour placed no confidence in Louis XV., and she was right. The Maréchale de Mirepoix said to her one day: “It is your staircase that the King likes ”

“ I was not much versed in this kind of matters; for the women of Paris have no more religion than what is just necessary to prevent their having none at all.
These able theologists settled it as a principle, “That scandal in a king was the greatest evil he could be guilty of: that he is the mirrour, where every one looks to see himself: that his example carries with it that of the state: that from the time the King did not commune, there were upwards of a million of subjects in France, who no longer partook of the sacraments: that{22} the desertion from the holy table was become general,” &c. ”

“ The King had sent him to examine the military state of France. He had just visited the southern parts to reconnoitre the fortresses, and the troops quarters.{117} When he made his report to the King, he added, that he had seen the protestants of Languedoc, and that at a time they were suspected of taking up arms, they were assembled to offer up prayers to heaven for the recovery of the Dauphin. This intelligence greatly affected the King. It gives peculiar pleasure to sovereigns to find all their subjects attached to them. ”

“ The other rebellious bishops were treated with more severity: but these lettres de cachet had a very opposite effect to what was intended. They served only to make them more important in the eyes of their partizans, which increased their arrogance.
A courtier said to the King, that a seminary should be built at Rome, to which should be sent all the French bishops who rebelled against his orders, with an establishment of 100 Roman crowns per head, for supporting their grandeur. ”

“ Nevertheless, if things were thoroughly examined with care, it would appear that we have no interest in view by making continual representations to our Prince, and being compelled to say disagreeable things to him. If we did not interest ourselves so much as we do for the good of the people, we must substitute flattery for truth, and should be benefited by the smiles of the court ”

“ Be this as it may, these people displeased me, because they put the King into a bad humour, and every time they repaired to Versailles, to make representations to him, Lewis XV. was more serious than usual.
The affair of the bills of confession was attended with consequences. The members of parliament had hitherto spoke as orators; upon this occasion they spoke in the stile of preachers. Their remonstrance to the King resembled a sermon. The pope’s doctrine, dogmas, and faith,{81} were called in question. When a body of people quit their proper sphere, they expose themselves to raillery. ”

“ I know that complaints have often been made in France of my choice of certain persons, as well in the army as in the administration: but those who condemned me were unacquainted with Versailles. Every courtier has a party who cry up their talents and genius. It is impossible to descry real merit through these extravagant elogiums. All those who are interested in a courtier’s advancement, either in the army or in the government, hide his faults, and display his good qualities; for every man has a favourable side. ”

“ I do not at present recollect the precise terms in which this memorial of M. de Belleisle was conceived; I only remember that he concluded with these words: “France cannot be hurt by all the great states of Europe: Prussia only is to be feared, and England dreaded.”
Though the king had for some time been fond of talking of state affairs, he was so polite as to dwell but little upon them in my company. Notwithstanding what I have said of his gravity, there is no man in France so agreeable at a tête-a-tête, as Lewis XV. He is some days so happy and vivacious, as even to inspire mirth and joy. ”

“ If we were to recur to the origin of great revolutions, we should find that fortune governed the world, and that policy, which would reduce all events to rule, prevails too much in the cabinet of princes. ”

“ He exploited his long captivity with considerable ability, posing as a brave officer, a son of the marquis de la Tude, and a victim of Pompadour’s intrigues. He was extolled and pensioned during the Revolution, and in 1793 the convention compelled the heirs of Mme de Pompadour to pay him 60,000 francs damages. ”

“ The self-love of kings who will be absolute, creates disorders, which usually swallows up both states and politics. The Prince, who was desirous of maintaining the peace of his kingdom, and advancing the happiness of his people, yielded, the very instant he saw that, by opposing his parliament, a general revolution might be dreaded. ”

“ Happily for France, the Dauphiness was brought to bed, and those disputes, which had spread such a general gloom at court and in the city, were immediately forgot. Public rejoicings inspired such gaiety as dispelled this universal cloud. Frenchmen are seldom long bereft of their chearfulness. A marriage, or recovery, restores to them their natural sprightliness. I do not know whether this continual transition from grief to joy, is not preferable to that pensive disposition of the English, which inspires{140} them with a melancholy, from which no secondary cause can retrieve them. ”

“ A man of much good sense said, like Marshal Belleisle, “that great armies were useless; that land campaigns were not the object, but a sea war; that the colonies should be put in a state of security, which alone could be conquered; that the plan of the English was not to increase their power in Europe, but to extend their limits in America; that all their designs tended that way, and that we should direct ours to the same object; that France was guarantied in Europe by the general balance ”

“ I know I should harden myself against certain bodies, who want to raise their authority upon a level with my throne. But I sacrifice my resentment to the general tranquility. I tremble to think of the misfortunes that the people suffered under the reign of my great grandfather, by the quarrels which arose between the court and the parliament. These quarrels renewed civil wars, which immersed France in the deepest{27} desolation. ”

“ Incapable of betraying our duty, we should have nothing to offer you in homage but our tears, till time should convince you how advantageous it is for you, that your parliament at no period swerve from the inviolable fidelity they owe to religion, to their country, and to their King; and that in their archives may be found the uninterrupted tradition of conduct and maxims, which secure the tranquility of your kingdom, and the independance of your sovereignty. ”

“ The English have resolved to fall upon us, and to seize all such ships as they think they have the superiority over: reprisals are necessary, and we should seize all such vessels as are inferior in strength to our’s that meet with them. ”

“ The kings of France had formerly but very little power; but since they have had three hundred thousand men at their command, who only wait for orders to obey their will, they can do every thing. A mandate from Lewis XV. to two or three regiments, would have been sufficient to have made the parliament return to their duty. But this Prince was an enemy to every thing that carried with it the appearance of violence. He would be obeyed; but then only by gentleness and moderation. ”

“ Favourable combinations of nature or fortune are necessary to draw it from that state of languor, in which it is almost constantly immersed: and this fatal law must surely be general, when even kings are not exempt from it. But there is a still greater misfortune attendant on humanity, which is, that pleasure is almost constantly counterbalanced by pain. One might say, that in the human heart there are two equal measures of joy and misery, and in proportion as the one is emptied the other is filled. ”

“ Or, if it is really nothing more than an extravagant zeal for the bull that actuates them, they teach us how dangerous it is for them to decide arbitrarily in causes that may exclude the participation of the sacraments. Their pretended zeal becomes a passion that blinds them; prejudice shuts their eyes to the consequences of their conduct. ”

“ One of the deputies said to me, “Madam, the modern productions are so very bad, that the greater part of them cannot be supported without ballets. Capering is a great auxiliary to declamation, I foretel you, Madam, that if we are not allowed to dance, words will be of no signification.” ”

“ It is a general rule, that mines always ruin their proprietors, as Spain and Portugal evince, which are continually impoverished in proportion as their mines become fruitful. The only nations that are thereby enriched, are those who barter their industry for the produce.
“The invasion of Portugal would make a change in all the systems of Europe. It would cause a general revolution in cabinets. ”

“ Marshal Saxe said before he died, that if France could give a permanent peace to Italy, her population would become more flourishing. This general had demonstrated, that for two centuries more Frenchmen had perished in Italy, than all the other wars had carried off in the rest of Europe.
I have since been told by another general, that the soldiers do not fall there by cannon. They perish there by heat and voluptuousness; enemies by far more dangerous than the indefatigable labours of the North.
Lewis XV. found an advantage in this plan of pacification. ”

“ It is true that the riches of Portugal are in America, and that the English fleets might possess themselves of the mines; but the English would not derive great advantage from this conquest.
“The extraction of gold is a manufacture that must be rendered profitable, to draw advantages from it: and this capacity is not the lot of every one. The Portuguese, naturally sober, and who have but few wants, can alone derive these advantages from it; the English, with whom labour is much dearer, would be losers by it. ”

“ They afterwards insisted that there should be no under-farmers; that is to say, that the profits arising from the farms should be no longer divided, and that they should be sole masters of the finances. ”

“ This is easy to believe, he added, if we consider that the spirit of contention, which springs from dogmas, spreads itself through every class, and that it is this general spirit that forms the genius of nations.
The war relating to the Constitution still continuing, plenipotentiaries were appointed: these were commissaries, who were to decide, whether the curates had a right to let the King’s subjects die without communing. The Bishops said, this was the business of a council; but the parliament were of opinion, that the Bull Unigenitus was in subordination to the police of the state. ”

“ I may venture to say, that this performer, by the gaiety that he spread over the King’s mind, was often the mediator of the most important affairs of Europe.
We know that all our resolutions spring from the actual disposition of the soul. A monarch that refuses every thing when his mind is seized with a certain melancholy, grants every thing when this vapour is dissipated. ”

“ Let us return to general affairs. America, which was upon the point of exciting universal war, began already to display some sparks of that blaze which was to inflame Europe. The English made the first complaints. The Earl of Albemarle represented to the court of France, that the French in Canada committed hostilities, contrary to the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. ”