Memoirs of the Marchioness of Pompadour (vol. 2 of 2)

WRITTEN BY HERSELF. Wherein are Displayed
The Motives of the Wars, Treaties of Peace, Embassies, and Negotiations, in the several Courts of Europe:
The Cabals and Intrigues of Courtiers; the Characters of Generals, and Ministers of State, with the Causes of their Rise and Fall; and, in general, the most remarkable Occurrences at the Court of France, during the last twenty Years of the Reign of Lewis XV.
Translated from the French.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. II.
L O N D O N: Printed for P. V a i l l a n t, in the Strand; and W. J o h n s t o n, in Ludgate-Street. MDCCLXVI.

LEWIS XV. as I have said in another place, visited me habitually. He could not dispense with my company, which was become absolutely necessary to him: but this inclination had not entirely removed a taste for transitory amours. He yielded to them by constitution; but never reflected on them without repentance. After an adventure of gallantry, he was more constant than ever. Remorse brought him back to himself and to me. I may venture to say, that I enjoyed his infidelity; and had he been entirely divested of it, he would have given way to some other passion, that would have separated him from me. I was under apprehensions for some time that his mind would take a warlike turn: I desired Maurice count Saxe, who regularly paid his court to him, after the campaigns in Flanders, not to dwell so much upon battles and sieges: but Lewis assured me, as I have already mentioned, that he had sacrificed this inclination to the welfare of France.
The king had for some time devoted himself to politics; but this study no way interfered with his amusements. He applied himself to it through that beneficent disposition, which naturally prompts him to solace his people. He was desirous of being possessed of the present state of Europe: M. De Belleisle furnished him with it. The king shewed it to me: it was a system of political-topography. The Marshal entered into a minute detail upon the power of each government. He took a review of all Europe, and stipulated the state of the forces of the different people.