“At you, sire? Impossible.”
“No, no; I know the impertinences he is guilty of towards me: but let him. I prefer making my court to the pretty women of my kingdom instead of to my pages. You may depend upon it that if he came to Versailles he would debauch some of them.”
The king, charmed at having said this malicious speech, rubbed his hands again.
“Really, sire,” I replied, “I am astonished that this prince, having such disgusting inclinations, can have much éclat attached to his name.”
“Ah, that is because he has great qualities: he will not allow himself to be cheated. Do you know that he is acquainted with the disposal of his finances to the last farthing?”
“Sire, he must be a miser.”
“No, madame, he is a man of method. But enough of him. As to his majesty of Denmark, altho’ he would have been as welcome to stay at home, I shall receive him with as much attention as possible. The kings of Denmark and Sweden are my natural allies.”
The king changed the subject, and said, “There is an abbé, named la Chapelle, whom I think half cracked. He flatters himself that he can, thro’ the medium of some apparatus, remain on the water without sinking. He begs my permission to exhibit his experiment before me; and if it would amuse you, we will have the exhibition to-morrow.” I accepted the king’s proposal with pleasure.
On the next day we went in a body to the terrace of the château. The king was near me with his hat in his hand; the duc de Duras gave me his arm. M. l’ abbé waited us in a boat: he flung himself bodily into the water, dressed in a sort of cork-jacket, moved in any direction in the water, drank, ate, and fired off a gun. So far all went off well, but the poor abbé, to close the affair, wrote a letter to the king. The letter was carried in great pomp to his majesty. It contained two verses of Racine, which had some double allusion to the experiment. This, you may be sure, was interpreted in the worst manner. The duc d’Ayen gave the finishing stroke to the whole, on his opinion being asked by the king.
“Sire,” said he, “such men ought to be thrown into the water; but all we can wish for them is, that they should remain there.”