[129] See above, p. 87, [n. 125].
[130] The interview really took place on the previous Saturday.
[131] The Electress Sophia, mother of George I.
[132] M. de Boislisle says that Saint-Simon’s informant was probably not Mme de Ventadour, with whom he was on bad terms, but Mme de Clérembault, widow of the Maréchal de Clérembault, who was one of Madame’s ladies-in-waiting, and whom Saint-Simon frequently met at her cousins’, the Pontchartrains. For an amusing portrait of her see III. 243-245, and for some additional touches, XIX. 84-85. Out of doors and in the galleries at Versailles she always wore a black velvet mask to preserve her complexion. She was passionately fond of cards, but being very miserly did not like high play. She had a wide knowledge of history, was well informed on other subjects, and had more esprit than any woman of her day.
With Saint-Simon’s account of this interview may be compared Madame’s, which is given in a letter to the Electress Sophia (Corr. I. 241-242).
[133] Ed. Chéruel, II. c. viii; ed. Boislisle, V. 348-375. The review took place in September, 1698.
[134] Fifty-two miles N.E. of Paris. Jeanne d’Arc was taken prisoner before its walls.
[135] For the merest nobody.
[136] Saint-Simon frequently uses this expression in the sense of compelling a person to do something against his will.