[170] Cited by Adolphe Jullien, L'Histoire du costume au Théâtre.
[171] In her Mémoires, Mlle. Clairon has the effrontery to declare that she never had any cause to be ashamed of her love-affairs, and defies any one to name "a single man who had purchased her favours."
[172] Ravaisson, Archives de la Bastille, xii. 348.
[173] Edmond de Goncourt, Mademoiselle Clairon, p. 43 et seq.
[174] Ravaisson, Archives de la Bastille, xii. 292 et seq.
[175] Ravaisson, Archives de la Bastille, xii. 295. From the same report we learn that the Prince of Würtemberg, then on a visit to Paris, had fallen violently in love with Mlle. Gaussin, "et qu'il a commencé par lui faire un présent de 200 louis pour souper avec elle." Mlle. Clairon was probably no worse than the other divinities of the Comédie.
[176] Archives, xii. 295.
[177] This was not the only occasion upon which Marmontel trespassed upon Maurice's preserves. He took a similar liberty with the heart of Mlle. de Verrières, "on learning which the Marshal fell into a passion unworthy of so great a man."
[178] Mémoires de Marmontel (edit. 1804), i. 266.
[179] Marmontel tells us that Mlle. Clairon made "a very desirable mistress." "She had," says he, "all the charms of an agreeable character without any mixture of caprice; while her only desire, her most delicate attentions, were directed towards rendering her lover happy. So long as she loved, no one could be more faithful or more tender than she.... I left her charming, I found her equally, and, if possible, still more charming. What a pity that with so seductive a character so much levity should be joined, and that love so sincere, and even so faithful, should not have been more constant!"