[198] To which institution women of loose character who had misbehaved themselves were sent.
[199] Collé, Mémoires et Journal, iii. 27 et seq.
[200] Collé, Mémoires et Journal, iii. 31.
[201] "Private Correspondence of David Garrick," ii. 432. Soon after this, Garrick very generously offered Mlle. Clairon a loan of 500 guineas, which, however, was not accepted.
[202] It seems to have been as a kind of return for the homage paid her at Ferney, that, towards the end of 1772, Mlle. Clairon organised, at her house in Paris, the apotheosis of Voltaire, "in which she displayed all the riches of her imagination." "The bust of Voltaire," says Bachaumont, "was placed pompously in the midst of the assembly, when M. Marmontel, the coryphée of the house, presented an ode, composed by himself, in honour of the new god of Pindar. Mlle. Clairon, habited as a priestess of Apollo, placed a crown of laurel on the bust, and recited the ode with the most vehement enthusiasm. The assembly applauded loudly." This piece of adulation, grotesque though it was, seems to have been far from displeasing to the Patriarch, who returned thanks in a letter in verse, wherein he assured the lady that "his glory was entirely her work."—Gueullette, Acteurs et Actrices du Temps passé, p. 316.
[203] Mlle. Clairon had demanded a pension of 1500 livres, though thirty years' service was required to entitle her to this. It is probable, however, that her request would have been granted, but for the opposition of Lekain, who had not forgiven her for her treatment of him in years gone by.
[204] The takings, at a louis a head, amounted to 24,000 livres, which sum, if we are to believe Bachaumont, was spent by Molé, not in paying his debts, but in buying diamonds for his mistress.
[205] Correspondance littéraire, vi. 75.
[206] Letter of Madame Riccoboni to Garrick, January 29, 1767.
[207] "During this time, Mlle. Clairon was living at the Margrave's expense, with four French servants in livery, Madame Senay, her femme-de-chambre, and a lackey, besides a French cook. The Margrave supplied her with the best wines from his cellar. Her expenses were enormous, and all paid from the Chamber of Finances of Anspach. These facts I had from the Maréchaux of the Court."—"Memoirs of Elizabeth Berkeley, Margravine of Anspach," i. 210.