[1169] A round table, the centre of which descended by machinery to a lower floor, so that supper might be served without the presence of servants. It was invented by Lewis XV. during the favour of Madame du Barri. CROKER.
[1170] See ante, i. 363, note 3.
[1171] Before the Revolution the passage from the garden of the Tuileries into the Place Louis XV. was over a pont tournant. CROKER.
[1172] The niece of Arabella Fermor, the Belinda of the Rape of the Lock. Johnson thus mentions this lady (Works, viii. 246):—'At Paris, a few years ago, a niece of Mrs. Fermor, who presided in an English convent, mentioned Pope's works with very little gratitude, rather as an insult than an honour.' She is no doubt the Lady Abbess mentioned post, March 15, 1776. She told Mrs. Piozzi in 1784 'that she believed there was but little comfort to be found in a house that harboured poets; for that she remembered Mr. Pope's praise made her aunt very troublesome and conceited, while his numberless caprices would have employed ten servants to wait on him.' Piozzi's Journey, i. 20.
[1173] Mrs. Thrale wrote, on Sept. 18, 1777:—'When Mr. Thrale dismisses me, I am to take refuge among the Austin Nuns, and study Virgil with dear Miss Canning.' Piozzi Letters, i. 374.
[1174] Pensionnaires, pupils who boarded in the convent.
[1175] He brought back a snuff-box for Miss Porter. Ante, p. 387.
[1176] 63 livres = £2 12s. 6d.
[1177] Torture-chamber. See ante, i. 467, note 1.
[1178] 'Au parlement de Paris la chambre chargée des affaires criminelles.' LITTRÃ.