[795] Vaudeville in the original, of which the primitive meaning was “a satirical song.”
[796] Le mortier in French. See page [168], note 331. When the king was not present at a sitting of the Parliament, the president claimed the right to represent him, and therefore, to take precedence before any one.
[797] A certain de Charnacé, formerly lieutenant in the kingʼs body-guard, committed several crimes in Anjou, even coined false money, and finally was obliged to flee for his life. In many of the provinces the conduct of the nobles was so inhuman and disgraceful, that the kings of France were often obliged to appoint special committees, called grands jours, to try and punish them, the latest and most celebrated of which had been held in Auvergne in 1665.
[798] The “Keys” name Louis de Crevant, Duke dʼHumières, who was made Marshal of France in 1668, and died in 1694; Jacques Henri de Durfort, Duke de Duras, brother to the Earl of Feversham, and also a Marshal of France, who died in 1704, at the age of seventy-four; and the Marshal de Créqui, as having displayed great luxury whilst in the field. The king, who had first given the example of such splendour, finally attempted to restrain it, and in vain promulgated edicts against it in 1672.
[799] Hermippus is supposed to be a certain Jean-Jacques Renouard, Count de Villayer, maître des requêtes, a member of the French Academy, who was very ingenious, and always invented new machinery—amongst others, a kind of lift—and who died in 1691.
[800] The original has improuver, now antiquated.
[801] Leurs pensions in French. See page [381], note 695.
[802] A dʼAquin (1629-1696), who was physician to Louis XIV., had one son a magistrate and another a bishop. See also page [273], note 533.
[803] See page [186], note 390. Some “Keys” also say that perhaps Adrien Helvétius, the grandfather of the philosopher, may be meant, but this seems hardly likely, for Helvétius was wealthy, gave his medicine gratis, was a very honest man, and the first to recommend the use of ipecacuanha in certain diseases.
[804] In Molièreʼs Malade Imaginaire (act iii. scene 4), Toinette, the servant, dressed up as a physician, says almost the same thing.