M E M O I R S
O F T H E
Marchioness of Pompadour.

WRITTEN BY HERSELF.
Wherein are Displayed

The Motives of the Wars, Treaties of Peace, Embassies, and Negotiations, in the several Courts of Europe:

The Cabals and Intrigues of Courtiers; the Characters of Generals, and Ministers of State, with the Causes of their Rise and Fall; and, in general, the most remarkable Occurrences at the Court of France, during the last twenty Years of the Reign of Lewis XV.

Translated from the French.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

L O N D O N:
Printed for P. V a i l l a n t, in the Strand; and
W. J o h n s t o n, in Ludgate-Street.
MDCCLXVI.

THE
EDITOR’S PREFACE.

THE following work must be acknowledged highly interesting to these times; and to posterity will be still more so. These are not the memoirs of a mere woman of pleasure, who has spent her life in a voluptuous court, but the history of a reign remarkable for revolutions, wars, intrigues, alliances, negotiations; the very blunders of which are not beneath the regard of politicians, as having greatly contributed to give a new turn to the affairs of Europe.

The Lady who drew the picture was known to be an admirable colourist.

They who were personally acquainted with Mademoiselle Poisson, before and since her marriage with M. le Normand, know her to have been possessed of a great deal of that wit, which, with proper culture, improves into genius.

The King called her to court at a tempestuous season of life, when the passions reign uncontrouled, and by corrupting the heart, enlarge the understanding.

They who are near the persons of Kings, for the most part, surpass the common run of mankind, both in natural and acquired talents; for ambition is ever attended with a sort of capacity to compass its ends; and all courtiers are ambitious.

No sooner does the Sovereign take a mistress, than the courtiers flock about her. Their first concern is to give her her cue; for as they intend to avail themselves of her interest with the King, she must be made acquainted with a multitude of things: she may be said to receive her intelligence from the first hand, and to draw her knowledge at the fountain head.

Lewis XV. intrusted the Marchioness de Pompadour with the greatest concerns of the nation; so that if she had been without those abilities which distinguished her at Paris, she must still have improved in the school of Versailles.

Her talents did not clear her in the public eye; never was a favourite more outrageously pelted with pamphlets, or exposed to more clamorous invectives. Of this her Memoirs are a full demonstration; her enemies charged her with many very odious vices, without so much as allowing her one good quality. The grand subject of murmur was the bad state of the finances, which they attributed to her amours with the King.

They who brand the Marchioness with having run Lewis XV. into vast expences, seem to have forgot those which his predecessor’s mistresses had brought on the state.

Madame de la Valiere, even before she was declared mistress to Lewis XIV. induced him to give entertainments, which cost the nation more than ever Madame de Pompadour’s fortune amounted to.

Madame de Montespan put the same Prince to very enormous expences; she appeared always with the pomp and parade of a Queen, even to the having guards to attend her.

Scarron’s widow carried her pride and ostentation still further: she drew the King in to marry her, and this mistress came to be queen, an elevation which will be an eternal blot on the Prince’s memory.

This clandestine commerce gave rise to an infamous practice at court, with which Madame de Pompadour cannot be charged. All these concubines having children, to gratify their vanity, they must be legitimated; and, afterwards, they found means to marry these sons, or daughters, of prostitution, to the branches of the royal blood; a flagrant debasement of the house which were in kin to the crown: for though a Sovereign can legitimate a bastard, to efface the stain of bastardy is beyond his power. The consequence was, that the descendants of that clandestine issue aspired to the throne; and, through the King’s scandalous amours, that lustre which is due only to virtue, fell to the portion of vice.

It was given out in France, and over all Europe, that Madame de Pompadour was immensely rich: but nothing of this appeared at her death, except her magnificent moveables, and these were rather the consequences of her rank at court, than the effects of her vanity. This splendor his Majesty partook of, as visiting her every day.

The public is generally an unfair judge of those who hold a considerable station at court, deciding from vague reports, which are often the forgeries of ill-grounded prejudice. Madame de Pompadour has been charged with insatiable avarice. Had this been the case, she might have indulged herself at will: she was at the spring-head of opulence; the King never refused her any thing; so that she might have amassed any money; which she did not. There are now existing, in France, fifty wretches of financiers, each of a fortune far exceeding her’s.

It was also said, that the best thing which could happen to France, was to be rid of this rapacious favourite. Well; she is no more; and what is France the better for it? Has her death been followed by one of those sudden revolutions in the government, which usher in a better form of administration? Have they who looked on this Lady as an unsurmountable obstacle to France’s greatness, proposed any better means for raising it from its present low state? Is there more order in the government? are the finances improved? is there more method and oeconomy? No, affairs are still in the same bad ways the lethargy continues as profound as ever. The ministry, which before Madame de Pompadour’s death was fast asleep, is not yet awake. Every thing remains in statu quo. Some European governments have no regular motion; they advance either too fast, or too slow; their steps are either precipitate, or sluggish.

In this favourite’s time, there was too much shifting and changing in the ministry; now she is gone, there is none at all, &c. &c.

I am very far from intending a panegyric on Madame de Pompadour. Faults she had, which posterity will never forgive. All the calamities of France were imputed to her, and she should have resigned in compliance to the public: a nation is to be respected even in its prejudices. With any tolerable share of patriotism, Madame de Pompadour would have quitted the court, and thus approved herself deserving of the favour for which she was execrated; but her soul was not capable of such an act of magnanimity: she knew nothing of that philosophy which, inspiring a contempt of external grandeur, endears the subject to the Prince, and exalts him above the throne.

There is great appearance that this Lady intended to revise both her Memoirs and her will, and that death prevented her: she used to write, by starts, detached essays, without any coherence; and these on separate bits of paper. These were very numerous and diffuse, as generally are the materials intended to form a book, if she really had any such design.

We were obliged to throw by on all sides, and clear our way through an ocean of writings, a long and tiresome business.

It is far from being improbable, that Madame de Pompadour got some statesman, well versed in such matters, to assist her in compiling this book: however that be, we give it as it stands in her original manuscript.

M E M O I R S
O F T H E
Marchioness of Pompadour.

THE following narrative is not confined to the particular history of my life. My design is more extensive: I shall endeavour to give a true representation of the court of France under the reign of Lewis XV. The private memoirs of a King’s mistress are in themselves of small import; but to know the character of the Prince who raises her to favour; to be let into the intrigues of his reign, the genius of the courtiers, the practices of the ministers, the views of the great, the projects of the ambitious; in a word, into the secret springs of politics, is not a matter of indifference.

It is very seldom that the public judges rightly of what passes in the cabinet: they hear that the King orders armies to take the field; that he wins or loses battles; and on these occurrences they argue according to their particular prejudices.

History does not come nearer the mark; the generality of annalists being only the echoes of the public mistakes.

These papers I do not intend to publish in my life-time; but should they appear after my death, posterity will see in them a faithful draught of the several parts of the administration, which were acted, in some measure, under my eye. Had I never lived at Versailles, the events of our times might have been an inexplicable riddle to posterity; so complicated are the incidents, and in many particulars so contradictory, that, without a key, there is no decyphering them.

Ministers and other place-men are not always acquainted with the means, which they themselves make use of for attaining certain ends. A plenipotentiary very well knows that he signs a treaty of peace, but he is ignorant of the King’s motives for putting an end to the war.

Every politician strikes out a system in his own sagacious brain; the speculatists have often fathered on France what she never dreamed of; and many refined schemes have been attributed to her ministers, which never made part of their plan.

It is not long since a minister of a certain court said to me at Versailles, That the two last German wars, which cost France so much blood, and three hundred millions of livres, was the greatest stroke of policy which the age afforded; as this court had thereby insensibly, and unknown to the rest of Europe, reduced the power of the Queen of Hungary: for, added he, if, on the demise of Charles VI. this crown had openly bent all its forces against the house of Austria, a general alliance would have opposed it; whereas it has weakened that house by a series of little battles and repeated losses, &c. &c.

The inserting such an anecdote in the annals of our age would be sufficient to disfigure the whole history. The truth is, that they who were at the head of the French affairs, during these two wars, had no manner of genius.

All details not relative to the state I shall carefully omit, as rather writing the age of Lewis XV. than the history of my private life. The transactions of a King’s favourite concern only the reign of that Prince; but truth is of perpetual concern.

I hope the public does not expect from me a circumstantial journal of Lewis XV’s gallantries: the King had many transitory amours during my residence at Versailles; but none of his mistresses were admitted into the public affairs. The reign of the far greater part began and ended in the Prince’s bed. These foibles, so closely connected with human nature, belong rather to a King’s private life, than to the public history of a Monarch: I may sometimes mention them, but it will only be by the way. I shall likewise be silent in regard to my family. The particular favour with which I have been honoured by Lewis XV. has placed my origin in broad day-light. A Monarch in raising a woman to the summit of grandeur, of course lays open the blemishes of her birth. The annals of the universe have been overlooked, to make a singular case of what has been almost a general practice in the world.

The Roman Emperors often raised so favour and eminence women of more obscure birth than mine: but, without going so far backward, the history of our own Kings abounds with such instances. Though the widow of Scarron the poet rose a step higher than I, she was not born to such exaltation. It is true her father was a gentleman; but all women, not born Princesses, are at a like distance from the throne.

A multitude of injurious reports have been propagated concerning my parents. A wretched anonymous writer has gone even farther, by publishing a scandalous book with the title of the history of my life. The Count D’Affry wrote to me from Holland, that this production was of the growth of Great-Britain. The English seem to make it their particular business to throw dirt at persons of distinguished rank at the court of France: that government is said to claim such a privilege, in order to keep up the hatred between the two nations.

Though my birth had nothing great in it, my education was not neglected. I was taught dancing, music, and the rules of elocution, by excellent masters; and those little talents have proved of the highest use to me. I also read a great deal, and a favourite writer of mine was one Madame de Villedieu. Her picture of the Roman empire entertained me exceedingly. I even felt a very lively joy in observing that the greatest revolutions in the world have been owing to love.

After bestowing on me all the accomplishments which advantageously distinguish a young person of my sex, I was married to one whom I did not love; and a misfortune still greater was, that he loved me. This I call a misfortune, and indeed I know not a greater on earth; for a woman not beloved by a man, whom she likewise has married without any affection, at least comforts herself in his indifference.

During the first years of my marriage, the King’s gallantries were much talked of at Paris: his fleeting amours opened a field for all women, who had beauty enough to put in for his heart.

The post of mistress to Lewis XV. was often vacant. At Versailles all the passions had an appearance of debauchery. In that airy region love was soon exhausted, as consisting wholly in fruition. Nothing of delicacy was to be seen at court; the whole scene of sensibility was in the Prince’s bed. This Monarch often laid down with a heart full of love, and the next morning rose with as much indifference.

This account made me shudder; for I own I had then formed a design of winning the heart of that Prince. I was afraid that he was so used to change, as to be past all constancy.

I even, then, blushed at the thought of giving myself up to an inclination of no farther consequence than a momentary gratification of the senses; but was fixed on my design.

I had often seen the King at Versailles, without being perceived by him; our looks had never met; my eyes had a great deal to say, but had no opportunity of explaining my desires. At length I had an interview with the Monarch, and, for the first time, talked with him in private. There is no expressing what passed in me at this first conversation; fear, hope, and admiration, successively agitated my soul. The King soon dispelled my confusion; for Lewis XV. is certainly the most affable Prince in his court, if not in the whole world. In private discourse his rank lays no restraint, and all ideas of the throne are suspended; an air of candour and goodness diffuses itself through every part of his behaviour; in short, he can forget that he is a King, to be the more a gentleman.

Our conversation was to me all charming: I pleased and was pleased. The King has since owned to me, that he loved me from that first interview. It was there agreed that we should see one another privately at Versailles: he was very much for my immediately coming to an apartment in the palace: he even insisted on it; but I begged he would give me leave to remain still incognito for some time; and the King, being the most polite man in France, yielded to my request. On my return to Paris, a thousand fresh emotions rose in my breast. A strange thing is the human heart! we feel the effects of those passions of which we know not the cause. I am still at a loss whether I loved the King from this first meeting: that it gave me infinite pleasure, I know; but pleasure is not always a consequence of love. We are susceptible of a multitude of other passions, which may produce the like effect.

I experienced a thousand delights in our secret intercourse: little do I wonder that Madame de la Valiere, in the infancy of her amours with Lewis XIV. was so transported with the sole enjoyment of that Monarch’s affection: but at length, the King requiring that I should live at Versailles, I complied with his desire.

Now was my first appearance at court. Very faint and imperfect are the descriptions which books give of this grand theatre. I thought myself amidst another species of mortals: I observed that their manners and usages are not the same; and that in regard to dress, deportment, and language, the inhabitants of Versailles are entirely different from those of Paris. Every courtier, besides his personal character, frames to himself another, under which he acts his several parts. In town, virtue and vice are streightened; here both range at large. The passions are the stronger, as they happen to be at the source of the means of gratifying them. Private interest, from whence they derive all their activity, is there in its centre. The Prince’s favour gives life and motion to the courtier’s soul: without a beam from the throne, it is all a horrid gloom.

To appear with dignity on this theatre, where I was an utter stranger, I saw that it behoved me to make it my first care to examine into the temper of those actors who played the capital parts.

Of his Majesty I knew nothing, but by common report; and that, when it relates to a reigning Prince, is generally wrong; either flattery attributing too many virtues to him, or malevolence charging him with too many vices.

Lewis XV. is endowed with great natural parts, a surprising quickness of apprehension, and solidity of judgment. He, at once, discerns the springs which give motion to the most complicated affairs of politics: he knows all the weaknesses of the general system, and the faults of each particular administration. This Prince has a noble and exalted soul: the blood of the legislator, the hero, and the warrior, runs in his veins; but a narrow education has stifled the effect of these advantages. Cardinal Fleury, having not one great principle in himself, trained this Prince to nothing but trifles: yet this unequal education did not extinguish in him the most amiable qualities which can adorn a Sovereign. It is impossible to exceed the goodness of Lewis XV’s heart: he is humane, mild, affable, compassionate, just, delighting in good, a declared enemy to every thing which does not bear the stamp of honour and probity, &c. &c.

Singular likewise are the virtues of the Queen: she has laid all domestic hardships at the foot of the cross; so far from lamenting a fate, which would have embittered the whole life of another Princess, she considers it as a particular favour of Heaven, from a persuasion that Providence is pleased to try her firmness in this life, in order to confer the greater reward on her in the next. None of those fretful words which speak a rankled heart ever came from her: she dwells with pleasure on the King’s eminent qualities, and draws a veil over his weaknesses: she never speaks of him but with a sensible respect and veneration: it is impossible for any lady to carry Christian perfection to a higher degree, and to concenter so many qualities in a rank, where the least defects efface the greatest virtues.

The Dauphin, being at that time very young, did not in the least concern himself in public affairs. The King had ordered him not to interfere in politics, and he seemed sufficiently inclined to conform to such injunctions.

The young Princesses kept pretty much in their apartments, and read a great deal. Sometimes, indeed, they went a-hunting, dined with the King in public, shewed themselves at the balls; then withdrew, without much minding the intrigues of the court.

The Duke of Orleans, though first Prince of the blood, seldom came to Versailles: he had given into devotion, and spent his life in deeds of charity.

The Prince of Conti was at that time in the field, and wholly taken up with military glory.

Condé was very young, and his uncle Charolois sunk in the most debauched intemperance.

The other Princes of the royal blood had little or no share in public affairs; accordingly they never came to Versailles, but to be present at a great council, or at the King’s levee.

Cardinal Tencin bore a great sway at court; the King confided in him very much; so that they often used to be busy together. The most weighty concerns of the crown were put into this ecclesiastic’s hands. Many extolled him as a great minister; but as I scarce knew the man, I shall say nothing of him: yet, when I think how much France has suffered by Richelieu, Mazarin, and Fleury, I own I do not like to see people of that class at the head of affairs.

The Count de Maurpas excelled all the ministers of that time in genius, activity, and penetration: he was of as long a standing in the ministry as Lewis XV. in the sovereignty. To him the kingdom is indebted for several noble institutions. It was he who re-established the navy, which, after the death of Lewis XIV. had been most shamefully neglected. I have been told that the Levant trade was entirely his work. He was indefatigable in his department; and his dispatches were surprisingly accurate. I have seen many of his letters; and think it is scarce possible to comprize so many things in so few words.

The d’Argensons, who had been introduced lately into the ministry, had as yet no settled character: they were said not to want either genius or probity; but that is not always sufficient for a proper discharge of such a post. I have heard that many qualifications are requisite; and that, if the least of them be wanting, there is no making any figure in the ministry.

The Count de St. Florentin, who managed ecclesiastical matters, was little considered either at court or in town. He kept himself neuter amidst the intrigues of Versailles, minding only the business of his own department. As no great genius is required to issue letters de cachet, and banish priests, he filled his post with all the dignity of a minister whose only business is to sign.

Orry, the Comptroller-general, was looked upon as a man of abilities, from his talent at scheming pecuniary edicts. Within some months after I had been settled at Versailles, he laid before the King no less than twenty-five, and these were to bring in two hundred millions. He was called the Grand Financier, from his finding resources for the King, by impairing those of the state.

The Prince de Soubise was a man of parts and discernment. He knew a great deal; but his friends could have wished that he had not embarked in war. The soldiery had no opinion of him: perhaps in this they were wrong; yet a great man, who would be useful to his country, must give way to public prejudice.

Marshal Noailles had still greater abilities; so that it may be questioned whether ever any one statesman or general possessed so extensive a knowlege. The forming of him was an effort of nature. There is not a science relating to political, civil, and military government, with which he was not intimately acquainted; but the exertion of these qualities was limited to the cabinet. His timidity and irresolution, in a day of action, benumbed his faculties, otherwise so excellent: his genius was certainly vast and extensive; and I question whether Europe had his equal in council.

Marshal Belleisle was then in high reputation: the court and town were full of his praise. There was not in all France a man who had been at more pains to acquire a superficial knowlege of useless things: he pretended to be acquainted with every subject, and he had the art of making others believe so; hence it was not in the least suspected that he understood the art of war as little as that of negotiation: his manners were mild and engaging, and he had an agreeable fluency of speech; but he was so conceited of his knowlege, that although he affected a certain degree of modesty, still his deportment was sure to betray his pride: in short, I never knew a vainer creature.

The Chevalier Belleisle did not affect to have so much understanding as his brother, which shewed him to have the more; but he had all the excessive ambition of the Marshal, and lost his life in attempting to force an intrenchment, the success of which would have raised him to the same rank.

The Duke de Richelieu was still more idolized than Marshal Belleisle. The King could not be without him. He was sure to be one at the private suppers, and he superintended all the diversions of Versailles. Never was any man like him for striking out a party of pleasure, and enlivening it by little incidents. He made it his business to divert the King, and was very alert in seizing every opportunity conducive to that end: but it was not for the King’s sake that he gave himself all that trouble: his motive of acting was his own aggrandizement; for he is insatiably greedy of rank and distinctions. Though of no genius for war, he had the ambition of being created a Marshal of France; and without any political talents, he was for thrusting himself into the ministry.

Maurice of Saxony was the hero of France: he was esteemed the kingdom’s guardian angel. I shall speak of him when I come to treat of the battle of Fontenoy.

Monsieur d’Estrées had the reputation of an able general: I shall make farther mention of him in the sequel.

The greater part of the other courtiers were subordinate officers: they used to come from the army to Versailles, and then go back from Versailles to the army; all their business at court being about preferments. These were the Dukes of Grammont, Piquigny, Biron, la Valiere, Boufflers, Luxembourg; the Marquisses of Putange, Maubourg, Bregè, Langeron, Armentieres, Creil, Renepont; the Counts Coigny, la Mothe-Houdancourt, Clermont, Estrées, Berenger; Messieurs d’Aumont, Meuse, Ayou, Cibert, Chersey, Buckley, Segur, Fenelon, St. André, Varennes, Montal, Balincourt, la Fare, Clermont-Tonnerre, with many more who were for raising themselves by the sword.

There was, at that time, scarce a woman at court who aspired at the King’s affections. Those of a distinguished rank disdained to be the objects of a transient love; and others, who courted that situation, had neither beauty nor graces sufficient to obtain it; so that it was only Parisian Ladies who entered into any of these intrigues: several were sure to place themselves in sight whenever the King dined in public; and always attended him to the chace: in short, they were ever dangling after his Majesty, which was just the very way to come short of their aim.

My thoughts were employed to secure myself in the station to which fortune had raised me. The King was with me as often as the affairs of the crown would allow; leaving all grandeur behind him, and coming into my apartment without any thing of that state which attends on him at other places: for my part, I closely studied his temper.

Lewis XV. is naturally of a saturnine turn: his soul is shrouded in a thick gloom; so that, with every pleasure at command, he may be said to be unhappy. Sometimes his melancholy throws him into such a languor that nothing affects him, and then he is quite insensible to all entertainment and pleasure. In these intervals, life becomes an insupportable burden to him. The enjoyment of a beautiful woman for a while diverts his uneasiness; but so far is it from being a lasting relief, that his melancholy afterwards returns upon him with redoubled weight.

Another misfortune in this Prince’s life is, the continual conflict between his devotion and his passions; pleasure drawing him on, and remorse with-holding him: under this incessant struggle, he is one of the most unhappy men in his kingdom.

I perceived that the King’s disposition was not to be changed by love only: this put me on engaging him by the charms of conversation; which has a stronger influence with men than the passions themselves. Of this, history furnished me with an instance in the person of his great grandfather. Lewis XIV. had so habituated himself to Madame de Maintenon, that no other woman could make any impression on him; and, tho’ the court at that time was full of celebrated beauties, Scarron’s widow, at an age when female influence over man is generally on the decline, found means so strongly to fix his affection, that her death only put an end to the charm.

I planned a series of diversions, which, following close on one another, got the better of the King’s constitution, and diverted him from himself. I brought him to like music, dancing, plays, and little operas, in which I myself used to perform; and private suppers terminated the festivity. Thus the King lay down and rose in perfect satisfaction and good humour. The next day, unless detained on some great council, or other extraordinary ceremony, he would hasten to my apartment, to take, if I may presume to use the expression, his dose of good humour for the whole day. He grew fond of me from that instinct which makes us love what contributes to our happiness. All the favourites before me had thought only of making themselves loved by the King: it had not come into their heads to divert him.

Thus I became necessary to his Majesty; his attachment grew stronger every day. I could have wished that our union had rested on love only; but with a Prince accustomed to change, we must do as well as we can.

After the first moments of surprize, which naturally arises in our minds upon any great change, I, in my turn, gave myself up to uneasy reflections. Amidst all the King’s affection, I feared the return of his inconstancy. I could lay but little stress on my elevation; all bow the knee to the idol whilst the Prince worships it; but on his over-throwing the altar, it is trampled under foot. Some days after I thought I had more reason than ever to fear; for the King, coming to sup with me, seemed more thoughtful than usual. Instead of that gaiety which began to be natural to him, his countenance was quite clouded: all his talk was about politics, the affairs of Europe, and dispatching a courier to the army; thus, after a short conversation, he withdrew. This abruptness filled me with alarms: I had not a wink of sleep; and next morning I sent him an account of my condition in the following note:

“Sire,

“Your politics have quite broke my heart. I was going to say a thousand pleasant things to you, had not your dispatches interrupted me. I have not closed my eyes during the whole night; for God’s sake, Sire, leave Europe to itself, and allow me to lay open to you the state of my heart, which is on the rack when you deprive me of any opportunity of telling you that I love you with an affection, the end of which will be that of my life.”

The King having read my letter, came in person to my apartment to make me easy; and he was now more gay than usual. I think I never saw him in a better temper. He had already given me some insight into the great events at that time on the carpet, and I was for diving into the truth of these abstruse mysteries; but not a word did I then understand in politics. I have heard that the English ladies have every morning ready laid on their toilet a paper giving them an account of the affairs of Europe, whereas all that we French women find there is our paint-boxes.

I applied to Marshal Belleisle. “My Lord, be so kind as to instruct me in what you call politics, which every body here is continually talking of.” He answered me smiling, “I cannot bring myself, Madam, to instruct you in a science which will prove destructive to many.” Yet the veteran courtier talked to me of systems, and enlarged upon the methods to be used by a state for its aggrandisement.

After listening to him for some time, I concluded, though a novice at court, that this science is not reducible to principles nor general rules, as totally depending on time, place, and circumstances, and these almost ever arising from chance.

In order to get a knowlege of the preceding administrations, I set myself to read the history of our government; but it was not in books that I sought for this knowledge, having always looked on them as the source of public errors. I consulted original manuscripts, which were put into my hands by the King himself. Here I saw all the former mistakes, and the original causes of them.

As it was known both at Paris and Versailles that Lewis XV. was unsettled in his amours, his favourites had no very regular court. It often fell out that a lady whom the King had distinguished, lay down in high favour, and rose in disgrace: for vacant employments and temporary grants the favourites were practised on; but for the great purposes of ambition other springs than mistresses were set to work.

In the first months of my favour scarce any body came near me. The Duke de Richelieu was the only nobleman who visited me in the King’s absence; but when, by the Monarch’s order, I made my appearance as Marchioness de Pompadour, and his Majesty was continually giving me marks of his esteem, the face of things changed. Envy and ambition formed two numerous parties. The former blackened me with the most virulent malice; and the latter as much exceeded in the most fulsome adulation. The motive in one was hope of preferment, the other acted from a despair of ever being preferred: both, however, joined in asking favours of me.

I used my interest with the King in behalf of both. If I raised a person to a considerable post, or procured him a large pension, I surely drew on myself a hundred enemies, besides his ingratitude. At length all the kingdom came to pay their court to me; for the royal favour continued to shine on me as bright as ever. They who had been the most forward in reviling my birth, now claimed kindred with me. I shall never forget a letter I received at Versailles from a gentleman of one of the most ancient families in Provence, in the following terms:

“Dear Cousin,

“I did not know that I was related to you till now that the King has created you Marchioness de Pompadour: a learned genealogist has demonstrated to me, that your great-grandfather was fourth cousin to my grandfather; so you see, dear cousin, our alliance is indisputable. If you desire it, I’ll send you our pedigree, that you may shew it to the King.

“In the mean time, my son, your cousin, who has served with distinction several years, wants a regiment; and as he cannot hope to obtain it by his rank, be so good as to ask the favour from the King.”

I sent him the following answer:

Sir,

“I shall lay hold of the very first opportunity to desire his Majesty to give your son a regiment. But I likewise have a favour to ask of you, which is to dispense me from the honour of being related to you. I have some family reasons which forbid me to think, that my forefathers have ever been allied to any of the ancient houses of this kingdom.”

Half France would hide themselves for shame, were I to give a detail of all the mean, fawning letters sent to me by persons of the first families in the kingdom. A Princess could write to me in this manner:

“My dear Friend,

“I beg you would ask the King for a grant of farmer-general for Mr. Armand M——, a superannuated clerk, whose fortune I would gladly make. For this favour I shall hold myself obliged to you as long as I live.

I am, my dear,
With all possible regard,
Your most humble servant.”

The public envy, however, increasing with the marks of royal favour, the world, at any rate, would make me answerable for the events of the times. It has been in every body’s mouth, that all the misfortunes of France were owing to me. If there were any grounds for such a charge, the kingdom must have been in a prosperous and flourishing state when his Majesty called me to Versailles; whereas it was very far from being so. The cause of the evil lay deep; so that France, under all its pressures, was only fulfilling its destiny. The misfortunes of the administration in this reign are to be considered as flowing from the former administration.

At the time of the demise of Lewis XIV. the kingdom was in a dreadful disorder; the debts of the nation were immense, and the public credit totally ruined; so that the state then laboured under an evil, which was not to be cured by temporary remedies. Lewis the Great, by his excessive fondness for splendor, had impoverished the people. The preceding Kings were contented with being the stewards or managers of the general wealth, but he made himself the proprietor of it: he became master of the nation’s treasure, all the finances were in his hands: he had augmented the crown revenues beyond all relative proportion: in the course of three years the whole species of France came into his coffers: besides, his magnificence had set his subjects the pernicious example of impoverishing themselves by profuse expences.

The duke of Orleans, who was at the head of the state after Lewis XIV. so far from restoring order, increased the confusion. He promoted a system of finances, which proved their utter ruin. All the riches of the monarchy changed hands. No such thing as money was to be seen; foreigners ran away with one part, and domestic stock-jobbers secreted the other; no plan of administration could be contrived, capable of putting a stop to evils, unprecedented from the very foundation of the monarchy. This revolution greatly affected the several branches of the national strength. Agriculture, trade, arts, and ingenuity, were sufferers by it, and still suffer: for I have heard very knowing persons say, that the grand system had given birth to many detrimental systems in the state.

Cardinal Fleury succeeded him; and things went still worse: he alone did more harm to France than all those before him, who had like to have ruined this realm. His particular qualities were order, oeconomy, and moderation; virtues excellent in a private person, but in a statesman often very great vices. All his view was, to fill the treasury, fancying that if the King were but rich, the state would no longer be poor. Thus he went on increasing the opulence of the crown, from the people’s subsistence. Intent upon saving, he let the navy run to ruin, that is, he deprived France of the only way left for retrieving itself.

Fleury died; but this produced no amendment in the administration. France had not a minister capable of setting things to rights. They who were put at the head of affairs, were very busy, but without any knowledge. I have been told by a very experienced person, who used to come and see me at Versailles, that if at the Cardinal’s death the ministry had been put into the hands of an angel, he could not have done the crown much good. He added, that all the most able minister could do, was to prepare materials for a better administration. The government, said he, has six capital imperfections, and these are not to be amended, but by casting the constitution in a new mould.

Another outcry was my being the source of favours, and that I disposed of every thing in the kingdom; with this addition, that I had brought the King to such a custom of visiting me, as had made it a kind of law to him, never to refuse me any thing. To this I answer, that it is an evil both necessary and natural to absolute government. Sovereigns must either have a confident or a mistress; and of the two the state generally suffers most by the former. Men in general have ambitious views, which a women does not trouble herself about. The confident studies to avail himself of the prince’s favour in all the means of raising himself to the highest fortune; he gets the sole management of the public finances; he engrosses the most lucrative posts, and distributes among his relations and creatures, those which he does not take for himself: the consequence of this is a general revolution in the government. In short, he has schemes of grandeur and elevation quite foreign to our sex.

I have read in the annals of our monarchy that Richelieu’s ambition brought a thousand mischiefs on France: that favourite of Lewis XIII. sacrificed every thing to a giddy desire of appearing to be the only person of consequence in the kingdom. He cut the very sinews of the political power of all other bodies. He annulled the privileges of the nobility, which alone could make any stand against the despotism of our Kings; and therein he did more harm to France, than ever it has to fear from any mistresses.

Mazarine, the second favourite, had an army in pay, and personally made war on the state. He imprisoned the princes of the blood, and raised such animosities and disturbances as in a manner subverted all government. He got the public treasure into his possession; almost all the money of the kingdom was in his coffers. He used to sell the principal state employments: when the King wanted money he was obliged to apply to him. And our times have seen Count Bruhl, the King of Poland’s favourite exceed his master, in extravagance.

There are, at this time, several Dukes in the kingdom[1] who give France cause to remember that its Kings have had favourites; whereas what great fortune, what titles or distinctions has my brother Marigni? Die when he will, he will leave no monuments of the particular favour with which Lewis the XVth honoured me.

I have been likewise accused of introducing into the ministry persons of no turn for business, ignorant, shallow, and superficial fellows: but where shall I find any other in France? The human mind seems to have been degenerated among us.

The French nobility, though most concerned in the public administration, give no attention to business; their life is a round of indolence, luxury, and dissipation. They know as little of politics as of finances and œconomy. A gentleman either spends his life at his seat in rural sports, or comes to Paris to ruin himself with an opera girl. They who have an ambition to figure in the ministry, have no other merit than intrigue and cabal. If they are traversed in their views, or afterwards superseded, such measure is with them an effect of the prince’s prejudice.

The age of able ministers in France seems past. After all my inquiries for a Colbert and Louvois, I could only meet with Chamillards and Dubois’s; so that I was forced to commit all the branches of government to financiers by profession; a set of people void of capacity, and only skilful in one thing, which is pillaging the state.

My enemies have farther affirmed, that I put the King on too frequent a change of his ministers; but that is an invention, which, in no wise, belongs to me. Before ever I knew the court, placemen were not more settled in their posts than since. Every day saw such creations and institutions; and this, perhaps, may still be a necessary evil in France. Before those gentlemen are in place, nothing can come up to their plan of government; they have effectual ways and means for reforming every thing that is amiss; they know the seat of the disease, and what will remove it: but no sooner have they got the reins of government in their hands than their incapacity throws every thing into confusion. On the public misfortunes they scarce bestow a thought; all they mind is their own personal interest. The ambition of being prime minister soon gets footing in them; and its continual agitation leaves no room in their mind for any attention to the kingdom. Ten years of administration in France make a minister so absolute, that he grows a mere Pacha; any intimation of his is a peremptory order: the Grand Signior is not more despotic at Constantinople than a French Secretary of State, after spending ten years at Versailles.

It is the same with military affairs: however brave and courageous the French nobility may be, they have little or no genius for war: the hardship of a campaign immediately puts them out of conceit. France has no military school[2]. A young nobleman is made a Colonel before he is an officer, and then steps into the general command, without any experience. If two Frenchmen are appointed to command the armies in Flanders or Germany, immediately the spirit of envy kindles among them, and they will gratify their private piques and quarrels, whatever becomes of the state. In the mean time, the enemies profit by these divisions, and forward their schemes. In the late war, the King was obliged to commit the safety of his crown to two foreigners: had it not been for the Counts Saxe and Lowendahl, the enemies of France might have been at the gates of Paris.

It is a mistake to think that a woman, who is in distinguished favour with a Prince, stands in need of weak ministers and bad generals to support her: incapacity spoils all and answers no purpose. Political mistakes, at the same time that they throw a shade on the Prince’s glory, utterly efface the lustre of his favourite. I can truly say, that most of the vexations I have gone through, since my residence at court, proceeded from hence. On every advantage gained by our enemies the king used to be melancholy and full of thought; and though this Prince be extremely polite, and not one disobliging word came from his mouth, yet his discomposure, at that time, embittered every other enjoyment of my life.

I never made a minister, I never advised the King to confer the command of an army on any person, of whose abilities I was not certainly convinced, and whose merit was not universally confessed. The great used to compliment me on it, and the King himself congratulated me on my good judgment of men; their fitness was proclaimed by the universal voice.

I must here mention the troubles the court laboured under, when the King gave me an apartment at Versailles; the occurrences of those times belonging to the plan of these Memoirs. Without that crowd of incidents which then fell out, and which the King used to communicate to me, my favour perhaps had never risen to such a height; for the events of this world are always directed by second causes.

Ever since the year 1741, France had continued to wage war in Italy, in Flanders, and in Germany. Charles the VIth, the last male descendant of the house of Austria by the male side, had an ambition, which was not to be limited even by death; he was for surviving himself, and transmitting his power beyond the grave.

This Prince, after acquiring a very large extent of dominions, had procured them to be guarantied by the chief powers of Christendom. The small military force at that time on foot in Europe, had induced the Christian Princes, to such a weak compliance. Italy was quite spent; all the petty governments of the empire were under a political slavery; and the great houses of the North were little better. On the decease of that Prince all began to breathe, and every one claimed their respective right.

The Elector of Bavaria demanded a part of the succession; Augustus King of Poland set forth his pretensions; the King of Spain likewise put in for a share: and, what is more, there appeared two pragmatic fanctions; one giving the Austrian dominions to the Archduchess, spouse to the Polish Prince; and the other securing them to Maria Theresa, Charles’s eldest daughter. Such a contrariety of interests must of course give rise to a general war; but it began from a quarter which policy would never have apprehended.

The King of Prussia, almost the only Prince in Europe who had no pretensions to the Austrian succession, yet made his demands, and, instead of manifestoes, asserted them by the sword. His troops invaded the very best province of all the Queen of Hungary’s dominions, and made themselves masters of it. The crown was of no long standing in the Brandenburgh family: it had first obtained the title of Majesty from the Emperor Leopold; and this honour had little added to its real greatness. The King of Prussia was of little account among the European potentates; and what claims he had to any of the Austrian effects were merely on a private account; and turns on the restitution of some duchies, which his family had been possessed of by right of purchase; yet he invades Silesia as a sovereign.

I have heard that Maria Theresa was on the brink of ruin, when her very enemies saved her. The Hungarians, who for ages past had been endeavouring to overthrow that family, now, one and all, vigorously rose in her defence.

The Duke of Belleisle told me, that this change in the political world was wrought by that Princess’s haranguing them in Latin; “a great change, indeed (added he), for had the Hungarians abandoned that princess, very probably we should have heard no more of the house of Austria.”

Lewis XV. joined with the King of Prussia to place the Elector of Bavaria on the Imperial throne; besides the diversion occasioned in the North by the election, the King said, that the house of Bourbon was now discharging an old debt with Bavaria.

Were gratitude of any weight in the conduct of Sovereigns, France might indeed be thought to have taken arms in return for its obligations to the Electors of Bavaria, who have ever been firm allies to this crown, and had sustained very considerable losses in its cause.

The house of Bourbon joined with that of Brandenburgh to weaken the succession of Charles VI; besides, the exaltation of a Prince of the house of Bavaria to the Imperial throne secured to France an ascendancy in Germany.

It has been reported that the King of Prussia, at first, offered Maria Theresa money and troops to maintain her right against the other powers, on condition of her ceding Lower Silesia to him. Had she agreed to this, the affairs of Europe would have taken a different turn. But, from what I have perceived since my living at Versailles, Princes often make a tender of what they have no mind to give. This the Marshal de Noailles called political compliments.

Frederick had a sure game of it; and it is seldom that Princes ask of others what they can get by themselves. The house of Austria was not able to make head against his invasion of Silesia; nothing was in readiness for preventing it; therefore France in a manner could do no otherwise than declare for the Prussian Monarch. Accordingly the treaty was made; and to give it the greater weight the King of Poland was made a party; he then little thought that this same Frederic would one day invade his dominions.

This confederacy was the basis of several others: the Palatinate, Spain, and Italy came into the plan; Spain wanted to procure Parma, Placentia, and the Milaneze, for Don Philip.

All the negociations in Germany were committed to the Marshal Belleisle. The poor Elector of Bavaria, who was to be made Emperor, had not wherewith to raise six regiments; so that, in the war which we were now undertaking for his sake, every thing was to be furnished him. France as it were armed him from head to foot; and made him her Lieutenant General in Germany: and thus the successor of the Cæsars became a subaltern officer of the house of Bourbon: however, in consequence of his title, an army was sent for him to command.

Whilst one party was forming to overthrow the house of Austria, another was gathering to prevent its fall. Holland and England, whose common interest it was that there should be a power in Germany able to cope with Versailles, were already making preparations for a German war; but hitherto the house of Austria received only pecuniary aids.

Prague was taken, and the Elector of Bavaria proclaimed King of Bohemia, and soon after Emperor. This last title he first received from Marshal Belleisle: thus a subject of the King of France disposes of a throne, which anciently, had disposed of all the empires of the world.

This Marshal has since said to me, that the court of Versailles overshot itself, and that the war had been begun where it should have ended. The armies of the King of France and the Elector of Bavaria, together with the Saxon troops, were not sufficient for keeping the countries which it was necessary to reduce.

The victors advanced without ever looking behind them, till Marshal Belleisle, foreseeing that these victories would soon occasion defeats, thought it proper to be indisposed, and ask leave to retire. Marshal Brogolio was dispatched to him, and on taking a view of things, soon saw into the cause of Belleisle’s indisposition. Six years after, these two Generals being in my apartment, the latter said to the other concerning this affair, faith, Marshal, you played me a scurvy trick there.

The Hungarians made good all losses of men; and I have been since told by connoisseurs in military affairs, that of infantry we sent a sufficiency, but had forgot cavalry, which, in Germany, is the more necessary body.

The King of Prussia’s drift was to profit by the disadvantages of his allies: he had made conquests, which he carefully kept to himself, regardless of the losses of his allies; but he still wanted a decisive victory to make himself dreaded by the house of Austria, with whom he was already disposed to come to terms. He fought the battle of Czaslaw, which terminating in a complete victory on his side, he remained inactive, and soon after struck up a peace with Maria Theresa.

Every thing now went against France; her troops were driven from their posts, her convoys intercepted, her magazines seized, and the far greater part of the army perished by sickness.

Then it was that the French Generals discovered the Prussian Monarch’s temper. Marshal Belleisle has often told me, that he had seen into his way of thinking; but judged that the progress of the French arms in Germany would force him to be faithful to the alliance. So true is this, added he, that on the first rumour of our misfortunes, I said to M. de Broglio, the King of Prussia now will shift sides.

One of the articles of the treaty was, to renounce his alliance with the house of Bourbon; and thus the French troops were sacrificed.

For that, said a very knowing man to me, not long since, we may thank the council of Versailles, which, instead of such a body of troops as would have been equal to any undertaking, had only sent small armies, whose sickness ruined them as fast as they came.

The Emperor, being but ill assisted by France, was flying before his enemies; he had quitted his capital, and was at a loss where to shelter himself. His destiny seemed the more melancholy, as he was on the point of being tumbled down from the highest pitch of human exaltation.

Of all his mortifications the most severe certainly was his being forced to become a suppliant to his capital enemy, the Queen of Hungary. He made her an offer to limit his ambition to the imperial crown, and desist from all his claims to the Austrian succession.

But things now went so well with Maria Theresa, that, instead of a moderate answer to these proposals, she very nearly called him rebel, and driving him out of Bavaria, signified to him that the only safe shelter for him in Germany was the territory of the empire.

England’s hands were tyed; Maillebois, at the head of a large body of troops, had obliged George II. to sign a treaty of neutrality, and the Dutch were unable and as little disposed to interfere in the affairs of Germany.

Robert Walpole, then the ruling minister in Great Britain, was all for peace, as understanding nothing of war. Every minister in Europe, (as a man of great wit, who often came to me at Versailles, pointed out to me) has his peculiar talents, according to which he gives the bias to public affairs. Walpole’s system was that the power of Great Britain lay in trade, and that such a nation is to keep clear of sieges and battles.

The king shewed me several of that minister’s letters to Cardinal Fleury. In one he says,

“I engage to keep the parliament to a peaceable disposition, if you will bridle the martial ardour of your people; for a minister in England cannot do every thing,” &c. &c.

In another,

“I have a deal of difficulty to keep our people from coming to blows; not that they are bent on war, but because I am for preserving peace; for our English politicians must be ever skirmishing, either in the field or at Westminster.”

In a third letter he expresses himself thus:

“I pension half the parliament to keep it quiet; but as the King’s money is not sufficient, and they to whom I give none, clamour loudly for a war, it would be expedient for your Eminence to remit me three millions of French livres, in order to silence these barkers. Gold is a metal which here corrects all qualities in the blood. A pension of two thousand pounds a year will make the most impetuous warrior in parliament as tame as a lamb. In short, should England break out, you will, besides the uncertainty of events in war, be under the necessity of paying larger subsidies to foreign powers, to be on an equality with us; whereas, by furnishing me with a little money, you purchase peace at the first hand.” &c. &c.

But Walpole having been obliged to quit the ministry, Great Britain sided with the house of Austria. She was already at war with Spain. The English sent a large army into Flanders, before ever the court of Versailles had thought of garrisoning its strong places, so that the way lay open for them into France; and why they did not enter it, will ever remain a secret. A British minister has since told me, that there were at that time too many malecontents in the army; and that the invasion of France was omitted, purely in spight to a party, who had ever maintained, that the only way to restore the balance of Germany, was to penetrate beyond Flanders. Thus, added the minister by way of reflection, our government which is looked on as one of the best modeled in Europe, is sacrificed to private passions.

Prague, that city on which France had founded all its hopes, began to be despaired of; and from thence it was that, some time after, Belleisle made that fine retreat, with which, every day of his life afterwards I was sure to be entertained; for the old man was very vain. He used to say, it was the finest military performance the age had seen.

All Europe was in a ferment. Italy had taken arms to defend a liberty which it no longer enjoyed. I have been told that the Pope himself entered into treaties tending to continue and spread the war.

The balance of Europe seems to have been the point in question; but all states aimed at giving France some underhand wounds.

Cardinal Fleury, though he had avoided war, had not studied peace so much as he ought. He had, for some years past, perfectly doated through length of age, and his sticklers took his reveries for so many refined strokes of policy.

Some people in France have greatly cried up his order and œconomy, whereas they were nothing more than the effects of his niggardliness; for so penurious was he, that he never could prevail on himself to furnish his house. All the affairs of France savoured of avarice and parsimony.

On his death, the King became his own master; for till then Lewis had been in reality only the second person in the state: but he made not the least alteration in the tenour of affairs. The same faults went on; so that a judicious person who, at that time, had a place at court, told me lately, that things looked as if the Cardinal had been living after his death, small armies being sent into Germany, by way of œconomy; which all perished like the former. The Dutch, after many prayers and threats, had declared themselves.

I have been told by a person who has made it his business to observe the policy of every nation, that the Dutch have two maxims from which they never depart, the first is, whatever wars arise between the great powers, to be always neuter, that they may engross the whole commerce of Europe. The second is, to watch the moment of France’s being over-powered by its enemies, and then declare against it. It was unquestionably in consequence of the latter, that they joined their troops to those of England, and took the field. This last alliance was offensive and defensive, and all Europe found itself in a state of war.

Germany, Holland, Flanders, Piedmont, and every part of Italy, swarmed with soldiers. The Count d’Argenson calculated that Europe had then nine hundred thousand men on foot, ready to cut each others throats, without any known reason. Particularly France was ruining its finances, and losing the flower of its people, to no manner of purpose; for, after all, said an able politician to me one day, on this head, what was an Elector of Bavaria’s being Emperor of Germany to us; or Don Philip being Duke of Parma? I shall never forget what I read in Voltaire concerning this: It was, says he, a game that Princes were playing all over Europe, hazarding, pretty equally, their people’s blood and treasure; and by a medley of fine actions, faults, and losses, keeping fortune a long time suspended. It must be observed that, amidst all this fighting, no war had been declared; the greater part of the troops slaughtered each other only as auxiliaries.

Charles VII. the cause of this general conflagration, had now neither subjects nor dominions left; he was not allowed so much as to bear the title of Emperor, the only honour remaining to him; and his election was declared all over Germany to be null and void; so that he saw himself reduced to accept of a neutrality in his own cause. This step alone ought to have put an end to the German war; but, by my own experience, I have since known, that princes do not make war from any connected system, but only as coinciding with the motions of second causes.

The large French armies were now withdrawn out of Germany; indeed most of the troops left there had been made prisoners of war. The Marshal de Noailles has several times said to me, that of all the political errors committed in Europe for these thousand years past, the German war was the greatest.

In reading the history of that time, it appeared to me, that of all the princes engaged in the war, Emanuel King of Sardinia was the only one who had any shadow of reason for it. France was for settling contiguous to his dominions, a prince of the house of Bourbon, whose settlement must have been highly inconvenient to him; accordingly, in order to exclude this dangerous neighbour, he struck in with the enemies of France. From the beginning of the war, this prince had assisted the house of Austria, and now entered into a treaty with it. England supplied him with money to defray the charges of the war: but the Queen of Hungary went farther, conferring on him a little state, which did not belong to her[3].

France, in 1744, declared war against England, and the house of Austria; and soon after this declaration, a great project was taken in hand: overtures were made to Prince Edward, the Pretender’s son, for recovering the throne of his ancestors.

He was a spirited, bold, courageous young man, quite tired of leading an indolent life at Rome, and impatient to signalize himself.

The house of Stuart is so unfortunate, that I question, whether it would be in the power of all Europe joined, to restore it to its antient rights. There seems something of a fatality annexed to that name.

France made all the preparatives in his favour, and gave him all the assistance which the posture of affairs could admit of; but the whole design miscarried. A long time after, I, one day, asked the King, whether it had been his real intention, to place the Pretender on the throne of Great Britain? his answer was, that neither he nor his council ever thought it practicable; that this restoration depended on a multitude of second causes, the course of which was no longer under any political direction. The Marshal de Noailles one day said to him in my hearing, Sir, if your Majesty would have had mass said in London, you should have sent an army of three hundred thousand men to officiate at it.

In the mean time, young Edward, eager of doing something to be talked of, put to sea, and had a distant view of the kingdom, the possession of which both fate and policy denied to him. A tempest disappointed his landing, and scattered his fleet; yet the ardent Pretender would, in spight of the wind, make his landing good, and fight alone against all England. Versailles had received the most particular assurances, that he had a very strong party at London, and it was on this plan that the expedition had been formed.

It is not very long since I happened to be at the Marshal Bellisle’s; as he was looking for some writings in his closet, he put a paper into my hand, saying, There, Madam, there is something for you to read; that letter has cost us a great many millions, which are gone to the bottom of the sea; it was directed to the court of France, by a party of Jacobites, as they are called in England. The words of it were these.

“The tabernacle is ready, the holy sacrament need but appear, and we will go and meet it with the cross. The procession will be numerous, but the people here being very hard of belief, soldiers and arms will be necessary; for it is only by powder and ball, that the system of transubstantiation can be made to go down in England. Depend on it, that we will do every thing to the utmost of our power; and we can before hand assure you, that the landing once made, our party will have nothing to do but to pronounce these words: ite, Missa est.”

In this letter were mentioned twenty-two persons, several of whom now hold a considerable rank in England. Sometime after, he showed me another, the tenor of which is this.

“Whatever people say, the expedition is not difficult: a landing may easily be made; every tiring favours the revolution; the advantages religion gives us, will be greatly strengthed by political motives. The Hanoverian is hated, he is continually oppressing the nation, aiming both at absolute power, and draining the peoples substance.”

The attempt on England failing, fresh efforts were made in Italy for settling Don Philip; but this the King of Sardinia, who has the key of the Alps, opposed; and the Prince of Conti engaged to make his way through them. This was in some measure warring against God, who has separated the two states by inaccessible mountains. I have had several times read to me in my apartment, the transactions of that Prince in those impracticable climates; the taking Chateau Dauphin, and his other successes amidst those rocks and precipices: and the Prince of Conti in this expedition appears to me greater than many heroes whose fame is high; but great men have not always justice done them.

Lewis XV. who never had seen an army, was now for putting himself at the head of his troops, and determined to make his first campaign in Flanders. On his arrival, Courtray surrendered; and soon after Menin followed its example. The King himself, to the great encouragement of the soldiery, used to be present at the works.

This first campaign of the King’s having been much talked of in France; on the peace, I asked his Majesty, whether he had found in himself a fixed inclination for war. He at first eluded answering me, and talked in general terms; but a year after, in one of those moments of confidence, when the heart lays itself open in the arms of friendship, he told me it would have been his reigning passion; and that, without the recent example of his great-grand-father, and Cardinal Fleury’s earnest councils to him, he should totally have given himself up to war; but that the affection due to his people had got the better of his passion. Happy government, when the Monarch sacrifices his propensions to the welfare of his subjects!

Lewis was obliged to quit his first conquests, and fly to the assistance of Alsace, Prince Charles having passed the Rhine to invade several of the French provinces; but upon the King’s approach at the head of his army, the prince repassed the Rhine.

All the advantages which France had gained in Flanders did not much improve its situation. The Queen of Hungary’s alliance with England, Holland, Sardinia, and Saxony was too great a counterpoize. The king of Prussia himself made a convention with Great Britain, but had not included in his agreement that the house of Austria should become so powerful. In treaties between Sovereigns, it is always understood, that the party in favour of whom a neutrality is observed, shall not increase his forces beyond a certain relative proportion: now the house of Brandenburgh has more to fear from that of Austria than from any other in Europe; so he kept himself a mere spectator of the war, whilst the losses of France and the emperor were inconsiderable; but on the queen’s making a rapid progress, he armed to stop her career. I have since frequently asked the Marshal de Noailles, one of the greatest politicians in France, why Sovereign Princes make no scruple to commit these breaches of faith, which in common life are reckoned intolerable vices? His constant answer was, that these infractions were necessary, and that Europe even owed its safety to them: were it not for such failures, the universal commonwealth would soon be made subject to one single prince; and this he might compass, only by once bringing the others to stand neuter.

The King of Prussia’s first step, after his new alliance with France, was, to march with a powerful army towards Prague. Whilst all France was rejoicing at Frederic’s successes, advice came that the King was taken ill at Metz, and the symptoms were grown very dangerous: this caused a general affliction; I remember every body was in tears. These cordial marks of affection are a higher praise, and express his character better than all the flattering strokes with which writers will disfigure his history. I have talked with many who were present at the death of Lewis XIV. and according to them, not a tear was shed in France. Nobody was afflicted with the news; and his death was quite forgot before he was buried; heroism being less esteemed than goodness; and Lewis XV. is the best Prince that ever sat on a throne.

The beloved Monarch recovered, and then the nation’s joy exceeded its former consternation. He laid siege to Friburg in Brisgau, and razed its fortifications, as he had demolished those of other places which had yielded to his arms: A policy, which, perhaps, may prevent many wars hereafter.

M. de Maurepas was saying one day to me on this head, that the Turks and Persians have scarce any fortified places, and that was the reason of their seldom making war on one another. I have since heard, that most of our wars in Europe were owing to this; that states confided too much in bastions and citadels, which hindered negociations from taking effect. If so, the famous Vauban, whose genius is so often extolled, must have done a great deal of mischief to France.

In the mean time, the King of Prussia, who, by arming in favour of France, had changed all the German systems, decamped from Prague; his army fled before that of Prince Charles, who, repassing the Rhine in the sight of the French, crossed the Elbe to attack the Prussians. I never could come at a certain knowledge of this Prince Charles, who directed most of the plans of this war; some speaking so very well of him, and others so very ill, that I have not been able to form any settled judgment of his character.

Marshal Noailles, who knows men, has told me that this Prince wanted neither talents nor genius, but that the goodness of his heart frustrated the qualities of his mind. Instead of having a will of his own, added he, he suffers himself to be directed by those about him; and these are not always the best head-pieces in the world. For instance, continued he, Prince Charles is now at Brussels as Governor of the Low Countries; but there is a German about him, who turns and winds him at his pleasure, and his pleasure is not always what should be.

The Austrian power, which had been weakened by the king of Prussia’s joining with France, now received an increase by an alliance with the Elector of Saxony, King of Poland. This Monarch changed measures for the same reason which had induced the King of Prussia to change.

All parties in these treaties deceived each other. France looked for mighty advantages from a diversion which the King of Prussia was making only for himself; and the King of Poland, who had engaged to furnish the Queen with thirty thousand men, had a part of Silesia given to him, which now did not belong to her.

Elevated with this alliance, and especially the assistance of England, the council at Vienna hoped not only to recover Silesia, but even to reduce French Flanders. They certainly did not consider that Lewis XV. had committed the security of it to one, who was most likely to give a good account of it to the kingdom: This was Count Maurice of Saxony.

Other officers owe their abilities to age, reflection, and experience, but he was born a General. His very enemies (and these at Versailles were not few) have done him this justice, that never man surpassed him for a quick and comprehensive penetration. He instantly discerned what other commanders discovered only by time and circumstances. Maurice not only foresaw events, but also produced them; so that he may in some measure be said to have determined fate. This general made war geometrically, never coming to a battle till he had in demonstration gained it. He was said also to be possessed of the great Turenne’s distinguishing qualities, that is, to harrass and perplex the enemy by his dexterity in encamping and decamping; a kind of petty war, which seldom fails of leading to great advantages.

This picture, however, is none of my own; I only speak after some of the trade, who used to talk to me in this manner.

Whilst the war was prospering abroad, things went wrong at home. The King was at a loss for ministers. The Count de Maurepas put the marine in as good a condition as the English and the state of affairs would allow: but the other departments were in a terrible disorder. The foreign affairs were offered to one Villeneuve, an old man, who had been a long time ambassador at the Porte, where, though his merit has been much cried up, he had ruined the Turky trade, by turning merchant himself. He came home from his ambassy with immense riches, chiefly extorted from the merchants of Marseilles. His principal qualities were management and parsimony. These virtues, so much countenanced by Cardinal Fleury, were greatly in vogue at Versailles. Niggardliness bore the sway. The decrepid ambassador declined the post, doubtless as being attended with more pains than profit. Besides, I have heard those who knew him personally say, that he was not in the least fit for that branch of government. His abilities had been much talked of, for having brought about a peace between the Porte and the house of Austria; but at Constantinople, these sort of negociations are carried on without a minister’s having any great share in them. I have it from M. de Maurepas, that the chief instrument in that affair, was a French linguist, one de Laria, who was perfectly well acquainted with the temper of the Turks, and had been employed by Villeneuve in that negociation.

In the mean time, affairs in Italy did not go so well as could be wished; Don Philip had taken and retaken Savoy, but could not make his way into the country of Placentia.

The King of Naples, whom only a captain of an English ship had compelled to a neutrality, because he was not in a condition to arm, broke it as soon as he had got himself in readiness for war.

He had advanced as far as Veletri, where Prince Lobkowitz endeavouring to surprise him, was himself surprised. The loss was great on both sides, and, as I have heard from very experienced officers, the case was then as it almost ever is on such occasions, they both weakened themselves, and without any advantage even to the victor.

Lobkowitz fled before the King of Naples, who pursued him into the Ecclesiastical State; so that Rome itself was in a consternation, on seeing two armies at its gates.

A small event, which fell out at this time in Germany, shews the great injustice of war, in making the belligerant powers overlook the very laws of nations, which should every where be inviolable.

The King had sent Marshal Belleisle to several German courts in quality of his ambassador, and, as such, he was negociating the affairs of the crown; yet this minister, in his way along the skirts of the country of Hanover, was seized, and sent over to England as a state prisoner.

This general was treated with great regard, and one of the royal seats appointed for his residence; but this splendid hospitality only the more exposed the injustice of that nation.

The Marshal has since told me, that he was not at all sorry for his detention, as it had given him an opportunity of studying the temper of that capricious people in their own country. I have heard him say a hundred times, that a Briton was the riddle of human nature; he would say, it is easy to discern what the bulk of the nation is, but there is no knowing the individuals. According to him, a definition may be given of the English in general, but it is impossible to say what an Englishman is.

Vienna, Berlin, and Versailles, were busied in the same plans which had been concerted in the council, when an unforeseen event brought on some change in the dispositions. Charles VII, that unfortunate emperor, who had not known a moment’s quiet on the august throne of the Cæsars, died. If it be nature only which can make men happy, he was of all men the most miserable. He had long laboured under great pains and sufferings from the badness of his constitution; and ambition, which is ever the predominant distemper in sovereigns, added to his bodily pains: amidst his infirmities, all his thoughts were about securing himself on a throne, which the ill state of his health was soon to deprive him of. Many were the vicissitudes of his reign. He was once very near being without a place to hide his head. He has often been obliged to quit his capital, and shift his abode; so that the successor of the masters of the world was sometimes without either house or home.

He was paid by France for being Emperor. He had an allowance of six millions of livres to support a rank which, for that very reason, did not belong to him. They who are acquainted with the causes of the rise and fall of houses, say, that the misfortunes of that of Bavaria were owing to its alliance with that of Bourbon; and this, it seems, will ever be the case of petty states uniting with the greater.

On the decease of Charles VII. France looked out for an Emperor in Germany; for that Charles’s son could quietly succeed his father, was impossible. He was not of a proper age; neither had he the means to maintain himself on the Imperial throne, even had there been an intention to place him on it: yet was he thought of, but no farther than in appearance; it was only a feigned scheme. A very sensible man was lately saying to me, There is a meanness in princes which I cannot forgive: they feign to wish what they do not intend, and yet act as if they did intend it. This duplicity has cost the lives of multitudes of brave men, and ruins the commonwealth.

Some fruitless strokes were again struck for insuring the Imperial sceptre to a Prince, who was known not to be able to keep it; but the young Elector, with more wisdom than his father, renounced a throne on which his allies could not maintain him, and thereby did more good to France, than could have accrued to her from the most happy successes of her policy.

A tender was then made to the King of Poland; and in this choice, France had the advantage of detaching from the house of Austria a powerful Sovereign. It has been said that the Elector of Saxony declined the empire: but Marshal Belleisle told me, that he could not accept of it, and that he saw the impracticability of such a thing, on the very first mention made to him of it. A King of Poland, Emperor of Germany, would have thrown all the northern courts into a flame; and this double Monarch would have had as many wars on his hands, as there were then Sovereigns in Germany. Thus seeing the impossibility of such an acquisition, he made a merit with the Queen of Hungary of his inability, entering into a closer alliance with her, for placing the great Duke of Tuscany, her spouse, on the throne of the Cæsars. Could it be thought that policy was no motive herein, the King of Poland might be accounted a Prince of eminent probity. He had a defensive treaty with the Queen of Hungary, so that he sacrificed his ambition to that alliance; a very rare procedure in the history of sovereigns!

The Prince of Soubise, talking over these matters with me, said, that the irregularity of the treaties in Germany, after the death of Charles VII. had forced France to be more regular in its conduct relating to the northern affairs; and ever since it has kept itself to a defensive war, which certainly was its only proper policy.

Germany being left to itself, Flanders became the seat of action. Maurice had prepared every thing there for one of those bold strokes which determine the destiny of states. He laid siege to Tournay, the King himself being present in person; this siege endangered Holland, which on this occasion was eager for coming to blows.

It was with astonishment I read in the annals of those times, that this tribe of merchants, who have no thoughts beyond trade and parsimony, should now have been the first in calling for a battle, the loss of which might have been fatal to the republic.

The battle of Fontenoy was fought, and the allies lost it. This victory has made a great noise in the world; but by the detail which a general officer at my desire gave me of it, I do not find it to be one of those events which greatly heighten a nation’s glory.

The French army was much more numerous than the allies, and both the King and Dauphin were present; the presence of these two Princes, thus eye-witnesses of the bravery of their troops, created a second courage, which in gaining victories goes farther than the first: the magazines were full; the soldiers wanted for nothing; the household-troops were there; and the whole was commanded by an experienced general, whom the troops idolized, as capable of the greatest enterprizes: the Princes of the blood, the Dukes, Peers, and almost all the nobility of the kingdom, fought along with the soldiery, sharing their dangers and glory; in a word, the whole French monarchy was present at Fontenoy. If, with all these advantages, the allies had got the better, there would have been an end of the monarchy; for the enemy was marching to the gates of Paris. I am far from intending here to lessen the glory of Marshal Saxe, who conducted the action.

He has often given me an account of it since the peace, and I find that here, tho’ then very low in health, he surpassed himself. His thoughts were every where, and he remedied every thing: whatever an able commander could do, he really performed. Some persons of the trade, however, have affirmed to me, that very great faults were committed that day; and that to repair them, it was frequently necessary to disobey the General’s orders. The Duke de Biron took on himself to keep the post of Antoin, though he had been expressly ordered to quit it. But in my opinion, one of the most considerable was, leaving the King and the Dauphin, during the whole action, on the spot where they had placed themselves. A general rout, and this rout was two or three times very near happening, would have exposed France to the worst of misfortunes.

It has been said in several histories, that the Marshal was so confident of gaining the battle, that he made no doubt of it; but he has often told me himself, that two or three times he apprehended it lost, and that he had always doubted of the victory till the household had charged. One evident proof of his uncertainty was, his sending two or three times to the King to withdraw.

I was extremely uneasy about this important event, when a letter was brought me from his Majesty. I opened it with trembling hands, and found it as follows:

From the camp at Fontenoy, an hour
after the battle.

“Madam,

“I saw all lost, till Marshal Saxe retrieved all: he has surpassed himself in this action; my troops fought with invincible courage; the houshold especially performed wonders; I owe the victory to that corps. The French noblesse fought under my eye; it was with pleasure I beheld their heroic valour.”

***************

***************

***************

These three lines were in cyphers.

This letter was very acceptable, and removed all my fears.

From the time of the King’s departure from France, I had often converse with the Abbe de Bernis, who had been recommended to me to keep me company during the King’s absence.

He had been introduced into the great world by women; for he had all those little talents with which our sex are so taken, compliance, affability, genteel ways, suppleness, gaiety, fluency of speech, a smooth tongue, a pretty knack at versifying, and all those qualities set off with a very handsome person.

This Abbe was never at a loss for well turned compliments to the ladies, so that he was always welcome among the sex. As in our first conversations he never dropt the least intimation about preferment; I imagined that, at last, I had met with a truly worthy person, one whose noble soul soared above riches and honour. But I was mistaken; this Abbe was eaten up with a desire of court distinction, concealing an unbounded ambition under a hypocritical disinterestedness. His apartment, as I have been informed, was, as it were, a perfect warehouse of memoirs; some related to the farms of the revenues, others to œconomy, some concerning war, some the navy, and others the finances. He had a wonderful readiness at forming projects. He could scheme any thing he had a mind to.

The action of Fontenoy led the way to other conquests in Austrian Flanders, and the Flemings every where received Lewis XV. with the loudest acclamations. I have read in most of the revolutions of the world, that the people greatly rejoice at a change of masters.

This victory caused a general revolution; the Germans and English determined to break into the kingdom. They made their way by Provence and Bretagne, but they only shewed themselves. The Austrians passed the Var, and then repassed it. The English landed and returned to their ships. Our modern history is full of these military follies. Posterity will ever be at a loss why General Sinclair, who commanded in this expedition, after bringing a French city to capitulate, moved off without reaping the fruits of the capitulation.

They who shall read the annals of our age, will scarce believe that the cabinets of Europe could have committed so many faults, and that the Generals of armies could have fallen into so many errors.

The Genoese, who had introduced the Spaniards into Italy, were forsaken by them; so that the state of Genoa was invaded by the Austrians, who even made themselves masters of the capital. They first required of the Genoese what money they had, and after stripping them, demanded still more.

In the mean time the German army was in pursuit of the French and Spaniards, and crossing the Var after them, took post in Provence. Botta, in whose care the city had been left, and who was at St. Peter des Arenes, forgot that he had no army to keep it, and that what remained in that suburb, was only a sickly half-dead multitude; the consequence of which was a sudden revolution, too strong for him to suppress.

The Genoese, whom a large army had awed into submission, recovered their freedom on its departure. Here Botta was guilty of a great oversight; he proposed to the senate to join him against the rebels, as he called them, not perceiving that they underhand encouraged the insurrection: they readily promised to act in concert with him; but this was only to give the people time to gather and unite their strength: it was too late when the general came to be aware of their design; he fled with such precipitancy, as to leave all his magazines behind.

The King shewed me a letter sent to court from a Genoese Senator, giving a particular account of the whole transaction; the beginning, progress, and end of the scheme laid for shaking off the Austrian yoke. The great council had for some time secretly promoted it. It was not setting the Genoese to draw cannon, which occasioned its revolution; it might indeed hasten the execution of it; but the plan had been concerted long before: thus is posterity often misled in histories, attributing to accident what was the effect of premeditated design.

This deliverance was attended with another happiness to Genoa; it had at that time no citizen who could have deprived the Republic of its liberty. The juncture was extremely favourable; the people had got the whole power of the state into their hands. Now I have heard our politicians say, that on such junctures, giving money, and granting privileges, will carry every point.

This revolution, which seemed only a private concern, changed the system of general affairs. The Austrians, who intended to besiege Toulon, and lay Marseilles under contribution, were obliged to repass the Var, for want both of shelter and provisions.

The court of Vienna, inflamed at this event, blocked up Genoa, and threatened the inhabitants with the severest treatment, if they did not immediately surrender; but the Genoese, being supported by the French, made a vigorous resistance, without being intimidated by menaces; and Boufflers, and afterwards the Duke de Richelieu, were sent to command there. M. Maurepas has often told me, that it was a great oversight in the English, who blocked up Genoa by sea, in not having a number of flat-bottomed boats to hinder any French succours from getting into Genoa.

This precaution would have changed the whole disposition of affairs in Italy. Genoa, then incapable of any further resistance must have surrendered to the Austrians, and the Infant Don Philip, the subject of the war, would never have seen Parma and Placentia.

Lewis XV. after taking seven fine cities in Flanders, returned to Paris; and it may be said that never was such joy displayed in that city, as at the sight of this Prince; every street rang with shouts of gladness and applause.

Amidst the many checks which England had met with in Flanders, the Pretender conveyed himself into Scotland. As he had neither armies nor ships, some courtiers said, he had swam thither. It was not very difficult to foresee the issue of this enterprize, every step and circumstance of it being irregular. A very intelligent man told me at that time, that the most fortunate thing which could happen to the Pretender, would be to get out of Scotland as clandestinely as he got in: but he was a young man, rather fond of executing his projects in a singular manner, than concerned about the success of them.

This enterprize, however ill conducted, had one advantage for Versailles, that it caused a diversion in England. France has always made use of the house of Stuart for its private views. I am sorry that George II. who wanted neither courage nor firmness, should have shewn any uneasiness at it. An English nobleman told me, that he caused the London militia to take an oath, that they did not in any-wise believe that the pope had ever a right of causing Princes to be murdered. He also had the records of Rochester searched for the form of the excommunication anciently denounced by the Popes, to stimulate the English against the see of Rome. I would not have Princes stoop to trifles, which always betray a weak mind; a prince on the throne should act with magnanimity.

The Pretender published a manifesto in vindication of his rights, addressed to the people of England; but this manifesto contained only empty words, whilst George had on his side troops and cannon.

Marshal Belleisle more than once took notice to me of a remarkable passage in this manifesto. Prince Edward there owns that the house of Stuart lost the English throne in some measure by its own fault, and promises amendment. If, says he, the complaints formerly brought against our family did take their rise from some errors in our administration; it has sufficiently expiated them.—Young Edward took possession of the kingdoms of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, in his father’s name, declaring himself regent. For England well and good; but thus to make a king of France, was too hasty. Those titles, however, resting on no surer grounds than the possession, as quickly disappeared.

At this time France endeavoured to keep the Dutch neuter; both courts published manifestoes, and the ministers negociated: but this project of neutrality produced only a fresh paper war. The Abbe de la Ville presented memorials drawn up with great pomp and accuracy of stile, and he was answered with an elegant conciseness; but fighting still went on.

The face of affairs in Germany had changed; the King of Prussia acknowledged the Great Duke of Tuscany Emperor, and made his peace with the house of Austria. I have often heard a smart saying of Marshal Belleisle on this head. I very well knew, said he, that this man, who is so fond of war, would incline to peace on the first opportunity to his advantage.

M. Soubise more than once said to me, That Monarch would have owned the Pope for Emperor, had any Sovereign in Germany given him only a hundred square acres of land. This peace was so far advantageous to France, as it diminished the power of the house of Austria. Apparently Italy alone would be the sufferer, as it was to be supposed that the Queen of Hungary, being quite at leisure in Germany, would be for fighting on the other side the Alps. She sent reinforcements to the Low Countries, which, however, could not hinder Marshal Saxe from taking Brussels. It was then that Lewis XV. to compleat the conquest of Austrian Flanders, set out to command the army in person.

Our progresses were very rapid; the King’s presence, and the soldiers confidence in Marshal Saxe’s abilities, made every thing easy. It was otherwise with the Pretender in Scotland, who fled before the enemy, and at length lost a decisive battle against the Duke of Cumberland.

In these circumstances it was that M. d’Argenson wrote, though indirectly, to the English government, in favour of young Edward. A man of wit has since shewed me how extremely ridiculous this was; for had there been a design that Edward should not out-live his temerity, a better method could not have been invented for having him made away with.

That minister represented him to the court as a relation of the King’s, for whose person and qualities this Monarch had the highest value. He insisted that King George was a Prince of too much equity, not to perceive the Pretender’s son’s merit. This manifesto afterwards told the English, that they ought to admire him for those qualities of an eminent patriot, which so conspicuously shone in him. It then proceeded to the dangerous consequences which might result to England, from any severe treatment to young Edward, &c. They did not see that this declaration must have produced a quite contrary effect to that proposed. The Pretender’s crime was not his coming over to Scotland, but in being France’s ally. Consistent people said, either Prince Edward is a rebel, or King George is an usurper; and Sovereigns should not countenance rebels, nor solicit usurpers.

The invention of this intercessory letter is fathered on a Cardinal, who being a member of the sacred college, was for securing the Pretender’s retreat; whereas it was the very way to obstruct it. Accordingly England, making no account of this manifesto, set a price on his head, and some Lords who had taken up arms for him, were publicly beheaded.

Whilst all the Princes of Europe were at war together, their ministers were repairing to Breda, to negociate a peace. This necessarily increased the business of cabinets, having both military and pacific operations on the carpet. The dearth of ministers still continued in France; none could be found capable of healing the public misfortunes. M. d’Argenson, who had the foreign affairs, only increased the confusion. They were committed to M. de Puisieux, who was then at Breda, where he was ordered to feign great zeal and assiduity in bringing about a definitive treaty; this was only a feint, he was in reality employed at Versailles. On his nomination, he said to the King, Sire, I will do all I can, but I beg your Majesty to believe that I cannot work miracles.

Marshal Saxe humorously said, None but a saint or a devil can set the French administration right. This gave occasion to a courtier afterwards to say, that we must be without friends, both in hell and heaven; this so much warned saint or devil having not yet made his appearance in France.

Marshal Belleisle, having driven the Austrians out of Provence, returned to Versailles, to give the King an account of his operations. He had a strange passion for signal projects; and he proposed several to his Majesty, the least of which was to deliver Genoa, to make Spain mistress of the greater part of Italy, and strip the King of Sardinia of all his dominions, &c.

He was sent again to Provence, where the sum of his exploits amounted only to the taking of the small castle of Saint Margaret’s island. A man of genius was lately saying to me, that if good chimerical projects, and imaginary plans, made a man great, M. Belleisle was indisputably the greatest man in Europe.

In the mean time Holland, having created a Stadtholder, determined on the continuance of the war. I saw that Lewis XV. was manifestly affected with this news, whether from a concern for his people, or that the elevation of the Prince of Orange disconcerted his projects. He said in my presence to a courtier, These Dutchmen are terrible folks; I wish their republic was a thousand leagues from any of my frontiers; it gives me more trouble than all the rest of Europe put together.

France having now no hopes of bringing the United Provinces to a neutrality, thought of invading them; and politicians said, that it was the only way left to restore the balance in Europe, which had been lost by the continual advantages of the English at sea.

Effectual measures were taken for the invasion. The King won the battle of Lafeldt. At the same time it was determined to besiege Bergen-op-Zoom. This expedition was committed to count Lowendahl, who merrily promised to make a present of it to the King on St. Lewis’s day. Bergen-op-Zoom was taken, which threw the Dutch into the greatest consternation, as they had all imagined the carrying of that place to be an impossibility. This event shewed, that in war there is no such thing as certainty, its operations being ever subject to the caprice and inconstancy of fortune.

The congress at Breda was removed to Aix-la-Chapelle; but the courts still continued planning sieges and battles. Whilst the plenipotentiaries were settling the preliminaries, the levies for fresh troops went on with all possible vigour, and France prepared for war more than ever; but the difficulty was to procure soldiers. It has been affirmed to me, that there were large country-towns in France, which could not furnish so much as one militia-man, so that it became necessary to make the married men carry arms, though this was hurting posterity. All manner of taxes and imposts were also contrived to supply the want of money. M. Machault, comptroller-general, who had succeeded M. Orry, proposed expedients, but all of a very destructive tendency. The parliament clamoured, and openly declared in its representations, that if all the edicts concerning the finances took place, as proposed, the kingdom was undone; but it received for answer, that great evils required great remedies; and this silenced it.

At length a way being opened into Holland, by taking of Bergen-op-Zoom, and Marshal Saxe threatening to put an end to the republic; on the other hand, the southern provinces of France being reduced to a starving condition; this, with other circumstances, disposed the several powers to sign preliminaries of peace, which was soon followed by a definitive treaty. Such a situation of things promoted the public tranquility more than all the studied harangues of the plenipotentiaries at Aix-la-Chapelle.

I had the treaty read to me at Versailles; all the articles appeared very suitable to the present state of Europe, except that of Canada. It seemed to me that the appointing commissioners to settle that great affair, would only perplex it the more. I spoke of it to Marshal Belleisle, who told me that article was a state secret: we could have given it another turn, but this is best for us; it leaves things in America as they are, and we have twenty Savage nations in Canada who will revenge our loss. This revenge some years after cost us the game.

The Prince de Soubise told me some time after, that this peace had been a child of necessity; that there was not one of all the signing Princes, who could not have wished that the war had continued. Yet I can take upon me to say, that the King of France was of a different mind. He was visibly more gay than usual, and the great joy of his heart displayed itself in his countenance.

Thus at length the public calamities were suspended. Genoa, which under the Duke de Richelieu had continued to defend itself against the Germans, grounded its arms. The Spaniards and French, after being in continual action to settle Don Philip in Italy, discontinued their operations; and it was agreed that every thing should remain quiet till the publication of the definitive treaty. I longed for it more than any minister in Europe. The King had no quiet; the concerns of his crown and personal glory kept him in Flanders, and took up all his thoughts, never returning to Versailles till the campaign was quite over. My private satisfaction I could have willingly sacrificed to the happiness of the state, but sieges and battles only encreased the public distresses.

New lotteries and new taxes were established to raise the means for signing the peace; thus the public ease began with draining them to the last drop.

The Pretender’s son, who seemed quite forgotten, now makes his appearance again. Concluding, as he well might, that nobody would think of him at the congress of Aix-la-Chapelle; he began by protesting against every thing which should be done there. So little regard was paid to the manifesto which he caused to be set up, that all parties signed without minding his protestations. To this opposition he added another still more extravagant at Paris, refusing to comply even with the King’s express orders.

One of the first articles laid down between England and France, had been, that the Chevalier de St. George’s son should quit the kingdom. Lewis XV. several times signified to him the indispensable necessity he was under of adhering to the agreement. Prince Edward plainly told those who first mentioned the King’s pleasure to him, that he would not comply. I have often heard the excuse he gave for this refractoriness. The King of France, said he, promised me that I should always find an asylum in his dominions; for this I have his sign manual in my pocket. A Prince who has a sense of honour, knows what obligations his word lays him under, and how greatly he exposes himself in violating it.

He treated with the King of France as with a private gentleman. He forgot that Sovereigns may fail in their word, without any breach in their honour, the good of their people so requiring. The Pretender’s son was taken into custody, as he was going to the opera. Strange reverse of fortune! On his arrival in France, he had been received with great joy, and marks of consideration. I was something concerned for this young Prince’s fate, and dropped a word or two about him to the King, who answered me with some heat, What would you have me do, Madam? Should I continue the war with all Europe for Prince Edward? England will not allow him to be in my dominions; it was only on this condition, that she came into the peace. Should I have broke off the conference at Aix-la-Chapelle, and distressed my people more and more, because the Pretender’s son is for living at Paris?

It must be owned that this Prince shewed an obstinacy beyond example. The King sent all Paris to represent to him the state of affairs, and express the concern it gave him, that he was obliged to remove him from his court. Though these messages were delivered to him in the King’s name, his answers were so many menaces. The Count de Maurepas spoke to him on this occasion, in the following words:

“It is with the greatest grief that the King sees himself obliged to desire your Highness to quit his dominions. I come in his name to assure you that no other consideration than the welfare of his subjects would have prevailed on him to take this step. You would have seen him inflexibly supporting your claim, had not the unhappy turn of the war laid him under a necessity of yielding to the present juncture. The greatest Monarchs cannot always do as they would. There are critical seasons where policy requires them to be pliant. Your Highness knows that; since the unhappy time when the Stuart family lost the crown of England, the Bourbon family has made several efforts for their restoration. You ought to take his intentions kindly, rather than blame his inability. I wish you had been witness to his conversation with me, when he called me into his closet to give me his orders, by which I was to signify to you his desire that you will quit the kingdom; it must have affected you. He sincerely laments your situation, but he cannot turn the tide of fate; and should you force him to take violent measures, it would give him the deepest concern.

“Lewis XV. has sent me to you, not as a King, not as a master, but as an ally, and as a friend; and, what is more, he directed me to ask it of you as a favour, that you would leave his dominions.”

Prince Edward was very laconic in his answer, drawing a pistol out of his pocket, and vowing to shoot the first man that should offer to lay hands on him. The archbishop of Paris likewise conjured him in the name of God and the Pope, but with no greater effect; religion had no more weight with him than politics, so that the extremity which the King would have avoided, became necessary. The Chevalier de St. George’s son was arrested as he was going to the opera.

The enemies of France failed not to exclaim against this violence, exaggerating it with the most odious appellations.

On searching his house, it was found turned into an Arsenal. He had arms enough to stand a siege in form. It was talked at court that he had determined to fight singly himself against a whole regiment, and then set fire to a barrel of powder, which communicated with others, and thus blow up himself, with all that belonged to him. The King, on being told this, said, “A very ill-timed bravery, indeed!”

The peace, however, spread an universal joy through all ranks. There were only two men in the kingdom who were not satisfied with it, the Marshals Saxe and Lowendahl. The former expressed his discontent to the secretary of war in this manner: “After the battle of Fontenoy, said he, we were in a fair way of making ourselves masters of Holland, and putting an end to that troublesome republic; for these merchants, with their shipping and their wealth, are the mischief-makers of Europe; they are the necessary allies of our natural enemies the English. The great work of their destruction was nearly finished; why did we not go through with it? If we again give the republicans time to fortify themselves, they will be as daring as before; and the time may come when France with all its forces will not be able to bring them to reason. Destroying Holland is cutting off England’s right arm; and every body knows, that all France’s policy should center in weakening Great Britain.

“Of what consequence has the victory of Fontenoy been? What is France the better for the taking of Bergen-op-Zoom? All those efforts of courage, all the lives of so many gallant officers who fell in Flanders, were purely thrown away. If these places were to be restored, and the Dutch and the house of Austria to be put on the same footing as each of them was before the war, it had been much better there had been no war at all. France’s giving back its conquests, was making war against herself; her very victories have ruined her; her enemies have retained all their former strength, whilst she alone has weakened herself. Her subjects are fewer by a million, and her finances reduced to little or nothing.”

These speeches reaching the King’s ears, he said, “I understand the language of those generalissimos; they are for ever dwelling on red-hot bullets.”

The count de St. Severin d’Arragon, who had made the peace, undertook to demonstrate the fallacy of such reasonings; and the King has often repeated to me his arguments. “Sire, said he, the conquest of Holland made no part of the plan of this war. All France aimed at, was to keep the Dutch from declaring. The end of our many sieges and battles, was not to destroy their republic, but only to bring it to pacific terms; so that in forcing them to lay aside their arms, the council of state’s view is fully answered.

“Your Generals will have it, that after the battle of Fontenoy, and the taking of Bergen-op-Zoom, the United Provinces might easily have been overrun, and the States-General have been brought under the dominion of France. They are mistaken; the weapons of despair are invincible. To compel a people to the necessity of being conquered, is the ready way to lose a conquest. The sovereignties once settled, are no longer subject to destruction; they are reciprocal counterpoizes; should only one fall under the power of another, the whole balance of Europe would be destroyed. It is long since war has afforded any of those decisive blows, which, in the time of the Romans, changed the face of the political world. A province may be mastered, but the invading of kingdoms is out of date.

“Granting, Sir, that the ardour of your troops, breaking through the common ways, had reduced Holland, it would have been a conquest not only useless, but have thrown France into fresh troubles; all Europe, in a body, would have declared war against you. The great powers, jealous of the house of Bourbon, have long been watching an opportunity of giving it a decisive blow.

“Right policy, instead of making a noise, silently takes a bye-way to its ends; let us insensibly weaken the Dutch, but never think of destroying them. They are a barrier against the great northern powers. They secure us from the incursions of the Germans, whom the Romans themselves could not check, and who at last overthrew the empire of the Cæsars.

“But a great deal is said about the easiness of our conquering, and not a word how easy it was to conquer us. What induced me, Sire, to put the finishing hand to the great work of the peace, is the disorder of the finances, the depopulation of the state, and the scarcity of provisions.

“The Comptroller-general has acquainted me that he knows not where to find any more money. The intendants of the provinces have wrote to the war-office, that it is utterly impossible to raise another militia; to which the intendant of Guienne adds, that in his province the people are starving; those, Sire, were my motives for hastening the conclusion of the peace.”

These reasons, however, did not prevail with the great men of the army, who still wanted to be fighting. They were big with hopes, which the peace seemed to quash. I remember Lewis XV. one day talking on this subject, said to me, that he had not a general officer in his troops who cared what became of the state, if he could but get a Marshal’s staff.

The King, who had rewarded Marshal Saxe, did not forget the Count St. Severin, making him a minister of state. This Count, though not a great genius, had good rational sense, which he made to answer as well as a superior understanding. He was slow in business, but sure; and his phlegmatic disposition was better adapted to surmount those difficulties, which ever put fervid and eager minds to a full stand. He was a stranger to agitations; his passions moved in subordination to political laws. Resentment, anger, sallies of passion, spirit of party, with all the other prepossessing foibles which ruled most ministers, were never seen in him. Those he used to call the reverse of the medal of plenipotentiaries. In a negociation he moved straight on to his drift, without stopping by the way. He had a natural love for peace, and thus the more chearfully applied himself to forward a definitive treaty.

M. de Belleisle told me, that he found one great fault in him, which was the want of a proper regard to military men, however illustrious by their rank or merit; for after all, added he, there is no making a good peace but by dint of victories; and it is the general, and not the plenipotentiary, who gains battles.

France however was quite spent; the means made use of for supporting the war had been so violent as to break all the springs of power. The ministers complained greatly of the state of France, and openly said, at the peace, that they did not know where to begin the administration.

Paris is not the place where the general distress most manifests itself. The luxury, such as it is, prevailing there conceals the public indigence. There poverty itself appears in embroidery and ribbons, whilst in all the other parts of France it goes quite bare. The court had written into the provinces for a report of the state of things. M. de Belleisle has shewn me several memoirs of those times, transmitted to Versailles by the intendants of the provinces. The tenour of the first way this:

“My Lord,

“You ask me for a state of the finances in this province; that is soon done: there are none. I don’t believe that the whole province could produce a hundred thousand livres in specie: the poverty is so general, that all distinction of ranks is at an end. The louis d’ors are like to become scarce pieces, so as soon to be seen only in the cabinets of the curious.”

The other is from the intendant of a province naturally very fertile, but which could not be cultivated for want of money. His report to the minister was as follows:

“My Lord,