m minister of France at some foreign court? The
Abbe de Voisenon a minister! that man whom M. de Lauraguais called _a
handful of fleas_! But if he became not minister of France, it was
decreed by fate that he should be minister of somebody or other; he was
too incapable to escape this honor. Some years after the failure of this
ridiculous project of M. de Choiseul, the Prince-bishop of Spire
appointed him his minister plenipotentiary at the Court of France. His
admission into the bosom of the French Academy was all that was now
required to complete his happiness, and this honor was shortly
afterwards conferred upon him, for he was duly elected to the chair
vacated by the death of Crebillon.

At the age of fifty-two, with the intention of getting rid of his
asthma, his constant companion through life, he determined to try the
effect of mineral waters upon his enfeebled constitution. His journey
from Paris to Cautarets, and his sojourn in this head-quarters of
bitumen and sulphur, as related by himself in his letters to his
friends, may be considered as an historical portraiture of the method of
travelling, as pursued by the grandees of the time, as well as being the
truest pages of the idle, epicurean, pleasure-loving, yet infirm,
existence of the narrator.

"We passed through Tours yesterday (writes he to his friend
Favart, in his first letter, dated from Chatelherault the 8th
day of June, 1761), where Madame la Duchess de Choiseul
received all the honors due to the _gouvernante_ of the
province: we entered by the Mall, which is planted with trees
as beautiful as those of the Parisian Boulevards. Here we found
a mayor, who came to harangue the duchess. It happened that M.
Sainfrais, during the harangue, had posted himself directly
behind the speaker, so that every now and then his horse, which
kept constantly tossing its head, as horses will do, would give
him a little tap on the back--a circumstance which cut his
phrases in half in the most ludicrous manner possible; because
at every blow the orator would turn round to see what was the
matter, after which he would gravely resume his discourse,
while I was ready to burst with laughter the whole time. Two
leagues further on we had another rich scene; an ecclesiastic
stopped the carriage, and commenced a pompous harangue
addressed to M. Poisonnier, whom he kept calling _mon Prince_