aint-Germain-des-Pres; also the Pope's Nuncio, then Monsignor Macchi,
Archbishop of Nisibi, later on Cardinal, remarkable for his long,
pensive nose, and another Monsignor, entitled thus: Abbate Palmieri,
domestic prelate, one of the seven participant prothonotaries of the
Holy See, Canon of the illustrious Liberian basilica, Advocate of the
saints, Postulatore dei Santi, which refers to matters of canonization,
and signifies very nearly: Master of Requests of the section of
Paradise. Lastly, two cardinals, M. de la Luzerne, and M. de Cl******
T*******. The Cardinal of Luzerne was a writer and was destined to have,
a few years later, the honor of signing in the Conservateur articles
side by side with Chateaubriand; M. de Cl****** T******* was Archbishop
of Toul****, and often made trips to Paris, to his nephew, the Marquis
de T*******, who was Minister of Marine and War. The Cardinal of
Cl****** T******* was a merry little man, who displayed his red
stockings beneath his tucked-up cassock; his specialty was a hatred of
the Encyclopaedia, and his desperate play at billiards, and persons who,
at that epoch, passed through the Rue M***** on summer evenings, where
the hotel de Cl****** T******* then stood, halted to listen to the shock
of the balls and the piercing voice of the Cardinal shouting to his
conclavist, Monseigneur Cotiret, Bishop in partibus of Caryste: "Mark,
Abbe, I make a cannon." The Cardinal de Cl****** T******* had been
brought to Madame de T.'s by his most intimate friend, M. de Roquelaure,
former Bishop of Senlis, and one of the Forty. M. de Roquelaure was
notable for his lofty figure and his assiduity at the Academy; through
the glass door of the neighboring hall of the library where the French
Academy then held its meetings, the curious could, on every Tuesday,
contemplate the Ex-Bishop of Senlis, usually standing erect, freshly
powdered, in violet hose, with his back turned to the door, apparently
for the purpose of allowing a better view of his little collar. All
these ecclesiastics, though for the most part as much courtiers as
churchmen, added to the gravity of the T. salon, whose seigniorial
aspect was accentuated by five peers of France, the Marquis de Vib****,
the Marquis de Tal***, the Marquis de Herb*******, the Vicomte Damb***,
and the Duc de Val********. This Duc de Val********, although Prince de
Mon***, that is to say a reigning prince abroad, had so high an idea of
France and its peerage, t