ading it, and
said, "It must be allowed, M. le Lieutenant of Police, that you
are well informed." M. Berrier added, "I think it my duty to
tell Your Majesty that this lady passes for a very intriguing
person." "I believe," replied the King, "that it is not without
deserving it that she has got that character."

Madame de Pompadour had many vexations in the midst of all her
grandeur. She often received anonymous letters, threatening her
with poison or assassination: her greatest fear, however, was
that of being supplanted by a rival. I never saw her in a greater
agitation than, one evening, on her return from the drawing-room
at Marly. She threw down her cloak and muff, the instant she
came in, with an air of ill-humour, and undressed herself in
a hurried manner. Having dismissed her other women, she said
to me, "I think I never saw anybody so insolent as Madame de
Coaslin. I was seated at the same table with her this evening,
at a game of _brelan_, and you cannot imagine what I suffered.
The men and women seemed to come in relays to watch us. Madame
de Coaslin said two or three times, looking at me, _Va tout_,
in the most insulting manner. I thought I should have fainted,
when she said, in a triumphant tone, I have the _brelan_ of kings.
I wish you had seen her courtesy to me on parting." "Did the
King," said I, "show her particular attention?" "You don't know
him," said she; "if he were going to lodge her this very night
in my apartment, he would behave coldly to her before people,
and would treat me with the utmost kindness. This is the effect
of his education, for he is, by nature, kind-hearted and frank."
Madame de Pompadour's alarms lasted for some months, when she,
one day, said to me, "That haughty Marquise has missed her aim;
she frightened the King by her grand airs, and was incessantly
teasing him for money. Now you, perhaps, may not know that the King
would sign an order for forty thousand louis without a thought,
and would give a hundred out of his little private treasury with
the greatest reluctance. Lebel, who likes me better than he would
a new mistress in my place, either by chance or design had brought
a charming little sultana to the Parc-aux-cerfs, who has cooled
the King a little towards the haughty Vashti, by giving him
occupation, ---- has received a hundred thousand francs, some
jewels, and an estate. Jannette has rendered me great service,
by showing the King extracts from the letters broken o