d, in my declining years, an old
and amiable friend, if he had not been Minister." The King sent
him away in anger, and was strongly inclined to refuse him the
hat. M. Quesnay told me, some months afterwards, that the Abbe
wanted to be Prime Minister; that he had drawn up a memorial,
setting forth that in difficult crises the public good required
that there should be a _central point_ (that was his expression),
towards which everything should be directed. Madame de Pompadour
would not present the memorial; he insisted, though she said to
him, "_You will ruin yourself._" The King cast his eyes over it,
and said "_central point_"--that is to say himself, he wants to
be Prime Minister. Madame tried to apologize for him, and said,
"That expression might refer to the Marechal de Belle-Isle." "Is
he not just about to be made Cardinal?" said the King. "This
is a fine manoeuvre; he knows well enough that, by means of that
dignity, he would compel the Ministers to assemble at his house,
and then M. l'Abbe would be the _central point_. Wherever there
is a Cardinal in the council, he is sure, in the end, to take
the lead. Louis XIV., for this reason, did not choose to admit
the Cardinal de Janson into the council, in spite of his great
esteem for him. The Cardinal de Fleury told me the same thing. He
had some desire that the Cardinal de Tencin should succeed him;
but his sister was such an intrigante that Cardinal de Fleury
advised me to have nothing to do with the matter, and I behaved
so as to destroy all his hopes, and to undeceive others. M.
d'Argenson has strongly impressed me with the same opinion, and
has succeeded in destroying all my respect for him." This is
what the King said, according to my friend Quesnay, who, by the
bye, was a great genius, as everybody said, and a very lively,
agreeable man. He liked to chat with me about the country. I
had been bred up there, and he used to set me a talking about
the meadows of Normandy and Poitou, the wealth of the farmers,
and the modes of culture. He was the best-natured man in the
world, and the farthest removed from petty intrigue. While he
lived at Court, he was much more occupied with the best manner of
cultivating land than with anything that passed around him. The
man whom he esteemed the most was M. de la Riviere, a Counsellor
of Parliament, who was also Intendant of Martinique; he looked
upon him as a man of the greatest genius, and thought him the
only person fit for