essions; and
the shortest interval may suffice to save a favourite, especially
if any decent pretext can be found for prolonging her stay at
Court." I agreed with her in all she said, but I told her that I
dared not touch that string. On reflecting on this conversation
afterwards, I was forcibly struck with this fresh proof of the
intrigues of the Jesuits, which, indeed, I knew well already. I
thought that, in spite of what I had replied to Madame du Chiron,
I ought to communicate this to Madame de Pompadour, for the ease of
my conscience; but that I would abstain from making any reflection
upon it. "Your friend, Madame du Chiron," said she, "is, I perceive,
affiliated to the Jesuits, and what she says does not originate
with herself. She is commissioned by some reverend father, and
I will know by whom." Spies were, accordingly, set to watch her
movements, and they discovered that one Father de Saci, and, still
more particularly, one Father Frey, guided this lady's conduct,
"What a pity," said Madame to me, "that the Abbe Chauvelin cannot
know this." He was the most formidable enemy of the reverend
fathers. Madame du Chiron always looked upon me as a Jansenist,
because I would not espouse the interests of the good fathers
with as much warmth as she did.

Madame is completely absorbed in the Abbe de Bernis, whom she
thinks capable of anything; she talks of him incessantly. Apropos
of this Abbe, I must relate an anecdote, which almost makes one
believe in conjurors. A year, or fifteen months, before her disgrace,
Madame de Pompadour, being at Fontainebleau, sat down to write at
a desk, over which hung a portrait of the King. While she was
shutting the desk, after she had finished writing, the picture
fell, and struck her violently on the head. The persons who saw
the accident were alarmed, and sent for Dr. Quesnay. He asked the
circumstances of the case, and ordered bleeding and anodynes. Just
as she had been bled, Madame de Brancas entered, and saw us all in
confusion and agitation, and Madame lying on her chaise-longue.
She asked what was the matter, and was told. After having expressed
her regret, and having consoled her, she said, "I ask it as a
favour of Madame, and of the King (who had just come in), that
they will instantly send a courier to the Abbe de Bernis, and
that the Marquise will have the goodness to write a letter, merely
requesting him to inform her what his fortune-tellers told him,
and to withhold no