inate and
Electorate of Bavaria. He was thought to be a great friend to
the King, and had made several long sojourns in France. He came
frequently to see Madame. M. Duclos told us that the Duc de
Deux-Ponts, having learned, at Deux-Ponts, the attempt on the
King's life, immediately set out in a carriage for Versailles:
"But remark," said he, "the spirit of _courtisanerie_ of a Prince,
who may be Elector of Bavaria and the Palatinate to-morrow. This
was not enough. When he arrived within ten leagues of Paris, he
put on an enormous pair of jack-boots, mounted a post-horse,
and arrived in the court of the palace cracking his whip. If
this had been real impatience, and not charlatanism, he would
have taken horse twenty leagues from Paris." "I don't agree with
you," said a gentleman whom I did not know; "impatience sometimes
seizes one towards the end of an undertaking, and one employs
the readiest means then in one's power. Besides, the Duc de
Deux-Ponts might wish, by showing himself thus on horseback, to
serve the King, to whom he is attached, by proving to Frenchmen
how greatly he is beloved and honoured in other countries." Duclos
resumed: "Well," said he, "do you know the story of M. de C----?
The first day the King saw company, after the attempt of Damiens,
M. de C---- pushed so vigorously through the crowd that he was
one of the first to come into the King's presence, but he had
on so shabby a black coat that it caught the King's attention,
who burst out laughing, and said, 'Look at C----, he has had
the skirt of his coat torn off.' M. de C---- looked as if he was
only then first conscious of his loss, and said, 'Sire, there
is such a multitude hurrying to see Your Majesty, that I was
obliged to fight my way through them, and, in the effort, my
coat has been torn.' 'Fortunately it was not worth much,' said
the Marquis de Souvre, 'and you could not have chosen a worse
one to sacrifice on the occasion.'"

Madame de Pompadour had been very judiciously advised to get her
husband, M. le Normand, sent to Constantinople, as Ambassador.
This would have a little diminished the scandal caused by seeing
Madame de Pompadour, with the title of Marquise, at Court, and
her husband Farmer General at Paris. But he was so attached to a
Paris life, and to his opera habits, that he could not be prevailed
upon to go. Madame employed a certain M. d'Arboulin, with whom
she had been acquainted before she was at Court, to negotiate
this