of the Clements, the Ravaillacs, the Damiens, are
extinct in France?"

"Ah, sire, what needless fears."

"Not so needless as you may deem them," answered the king. "I have been
caught once, I am not going to expose myself to danger a second time.
You know the proverb,--no, no, let us leave things as my predecessors
left them; besides, I shall not be sorry to leave a little employment
for my successor; he may get through it how he can, and spite of all the
clamouring of the philosophers, the Protestants shall hold their present
privileges so long as I live. I will have neither civil nor religious
war, but live in peace and eat my supper with a good appetite with you,
my fair comtesse, for my constant guest, and you, M. de Maupeou, for t
his evening's visitor."

The conversation here terminated.

CHAPTER XXXI

Madame du Barry purchases the services of Marin the
gazetteer--Louis XV and madame de Rumas--M. de Rumas and the
comtesse du Barry--An intrigue--_Denouement_--A present
upon the occasion--The duc de Richelieu in disgrace--100,000
livres

This Marin, a provencal by birth, in his childhood one of the
choristers, and afterwards organist of the village church, was, at the
period of which I am speaking, one of the most useful men possible.
Nominated by M. de St. Florentin to the post of censor royal, this
friend to the philosophers was remarkable for the peculiar talent, with
which he would alternately applaud and condemn the writings of these
gentlemen. Affixing his sanction to two lines in a tragedy by Dorat had
cost him twenty-four hours' meditation within the walls of the Bastille;
and for permitting the representation of some opera (the name of which
I forget) he had been deprived of a pension of 2,000 francs; but, wedded
to the delights of his snug post, Marin always contrived, after every
storm, to find his way back to its safe harbor. He had registered a
vow never to resign the office of censor, but to keep it in despite
of danger and difficulty. I soon discovered that he passed from
the patronage of Lebel to that of Chamilly, and I was not slow in
conjecturing that he joined to his avocations of censor and gazetteer
that of purveyor to his majesty's _petits amours_.

Spite of my indefatigable endeavors to render Louis XV happy and
satisfied with the pleasures of his own home, he would take occasional
wandering fits, and go upon the ramble, sometimes in pursuit of a
high-