circumstances. Her fate was similar to that of the average woman of
pleasure--forgotten, half-witted, stooping to any act of indecency to
gain a few sous.

Such were the principal heroines of the stage, opera, and ballet; they
were in harmony with the general state of that depraved society of
which they were natural products; transitory lights that shone for but
a short space of time, consumed by their own sensuous instinct, they
were forgotten with death. The royal mistresses lived the same life
and followed the same ideals, but exerted a greater and more lasting
influence in the state.

CHAPTER XI

ROYAL MISTRESSES

In the study of the royal mistresses of the eighteenth century,
we encounter two in particular,--Mme. de Pompadour and Mme. du
Barry,--who, though totally different types of women, both reflect the
gradual decline of ideals and morals in the first and last years of
the reign of Louis XV. The former dominated the king by means of her
intelligence, but the latter swayed the sovereign, already consumed by
his sensual excesses, through her peculiarly seductive sensuality.

During the first years of the reign of Louis XV., one of the most
influential women was Mme. de Prie, who brought about the marriage of
the king to Marie Leczinska, the daughter of the King of Poland, by
which manoeuvre she made herself _Dame de Palais de la Reine_. The
queen naturally took her and her husband into favor, regarding them
as her and her father's benefactors and as entitled to her warmest
gratitude. Mme. de Prie succeeded in winning the queen's affection
and confidence; however, these were of little value, inasmuch as the
queen's influence upon society and morals was not felt, for she led
a life of seclusion, shut up in her oratory and constantly on her
_prie-dieu_, and was an object of pity and ridicule.

Mme. de Prie and M. le Duc, having planned to deprive M. Fleury, the
minister, of his power,--he had been the king's preceptor,--suddenly
had the tables turned against them. Both were exiled, and a new
coterie of ladies came into power; the Duchesse d'Alincourt replaced
Mme. de Prie, and the king and M. Fleury themselves took up the
affairs of state.

M. Fleury, now cardinal, perceiving that a mistress was inevitable,
consented to the choice by the dissolute men and women of court
of Mme. de Mailly,--or Mlle. de Nesle,--who was supposed to be a
disinterested person. The king, who had no love for her, accepted