that ever lived by her wits and her beauty--had begun life by begging
her bread in the streets. She laid claim to left-handed descent from
the royal line of Valois, and, her claim supported by the Marchioness
Boulainvilliers, who had befriended her, she had obtained from the Crown
a small pension, and had married the unscrupulous Marc Antoine de la
Motte, a young soldier in the Burgundy regiment of the Gendarmerie.

Later, in the autumn of 1786, her protectress presented her to Cardinal
de Rohan. His Eminence, interested in the lady's extraordinary history,
in her remarkable beauty, vivacity, and wit, received the De la Mottes
at his sumptuous chateau at Saverne, near Strasbourg, heard her story in
greater detail, promised his protection, and as an earnest of his
kindly intentions obtained for her husband a captain's commission in the
Dragoons.

Thereafter you see the De la Mottes in Paris and at Versailles, hustled
from lodging to lodging for failure to pay what they owe; and finally
installed in a house in the Rue Neuve Saint-Gilles. There they kept
a sort of state, spending lavishly, now the money borrowed from the
Cardinal, or upon the Cardinal's security; now the proceeds of pawned
goods that had been bought on credit, and of other swindles practised
upon those who were impressed by the lady's name and lineage and the
patronage of the great Cardinal which she enjoyed.

To live on your wits is no easy matter. It demands infinite address,
coolness, daring, and resource qualities which Madame de la Motte
possessed in the highest degree, so that, harassed and pressed by
creditors, she yet contrived to evade their attacks and to present a
calm and, therefore, confidence-inspiring front to the world.

The truth of Madame de la Motte de Valois's reputation for influence
at Court was never doubted. There was nothing in the character of Marie
Antoinette to occasion such doubts. Indiscreet in many things, Her
Majesty was most notoriously so in her attachments, as witness her
intimacy with Madame de Polignac and the Princesse de Lambelle. And the
public voice had magnified--as it will--those indiscretions until it had
torn her character into shreds.

The fame of the Countess Jeanne de Valois--as Madame de la Motte now
styled herself--increasing, she was employed as an intermediary by
place-seekers and people with suits to prefer, who gratefully purchased
her promises to interest herself on their behalf at Court.

And t