at
his word on the footing of equality to which he would absolutely reduce
himself with me, except it be that with which he took me at mine with
respect to the absolute independence in which I was determined to live.
Both persuaded I had reason to be content with my situation, and that I
was unwilling to change it, neither he nor Madam de Luxembourg seemed to
think a moment of my purse or fortune; although I can have no doubt of
the tender concern they had for me, they never proposed to me a place nor
offered me their interest, except it were once, when Madam de Luxembourg
seemed to wish me to become a member of the French Academy. I alleged my
religion; this she told me was no obstacle, or if it was one she engaged
to remove it. I answered, that however great the honor of becoming a
member of so illustrious a body might be, having refused M. de Tressan,
and, in some measure, the King of Poland, to become a member of the
Academy at Nancy, I could not with propriety enter into any other. Madam
de Luxembourg did not insist, and nothing more was said upon the subject.
This simplicity of intercourse with persons of such rank, and who had the
power of doing anything in my favor, M. de Luxembourg being, and highly
deserving to be, the particular friend of the king, affords a singular
contrast with the continual cares, equally importunate and officious, of
the friends and protectors from whom I had just separated, and who
endeavored less to serve me than to render me contemptible.

When the marechal came to see me at Mont Louis, I was uneasy at receiving
him and his retinue in my only chamber; not because I was obliged to make
them all sit down in the midst of my dirty plates and broken pots, but on
account of the state of the floor, which was rotten and falling to ruin,
and I was afraid the weight of his attendants would entirely sink it.
Less concerned on account of my own danger than for that to which the
affability of the marechal exposed him, I hastened to remove him from it
by conducting him, notwithstanding the coldness of the weather, to my
alcove, which was quite open to the air, and had no chimney. When he was
there I told him my reason for having brought him to it; he told it to
his lady, and they both pressed me to accept, until the floor was
repaired, a lodging of the castle; or, if I preferred it, in a separate
edifice called the Little Castle which was in the middle of the park.
This delightful abode deserves