e acquaintance of the two princes, Don
Marc Antoine and Don Jean Baptiste Borghese, from Rome, who were enjoying
themselves in Paris, yet living without display. I had occasion to remark
that when those Roman princes were presented at the court of France they
were only styled "marquis:" It was the same with the Russian princes, to
whom the title of prince was refused when they wanted to be presented;
they were called "knees," but they did not mind it, because that word
meant prince. The court of France has always been foolishly particular on
the question of titles, and is even now sparing of the title of monsieur,
although it is common enough everywhere every man who was not titled was
called Sieur. I have remarked that the king never addressed his bishops
otherwise than as abbes, although they were generally very proud of their
titles. The king likewise affected to know a nobleman only when his name
was inscribed amongst those who served him.

Yet the haughtiness of Louis XV. had been innoculated into him by
education; it was not in his nature. When an ambassador presented someone
to him, the person thus presented withdrew with the certainty of having
been seen by the king, but that was all. Nevertheless, Louis XV. was very
polite, particularly with ladies, even with his mistresses, when in
public. Whoever failed in respect towards them in the slightest manner
was sure of disgrace, and no king ever possessed to a greater extent the
grand royal virtue which is called dissimulation. He kept a secret
faithfully, and he was delighted when he knew that no one but himself
possessed it.

The Chevalier d'Eon is a proof of this, for the king alone knew and had
always known that the chevalier was a woman, and all the long discussions
which the false chevalier had with the office for foreign affairs was a
comedy which the king allowed to go on, only because it amused him.

Louis XV. was great in all things, and he would have had no faults if
flattery had not forced them upon him. But how could he possibly have
supposed himself faulty in anything when everyone around him repeated
constantly that he was the best of kings? A king, in the opinion of which
he was imbued respecting his own person, was a being of a nature by far
too superior to ordinary men for him not to have the right to consider
himself akin to a god. Sad destiny of kings! Vile flatterers are
constantly doing everything necessary to reduce them below the condition