Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images available at The Internet Archive) MEMOIRS OF THE Marchioness of Pompadour. WRITTEN BY HERSELF. Wherein are Displayed The Motives of the Wars, Treaties of Peace, Embassies, and Negotiations, in the several Courts of Europe: The Cabals and Intrigues of Courtiers; the Characters of Generals, and Ministers of State, with the Causes of their Rise and Fall; and, in general, the most remarkable Occurrences at the Court of France, during the last twenty Years of the Reign of Lewis XV. Translated from the French. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: Printed for P. VAILLANT, in the Strand; and W. JOHNSTON, in Ludgate-Street. MDCCLXVI. THE EDITORâS PREFACE. The following work must be acknowledged highly interesting to these times; and to posterity will be still more so. These are not the memoirs of a mere woman of pleasure, who has spent her life in a voluptuous court, but the history of a reign remarkable for revolutions, wars, intrigues, alliances, negotiations; the very blunders of which are not beneath the regard of politicians, as having greatly contributed to give a new turn to the affairs of Europe. The Lady who drew the picture was known to be an admirable colourist. They who were personally acquainted with Mademoiselle Poisson, before and since her marriage with M. le Normand, know her to have been possessed of a great deal of that wit, which, with proper culture, improves into genius. The King called her to court at a tempestuous season of life, when the passions reign uncontrouled, and by corrupting the heart, enlarge the understanding. They who are near the persons of Kings, for the most part, surpass the common run of mankind, both in natural and acquired talents; for ambition is ever attended with a sort of capacity to compass its ends; and all courtiers are ambitious. No sooner does the Sovereign take a mistress, than the courtiers flock about her. Their first concern is to give her her cue; for as they intend to avail themselves of her interest with the King, she must be made acquainted with a multitude of things: she may be said to receive her intelligence from the first hand, and to draw her knowledge at the fountain head. Lewis XV. intrusted the Marchioness de Pompadour with the greatest concerns of the nation; so that if she had been without those abilities which distinguished her at Paris, she must still have improved in the school of Versailles. Her talents did not clear her in the public eye; never was a favourite more outrageously pelted with pamphlets, or exposed to more clamorous invectives. Of this her Memoirs are a full demonstration; her enemies charged her with many very odious vices, without so much as allowing her one good quality. The grand subject of murmur was the bad state of the finances, which they attributed to her amours with the King. They who brand the Marchioness with having run Lewis XV. into vast expences, seem to have forgot those which his predecessorâs mistresses had brought on the state. Madame de la Valiere, even before she was declared mistress to Lewis XIV. induced him to give entertainments, which cost the nation more than ever Madame de Pompadourâs fortune amounted to. Madame de Montespan put the same Prince to very enormous expences; she appeared always with the pomp and parade of a Queen, even to the having guards to attend her. Scarronâs widow carried her pride and ostentation still further: she drew the King in to marry her, and this mistress came to be queen, an elevation which will be an eternal blot on the Princeâs memory. This clandestine commerce gave rise to an infamous practice at court, with which Madame de Pompadour cannot be charged. All these concubines having children, to gratify their vanity, they must be legitimated; and, afterwards, they found means to marry these sons, or daughters, of prostitution, to the branches of the royal blood; a flagrant debasement of the house which were in kin to the crown: for though a Sovereign can legitimate a bastard, to efface the stain of bastardy is beyond his power. The consequence was, that the descendants of that clandestine issue aspired to the throne; and, through the Kingâs scandalous amours, that lustre which is due only to virtue, fell to the portion of vice. It was given out in France, and over all Europe, that Madame de Pompadour was immensely rich: but nothing of this appeared at her death, except her magnificent moveables, and these were rather the consequences of her rank at court, than the effects of her vanity. This splendor his Majesty partook of, as visiting her every day. The public is generally an unfair judge of those who hold a considerable station at court, deciding from vague reports, which are often the forgeries of ill-grounded prejudice. Madame de Pompadour has been charged with insatiable avarice. Had this been the case, she might have indulged herself at will: she was at the spring-head of opulence; the King never refused her any thing; so that she might have amassed any money; which she did not. There are now existing, in France, fifty wretches of financiers, each of a fortune far exceeding herâs. It was also said, that the best thing which could happen to France, was to be rid of this rapacious favourite. Well; she is no more; and what is France the better for it? Has her death been followed by one of those sudden revolutions in the government, which usher in a better form of administration? Have they who looked on this Lady as an unsurmountable obstacle to Franceâs greatness, proposed any better means for raising it from its present low state? Is there more order in the government? are the finances improved? is there more method and oeconomy? No, affairs are still in the same bad ways the lethargy continues as profound as ever. The ministry, which before Madame de Pompadourâs death was fast asleep, is not yet awake. Every thing remains in _statu quo_. Some European governments have no regular motion; they advance either too fast, or too slow; their steps are either precipitate, or sluggish. In this favouriteâs time, there was too much shifting and changing in the ministry; now she is gone, there is none at all, &c. &c. I am very far from intending a panegyric on Madame de Pompadour. Faults she had, which posterity will never forgive. All the calamities of France were imputed to her, and she should have resigned in compliance to the public: a nation is to be respected even in its prejudices. With any tolerable share of patriotism, Madame de Pompadour would have quitted the court, and thus approved herself deserving of the favour for which she was execrated; but her soul was not capable of such an act of magnanimity: she knew nothing of that philosophy which, inspiring a contempt of external grandeur, endears the subject to the Prince, and exalts him above the throne. There is great appearance that this Lady intended to revise both her Memoirs and her will, and that death prevented her: she used to write, by starts, detached essays, without any coherence; and these on separate bits of paper. These were very numerous and diffuse, as generally are the materials intended to form a book, if she really had any such design. We were obliged to throw by on all sides, and clear our way through an ocean of writings, a long and tiresome business. It is far from being improbable, that Madame de Pompadour got some statesman, well versed in such matters, to assist her in compiling this book: however that be, we give it as it stands in her original manuscript. [Illustration: text decoration] MEMOIRS OF THE Marchioness of Pompadour. The following narrative is not confined to the particular history of my life. My design is more extensive: I shall endeavour to give a true representation of the court of France under the reign of Lewis XV. The private memoirs of a Kingâs mistress are in themselves of small import; but to know the character of the Prince who raises her to favour; to be let into the intrigues of his reign, the genius of the courtiers, the practices of the ministers, the views of the great, the projects of the ambitious; in a word, into the secret springs of politics, is not a matter of indifference. It is very seldom that the public judges rightly of what passes in the cabinet: they hear that the King orders armies to take the field; that he wins or loses battles; and on these occurrences they argue according to their particular prejudices. History does not come nearer the mark; the generality of annalists being only the echoes of the public mistakes. These papers I do not intend to publish in my life-time; but should they appear after my death, posterity will see in them a faithful draught of the several parts of the administration, which were acted, in some measure, under my eye. Had I never lived at Versailles, the events of our times might have been an inexplicable riddle to posterity; so complicated are the incidents, and in many particulars so contradictory, that, without a key, there is no decyphering them. Ministers and other place-men are not always acquainted with the means, which they themselves make use of for attaining certain ends. A plenipotentiary very well knows that he signs a treaty of peace, but he is ignorant of the Kingâs motives for putting an end to the war. Every politician strikes out a system in his own sagacious brain; the speculatists have often fathered on France what she never dreamed of; and many refined schemes have been attributed to her ministers, which never made part of their plan. It is not long since a minister of a certain court said to me at Versailles, That the two last German wars, which cost France so much blood, and three hundred millions of livres, was the greatest stroke of policy which the age afforded; as this court had thereby insensibly, and unknown to the rest of Europe, reduced the power of the Queen of Hungary: for, added he, if, on the demise of Charles VI. this crown had openly bent all its forces against the house of Austria, a general alliance would have opposed it; whereas it has weakened that house by a series of little battles and repeated losses, &c. &c. The inserting such an anecdote in the annals of our age would be sufficient to disfigure the whole history. The truth is, that they who were at the head of the French affairs, during these two wars, had no manner of genius. All details not relative to the state I shall carefully omit, as rather writing the age of Lewis XV. than the history of my private life. The transactions of a Kingâs favourite concern only the reign of that Prince; but truth is of perpetual concern. I hope the public does not expect from me a circumstantial journal of Lewis XVâs gallantries: the King had many transitory amours during my residence at Versailles; but none of his mistresses were admitted into the public affairs. The reign of the far greater part began and ended in the Princeâs bed. These foibles, so closely connected with human nature, belong rather to a Kingâs private life, than to the public history of a Monarch: I may sometimes mention them, but it will only be by the way. I shall likewise be silent in regard to my family. The particular favour with which I have been honoured by Lewis XV. has placed my origin in broad day-light. A Monarch in raising a woman to the summit of grandeur, of course lays open the blemishes of her birth. The annals of the universe have been overlooked, to make a singular case of what has been almost a general practice in the world. The Roman Emperors often raised so favour and eminence women of more obscure birth than mine: but, without going so far backward, the history of our own Kings abounds with such instances. Though the widow of Scarron the poet rose a step higher than I, she was not born to such exaltation. It is true her father was a gentleman; but all women, not born Princesses, are at a like distance from the throne. A multitude of injurious reports have been propagated concerning my parents. A wretched anonymous writer has gone even farther, by publishing a scandalous book with the title of the history of my life. The Count DâAffry wrote to me from Holland, that this production was of the growth of Great-Britain. The English seem to make it their particular business to throw dirt at persons of distinguished rank at the court of France: that government is said to claim such a privilege, in order to keep up the hatred between the two nations. Though my birth had nothing great in it, my education was not neglected. I was taught dancing, music, and the rules of elocution, by excellent masters; and those little talents have proved of the highest use to me. I also read a great deal, and a favourite writer of mine was one Madame de Villedieu. Her picture of the Roman empire entertained me exceedingly. I even felt a very lively joy in observing that the greatest revolutions in the world have been owing to love. After bestowing on me all the accomplishments which advantageously distinguish a young person of my sex, I was married to one whom I did not love; and a misfortune still greater was, that he loved me. This I call a misfortune, and indeed I know not a greater on earth; for a woman not beloved by a man, whom she likewise has married without any affection, at least comforts herself in his indifference. During the first years of my marriage, the Kingâs gallantries were much talked of at Paris: his fleeting amours opened a field for all women, who had beauty enough to put in for his heart. The post of mistress to Lewis XV. was often vacant. At Versailles all the passions had an appearance of debauchery. In that airy region love was soon exhausted, as consisting wholly in fruition. Nothing of delicacy was to be seen at court; the whole scene of sensibility was in the Princeâs bed. This Monarch often laid down with a heart full of love, and the next morning rose with as much indifference. This account made me shudder; for I own I had then formed a design of winning the heart of that Prince. I was afraid that he was so used to change, as to be past all constancy. I even, then, blushed at the thought of giving myself up to an inclination of no farther consequence than a momentary gratification of the senses; but was fixed on my design. I had often seen the King at Versailles, without being perceived by him; our looks had never met; my eyes had a great deal to say, but had no opportunity of explaining my desires. At length I had an interview with the Monarch, and, for the first time, talked with him in private. There is no expressing what passed in me at this first conversation; fear, hope, and admiration, successively agitated my soul. The King soon dispelled my confusion; for Lewis XV. is certainly the most affable Prince in his court, if not in the whole world. In private discourse his rank lays no restraint, and all ideas of the throne are suspended; an air of candour and goodness diffuses itself through every part of his behaviour; in short, he can forget that he is a King, to be the more a gentleman. Our conversation was to me all charming: I pleased and was pleased. The King has since owned to me, that he loved me from that first interview. It was there agreed that we should see one another privately at Versailles: he was very much for my immediately coming to an apartment in the palace: he even insisted on it; but I begged he would give me leave to remain still incognito for some time; and the King, being the most polite man in France, yielded to my request. On my return to Paris, a thousand fresh emotions rose in my breast. A strange thing is the human heart! we feel the effects of those passions of which we know not the cause. I am still at a loss whether I loved the King from this first meeting: that it gave me infinite pleasure, I know; but pleasure is not always a consequence of love. We are susceptible of a multitude of other passions, which may produce the like effect. I experienced a thousand delights in our secret intercourse: little do I wonder that Madame de la Valiere, in the infancy of her amours with Lewis XIV. was so transported with the sole enjoyment of that Monarchâs affection: but at length, the King requiring that I should live at Versailles, I complied with his desire. Now was my first appearance at court. Very faint and imperfect are the descriptions which books give of this grand theatre. I thought myself amidst another species of mortals: I observed that their manners and usages are not the same; and that in regard to dress, deportment, and language, the inhabitants of Versailles are entirely different from those of Paris. Every courtier, besides his personal character, frames to himself another, under which he acts his several parts. In town, virtue and vice are streightened; here both range at large. The passions are the stronger, as they happen to be at the source of the means of gratifying them. Private interest, from whence they derive all their activity, is there in its centre. The Princeâs favour gives life and motion to the courtierâs soul: without a beam from the throne, it is all a horrid gloom. To appear with dignity on this theatre, where I was an utter stranger, I saw that it behoved me to make it my first care to examine into the temper of those actors who played the capital parts. Of his Majesty I knew nothing, but by common report; and that, when it relates to a reigning Prince, is generally wrong; either flattery attributing too many virtues to him, or malevolence charging him with too many vices. Lewis XV. is endowed with great natural parts, a surprising quickness of apprehension, and solidity of judgment. He, at once, discerns the springs which give motion to the most complicated affairs of politics: he knows all the weaknesses of the general system, and the faults of each particular administration. This Prince has a noble and exalted soul: the blood of the legislator, the hero, and the warrior, runs in his veins; but a narrow education has stifled the effect of these advantages. Cardinal Fleury, having not one great principle in himself, trained this Prince to nothing but trifles: yet this unequal education did not extinguish in him the most amiable qualities which can adorn a Sovereign. It is impossible to exceed the goodness of Lewis XVâs heart: he is humane, mild, affable, compassionate, just, delighting in good, a declared enemy to every thing which does not bear the stamp of honour and probity, &c. &c. Singular likewise are the virtues of the Queen: she has laid all domestic hardships at the foot of the cross; so far from lamenting a fate, which would have embittered the whole life of another Princess, she considers it as a particular favour of Heaven, from a persuasion that Providence is pleased to try her firmness in this life, in order to confer the greater reward on her in the next. None of those fretful words which speak a rankled heart ever came from her: she dwells with pleasure on the Kingâs eminent qualities, and draws a veil over his weaknesses: she never speaks of him but with a sensible respect and veneration: it is impossible for any lady to carry Christian perfection to a higher degree, and to concenter so many qualities in a rank, where the least defects efface the greatest virtues. The Dauphin, being at that time very young, did not in the least concern himself in public affairs. The King had ordered him not to interfere in politics, and he seemed sufficiently inclined to conform to such injunctions. The young Princesses kept pretty much in their apartments, and read a great deal. Sometimes, indeed, they went a-hunting, dined with the King in public, shewed themselves at the balls; then withdrew, without much minding the intrigues of the court. The Duke of Orleans, though first Prince of the blood, seldom came to Versailles: he had given into devotion, and spent his life in deeds of charity. The Prince of Conti was at that time in the field, and wholly taken up with military glory. CondÃ© was very young, and his uncle Charolois sunk in the most debauched intemperance. The other Princes of the royal blood had little or no share in public affairs; accordingly they never came to Versailles, but to be present at a great council, or at the Kingâs levee. Cardinal Tencin bore a great sway at court; the King confided in him very much; so that they often used to be busy together. The most weighty concerns of the crown were put into this ecclesiasticâs hands. Many extolled him as a great minister; but as I scarce knew the man, I shall say nothing of him: yet, when I think how much France has suffered by Richelieu, Mazarin, and Fleury, I own I do not like to see people of that class at the head of affairs. The Count de Maurpas excelled all the ministers of that time in genius, activity, and penetration: he was of as long a standing in the ministry as Lewis XV. in the sovereignty. To him the kingdom is indebted for several noble institutions. It was he who re-established the navy, which, after the death of Lewis XIV. had been most shamefully neglected. I have been told that the Levant trade was entirely his work. He was indefatigable in his department; and his dispatches were surprisingly accurate. I have seen many of his letters; and think it is scarce possible to comprize so many things in so few words. The dâArgensons, who had been introduced lately into the ministry, had as yet no settled character: they were said not to want either genius or probity; but that is not always sufficient for a proper discharge of such a post. I have heard that many qualifications are requisite; and that, if the least of them be wanting, there is no making any figure in the ministry. The Count de St. Florentin, who managed ecclesiastical matters, was little considered either at court or in town. He kept himself neuter amidst the intrigues of Versailles, minding only the business of his own department. As no great genius is required to issue letters _de cachet_, and banish priests, he filled his post with all the dignity of a minister whose only business is to sign. Orry, the Comptroller-general, was looked upon as a man of abilities, from his talent at scheming pecuniary edicts. Within some months after I had been settled at Versailles, he laid before the King no less than twenty-five, and these were to bring in two hundred millions. He was called the _Grand Financier_, from his finding resources for the King, by impairing those of the state. The Prince de Soubise was a man of parts and discernment. He knew a great deal; but his friends could have wished that he had not embarked in war. The soldiery had no opinion of him: perhaps in this they were wrong; yet a great man, who would be useful to his country, must give way to public prejudice. Marshal Noailles had still greater abilities; so that it may be questioned whether ever any one statesman or general possessed so extensive a knowlege. The forming of him was an effort of nature. There is not a science relating to political, civil, and military government, with which he was not intimately acquainted; but the exertion of these qualities was limited to the cabinet. His timidity and irresolution, in a day of action, benumbed his faculties, otherwise so excellent: his genius was certainly vast and extensive; and I question whether Europe had his equal in council. Marshal Belleisle was then in high reputation: the court and town were full of his praise. There was not in all France a man who had been at more pains to acquire a superficial knowlege of useless things: he pretended to be acquainted with every subject, and he had the art of making others believe so; hence it was not in the least suspected that he understood the art of war as little as that of negotiation: his manners were mild and engaging, and he had an agreeable fluency of speech; but he was so conceited of his knowlege, that although he affected a certain degree of modesty, still his deportment was sure to betray his pride: in short, I never knew a vainer creature. The Chevalier Belleisle did not affect to have so much understanding as his brother, which shewed him to have the more; but he had all the excessive ambition of the Marshal, and lost his life in attempting to force an intrenchment, the success of which would have raised him to the same rank. The Duke de Richelieu was still more idolized than Marshal Belleisle. The King could not be without him. He was sure to be one at the private suppers, and he superintended all the diversions of Versailles. Never was any man like him for striking out a party of pleasure, and enlivening it by little incidents. He made it his business to divert the King, and was very alert in seizing every opportunity conducive to that end: but it was not for the Kingâs sake that he gave himself all that trouble: his motive of acting was his own aggrandizement; for he is insatiably greedy of rank and distinctions. Though of no genius for war, he had the ambition of being created a Marshal of France; and without any political talents, he was for thrusting himself into the ministry. Maurice of Saxony was the hero of France: he was esteemed the kingdomâs guardian angel. I shall speak of him when I come to treat of the battle of Fontenoy. Monsieur dâEstrÃ©es had the reputation of an able general: I shall make farther mention of him in the sequel. The greater part of the other courtiers were subordinate officers: they used to come from the army to Versailles, and then go back from Versailles to the army; all their business at court being about preferments. These were the Dukes of Grammont, Piquigny, Biron, la Valiere, Boufflers, Luxembourg; the Marquisses of Putange, Maubourg, BregÃ¨, Langeron, Armentieres, Creil, Renepont; the Counts Coigny, la Mothe-Houdancourt, Clermont, EstrÃ©es, Berenger; Messieurs dâAumont, Meuse, Ayou, Cibert, Chersey, Buckley, Segur, Fenelon, St. AndrÃ©, Varennes, Montal, Balincourt, la Fare, Clermont-Tonnerre, with many more who were for raising themselves by the sword. There was, at that time, scarce a woman at court who aspired at the Kingâs affections. Those of a distinguished rank disdained to be the objects of a transient love; and others, who courted that situation, had neither beauty nor graces sufficient to obtain it; so that it was only Parisian Ladies who entered into any of these intrigues: several were sure to place themselves in sight whenever the King dined in public; and always attended him to the chace: in short, they were ever dangling after his Majesty, which was just the very way to come short of their aim. My thoughts were employed to secure myself in the station to which fortune had raised me. The King was with me as often as the affairs of the crown would allow; leaving all grandeur behind him, and coming into my apartment without any thing of that state which attends on him at other places: for my part, I closely studied his temper. Lewis XV. is naturally of a saturnine turn: his soul is shrouded in a thick gloom; so that, with every pleasure at command, he may be said to be unhappy. Sometimes his melancholy throws him into such a languor that nothing affects him, and then he is quite insensible to all entertainment and pleasure. In these intervals, life becomes an insupportable burden to him. The enjoyment of a beautiful woman for a while diverts his uneasiness; but so far is it from being a lasting relief, that his melancholy afterwards returns upon him with redoubled weight. Another misfortune in this Princeâs life is, the continual conflict between his devotion and his passions; pleasure drawing him on, and remorse with-holding him: under this incessant struggle, he is one of the most unhappy men in his kingdom. I perceived that the Kingâs disposition was not to be changed by love only: this put me on engaging him by the charms of conversation; which has a stronger influence with men than the passions themselves. Of this, history furnished me with an instance in the person of his great grandfather. Lewis XIV. had so habituated himself to Madame de Maintenon, that no other woman could make any impression on him; and, thoâ the court at that time was full of celebrated beauties, Scarronâs widow, at an age when female influence over man is generally on the decline, found means so strongly to fix his affection, that her death only put an end to the charm. I planned a series of diversions, which, following close on one another, got the better of the Kingâs constitution, and diverted him from himself. I brought him to like music, dancing, plays, and little operas, in which I myself used to perform; and private suppers terminated the festivity. Thus the King lay down and rose in perfect satisfaction and good humour. The next day, unless detained on some great council, or other extraordinary ceremony, he would hasten to my apartment, to take, if I may presume to use the expression, his dose of good humour for the whole day. He grew fond of me from that instinct which makes us love what contributes to our happiness. All the favourites before me had thought only of making themselves loved by the King: it had not come into their heads to divert him. Thus I became necessary to his Majesty; his attachment grew stronger every day. I could have wished that our union had rested on love only; but with a Prince accustomed to change, we must do as well as we can. After the first moments of surprize, which naturally arises in our minds upon any great change, I, in my turn, gave myself up to uneasy reflections. Amidst all the Kingâs affection, I feared the return of his inconstancy. I could lay but little stress on my elevation; all bow the knee to the idol whilst the Prince worships it; but on his over-throwing the altar, it is trampled under foot. Some days after I thought I had more reason than ever to fear; for the King, coming to sup with me, seemed more thoughtful than usual. Instead of that gaiety which began to be natural to him, his countenance was quite clouded: all his talk was about politics, the affairs of Europe, and dispatching a courier to the army; thus, after a short conversation, he withdrew. This abruptness filled me with alarms: I had not a wink of sleep; and next morning I sent him an account of my condition in the following note: âSIRE, âYour politics have quite broke my heart. I was going to say a thousand pleasant things to you, had not your dispatches interrupted me. I have not closed my eyes during the whole night; for Godâs sake, Sire, leave Europe to itself, and allow me to lay open to you the state of my heart, which is on the rack when you deprive me of any opportunity of telling you that I love you with an affection, the end of which will be that of my life.â The King having read my letter, came in person to my apartment to make me easy; and he was now more gay than usual. I think I never saw him in a better temper. He had already given me some insight into the great events at that time on the carpet, and I was for diving into the truth of these abstruse mysteries; but not a word did I then understand in politics. I have heard that the English ladies have every morning ready laid on their toilet a paper giving them an account of the affairs of Europe, whereas all that we French women find there is our paint-boxes. I applied to Marshal Belleisle. âMy Lord, be so kind as to instruct me in what you call politics, which every body here is continually talking of.â He answered me smiling, âI cannot bring myself, Madam, to instruct you in a science which will prove destructive to many.â Yet the veteran courtier talked to me of systems, and enlarged upon the methods to be used by a state for its aggrandisement. After listening to him for some time, I concluded, though a novice at court, that this science is not reducible to principles nor general rules, as totally depending on time, place, and circumstances, and these almost ever arising from chance. In order to get a knowlege of the preceding administrations, I set myself to read the history of our government; but it was not in books that I sought for this knowledge, having always looked on them as the source of public errors. I consulted original manuscripts, which were put into my hands by the King himself. Here I saw all the former mistakes, and the original causes of them. As it was known both at Paris and Versailles that Lewis XV. was unsettled in his amours, his favourites had no very regular court. It often fell out that a lady whom the King had distinguished, lay down in high favour, and rose in disgrace: for vacant employments and temporary grants the favourites were practised on; but for the great purposes of ambition other springs than mistresses were set to work. In the first months of my favour scarce any body came near me. The Duke de Richelieu was the only nobleman who visited me in the Kingâs absence; but when, by the Monarchâs order, I made my appearance as Marchioness de Pompadour, and his Majesty was continually giving me marks of his esteem, the face of things changed. Envy and ambition formed two numerous parties. The former blackened me with the most virulent malice; and the latter as much exceeded in the most fulsome adulation. The motive in one was hope of preferment, the other acted from a despair of ever being preferred: both, however, joined in asking favours of me. I used my interest with the King in behalf of both. If I raised a person to a considerable post, or procured him a large pension, I surely drew on myself a hundred enemies, besides his ingratitude. At length all the kingdom came to pay their court to me; for the royal favour continued to shine on me as bright as ever. They who had been the most forward in reviling my birth, now claimed kindred with me. I shall never forget a letter I received at Versailles from a gentleman of one of the most ancient families in Provence, in the following terms: âDear Cousin, âI did not know that I was related to you till now that the King has created you Marchioness de Pompadour: a learned genealogist has demonstrated to me, that your great-grandfather was fourth cousin to my grandfather; so you see, dear cousin, our alliance is indisputable. If you desire it, Iâll send you our pedigree, that you may shew it to the King. âIn the mean time, my son, your cousin, who has served with distinction several years, wants a regiment; and as he cannot hope to obtain it by his rank, be so good as to ask the favour from the King.â I sent him the following answer: SIR, âI shall lay hold of the very first opportunity to desire his Majesty to give your son a regiment. But I likewise have a favour to ask of you, which is to dispense me from the honour of being related to you. I have some family reasons which forbid me to think, that my forefathers have ever been allied to any of the ancient houses of this kingdom.â Half France would hide themselves for shame, were I to give a detail of all the mean, fawning letters sent to me by persons of the first families in the kingdom. A Princess could write to me in this manner: âMy dear Friend, âI beg you would ask the King for a grant of farmer-general for Mr. Armand M----, a superannuated clerk, whose fortune I would gladly make. For this favour I shall hold myself obliged to you as long as I live. I am, my dear, With all possible regard, Your most humble servant.â The public envy, however, increasing with the marks of royal favour, the world, at any rate, would make me answerable for the events of the times. It has been in every bodyâs mouth, that all the misfortunes of France were owing to me. If there were any grounds for such a charge, the kingdom must have been in a prosperous and flourishing state when his Majesty called me to Versailles; whereas it was very far from being so. The cause of the evil lay deep; so that France, under all its pressures, was only fulfilling its destiny. The misfortunes of the administration in this reign are to be considered as flowing from the former administration. At the time of the demise of Lewis XIV. the kingdom was in a dreadful disorder; the debts of the nation were immense, and the public credit totally ruined; so that the state then laboured under an evil, which was not to be cured by temporary remedies. Lewis the Great, by his excessive fondness for splendor, had impoverished the people. The preceding Kings were contented with being the stewards or managers of the general wealth, but he made himself the proprietor of it: he became master of the nationâs treasure, all the finances were in his hands: he had augmented the crown revenues beyond all relative proportion: in the course of three years the whole species of France came into his coffers: besides, his magnificence had set his subjects the pernicious example of impoverishing themselves by profuse expences. The duke of Orleans, who was at the head of the state after Lewis XIV. so far from restoring order, increased the confusion. He promoted a system of finances, which proved their utter ruin. All the riches of the monarchy changed hands. No such thing as money was to be seen; foreigners ran away with one part, and domestic stock-jobbers secreted the other; no plan of administration could be contrived, capable of putting a stop to evils, unprecedented from the very foundation of the monarchy. This revolution greatly affected the several branches of the national strength. Agriculture, trade, arts, and ingenuity, were sufferers by it, and still suffer: for I have heard very knowing persons say, that the grand system had given birth to many detrimental systems in the state. Cardinal Fleury succeeded him; and things went still worse: he alone did more harm to France than all those before him, who had like to have ruined this realm. His particular qualities were order, oeconomy, and moderation; virtues excellent in a private person, but in a statesman often very great vices. All his view was, to fill the treasury, fancying that if the King were but rich, the state would no longer be poor. Thus he went on increasing the opulence of the crown, from the peopleâs subsistence. Intent upon saving, he let the navy run to ruin, that is, he deprived France of the only way left for retrieving itself. Fleury died; but this produced no amendment in the administration. France had not a minister capable of setting things to rights. They who were put at the head of affairs, were very busy, but without any knowledge. I have been told by a very experienced person, who used to come and see me at Versailles, that if at the Cardinalâs death the ministry had been put into the hands of an angel, he could not have done the crown much good. He added, that all the most able minister could do, was to prepare materials for a better administration. The government, said he, has six capital imperfections, and these are not to be amended, but by casting the constitution in a new mould. Another outcry was my being the source of favours, and that I disposed of every thing in the kingdom; with this addition, that I had brought the King to such a custom of visiting me, as had made it a kind of law to him, never to refuse me any thing. To this I answer, that it is an evil both necessary and natural to absolute government. Sovereigns must either have a confident or a mistress; and of the two the state generally suffers most by the former. Men in general have ambitious views, which a women does not trouble herself about. The confident studies to avail himself of the princeâs favour in all the means of raising himself to the highest fortune; he gets the sole management of the public finances; he engrosses the most lucrative posts, and distributes among his relations and creatures, those which he does not take for himself: the consequence of this is a general revolution in the government. In short, he has schemes of grandeur and elevation quite foreign to our sex. I have read in the annals of our monarchy that Richelieuâs ambition brought a thousand mischiefs on France: that favourite of Lewis XIII. sacrificed every thing to a giddy desire of appearing to be the only person of consequence in the kingdom. He cut the very sinews of the political power of all other bodies. He annulled the privileges of the nobility, which alone could make any stand against the despotism of our Kings; and therein he did more harm to France, than ever it has to fear from any mistresses. Mazarine, the second favourite, had an army in pay, and personally made war on the state. He imprisoned the princes of the blood, and raised such animosities and disturbances as in a manner subverted all government. He got the public treasure into his possession; almost all the money of the kingdom was in his coffers. He used to sell the principal state employments: when the King wanted money he was obliged to apply to him. And our times have seen Count Bruhl, the King of Polandâs favourite exceed his master, in extravagance. There are, at this time, several Dukes in the kingdom[1] who give France cause to remember that its Kings have had favourites; whereas what great fortune, what titles or distinctions has my brother Marigni? Die when he will, he will leave no monuments of the particular favour with which Lewis the XVth honoured me. I have been likewise accused of introducing into the ministry persons of no turn for business, ignorant, shallow, and superficial fellows: but where shall I find any other in France? The human mind seems to have been degenerated among us. The French nobility, though most concerned in the public administration, give no attention to business; their life is a round of indolence, luxury, and dissipation. They know as little of politics as of finances and Åconomy. A gentleman either spends his life at his seat in rural sports, or comes to Paris to ruin himself with an opera girl. They who have an ambition to figure in the ministry, have no other merit than intrigue and cabal. If they are traversed in their views, or afterwards superseded, such measure is with them an effect of the princeâs prejudice. The age of able ministers in France seems past. After all my inquiries for a Colbert and Louvois, I could only meet with Chamillards and Duboisâs; so that I was forced to commit all the branches of government to financiers by profession; a set of people void of capacity, and only skilful in one thing, which is pillaging the state. My enemies have farther affirmed, that I put the King on too frequent a change of his ministers; but that is an invention, which, in no wise, belongs to me. Before ever I knew the court, placemen were not more settled in their posts than since. Every day saw such creations and institutions; and this, perhaps, may still be a necessary evil in France. Before those gentlemen are in place, nothing can come up to their plan of government; they have effectual ways and means for reforming every thing that is amiss; they know the seat of the disease, and what will remove it: but no sooner have they got the reins of government in their hands than their incapacity throws every thing into confusion. On the public misfortunes they scarce bestow a thought; all they mind is their own personal interest. The ambition of being prime minister soon gets footing in them; and its continual agitation leaves no room in their mind for any attention to the kingdom. Ten years of administration in France make a minister so absolute, that he grows a mere Pacha; any intimation of his is a peremptory order: the Grand Signior is not more despotic at Constantinople than a French Secretary of State, after spending ten years at Versailles. It is the same with military affairs: however brave and courageous the French nobility may be, they have little or no genius for war: the hardship of a campaign immediately puts them out of conceit. France has no military school[2]. A young nobleman is made a Colonel before he is an officer, and then steps into the general command, without any experience. If two Frenchmen are appointed to command the armies in Flanders or Germany, immediately the spirit of envy kindles among them, and they will gratify their private piques and quarrels, whatever becomes of the state. In the mean time, the enemies profit by these divisions, and forward their schemes. In the late war, the King was obliged to commit the safety of his crown to two foreigners: had it not been for the Counts Saxe and Lowendahl, the enemies of France might have been at the gates of Paris. It is a mistake to think that a woman, who is in distinguished favour with a Prince, stands in need of weak ministers and bad generals to support her: incapacity spoils all and answers no purpose. Political mistakes, at the same time that they throw a shade on the Princeâs glory, utterly efface the lustre of his favourite. I can truly say, that most of the vexations I have gone through, since my residence at court, proceeded from hence. On every advantage gained by our enemies the king used to be melancholy and full of thought; and though this Prince be extremely polite, and not one disobliging word came from his mouth, yet his discomposure, at that time, embittered every other enjoyment of my life. I never made a minister, I never advised the King to confer the command of an army on any person, of whose abilities I was not certainly convinced, and whose merit was not universally confessed. The great used to compliment me on it, and the King himself congratulated me on my good judgment of men; their fitness was proclaimed by the universal voice. I must here mention the troubles the court laboured under, when the King gave me an apartment at Versailles; the occurrences of those times belonging to the plan of these Memoirs. Without that crowd of incidents which then fell out, and which the King used to communicate to me, my favour perhaps had never risen to such a height; for the events of this world are always directed by second causes. Ever since the year 1741, France had continued to wage war in Italy, in Flanders, and in Germany. Charles the VIth, the last male descendant of the house of Austria by the male side, had an ambition, which was not to be limited even by death; he was for surviving himself, and transmitting his power beyond the grave. This Prince, after acquiring a very
{'title': 'Memoirs of the Marchioness of Pompadour (vol. 1 of 2) by Pompadour', 'source': 'Project Gutenberg', 'lang': 'en'}