Though the late Monsieur received much property with me, I was obliged
to give it all up to him,--jewels, furniture, pictures, in short,
all that came to me from my family; and I really had not means to
live according to my rank and maintain my household, which is very
considerable. I have been ill-used in this respect, but it was rather
the fault of the Princess Palatine, who allowed my marriage-contract
to be so ill-drawn. All the Madames have had pensions from the king;
but as these are established on the old footing, they do not afford
sufficient means to reach the end of the year. I have been obliged to
cede my jewels to my son; otherwise I could not live as I should and
keep up my establishment, which is very large; but to do so is, to my
thinking, more commendable than to be decked with jewels.
I cannot see why people should have so many different garments. All I
have are either full-dress gowns, or my hunting habit for horseback.
I never in my life had a dressing-gown, and I have but one wrapper
[_robe de nuit_] in my wardrobe to go to bed and get up in.
I was very glad when the late Monsieur, after the birth of his
daughter, took a bed to himself, for I never liked the business of
making children. When his Highness made me the proposal I said: "Yes,
with all my heart, Monsieur; I shall be very glad of it, provided you
do not hate me and continue to be a little kind to me." He promised me
that, and we were always very well satisfied with each other.
It was very annoying to sleep with Monsieur; he could not endure that
any one should disturb his sleep; I was obliged to keep myself on the
very edge of the bed, so that sometimes I fell out like a sack. I was
therefore extremely pleased when Monsieur, in good friendship and
without bitterness, proposed that we should sleep in separate rooms.
I am like you; I cannot imagine that any one should remarry; there is
but one motive that I can conceive, and that is dying of hunger and
getting one's bread that way.
I never had but one hundred louis for cards until the death of my
mother; after Monsieur received the money of the Palatinate he doubled
that allowance.
The Maréchale de Villars runs after the Comte de Toulouse; my son
is also in her good graces, and he is not discreet. The Maréchal
de Villars came to see me one day, and as he assumes to know much
about medals he asked to see mine. Baudelot,[12] a very honourable
and learned man, who is in charge of them, was obliged to show them.
Baudelot is not the most discreet of men, and moreover he is little
informed as to what goes on at Court. So he made a dissertation on
one of my medals to prove, against the opinion of other savants, that
a head with horns which appears upon it is that of Pan, and not that
of Jupiter Ammon. To prove his erudition the worthy soul said to M.
de Villars, "Ah! monseigneur, here is one of the finest medals Madame
has; it is the triumph of Cornificius; he has all sorts of horns. He
was a great general like yourself, monseigneur; he has the horns of
Juno and of Faunus. Cornificius, as you know, monseigneur, was a very
able general." I interrupted him. "Go on," I said; "if you stop to
talk about each medal, you will not have time to show them all." But,
full of his subject, he replied: "Oh, Madame, this one is worth all
the rest. Cornificius is really one of the rarest medals on earth.
Consider it, Madame, look at it; here is a crowned Juno crowning that
great general." In spite of all I did, I could not prevent Baudelot
from harping on horns to the marshal. "Monseigneur knows all about
such things," he said, "and I want him to judge whether I am not right
in saying that those horns are the horns of Pan, and not of Jupiter
Ammon." Everybody in the room had all they could do not to laugh. If
it had been done on purpose it could not have been more complete. When
the marshal had gone, I laughed out; but I had the greatest difficulty
in convincing Baudelot that he had blundered.