Mme. de Berry has made my daughter a very pretty parting present;
it is a commode, or rather a table with drawers, in which are all
kinds of stuffs, scarfs, coiffures, etc., in the last fashion. The
commode is decorated with gilt ornaments worth a thousand pistoles.
My son gave his sister a _necessaire_, that is to say, a small square
chest containing whatever is necessary for taking tea, coffee, and
chocolate. The cups are in white porcelain with raised designs in gold
and enamel.
My daughter has postponed her departure till Wednesday; the day will
come soon enough, for whatever grieves us comes more surely and
quickly than what gladdens us. The king owes a great deal of money to
the Duc de Lorraine, and on account of that debt he has given him one
hundred thousand francs to pay the costs of this journey.
The Prince of Wales has done a fine action, and if that does not touch
the King of England nothing will ever restore peace between them.
Emissaries went to the prince and urged him to put himself at the head
of their party. He answered that never in his life would he belong to
any party against his father and king. The King of England is a bad
man; he had no consideration for his mother, who loved him tenderly,
and without whom he never would have been King of England. None of her
children, even the Queen of Prussia, whom she adored, ever treated her
as they ought.
My Lorraine children are satisfied with me, and I with them. I am
also more satisfied with my grand-daughter the Duchesse de Berry,
who behaved very well to them. She has good judgment and she shows
a disposition to return to religion and a disgust for vice. I hope
that God will have pity upon her and grant her the mercy of a sincere
conversion. If she had been properly brought-up she would have turned
to better things, for she has capacity, and a good heart; also she
has, undoubtedly, intellect, and is never captious. I tease her
sometimes, and tell her she only fancies she likes hunting; for at
bottom it is only a liking for change of place. She really cares for
nothing but the death of the game, and she prefers that of a boar to
a stag, because it procures her good blood-puddings and sausages.
She amuses herself as much as she can; one day she hunts, another
she drives, on a third she goes to a fair; sometimes to see the
rope-dancers, or to the comedy or the opera; but always in a scarf,
never in a gown with a body to it. She sometimes laughs about her
figure and her waist. Her flesh is very firm, and her cheeks are as
hard as stones.
I once made the Comtesse de Soissons laugh with all her heart when she
asked me: "How is it, Madame, that you never look at yourself when you
pass a mirror, as other people do?" I answered: "Because I have too
much vanity to like to see myself, ugly as I am." There cannot be in
the whole world more villanous hands than mine. The late king often
reproached me for them, and made me laugh heartily myself. As I never
in my life could boast of having anything pretty about me, I took a
way of laughing myself at my own ugliness; and that has answered, for
indeed I have often found cause to laugh.
Mme. de Berry does not eat much at dinner, and it is impossible that
she should, because she makes them bring her, before she gets up, all
sorts of things to eat; she never stirs from her bed till mid-day; at
two o'clock she sits down to table, and does not leave it till three;
she takes no exercise; at four they bring her eatables of all kinds,
fruits, salad, and cheese; at ten she sups, and goes to bed between
one and two o'clock; she drinks the strongest brandy.
The youth of both sexes in France lead the most reprehensible life;
the more licentious it is, the better they think it. That may be
very nice, but I confess I do not think it is. They do not follow my
example in having regular hours; but I am determined not to alter my
conduct to suit theirs, which seems to me that of sows and hogs.
Nothing in the world disgusts me so much as the taking of snuff; it
makes all noses horrible and spreads a fetid odour. I have known
persons with sweet breath who in six months after they took to
tobacco, smelt like goats With noses besmeared with snuff they look,
forgive me the expression, as if they had tumbled into a cesspool.
The king detested the habit, but his children and his grandchildren
persisted in it, though they knew how he disliked it. Persons should
abstain altogether, for if they take a little they soon want to take
much. People call it the magic herb, because those who once begin to
use it cannot go without it.