From MONSIEUR DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULT’S,
Friday evening, April 24, 1671.
Here, then, I make up my packet. I had intended to tell you that
the king arrived yesterday evening at Chantilly: he hunted a stag
by moonlight; the lamps did wonders; the fire-works were a little
eclipsed by the brightness of our serene friend, the moon; but the
evening, the supper, and the entertainment, went off admirably well.
The weather we had yesterday gave us hopes of an end worthy of so
fine a beginning. But what do you think I learned when I came here? I
am not yet recovered, and hardly know what I write. Vatel, the great
Vatel, late maître-d’hôtel to M. Fouquet, and in that capacity with
the prince, a man so eminently distinguished for taste, and whose
abilities were equal to the government of a state--this man, whom I
knew so well, finding, at eight o’clock this morning, that the fish he
had sent for did not come at the time he expected it, and unable to
bear the disgrace that he thought would inevitably attach to him, ran
himself through with his own sword. Guess what confusion so shocking
an accident must have occasioned. Think, too, that perhaps the fish
might come in just as he was expiring. I know no more of the affair
at present, and I suppose you think this enough. I make no doubt the
consternation was general; it must be very disagreeable to have so
fatal an event break in upon an entertainment that cost fifty thousand
crowns.
Monsieur De Menars is to be married to Mademoiselle De la
Grange-Neuville; but I do not know how I can have the heart to speak to
you about any thing but Vatel.