The credit of this minister was immense, and this credit was based
on four powerful auxiliaries; namely the parliament, the philosophers,
the
, and the women. The high magistracy found in him
a public and private protector. The parliaments had themselves a
great many clients, and their voices, given to the duc de Choiseul,
gave him great power in the different provinces. The philosophers,
ranged under the banner of Voltaire, who was their god, and of
d'Alembert, their patriarch, knew all his inclinations for them, and
knew how far they might rely on his support in all attempts which
they made to weaken the power of the clergy, and to diminish the
gigantic riches which had been amassed by prelates and monasteries.
The writers were equally devoted to him: they progressed with the
age, and as on all sides they essayed to effect important reforms,
it was natural that they should rally about him in whose hands
was the power of their operations.
The ladies admired his gallantry: in fact, the duc de Choiseul was
a man who understood marvellously well how to combine serious
labors with pleasure. I was, perhaps, the only woman of the court
whom he would not love, and yet I was not the least agreeable nor
the most ugly. It was very natural for them to exalt his merit
and take him under their especial protection. Thus was he
supported in every quarter by them; they boasted of his measures,
and by dint of repeating in the ears of every body that M.
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