"
Here the conversation terminated. The duc de Choiseul did not
become my friend any the more, but behaved towards me with all
due consideration. He used grace and
in his proceedings,
without mingling with it anything approaching to nonsense. He never
allowed himself, whatever has been said, to dart out in my face any
of those epigrams which public malignity has attributed to him.
Perhaps like many other persons in the world, he has said many
pleasantries of me which have been reported as said in my presence,
but I repeat that he never uttered in my society a single word with
which I had cause to be offended.
At this juncture I received a letter of which I had the folly to be
proud, altho' a little reflection should have made me think that
my situation alone inspired it: it was from M. de Voltaire. This
great genius was born a courtier. Whether he loved the protection
of the great, or whether he thought it necessary to him, he was
constantly aiming, from his youth upwards, at obtaining the
countenance of persons belonging to a high rank, which made him
servile and adulatory whilst they were in power, and full of
grimace towards them when the wind favor ceased to swell their
sails. It was in this way that mesdames de Chateauroux and de
Pompadour had had his homage. He had sung their praises, and,
of course, he could not forget me. You will recall to mind the
letter which he wrote to the duc d'Aiguillon, on occasion of the
piece of poetry entitled ".
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