Now they have just published under my name some attacks on the
poor president Henault, whom I love with sincere affection. What
have they not attributed to me to inculpate me with my friends,
with my illustrious protectors, M. le marechal duc de Richelieu and
their majesties the king of Prussia and the czarina of Russia!
"I could excuse them for making war upon strangers in my name,
altho' that would be a pirate's method; but to attack, under my
banner, my master, my sovereign lord, this I can never pardon, and
I will raise against them even a dying voice; particularly when they
strike you with the same blows; you, who love literature; you, who
do me the honor to charge your memory with my feeble productions.
It is an infamy to pretend that I fire on my own troops.
"Under any circumstances, madame, I am before you in a very
delicate situation. There is in Versailles a family which overwhelms
me with marks of their friendship. Mine ought to appertain to it to
perpetuity; yet I learn that it is so unfortunate as to have no
conception of your merit, and that envious talebearers place
themselves between you and it. I am told that there is a kind of
declared war; it is added, that I have furnished supplies to this
camp, the chiefs of which I love and esteem. More wise, more
submissive, I keep myself out of the way of blows; and my reverence
for the supreme master is such, that I turn away my very eyes that
they may not be spectators of the fight.
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