>" I took
care, however, how I joked on this point with the marechale, who
listened to nothing that touched on the nobility of the ancestors of
her husband or on those of her own family.
Great had been the outcry in the palace against the duc de la
Vauguyon and madame de Bearn, but how much louder did it become
on the defection of the marquise de Mirepoix. The cabal was
destroyed; for a woman of rank and birth like the marechale was
to me a conquest of the utmost importance. The princesse de
Guemenee and the duchesse de Grammont were wofully enraged.
This they manifested by satirical sneers, epigrams, and verses,
which were put forth in abundance. All these inffictions disturbed
her but little; the main point in her eyes was to possess the
favor of the master; and she had it, for he felt that he was
bound to her by her complaisance.
He was not long in giving her an unequivocal proof of his regard.
The duc de Duras asked her, in presence of the king and myself,
why she did not wear her diamonds as usual.
"They are my representatives," was her reply.
"What do you mean by representatives?" said I.
"Why, my dear countess, they are with a Jew instead of my
sign-manual. The rogue had no respect for the word of a relation
of the Holy Virgin and the daughter of the Beauvau. I was in
want of thirty thousand francs; and to procure it I have given
up my ornaments, not wishing to send to the Jew the old plate of
my family, altho' the hunks wanted it.
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