God knows how he compensated for this
little folly at the chateau. It was by redoubling his assiduities
to the king, and by incessant attentions to me. In general, those
who wished to thrive at court only sought how to make their
courage remembered; M. de Duras was only employed in making
his forgotten.
The prince de Terigny, the comte d'Escars, the duc de Fleury,
were not the least amusing. They kept up a lively strain of
conversation, and the king laughed outrageously. But the vilest
of the party was the duc de Fronsac. Ye gods! what a wretch!
To speak ill of him is no sin. A mangled likeness of his father,
he had all his faults with not one of his merits. He was perpetually
changing his mistresses, but it cannot be said whether it was
inconstancy on his part, or disgust on theirs, but the latter
appears to me most probable. Though young, he was devoured by
gout or some other infirmity, but it was called gout out of
deference to the house of Richelieu. They talked of the duchess
de ------, whose husband was said to have poisoned her.
The saints of Versailles--the duc de la Vauguyon, the duc d'Estissac,
and M. de Durfort--did like others. These persons practised
religion in the face of the world, and abstained from loose
conversation in presence of their own families; but with the king
they laid aside their religion and reserve, so that these hypocrites
had in the city all the honours of devotion, and in the royal
apartments all the advantages of loose conduct.
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