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The place chosen was the house of the Bishop of Chartres at Versailles. I was now in hope that I should soon bring the question to some issue; and on the 4th of October I went to dine with the Bishop of Chartres to fix the day. We appointed the 7th. But how soon, frequently, do our prospects fade!
Small pride would you have, my dear baron, in these rooms, luxurious though they are, if filled with guests of vulgar exterior and plebeian manners. It is only in the world in which we move that we find persons who harmonize, as it were, with the porcelain of Sevres, and these sofas that might have come from Versailles."
He had been garde du corps, or life-guardman at Versailles; and by virtue of this office he was perfectly well acquainted with the persons of the king and the dauphin, with the characters of the ministers and grandees, and, in a word, with all the secrets of state, on which he held forth with equal solemnity and elocution.
He never refused to impart to others what he knew himself; by which conduct he became esteemed in private, as much as he was adored in public. This master's grand works are principally at Rome, in the Vatican; in the palace, Florence; Versailles; and the Palais Royal, France; the king's collection, Naples; and in the apartments at Hampton Court Palace.
She preferred raillery to argument, and nicknamed the Comtesse de Noailles Madame l'Etiquette. The fetes which were given at Versailles on the marriage of the Dauphin were very splendid.
I would far sooner attribute the vast expenditure of Versailles to the common love of monarchs and great men for building houses too large for their necessities. Indeed, it was but yesterday that Fareham took me to see the palace for I can call it by no meaner name that Lord Clarendon is building for himself in the open country at the top of St. James's Street.
The Queen, fancying she was not recognised, amused herself by keeping up the incognito, and they talked of several private families of Versailles, consisting of persons belonging to the King's household or her own. After a few minutes the Queen and Princesses rose to walk, and on leaving the bench curtsied to the clerk.
On a fixed day all the Bodyguards from the same province, who were called to go and take up their duties, would meet, on horseback, at an agreed spot and the cheerful caravanserai would take the road for Versailles.
Madame de Maintenon had the greatest difficulty to hinder him from returning straight to Versailles.
At Versailles the fact stood out most plainly that through infirmities of temper he had lost his post. His pension might save him from penury. It was far too small to give him real independence.
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