From Cardinal de Fleury, however, our abbé received a rebuff. Having, in order to humor his relative the Princess de Rohan, who had lately taken him by the hand, applied to the minster for a convent, the latter sternly replied,-- "Monsieur l'Abbé, your debaucheries render you unworthy of the favors of the church. As long as I remain in power you shall obtain nothing." "Well, Monseigneur," replied De Bernis, "I'll wait." This repartee was an event; it was repeated and applauded everywhere until it reached the ears of royalty itself. On Madame de Pompadour coming to power, the Princess de Rohan deigned to write to her in behalf of her dear abbé. "Madame la Marquis," she wrote, "you have not forgotten M. l'Abbé de Bernis; you will deign, I trust, to do something for him, he is worthy of your favors." Apropos of this letter, Madame de Pompadour wrote the following to some minister of the day: "I forgot, my dear Nigaud, to ask you what you have done for the Abbé de Bernis; write me word, I beg of you, as I shall see him on Sunday." Like Voltaire, Madame de Pompadour had the mania of nicknaming her friends and acquaintances; even the king himself figured more than once in her grotesque vocabulary.[B] [Footnote B: She always called De Bernis her _pigeon pattu_ (splay-footedpigeon--on account of his large feet and his love-songs). Voltaire had previously nicknamed him _Babet le bouquetiére_, at first because the abbé always introduced flowers into his poetry; afterward, on account of the resemblance he bore to a flower girl who used to sell bouquets at the doors of the Opera.] Madame de Pompadour presented her dear poet to the king, with a smile which so charmed Louis XV. that he offered De Bernis, in the first instance, an apartment in the Tuileries, and a pension of 1500 livres a year; and so cleverly did the future cardinal play his cards, by insinuating himself into the good graces of both the king and his mistress, that, after a sojourn of two years at the château, he was appointed ambassador from the court of France at Venice. But it would appear that the Queen of the Adriatic did not suit the inclinations of our abbé; he sighed for Versailles, and the _petits soupers_ of Louis XV. After a very short sojourn in Venice he demanded his recall from Madame de Pompadour, and on his return composed an epistle to his fair protectress, the opening lines of which we give as a fair specimen of his powers of versification:-- On avait dit que l'enfant do Cythère Prés du Lignon avait perdu le jour; Mais je l'ai vu dans le bois solitaire Où va rever la jeune Pompadour. Il etait seul; le flambeau qui l'éclair Ne brillait plus; mais les près d'alentour L'onde, les bois, tout annonçait l'amour.