The king showed the utmost good humor in the world during the rest of the evening. He scolded me, however, for the mystery I had made in concealing from him the agreeable visit of the maréchale. I justified myself easily by the pleasure which this surprise caused him; and, on my side, gave my sincere thanks to the chancellor. “You owe me none,” said he; “the good maréchale felt herself somewhat ill at ease not to be on close terms with her who possesses the affections of the king. It is an indispensable necessity that she should play a part in the lesser apartments; and as the principal character no longer suits her, she is contented to perform that of confidante, and ran here on my first intimation.” “Never mind the motive that brought her,” I said; “she is a companion for me much more desirable than madame de Bearn.” “First from her rank,” said the chancellor, smiling maliciously, “and then by virtue of her cousinship with the Holy Virgin.” I confess that I was ignorant of this incident in the house of Levi; and I laughed heartily at the description of the picture, in which one of the lords of this house is represented on his knees before the mother of God, who says to him, “_Rise, cousin_”; to which he replies, “_I know my duty too well, cousin._” I took care, however, how I joked on this point with the maréchale, 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 maréchale was to me a conquest of the utmost importance. The princesse de Guémenée 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 inflictions 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.”