“Our aunt of the Tuileries wants your wife to have the _tabouret_; she has a fancy for going to Versailles, and for that purpose wishes me to cede to you the _grandezza_. I have already written to the King of Spain and to the minister on the subject, and have spoken of it to the ambassador. Fourth affair concluded, leaving me the prospect of taking cold, by being obliged to get down at the gates of the Court, where only the coaches of the grandees of Spain are allowed to enter, as in the Luxembourg and elsewhere. “Here are two sources of economy for me!--the King’s play and _coucher_, which no longer cost me anything. “What annoys me is to hear clever people say foolish things; to hear war discussed by idlers, who have never seen anything but military exercises, and those badly done; disinterestedness proclaimed by women who manage to get pensions by dint of tormenting the ministers and the Queen, who is a thousand times too kind; to hear sensibility professed by those who have had at least twenty lovers. And then, the intriguers! the obtrusive! and the wicked! How often this makes my blood boil, but a quarter of an hour later I forget it all. “Shall I tell you a foolish saying of mine, considered as such by all the royal family? You know that at the town theatre I am under the King’s box, amongst the public; you will remember the mirror in _La fausse Magie_.[21] At the close of the play it was dreadfully cold, and the King complained of it, as well as of the coldness of the acting. I said: ‘It is because the _dénouement_ is _à la glace_.’[22] The two brothers[23] hooted me out loud for this pun. This existence at Versailles is delightful; it is like life in a country-house. I embrace your wife and your mother for having had wit enough to make me a Charles like yourself. “_P.S._--By the bye, I had already planned in my head a grove for my Charles, a fountain that will bear the name of Hélène, and a bower for their children. “I shall work at it as soon as I leave Versailles, to go and tell you, _tutti quanti_, that I love you with all my heart.” FOOTNOTES: [9] This comedy was printed in the private press at Bel Œil in 1781. The only copy known to be extant is in H.R.H. the Duc d’Aumale’s library at Chantilly.