[Footnote 2165: De Luynes, XV. 455, and XVI. 219 (1757). "The Marshal de Belle-Isle contracted an indebtedness amounting to 1,200,000 livres, one-quarter of it for building great piles of houses for his own pleasure and the rest in the king's service. The king, to indemnify him, gives him 400,000 livres on the salt revenue, and 80,000 livres income on the company privileged to refine the precious metals."] [Footnote 2166: Report of fixed incomes and expenditures, May 1st, 1789, p. 633.--These figures, it must be noted, must be doubled to have their actual equivalent.] [Footnote 2167: Mme. de Genlis, "Dict. des Etiquettes," I. 349.] [Footnote 2168: Barbier, "Journal," III, 211 (December, 1750).] [Footnote 2169: Aubertin, "L'Esprit public au dix-huitième siècle," 255.] [Footnote 2170: Mme. de Genlis, "Adèle et Théodore." III. 54.] [Footnote 2171: Duc de Lévis, 68. The same thing is found, previous to the late reform, in the English army.--Cf. Voltaire, "Entretiens entre A, B, C," 15th entretien. "A regiment is not the reward for services but rather for the sum which the parents of a young man advance in order that he may go to the provinces for three months in the year and keep open house."] [Footnote 2172: Beugnot, I. 79.] [Footnote 2173: Merlin de Thionville, "Vie et correspondances." Account of his visit to the chartreuse of Val St. Pierre in Thierarche.] [Footnote 2174: Mme. de Genlis, "Mémoires," ch. 7.] [Footnote 2175: Mme. d'Oberkirk, I. 15.] [Footnote 2176: Mme. de Genlis, 26, ch. I. Mme. d'Oberkirk, I. 62.] [Footnote 2177: De Lauzun, "Mémoires," 257.] [Footnote 2178: Marquis de Valfons, "Mémoires," 60.--De Lévis, 156.--Mme. d'Oberkirk, I, 127, II, 360.] [Footnote 2179: Beugnot, I, 71.--Hippeau, "Le Gouvernement de Normandie," passim.] [Footnote 2180: An occupation explained farther on, page 145.--TR.] [Footnote 2181: Mme. de Genlis, "Mémoires," passim. "Dict. des Etiquettes," I. 348.] [Footnote 2182: Mme. d'Oberkirk, I. 395.--The Baron and Baroness de Sotenville in Molière are people well brought up although provincial and pedantic.] CHAPTER II. DRAWING ROOM LIFE.[2201] I. Perfect only in France.--Reasons for this derived from the French character.--Reasons derived from the tone of the court.--This life becomes more and more agreeable and absorbing.