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could not be brought to understand the reasonableness of the duchesse de Cosse refusing to sanction her rival by her presence。
Yon may perceive that I had not carried my heroic projects with regard to madame de Cosse into execution。 Upon these occasions; the person most to be pitied was the duke; whom I made answerable for the dignified and virtuous conduct of his wife。 My injustice drove him nearly to despair; and he used every kind and sensible argument to convince me of my error; as though it had been possible for one so headstrong and misguided as myself to listen to or comprehend the language of reason。 I replied to his tender and beseeching epistles by every cutting and mortifying remark; in a word; all common sense appeared to have forsaken me。 Our quarrel was strongly suspected by part of the court; but the extreme prudence and forbearance of M。 de Cosse prevented their suppositions from ever obtaining any confirmation。 But this was not the only subject I had for annoyance。 On the one hand; my emissaries informed me that the king still continued to visit the baroness de New…k; although with every appearance of caution and mystery; by the assistance and connivance of the duc de Duras; who had given me his solemn promise never again to meddle with the affair。 The of the furnished me likewise with a long account of the many visits paid by his majesty to her establishment。 The fact was; the king could not be satisfied without a continual variety; and his passion; which ultimately destroyed him; appeared to have come on only as he advanced in years。
All these things created in my mind an extreme agitation and an alarm; and; improbable as the thing appeared even to myself; there were moments when I trembled lest I should be supplanted either by the baroness or some …fresh object of the king's caprice; and again a cold dread stole over me as I anticipated the probability of the health of Louis XV falling a sacrifice to the irregularity of his life。 It was well known throughout the chateau; that La Martiniere; the king's surgeon; had strongly recommended a very temperate course of life; as essentially necessary to recruit his constitution; wasted by so many excesses; and had even gone so far as to recommend his no longer having a mistress; this the courtiers construed into a prohibition against his possessing a friend of any other sex than his own; for my own part; I experienced very slight apprehensions of being dismissed; for I well knew that Louis XV reckoned too much on my society to permit my leaving the court; and if one; the more tender; part of our union were dissolved; etiquette could no longer object to my presence。 Still the advice of La Martiniere was far from giving me a reason for congratulation; but these minor grievances were soon to be swallowed up in one fatal catastrophe; by which the honours; and pleasures of Versailles were for ever torn from me。
The of the ; fearing that some of the subordinate members of that establishment might bring me intimation of what was going on there without her cognizance; came one day to apprize me that his majesty had fallen desperately in love with a young orphan of high birth; whom chance had conducted within the walls of her harem; that to an extraordinary share of beauty; Julie (for that was the name of my rival) united the most insatiate ambition; her aims were directed to reducing the king into a state of the most absolute bondage;〃 and he;〃 said madame; 〃bids fair to become all that the designing girl would have him。〃
Julie feigned the most violent love for her royal admirer; nay
she did not hesitate to carry her language and caresses far beyond the strict rules of decency; her manners were those of one accustomed to the most polished society; whilst her expressions were peculiarly adapted to please one who; like the king; had a peculiar relish for every thing that was indecent or incorrect。 His majesty either visited her daily or sent for her to the chateau。 I heard likewise from M。 d'Aiguillon; that the king had recently given orders that the three uncles and two brothers of Julie should be raised by rapid promotion to the highest military rank; at the same time the grand almoner informed me he had received his majesty's express command to appoint a cousin of the young lady to the first vacant bishopric。
These various reports threw me into a train of painful and uneasy reflections。 Louis XV。 had never before bestowed such marks of favour upon any of the