I
confess, however, that I only had recourse to the "black gowns"
at the last extremity. Little did I think that at a later period
I should league myself against them. On the one hand, the duc
d'Aiguillon hated them mortally, and on the other, the comte Jean,
like a real Toulousian, would have carried them in his slippers;
so that wavering between the admiration of the one and the hatred
of the other, I knew not which to listen to, or which party to side
with. But to return to present matters.
The king was always thinking of the "< Nouvelles a la Main,>" and
determined to avenge me as openly as I had been attacked. Two
or three days afterwards he gave a supper, to which he invited the
duchesse and comtesse de Grammont, madame de Forcalquier, the
princess de Marsan, the marechale de Mirepoix, and the comtesses
de Coigny and de Montbarrey. They were seated at table laughing
and amusing themselves; they talked of the pleasure of being to
, of having no ; they pierced me with a
hundred thrusts; they triumphed! And yet the king was laughing in
his sleeve. At a premeditated signal the duc d'Aiguillon, one of
the guests, asked his majesty if he had seen the comtesse du Barry
that day. This terrible name, thrown suddenly into the midst of
my enemies, had the effect of a thunder-clap. All the ladies looked
at each other first and then at the king, and the duc d'Aiguillon,
reserving profound silence.
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