"
Like a real courtier he pretended not to understand me, and made
no reply, hoping, no doubt, that the warmth of conversation would
lead me to some other subject; but this one occupied me too fully
to allow me to divert my attention from it; and, seeing that he
continued silent, I continued: "Far from treating me as well as you
do, madame your daughter-in-law behaves towards me like a declared
enemy; she assails me by all sorts of provocation, and at last will
so act, that I shall find myself compelled to struggle against her
with open force."
You must be a courtier, you must have been in the presence of a
king who is flattered from morning to night in all his caprices, to
appreciate the frightful state in which my direct attack placed the
prince de Soubise. Neither his political instinct, nor the tone of
pleasantry which he essayed to assume, nor the more dangerous
resource of offended dignity, could extricate him from the
embarrassment in which he was thrown by my words. He could do
nothing but stammer out a few unintelligible phrases; and his
confusion was so great and so visible, that the marquis de Chauvelin,
his not over sincere friend, came to his assistance. The king, equally
surprised at what I had just said, hastily turned and spoke to Chon,
who told me afterwards, that the astonishment of Louis XV had
been equal to that of the prince de Soubise, and that he had evinced
it by the absence of mind which he had manifested in his discourse
and manners.
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