It would
cost me much to quarrel with my whole family, the more so as
this sacrifice is not useful to you, and would in no wise alter
my position with your majesty."
However painful to the king such a determination might be, he
did not allow the duke to perceive it; he dissembled the resentment
he felt, and contented himself with saying,
"Duc de Choiseul, I do not pretend to impose chains on you; I
have spoken to you as a friend rather than as a sovereign. Now
I return to what was said at first, and accept with confidence the
promise you make me not to torment a lady whom I love most sincerely."
Thus ended a conversation from which the duke, with a less haughty
disposition, might have extracted greater advantages and played
a surer game. It was the last plank of safety offered in the
shipwreck which menaced him. He disdained it: the opportunity of
seizing it did not present itself again. I doubt not but that if
he would have united himself freely and sincerely with me I
should not have played him false. Louis XV, satisfied with his
condescension in my behalf, would have kept him at the head of
his ministry: but his pride ruined him, he could not throw off
the yoke which the duchesse de Grammont had imposed on him: he
recoiled from the idea of telling her that he had made a treaty
of peace with me, and that was not one of the least causes of
his disgrace.
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