"
"Really your majesty talks," replied I, "as though this trifling
pension were to be drawn from your own purse."
The king began to smile at my remark, like a man who knows himself
found out. I knew him well enough to be certain that, had he
intended the pension awarded madame de Valentinois to come from
his own privy purse, he would scarcely have consented to bestowing
on her more than a shabby pittance of a thousand livres per annum.
It is scarcely possible to conceive an idea of the excessive
economy of this prince. I remember, that upon some great occasion,
when it was requisite to support the public treasury, which was
failing, by a timely contribution, the duc de Choiseul offered the
loan of 250,000 livres, whilst the king, to the astonishment of
all who heard him, confined his aid to 2,000 louis! The marechale
de Mirepoix used to assert that Louis XV was the only prince of
his line who ever knew the value of a crown. She had,
nevertheless, managed to receive plenty from him, although, I
must own, that she had had no small difficulty in obtaining them;
nor did the king part with his beloved gold without many a sigh
of regret.
At the house of madame de Valentinois I met the marechale de
Luxembourg, who had recently returned from Chanteloup. There
really was something of infatuation in the general mania which
seemed to prevail of treating the king's sentiments with
indifference, and considering his displeasure as an affair of no
consequence.
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