"The empress," said
Louis XV, one day, "believes that things are still managed here
as in the days of the marquise de Pompadour and the duc de
Choiseul. Thank heaven, I am no longer under the dominion of my
friend and her pensionaries. I shall follow my own inclinations,
and consult, in the marriage of my grandson, the interests of
France rather than those of Austria."
The little attention paid by Louis XV to the representations of
Marie Therese furnished my enemies with a fresh pretext for
venting their spleen. They accused me of having been bribed by
the court of Turin, which ardently desired a second alliance with
France. I was most unjustly accused, for I can with truth affirm,
that the comte de la Marmora, ambassador from Piedmont to Paris,
neither by word nor deed made any attempt to interest me in his
success. The king was the first person who informed me of the
contemplated marriage, and my only fault (if it could be called
one) was having approved of the match.
More than one intrigue was set on foot within the chateau to
separate the princes. Many were the attempts to sow the seeds
of dissension between the dauphin and the comte d'Artois, as
well as to embroil the dauphin with
. The first
attempt proved abortive, but the faction against
succeeded so far as to excite a lasting jealousy and mistrust
in the mind of Marie Antoinette.
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