Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1869-07-15

with grief, he ultimately succeeded in
entirely curing himself of all love for q
hesrtless woman, and in q year and a
half he returned to Paris. Madame de
Pompadour had been wife to him about
| four years. OF their two children, the
son died in infancy, and the daughter
lived only to the age of eleven. Madame
de Pompadour had taken the precaution
of having separation deed drawn out al
the Chatelet, on the 18th of June, l745,
Immediately after her instalment in the
/ chateau of Versailles.
Not, perhaps, ir all history can be
found an example of such domination as
that which Madame de Pempadour es.
tablished over Louis XIV. He was really
her superior in knowledge of affairs and
of men, and in capacity, for Louis XIV
was by no means an ordinary man. He
had great talents, and was capable oi
energy in emergencies. What. then,
was the secret of Madame de Pompa-
dour's power over him? 1t was this
He was governed by his Incidence, his
ennui, and his sensuality; and she un-
dertook to govern these. If he was her
superior in capacity, she was his supe.
rior in will, and he was only too happy
to give up to mistress the power he
never would have confded to minister
But, to make her hold on him more Sc
cure, she had to study his character, and
to humor his weakness to degree which
has never, perhaps, been surpassed. All
her energies, all her quickness of per-
ception, were watchful day and night to
keep him in her bonds, and to this she
sacrificed every dignity and delicacy OF
woman. For it was not only for the king
that she had to play daily and nightly the
parts of Circe and Scheherszade. She
had to defend herself against the con-
trivances of her enemies, who we're in
cessantly schemiEg to force a new mis-
tress on the king. Many, and painful,
and long were the agonies she had to en-
dure on this score. Not that there was
one pang Of jealousy mixed up with such
agonies! They were the mere eonvulsions
of ambition on the brink of destruction.
The beautiful Madame de Coislin gave
her many bitter hour; but her most
dangerous rival was the Duchesse de
Choiseul Romanent-who indeed, ex-
tracted from Louis a promise that the
Pompadour should be dismissed. But
Madame de Choiseul RomaDent was be-
trayed by her own cousin, M. de Stan
vile, afterwsrd the Due de Choiseul, for
which srrvice the Pompsdour took charge
of his advancement, and ultimately made
him Prime Minister After incalculable
pangs and fears of this kind, Madame de
Pompadour devised the most ignoble sys-
tenn for attaching the King to her which
ever entered into the head of woman to
adopt toward lover. Conscious that
the Kings passion for herself had faded
away, and that she was in no position to
recall it, she determined to provide her
self with other mistresses for the King,
but mistresses from whom she would have
nothing to fear. A great lady might be-
come rival, and oust her from her place; /;
but she took csre that the small houses Of
the Pare aux Cerfs should not have for
inmates any dangerous rivals. Yet still |
the Pompsdour had to be on her guard.
Even here too fascinating creature,
younger than herself, and of superior |
beauty, might step ia. And, though she |
was thus defended, the ladies of the cour. |
were still dangerous to her.
The king, indeed, with the exception
of the time he gave to hunting, and his
visits to the Pare aux Oerfs, passed
nearly his whole life with his sultana.
He went into her apartments early in the |
morning, was present at her toilette, re-
mained with her till the hour of mass,
came back with her after chapel, then
took soup or outlet with her, and did not
withdraw till ak in the evening. On
hunting days he went away, of course,
but he supped with her. All Madame de
Pompadour's talents Of conversation, and
all the devices of an inventive mind, we're
put in action to amuse her sultan; all
the tittle-tattle of Paris and Versailles,
all the scandal of the times, came rip
ping from her fluent tongue into the ears
of king who was the greatest conceiva-
Bile lover of gossip, and most curious of
every small detail of private life-ons
Of whose greatest pleasures, indeed,
was the perHsal Of private letters,
selected and lnsesled for him in the cab
met noir of the Paris postofice, The
king, as is well-knowD, was so much at q
loss Of occupation, that at Que nA-::oa of
life he took to nesdlc.-work aud tapestry,
1t another to wood turning with lathe:
and at Madame Pompsdour's, when he
lad nothing better to do, be would have
delinquent domestic Of his mistress's
household called up before him for cross
and on one occasion he
footman for two hours
Who was accused of having stolen some
ace. After talk and scandal, the mar
Iuise fell back on her musical accom-
and, with that perfect grace
he possessed, sang and played to the
ing on various instruments. She had
specially the tact of applying herself to |
he royal huuor, Of being gay when he
Tas gay, and being serious when be was
crions, II
Madame de Pompadour had barely
cen mistress Of the King for two years
'hen she began, like Madame de Main
snon with Louis XIV, to despair of her ;
ssources for amusing an unamusable !
ling, aud called in the theater TO her as
istance, She remembered the success
hich she had achieved on the stage at
itoilles, aud she proposed to establish Z
nd succeeded in establishing the theater \
] the chateau known Is the Theater des 1