Litchfield enquirer., 1872-02-01
From Every Saturday. LA MARQuiSE DE poAaPADOUR.

1 Duncan'S murderer, nor King of Scotland, had not the etweird sisters suggested the crime by prophetic warnings and Jeanne Antoinette Poisson might never have be come the mistress and counsellor of Louis XIV, nor have swayed the destinies oi France, had not French sibyl foretold that she, Jeanne, would one day become ''part and parcel of the king" and 8 lucky prophecy 1t proved, at least for Madame Lebon (the sibyD, it's fulflment obtaining for her an annuity of six hundred ivres for the remainder of her life.
 Poisson mere was refined and educated "a woman of great beauty, sceptic, and philopher, with no morals to speak of. She seized upon the prophecy with the utmost ayidity, and resolved to bring 1t to pass. Jeanne Antoinette was only nine years of age when her destiny was reveal ed to her, and from that time her mother never ceased infaming tEe girls imagina- ton by glowing pictures of her preordain- ed greatness, until the realization of these pictures became the dream of her life. Such mothers and daughters were very common in France during the eighteenth century.
 Poisson pore was attached to the victual- ling department of the army, and made much money, but was 8 man of extremely coarse and vulgar habits-failings which caused Madame Ia Marquise, in her great days, much annoyance. One day, when intoxicated (so say the scandalous chroni- cles of the period), he staggered into his daughters apartment, while the king was with her, end familiarly skipping the roy 1 al visitor upon the shoulder, saluted him with "Ah. non geedre 7" (Ah, son-in- law ) For this breach of etiquette M. de Poisson was banished the court, and mar rowly escaped being the subject of lettre | de ch0chet
 Jeanne Antoinette was extremely beauti- full golden hair, elegant figure, dignified presence, and noble features, of which the great charm lay rather in their wondrous mobility than in their regularity of form. Even her bitterest enemies agree that no painter has or could do justice to her rare charms of expression. To this beauty she united, thanks to her mother, every ele- gant and intellectual accomplishment i; she played bewitchingly upon the lute and the clavecin, danced and sang like 8 professional 0rtiste; as an actress she was scarcely surpassed by the most &C., complished ladies of the Comedie Fran caise; she engraved admirably upon stone and steel, and her skill in the use of the brush and the pencil is attested in the 1 paintings upon some of the finest speci- mems of Seyres porcelain that we possess, and which bear her name.
 At twenty her mother married her to Lenormand dEtoles. the nephew of Le- normand de Tournehem, Q rich farmer general; the husband was little, ugly, and | in-shaped, and as contemptible in mind as he was in body. For such an one the brilliant Jeanne could have neither love nor respect. He thoughts were still run ming upon the prophecy, and she used naively to say to M. d'Etioles, 'I will not be unfaithfu1 to you save for the King of France and Navarrer' To this reserva- tion, to which the gentleman seems to have made no objection, she faithfully ad- hered, for with all her faults, 8 plurality of lovers was not amongst them.
 Madame drEtioles made her house the resort of all that was brilliant in art and letters poets, actors, painters, musicians and nobles assembled there to do homage to her beauty and her wit. A private theatre was fitted up, in which she first developed those splendid histrionic abili- ities which were thereafter to delight the court of France. Voltaire himself super tended there the production of his plays, and gained the friendship of the fair hostess-a friendship which, in afteryears, stood him in good stead, and which he lost only through that bitter envy of dis position that could not endure to see a rival honored above himself. To him she confded her ambitious aspirations. '1 believe in my destiny" she said to him one day.
 That destiny was soon to be accomp- lshed. D'Etioles had & mansion in the | ,,osn.hAorho41 0f tI1 o& where the king hunted. Madame d'Et- ioles used to follow the chase, magnif- gently attired, in carriage of ebony and ivory, shaped like a car, and her great beauty quickly attracted royal eyes. One day the king shot stag close to her gates; etiquette demanded the presentation of the antlers to the fair chatelaine, and kneeing and blushing, with pleased con- fusion, Jeanne Antoinette received the complimentary gift from her monarch's s own hands.
 The days had long gone by when the young king, devoted only to the chase and Marie Leczinska, had stood aloof from the carpet allurements of his court |: he had long since ceased to ask, when a lady's charms were praised in his presence, l "Is she as beautiful as the Queen pit has been said that that lady's somewhat rigid nature was largely accountable for the unhappy change, to which the unfort- unate De Mailly sisters had already fallen victims. He became fascinated by the beautiful 6Oargeoise Their next meeting was at masked ball given at the Hotel de Vile in celebration of the Dauphin's marriage. From that time their meetings were frequent. Noble in features, maies- tic and elegant in figure, Louis was at that period the handsomest man in France, and that which had been the effect of evil training, and the ambition of an idea, was, as far as Jeanne's naturally cold tenn perament would admit of such a passion, softened into love.
 For two years Madame d'Etioles was favorite sultana only in private. When the admirable Madame Poisson heard her daughter spoken of as the kings mistress, she was lying en' sick-bed. 'T have nothing more to wish for P she cried pi- ously, and died of joyl Volumes of de- scriptioRs could not more fully illustrate the moral corruption of the age.
 In the next campaign, Madame d 'Etioles accompanied her royal lover to Flanders but, remembering the fate of the Duchess de Chateauroux, she dofed her woman's dress and donned the disguise of young officer of musketeers.*
 From that period her position was open. 1 ly proclaimed and recognized; upon hen return to France apartments were assign. ed her at Versailles, and according to the custom introduced by Henry ", and copied from him by succeeding sovereigns l-she was formally introduced to the Queen and the royal family. By Marie Leczinska she was received graciously enough but the Dauphin lolled out his tongue in token of contempt, for whicl the king made him afterwards apologize
 In 1745, she was created Marquise ds Pompadour. In the mean time, M. d'Et
 ioles was compensated for his widowhood
 by farmer -generalship, and afterwards
 by the place of .feynsier des postes. Hs | frequently boasted of the kings protec
 tion. When he required any thing new