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HE first impreffion which the new appointment of the Duke of Orleans to the Regency made upon the minds of the people was favourable to the Duke. The whole talk was about his affability, his humanity, his decifive, but gracious deportment, and especially his openness and his loyalty. His campaigns in Italy and in Spain were recollected, the battles he had gained, and the places he had taken were spoken of, with that fatisfaction fo natural to Frenchmen, who are always exceedingly at tached to their princes, efpecially to thofe who are brave. It was faid that he was well informed, and even learned. Artifts and men of letters, Fontenelle efpecially, who was then the fashionable author, and gave the toa in company, praifed him up to the kies; the parliament, charmed with being called to the adminiftration of affairs, and of being able to offer remonftrances to kings, attached themselves to him; but the fevere, the bigotted, or the hypocritical of the old Court, the party of Madame Maintenon, though not numerous, yet powerful, the Jefuits, the Pope's Nuncio, the Molinifts, and the Priefts of St Sulpice, offended at the gene

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ral and favourable opinion entertained of the Duke of Orieans, detefted him, and fecretly fomented cabais againft him. They compofed a fable which was attributed to Madame his mother, becaufe the herself repeated it.

"There was once, faid the fable, a great Queen, who, upon being delivered of a beautiful prince, invited, according to cuftom, l the fa ries of the empyreum, one only excepted, whom he forgot. The feaft was celebrated with magnificence, and he fairies, crowding round the charming little infant, each of them give him a gift, as is the practice in fuch cafes. One gave him courage, another gentlenefs, a third wit, a fourth judgment, the fifth beauty, the fixth ftrength; others beftowed on him learning, a love of the fine arts and generonty. At this moment approached the neglected fairy, who, full of rage and fecret refentment, refolved to give him a gift favourable in appearance, but which, being carried to excefs, fhould become fatal to him. This was pliancy of temper, without determining how far it was to be carried; and accordingly fhe meant that it fhould reader ufelefs to him all his other good qualities."

Eafinefs

Eafinefs of temper was indeed the principal defect in the character of this prince, the fource of all the errors of his regency, and of his connection with dangerous or contemptible perfons: and if this facility was of advantage to him in the study of the profound fciences and arts, it was alfo the caufe of his allowing himself to be governed by Law and Dubois, people unworthy of his confidence.

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The great fault of the regent, and which he had imbibed from the Abbé Dubois, the perfon who had the care of his education, was the want of all principle either of religion or morality. The fyftem of modern philofophers was then known; but Dubois had ftudied the principles of that fect of Pagan philofophers who taught that all actions are in themselves indifferent, and were rendered bad only by law or cuftom; he had inftilled thefe principles into the mind of his pupil, and had taught him that laws are not made for princes, but are made by them at their pleafure. Thus fenfual pleafures be coming his ruling paffion, he confidered the laws as trifles, not to be regarded, and the restraints of ftrict morality as the work of popular opinion, which he only fometimes refpected on account of the prejudices of the people. He boafted of his parties of pleasure, of the nocturnal exceffes he committed with his friends, of the favours he had received from the fair; fo that one perfon drew his portrait in two words before the late king who approved of it; he called him a Braggart of vice. Bufinefs coft him little trouble, on account of his quicknefs of apprehenfion; but he had naturally an averfion to labour.

Dubois had infpired him with fuch a bad opinion of mankind in general, that he confounded the honeft man with the knave, faying that all were alike, and even adding, that thofe he had honoured with his friendship were no better than the reft, but that

they were men of fpirit, of vivacity, and wit. He himself had bestowed on these favourites the name of roués, an equivocal epithet, which they explained, by faying, that they were ready to be broke on the wheel for him; but which he explained by adding, that they were worthy of being broken on the wheel, not like ordinary malefactors, but as courtiers, who were ready to applaud every action of their prince, however voluptuous.

It was the cuftom of the regent to dedicate a part of the day to bufinefs; but towards evening he retired with his miftreffes and his roués to fup, to play, to drink, &c. and to feason the repaft with the most diverting news of the town; all of them about nine o'clock repaired to the Palais Royal with Madame de Mouchi, Madame de Sabran, the Dutchefs of Gefvres, and often Madame de Berry, the regent's own daughter, who, though young, was initiated in all the nocturnal myfteries.

To this ftrange fociety was fometimes joined a detachment of opera girls for the entertainment of the company: there were alfo comedians and other perfons, whofe only recomendation was the being poffeffed of a certain degree of wit, whofe talents lay in repartee, or who were known to be habituated to debauchery. There virtue, and even juftice were criticifed; they ridiculed all the maxims of the old court, which they termed the antiquaille; all fervants and lacqueys were excluded; every one ferved himself; and when the accuftomed hour arrived, the doors were fhut, and had all Paris been in flames, the regent was utterly inacceffible. In that company there were neither princes, nor conicdians, nor miftreffes, nor refpect, nor ceremony; all ranks were confounded, ali diftinctions levelled; he who faid the beft things was the moft honoured; fometimes, even, (fhall I venture to tell it?) the candles were extinguish

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ed, and the Duke of Orleans, who was naturally of a prying and curious difpofition, and fond of fcandalous anecdotes, fometimes had a clofet dexteroufly filled with torches, the door of which he fuddenly opened, and difcovered the fecrets of his company.

In thefe orgies the regent learned all the news of the day; there, he faid, he formed his judgment of the merit of perfons of diftinction, and as people were allowed and encouraged to fpeak without referve, he there ftudied the public opinion; but he kept his own fecret, and never gave his company to understand what ufe he made of the liberties they took; he often rallied even himself and his miftreffes, who were generally all prefent, the most favoured never being able to exclude her rivals. This fcene lafted till morning, when many of them went home to fleep off their fatigues, and acquire ftrength for fupporting the fame riot the next day.

No one was more agreeable in thefe nocturnal focieties than the regent himself: he had a great deal of fweetnefs, politeness, and affability; he never offended any one, at leaft, to his face'; but always behaved with the greatest gentleness and urbanity. In converfation he was often difplea fed when his friends were attacked; but he always contented himself with faying, that he would be happy if the fubject was changed. This he always faid to his favourites, when they were fpeaking ill of Law or any other perfons that were unworthy of his faYours. Though in love with every pretty woman he faw, he was jealous of none, being more attached to the indulgences, than to the delicacies of the paffion. He was free in his difcourfe, but he knew how to diffemble; and though he perfectly well underftood human nature, he behaved as if he did not.

He had fo much accustomed himfelf to thefe nocturnal affemblies, that they became neceffary to his happi

nefs; and had he not spent the night in that way, he would have employed it in wandering about with his companions. His inclination to ramble to a diftance with a few friends, even on foot, often alarmed his family; he would fometimes enter like a common perfon into companies known for the freedom of their principles, or for the diffolutenefs of their manners; and all companies were agreeable to him if wit, and libertinifm, or literature and the fine arts, were to be found there. Such was his private life, and no body can speak of it with more certainty than I, for I was often an ocular witnefs of the scenes I defcribe. I was likewife often a partaker of the misfortunes he experienced, and I ftrictly recommended to the hiftorian of my time, not to pafs over in filence the picture of these scenes which faithfully reprefent the manners of that period. I gave him the materials, and he promised to fupprefs only fuch relations as were unworthy of history.

The Court of the late king had been fo fevere during the laft years of that monarch, and Madame de Maintenon had introduced fo much ceremony and referve into its pleafures, that France now felt itfelf relicved from a yoke, except the devotees, and excufed the regent for all his excefies. At the death of the King, the Regent was the idol of all the youth, and had no enemies but among the remains of the old court, and among the old people who were no longer ambitious, or who did not wish to conform their rigid morals to the tranfient circumstances of the time; he was, befides, much beloved by the officers who had feen him in Italy and in Spain, where he had commanded with fo much fplendor and fuccefs; the military youth loudly applauded his pleafures and his noctur nal parties, eagerly dearing to be admitted to them, and for that purpofe endeavouring to qualify themselves,

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by acquiring that never failing title, celebrity in libertinism.

Such was the character of the regent, and of the lords of his fecret court. The princeffes who had preferved the ton of the old court, lived with much referve and dedecorum; and the Dutchefs of Orleans, who was the daughter of Louis XIV. by Madame de Montefpan, never quitted that air of referve in her manners and difcourfe which fhe inherited from her father; fhe was only a legitimated princefs of France. She was, however, fo proud of being a daughter of Louis XIV. that the always gave her husband and others to understand, that she had done honour to the Duke of Orleans by her marriage with him. To fuch a length did fhe carry her conceit, that the faction, adverfe to the legitimated princes, gave her the name of Madame Lucifer; an expreffion which the regent himself fometimes made ufe of, even in public; hence arofe that coldness which the teftified all her life for her husband, and the haughty deportment which the always affected towards him, fhewing neither affection to him when he behaved to her as a hufband, nor jealoufy when he abandoned her.

The Dutchefs of Berry, daughter of the regent, was endowed with much wit, and a lively imagination; but fo foolish withal as, like her father, to look upon thofe enterprises as the moft laudable, that were the moft fpirited and bold.

Her figure was graceful and commanding, her converfation delightful; but a difpofition, eagerly turned to pleafure, fpoiled all that was beautiful, and grand, and natural in this princefs, and made her relish the principles of her father, who even introduced her into thofe nocturnal affembles which he frequented with women of libertine or fufpicious characers, and with the companions of his excefles. The Dutchefs of Berry acquired in that fociety a freedom of

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manners, a difguft at etiquette, and fuch a love for liberty, that he gave way to every emotion of her temper, and to every impulfe of fense. fides the amours which he was reported to have had with her f——, she had always feveral other lovers, whom fhe often changed, and often took ́back.

Notwithstanding this temper of facility and libertinifm, Madame de Berry was often diftracted with remorfe. Having been partly educated in the principles of the old Court, and partly in thofe of the new, he was by turns tormented with the reproaches of religious libertines, and of libertines without religion. When he was under the horrors of repentance, the ufed to quit the world and endeavour to reconcile herfelf to the God of the penitent: She then buried herfelf in the innermoft receffes of a convent of Carmelites, with whom the fafted and prayed, rifing in the middle of the night to the ftated devotions, groaning over the errors of her pa life, and undergoing the difcipline of penance; then, whenever the defire of pleasure began to torment her anew, The would throw away her rofaries and her confeffors, appear again as if from the other world, return to her favourite Riom, or fome other lover, and hold her court as ufual; thus pailing the period of her fhort life in alternate paroxyfms of diffipation and repentance; and, as Louis XIV. and the great Dauphin had made it fafhionable to marry their miftreffes, Madame de Berry conceived the defign of marrying her lover. Maurepas fays in his memoirs, that he married Riom in her own chapel, and that the Curé of St. Sulpice performed the ceremony. Riom, with whom I was very intimate, never would confefs his marriage to me; but he never denied it. He had, however, nothing in him that could charm that priacefs. He was ill fade, and had the look of a Chinese, but he had made Madame de Berry believe, that the

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