Note 253 — VII PORTRAITS (continued 2)

Guillaume Dubois, the son of an apothecary, was born at Brive in 1656. After being tutor in several private families, he was appointed first assistant-tutor and then tutor to the young Duc de Chartres and succeeded in winning his complete confidence. Compare the portrait drawn by Saint-Simon after his death (1723), IV. 138 ff. The Archbishopric of Cambrai, seven abbeys, and his stipends as first minister and head of the postal-service, gave him an income of 574,000 livres. “He had an extraordinarily lucid mind, a surprising power of work, and a determined will. No scruples troubled him.... He was a mixture of Gil Blas and Frontin” (Carré). The same writer points out that Fénelon gave him his friendship and esteem, and that Madame corresponded with him for fifteen years and evidently thought highly of him. But in 1721 she writes: “He has poisoned my whole life.”