Note 28 — VI. 1780–1782. COUNTESS DE LA MOTTE.—IN BARRACKS AT LUNÉVILLE.—ON A FIFTH FLOOR IN PARIS.—ENSNARES THE GRAND ALMONER.

“Mémoires du Comte Beugnot,” vol. i. p. 13. Rétaux de Villette, one of the countess’s many lovers, and of whom we shall by-and-by have occasion to speak, professes to have heard the story of the countess’s numerous liaisons from her own lips. He says that the reprobate Marquis de Boulainvilliers succeeded in seducing both the countess and her sister, and that the former was moreover enceinte by the Bishop of Langres at the time of her marriage with M. de la Motte, which is the reason why this “worthy prelate,” as the countess styles him, interested himself in hastening forward the ceremony. This may seem a startling statement, but those who are aware of the extreme immorality which pervaded the upper classes of French society at this period, and especially the clerical section of it, will have no difficulty in believing it. If such things were done in the green wood, what might we not look for in the dry?—See “Mémoire Historique des Intrigues de la Cour,” etc., par Rétaux de Villette, p. 4, et seq., also post, p. 35.