Note 109 — Chapter V

Gaill. 117. The Duke de Broglie maintains (Le Secret du Roi, ii. 138) that not a word of this pretty tale can be accepted as true—in the first place, because in the year 1763, de Pompadour, already in failing health, enjoyed in appearance only the honours to which she had been accustomed; and because the discovery of the secret by de Pompadour, on becoming known to Tercier, would have been immediately communicated by that gentleman to the Count de Broglio, amongst whose papers is not to be found the least trace of any reference to so important an incident. The duke’s assumptions, unsupported by counter-evidence, do not appear to justify his unqualified rejection of the story. His Grace deplores more than once the want of other papers, for the absence of which he is unable to account.