Note 14 — New York Balls and Receptions
Reading edition
This pleasantry on the part of the French minister seems to have been taken au sérieux by certain writers as pointing to some obscurity of origin, while the fact is substantiated by various authorities that Eléonore-François-Elie, Comte de Moustier, entered the diplomatic service at eighteen, and after representing his country at several foreign courts was twice offered the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs by Louis XVI.