Page:Letters of Mlle. de Lespinasse.djvu/141

122 Friday morning, August 26, 1774. Mon ami. I was interrupted yesterday. There is so much news, so much going and coming, such joy, that one hardly knows whom to listen to, I should like to be glad, but that is impossible. A few months ago I should have been trans- ported at both the good to be hoped and the evil from which we are delivered ; at the present moment I am glad only by thought, and by reflection of the tone of all I see and all I hear. You know that M. Turgot is made controller- general [in place of the Abb^ Terrai], — he enters the Council ; M. dAngevilliers has the department of buildings; M. de Miromesnil is Keeper of the Seals ; the chancellor is exiled to Normandy ; M. de Sartine has the navy, but they say it is only while awaiting the department of M. de la Vrillifere; M. Lenoir is lieutenant of police ; M. de Fitz-James does not go to Bretagne ; it is the Due de Penthifevre who is to hold the State Assembly with M. de Fourgueux — But I am really as piquante as M. Marin, from whom they have taken the Gazette to give it to an Abb^ Aumont, because he told old news. Not to return to this matter I must add that the Baron de Breteuil goes to Vienna, and M. de la Vauguyon to Naples.

Now let us pass to social news. Yesterday M. dAlembert had the greatest success at the Academy. I was not a witness of it, being too ill ; I had only strength to sit in my usual chair. He read his Eulogy on Desprdaux [Boileau] and some anecdotes about Fenelon, which they say were delightful. I would not listen to them this week, having my head frdl of that letter I did not open. One needs calmness to listen ; consequently, I listen very little. Mon ami, they are printing a life of Catinat: the author is a M. Turpin, who did the "Life of the Great Condé." M. dAlembert has read it, and from what he says I judge it will take neither