Credit was given to the Duchess of Chateauroux, Louis XV.'s new favorite, for having excited this warlike ardor in the king.

" Madame de Chateauroux had just arrived at Lille; there were already complaints in the army of the frequent absence of the king on his visits to her, when alarming news came to cause forgetfulness of court intrigues and dissatisfaction; the Austrians had effected the passage of the Rhine by surprise near Philipsburg; Elsass was invaded.

Confronted with death, the king had once more felt the religious terrors which were constantly intermingled with the irregularity of his life; he had sent for the queen, and had dismissed the Duchess of Chateauroux.

Banishment ensued; and lest he should ever be restored, the mistress persuaded the King that he had poisoned her predecessor Madame de Chateauroux.

She was the elder sister of the Duchesse de Chateauroux and Mme.

It was after one such privileged hour that Louis, with childish pleasure, handed to his favourite the patent, creating her Duchesse de Chateauroux, enclosed in a casket of gold; and with it a rapturous letter in which he promised her a pension of eighty-thousand livres, the better to maintain her new dignity!

So strong was Louis in his new martial resolve that he actually refused Madame de Chateauroux permission to accompany him.

Madame de Chateauroux watched his sufferings with the eyes of despair.