King and I trust you so much that we treat you like a cat or a dog,
and talk freely before you."

As to Saint-Germain, Madame du Hausset writes: "A man who was as
amazing as a witch came often to see Madame de Pompadour. This was
the Comte de Saint-Germain, who wished to make people believe that
he had lived for several centuries. One day Madame said to him,
while at her toilet, "What sort of man was Francis I., a king whom
I could have loved?" "A good sort of fellow," said Saint-Germain;
"too fiery--I could have given him a useful piece of advice, but he
would not have listened." He then described, in very general
terms, the beauty of Mary Stuart and La Reine Margot. "You seem to
have seen them all," said Madame de Pompadour, laughing.
"Sometimes," said Saint-Germain, "I amuse myself, not by making
people believe, but by letting them believe, that I have lived from
time immemorial." "But you do not tell us your age, and you give
yourself out as very old. Madame de Gergy, who was wife of the
French ambassador at Venice fifty years ago, I think, says that she
knew you there, and that you are not changed in the least." "It is
true, Madame, that I knew Madame de Gergy long ago." "But
according to her story you must now be over a century old." "It
may be so, but I admit that even more possibly the respected lady
is in her dotage."

At this time Saint-Germain, says Madame du Hausset, looked about
fifty, was neither thin nor stout, seemed clever, and dressed
simply, as a rule, but in good taste. Say that the date was 1760,
Saint-Germain looked fifty; but he had looked the same age,
according to Madame de Gergy, at Venice, fifty years earlier, in
1710. We see how pleasantly he left Madame de Pompadour in doubt