MEMOIRS OF THE DUKE OF SAINT-SIMOK

persed. All these losses were, as I have shown, entirely
to the laziness and inattention of M. de Vendome. Yet
friends of that General—and he had many at the Court and
the army—actually had the audacity to lay the blame
Monseigneur le Due de Bourgogne. This was what I had foro —
seen, viz., M. de Vendome, in case any misfortune occurred*
would be sure to throw the burden of it upon Monseigneur 1°
Due de Bourgogne.

Alb6roni, who, as I have said, was one of M. de VendSmo*^
creatures, published a deceitful and impudent letter, in whid*
he endeavoured to prove that M. de Vendome had acted
throughout like a good general, but that he had been thwartod
by Monseigneur le Due de Bourgogne. This letter was di***-
tributed everywhere, and well served the purpose for which it*
was intended. Another writer, Campistron—a poor, starving^
poet, ready to do anything to live—went further. He wrote «i*
letter, in which Monseigneur le Due de Bourgogne was persons-
ally attacked in the tenderest points, and in which Marecha*!
Matignon was said to merit a court-martial for having coun-*
selled retreat. This letter, like the other, although circulated,
with more precaution, was shown even in the cafes and in tUo
theatres; in the public places of gambling and debauchery; oil*
the promenades, and amongst the newsvendors. Copies of It-
were even shown in the provinces, and in foreign countries -
but always with much circumspection. Another letter sooxit
afterwards appeared, apologising for M. de Vendome. This wan.
written by Comte d'Evreux, and was of much the same tone aw
the two others.

A powerful cabal was in fact got up against Monseigneur do
Bourgogne. Vaudevilles, verses, atrocious songs against him,
ran all over Paris and the provinces with a licence and n»
rapidity that no one checked; while at the Court, the libertines
and the fashionables applauded; so that in six days it was
thought disgraceful to speak with any measure of this Prince,
even in his father's house.

Madame de Bourgogne could not witness all this uproar
against her husband, without feeling sensibly affected by it.