The Duchess de Chabot told me nothing struck her more disagreeably than to see, at the end of a sentence of death, the King’s signature following the words, “Tel est notre bon plaisir.”
Pope Lambertini having heard that Ghezzi, the painter, had drawn caricatures of him and of all the Sacred College, insisted on seeing his book. The painter, in great terror, was obliged to comply; but the Pope was so much pleased with his talent that he gave him an employment of twelve crowns a month, and kept the book. Whenever a Cardinal came to see him he would show him his portrait, and if it caused any displeasure, he would say: “Do not be angry—here is my likeness also.” The same Pope was told that a person had taken the liberty to publish a book of his “bons mots,” and was urged to punish the fellow. He replied that he would certainly do so, and would inflict a very severe punishment, for, said he, “I will have a new edition printed with great additions, and then nobody will buy the book he has been at the expense of publishing.”
Princess Dashkoff being at Cardinal de Bernis’ in carnival time, boasted that she would not fear to face forty cannons, and yet started when the petards were fired to give the signal for the race. She was asked if she felt cold, and she answered that her imagination was colder than her person. The Grand-Duke Paul of Russia told the young Prince Dashkoff that he had already given him half of his friendship on his mother’s account, and would give him the other half when he knew him better. He agreed with the Princess to forget past times, and to think only of the present. When he was in St. Peter’s, he said that such a church gave a higher idea of the Divinity than any other temple he had ever entered. He thought the columns were not perfectly proper for the support of so noble an edifice, but he was too much struck with the general effect of the building to examine its details. The city of Rome, he remarked, offered the most august, and, at the same time, the most humiliating spectacle in the world, as it showed to what a height men could attain, and also how low they could descend.
Mr. Bagnall remarked, that, on meeting the Senator on the first day of carnival in his state coach surrounded by his guards, and with pieces of silk carried before him, it seemed to him as if the Romans wished to perpetuate the memory of their disgrace, and show how far they had sunk from their former position. If Cato could return on earth, what, he asked, would be his idea on encountering Prince Rezzonico as the representative of the Roman Senate, and Princess Santa Croce as the representative of the Roman matrons—particularly at Carnival time?
