VISC. I should have been here long ago if there were no importunate
people in the world. I was stopped on my way by an old bore of rank,
who asked me news of the court, merely to be able himself to detail to
me the most absurd things that can well be imagined about it. You know
that those great newsmongers are the curse of provincial towns, and
that they have no greater anxiety than to spread, everywhere abroad
all the tittle-tattle they pick up. This one showed me, to begin with,
two large sheets of paper full to the very brim with the greatest
imaginable amount of rubbish, which, he says, comes from the safest
quarters. Then, as if it were a wonderful thing, he read full length
and with great mystery all the stupid jokes in the Dutch Gazette,
which he takes for gospel. [Footnote: After the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle
in 1668, this newspaper never ceased to attack Louis XIV. and
the French nation. In 1672 Louis XIV. attempted the conquest of
Holland.] He thinks that France is being brought to ruin by the pen of
that writer, whose fine wit, according to him, is sufficient to defeat
armies. After that he raved about the ministry, spoke of all its
faults, and I thought he would never have done. If one is to believe
him, he knows the secrets of the cabinet better than those who compose
it.
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