Transcription

Talleyrand's I have seen most of the celebrated characters, that have made themselves [[underline]] famous [[/underline]] or [[underline]] infamous [[/underline]] for the last 25 years on the guilty theatre of Paris. Young & unmarried ladies are in France nonentities in Society & till a woman is married she is nothing, but somehow or other the [[foreign: French]] Fouquiers [[/foreign]] broke through their usual rule with regard to me. Prince Metternich, the Austrian Prime Minister, the Prince Kaunitz of the present day, first brought me into notice, & his example his been followed more or less by all the rest. I do not mention his vanity but only to show you, that I have had greater opportunities of making my journey of use to me than young unmarried females generally have. The second circumstance that brought me forward & gave me a greater notoriety than I was desirous of having, was the mania that all the princes took of [[foreign:French]] "faisant la cour" [[/foreign]] to me. One of them in particular, The Prince Royal of Bavaria, made himself so absurd, by the extravagance of his folly, that he rendered himself the conversation of all Paris. I hate publicity, & how greatly I prefer respectability & my own native obscurity, however flattering admiration may be it only weighs with me in proportion to the real intrinsic worth of the person who admires me. Now I have enough of a democrat about me, not to look upon rank as a [[underline]] part of the animal, [[/underline]] or to be more enchanted with the preference of a nobleman than of a commoner unless he adds superiority of sense to superiority of station, consequently H.R.H. the Crown Prince of Bavaria's adoration, far from pleasing, quite disgusted me. He is quite mad &