Foul-mouthed people allege Madame de Genlis to have been a great
coquette, which, is a calumny. She was virtue itself. No doubt she was
the object of rude assaults; public declarations, scenes of despair,
disguises, eulogies in verse, madrigals in prose--all were employed to
seduce her affections; but she resisted always. To revenge her cruelty,
they attacked her morals, and epigrams rained on her. She replied by
her Memoirs--rather diffuse confessions, which Lavocat (the publisher)
contrived to dilute further--but edifying, and which have demonstrated
that if Mad. de Genlis was not canonized in her life-time, it was
because there is no longer any religion to speak of, or that she
neglected to cultivate interest with the Pope.
One poet had the audacity to put up Madame de Genlis' honour at the
Exchange for a dollar; the ladies of the Directory exclaimed against
this; the Countess herself said nothing: she despised the exaggeration
which nobody could credit. In truth, Madame de Genlis was quite as good
as the particular Queen, whose modesty was only to fall before the
millions of a Cardinal-Duke.
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