One day, when the conversation turned on the noble military, actions by which the French nobility was distinguished, the Queen said to the Count: 'And your family, M.de Tesse, has been famous, too, in the field.'-- 'Ah, Madame, we have all been killed in our masters' service!'-- 'How rejoiced I am,' replied the Queen, 'that you have revived to tell me of it.' The son of this worthy M.de Tesse was married to the amiable and highly gifted daughter of the Duc d'Ayen, afterwards Marechale de Noailles.

He was exceedingly fond of his daughter-in-law, and never could speak of her without emotion.

The Queen, to please him, often talked to him about the young Countess, and one day asked him which of her good qualities seemed to him most conspicuous.

'Her gentleness, Madame, her gentleness,' said he, with tears in his eyes; 'she is so mild, so soft,--as soft as a good carriage.'-- 'Well,' said her Majesty, 'that's an excellent comparison for a first equerry.' "In 1730 Queen Maria Leczinska, going to mass, met old Marechal Villars, leaning on a wooden crutch not worth fifteen pence.

She rallied him about it, and the Marshal told her that he had used it ever since he had received a wound which obliged him to add this article to the equipments of the army.