She explained my idea to the cardinal, making him understand why Silesia was offended at having been conquered by the King of Prussia.
"Ah, I see, I see!" exclaimed the cardinal, full of joy; "Silesia is a woman....

and the King of Prussia....

Oh! oh! that is really a fine idea!" And the good cardinal laughed heartily for more than a quarter of an hour.

"I must copy that sonnet," he added, "indeed I must have it." "The abbe," said the obliging marchioness, "will save you the trouble: I will dictate it to him." I prepared to write, but his eminence suddenly exclaimed, "My dear marchioness, this is wonderful; he has kept the same rhymes as in your own sonnet: did you observe it ?" The beautiful marchioness gave me then a look of such expression that she completed her conquest.

I understood that she wanted me to know the cardinal as well as she knew him; it was a kind of partnership in which I was quite ready to play my part.
As soon as I had written the sonnet under the charming woman's dictation, I took my leave, but not before the cardinal had told me that he expected me to dinner the next day.
I had plenty of work before me, for the ten stanzas I had to compose were of the most singular character, and I lost no time in shutting myself up in my room to think of them.