Less clever, less ambitious, but more potent than Madame de Pompadour over the faded passions of a monarch aged before his time, the new favorite, Madame Dubarry, made the least scrupulous blush at the lowness of her origin and the irregularity of her life.

It was, nevertheless, in her circle that the plot was formed against the Duke of Choiseul.

Bold, ambitious, restless, presumptuous sometimes in his views and his hopes, the minister had his heart too nearly in the right place and too proper a spirit to submit to either the yoke of Madame Dubarry or that of the shameless courtiers who made use of her influence.
Chancellor Maupeou, the Duke of Aiguillou, and the new comptroller- general, Abbe Terray, a man of capacity, invention, and no scruple at all, at last succeeded in triumphing over the force of habit, the only thing that had any real effect upon the king's listless mind.

After twelve years' for a long while undisputed power, after having held in his hands the whole government of France and the peace of Europe, M.de Choiseul received from the king on the 24th of December, 1770, a letter in these terms:-- "Cousin, the dissatisfaction caused me by your services forces me to banish you to Chanteloup, whither you will repair within twenty-four hours.

I should have sent you much further off, but for the particular regard I have for Madame de Choiseul, in whose health I feel great interest.