The circle of the King and his mistress at Versailles does not
tell the whole story of France at this time. No doubt Madame de
Pompadour made and unmade ministers, but behind the ministers was
the great administrative system of France, with servants alert
and efficient, and now chiefly occupied with military plans to
defeat the great Frederick of Prussia. At the same time the
intellect of France was busy with problems of science and was
soon to express itself in the massive volumes of Diderot's
Encyclopaedia. The soldiers of France were preparing to fight on
many battlefields. The best of them took little part in the
debilitating pleasures of Versailles.
Louis Joseph, Marquis de Montcalm, was a member of the ancient
nobility of Languedoc, in the south of France. He was a scholar,
a soldier, and a landowner. He could write a Latin inscription,
fight a battle, and manage a farm--all with excellence. His was a
fruitful race. His wife had borne him ten children, of whom six
had survived. He was sincerely religious, a family man, enjoying
quiet evenings at home.
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