He knew neither that nor any other art
of self-restraint, and, therefore, was in perpetual vicissitudes of
riches and penury. At one time he could afford to dedicate a piece to
his sister's greyhound, at another he was servile in his address to some
prince or duke.
In the latter spirit, he humbled himself before Mazarin, in spite of the
publication of his 'Mazarinade,' and was, as he might have expected,
repulsed. He then turned to Fouquet, the new Surintendant de Finances,
who was liberal enough with the public money, which he so freely
embezzled, and extracted from him a pension of 1,600 francs (about L64).
In one way or another, he got back a part of the property his stepmother
had alienated from him, and obtained a prebend in the diocese of Mans,
which made up his income to something more respectable.
He was now able to indulge to the utmost his love of society. In his
apartment, in the Rue St. Louis, he received all the leaders of the
Fronde, headed by De Retz, and bringing with them their pasquinades on
Mazarin, which the easy Italian read and laughed at and pretended to
heed not at all. Politics, however, was not the staple of the
conversation at Scarron's.
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