hought
it my duty, however, to open this packet, which it might perhaps be
necessary for me to preserve at all hazards. I saw that it contained a
letter from the Abbe de Vermond to the Queen. I have already related that
in the earlier days of Madame de Polignac's favour he determined to remove
from Versailles, and that the Queen recalled him by means of the Comte de
Mercy. This letter contained nothing but certain conditions for his
return; it was the most whimsical of treaties; I confess I greatly
regretted being under the necessity of destroying it. He reproached the
Queen for her infatuation for the Comtesse Jules, her family, and society;
and told her several truths about the possible consequences of a
friendship which ranked that lady among the favourites of the Queens of
France, a title always disliked by the nation. He complained that his
advice was neglected, and then came to the conditions of his return to
Versailles; after strong assurances that he would never, in all his life,
aim at the higher church dignities, he said that he delighted in an
unbounded confidence; and that he asked but two things of her Majesty as
essential: the first was, not to give him her orders through any third
person, and to write to him herself; he complained much that he had had no
letter in her own hand since he had left Vienna; then he demanded of her
an income of eighty thousand livres, in ecclesiastical benefices; and
concluded by saying that, if she condescended to assure him herself that
she would set about procuring him what he wished, her letter would be
sufficient in itself to show him that her Majesty had accepted the two
conditions he ventured to make respecting his return. No doubt the letter
was written; at least it is very certain that the benefices were granted,
and that his absence from Versailles lasted only a single week.

In the course of July, 1789, the regiment of French guards, which had been
in a state of insurrection from the latter end of June, abandoned its
colours. One single company of grenadiers remained faithful, to its post
at Versailles. M. le Baron de Leval was the captain of this company. He
came every evening to request me to give the Queen an account of the
disposition of his soldiers; but M. de La Fayette having sent them a note,
they all deserted during the night and joined their comrades, who were
enrolled in the Paris guard; so that Louis XVI. on rising saw no guard
whatever at the vario