lst Madame
la Princesse was making war in the south!_"

But later, when the campaign at Bordeaux had ended, the Prince still a
prisoner at Havre, forwarding a communication in cypher to Lenet, added
thereto a short note for the Princess, couched in terms so tender that
Lenet, fearing lest in the exuberance of her delight the Princess might
betray the secret of that correspondence, hesitated for some moments to
communicate it to her. That note, the first and sole recompense of her
devotion, courage, and constancy, we must here transcribe, as the tardy
and begrudging compensation for such long-continued ingratitude, such
long-continued disdain, for so many cruel and unmerited outrages.

"Il me tard, Madame, que je sois en etat de vous embrasser mil fois
pour toute l'amitie que vous m'avez temoigne, qui m'est d'autant
plus sensible que ma conduite envers vous l'avoit peu meritee; mais
je scauray si bien vivre avec vous a l'advenir, que vous ne vous
repentires pas de tout ce que vous aves faict to me pour moy, qui
fera que je seray toute ma vie tout a vous et de tout mon coeur."

Poor Clemence de Maille! how, at that first testimony of an affection
which she had despaired of ever gaining, did her heart, so long pent up,
burst forth with ecstatic delight! And how must Lenet, on witnessing
that touching effusion of irrepressible rapture, have congratulated
himself at not having persevered in his diplomatic prudence! She took
the letter, shed tears over it, kissed it, read it over and over again,
and tried to get it by heart--for she might lose it. Then she selected
from her toilette her finest ribbon (a bright _flame-coloured_ one), and
sewed that precious missive to it, in order to carry it always upon her
person, beneath her dress--upon her chemise, Lenet bluntly tells us, and
who adds that that gush of delirious delight lasted until the morrow.

Alas! that warm ray was the only one that Conde, in his glory, let fall
upon her, and it was but evanescent. The danger over, the prison opened,
Conde restored to his honours and his power, she became once more the
despised, alienated, humiliated wife. Mademoiselle, on meeting her
again, asked whether it were true that she had taken part _in that
which was done in her name?_ On her return from Montrond (after the
letter), she found her, it is true, _plus habile_; but she was shocked
at the delight manifested by the Princess on seeing all the great wo