me more firmly in my
situation. Lebel, of whom I have said nothing for this age, came to me
one day: his face was sad, and his look serious. By his manner I augured
that my reign had passed, and that I must quit my post. I awaited what
he should say with mortal impatience. At length he began thus:

"Madame, you have many bitter enemies, who are laboring to effect your
ruin with a blood-thirstiness which nothing can assuage. They have now
spread a report that you are not married. This infamous calumny--"

"Ah, is that all?" said I with joy; "no, my dear Lebel, this time they
do not calumniate me. The worthy creatures for once are right."

"What," said Lebel, in a tone of alarm almost comic, "what, are you
really not married?"

"No."

"Are you not the wife of the comte Guillaume du Barry?"

"No."

"Then you have deceived the king, and played with me."

"Lebel, my friend, take another tone. No one has any right to complain.
You have given me to the king as a person to please him; I do so. The
rest can be no matter of yours."

"Pardon me, madame; it is a matter of the greatest consequence to me. I
am terribly compromised in this affair, and you with me."

Lebel told me that the duchesse de Grammont had begged him to call upon
her, and had bitterly reproached him about the mistress he had procured
for the king; the duchesse affirmed that I was a nameless and unmarried
creature; and added, that it was his duty to make the king acquainted
with these particulars, unless I, the pretended wife of du Barry, would
consent to go to England when a large pension should be assured to me.

"No, my dear Lebel, I will not go to England; I will remain in France,
at Versailles, at the chateau. If I am not married I will be; the thing
is easily managed."

Lebel, somewhat assured, begged me to send for comte Jean, and when he
came he (Lebel) recommenced his tale of grief.

"You are drowning yourself in a glass of water," said my future
brother-in-law to him, beginning to treat him with less ceremony; "go
back to the duchesse de Grammont, and tell her that madame was married
at Toulouse. She will have an inquiry set on foot; in the mean while my
brother will arrive, and the marriage will take place. Then we will show
the rebels a real comtesse du Barry; and whether my sister-in-law be
a lady of six months' standing or only of yesterday, that is of no
consequence to the king of France."

After this conversation Lebel delivered