lovely face,
which must satisfy me till I have the felicity of seeing you again.

"And now, my dear friend and fairest countess, I will end my lengthened
epistle by praying God to have you ever in His holy care and keeping."

The receipt of this letter afforded me the liveliest pleasure, and
I wrote to the king regularly every night and morning. I might here
introduce a specimen of my own epistolary style, but I will not; for
altho' the whimsical and extravagant things my pen gave utterance to
were exactly to the king's taste, they might surprise you; but my royal
correspondent loved the wild and bizarre turn of my expressions, and I
fulfilled his wishes; perhaps it was not the only instance in which I
gratified his inclination.

My _cousin_, the chancellor of France, had remained to keep me company
instead of joining the party at Chantilly. _My cousin_, say you, and by
what right or title could M. de Maupeou become such? I will tell
you. First of all he only aspired to the honor of relationship, but
afterwards, turning over the archives of his family, he found the most
incontestable proofs of his belonging to the ancient families of the
du Barry; and full of joy, he hurried to me, unrolling at my feet
his genealogical tree, to the great amusement of comte Jean and my
sisters-in-law, who, after a long examination, declared that he was
justly entitled to the appellation of first cousin; from that period
he always addressed me _cousin_, which I flattered him by returning
whenever I was in the humor.

About this period I was the happy instrument in saving from death a
young girl whose judges (as will be seen) were about to sentence her
to be hanged without fully understanding whether she were innocent or
guilty. This unfortunate creature was a young and pretty country girl,
whose worthy pastor, the cure de Liancourt, had availed himself of the
influence he possessed, and of the advantages of his authority over
the poor creature's mind, to seduce her from the paths of virtue.
Unfortunately, just at the time when she expected to produce a living
witness of their amour, and when she trusted to the cares of the cure to
procure for her those comforts her unfortunate situation required, the
author of her shame was suddenly carried off by a violent death, and the
wretched girl, either thro' ignorance or the shame of having listened to
the illicit passion of a priest, neglected to make any of those formal
declarations required