iberately putting
the money in her pocket, she exclaimed, "You must own that comte Jean is
a great rogue."

CHAPTER XXXIX

My alarms--An _eleve_ of the _Pare-aux-Cerfs_--Comte Jean
endeavours to direct the king's ideas--A supper at Trianon--
Table talk--The king is seized with illness--His
conversation with me--The joiner's daughter and the
small-pox--My despair--Conduct of La Martiniere the surgeon

I had occasionally some unaccountable whims and caprices. Among other
follies I took it into my head to become jealous of the duchesse de
Cosse, under the idea that the duke would return to her, and that
I should no longer possess his affections. Now the cause of this
extravagant conduct was the firmness with which madame de Cosse refused
all overtures to visit me, and I had really become so spoiled and
petted, that I could not be brought to understand the reasonableness of
the duchesse de Cosse refusing to sanction her rival by her presence.

You may perceive that I had not carried my heroic projects with regard
to madame de Cosse into execution. Upon these occasions, the person most
to be pitied was the duke, whom I made answerable for the dignified and
virtuous conduct of his wife. My injustice drove him nearly to despair,
and he used every kind and sensible argument to convince me of my error,
as though it had been possible for one so headstrong and misguided as
myself to listen to or comprehend the language of reason. I replied
to his tender and beseeching epistles by every cutting and mortifying
remark; in a word, all common sense appeared to have forsaken me. Our
quarrel was strongly suspected by part of the court; but the extreme
prudence and forbearance of M. de Cosse prevented their suppositions
from ever obtaining any confirmation. But this was not the only subject
I had for annoyance. On the one hand, my emissaries informed me that
the king still continued to visit the baroness de New---k, although
with every appearance of caution and mystery, by the assistance and
connivance of the duc de Duras, who had given me his solemn promise
never again to meddle with the affair. The _gouvernante_ of the
_Parc-aux-Cerfs_ furnished me likewise with a long account of the many
visits paid by his majesty to her establishment. The fact was, the king
could not be satisfied without a continual variety, and his passion,
which ultimately destroyed him, appeared to have come on only as he
advanc