abandon, but I refused to listen to her remonstrances, and she
ceased urging me further, only protesting she should await my return
with the most lively impatience.

At length, comte Jean appeared, armed with a small sword-stick and
pistols in his pocket, with every other precaution necessary for
undertaking so perilous an adventure. We descended into the garden with
many smiles at the singular figures we made, but no sooner were we in
the open air, than the sight of the clear heavens sparkling with sta
lined with statues, which resembled a troop of white phantoms, the
gentle waving of the branches, as the evening breeze stirred their
leaves, with that feeling of awe and solemnity generally attendant
upon the midnight hour, awoke in our minds ideas more suitable to our
situation. We ceased speaking and walked slowly down the walk past
the basin of the dragon, in order, by crossing the park, to reach the
chateau de Trianon.

Fortune favoured us, for we met only one guard in the park, this man
having recognised us as we drew near, saluted us, and was about to
retire, when my brother-in-law called him back an desired him to take
our key, and open with it the nearest gates to the place which we wished
to go to. He also commanded him to await our return. The soldier was
accustomed to these nocturnal excursions even on the part of the most
scrupulous and correct gentlemen and ladies of the court. He, therefore,
assured us of his punctuality, and opened for us a great iron gate,
which it would have cost my brother-in-law much trouble to have turned
upon its hinges.

The nearer we approached the end of our journey, the more fully did our
minds become impressed with new and painful disquietudes. At length, we
reached the place of our destination.

My brother-in-law desired he might be announced but said nothing of who
I was. We were expected, for a Swiss belonging to the palace conducted
us to a chamber at one end of the chateau, where, stretched on a bed
of loathsome disease, was the creature who, but a few hours before, had
been deemed worthy the embraces of a powerful monarch. Beside her were
an elderly female, her mother, and an aged priest, who had been likewise
summoned by the unfortunate girl, and her brother, a young man of about
twenty-four years of age, with an eye of fire, and a frame of Herculean
power. He was sitting with his back turned towards the door; the mother,
half reclining on the bed, held in her hand