or dead, I am advised to keep out of the way; and this
night will see me on my journey from Paris. Will you accompany me?"

"No," I replied I; "I have refused travelling with a much more creditable
companion than yourself."

"There you are wrong then; for, depend upon it, a cloister will be your
fate; at any rate my business here is at an end. The new monarch is
young, and attached to his wife, and my daughter-in-law is too great a
simpleton to be turned to any account at court."

My brother-in-law then requested I would furnish him with money. I gave
him what I had, and placed in his hands diamonds to the value of 30,000
francs. He was very anxious to obtain all my jewels, under pretence of
conveying them safely out of the kingdom, but this I was too wise to
agree to; he would have staked them at the first gaming-table he met
with. We separated without much emotion on either side. He next took
leave of Chon and his daughter-in-law. The former wept bitterly, for she
was a most excellent and amiable girl--but the latter, who knew but too
much of the villainy of her father-in-law, could scarcely repress her
joy at his departure. Comte Jean perceived it; and, according to his
brutal custom, indulged in a coarse jest at her expense; for one of his
maxims was to hold all women in sovereign contempt but such as could
be useful to him. For my own part, his absence gave me something like
pleasure; his presence was wearisome to me; it was like the dregs of the
cup which had intoxicated my senses.

During the day several false reports arrived of the death of the king;
but at length, about half past four o'clock in the afternoon, I received
the following letter:--

"MADAM,-You have lost your best friend and I an excellent master: at
three clock this day his majesty breathed his last. I can scarcely
describe to you the horrors of his death-bed. The princesses Adelaide
and Sophie braved the frightful contagion to the last and never
quitted him till the last spark had flown. Alas! with the exception
of themselves, every attendant openly expressed their weariness and
disgust.

"For several days the physicians have forbidden the windows to be
opened; and those condemned to inhale the pestilential vapor of the room
vainly sought to counteract them by every powerful fumigation. Alas,
madam, what is a king when he can no longer grasp the sceptre? How great
a leveller is death! The prelates abandoned the sick chamber, and left a
si