world, as might best suit with the circumstance
of my lying-in. And when his Highness came the next time to see me,
which was not many days, I expostulated a little on the subject of the
old woman; and by the management of my tongue, as well as by the
strength of reasoning, I convinced him that it would not be at all
convenient; that it would be the greater risk on his side; and at first
or last it would certainly expose him and me also. I assured him that my
servant, being an Englishwoman, never knew to that hour who his Highness
was; that I always called him the Count de Clerac, and that she knew
nothing else of him, nor ever should; that if he would give me leave to
choose proper persons for my use, it should be so ordered that not one
of them should know who he was, or perhaps ever see his face; and that,
for the reality of the child that should be born, his Highness, who had
alone been at the first of it, should, if he pleased, be present in the
room all the time, so that he would need no witnesses on that account.

This discourse fully satisfied him, so that he ordered his gentleman to
dismiss the old woman the same day; and without any difficulty I sent my
maid Amy to Calais, and thence to Dover, where she got an English
midwife and an English nurse to come over on purpose to attend an
English lady of quality, as they styled me, for four months certain.

The midwife, Amy had agreed to pay a hundred guineas to, and bear her
charges to Paris, and back again to Dover. The poor woman that was to be
my nurse had twenty pounds, and the same terms for charges as the other.

I was very easy when Amy returned, and the more because she brought with
the midwife a good motherly sort of woman, who was to be her assistant,
and would be very helpful on occasion; and bespoke a man midwife at
Paris too, if there should be any necessity for his help. Having thus
made provision for everything, the Count, for so we all called him in
public, came as often to see me as I could expect, and continued
exceeding kind, as he had always been. One day, conversing together upon
the subject of my being with child, I told him how all things were in
order, but that I had a strange apprehension that I should die with that
child. He smiled. "So all the ladies say, my dear," says he, "when they
are with child." "Well, however, my lord," said I, "it is but just that
care should be taken that what you have bestowed in your excess of
bounty upon me