BOOK III.

XXXVI.  A Female Jesuit
XXXVII.  The Plot
XXXVIII.  Adrienne’s Enemies
XXXIX.  The Skirmish
XL.  The Revolt
XLI.  Treachery
XLII.  The Snare
XLIII.  A False Friend
XLIV.  The Minister’s Cabinet
XLV.  The Visit
XLVI.  Presentiments
XLVII.  The Letter
XLVIII.  The Confessional
XLIX.  My Lord and Spoil-sport
L. Appearances
LI.  The Convent
LII.  The Influence of a Confessor
LIII.  The Examination

CHAPTER XXXVI.

A female Jesuit.

During the preceding scenes which occurred in the Pompadour rotunda, occupied by Miss de Cardoville, other events took place in the residence of the Princess Saint-Dizier.  The elegance and sumptuousness of the former dwelling presented a strong contrast to the gloomy interior of the latter, the first floor of which was inhabited by the princess, for the plan of the ground floor rendered it only fit for giving parties; and, for a long time past, Madame de Saint-Dizier had renounced all worldly splendors.  The gravity of her domestics, all aged and dressed in black; the profound silence which reigned in her abode, where everything was spoken, if it could be called speaking, in an undertone; and the almost monastic regularity and order of this immense mansion, communicated to everything around the princess a sad and chilling character.  A man of the world, who joined great courage to rare independence of spirit, speaking of the princess (to whom Adrienne de Cardoville went, according to her expression, to fight a pitched battle), said of her as follows:  “In order to avoid having Madame de Saint-Dizier for an enemy, I, who am neither bashful nor cowardly, have, for the first time in my life, been both a noodle and a coward.”  This man spoke sincerely.  But Madame de Saint-Dizier had not all at once arrived at this high degree of importance.

Some words are necessary for the purpose of exhibiting distinctly some phases in the life of this dangerous and implacable woman who, by her affiliation with the Order of Jesuits, had acquired an occult and formidable power.  For there is something even more menacing than a Jesuit:  it is a Jesuits; and, when one has seen certain circles, it becomes evident that there exist, unhappily, many of those affiliated, who, more or less, uniformly dress (for the lay members of the Order call themselves “Jesuits of the short robe").