Comte de Charolois, because then she would have remained with her friends.  Her father has given her several jewels.  The King’s present is superb.  It consists of fourteen very large and fine diamonds, to each of which are fastened round pearls of the first water, and together they form a necklace.  The Grand Duchess advised her niece well in telling her not to follow her example, but to endeavour to please her husband and father-in-law.

[The same author (Duclos) says, on the contrary, that the Duchess had given her niece the following advice:  “My dear, do as I have done.  Have one or two children and try to get back to France; there is nothing good for us out of that country.”]

The Prince of Modena will repair to Genoa incognito, because the Republic has declared that they will pay due honours to his bride as a Princess of the blood, but not as Princess of Modena.  They have already begun to laugh here at the amusements of Modena.  She has sent to her father from Lyons an harangue which was addressed to her by a curate.  In spite of her father, she will visit the whole of Provence.  She will go to Toulon, La Ste. Beaume, and I know not what.  I believe she wishes to see everything or anything except her husband.

     [She performed her journey so slowly that the Prince complained of
     it, and the Regent was obliged to order his daughter to go directly
     to the husband, who was expecting her.]

It may truly be said of this Princess that she has eaten her white bread first.

All goes well at Modena at present, but the too charming brother-in-law is not permitted to be at the petite soupers of his sister.  The husband, it is said, is delighted with his wife; but she has told him that he must not be too fond of her, for that is not the fashion in France, and would seem ridiculous.  This declaration has not, as might be guessed, given very great satisfaction in this country.

The Grand Duchess says, in the time of the Queen-mother’s regency, when the Prince and his brother, the Prince de Conti, were taken to the Bastille, they were asked what books they would have to amuse themselves with?  The Prince de Conti said he should like to have “The Imitation of Jesus Christ;” and the Prince de Condo said he would rather like “The Imitation of the Duc de Beaufort,” who had then just left the Bastille.

“I think,” added the Duchess, “that the Princess of Modena will soon be inclined to ask for ‘The Imitation of the Grand Duchess.’”

     [The Princess of Modena did, in fact, go back to France, and
     remained there for the rest of her life.]

Our Princess of Modena has found her husband handsomer and likes him better than she thought she should; she has even become so fond of him, that she has twice kissed his hands; a great condescension for a person so proud as she is, and who fancies that, there is not her equal on the earth.