The daughter of the actress Desmarets is somewhat like her mother, but she is like no one else.  She was educated in a convent at Saint Denis, but had no liking for a nun’s life.  When my son had her first brought to him she did not know who she was.  When my son told her he was her father, she was transported with joy, fancying that she was the daughter of Seri and sister to the Chevalier; she thought, too, that she would be legitimated immediately.  When my son told her that could not be done, and that she was Desmarets’ daughter, she wept excessively.  Her mother had never been permitted to see her in the convent; the nuns would not have allowed it, and her presence would have been injurious to the child.  From the time she was born, her mother had not seen her until the present year (1719), when she saw her in a box at the theatre, and wept for joy.  My son married this girl to the Marquis de Segur.

An actress at the Opera House, called Mdlle. d’Usg, who is since dead, was in great favour with my son, but that did not last long.  At her death it appeared that, although she had had several children, neither she nor her mother nor her grandmother had ever been married.

SECTION XXIII.—­THE CHEVALIER DE LORRAINE.

The Chevalier de Lorraine looked very ill, but it was in consequence of his excessive debauchery, for he had once been a handsome man.  He had a well-made person, and if the interior had answered to the exterior I should have had nothing to say against him.  He was, however, a very bad man, and his friends were no better than he.  Three or four years before my husband’s death, and for his satisfaction, I was reconciled with the Chevalier, and from that time he did me no mischief.  He was always before so much afraid of being sent away that he used to tell Monsieur he ought to know what I was saying and doing, that he might be apprised of any attempt that should be made against the Chevalier or his creatures.

He died so poor that his friends were obliged to bury him; yet he had 100,000 crowns of revenue, but he was so bad a manager that his people always robbed him.  Provided they would supply him when he wanted them with a thousand pistoles for his pleasures or his play, he let them dispose of his property as they thought fit.  That Grancey drew large sums from him.  He met with a shocking death.  He was standing near Madame de Mare, Grancey’s sister, and telling her that he had been sitting up at some of his extravagant pleasures all night, and was uttering the most horrible expressions, when suddenly he was stricken with apoplexy, lost the power of speech, and shortly afterwards expired.

     [He died suddenly in his own house, playing at ombre, as many of his
     family had done, and was regretted by no person except Mdlle. de
     Lillebonne, to whom he was believed to have been privately married.