children, to defend her.’  And he would ride off to his military inspections and be absent for weeks, or retire to his suite of apartments, and remain closeted there whole days; only appearing to make a bow at her Highness’s levee, or to give her his hand at the Court galas, where ceremony required that he should appear.  He was a man of vulgar tastes, and I have seen him in the private garden, with his great ungainly figure, running races, or playing at ball with his little son and daughter, whom he would find a dozen pretexts daily for visiting.  The serene children were brought to their mother every morning at her toilette; but she received them very indifferently:  except on one occasion, when the young Duke Ludwig got his little uniform as colonel of hussars, being presented with a regiment by his godfather the Emperor Leopold.  Then, for a day or two, the Duchess Olivia was charmed with the little boy; but she grew tired of him speedily, as a child does of a toy.  I remember one day, in the morning circle, some of the Princess’s rouge came off on the arm of her son’s little white military jacket; on which she slapped the poor child’s face, and sent him sobbing away.  Oh, the woes that have been worked by women in this world! the misery into which men have lightly stepped with smiling faces; often not even with the excuse of passion, but from mere foppery, vanity, and bravado!  Men play with these dreadful two-edged tools, as if no harm could come to them.  I, who have seen more of life than most men, if I had a son, would go on my knees to him and beg him to avoid woman, who is worse than poison.  Once intrigue, and your whole life is endangered:  you never know when the evil may fall upon you; and the woe of whole families, and the ruin of innocent people perfectly dear to you, may be caused by a moment of your folly.

When I saw how entirely lost the unlucky Monsieur de Magny seemed to be, in spite of ail the claims I had against him, I urged him to fly.  He had rooms in the palace, in the garrets over the Princess’s quarters (the building was a huge one, and accommodated almost a city of noble retainers of the family); but the infatuated young fool would not budge, although he had not even the excuse of love for staying.  ‘How she squints,’ he would say of the Princess, ’and how crooked she is!  She thinks no one can perceive her deformity.  She writes me verses out of Gresset or Crebillon, and fancies I believe them to be original.  Bah! they are no more her own than her hair is!’ It was in this way that the wretched lad was dancing over the ruin that was yawning under him.  I do believe that his chief pleasure in making love to the Princess was, that he might write about his victories to his friends of the petites maisons at Paris, where he longed to be considered as a wit and a VAINQUEUR de Dames.

Seeing the young man’s recklessness, and the danger of his position, I became very anxious that my little scheme should be brought to a satisfactory end, and pressed him warmly on the matter.