y from the
thought that I was on the high road to fortune, and partly because I
furnished so many people with the means of subsistence. Alas! I was too
fortunate; and my evil genius soon crossed my career.

It was now three months since Mdlle. X. C. V. had gone into the convent,
and the time of her delivery drew near. We wrote to each other twice a
week, and I considered the matter happily settled; M. de la Popeliniere
had married, and when Mdlle. X. C. V. returned to her mother there would
be nothing more to be said But just at this period, when my happiness
seemed assured, the hidden fire leapt forth and threatened to consume me;
how, the reader will see.

One day after leaving Madame d'Urfe's I went to walk in the Tuileries. I
had taken a couple of turns in the chief walk when I saw that an old
woman, accompanied by a man dressed in black, was looking at me closely
and communicating her observations to her companion. There was nothing
very astonishing in this in a public place, and I continued my walk, and
on turning again saw the same couple still watching me. In my turn I
looked at them, and remembered seeing the man in a gaming-house, where he
was known by the name of Castel-Bajac. On scrutinizing the features of
the hag, I at last succeeded in recollecting who she was; she was the
woman to whom I had taken Mdlle. X. C. V. I felt certain that she had
recognized me, but not troubling myself about the matter I left the
gardens to walk elsewhere. The day after next, just as I was going to get
into my carriage, a man of evil aspect gave me a paper and asked me to
read it. I opened it, but finding it covered with an illegible scrawl I
gave it him back, telling him to read it himself. He did so, and I found
myself summoned to appear before the commissary of police to answer to
the plea which the midwife (whose name I forget) brought against me.

Although I could guess what the charge would be, and was certain that the
midwife could furnish no proofs of her accusation, I went to an attorney
I knew and told him to appear for me. I instructed him that I did not
know any midwife in Paris whatsoever. The attorney waited on the
commissary, and on the day after brought me a copy of the pleas.

The midwife said that I came to her one night, accompanied by a young
lady about five months with child, and that, holding a pistol in one hand
and a packet of fifty Louis in the other, I made her promise to procure
abortion. We both