be about
seventy or seventy-five. She was called, throughout that part of the
country, the Princess's daughter. She seemed to believe so herself, and
was in receipt of a pension of fifteen hundred francs paid punctually,
without knowing from what quarter they came. She occupied a handsome
house for which she paid no rent, although for it she held no
proprietary deed. All this, coupled with the age of the lady, who stated
that she was born in 1671, would seem decisive as to the clandestine
marriage which probably occasioned the arrest of Lauzun.

Ten years of anguish and poignant regrets passed over poor
Mademoiselle's head--ten years employed in imploring and bargaining for
the restoration of her dearly beloved captive. "Consider what you have
it in your power to do to please the King, in order that he may grant
you that which you have so much at heart," was the artful suggestion
daily repeated in her ear by Madame de Montespan. And to render the
discovery more easy, she took care to bring with her, and to send to her
very frequently, that charming little Duke du Maine to whom the county
of Eu, the duchy of Aumale, and the principality of Dombes would have
been a fitting appanage. To despoil herself for the deliverance of the
man she loved with such an infatuated affection, the Princess would not
have hesitated a moment. The difficulty was to despoil the man himself,
already in possession of a portion of what was required, and very
keen-witted indeed to keep what he had acquired. The negotiation, for a
long while brought to a dead-lock by the resistance of Lauzun, was at
length concluded. M. de Lauzun, emerged from Pignerol, but restricted at
first to a residence in Touraine or Anjou, received at length permission
to revisit Paris and behold once more the benefactress who could still
secure to him the enjoyment of an income of forty thousand livres. "I
did not know him," exclaimed the woebegone Princess, shortly after his
release, "and my sole consolation is that the King, who is more
clear-sighted than I am, did not know him either." Tardy
clear-sightedness! M. de Lauzun had then made himself known
unmistakably--by beating her. But, if the truth must be told, she had
first scratched his face.

Thus ended, in vulgar squabbles, more and more stormy, a connection so
romantically begun. Lauzun, disappointed in his hope of a magnificent
alliance, considered himself despoiled by the Princess's donation, and,
finding himse