ices; I exile you to
Praslin, and expect you will repair thither within four and twenty hours
after the receipt of this."

"Short and sweet," cried I.

"Now let us drop the subject," said Louis; "let madame de Choiseul
repose in peace to-night, and to-morrow morning, at eleven o'clock, go
yourself, M. de la Vrilliere, and carry my orders to the duke, and bring
back his staff of office."

"To whom will you give it, sire?" inquired the chancellor.

"I have not yet considered the subject," replied the king.

At this instant M. de Soubise was announced. "_Motus!_" exclaimed
the king, as M. de Soubise, little suspecting the nature of our
conversation, entered the room. I profited by his coming to slip out of
the room into my boudoir, from which I despatched the following note to
M. d'Aiguillon:

"MY DEAR DUKE,--Victoria! We are conquerors; master and man quit Paris
to-morrow. We shall replace them by our friends; and you best know
whether you are amongst the number of them."

When I returned to the drawing-room, the king exclaimed,

"Come, madam., you are waited for; the prince de Soubise has a very
curious anecdote to relate, which befell a lady of his acquaintance; I
begged of him to defer telling it till you rejoined us."

"Are you afraid of ghosts?" inquired the marechal of me.

"Not this evening," replied I; "to-morrow, perhaps, or the next day, I
may be."

This jest amused the king and the duc de la Vrilliere, whilst M. de
Maupeou, who seemed to fear lest I should by any indiscretion, reveal
our secret, made a signal of impatience; to which I replied, by
shrugging up my shoulders. Poor M. de Soubise, although he did not
comprehend my joke, laughed at it as heartily as heartily as the rest
who saw its application. "Oh! you courtier," thought I We then entreated
of him to commence the recital of his tale, which he did in the
following words--

"There is in Lower Brittany a family gifted with a most singular
endowment: each member of the family, male or female, is warned exactly
one month previous to his or her decease of the precise hour and day
in which it will take place. A lady belonging to this peculiar race was
visiting me rather more than a month since; we were conversing quietly
together, when, all at once, she uttered a loud cry, arose from her
seat, endeavored to walk across the room, but fell senseless upon the
floor. Much grieved and surprised at this scene, I hastily summoned my
servants, who