e greatly smitten with the prince de la
Trimouille, and without quitting the little keeper of medals, gave him
a lord for a substitute. M. D------n soon learnt this fact, that he was
not the sole possessor of a heart which formed all his joy and glory. He
found he was deceived, and he swore to be revenged.

Now the prince de la Trimouille had for his mistress mademoiselle
Lubert, an opera-dancer, very pretty and extraordinarily silly. M.
D------n went to her; "Mademoiselle," said he, "I come to offer my
services to you in the same way that M. de la Trimouille has offered his
to madame de Blessac, with whom I was on exceedingly intimate terms."

The services of young D------n were accepted, and he was happy. He then
wrote to his former mistress, saying, that anxious to give her a proof
of his sincere attachment he had visited mademoiselle Lubert, that he
might leave her at leisure to receive the visits of the prince de la
Trimouille.

Madame de Blessac, stung to the quick, quarrelled with the prince, who
was excessively enraged with his rival; and there certainly would have
been an affair between these two gentlemen, had not the king preserved
the peace by sending his gentleman to St. Petersburg as _attache_ to the
embassy. M. D------n went to Russia, therefore, and on his return came
to see me, and is now one of the most welcome and agreeable of the men
of my private circle.

As to madame de Blessac, she continued to carry on the war in grand
style. Her husband dying she married again a foolish count, three parts
ruined, and who speedily dissipated the other quarter of his own fortune
and the whole of his wife's. Madame Ramosky then attacked the rich men
of the day one after another. One alone stood out against her; it was
M. de la Garde, who had been one of my admirers. Madame Ramoski wrote
to him; he did not answer. At length she determined on visiting him, and
wrote him a note, to say that she should call upon him about six o'clock
in the evening. What did M. de la Garde? Why he gave a ball on that
very evening; and, when madame Ramoski reached his hotel, she found
it illuminated. As she had come quite unprepared she was compelled to
return as she came, very discontentedly.

But to leave madame de Blessac and M. D------n, and to talk of my own
matters. We had at this period a very great alarm at the chateau, caused
by the crime of a man, who preferred rather to assassinate his wife than
to allow her to dishonor