Comte Jean departed
to arrange his plans for the king's amusement.

However, the ennui of Louis XV was somewhat dissipated by the tidings of
the various incidents which occurred at the grand entry of the dauphin
and dauphiness into Paris. We learnt that the duc de Brissac, as
governor of Paris, on receiving the dauphiness, said,

"Madam, you see about you two hundred thousand lovers." He was right;
the princess looked like an angel. I had taken a mortal aversion to her.
Alas! circumstances have too fully avenged me: this unfortunate queen
loses popularity daily; her perfidious friends have sacrificed her to
their interests. I pity her.

CHAPTER XXXVI

Visit from a stranger--Madame de Pompadour and a Jacobinical
monk--Continuation of this history--Deliverance of a state
prisoner--A meeting with the stranger

One day, at an hour at which I was not accustomed to see any person, a
lady called and requested to see me; she was informed that I was visible
to no person. No matter, she persisted in her request, saying that she
had to speak to me upon matters of the first importance, and declared,
that I should be delighted with her visit. However, my servants,
accustomed to the artifices practised by persons wishing to see me for
interested purposes, heeded very little the continued protestations of
my strange applicant, and peremptorily refused to admit her; upon which
the unknown retired with the indication of extreme anger.

Two hours afterwards a note, bearing no signature, was brought me, in
which the late scene was described to me, and I was further informed,
that the lady, so abruptly repulsed by my servants, had presented
herself to communicate things which concerned not only my own personal
safety but the welfare of all France; a frightful catastrophe was
impending, which there was still time to prevent; the means of so doing
were offered me, and I was conjured not to reject them. The affair, if
treated with indifference, would bring on incalculable misfortunes
and horrors, to which I should be the first victim. All this apparent
mystery would be cleared up, and, the whole affair explained, if I would
repair on the following day, at one o'clock, to the Baths of Apollo. A
grove of trees there was pointed out as a safe place of rendezvous, and
being so very near my residence, calculated to remove any fears I might
entertain of meeting a stranger, who, as the note informed me, possessed
the means