precisely what I wish to ascertain," cried I; "return to
your offices, monsieur le duc, and use your best endeavors to discover
whether this unfortunate girl and her parent are still in confinement;
nor venture again in my presence until you have despatched the order
for their deliverance: you will procure a conveyance for them from their
prison to Paris at the expense of government. You understand, my lord?"

The following morning the duke brought me the desired information. He
told me, that the father had been dead seven years, but the daughter
still remained a prisoner: the order for restoring her to liberty had
been forwarded the night preceding. I will now briefly relate the end of
this mournful story.

Three weeks after this I received an early visit from the duc de la
Vrilliere, who came to apprize me, that my protegee from the isle of
St. Marguerite was in my antechamber awaiting permission to offer me
her grateful thanks. I desired she might instantly be admitted; her
appearance shocked me; not a single trace of that beauty which had
proved so fatal to its possessor now remained. She was pale, emaciated,
and her countenance, on which care and confinement had imprinted the
wrinkles of premature old age, was sad and dejected even to idiocy. I
could have wished that madame de Pompadour, by way of punishment for her
cruelty, could but have seen the object of her relentless persecution. I
think she would have blushed for herself. When the poor girl entered my
apartment she looked wildly around her, and casting herself at my feet,
inquired with many tears to what motive she was indebted for my generous
interference in her behalf. The duc de la Vrilliere contemplated with
the utmost _sang froid_ the spectacle of a misery he had so largely
contributed to. I requested of him to leave us to ourselves. I then
raised my weeping _protegee_, consoled her to the best of my ability,
and then requested her to give me the history of her captivity. Her
story was soon told: she had been an inhabitant of the same prison for
seventeen years and five months, without either seeing a human being, or
hearing the sound of a human voice. Her recital made me shudder, and I
promised her that henceforward her life should be rendered as happy as
it had hitherto been miserable.

The king supped with me that evening. By some singular chance he was on
this occasion in the happiest temper possible: he laughed, sung, joked
with such unusual spi