t, was concise, and, as I preserved the rough
copy, under the impression of its being one day useful, I can give the
reader the exact words.

"The billet traced by your noble hands, renders me the happiest of
women. My joy is beyond description. Thanks, monsieur le Baron, for your
charming flowers. Alas! they will be faded and withered by to-morrow,
but not so fleeting and short-lived are the sentiments with which you
have inspired me. Believe me, the desire you express to see me again
is entirely mutual; and in the impatience with which you await our next
interview, I read but my own sentiments. The ardor with which you long
to embrace me, is fully equalled by the affection which leads me to
desire no gratification greater than that of passing my whole life in
your society. Adieu, monsieur le baron; you have forbidden my addressing
you as your rank and my respect would have me, I will therefore content
myself with assuring you of the ardent affection of the

"COMTESSE Du Barry."

The signature I adopted was a bold piece of falsehood, but it was too
late to recede; besides, I was addressing myself in my letter, not to
the king, but to the baron de Gonesse; for Louis, by I know not what
unaccountable caprice, seemed to wish to preserve his incognito. I have
since learned that Francis I assumed the same name, altho' upon a very
different occasion. Replying to a letter from Charles V, in which that
emperor had given himself a long string of high sounding titles, he
contented himself with simply signing his letter, "_Francois, baron de
Gonesse._" Louis XV was very fond of borrowed appellations. Unlike the
vanity so common to mankind, of seeking to set off their pretensions
by assumed titles, it is the pleasure of royalty to descend to a lower
grade in society when concealment becomes desirable, either from policy
or pleasure; and Louis sought in the familiarity in which a plain baron
might safely indulge, a relief from the ennui attendant upon the rigid
etiquette of a regal state. I had omitted in my letter to the baron,
to remind him that we were to meet that very evening, but that did not
prevent my repairing to Versailles punctually at the appointed hour. I
was conducted into the same apartment as before, where I found the same
females who had then assisted at my toilette again prepared to lend
their aid; and from this moment I had a regular establishment of
attendants appointed for my use.

The moment the king was i