ed in years.

All these things created in my mind an extreme agitation and an alarm,
and, improbable as the thing appeared even to myself, there were moments
when I trembled lest I should be supplanted either by the baroness or
some fresh object of the king's caprice; and again a cold dread stole
over me as I anticipated the probability of the health of Louis XV
falling a sacrifice to the irregularity of his life. It was well known
throughout the chateau, that La Martiniere, the king's surgeon, had
strongly recommended a very temperate course of life, as essentially
necessary to recruit his constitution, wasted by so many excesses, and
had even gone so far as to recommend his no longer having a mistress;
this the courtiers construed into a prohibition against his possessing
a friend of any other sex than his own; for my own part, I experienced
very slight apprehensions of being dismissed, for I well knew that Louis
XV reckoned too much on my society to permit my leaving the court, and
if one, the more tender, part of our union were dissolved, etiquette
could no longer object to my presence. Still the advice of La Martiniere
was far from giving me a reason for congratulation, but these minor
grievances were soon to be swallowed up in one fatal catastrophe, by
which the honours, and pleasures of Versailles were for ever torn from
me.

The _madame_ of the _Parc-aux-Cerfs_, fearing that some of the
subordinate members of that establishment might bring me intimation of
what was going on there without her cognizance, came one day to apprize
me that his majesty had fallen desperately in love with a young orphan
of high birth, whom chance had conducted within the walls of her harem;
that to an extraordinary share of beauty, Julie (for that was the name
of my rival) united the most insatiate ambition; her aims were directed
to reducing the king into a state of the most absolute bondage, "and
he," said madame, "bids fair to become all that the designing girl would
have him."

Julie feigned the most violent love for her royal admirer, nay she did
not hesitate to carry her language and caresses far beyond the strict
rules of decency; her manners were those of one accustomed to the most
polished society, whilst her expressions were peculiarly adapted to
please one who, like the king, had a peculiar relish for every thing
that was indecent or incorrect. His majesty either visited her daily or
sent for her to the chateau. I heard l