, "I come to see you at your
request."

"Yes, yes," replied she, bursting into a frightful fit of laughter, "I
wished to see you to thank you for my dishonour, and for the perdition
into which you have involved me."

"My daughter," said the priest, approaching her, "is this what you
promised me?"

"And what did I promise to God when I vowed to hold myself chaste and
spotless? Perjured wretch that I am, I have sold my honour for paltry
gold; wheedled by the deceitful flattery of that man who stands before
me, I joined his infamous companion in the path of guilt and shame.
But the just vengeance of heaven has overtaken me, and I am rightly
punished."

Whether this language was the result of a previously studied lesson I
know not, but it was ill-calculated to raise my failing spirits.

"My child, my beloved child!" exclaimed the weeping mother, "fear not,
God is merciful and will accept your sincere abhorrence of your fault.
I have this day offered in your name a fine wax taper to your patroness,
St. Anne, who will, no doubt, intercede for you."

"No, no!" replied the unhappy girl, "there is no longer any hope for me;
and the torments I now suffer are but the preludes to those which I am
doomed to endure everlastingly."

This singular scene almost convulsed me with agitation. I seized the arm
of my brother-in-law with the intention of escaping from so miserable a
spot; the invalid perceived my design and vehemently exclaimed,

"Stay, comtesse du Barry; I have not yet finished with you, I have not
yet announced the full revenge I shall take for your share in my present
hopeless condition; your infamous exaltation draws to a close, the same
poison which is destroying me, circulates in the veins of him you have
too long governed; but your reign is at an end. He will soon quit his
earthly crown, and my hand strikes the blow which sends him hence. But
still, dying a victim to a cruel and loathsome complaint, I go to
my grave triumphing over my haughty rival, for I shall die the last
possessor of the king's affections. Heavens! what agonies are these?"
cried she; then, after a short silence, she continued, extending to me
her arms hideous with the leprous blotches of her disgusting malady,
"yes, you have been my destruction; your accursed example led me to sell
myself for the wages of infamy, and to the villainous artifices of the
man who brought you here I owe all my sufferings. I am dying more young,
more beautiful,