s went to my desk and seized upon
everything it contained. Afterward, the soldiers pillaged my
cupboards. At last, after putting me through four hours of mortal
fright, these terrible people quit my house. Nor was this my only
experience of the kind. With the return of the foreigners in 1815,
some English came to Louveciennes. They robbed me of a number of
articles, among them a magnificent large lacquer box that I sorely
regretted losing, since it had been given me in St. Petersburg by my
old friend, Count Strogonoff.

After the nocturnal visit by the Prussians I wanted to go to Saint
Germain, but the road was not safe enough, so I took refuge with a
good person living at Marly, near Mme. Du Barry's pavilion. Other
women, frightened like myself, had already chosen this place. We all
dined together and slept six in a room--as far as sleep was possible.
The nights went by with continual alarms, and I felt the liveliest
anxiety for my poor servant, to whom I owed my life. The faithful
fellow had insisted on staying in my house to hold the soldiers in
check. I had the greatest fears on his account, as the village was
entirely given up to plunder. The peasants camped in the vineyards and
slept on straw in the open air, after being robbed of all their
possessions. Several of them sought us out, lamenting their
misfortunes, and these mournful tales were recited in Mme. Du Barry's
splendid garden, near the "Temple of Love," amid flowers and under the
brightest of skies! I was so appalled by their stories and by the
incessant cannonading and fusillading that one evening I attempted to
go down into a cellar and stay there. But I hurt my leg, and was
obliged to come up again.

The last affair happened at Roquencourt. There was also fighting near
Mme. Hocquart's house, very near the place where I was. We learned
that after the combat the Prussians had sacked from top to bottom the
house of a very Bonapartist lady, who during the fighting screamed
from her terrace to the French, "Kill all those people!" The victors,
having heard her, broke into the house, and smashed all the mirrors
and the furniture as well, while the lady, in her chemise and without
shoes, was fleeing to Versailles, where she found shelter.

Ultimately, Louis XVIII. entered Paris, ready to forgive and forget. I
went to see him pass on the Quai des Orfevres. He was in a carriage,
seated beside the Duchess d'Angouleme. The constitution he had
announced had been