s, and that he
should likewise take upon himself to supply the wine. The King was fond
of pastry; I was directed to order some, as if for myself, sometimes of
one pastry-cook, and sometimes of another. The pounded sugar, too, was
kept in my room. The King, the Queen, and Madame Elisabeth ate together,
and nobody remained to wait on them. Each had a dumb waiter and a little
bell to call the servants when they were wanted. M. Thierry used himself
to bring me their Majesties' bread and wine, and I locked them up in a
private cupboard in the King's closet on the ground floor. As soon as the
King sat down to table I took in the pastry and bread. All was hidden
under the table lest it might be necessary to have the servants in. The
King thought it dangerous as well as distressing to show any apprehension
of attempts against his person, or any mistrust of his officers of the
kitchen. As he never drank a whole bottle of wine at his meals (the
Princesses drank nothing but water), he filled up that out of which he had
drunk about half from the bottle served up by the officers of his butlery.
I took it away after dinner. Although he never ate any other pastry than
that which I brought, he took care in the same manner that it should seem
that he had eaten of that served at table. The lady who succeeded me found
this duty all regulated, and she executed it in the same manner; the
public never was in possession of these particulars, nor of the
apprehensions which gave rise to them. At the end of three or four months
the police of M. de Laporte gave notice that nothing more was to be
dreaded from that sort of plot against the King's life; that the plan was
entirely changed; and that all the blows now to be struck would be
directed as much against the throne as against the person of the
sovereign.

There are others besides myself who know that at this time one of the
things about which the Queen most desired to be satisfied was the opinion
of the famous Pitt. She would sometimes say to me, "I never pronounce the
name of Pitt without feeling a chill like that of death." (I repeat here
her very expressions.) "That man is the mortal enemy of France; and he
takes a dreadful revenge for the impolitic support given by the Cabinet of
Versailles to the American insurgents. He wishes by our destruction to
guarantee the maritime power of his country forever against the efforts
made by the King to improve his marine power and their ha