p rate in the convent of the
Presentation, and she succeeded in inspiring her mistress with so
elevated an idea of my attainments that the Duchess soon afterwards sent
for me. After showing me off as a prodigy of learning to all her
friends, the Duchess de La Ferte, a voluble and enthusiastic woman,
conceived a violent affection for me, and projected innumerable schemes
for my advancement, which ended in my being received into her own
household as her secretary.

I should have been delighted with this position if I had not remembered
how my sister, who had gone there as her favourite, had fallen to the
situation of chambermaid, and if I had not realised that my mistress's
affection would probably be as short-lived as it was intemperate. It
proved to be so indeed; it was succeeded by a hatred as violent as her
attachment had been; and after subjecting me to every indignity she
finally disposed of me by placing me in the household of the Duchess of
Maine, at Sceaux.

Here I inhabited a tiny room, without windows or fireplace, and so low
that it was impossible to stand upright. I was given sewing to do, but
my first piece of work proved my incapacity, and my extremely
short-sight made me equally helpless in waiting on the Duchess. I was
astonished at the patience with which she bore my awkwardness, but my
fellow-servants, with whom I was most unpopular, were less merciful. The
hard and thankless existence, so different from anything which I had
been accustomed, threw me into a profound depression, until I began to
cherish the idea of taking leave of life.

But gradually my situation altered for the better. Her Serene Highness
the Duchess began to take notice of me, and became accustomed to speak
to me and to take interest and pleasure in my replies. She had now
succeeded in raising her family to rank equal to her own, and by a
famous edict her children and their descendants had been brought within
the succession to the crown. Her delight in amusements and in pageants
was now at its highest, and it happened that the Abbe de Vaubrun,
designing a spectacular piece in honor of Night, confided to me the task
of writing and delivering an epilogue in that character. My stage-fright
spoiled my elocution, but from that day I was entrusted with the
organisation of these magnificent entertainments, and the last of them
was entirely designed and written by myself. By this means I came to
take a quite different place in the househol