bravery.

That pretty figure and complexion which still appear so captivating in
M. Dubufe's portrait of Madame la Duchesse d'Ivry, have long existed--it
must be owned only in paint. "Je la prefere a l'huile," the Vicomte de
Florac said of his cousin. "She should get her blushes from Monsieur
Dubufe--those of her present furnishers are not near so natural."
Sometimes the Duchess appeared with these postiches roses, sometimes
of a mortal paleness. Sometimes she looked plump, on other occasions
wofully thin. "When she goes into the world," said the same chronicler,
"ma cousine surrounds herself with jupons--c'est pour defendre sa vertu:
when she is in a devotional mood, she gives up rouge, roast meat, and
crinoline, and fait maigre absolument." To spite the Duke her husband,
she took up with the Vicomte de Florac, and to please herself she cast
him away. She took his brother, the Abbe de Florac, for a director, and
presently parted from him. "Mon frere, ce saint homme ne parle jamais
de Madame la Duchesse, maintenant," said the Vicomte. "She must have
confessed to him des choses affreuses--oh, oui!--affreuses ma parole
d'honneur!"

The Duke d'Ivry being archiroyaliste, Madame la Duchesse must make
herself ultra-Philippiste. "Oh, oui! tout ce qu'il y a de plus Madame
Adelaide au monde!" cried Florac. "She raffoles of M. le Regent. She
used to keep a fast of the day of the supplice of Philippe Egalite,
Saint and Martyr. I say used, for to make to enrage her husband, and to
recall the Abbe my brother, did she not advise herself to consult M. le
Pasteur Grigou, and to attend the preach at his Temple? When this sheep
had brought her shepherd back, she dismissed the Pasteur Grigou. Then
she tired of M. l'Abbe again, and my brother is come out from her,
shaking his good head. Ah! she must have put things into it which
astonished the good Abbe! You know he has since taken the Dominican
robe? My word of honour! I believe it was terror of her that drove him
into a convent. You shall see him at Rome, Clive. Give him news of his
elder, and tell him this gross prodigal is repenting amongst the swine.
My word of honour! I desire but the death of Madame la Vicomtesse de
Florac, to marry and range myself!

"After being Royalist, Philippist, Catholic, Huguenot, Madame d'Ivry
must take to Pantheism, to bearded philosophers who believe in nothing,
not even in clean linen, eclecticism, republicanism, what know I?
All her changes have been