Resolved at all risk to preserve
her incognito, she found herself compelled to bring the affair
to a conclusion, by feigning extreme anger at the pertinacity
with which Moireau importuned her upon a subject which she
protested she knew nothing: her lover retaliated, and a desperate
quarrel ensued. Moireau rushed angrily from her presence, vowing
that he would publish his adventure thro'out Paris; an empty
threat, which his devotion to the princess would never have
permitted him to carry into execution.
Madame d'Egmont, however, was not so sure that her secret was
safe, and she lost not an instant in repairing to the house of M.
de Sartines, to obtain from him a
against the
aspiring shopman, who, seized in the street, was conveyed away,
and confined as a maniac in a madhouse, where, but for a
circumstance you shall hear, he would doubtless be still.
I happened to be with the king when the lieutenant of police
arrived upon matters connected with his employment. According
to custom, Louis inquired whether he had anything very amusing
to communicate to him? "Many things, sire," replied he, "and
amongst others an anecdote of madame d'Egmont"; and he began to
relate to us, word for word, what I have written you. The king
laughed till he cried; as for me, altho' I could not help finding
the tale sufficiently comic to induce risibility, I listened with
more coolness; and when it was completed, I exclaimed,
"Can it be, sire, that you will permit this unfortunate young man
to be the eternal victim of so unprincipled a woman?"
"What would you have me do?" said Louis; "how can I interfere
without compromising the reputation of madame d'Egmont?"
"Allow me to say," replied I, "that this fear ought not to prevent
your majesty's interference.
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