The project was never realized.
The next day, according to promise, the young wife went to Paris
with the valet. She informed her husband of the success which
had befallen her, and he appeared delighted. Dinner being ready,
they seated themselves at table, ate and drank. Girard began to
laugh at his cousin for his complaisance, when suddenly all desire
to jest left him. He experienced most horrible pains, and his
cousin suffered as well as himself. "Wretches!" said Gaubert to
them, "did you think I would brook dishonor? No, no! I have
deceived you both the better to wreak my vengeance. I am now
happy. Neither king nor valet shall ever possess my wife. I have
poisoned you, and you must die." The two victims implored his
pity. "Yes," said he to his wife, "thy sufferings pain me, and
I will free you from them." e then plunged a knife to her heart;
and, turning to Girard, said, "As for thee, I hate thee too much
to kill thee; die. "And he left him.
The next day M. de Sartines came and told me the whole story. He
had learnt them from the valet, who had survived his poisoning for
some hours. Gaubert could not be found, and it was feared that
he would attempt some desperate deed. No one dared mention it to
the king, but the captain of the guards and the first gentleman
in waiting took every possible precaution; and when Louis XV
asked for the young female who was to be brought to him, they
told him that she had died of a violent distemper.
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