This gentleman, from the very beginning of my
rise in the royal favour, had demonstrated the most lively friendship
for me, of which he sought to persuade me by the strongest
protestations, which, weak and credulous as I was, I implicitly
believed, until one day that Henriette, availing herself of my
being quite alone, let me into the secrets of my establishment
and furnished me with a key to the assiduities of M. de Villeroi.
Amongst the females in my service was one named Sophie, young,
beautiful both in face and form, of a sweet disposition, and every
way calculated to inspire the tender passion. M. de Villeroi felt
the full force of her charms, and became the whining, sighing
lover--her very shadow. Up to this period I had had no cause of
complaint against M. de Villeroi; and certainly I should not have
interfered with his plebeian flame had he not thought proper,
when questioned by my enemies as to his continual presence at
the castle, and great assiduities there, to protest that his visits
thither were not in honour of my charms, but for those of my
waiting-maid. However, my vanity had rendered me his constant dupe.
I felt perfectly astonished as I listened to Henriette's recital;
and when she had ceased, I conjured her to tell me candidly,
whether she had not invented the whole tale either out of spite
to Sophie or with a design to make me break off further friendship
with the duke.
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