As she had come quite unprepared she
was compelled to return as she came, very discontentedly.
But to leave madame de Blessac and M. D------n, and to talk of
my own matters. We had at this period a very great alarm at the
chateau, caused by the crime of a man, who preferred rather to
assassinate his wife than to allow her to dishonor him. It is
worthy of narration.
A pretty shopkeeper of Paris, named Gaubert, who lived in the
rue de la Montagne Sainte- Genevieve, had recently married a
woman much younger than himself. From the Petit Pont to the rue
Mouffetard, madame Gaubert was talked of for her lovely face and
beautiful figure; she was the Venus of the quarter. Everybody
paid court to her, but she listened to none of her own rank, for
her vanity suggested that she deserved suitors of a loftier rank.
Her husband was very jealous. Unfortunately M. Gaubert had for
cousin one of the valets of the king: this an, who knew the taste
of his master, thought how he could best turn his pretty cousin
to account. He spoke to her of the generosity of Louis XV, of
the grandeur of Versailles, and of the part which her beauty
entitled her to play there. In fact, he so managed to turn the
head of this young woman, that she begged him to obtain for her
a place in the king's favor. Consequently Girard (that was his
name) went to madame de Laugeac, and told her the affair as it
was.
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