I requested of him
to leave us to ourselves. I then raised my weeping
,
consoled her to the best of my ability, and then requested her
to give me the history of her captivity. Her story was soon
told: she had been an inhabitant of the same prison for seventeen
years and five months, without either seeing a human being, or
hearing the sound of a human voice. Her recital made me shudder,
and I promised her that henceforward her life should be rendered
as happy as it had hitherto been miserable.
The king supped with me that evening. By some singular chance he
was on this occasion in the happiest temper possible: he laughed,
sung, joked with such unusual spirits, that I hesitated ere I
disturbed a gaiety to which Louis XV was so little prone.
However, I took him aside, saying, "Sire, I have to ask atonement
and reparation for a most horrible piece of injustice." After which,
I proceeded to acquaint him with the distressing history of his
unfortunate mistress. He appeared perfectly well to recollect
the female to whom I alluded; and when I ceased speaking, he
said, with a half-suppressed sigh,
"Poor creature! she has indeed been unfortunate; seventeen years
and five months in prison! The duc de la Vrilliere is greatly to
blame in the affair; but when once he has placed persons between
four walls, he thinks he has fulfilled the whole of his duty. He
should recollect, that a good memory is a necessary qualification
for situation he holds; it is indeed an imperative duty in him to
think of the poor wretches he deprives of their liberty.
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