the difficulties of my part. I feared I should not succeed, but fail
amid the insulting hisses of the Versailles party.

My fears at once disappeared, and then I pictured myself sitting
on a throne, magnificently attired; my imagination wandered in
all the enchantments of greatness; --then, as if from remorse, I
recalled my past life. The former lover of Nicholas blushed
before the future mistress of Louis XV. A thousand different
reflections crowded upon me, and mingled in my brain. If to live
is to think, I lived a whole age in one quarter of an hour. At
length I heard some doors open, a carriage rolled away, and comte
Jean entered my chamber.

"Victory!" cried he, embracing me with transport. "Victory! my
dear Jeanne, to-morrow you sup with the king."

On this information I turned pale, my strength forsook me, and I
was compelled to sit down, or rather to fall into a chair; for,
according to Jean Jacques Rousseau, my legs shook under me
(). This, however, was the only movement of weakness
which I betrayed. When I recovered a little, the comte Jean told
me the conversation he had had with Lebel. I joked about the title
of baron de Gonesse, and I promised to treat the king as if
ignorant of his incognito. One thing only made me uneasy, and
that was supping with the duc de Richelieu, who had seen me
before at madame de Lagarde's; but the idea that he would not
remember me gave me renewed courage.

On so important an occasion, comte Jean did not forget to repeat
his instructions over again. These are nearly his words, for I