supposed nephew of Baulieu, who was adopted, so to speak, and brought up
like a child of quality.

The Marquis de Saint-Maixent and Madame de Bouille had not married,
although the old Marquis de Bouille had long been dead. It appeared that
they had given up this scheme. The marchioness no doubt felt scruples
about it, and the marquis was deterred from marriage by his profligate
habits. It is moreover supposed that other engagements and heavy bribes
compensated the loss he derived from the marchioness's breach of faith.

He was a man about town at that period, and was making love to the
demoiselle Jacqueline de la Garde; he had succeeded in gaining her
affections, and brought matters to such a point that she no longer
refused her favours except on the grounds of her pregnancy and the
danger of an indiscretion. The marquis then offered to introduce to her
a matron who could deliver women without the pangs of labour, and who
had a very successful practice. The same Jacqueline de la Garde further
gave evidence at the trial that M. de Saint-Maixent had often boasted,
as of a scientific intrigue, of having spirited away the son of a
governor of a province and grandson of a marshal of France; that he
spoke of the Marchioness de Bouille, said that he had made her rich, and
that it was to him she owed her great wealth; and further, that one day
having taken her to a pretty country seat which belonged to him, she
praised its beauty, saying "c'etait un beau lieu"; he replied by a pun
on a man's name, saying that he knew another Baulieu who had enabled
him to make a fortune of five hundred thousand crowns. He also said to
Jadelon, sieur de la Barbesange, when posting with him from Paris, that
the Countess de Saint-Geran had been delivered of a son who was in his
power.