clear that her letter would be opened by the marquis on pretext of
religion, and thus that step, instead of saving, might destroy her. She
had thus but one resource: her husband had always been a Catholic; her
husband was a captain of dragoons, faithful in the service of the king
and faithful in the service of God; there could be no excuse for opening
a letter to him; she resolved to address herself to him, explained the
position in which she found herself, got the address written by another
hand, and sent the letter to Montpellier, where it was posted.

The young marquis was at Metz when he received his wife's missive. At
that instant all his childish memories awoke; he beheld himself at his
dying mother's bedside, vowing never to forget her and to pray daily for
her. The image presented itself of this wife whom he adored, in the same
room, exposed to the same violence, destined perhaps to the same fate;
all this was enough to lead him to take positive action: he flung himself
into a post-chaise, reached Versailles, begged an audience of the king,
cast himself, with his wife's letter in his hand, at the feet of Louis
XIV, and besought him to compel his father to return into exile, where he
swore upon has honour that he would send him everything he could need in
order to live properly.

The king was not aware that the Marquis do Ganges had disobeyed the
sentence of banishment, and the manner in which he learned it was not
such as to make him pardon the contradiction of his laws. In consequence
he immediately ordered that if the Marquis de Ganges were found in France
he should be proceeded against with the utmost rigour.

Happily for the marquis, the Comte de Ganges, the only one of his
brothers who had remained in France, and indeed in favour, learned the
king's decision in time. He took post from Versailles, and making the