intendant, named Morel,

[Morel subsequently admitted his guilt in the matter of Madame's death,
as well as the commission of other corresponding crimes. See the Letters
of Charlotte, the Princess Palatine.--EDITOR'S NOTE.]

and even the Duc d'Orleans himself.

His intense agitation was succeeded by profound melancholy, stupor
closely allied to insanity or death.

One evening, the Comte de Guiche went to the Abbey Church of Saint Denis.
He hid himself here, to avoid being watched, and when the huge nave was
closed, and all the attendants had left, he rushed forward and flung
himself at full length upon the tombstone which covers the vast royal
vault. By the flickering light of the lamps, he mourned the passing
hence of so accomplished a woman, murdered in the flower of her youth. He
called her by name, telling her once more of his deep and fervent love.
Next day, he wandered about in great pain, gloomy and inconsolable.

One day he came to see me at Clagny, and talked in a hopeless, desolate
way about our dear one. He told me that neither glory nor ambition nor
voluptuous pleasures could ever allure him or prove soothing to his soul.
He assured me that life was a burden to him,--a burden that religion
alone prevented him from relinquishing, and that he was determined to
shut himself up in La Trappe or in some such wild, deserted place.

I sought to dissuade him from such a project, which could only be the
cause of grief and consternation to his relatives. He pretended to yield
to my entreaties, but the next night he left home and disappeared.