not be removed from her apartment, and that M. de charge d'afaires from
the Court of Vienna during the absence of the Comte de Mercy, should come
and ask her, at her toilet, before all her people, to order one exactly
like her own for Madame the Gouvernante of the Netherlands. The Queen,
therefore, commanded me before the charge d'affaires to order the article
in question. This occasioned only an expense of five hundred louis, and
appeared calculated to lull suspicion completely.

About the middle of May, 1791, a month after the Queen had ordered me to
bespeak the dressing-case, she asked me whether it would soon be finished.
I sent for the ivory-turner who had it in hand. He could not complete it
for six weeks. I informed the Queen of this, and she told me she should
not be able to wait for it, as she was to set out in the course of June.
She added that, as she had ordered her sister's dressing-case in the
presence of all her attendants, she had taken a sufficient precaution,
especially by saying that her sister was out of patience at not receiving
it, and that therefore her own must be emptied and cleaned, and taken to
the charge d'affaires, who would send it off. I executed this order
without any, appearance of mystery. I desired the wardrobe woman to take
out of the dressing-case all that it contained, because that intended for
the Archduchess could not be finished for some time; and to take great
care to leave no remains of the perfumes which might not suit that
Princess.

The woman in question executed her commission punctually; but, on the
evening of that very day, the 15th of May, 1791, she informed M. Bailly,
the Mayor of Paris, that preparations were making at the Queen's residence
for a departure; and that the dressing-case was already sent off, under
pretence of its being presented to the Archduchess Christina.