said she, in a tone of voice which made every nerve vibrate, "you are
wandering about at an early age--it is really a pity!"--and without
waiting for an answer, added--"Go to my house, bid them give you
something for breakfast, after mass, I will speak to you."

Louisa--Eleanora de Warrens was of the noble and ancient family of La
Tour de Pit, of Vevay, a city in the country of the Vaudois. She was
married very young to a M. de Warrens, of the house of Loys, eldest son
of M. de Villardin, of Lausanne; there were no children by this marriage,
which was far from being a happy one. Some domestic uneasiness made
Madam de Warrens take the resolution of crossing the Lake, and throwing
herself at the feet of Victor Amadeus, who was then at Evian; thus
abandoning her husband, family, and country by a giddiness similar to
mine, which precipitation she, too, has found sufficient time and reason
to lament.

The king, who was fond of appearing a zealous promoter of the Catholic
faith, took her under his protection, and complimented her with a pension
of fifteen hundred livres of Piedmont, which was a considerable
appointment for a prince who never had the character of being generous;
but finding his liberality made some conjecture he had an affection for
the lady, he sent her to Annecy escorted by a detachment of his guards,
where, under the direction of Michael Gabriel de Bernex, titular bishop
of Geneva, she abjured her former religion at the Convent of the
Visitation.

I came to Annecy just six years after this event; Madam de Warrens was
then eight--and--twenty, being born with the century. Her beauty,
consisting more in the expressive animation of the countenance, than a
set of features, was in its meridian; her manner soothing and tender; an