such new acquaintance. I was only sorry M. de jaucourt did not
make one of the party.


MYSTERY ATTENDING M. DE NARBONNE'S BIRTH.

Whilst M. d'Arblay and Phillips were gone, Madame de la Chƒtre
told me they had that morning received M. Necker's "D‚fense du
Roi," and if I liked it that M. de Narbonne would read it out to
us.(49) You may conceive my answer. It is a most eloquent
production, and was read by M. de Narbonne with beaucoup d'ƒme.
Towards the end it is excessively touching, and his emotion was
very evident, and would have struck and interested me had I felt
no respect for his character before.

I must now tell you the secret of his birth, which, however, is,
I conceive, no great secret even in London, as Phillips heard it
at Sir Joseph Banks's. Madame Victoire, daughter of Louis XV.,
was in her youth known to be attached to the Comte de Narbonne,
father of our M. de Narbonne. The consequence of this attachment
was such as to oblige her to a temporary retirement, under the
pretence of indisposition during which time la Comtesse de
Narbonne, who was one of her attendants, not only concealed her
own chagrin, but was the means of preserving her husband from a
dangerous situation, and the princess from disgrace. She
declared herself with child, and, in short, arranged all so well
as to seem the mother of her husband's son ; though the truth was
immediately suspected, and rumoured about the Court, and Madame
de la Chƒtre told me, was known and familiarly spoken of by all
her friends, except in the presence of