scenes between him and Madame de Talmond. They began in tender
effusions, and often ended in a quarrel, or even in blows. This fact
we learn from an intimate friend of Madame de Vasse.' {80}

There is exaggeration here. The Prince was not living a life
'fugitive and cloistered' for three whole unbroken years. But the
convent of St. Joseph was one of his hiding-places from 1749 to 1752.
Of Madame de Vasse I have been unable to learn much: a lady of that
name was presented at Court in 1745, and the Duc de Luynes describes
her as 'conveniently handsome.' She is always alluded to as 'La
Grandemain' in Charles's correspondence, but once he lets her real
name slip out in a memorandum. Mademoiselle Ferrand's father is
apparently described by d'Hozier as 'Ferrand, Ecuyer, Sieur des
Marres et de Ronville en Normandie.' Many of Charles's letters are
addressed to 'Mademoiselle Luci,' SISTER of 'La Grandemain.' Now
Madame de Vasse seems, from a passage in the Duc de Luynes's
'Memoires,' to have been the only daughter of her father, M. de Peze.
But once, Charles, writing to 'Mademoiselle Luci,' addresses the
letter to 'Mademoiselle La Marre,' for 'Marres.' Now, as Marres was
an estate of the Ferrands, this address seems to identify
'Mademoiselle Luci' with Mademoiselle Ferrand, the intimate friend,
not really the sister, of Madame de Vasse. Mademoiselle Ferrand, as
Grimm shows, had a taste for philosophy. We shall remark the same
taste in the Prince's friend, 'Mademoiselle Luci.'

Thus the secret which puzzled Europe is revealed. The Prince, sought
vainly in Poland, Prussia, Italy, Silesia, and Staffordshire, was
really lurking in a fashionable Parisian convent. Better had he been
'where the wind blows over seven glens, and seven Bens, and seven
mountain moors,' like the Prince in the Gaelic fairy stories.