“Madame d’Egmont cried her heart out for some minutes by the old man’s bed. When she was a little easier the Vidame opened his eyes which he had kept shut all this time.
“‘Madame,’ he said, ‘he for whom you are weeping, and whom we both regret, had no secrets from me. For he left behind him a young fellow, of about his own age, who is his double’. The old gentleman went on that this boy, Monsieur de Guys, was believed to be the natural son of the Marshal de Bellisle. Finally the Vidame said he wished to do something for this young man, because he did not think that he himself had long to live. He desired Madame d’Egmont, appealing to the love they both had for the dead Count de Gisors, to take certain bearer bonds and, as soon as he himself passed on, to hand these over to Monsieur de Guys. He explained that this was the only way to circumvent his creditors and heirs at law, and begged Madame d’Egmont not to say a word to anyone, repeating once more that she was the only person left whom he could trust. Madame d’Egmont reluctantly agreed to do as the Vidame asked, subject to certain safeguards with which I do not propose to trouble you, and within five or six days the Vidame had died.
“About this time the Queen of Portugal departed this world. There was a Memorial Service for her at Notre Dame. I had to attend in waiting on the Royal Princesses, although I certainly owed no obligation to Louis XV, or his court, for which, if I may do so without seeming too proud, I thank God in His mercy.
“The Queen of Portugal had actually, and even obviously, been put away by poisoning. Nevertheless Madame d’Egmont, as she told me, felt obliged to make an appearance at the ceremony because, through her husband, she was a Grandee of Spain. As such she had the right to take her place in the front rank, with the wives of the Dukes. But, when I came up the aisle with my Princess, the seats reserved for these Duchesses were almost empty. There was only a shapeless bundle, not fully under control, which must have been Madame de Mazarin, then a sort of gatepost, so stiff and immovable it could only have been the Duchess de Brissac, and last, a little bat-like creature in perpetual motion, flinching and fluttering throughout the ceremony, which told us this was no less, or more, of a person than the Countess de Tessé. I could not see a soul in the least like Madame d’Egmont, and I had told my Princess, whose train I was carrying while my aunt de Parabère bore mine, to look out for her, explaining that no one could mistake Madame d’Egmont. It was a real disappointment for the Princess Louise and the rest of us. Because Septimanie curtseying in the full glory of Court dress was unforgettable. I have only seen two women do it to equal her. One was Queen Marie Antoinette, and the other (saving the respect due to a Queen of France), Mlle Clairon of the Comédie Française.
“After the Absolution, at which the Princesses and peeresses are never present, we were told, when we got back to the Archbishop’s, that Madame d’Egmont had been taken ill as she came up the aisle, and that she had cried out as she was falling.
“I found her waiting for me at home. She was deathly pale. She could only just speak. All I could get out of her was that, as she was about to take her place by the catafalque, she thought she had seen the Count de Gisors. ‘You won’t laugh at me will you?’ she begged, ‘I saw him, I know I did, and it almost killed me.’
“I told her that Monsieur de Nivernais had spoken of a young private soldier exactly like Monsieur de Gisors, and that it was probably this man who had been on guard at the catafalque. Septimanie burst into tears. ‘Don’t you see, it must be Severin his younger brother,’ she sobbed, ‘the boy I’m to give the Vidame’s legacy to. I promised. Now that I have to see him again I’m terrified.’
“From this point onwards you will not find me so well informed, my child, and I confess to you that it would ill become me if I were. However, Madame d’Egmont did tell me some months later, in an embarrassed sort of way, that she had summoned Monsieur de Guys, secretly, to a church. She had joined him on foot, without any of her servants, and had handed over the £10,000 given to her by the Vidame for that purpose. But I saw a blush on her forehead as she was telling me. I had an idea she wanted to say more, and that I was not having the whole story. But I was careful to do nothing to persuade her to go any further with me, for I feared she might find herself confiding, or even attempting to explain away, certain things that I should have been embarrassed to learn. Because I did not wish to encourage her in this affair, which in any case, I imagined, was over and done with. All I said was, I could only be surprised and vexed that she had met him in church …. My child, she lowered her great eyes at that, and bit her lip. Then I changed the subject abruptly. It hurt me to do this. But I could see she understood, and from that time on I saw less of poor Septimanie. Indeed it must have been five or six months before I heard tell of Monsieur de Guys again.
“I had gone to dinner at the Richelieu’s. I remember it was the night of a great storm. The Marshal asked me if I meant to pay my respects at Versailles the next day, and dine with their Majesties. I told him I had planned to do so. ‘My daughter ought to go,’ he said. ‘Which of you will take the other?’
“I had always had a very good idea that I was the person with whom he best liked his daughter to go out, and I thought I saw that the sharp old man had noticed how we were no longer quite what we had been to each other. What he had in mind was to put us in one carriage. He imagined this was all that was needed to bring us together again. We exchanged looks, and smiled, his daughter and I.
“As we travelled down to Versailles the next day in her state carriage, I thought I had never seen Madame d’Egmont in such brilliant looks, or more superbly dressed. She was wearing the family pearls, those on which the Republic of Venice once lent such a large sum to Count Lamoral d’Egmont, to finance the war against King Philip, and which were without price, they were so valuable. But I flatter myself her jewels were not the only ones to attract attention that day. For I had brought out the diamonds you will inherit with the family heirlooms. The moment she set eyes on them the Queen sent for me to get a closer view of the Lesdiguière diamond. It was then and there admitted that this was a far finer stone than any of her twelve Mazarin diamonds. Commander d’Esclots, my uncle, and who was making the circle, was so absolutely delighted that it was only after some little trouble that I could persuade him not to write to the Queen to thank her for what she had said. The good old man belonged to a generation when the least word from royalty was too valuable for anything. But he was the old-fashioned sort of Frenchman. He died without having been persuaded it could be a fact that Madame Lenormand d’Etioles had ever had an apartment in the Palace of Versailles, nor, above all, that she could, by any fantastic stroke of the imagination, have been ennobled under the title of Marquise de Pompadour.
“At State dinners in those days the public came quickly in by one door, and were hustled out by the other, thus making a quarter circle round the royal table. We were seated on the right of the King, near the door the public was let in by. Madame d’Egmont was next me, and last in the row. That is to say she was nearest to the flow of people.
“The first thing I knew was a kind of awkward murmuring, which was kept low, no doubt out of respect. Then, when I looked up, I saw the officer in charge of the King’s Guard speak to a private soldier who was one of the public, but who kept on staring fixedly at Madame d’Egmont. He was a beautiful young man. His face and appearance, in spite of his rank, were brilliant, and would have graced anyone in the kingdom. Can you doubt who it was? But because I was not continually thinking about Monsieur de Gisors, and that I never wondered about Monsieur de Guys, I was not, at that instant minute, struck by how alike they were.