 accommodation. The apartments
opened into the gardens of the Luxembourg, and were, in point of magnificence,
suitable to the owner. Thither I used to repair in a flaming equipage, on
pretence of visiting, and spent the best part of the night with him, who was
dearer to me than all the princes in the world.
    While I was happily engaged in these ravishing parties, my little lord was
employed in efforts to recover his health by restoratives, and I know not what;
for he still lamented the enfeebling effects of his passion, and complained,
that he loved me more like an angel than a woman, though he strove to govern his
affection according to the doctrines of the christian religion, as he regulated
his life by the maxims of Charles the twelfth of Sweden. The meaning of this
declaration I could never learn; and indeed, I have been often tempted to
believe he had no meaning at all.
    Be that as it will, I found my size visibly increasing, and my situation
extremely uneasy, on account of the perpetual wrangling which prevailed betwixt
us, in consequence of his desiring to sleep with me again, after we had parted
beds for the second time: and, that I might be no longer exposed to such
disagreeable persecution, I resolved to leave him, though at the hazard of my
life.
    Thus determined, I went to the British embassador in an hackney coach; and,
in order to disguise my youth, which might have prepossessed him against my
judgment, muffled myself up in a black hood, which (as he said) instead of
lending an air of gravity to my countenance, added a wildness to my looks, which
was far from being disagreeable. He had been a gallant man in his youth, and
even then, though well stricken in years, was not insensible to the power of
beauty. This disposition, perhaps, rendered him more favourable to my cause,
though he at first advised me to return to my husband; but finding me obstinate,
he undertook to serve me in my own way, and procure a protection from the French
king, by virtue of which, I could live at Paris unmolested by my lord.
Nevertheless, he advised me (if I was determined to leave him) to make the best
of my way to England, and sue for a divorce.
    I relished his opinion, and concealed myself about three days in Paris,
during which I borrowed some linen; for, as it was impossible to convey any
thing out of my own house without suspicion, I had neither cloaths for my
accommodation, nor a
