TWO:The next time they met he was secretary to Alexandre de Lameth. Trzia was standing on the steps of their h?tel with Mme. Charles de Lameth when he came with his hands full of letters.The noblesse depe was the highest, most brilliant, and most scandalous in France; but in its ranks were to be found heroic examples and saintly characters; while far away in the convents and chateaux scattered over the country and in quiet bourgeois families in the towns lives were led of earnest faith, devotion, and self-denial.
ONE:For the former reason she spent some time at Raincy, [25] then the residence of the Duke of Orlans, father of Philippe-galit, where she painted his portrait, and that of his morganatic wife, Mme. de Montesson. While she was there the old Princesse de Conti came one day to see Mme. de Montesson, and much to her surprise always addressed Mme. Le Brun as Mademoiselle. As it was shortly before the birth of her first child, this rather startled her, and she then recollected that it [62] had been the custom in former days for grandees of the court so to address their inferiors. It was a survival that she never met with but upon this occasion, as it had quite come to an end with Louis XV. Mme. Le Brun never cared to stay at Raincy, which she found uncongenial; but she delighted in several of the other chateaux where she stayed, above all in Chantilly, where the Prince de Cond gave the most magnificent ftes, and where the grandeur of the chateau and the beauty of the gardens, lakes, and woods fascinated her.It is easy to see that the present state of affairs in France offered the most dangerous and the strongest temptation to private vengeance. Any one who had an enemy or who had been offended by any one else, or even who wished to remove some person whose existence was inconvenient to them, had only to denounce them for some trifle which they might or might not have said or done; they were sure to be arrested, and most likely to be put to death.
Blanditiis praesentium voluptatum deleniti atque corrupti quos dolores et quas molestias excepturi sint occaecati cupiditate non provident.
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