And he resumed: "Would not that likeness alone be sufficient to demonstrate the falseness of this adventuress's pretensions?..."
I wrote this time without raising an eye, and I never looked up again throughout the remainder of the sitting.
At four o'clock the Duc d'Orléans set me free, asking me if I could come to work in the evening.
I replied that I was at His Highness's disposition. I picked up my hat, I bowed, I went out, I took the stairs four at a time and I ran to find Lassagne. He chanced to be still at his desk.
"How can Louis XIV. be the grandfather of the Duc d'Orléans?" I asked as soon as I got in, without any preliminary explanation.
"Good gracious!" he said, "it is plain enough: because the regent married Mademoiselle de Blois, who was Louis XIV.'s natural daughter by Madame de Montespan—a marriage that procured him a sound smack in the face when it was announced by him to the Princess Palatine, Monsieur's second wife, who thus expressed her feelings at the mésalliance. ... You will find all this in the memoirs of the Princess Palatine and in Saint-Simon."
I felt extinguished by the ready and accurate answer given me.
"Oh!" I said, with downcast head, "I shall never be as learned as that!"
I finished the copy of the statement by eleven o'clock that same evening. It was sent next day to M. Dupin, who should have it still, written in my handwriting.