When breakfast was finished, the duchess returned to the salon. There, General Dermoncourt asked her permission to leave her. General d'Erlon was holding a review of the National Guard and of the troops of the line in which he was obliged to take part.
"When shall I see you again?" asked the princess.
"As soon as the review is over, Madame," replied the general, "and I presume it will not be long."
Scarcely had Dermoncourt got thirty yards outside the bâteau, before a trumpeter of the gendarmerie caught him up, out of breath, saying that the duchess was asking for him instantly. He added that she seemed furious with the general. Interrogated as to the cause of this anger, the soldier replied that after some words addressed by Madame to Mlle. de Kersabiec, he attributed it to M. de Ménars having been sent to another building instead of being placed in her anteroom. Fearing, indeed, that they had not treated M. de Ménars with the respect he had ordered, the general returned at once and went to him, finding him so unwell that he had flung himself on his bed without the strength to undress himself. The general offered to be his valet, but as there were neither tables nor chairs in his room and he could not stand it was not an easy office to perform; the general therefore called a gendarme to his assistance and, between them, they managed to put M. de Ménars to bed. When he was in bed, the general told him that the duchess had had him called back and that he would, no doubt, have a scene with Madame over his separation from her. M. de Ménars then charged Dermoncourt to reassure Madame about his condition and to tell her that he only felt a passing faintness and that he was well satisfied with his quarters. The general immediately repaired to the duchess, who, when she saw him, leapt rather than walked to him.
"Ah! monsieur," she exclaimed, in a voice trembling with anger, "so this is how you have begun—this is how you keep your promises—it augurs well for the future. It is indeed horrible!"
"What is the matter, Madame?" asked the general.
"You promised me I should not be separated from any of my companions, and at the very outset you put Ménars in another part of the building from mine."
"Madame is mistaken," replied Dermoncourt. "M. de Ménars, it is true, is in another part of the castle, but the tower Madame occupies leads to his rooms."
"Yes, only one has to go downstairs and up again by another staircase."