[37] In 1793 Montrond had fled to England, and there had placed himself under M. de Talleyrand's protection. This was the beginning of their long friendship.
[38] Madame Adélaïde had caused her hand to be offered to the Baron de Montmorency, but on condition that she should not be required to change her name—a condition which the Baron declined to accept.
[39] Veuil commands the valley of Nahon, and was joined to the Seigneurie of Valençay in 1787 by M. de Luçay, who was then the owner. The castle, which must have been very fine, is now a ruin, of which only a fragment is inhabited by a farmer.
[40] The Duchesse de Dino never revisited England in spite of her happy memories of that country.
[41] When you entered this shop, then very celebrated in France, you used to see models of the legs of all M. de Talleyrand's lady friends, duly labelled, which had been made for the guidance of the Valençay tradesman.
Souvent femme varie
Bien fol est qui s'y fie.
[43] It ended in a criminal trial, which attracted much attention. Emile de la Roncière was tried by Jury at Angers in 1835, and, in spite of the ability of his counsel, Maître Chaix-d'Est-Ange, he was condemned to ten years' penal servitude. In 1843 King Louis-Philippe remitted the two years he had still to serve.
[44] This letter, of which only a part is quoted here, was given entire by the Comtesse de Mirabeau in her book Le Prince de Talleyrand et la Maison d'Orléans, and may also be found in Volume V. of the Mémoires du Prince de Talleyrand, which were published in 1892.