A worthy queen she had been if as little

Of cruelty had been done under her

As by her. To equivocate she hated:

And was just what she seemed. In fine, she was

In all things excellent while she pursued

Her own free inclination without fear.”

NANETTE.
A LEGEND OF THE DAYS OF LOUIS XV.

I.

A police report is scarcely the place where one would look to find an idyl—least of all a French police report. But just as one comes at times upon a shy violet nestling in the dusty city ways, even in such an unpromising quarter, and in the records of a still more unpromising time, did the present writer stumble upon a veritable romance—

“Silly sooth