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The violins and hautboys played old tunes, but they were excellent, though they had not been played for a hundred years; and after supper, without losing any time, the lord almoner married them in the chapel of the castle. They had but very little sleep the Princess scarcely needed any; and the Prince left her next morning to return into the city, where his father was greatly troubled about him.

To have fallen under suspicion of heresy would have been the last thing Barbara expected, and she called it foolish, nay, ridiculous. But, ere she clasped Wolf's hand in farewell, she promised to show the almoner at the first opportunity upon how false a trail he had come.

She had her own confessor, chaplin, almoner, and even spiritual director; but this last performed his functions in partibus. The Marquis-Abbe d'Aigrigny continued in reality to be her spiritual guide; and it is almost unnecessary to say that for a long time past their mutual relations as to flirting had entirely ceased.

Napoleon's uncle, Cardinal Fesch, became Grand Almoner; Berthier, Grand Master of the Hounds; Talleyrand, Grand Chamberlain; Duroc, Grand Marshal of the Palace; and Caulaincourt, Master of the Horse, the acceptance of which title seemed to the world to convict him of full complicity in the schemes for the murder of the Duc d'Enghien.

On Palm-Sunday I heard his confession, and after him many of his domestic servants; I communicated them afterwards, in the holy chapel of Loretto, where I said mass. I likewise confessed them, and gave them the communion, on Easter Sunday. My lord ambassador's almoner recommends himself to your good prayers, and has promised to bear me company to the Indies.

I quitted the king as little as possible, watching with deep concern the progress of a malady, the nature of which was a secret to himself alone; for, in the dread of incurring my displeasure, no person had ventured to acquaint him with the awful fact. By the aid of the grand almoner, I had triumphed over the wishes of the archbishop of Paris, and those of the confessor.

A chance word from the distinguished prelate had sufficed to make it their duty to watch Barbara and her visitors. In Alphonsine's mistress, the Marquise de Leria, the almoner also possessed a willing tale-bearer. She had avoided him since his refusal to commend her ruined son to the favour of his imperial penitent.

He is now and then my almoner, and, I believe, always adds to my little benefactions. But his time is not come to be praised to his face for these things; nor does he seem to want that encouragement. The man certainly has a good mind. Nor can we expect in one man every good quality.

"Sire," answered the Baron de Breteuil, solemnly "sire, it is the cardinal and grand almoner of your majesty, Prince Louis de Rohan." The king uttered a loud cry, and sprang quickly from his seat. "Rohan?" asked he. "And do they dare to bring this man whom the queen hates, whom she scorns, into relations with her?

He also wrote some exceedingly remarkable articles in papers devoted to the "Congregation," refusing to be paid for them, and signing them only with an "L." He produced political pamphlets when required by King Charles X. or the High Almoner, and for these he would take no payment. "The King," he would say, "has done so much for me, that I owe him my blood."