"This is a strange place, this St. Germain," said the waiting-woman, as she undressed her mistress.
"It is indeed!" replied Pauline. "I wish I had never seen it. But of one thing let me warn you, Louise, before it is too late. Never repeat any thing you may see or hear, while you are at the court; for if you do, your life may answer for it."
"My life! Mademoiselle Pauline," exclaimed the soubrette, as if she doubted her ears.
"Yes indeed, your life!" replied the young lady: "So beware."
"Then I wish I had never seen the place either," rejoined the maid; "for what is the use of seeing and hearing things, if one may not talk about them?--and who can be always watching one's tongue?"
A Chapter of mighty import, which may be read or not, as the Reader thinks fit, the Book being quite as well without it.
With the happy irregularity of all true stories, we must return, for a moment, to a very insignificant person,--the Woodman of Mantes. Indeed, I have to beg my reader's pardon for saying so much about any one under the rank of a Chevalier at least; but all through this most untractable of all histories, I have been pestered with a set of shabby fellows in very indifferent circumstances. Woodcutters, robbers, gentlemen's servants, and the like, who make themselves so abominably useful, that though we wish them at the Devil all the time, we can no way do without them. Let the sin not be attributed to me; for I declare, upon my conscience, that when first I undertook to record this tale, I attempted a thorough reform; I superseded a great number of subordinate characters, put others upon the retired list, and dismissed a great many as useless sinecurists; but when I had done, all was in confusion; and then, after considering matters for half an hour, and turning over a page or two in the book of Nature, I found, that the most brilliant actions and the greatest events were generally brought about from the meanest motives and most petty causes: I perceived, that women and valets de-chambre govern the world: I found that saur-kraut had disagreed with Sarah Duchess of Marlborough, made her insolent to Queen Anne, made Queen Anne threaten to box her ears, made England resign her advantages over France--placed the Bourbon dynasty on the throne of Spain, and changed the face of Europe even to the present day. So, if saur-kraut did all this, surely I may return to Philip, the woodman of Mantes.