The House of de Mailly

I. A Ship Comes In II. Dr. Carroll's Idea III. The Plantation IV. Annapolis V. Sambo VI. Claude's Memories VII. The Pearls VIII. The Governor's Ball IX. The Rector, The Count, A...

I. From Metz II. The Disgrace III. November Thirteenth IV. Claude's Own V. Two Presentations VI. Snuff-Boxes VII. Concerning Monsieur Maurepas VIII. Deep Waters IX. The Duke Swi...

It was the evening of Tuesday, January 12th, in the year 1744. By six o'clock the gray of afternoon had deepened to the blackness of night, and a heavy rain began to fall, so th...

Dawn, the late dawn of a gray, wintry morning, hung over Versailles. Within the palace walls those vast corridors, which had lately rung to sounds of life and laughter, stretche...

The 16th of January fell on a Saturday, on the evening of which day the King held his usual weekly assembly in the formal halls of the palace. These affairs were not loved by Lo...

On Monday afternoon, at half-past five o'clock, in a small room in the Lazariste, which was next to St. Vincent de Paul in the Rue de Sèvres, sat François de Bernis, Abbé Coyer,...

Tuesday morning at Marly proved an ordeal for the army of valets and maids attendant on the ladies and gentlemen who had taken part in the amusement of the day before. His Majes...

On the morning of Thursday, January 21st, when a feeble ray of sunlight first straggled into the window of Claude's room on the Avenue de St. Cloud, in the town of Versailles, i...

All night the waters of the Chesapeake and those of the Atlantic beyond had been tumbling under the force of a fresh east wind that was bearing an incoming vessel straight up to...

Deborah's bedroom was extremely small. It was merely one corner of the west wing, partitioned off from the spinning-room and the great hand-loom; and there was barely room in it...

It was nearly four weeks since the _Baltimore_ had set sail on her return voyage to England. The June days were flying. Peach-blossoms had long since fallen; cherries were daily...

The commissioners left Annapolis for Lancaster on the 18th day of June, which was three days earlier than had been originally planned. After their departure Governor Bladen sigh...

According to the laws of colonial hospitality, Claude stayed all day and overnight at the Trevor house. To tell the truth, he was scarcely fit for removal, for the reaction from...

Deborah recovered from her afternoon over Sambo's sick-bed far less rapidly than the small negro did from the effects of his remarkable breakfast. In fact, three days after that...

Another week went by, and Deborah, quite recovered from her slight illness, bade Dr. Carroll and his sisters good-bye and returned, on a Sunday afternoon, to the Trevor place. I...

Tuesday passed as rapidly or as slowly as one would have had the last day before a long-looked-for event. Sir Charles rode away in the early morning, but returned to the plantat...

The day of the Governor's ball had been a dismal one for Claude. The few people whom he knew in the town were all agog over the prospect of the evening; and, since Governor Blad...

Deborah looked uncomfortable at the bald directness of the question. Being under no suspicious eye, however, she dropped an hour, and was able to reply, with some nonchalance: "...

He walked, quite leisurely, over the turf beside the house, past the western wing, towards the terraces that led into the garden. The sunset faced him in a blinding, hazy radian...

"I fear not. There fly rumors--that his Majesty grows hourly worse. If this continues, the army will be in revolt, the women will be mobbed, and--Quesnay may be permitted to pro...

While Mme. de Lauraguais lived she remembered the journey from Metz to Paris as the most utterly wretched affair of her life. For the Duchess, she expressed no opinion on the ma...

It was thus that Claude brought home his wife. Two months before he had been married to her in Dr. Carroll's chapel by Aimé St. Quentin, with all Annapolis to witness; and next...

The _Nouvelles à la Main_ of the 15th of November announced, among many things, that the Count and Countess de Mailly had entered their apartment in the Rue d'Anjou at Versaille...

Upon the 18th of November their Majesties, the dauphin, the royal suites, and, in a word, the French Court, returned to Versailles and took up its abode in palace or town for th...

It was the afternoon of November 22d, ten days after the King's return to Paris, not yet twenty-four hours since her Majesty's first salon at Versailles. The Abbé de Bernis, com...

Notwithstanding de Richelieu's confidence in the rising of the new de Mailly star in the Versailles heavens, and François de Bernis' more reserved and more diffuse plans, it app...

The King and his companion returned to Versailles on Friday, as quietly as they had left it three days before; and it was probable that most of the court was unaware that his Ma...

Something over an hour after d'Argenson's return, Richelieu, in full dress, glittering with jewels and orders, left the palace in his coach, bound for the Rue d'Anjou. He was co...

Twelve miles from Versailles, or fourteen by the Sceaux road, nearly eight from Paris, situated upon the bank of the Seine, shaded with woods and flanked by a tiny hamlet, stood...

Deborah lay in bed--thinking. It was two hours now since she and Claude, with the rest of the frightened Court, had received a sharp command from the ushers to depart instantly...

Claude and his cousin sat together in the Marquis' salon in the Hôtel de Mailly. Before them, on a table, were various liqueurs and some untasted cakes. The two young men had re...

For the next seven weeks life in the de Mailly _ménage_ was anything but agreeable. Monsieur and madame addressed each other, when necessary, in rigidly polite terms. Ordinarily...

The Abbé de Bernis did not keep a regular body-servant, for the excellent reason that his somewhat slender means did not admit of one. This fact was wont to pique his vanity not...

For three days it was the supreme topic in the Œil-de-Bœuf, and the Maréchal gave another day's interest by himself taking her unconsecrated body back to the château where she h...