CHARACTERS. 



73 



only ten leagues from St. Lo. His 

 father came again to procure his de- 

 liverance, which, in consideration of 

 his youth, was indulgently granted, 

 and the lad replaced under paternal 

 authorit}'. He was now to learn 

 the trade of a tailor, an insufiFerable 

 thought to his mind. He broke 

 loose a third time. 



In 1797 he was in the diligence, 

 or stage coach, between Laval and 

 Alen^on, very plainly and decently 

 habited according to his sex. Not 

 far from the latter place, he alighted, 

 and ran off to a village by the road 



side, called Lcs Jonchcrets. 



Being 



benighted, he begged quarters of a 

 peasant, who directed him to the 

 house of Madamoiselle Talon La- 

 combe for better accommodation. To 

 this lady he declared himself to be 

 one of the family of Montmorency, 

 who had a castle and estates near 

 Dreux, but was obliged to fly from 

 his persecutors. She conceived a 

 lively interest for his situation, and 

 supplied him with money and clothes, 

 which he promised to repay upon 

 his arrival at Dreux. Here he 

 lived for a while much at his ease, 

 acted the part of a man of quality, 

 and presented, for instance, the 

 ostler, who saddled his riding horse, 

 •with a louis-d'or. 



At last he found himself induced 

 to set off, and Madamoiselle La- 

 combe accompanied him to Dreux, to 

 get back, the value of what she had 

 advanced him. They safely reached 

 the place; but both castle and cs- 

 fates had vanished. Can any thing 

 be more natural? The revolution 

 accounts for every thing. Poorer 

 by fifty louis-d'ors, and richer in ex- 

 pericnce, the lady returned home. 

 The young hero continually gained 

 in boldness. In the month of May, 

 1798, h« Tcnturcd iu the diligence 



to Meaux, only eight leagues from 

 Paris, and alighted at the inn, where 

 he indeed obtained some refresh- 

 ment; but, having no passport, was 

 refused a night's lodging. The wife 

 of a Paris merchant, Laravaine, who 

 happened to be at Meaux, took pity 

 on him, and permitted him to sleep 

 in her warehouse. This encouraged 

 him to ask farther favours, and he 

 succeeded. He represented himself 

 as a rich farmer's son of Domery, 

 who had fled to avoid being enrolled 

 as a recruit, and madame made him 

 a present of four louis-d'ors, upon 

 which he hired a place in the dili- 

 gence for Strasbourg. 



About one league from Chalons 

 he disappeared, and the postillion ia 

 vain waited his return. He went to 

 the village of Mery, and wished to 

 make good his story at the castle of 

 Guignaucourt ; but, being suspect- 

 ed, he was put under arrest, and 

 taken before the justice of peace at 

 Cernon. Being asked who he was, 

 he mysteriously replied : *' He had 

 no answer to make to such a ques- 

 tion." He Avas sent to Chalons, 

 where, being again asked to giva 

 his name, he proudly said, " You 

 will learn it but too soon." At last 

 he said, he was called Louis An- 

 toine Jean Francois de Langueville; 

 that his father was dead, and that 

 his mother, madame Saint Emilie^ 

 lived at Beauzeville, near Pont 

 Ademar, in thedepartment »f Eure. 

 It must be confessed, that it is im- 

 possible to tell a lie more circum- 

 stantially. 



Confined in the prison of Cha- 

 lons, Hervagault assumed an air of 

 grandeur, and a mysterious deport- 

 ment; he tempted the curious, gave 

 significant hints, and in short, ere 

 long, it was, whispered about: It is 

 the Dauphia! the son of Louis 



3D 3 XVLl 



