endure, might be meeting wounds and death in the Low Countries while
I might be dancing!

So again I declined when the ladies in the coach invited me to their
houses in Paris. Should I go to a convent? they asked; and one began
to recommend the Carmelites, another the Visitation, another Port
Royal, till I was almost distracted; and M. le Marquis began to say
it was a pious and commendable wish, but that devotion had its proper
times and seasons, and that judgment must be exercised as to the
duration of a retreat, etc.

'No, Monsieur,' said I, 'I am not going into a convent. A wife's
duty is with her husband; I am going into garrison at Nancy.'

Oh, how they cried out! There was such a noise that the gentlemen
turned their horses' heads to see whether any one was taken ill.
When they heard what was the matter, persecution began for us both.

We used to compare our experiences; the ladies trying to persuade me
now that it was improper, now that I should be terrified to death now
that I should become too ugly to be presentable; while the gentlemen
made game of M. de Bellaise as a foolish young lover, who was so
absurd as to encumber himself with a wife of whom he would soon
weary, and whose presence would interfere with his enjoyment of the
freedom and diversions of military life. He who was only just free
from his governor, would he saddle himself with a wife? Bah!

He who had been so shy defended himself with spirit; and on my side I
declared that nothing but his commands, and those of my father,
should induce me to leave him. At Amiens we met a courier on his way