French life at the period, (1774,) of a grade in society omitted in the _Memoires_ and _Souvenirs_ of dukes and princesses, we propose to give some account of it, and also of the hero of the process, whose strange eventful history was not drawn to a close till 1807. He was born in 1729, in the house of the Prince de Conti, in whose service his father was. His talents soon recommended him to the notice of the prince; and, before he was thirty, he had established his reputation as a poet of the first order by an ode on the earthquake at Lisbon. Acknowledged as a man of genius, and feared as a man of wit--for his epigrams were even more celebrated than his lyrics--and placed in easy circumstances by the kindness of his master, who bestowed on him the title and salary of his "Secretaire des Commandemens," nothing seemed wanting to his felicity but a wife to share his glory; and, accordingly, in the year 1760, he married. If we believe his own account, he was the happiest of Benedicts for fourteen years; but all of a sudden, without warning, without reason, and (though she was a poetess) without even rhyme, his household gods were broken, and all his happiness engulfed. It was a second edition of the Lisbon earthquake. The opposite party denied the fourteen years' felicity, and talked wonderful things about cuffs and kicks bestowed on the spouse--and maledictions of more force than elegance; but both sides agree that the matter came to a crisis when a certain Sieur Grimod--a sort of Cicisbeo--Platonic of course--was requested to leave the house, and discontinue his visits to Madame Lebrun. This simple proceeding let loose all the winds of heaven; poor Lebrun was pounced upon by the whole female sex. Even his old mother turned against him; even his sister, a sour vestal of thirty-seven, sided with her injured sister-in-law; and what had the wretched poet to say for himself? He suspected nothing improper--a good easy man--he adored his "Fanny"--he wanted her to come back--but that horrid fellow Grimod!--he would not have Grimod within his door. So Fanny would not go within it either; and off to the _avocat_ rushed Lebrun, to force her to come back by legal process; and off went Madame, accompanied of course by the Sieur Grimod, to _her avocat_, to resist the demand; and then followed paper upon paper--love, regrets, promisings, courtings, on one side; hatred, defiance, and foul names, _ad libitum_, on the other. And, finally, the whole case was put into a _Memoire_, with the help of Monsieur Hardoin de la Regnerie, _avocat_; and every tea-table--but there was no tea in those days--every card-table in Paris was as well able to decide the cause as the Parliament itself.