VI The record office--Madame de Saint Germain and her rasp--The ballets _Orpheus_ and _Eurydice_--The refectory--The gates and the tower--The community and the cellars--Story of Mademoiselle de Saint Ange--Madame de Sainte Delphine and the library. “About this time I was removed from the sacristy and put into the record office. I cried a great deal when I was sent there, for all the nuns were old grumblers, with the exception of Madame de la Conception, who was of the Maillebois family; she had a dignified manner, and it was easy to see she was a lady of high birth. She knew everything connected with the Abbey, and it was a pleasure to listen to her anecdotes of former times at the monastery. “Madame de la Conception had a mania for singing ballads; I never heard a more nasal voice. She sang every day to us the ballads of _Judith_, of _Gabrielle de Vergy_, and many others. Sometimes, to amuse us, she would show us some curious things, for they possessed, among the records, letters from Queen Blanche, from Anne of Brittany, and from several other Queens of France, addressed to the Abbesses of the Convent. Letters from Guy de Laval to his aunt, the Abbess of the Abbaye-aux-Bois, written when he was with the army during the disturbances of Charles the Seventh’s reign; La Hire and Dunois were mentioned in these letters, and several other interesting documents she showed us. “The pupils at that time on duty at the record office[60] were Mademoiselle de Caumont, handsome, witty, but easily offended, aged thirteen; Mademoiselle d’Armaillé, fourteen years old, hideous, affected, but a good creature; Mademoiselle de Saint Chamans, ugly, with very short legs, quite out of proportion to her body, eighteen years old; Mademoiselle de Beaumont, ugly and lame, but a good soul; Mademoiselle de Sivrac, nineteen years of age, of noble appearance, but subject to spasms, and rather crazy; Mademoiselle de Lévis, kind, colourless, not clever, fourteen years of age. “I have already mentioned Madame de Maillebois; the other nuns at the record office were: Madame de Saint Romuald, an old grumpy; Madame de Saint Germain, another old grumpy; Madame de Saint Pavin, forty-eight years old, who never spoke, and was very sly.