While this negotiation was being carried on Hélène had met, in the course of her frequent appearances in society, Prince Frédéric[106] de Salm, who had come as if by chance to a young ladies’ ball. His reputation as a successful man of the world, his debts, and his conduct, did little credit to the name he bore. Unscrupulous in the choice of his amusements, frequenting the worst society, of doubtful courage, he commanded in Paris no sort of consideration. He was reproached, on the occasion of a duel he fought with an officer of the King’s guards, with having taken the precaution of secretly protecting himself with a large muff. On arriving at the ground he refused to undress, and rushed on his adversary unawares. The latter gave him a thrust that would have pierced him through and through had it not been for the protecting muff. The recoil caused by this obstacle threw the officer to the ground, and the seconds had all the difficulty in the world to prevent the Prince from killing his fallen adversary. The Prince de Salm had a handsome face, easy manners, a gay disposition, and a supple mind. Hélène ignored the dishonourable details of his private life. She only saw in him an elegant cavalier, bearing a great name, and above all, the certainty of a fixed residence in Paris, in the magnificent mansion the Salms had built, on the Quay d’Orsay.[107] She would not hear of the Duc d’Elbœuf, in spite of his brilliant prospects; she dreaded Madame de Brionne as a mother-in-law, and allowed herself to be strongly influenced by the Prince de Salm’s friends, who did not miss an opportunity of exciting the young girl’s imagination. The Bishop, led by his niece, returned an ambiguous answer, adjourned his decision, spoke of a probable journey to Paris, and ended by no longer concealing the fresh candidature of the Prince de Salm. The Comtesse de Brionne ardently desired to continue the negotiations, and she consulted Mirabeau as to the best means of attaining her end. The Marquis replied in a long letter, of which the following is an extract:[108]-- “It is absolutely necessary that the Countess should have as representative a staid and honourable man, acting on her authority, and capable of defeating the intrigues he will meet with. National jealousy, errors of fact, important changes in places and ideas, distractions and dissipations of all kinds, in fact every sort of disappointment, await him; quite enough to worry out of his mind any sensible man.