THE EXTRAORDINARY CONFESSIONS OF DIANA PLEASE HERE “ENGLISHED” FROM THE ORIGINAL SHORTHAND NOTES, IN FRENCH, OF M. LE MARQUIS DE C----, A FRIEND TO WHOM SHE DICTATED THEM, BY BERNARD CAPES AUTHOR OF “THE LAKE OF WINE,” “PLOTS” ETC. ETC. METHUEN & CO. 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. LONDON 1904 CONTENTS INTRODUCTORY I. I MAKE MY DÉBUT II. I AM ABDUCTED III. I ESCAPE IV. I FALL INTO THE HANDS OF A COLLECTOR V. I AM CARRIED AWAY AS A SPECIMEN VI. I AM “PINNED OUT” VII. I AM PUT AWAY IN CAMPHOR VIII. I MEET MR. NOEL DE CRESPIGNY IX. I AM COMMITTED TO THE ---- X. I BEWITCH A MONSTER XI. I ADD THE LAST TOUCH TO A PORTRAIT XII. I AM INFAMOUSLY RETALIATED ON XIII. I AM WOOED TO SELF-DESTRUCTION XIV. I AM RESCUED BY MY MONSTER XV. I BECOME AN INMATE OF “RUPERT’S FOLLY” XVI. I PUT AN END TO ONE FOLLY XVII. I AM CONSIGNED TO A GREEN GRAVE XVIII. I BEGIN ANOTHER FOLLY XIX. I AM MAID MARIAN XX. I PUT AN END TO FOLLY NUMBER TWO XXI. I AM METAMORPHOSED XXII. I RUN ACROSS AN OLD FRIEND XXIII. I AM MADE FORTUNE’S MISTRESS XXIV. I FIND A FRIEND IN NEED XXV. I DECLARE FOR THE KING XXVI. I RENEW AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE XXVII. I KNOW HOW TO WAIT XXVIII. I RETURN TO NAPLES XXIX. I STILL KNOW HOW TO WAIT XXX. I AM JUSTIFIED IN MY POLICY XXXI. I KNOW MY OWN HEART INTRODUCTORY “_I am convinced she rivalled, at fifty, the exquisite Diane de Poitiers herself, in the brightness of her wit and the perfection of her form, and might have passed as triumphantly a like test of the marble._” The Marquis de C---- in his “Foreword.” If the public seeks any apology for this introduction to it, at a late date, of the extraordinary woman whose self-dictated Memoirs form the staple of the following pages, it must look for it in the references of her contemporaries; it will be far from gathering it from her own autobiography. Diane Rosemonde de St. Croix (to give her her proper mother-title) considered that she owed to Romance, in a glowing age, what, in a practical one, is conceded by a thousand dull and petty vanities to a vulgar curiosity--her personal reminiscences. She had at least the justification of her qualities, and the good fortune to find, in her latter-day friend, the Marquis de C----, an enthusiastic historian of them. In the question of their appeal, one way or the other, to the English reader, the present transcriber (from the original French notes) must hold himself responsible both for choice and style.