his renunciation, had still views on the French crown, was by no means averse from forwarding the scheme of the duchess. The correspondence was carried on through the Prince de Cellamare, the Spanish ambassador at Paris. The Duke of Orleans was, however, not in the dark with respect to these proceedings; they were betrayed to him by some of the parties concerned; and, as soon as the proof was complete, the whole of the offenders were arrested. The Duchess of Maine was sent to the castle of Dijon, and allowed only one female servant to attend her, the duke was closely confined in the citadel of Dourlens; the Abbé Brigault, the Marquis of Pompadour, the Count of Laval, the Chevalier Menil, Malezieu, Mademoiselle de Launay, and many more, found lodgings in the Bastile; and Vincennes and other prisons received their share of captives. Of de Launay and Malezieu some account shall be given; the rest deserve no record. The Baroness de Staal, whose maiden name was de Launay, was born at Paris, in 1693. Her father was a painter, who was compelled to retire to England before her birth; her mother, who seems not to have been overburdened with maternal feelings, found with her infant a retreat in a convent at Rouen. Even in infancy, De Launay manifested the dawning of a very superior intellect, and her manners were so fascinating that she became the darling of the convent. She had an extreme longing for knowledge, her questions were incessant, and, as all the nuns were eager to gratify and improve her, she soon acquired a larger and more valuable stock of ideas than falls to the lot of children in general. Among her friends in the convent was Madame de Grieu, who, on being nominated prioress of St. Louis at Rouen, took the child with her to her new abode. “The convent of St. Louis,” says Madame de Staal, “was like a little state in which I reigned sovereignly.” The abbess and her sister enjoyed a small pension from their family, which they devoted to the payment of masters for their favourite. By the time that she was fourteen, De Launay had studied the philosophy of Descartes, and pondered over the speculations of Malebranche, and, not long after, she turned her attention to the science of geometry.