As may well be conceived, I was not a little surprised to find that my first tenant was likely to be poor Jacques Marlot; still more to hear that Jacques had taken unto his bosom a wife; and most of all, to find that a libel, which attacked the person and reputation of the Queen Regent herself, had been pardoned upon any consideration whatever. However, I, of course, joined my voice to that of good old Jerome Laborde, who, to tell the truth, promised and vowed a great deal more on the part of his nephew, than I at all imagined his nephew would justify, assuring the Duke that all his follies were completely at an end, and that henceforth, he himself would answer for Jacques living a sober, tranquil, and peaceful life. Industrious and clever he always had been, he continued; and as the good ladies of St. Ursula, the old man said, were going to give him the management of their little farms, just opposite to Juvigny, the house would come quite apropos. Although with some difficulty, the Duke yielded to our solicitations, but solely on condition that Jacques produced to the eyes of the intendant the act of grace by which he was relieved from all danger of the royal indignation. Jerome willingly accepted of the terms; and I withdrew with him, in order to hear more of my worthy philosopher's fate, and the adventures which had brought about such a consummation as matrimony and the cultivation of the earth. The major-domo, however, could tell me but little more than I had already heard. He had received, he said, a letter from his nephew that morning, dated from St. Aubin, entreating him to make the request he had just done to the Duke, and giving him satisfactory assurances that his pardon was really granted. How it had been obtained, Jerome added, remained to be explained to himself as well as to me; but respecting the farm of the Ursulines, and Jacques Marlot's knowledge of my plans in regard to Juvigny, an easy explanation was afforded, by the fact of his having just married a niece of our intendant's;--"A little against the intendant's stomach, I believe," said the major-domo; "but it was an old love affair, it seems, before Jacques went from Rennes--where he was in good business enough--to Paris, where he got bad business enough. But I have promised to open my own little store in his favour; so that that affair is all set right with Monsieur l'Intendant."