Affecting a taste for the theatre that I did not possess, I never let an opportunity pass to see every company of players that I could hear of--hoping to find you at last among them.

But although I saw numberless young actresses, about your age, not one of them could have been you, my dear child--of that I was sure.

So at last I abandoned the hope of finding my long-lost daughter, though it was a bitter trial to feel that I must do so.

The princess, my wife, had died three years after our marriage, leaving me only one child--Vallombreuse--whose ungovernable disposition has always given me much trouble and anxiety.

A few days ago, at Saint Germain, I heard some of the courtiers speak in terms of high praise of Herode's troupe, and what they said made me determine to go and see one of their representations without delay, while my heart beat high with a new hope--for they especially lauded a young actress, called Isabelle; whose graceful, modest, high-bred air they declared to be irresistible, and her acting everything that could be desired--adding that she was as virtuous as she was beautiful, and that the boldest libertines respected her immaculate purity.