The baron had indeed related the circumstances to some of his intimate friends, but the story had varied greatly as it spread, and it had come to be reported that an officer had brought a strong body of soldiers, who had assaulted the house where she was confined, and, after a desperate conflict, had annihilated the guard that had been placed over her.
Desmond laughed, as this story was told to him, when he entered the room where the officers were gathered.

The narrator concluded: "As you have been to Versailles, Kennedy, doubtless you will have heard all the latest particulars.

Have you learnt who was the officer, what regiment he belonged to, and how came he to have a body of soldiers with him, outside the town?
For they say that the house where she was confined was a mile and a half beyond the walls." There was no longer any reason for concealment.

The matter had become public.

The baron would certainly mention his name, and indeed his visit to the palace, and the private audience given to him and the baron, would assuredly have been noted.
"Your story is quite new to me," he said, "and is swollen, in the telling, to undue proportions.