Too simple to guess the snare thus laid out for her, O-Morphi actually asked that impertinent question; but Louis XV.

gave her a look of fury, and exclaimed, "Miserable wretch! who taught you to address me that question ?" The poor O-Morphi, almost dead with fright, threw herself on her knees, and confessed the truth.
The king left her and never would see her again.

The Countess de Valentinois was exiled for two years from the court.

Louis XV., who knew how wrongly he was behaving towards his wife as a husband, would not deserve any reproach at her hands as a king, and woe to anyone who forgot the respect due to the queen! The French are undoubtedly the most witty people in Europe, and perhaps in the whole world, but Paris is, all the same, the city for impostors and quacks to make a fortune.

When their knavery is found out people turn it into a joke and laugh, but in the midst of the merriment another mountebank makes his appearance, who does something more wonderful than those who preceded him, and he makes his fortune, whilst the scoffing of the people is in abeyance.