"Now, Monsieur de Weissenborn," said the Prince, "pick up all those papers;" and the Prince went into his own apartments, preceded by his pages, and never quitted them until he had seen every one of the papers burnt.
'The next day the COURT GAZETTE contained a bulletin signed by the three physicians, stating that "her Highness the Hereditary Princess laboured under inflammation of the brain, and had passed a restless and disturbed night." Similar notices were issued day after day.

The services of all her ladies, except two, were dispensed with.

Guards were placed within and without her doors; her windows were secured, so that escape from them was impossible: and you know what took place ten days after.

The church-bells were ringing all night, and the prayers of the faithful asked for a person IN EXTREMIS.

A GAZETTE appeared in the morning, edged with black, and stating that the high and mighty Princess Olivia Maria Ferdinanda, consort of His Serene Highness Victor Louis Emanuel, Hereditary Prince of X----, had died in the evening of the 24th of January 1769.
'But do you know HOW she died, sir?
That, too, is a mystery.
Weissenborn, the page, was concerned in this dark tragedy; and the secret was so dreadful, that never, believe me, till Prince Victor's death, did I reveal it.
'After the fatal ESCLANDRE which the Princess had made, the Prince sent for Weissenborn, and binding him by the most solemn adjuration to secrecy (he only broke it to his wife many years after: indeed, there is no secret in the world that women cannot know if they will), despatched him on the following mysterious commission.
'"There lives," said his Highness, "on the Kehl side of the river, opposite to Strasbourg, a man whose residence you will easily find out from his name, which is MONSIEUR DE STRASBOURG.