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The History of

academy of sciences, found her just as she entered the inn, where he dined with her and the hostess, without letting her know that he had designedly fallen in with her, or that she was the object of his curiosity. She informed him of the obligations under which she lay to the Duke of Orleans, who had been at the expence of her board, since the time he had seen her on his way thro' Chalons, as he was returning from Metz in the year 1744: And she exprest great regret at having been dissuaded from accepting of the charitable offer that Prince then made her, to place her in a convent at Paris. M. de la Condamine promised Le Blanc to be the instrument of conveying her sentiments on this head to the Prince. Who having been accordingly informed by him of the situation of Le Blanc, and receiving at the same time from the Vicar general of Chalons satisfaction, with regard to her conduct; he brought her to Paris, placed her in the convent of the Nouvelles Catholiques, in the street St. Anne, and went thither himself to see and converse with her, that he might know what progress she had made in her education. It was there that she first partook of the holy sacrament of the last supper, and received confirmation. Being afterwards removed to the convent of the visitation at Chaillot, still under the patronage of the late Duke of Orleans, she was making preparations for becoming a nun there,when