April 30th, 1783

One would think it were possible to cease being surprised by the events of life, and yet they never do cease in amazement. Finally I am at liberty to write of the events of the last few days, and indeed of the many months since last my husband and I were together.

When two years ago we fled Paris, and my ill-advised nuptials with the Marquis de Franconville-aux-Bois, the letter that came to us in Lille saying that Thierry had been denounced as a spy for the English was written by a man with whom he worked. I had thought it all a wild chase, the choice to go to Marseille and then on to Venice following our secret wedding, merely a necessity to escape the Lettre de Cachet which would have imprisoned him indefinitely. I have been much deceived.

Believing the accusation to be the work of F- I have plotted tirelessly against him, imagining him the greatest of monsters and author of my misfortunes, but it seems that in his role as agent for the Ferme Generale Thierry became very useful for his English connections. In short, though a spy indeed, it was the English upon whom he was gathering information. The accusation, a way of making our enemies trust him. The flight to Venice, a means to meet with important people from the English court who were abroad. When he disappeared and I did not know where he had gone, he had slipped into England. The war in the colonies finally finished, he was invited to return home, and his reward? It seems that his family has suddenly been made aware of a long-standing claim to an old title through his mother. So now he is a landless Marquis.

Overjoyed at this news, and not in small part confused, I laid before him all of my doings since he left. The destruction of all of F-s interests, the ruin of his home in Saint Martin-du-Tertre, the disgrace of my own cousins, and the return of cousin Godfrey to the post of Grand Chamberlain, as well as everything surrounding Clementine de Rodez; whose wedding is to take place in only a few short days.

Thierry was most upset by these revelations, as much as I was befuddled by his own, and I must admit there was something of an argument. He is greatly unsettled by what he sees as "the incessant intriguing of courtiers and wits." For several days we did not see each other or speak and I wondered very much what our lives would become. Fortunately, knowing that there was still the question of whether or not F- was behind my poisoning and R-s death, Thierry forgave me my mistaken machinations on his behalf.

Now there is only the question of whether two people who are, in fact, already married may be married again by the church, as I may finally, lawfully, be joined with him as my peer.

Olympe, Comtesse