Note 105 — Chapter III
Reading edition
M. de Masson asserts (it is to be taken on his authority, not on ours) that he knew a lady of the Russian court, in the reign of Catherine II., who kept a slave who was her perruquier shut up in a cage in her own chamber. She let him out every day to arrange her head–dress, and locked him up again with her own hands after the business of the toilet was over. His box was placed at her bed–head, and in this fashion he attended her wherever she went. His fare was bread and water. He passed three years in this captivity, the object of which was to conceal from all the world that the lady wore a wig. The close confinement was a punishment for running away from her service; the meagre diet a measure of revenge, because he could not prevent her growing older and uglier every day.—Mémoires Secrets sur la Russie.