o what might be his pleasure, she would yet
never obey him at the expense of her soul and her honour.

So positive an answer, while it filled her husband with despair, proved
to him that he must renounce the hope of obtaining an heir; but since
the page was not to blame for this, he fulfilled the promise that he
had made, bought him a regiment, and resigned himself to having the
most virtuous wife in France. His repentance was not, however, of long
duration; he died at the end of three months, after having confided to
his friend, the Marquis d'Urban, the cause of his sorrows.

The Marquis d'Urban had a son of marriageable age; he thought that he
could find nothing more suitable for him than a wife whose virtue had
come triumphantly through such a trial: he let her time of mourning
pass, and then presented the young Marquis d'Urban, who succeeded in
making his attentions acceptable to the beautiful widow, and soon became
her husband. More fortunate than his predecessor, the Marquis d'Urban
had three heirs to oppose to his collaterals, when, some two years and
a half later, the Chevalier de Bouillon arrived at the capital of the
county of Venaissin.

The Chevalier de Bouillon was a typical rake of the period, handsome,
young, and well-grown; the nephew of a cardinal who was influential
at Rome, and proud of belonging to a house which had privileges of
suzerainty. The chevalier, in his indiscreet fatuity, spared no woman;
and his conduct had given some scandal in the circle of Madame de
Maintenon, who was rising into power. One of his friends, having
witnessed the displeasure exhibited towards him by Louis XIV, who was
beginning to become devout, thought to do him a service by warning him
that the king "gardait une dent" against him.

[Translator's note.--"Garder une dent," that is, to keep up
a grudge, means literally "to keep a tooth" against him.]

"Pardieu!" replied the chevalier, "I am indeed unlucky when the only
tooth left to him remains to bite me."

This pun had been repeated, and had reached Louis XIV, so that the
chevalier presently heard, directly enough this time, that the
king desired him to travel for some years. He knew the danger of
neglecting--such intimations, and since he thought the country after
all preferable to the Bastille, he left Paris, and arrived at Avignon,
surrounded by the halo of interest that naturally attends a handsome
young persecuted nobleman.

The virtue of Madame d'