tion of the promise given to Madame de Verneuil
by the King was about to be enforced, and that she would consequently be
speedily relieved from the anxiety by which she had been so long
tormented. Nor was the pledge an idle one, as immediate measures were
adopted to effect this act of justice towards the Queen. The negotiation
was renewed by two autograph letters from the King himself, addressed
respectively to the Comte d'Entragues and the Marquise de Verneuil,
which were long preserved in the library of Joly de Fleury, but are now
supposed to be lost. Copies of both had been, however, fortunately taken
by the Abbe de l'Ecluse,[246] and as they are highly characteristic of
the monarch, and cannot fail to prove interesting to the reader, we
shall insert them at length.

To M. d'Entragues the King wrote as follows:

"M. d'Entragues, je vous envoye ce porteur pour me rapporter la promesse
que je vous baillay a Malesherbes je vous prys ne faillir de me la
renvoyer et si vous voulez me la rapporter vous mesme je vous diray les
raisons qui m'y poussent qui sont domestiques et non d'estat par
lesquelles vous direz que jay raison et reconnaitrez que vous avez ete
trompe, et que jay un naturel plutost trop bon que autrement, massurant
que vous obeyrez a mon commandement, je finirai vous assurant que je
suis votre bon mestre."

The letter addressed to Madame de Verneuil bears the same date, and runs
thus:

"Mademoiselle, lamour, Ihonneur et les bienfaits que vous avez recus de
moi, eussent arrete la plus legere ame du monde si elle n'eut point ete
accompagnee d'un mauvais naturel comme le vostre. Je ne vous picqueray
davantage bien que je le peusse et dusse fair, vous le savez: je vous
prie de me renvoyer la promesse que savez et ne me donnez point la peine
de la revoir par autre voye: renvoyez moi aussi la bague que je vous
rendis l'autre jour: voila le sujet de cette lettre, de laquelle je
veux avoir reponse a minuit."

These specimens of royal eloquence were unavailing; evasive answers were
returned by the King's messenger, and entreaties having proved
ineffectual, threats were subsequently substituted, upon which the
arrogant Marquise was ultimately induced to relinquish her claim to
ascend the throne of France, on condition that she should, at the moment
of delivering up the document, receive in exchange the sum of twenty
thousand silver crowns and the promise of a marshal's _baton_ for her
father the Comte d'Entrague