self very
fortunate if she were permitted to expiate her crime by self-exile to
any country except Spain; bidding her remark, moreover, that this lenity
could not now be exhibited towards her until she had undergone a
criminal examination, and demanded the pardon of the King for her
disobedience.

M. de Sully next proceeded to upbraid her with her unbecoming conduct
towards the Queen; assuring her that every word or act of disrespect of
which any were guilty towards the wife of the sovereign was an offence
against his own person, and was likely to entail upon the culprit a very
severe penalty. He then reproached her for her indecent expressions; and
especially for her having more than once declared that had she not been
treated with injustice, she should have been in the place occupied by
"the fat banker's daughter;" [277] and finally, he reprimanded her very
severely for the impertinent and absurd affectation with which she had
presumed to place herself upon a level with her royal mistress, and her
children upon a par with the Dauphin of France; reminding her, moreover,
that the perpetual disunion of their Majesties was to be solely
attributed to her malignant and malicious insinuations, and advising her
to lose no time in requesting permission to throw herself at the feet of
the Queen, to entreat her pardon for the past and her indulgence for
the future.

To this harangue, so different from the conciliatory and obsequious
discourse of her partisans, Madame de Verneuil listened without any
display of impatience, but with an ostentatious weariness which was
intended to impress upon the minister the utter inutility of his
interference; and when he paused to take breath, she assured him with a
placid smile that she was obliged by his advice, but that she must have
time to reflect before she could decide upon such a measure. M. de
Sully, however, was not to be deceived by this well-acted composure; he
had not carefully studied the character of the Marquise without
perceiving how ill she brooked control or remonstrance; and,
accordingly, she had no sooner ceased speaking than he resumed the
conversation by expatiating upon the enormity of her conduct in
affecting the sudden devotion behind which she had seen fit to entrench
herself, while she was daily indulging alike her jealousy and her hatred
by endeavouring not only to ruin the domestic happiness of the monarch,
but even the interests of his kingdom; and when his offe