im he shared with M. le Grand and the
Duc de Grammont the honour of passing the night in the royal chamber,
where the three nobles alternately read or conversed with the King
during his sleepless hours. Throughout the day the monarch received the
visits of the Queen and the Princesses of the Blood, among whom the most
welcome was the Duchesse d'Angouleme, who was on every occasion
accompanied by her niece Mademoiselle de Montmorency, whom Henry did not
fail to engross whenever the Duchess was engaged in conversation with
the members of the Court circle. Still, however, the King was careful
not to betray to the young lady herself the peculiar feeling with which
she had inspired him, but treated her with a kindness which was almost
paternal, alluding without any apparent reluctance to her betrothal to
Bassompierre, and assuring her that she should be as dear to him as a
daughter, and that during the tour of duty of her husband, as First Lord
of the Bedchamber, she should have a suite of apartments appropriated to
her use in the Louvre; but in a few days, when he had accustomed her to
converse freely with him upon the subject, Henry put a leading question
which must, after all these gracious promises, have tended to startle
Mademoiselle de Montmorency, by demanding to know if she personally
desired the marriage, as, should it be otherwise, she need only confess
the truth with frankness, when he would break off the match, and procure
for her an alliance more to her taste; adding that he was even willing
to bestow her hand upon his own nephew the Prince de Conde. In reply the
Princess modestly but firmly assured his Majesty that as her union with
M. de Bassompierre was the wish of her father, she felt convinced that
her destiny would be a happy one; and there can be no doubt that she
said this more emphatically than she had intended, as, from that moment,
Henry became convinced that she really loved her intended husband, and
he resolved in consequence to prevent the marriage.

Unhappily for all parties, the monarch appeared to have forgotten that
he had reached his fifty-sixth year, that he was rapidly becoming a
martyr to the gout, and that he was no longer calculated to enter into a
successful rivalry with his younger and more attractive nobility; a
delusion which was unfortunately encouraged, according to Mezeray, by
his confidential friends, the relatives of the lady, and even the
members of the Queen's household, who, in