I solicited the King to permit me to take leave of
himself, as I had everything prepared for my journey. The Queen
my mother being desirous to go to Gascony, where her presence was
necessary for the King's service, was unwilling that I should
depart without her. When we left Paris, the King accompanied us
on the way as far as his palace of Dolinville. There we stayed
with him a few days, and there we took our leave, and in a little
time reached Guienne, which belonging to, and being under the
government of the King my husband, I was everywhere received as
Queen. My husband gave the Queen my mother a meeting at Reolle,
which was held by the Huguenots as a cautionary town; and the
country not being sufficiently quieted, she was permitted to
go no further.

It was the intention of the Queen my mother to make but a short
stay; but so many accidents arose from disputes betwixt the Huguenots
and Catholics, that she was under the necessity of stopping there
eighteen months. As this was very much against her inclination,
she was sometimes inclined to think there was a design to keep
her, in order to have the company of her maids of honour. For my
husband had been greatly smitten with Dayelle, and M. de Thurene
was in love with La Vergne. However, I received every mark of
honour and attention from the King that I could expect or desire.
He related to me, as soon as we met, the artifices which had
been put in practice whilst he remained at Court to create a
misunderstanding betwixt him and me; all this, he said, he knew
was with a design to cause a rupture betwixt my brother and him,
and thereby ruin us all three, as there was an exceeding great
jealousy entertained of the friendship which existed betwixt
us.

We remained in the disagreeable situation I have before described
all the time the Queen my mother stayed in Gascony; but, as soon
as she could reestablish peace, she, by desire of the King my
husband, removed the King's lieutenant, the Marquis de Villars,
putting in his place the Marechal de Biron. She then departed
for Languedoc, and we conducted her to Castelnaudary; where,
taking our leave, we returned to Pau, in Bearn; in which place,
the Catholic religion not being tolerated, I was only allowed
to have mass celebrated in a chapel of about three or four feet
in length, and so narrow that it could scarcely hold seven or
eight persons. During the celebration of mass, the bridge of
the castle was drawn up to prevent