from
his bedside, and never putting off my clothes. He took notice of
my extraordinary tenderness, and spoke of it to several persons,
and particularly to my cousin M----, who, acting the part of
an affectionate relation, restored me to his favour, insomuch
that I never stood so highly in it before. This happiness I had
the good fortune to enjoy during the four or five years that
I remained with him in Gascony.

Our residence, for the most part of the time I have mentioned,
was at Nerac, where our Court was so brilliant that we had no
cause to regret our absence from the Court of France. We had
with us the Princesse de Navarre, my husband's sister, since
married to the Duc de Bar; there were besides a number of ladies
belonging to myself. The King my husband was attended by a numerous
body of lords and gentlemen, all as gallant persons as I have
seen in any Court; and we had only to lament that they were
Huguenots. This difference of religion, however, caused no dispute
among us; the King my husband and the Princess his sister heard
a sermon, whilst I and my servants heard mass. I had a chapel in
the park for the purpose, and, as soon as the service of both
religions was over, we joined company in a beautiful garden,
ornamented with long walks shaded with laurel and cypress trees.
Sometimes we took a walk in the park on the banks of the river,
bordered by an avenue of trees three thousand yards in length.
The rest of the day was passed in innocent amusements; and in
the afternoon, or at night, we commonly had a ball.

The King was very assiduous with Fosseuse, who, being dependent on
me, kept herself within the strict bounds of honour and virtue. Had
she always done so, she had not brought upon herself a misfortune
which has proved of such fatal consequence to myself as well as
to her.

But our happiness was too great to be of long continuance, and
fresh troubles broke out betwixt the King my husband and the
Catholics, and gave rise to a new war. The King my husband and
the Marechal de Biron, who was the King's lieutenant in Guienne,
had a difference, which was aggravated by the Huguenots. This
breach became in a short time so wide that all my efforts to
close it were useless. They made their separate complaints to
the King. The King my husband insisted on the removal of the
Marechal de Biron, and the Marshal charged the King my husband,
and the rest of those who were of the pretended reformed religion,
with desi