consequence than I had ever conceived I had been. Accordingly,
I replied to him thus: "Brother, if God grant me the power of
speaking to the Queen our mother as I have the will to do, nothing
can be wanting for your service, and you may expect to derive all
the good you hope from it, and from my solicitude and attention
for your interest. With respect to my undertaking such a matter
for you, you will soon perceive that I shall sacrifice all the
pleasures in this world to my watchfulness for your service. You
may perfectly rely on me, as there is no one that honours or
regards you more than I do. Be well assured that I shall act
for you with the Queen my mother as zealously as you would for
yourself."

These sentiments were more strongly impressed upon my mind than
the words I made use of were capable of conveying an idea of.
This will appear more fully in my following letters.

As soon as we were returned from walking, the Queen my mother
retired with me into her closet, and addressed the following
words to me: "Your brother has been relating the conversation
you have had together; he considers you no longer as a child,
neither shall I. It will be a great comfort to me to converse
with you as I would with your brother. For the future you will
freely speak your mind, and have no apprehensions of taking too
great a liberty, for it is what I wish." These words gave me
a pleasure then which I am now unable to express. I felt a
satisfaction and a joy which nothing before had ever caused me
to feel. I now considered the pastimes of my childhood as vain
amusements. I shunned the society of my former companions of
the same age. I disliked dancing and hunting, which I thought
beneath my attention. I strictly complied with her agreeable
injunction, and never missed being with her at her rising in
the morning and going to rest at night. She did me the honour,
sometimes, to hold me in conversation for two and three hours
at a time. God was so gracious with me that I gave her great
satisfaction; and she thought she could not sufficiently praise
me to those ladies who were about her. I spoke of my brother's
affairs to her, and he was constantly apprised by me of her
sentiments and opinion; so that he had every reason to suppose
I was firmly attached to his interest.

LETTER III

I continued to pass my time with the Queen my mother, greatly
to my satisfaction, until after the battle of Moncontour. By
the same despatch th