o Court, and concluded the match, which delivered me from the
aspersions cast on my character, and convinced the Queen my mother
that what I had told her was the real truth. This at the same
time stopped the mouths of my enemies and gave me some repose.

At length the King of Spain, unwilling that the King of Portugal
should marry out of his family, broke off the treaty which had
been entered upon for my marriage with him.

LETTER IV

Some short time after this a marriage was projected betwixt the
Prince of Navarre, now our renowned King Henri IV., and me.

The Queen my mother, as she sat at table, discoursed for a long
time upon the subject with M. de W Meru, the House of Montmorency
having first proposed the match. After the Queen had risen from
table, he told me she had commanded him to mention it to me.
I replied that it was quite unnecessary, as I had no will but
her own; however, I should wish she would be pleased to remember
that I was a Catholic, and that I should dislike to marry any
one of a contrary persuasion.

Soon after this the Queen sent for me to attend her in her closet.
She there informed me that the Montmorencys had proposed this match
to her, and that she was desirous to learn my sentiments upon it.
I answered that my choice was governed by her pleasure, and that
I only begged her not to forget that I was a good Catholic.

This treaty was in negotiation for some time after this conversation,
and was not finally settled until the arrival of the Queen of
Navarre, his mother, at Court, where she died soon after.

Whilst the Queen of Navarre lay on her death-bed, a circumstance
happened of so whimsical a nature that, though hot of consequence
to merit a place in the history, it may very well deserve to be
related by me to you. Madame de Nevers, whose oddities you well
know, attended the Cardinal de Bourbon, Madame de Guise, the
Princesse de Conde, her sisters, and myself to the late Queen
of Navarre's apartments, whither we all went to pay those last
duties which her rank and our nearness of blood demanded of us.
We found the Queen in bed with her curtains undrawn, the chamber
not disposed with the pomp and ceremonies of our religion, but
after the simple manner of the Huguenots; that is to say, there
were no priests, no cross, nor any holy water. We kept ourselves
at some distance from the bed, but Madame de Nevers, whom you
know the Queen hated more than any woman besides, and which she