at it is."

"It is that, searching well around you, you might perhaps find a female
counselor to take with you to your brother, whose eloquence might
paralyze the ill-will of the seven others."

"That is really an idea, sire, and I will search."

"You will find what you want."

"I hope so."

"A pretty ambassadress is necessary; an agreeable face is better than an
ugly one, is it not?"

"Most assuredly."

"An animated, lively, audacious character."

"Certainly."

"Nobility; that is, enough to enable her to approach the king without
awkwardness--not too lofty, so as not to trouble herself about the
dignity of her race."

"Very true."

"And who knows a little English."

"_Mon Dieu!_ why, some one," cried Madame, "like Mademoiselle de
Keroualle, for instance!"

"Oh! why, yes!" said Louis XIV.; "you have hit the mark,--it is you who
have found, my sister."

"I will take her; she will have no cause to complain, I suppose."

"Oh! no, I will name her _seductrice plenipotentiaire_ at once, and will
add a dowry to the title."

"That is well."

"I fancy you already on your road, my dear little sister, consoled for
all your griefs."

"I will go, on two conditions. The first is, that I shall know what I am
negotiating about."

"That is it. The Dutch, you know, insult me daily in their gazettes, and
by their republican attitude. I do not like republics."

"That may easily be imagined, sire."

"I see with pain that these kings of the sea--they call themselves
so--keep trade from France in the Indies, and that their vessels will
soon occupy all the ports of Europe. Such a power is too near me,
sister."

"They are your allies, nevertheless."

"That is why they were wrong in having the medal you have heard of
struck; a medal which represents Holland stopping the sun, as Joshua
did, with this legend: _The sun had stopped before me_. There is not
much fraternity in that, _is_ there?"

"I thought you had forgotten that miserable episode?"

"I never forget anything, sister. And if my true friends, such as your
brother Charles, are willing to second me--" The princess remained
pensively silent.

"Listen to me; there is the empire of the seas to be shared," said
Louis XIV. "For this partition, which England submits to, could I not
represent the second party as well as the Dutch?"

"We have Mademoiselle de Keroualle to treat that question," replied
Madame.

"Your second condition for going, if you please