re none of those marks peculiar to people of colour.

It was sent away to the Gisors district to be suckled as a negro's
daughter, and the Gazette de France contained an announcement to the
effect that the royal infant had died, after having been baptised by the
chaplains.

[This daughter of the Queen lived, and was obliged to enter a Benedictine
nunnery at Moret. Her portrait is to be seen in the Sainte Genevieve
Library of Henri IV.'s College, where it hangs in the winter
saloon.--EDITOR'S NOTE.]

The little African was sent away, as may well be imagined; and the Queen
admitted that, one day soon after she was pregnant, he had hidden himself
behind a piece of furniture and suddenly jumped out upon her to give her
a fright. In this he was but too successful.

The Court ladies no longer dared come near the Queen attended by their
little blackamoors. These, however, they kept for a while longer, as if
they were mere nick-hacks or ornaments; in Paris they were still to be
seen in public. But the ladies' husbands at last got wind of the tale,
when all the little negroes disappeared.

CHAPTER XLI.

Monsieur's Second Marriage.--Princess Palatine.--The Court Turnspit.--A
Woman's Hatred.--The King's Mistress on a Par with the First Prince of
the Blood.--She Gives His Wife a Lesson.

In order to keep up appearances at his Palais Royal, Monsieur besought
the King to consent to his remarriage after the usual term of mourning
was at an end.

"Whom have you in view?" asked his brother. He replied that he proposed
to wed Mademoiselle--the grande Mademoiselle de Montpensier--on account
of her enormous wealth!

Just then Mademoiselle was head over ears in love with Lauzun. She sent
the Prince about his business, as I believe I have already stated.
Moreover, she remarked: "You had the loveliest wife in all
Europe,--young, charming, a veritable picture. You might have seen to it
that she was not poisoned; in that case you would not now be a widower.
As it is not likely that I should ever come to terms with your
favourites, I shall never be anything else to you but a cousin, and I
shall endeavour not to die until the proper time; that is, when it shall
please God to take me. You can repeat this speech, word for word, to your
precious Marquis d'Effiat and Messieurs de Remecourt and de Lorraine.
They have no access to my kitchens; I am not afraid of them."

This answer amused the King not a little, and he said to me: "I