the service of
Madame de Montbazon, who received him very favourably, at the same time
she was striving to keep or recall the Duke de Longueville, and that she
was ruling Beaufort, whose office near her was somewhat that of a
_cavalier servente_. Thus it will be seen that Madame de Montbazon
disposed through Beaufort and through Guise, as through her
daughter-in-law Madame de Chevreuse, of the house of Vendome and that of
Lorraine, and she employed all this influence to the profit of her
hatred against Madame de Longueville. She burned to injure her, and was
not long in finding an opportunity of doing it.

[2] Memoires of La Chatre. Petitot Collection, vol. li. p. 230.

One day when a numerous company was assembled in her salon, one of her
young lady friends picked up a couple of letters which had been dropped
on the floor, bearing no signatures, but in a feminine handwriting, and
of a somewhat equivocal style. They were read, and a thousand jokes
perpetrated concerning them, and some effort made to discover the
author. They were from a woman who wrote tenderly to some one whom she
did not hate. Madame de Montbazon pretended that they had fallen from
the pocket of Maurice de Coligny, who had just gone out, and that they
were in the handwriting of Madame de Longueville. The word of command
thus once given, the Duke de Beaufort was amongst the first to spread
the insinuation which was a calumny, all the echoes of the party of the
_Importants_ took it up, and Madame de Montbazon herself found pleasure
in repeating it during several following days, so that the incident
became the entertainment of the Court. A frivolous curiosity has very
faithfully preserved the text of the two letters thus found at the
Duchess's house.[3]

[3] Memoires of Madlle. de Montpensier, vol. i. pp. 62, 63.

I.

"I should much more regret the change in your conduct if I
thought myself less worthy of a continuation of your
affection. I confess to you that so long as I believed it to
be true and warm, mine gave you all the advantages which you
could desire. Now, hope nothing more from me than the esteem
which I owe to your discretion. I have too much pride to
share the passion which you have so often sworn to me, and I
desire to punish your negligence in seeing me, in no other
way than by depriving you entirely of my society. I request
that you will visit me no more, since I have no lon