detailing all her
grievances to you."

"Her grievances, what--"

"Yes, I was listening; accidentally, I confess, but still I listened--so
that I heard only too well my sister complain of those famous baths of
Madame--"

"Ah! folly!"

"No, no, no; people are not always foolish when they weep. The queen
said _banos_, which means baths."

"I repeat, Philip," said Anne of Austria, "that your sister is
childishly jealous."

"In that case, madame," replied the prince, "I, too, must with great
humility accuse myself of possessing the same defect."

"You also, Philip?"

"Certainly."

"Are you really jealous of these baths?"

"And why not, madame, when the king goes to the baths with my wife, and
does not take the queen? Why not, when Madame goes to the baths with the
king, and does not do me the honor to even invite me? And you enjoin my
sister-in-law to be satisfied, and require me to be satisfied, too."

"You are raving, my dear Philip," said Anne of Austria; "you have driven
the Duke of Buckingham away; you have been the cause of M. de Guiche's
exile; do you now wish to send the king away from Fontainebleau?"

"I do not pretend to anything of the kind, madame," said Monsieur,
bitterly; "but, at least, I can withdraw, and I shall do so."

"Jealous of the king--jealous of your brother?"

"Yes, madame, I am jealous of the king--of my own brother, and
remarkably jealous, too."

"Really, Monsieur," exclaimed Anne of Austria, affecting to be
indignant, "I begin to believe you are mad, and a sworn enemy to my
repose. I therefore abandon the place to you, for I have no means of
defending myself against such monomanias."

She arose and left Monsieur a prey to the most extravagant transport
of passion. He remained for a moment completely bewildered; then,
recovering himself, again went to the stables, found the groom, once
more asked him for a carriage or a horse, and upon his reply that there
was neither the one or the other, Monsieur snatched a long whip from the
hand of a stable-boy, and began to pursue the poor devil of a groom all
round the servants' courtyard, whipping him the while, in spite of his
cries and excuses; then, quite out of breath, covered with perspiration,
and trembling in every limb, he returned to his own apartments, broke
in pieces some beautiful specimens of porcelain, and then got into bed,
booted and spurred as he was, crying out for some one to come to him.
[4]

Chapter XXXVI. T