his
domestic indignity. I assembled all my household, without excepting my
intendant himself. I was aggrieved at the affront which I had met with
at the King's, and I read grief and consternation on all faces. After
some minutes' silence, my intendant proposed the immediate intervention
of authority, and made me understand with ease that only the casket-maker
could be the culprit.

This man's house was visited; he had left Paris nearly two years before.
Further information told us that, before disposing of his property, he
had imprudently indulged in a certain ostentation of fortune, and had
embarked for the new settlements of Pondicherry.

M. Colbert, who is still living, charged our governor to discover the
culprit for him; and he was sent back to us with his hands and feet
bound.

Put to the question, he denied at first, then confessed his crime. One
of my chamber--maids, to whom he had made feigned love, introduced him
into my house while I was away, and by the aid of this imprudent woman he
had penetrated into my closets. The crown of Agrippina, which it had
been necessary to show him because of the measures, had become almost as
dear to him as to myself; and his ambition of another kind inspired him
with his criminal and fatal temerity.

He did no good by petitioning me, and having me solicited after the
sentence; I let him hang, as he richly deserved.

The King said on this occasion: "This casketmaker has, at least, left us
the setting, but M. Cromwell took all."

The fortunate success of this affair restored me, not to cheerfulness,
but to that honourable calm which had fled far away from me. I made a
reflection this time on my extreme imprudence, and understood that all
the generosities of love are often no more than loans. I noticed amongst
my jewels a goblet of gold, wrought with diamonds and rubies, which came
from the first of the Medici princesses. I waited for the King's fete to
return this magnificent ornament to him nobly. I had a lily executed,
all of emeralds and fine pearls; I poured essence of roses into the cup,
placed in it the stem of the lily, in the form of a bouquet for the
prince, and that was my present for Saint Louis's day.

I gave back to the King, by degrees, at least three millions' worth of
important curiosities, which were like drops of water poured into the
ocean. But I was anxious that, if God destined me to perish by a sudden
death, objects of this nature should n