try.

"'All through the infancy of the second prince Dame Peronete treated him
as if he were her own child, giving out that his father was a great
nobleman; for everyone saw by the care she lavished on him and the
expense she went to, that although unacknowledged he was the cherished
son of rich parents, and well cared for.

"'When the prince began to grow up, Cardinal Mazarin, who succeeded
Cardinal Richelieu in the charge of the prince's education, gave him into
my hands to bring up in a manner worthy of a king's son, but in secret.
Dame Peronete continued in his service till her death, and was very much
attached to him, and he still more to her. The prince was instructed in
my house in Burgundy, with all the care due to the son and brother of a
king.

"'I had several conversations with the queen mother during the troubles
in France, and Her Majesty always seemed to fear that if the existence of
the prince should be discovered during the lifetime of his brother, the
young king, malcontents would make it a pretext for rebellion, because
many medical men hold that the last-born of twins is in reality the
elder, and if so, he was king by right, while many others have a
different opinion.

"'In spite of this dread, the queen could never bring herself to destroy
the written evidence of his birth, because in case of the death of the
young king she intended to have his twin-brother proclaimed. She told me
often that the written proofs were in her strong box.

"'I gave the ill-starred prince such an education as I should have liked
to receive myself, and no acknowledged son of a king ever had a better.
The only thing for which I have to reproach myself is that, without
intending it, I caused him great unhappiness; for when he was nineteen
years old he had a burning desire to know who he was, and as he saw that
I was determined to be silent, growing more firm the more he tormented me
with questions, he made up his mind henceforward to disguise his
curiosity and to make me think that he believed himself a love-child of
my own. He began to call me 'father,' although when we were alone I
often assured him that he was mistaken; but at length I gave up combating
this belief, which he perhaps only feigned to make me speak, and allowed
him to think he was my son, contradicting him no more; but while he
continued to dwell on this subject he was meantime making every effort to
find out who he really was. Two years passed thus,