to suffer you to leave your apartments.  He has done this with the advice of his counsellors, by whom it was suggested that, if you had your free liberty, you, might be induced to advise your brother and husband of their deliberations.  I beg you will not be offended with these measures, which, if it so please God, may not be of long continuance.  I beg, moreover, you will not be displeased with me if I do not pay you frequent visits, as I should be unwilling to create any suspicions in the King’s mind.  However, you may rest assured that I shall prevent any further steps from being taken that may prove disagreeable to you, and that I shall use my utmost endeavours to bring about a reconciliation betwixt your brothers.”

I represented to her, in reply, the great indignity that was offered to me by putting me under arrest; that it was true my brother had all along communicated to me the just cause he had to be dissatisfied, but that, with respect to the King my husband, from the time Torigni was taken from me we had not spoken to each other; neither had he visited me during my indisposition, nor did he even take leave of me when he left Court.  “This,” says she, “is nothing at all; it is merely a trifling difference betwixt man and wife, which a few sweet words, conveyed in a letter, will set to rights.  When, by such means, he has regained your affections, he has only to write to you to come to him, and you will set off at the very first opportunity.  Now, this is what the King my son wishes to prevent.”

LETTER XII

The Queen my mother left me, saying these words.  For my part, I remained a close prisoner, without a visit from a single person, none of my most intimate friends daring to come near me, through the apprehension that such a step might prove injurious to their interests.  Thus it is ever in Courts.  Adversity is solitary, while prosperity dwells in a crowd; the object of persecution being sure to be shunned by his nearest friends and dearest connections.  The brave Grillon was the only one who ventured to visit me, at the hazard of incurring disgrace.  He came five or six times to see me, and my guards were so much astonished at his resolution, and awed by his presence, that not a single Cerberus of them all would venture to refuse him entrance to my apartments.

Meanwhile, the King my husband reached the States under his government.  Being joined there by his friends and dependents, they all represented to him the indignity offered to me by his quitting the Court without taking leave of me.  They observed to him that I was a princess of good understanding, and that it would be for his interest to regain my esteem; that, when matters were put on their former footing, he might derive to himself great advantage from my presence at Court.  Now that he was at a distance from his Circe, Madame de Sauves, he could listen to good advice.  Absence having abated the force of her charms, his eyes were opened; he discovered the plots and machinations of our enemies, and clearly perceived that a rupture could not but tend to the ruin of us both.