In the meantime, the King my brother, always well
informed of what is passing in the families of the
nobility of his kingdom, was not ignorant of the transactions
of our Court. He was particularly curious to
learn everything that happened with us, and knew every
minute circumstance that I have now related.
Thinking this a favourable occasion to wreak his
vengeance on me for having been the means of my brother
acquiring so much reputation by the peace he had brought
about, he made use of the accident that happened in
our Court to withdraw me from the King my husband,
and thereby reduce me to the state of misery he wished
to plunge me in. To this purpose he prevailed
on the Queen my mother to write to me, and express
her anxious desire to see me after an absence of five
or six years. She added that a journey of this
sort to Court would be serviceable to the affairs
of the King my husband as well as my own; that the
King my brother himself was desirous of seeing me,
and that if I wanted money for the journey he would
send it me. The King wrote to the same purpose,
and despatched Manique, the steward of his household,
with instructions to use every persuasion with me
to undertake the journey. The length of time
I had been absent in Gascony, and the unkind usage
I received on account of Fosseuse, contributed to
induce me to listen to the proposal made me.
The King and the Queen both wrote to me. I received
three letters, in quick succession; and, that I might
have no pretence for staying, I had the sum of fifteen
hundred crowns paid me to defray the expenses of my
journey. The Queen my mother wrote that she would
give me the meeting in Saintonge, and that, if the
King my husband would accompany me so far, she would
treat with him there, and give him every satisfaction
with respect to the King. But the King and she
were desirous to have him at their Court, as he had
been before with my brother; and the Marechal de Matignon
had pressed the matter with the King, that he might
have no one to interfere with him in Gascony.
I had had too long experience of what was to be expected
at their Court to hope much from all the fine promises
that were made to me. I had resolved, however,
to avail myself of the opportunity of an absence of
a few months, thinking it might prove the means of
setting matters to rights. Besides which, I thought
that, as I should take Fosseuse with me, it was possible
that the King’s passion for her might cool when
she was no longer in his sight, or he might attach
himself to some other that was less inclined to do
me mischief.
It was with some difficulty that the King my husband
would consent to a removal, so unwilling was he to
leave his Fosseuse. He paid more attention to
me, in hopes that I should refuse to set out on this
journey to France; but, as I had given my word in
my letters to the King and the Queen my mother that
I would go, and as I had even received money for the
purpose, I could not do otherwise.
