Finding I could get no further information on the subject from him, I went to the apartment of the Queen my mother.  I met M. de Guise in the antechamber, who was not displeased at the prospect of a dissension in our family, hoping that he might make some advantage of it.  He addressed me in these words:  “I waited here expecting to see you, in order to inform you that some ill office has been done you with the Queen.”  He then told me the story he had learned of D’O——­, who, being intimate with your kinswoman, had informed M. de Guise of it, that he might apprise us.

I went into the Queen’s bedchamber, but did not find my mother there.  However, I saw Madame de Nemours, the rest of the princesses, and other ladies, who all exclaimed on seeing me:  “Good God! the Queen your mother is in such a rage; we would advise you, for the present, to keep out of her sight.”

“Yes,” said I, “so I would, had I been guilty of what the King has reported; but I assure you all I am entirely innocent, and must therefore speak with her and clear myself.”

I then went into her closet, which was separated from the bedchamber by a slight partition only, so that our whole conversation could be distinctly heard.  She no sooner set eyes upon me than she flew into a great passion, and said everything that the fury of her resentment suggested.  I related to her the whole truth, and begged to refer her to the company which attended me, to the number of ten or twelve persons, desiring her not to rely on the testimony of those more immediately about me, but examine Mademoiselle Montigny, who did not belong to me, and Liancourt and Camille, who were the King’s servants.

She would not hear a word I had to offer, but continued to rate me in a furious manner; whether it was through fear, or affection for her son, or whether she believed the story in earnest, I know not.  When I observed to her that I understood the King had done me this ill office in her opinion, her anger was redoubled, and she endeavoured to make me believe that she had been informed of the circumstance by one of her own valets de chambre, who had himself seen me at the place.  Perceiving that I gave no credit to this account of the matter, she became more and more incensed against me.

All that was said was perfectly heard by those in the next room.  At length I left her closet, much chagrined; and returning to my own apartments, I found the King my husband there, who said to me:  “Well, was it not as I told you?”

He, seeing me under great concern, desired me not to grieve about it, adding that “Liancourt and Camille would attend the King that night in his bedchamber, and relate the affair as it really was; and to-morrow,” continued he, “the Queen your mother will receive you in a very different manner.”

“But, monsieur,” I replied, “I have received too gross an affront in public to forgive those who were the occasion of it; but that is nothing when compared with the malicious intention of causing so heavy a misfortune to befall me as to create a variance betwixt you and me.”