This counsel prevailed with him, and he at length discarded his secretary.  The King, however, continued to behave to me with great coolness, being influenced, as he afterwards confessed, by the counsel of M. de Pibrac, who acted the part of a double dealer, telling me that I ought not to pardon an affront offered by such a mean fellow, but insist upon his being dismissed; whilst he persuaded the King my husband that there was no reason for parting with a man so useful to him, for such a trivial cause.  This was done by M. de Pibrac, thinking I might be induced, from such mortifications, to return to France, where he enjoyed the offices of president and King’s counsellor.

I now met with a fresh cause for disquietude in my present situation, for, Dayelle being gone, the King my husband placed his affections on Rebours.  She was an artful young person, and had no regard for me; accordingly, she did me all the ill offices in her power with him.  In the midst of these trials, I put my trust in God, and he, moved with pity by my tears, gave permission for our leaving Pau, that “little Geneva;” and, fortunately for me, Rebours was taken ill and stayed behind.  The King my husband no sooner lost sight of her than he forgot her; he now turned his eyes and attention towards Fosseuse.  She was much handsomer than the other, and was at that time young, and really a very amiable person.

Pursuing the road to Montauban, we stopped at a little town called Eause, where, in the night, the King my husband was attacked with a high fever, accompanied with most violent pains in his head.  This fever lasted for seventeen days, during which time he had no rest night or day, but was continually removed from one bed to another.  I nursed him the whole time, never stirring from his bedside, and never putting off my clothes.  He took notice of my extraordinary tenderness, and spoke of it to several persons, and particularly to my cousin M——­, who, acting the part of an affectionate relation, restored me to his favour, insomuch that I never stood so highly in it before.  This happiness I had the good fortune to enjoy during the four or five years that I remained with him in Gascony.

Our residence, for the most part of the time I have mentioned, was at Nerac, where our Court was so brilliant that we had no cause to regret our absence from the Court of France.  We had with us the Princesse de Navarre, my husband’s sister, since married to the Duc de Bar; there were besides a number of ladies belonging to myself.  The King my husband was attended by a numerous body of lords and gentlemen, all as gallant persons as I have seen in any Court; and we had only to lament that they were Huguenots.  This difference of religion, however, caused no dispute among us; the King my husband and the Princess his sister heard a sermon, whilst I and my servants heard mass.  I had a chapel in the park for the purpose, and, as soon as the service of both religions was over, we joined company in a beautiful garden, ornamented with long walks shaded with laurel and cypress trees.  Sometimes we took a walk in the park on the banks of the river, bordered by an avenue of trees three thousand yards in length.  The rest of the day was passed in innocent amusements; and in the afternoon, or at night, we commonly had a ball.