“’Afterwards the king made us register our oath, the chancellor signing it first, then the queen’s confessor, and I last.  The oath was also signed by the surgeon and midwife who attended on the. queen, and the king attached this document to the report, taking both away with him, and I never heard any more of either.  I remember that His Majesty consulted with the chancellor as to the form of the oath, and that he spoke for a long time in an undertone to the cardinal:  after which the last-born child was given into the charge of the midwife, and as they were always afraid she would babble about his birth, she has told me that they often threatened her with death should she ever mention it:  we were also forbidden to speak, even to each other, of the child whose birth we had witnessed.

“’Not one of us has as yet violated his oath; for His Majesty dreaded nothing so much as a civil war brought about by the two children born together, and the cardinal, who afterwards got the care of the second child into his hands, kept that fear alive.  The king also commanded us to examine the unfortunate prince minutely; he had a wart above the left elbow, a mole on the right side of his neck, and a tiny wart on his right thigh; for His Majesty was determined, and rightly so, that in case of the decease of the first-born, the royal infant whom he was entrusting to our care should take his place; wherefore he required our signmanual to the report of the birth, to which a small royal seal was attached in our presence, and we all signed it after His Majesty, according as he commanded.  As to the shepherds who had foretold the double birth, never did I hear another word of them, but neither did I inquire.  The cardinal who took the mysterious infant in charge probably got them out of the country.

“’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.