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.

The King was very assiduous with Fosseuse, who, being dependent on me, kept herself within the strict bounds of honour and virtue.  Had she always done so, she had not brought upon herself a misfortune which has proved of such fatal consequence to myself as well as to her.

But our happiness was too great to be of long continuance, and fresh troubles broke out betwixt the King my husband and the Catholics, and gave rise to a new war.  The King my husband and the Marechal de Biron, who was the King’s lieutenant in Guienne, had a difference, which was aggravated by the Huguenots.  This breach became in a short time so wide that all my efforts to close it were useless.  They made their separate complaints to the King.  The King my husband insisted on the removal of the Marechal de Biron, and the Marshal charged the King my husband, and the rest of those who were of the pretended reformed religion, with designs contrary to peace.  I saw, with great concern, that affairs were likely soon to come to an open rupture; and I had no power to prevent it.