“‘You will not need it for a long time,’ she replied, cleverly, with a smile; ’but when the moment comes, or is near, I should set about it with zeal.’

“The whole carriage applauded this reply, and the King took the hand of the Marquise and insisted on kissing it.”

CHAPTER XXIV.

The Casket of M. de Lauzun.—­His Historical Gallery.—­He Makes Some
Nuns.—­M. de Lauzun in the Lottery.—­The Loser Wins.—­Queen out of
Pique.—­Letter from the Queen of Portugal.—­The Ingratitude of M. de
Lauzun.

Twice during the captivity of M. de Lauzun the Queen of Portugal had charged her ambassador to carry to the King that young sovereign’s solicitations in favour of the disgraced gentleman.  Each time the negotiators had been answered with vague and ambiguous words; with those promises which potentates are not chary of, even between themselves, and which we poor mortals of the second rank call Court holy water.  These exertions of the Court of Lisbon were speedily discovered, and it then became known how many women of high degree M. de Peguilain had the honour of fluttering.  The officer of D’Artagnan, who had the task of seizing his papers when he was arrested to be taken to Pignerol, was obliged, in the course of his duty, to open a rather large casket, where he found the portraits of more than sixty women, of whom the greater number lived almost in the odour of sanctity.  There were descriptive or biographical notes upon all these heroines, and correspondence to match.  His Majesty had cognisance of it, and forbade the publication of the names.  But the Marquis d’Artagnan and his subordinate officer committed some almost inevitable indiscretions, and all these ladies found their names public property.  Several of them, who were either widows or young ladies, retired into convents, not daring to show their faces in the light of day.

The Queen of Portugal, before this scandal, had passionately loved the Marquis de Lauzun.  She was then called Mademoiselle d’Aumale, and her sister who was soon afterwards Duchess of Savoy was called at Paris Mademoiselle de Nemours.  These two princesses, after having exchanged confidences and confessions, were astonished and grieved to find themselves antagonists and rivals.  Happily they had a saving wit, both of them, and made a treaty of peace, by which it was recognised and agreed that, since their patrimony was small, it should be neither divided nor drawn upon, in order that it might make of M. de Lauzun, when he came to marry, a rich man and a great lord.  The two rivals, in the excess of their love, stipulated that this indivisible inheritance should be drawn for by lot, that the victorious number should have M. de Lauzun thrown in, and that the losing number should go and bury herself in a convent.

Mademoiselle d’Aumale—­that is to say, the pretty blonde—­won M. de Lauzun; but he, being bizarre in his tastes, and who only had a fancy for the brunette (the less charming of the two), went and besought the King to refuse his consent.