“Your stepmother has never done you any other harm,” replied the King, “than to reclaim for her children the funds or the furniture left by your father.  The character of Margaret of Lorraine has always been sweetness itself; seeing your irritation, she begged me to arbitrate myself; and you know all that M. Colbert and the Chancellor did to satisfy you under the circumstances.  But let us speak of something else, and cease these discussions.  I have a service to ask of you:  here is M. le Duc du Maine already big; everybody knows of your affection for him, and I have seen his portrait with pleasure, in one of your salons.  I am going to establish him; would it be agreeable to you if I give him your livery?”

“M. le Duc du Maine,” said the Princess, “is the type of what is gracious, and noble, and beautiful; he can only do honour to my livery; I grant it him with all my heart, since you do me the favour of desiring it.  Would I were in a position to do more for him!”

The King perfectly understood these last words; he made no reply to them, but he understood all that he was meant to understand.  We went down again into the gardens.

The fishermen of Choisy had just caught a salmon of enormous size, which they had been pursuing for four or five days; they had intended to offer it to Mademoiselle; the presence of the King inspired them with another design.  They wove with great diligence a large and pretty basket of reeds, garnished it with foliage, young grass, and flowers, and came and presented to the King their salmon, all leaping in the basket.

The fisherman charged with the address only uttered a few words; they were quite evidently improvised, so that they gave more pleasure and effect than those of academicians, or persons of importance.  The fisherman expressed himself thus: 

“You have brought us good fortune, Sire, by your presence, as you bring fortune to your generals.  You arrive on the Monday; on the Tuesday the town is taken.  We come to offer to the greatest of kings the greatest salmon that can be caught.”

The King desired this speech to be instantly transcribed; and, after having bountifully rewarded the sailors, his Majesty said to Mademoiselle: 

“This man was born to be a wit; if he were younger, I would place him in a college.  There is wit at Choisy in every rank of life.”

CHAPTER VI.

Departure of the King.—­Ghent Reduced in Five Days.—­Taking of Ypres.—­Peace Signed.—­The Prince of Orange Is at Pains Not to Know of It.—­Horrible Cruelties.

I have related in what manner Charles II., suddenly pronouncing in favour of his nephew, the Prince of Orange, had signed a league with his old enemies, the Dutch, in order to counteract the success of the King of France and compel him to sign a humiliating and entirely inadmissible peace.