The humour of my heart is of the kind which finishes by forgetting an injury and almost an outrage; but a service loyally rendered is graven upon it in uneffaceable characters, and when (at the solicitation of the King of England) our monarch shall have pardoned M. de Monclar, I will search all through Paris to find him a rich and lovely heiress, and will dower him myself, as his noble conduct and my heart demand.

I admire great souls as much as I loathe ingratitude and villainy.

CHAPTER XL.

Parallel between the Diamond and the Sun.—­Taste of the Marquise for
Precious Stones.—­The King’s Collection of Medals.—­The Crown of
Agrippina.—­The Duchess of York.—­Disappointment of the Marquise.—­To
Lend Is Not to Give.—­The Crown Well Guarded.—­Fright of the
Marquise.—­The Thief Recognised.—­The Marquise Lets Him Hang.—­The
Difference between Cromwell and a Trunkmaker.—­Delicate
Restitutions.—­The Bourbons of Madame de Montespan.

The diamond is, beyond contradiction, the most beautiful creation of the hands of God, in the order of inanimate objects.  This precious stone, as durable as the sun, and far more accessible than that, shines with the same fire, unites all its rays and colours in a single facet, and lavishes its charms, by night and day, in every clime, at all seasons; whilst the sun appears only when it so pleases; sometimes shining, sometimes misty, and shows itself off with innumerable pretensions.

From my tenderest childhood, I was notable amongst all my brothers and sisters for my distinct fondness for precious stones and diamonds.  I have made a collection of them worthy of the Princes of Asia; and if my whole fortune were to fail me to-day, my pearls and diamonds, being left to me, would still give me opulence.  The King, by a strange accident, shares this taste with me.  He has in his third closet two huge pedestals, veneered in rosewood, and divided within, like cabinets of coins, into several layers.  It is there that he has conveyed, one by one, all the finest diamonds of the Crown.  He consecrates to their examination, their study, and their homage, the brief moments that his affairs leave him.  And when, by his ambassadors, he comes to discover some new apparition of this kind in Asia or Europe, he does all that is possible to distance his competitors.

When he loved me with a tender love, I had only to wish and I obtained instantly all that could please me, in rare pearls, in superfine brilliants, sapphires, emeralds, and rubies.  One day, his Majesty allowed me to carry home the famous crown of Agrippina, executed with admirable art, and formed of eight sprays of large brilliants handsomely mounted.  This precious object occupied me for several days in succession, and the more I examined the workmanship, the more I marvelled at its lightness and excellence, which was so great that our jewellers, compared with those of Nero and Agrippina, were as artisans and workmen.