"I do not affirm that I have any intention, in the event of my release
from my present marriage, of making the Duchess my wife," pursued Henry
with some embarrassment; "but I was anxious to learn what you would say,
if, unable to find another woman to my taste, I should one day see fit
to do so."

"Say, Sire?" echoed the minister, struggling to conceal his
consternation under an affected gaiety; "I should probably be of the
same opinion as the rest of your subjects."

[Illustration: GABRIELLE D'ESTRÉES. [Paris Richard Bentley and Son
1890]]

The King had, however, made so violent an effort over himself, in order
to test the amount of forbearance which he might anticipate in his
favourite counsellor, and was so desirous to ascertain his real
sentiments upon this important subject, that he exclaimed impatiently:
"I command you to speak freely; you have acquired the right to utter
unpalatable truths; do not, therefore, fear that I shall take offence
whenever our conversation is purely confidential, although I should
assuredly resent such a liberty in public."

The reply of the upright minister, thus authorized, was worthy alike of
the monarch who had made such an appeal, and of the man to whom it was
addressed. He placed before the eyes of his royal master the opprobrium
with which an alliance of the nature at which he had hinted must
inevitably cover his own name, and the affront it would entail upon
every sovereign in Europe. He reminded him also that the legitimation of
the sons of Madame de Beaufort, and the extraordinary and strictly regal
ceremonies which he had recently permitted at the baptism of the younger