t his professions as a mere pleasantry, and
at others to resent them as an affront to her honour; at one moment
confessing that he alone could ever touch her heart, and bewailing that
destiny should have placed him upon a throne, and thus beyond the reach
of her affection; and at another declaring herself ready to make any
sacrifice rather than resign her claim upon his love, save only that by
which she could be enabled to return it. This skilful conduct served, as
she had intended that it should do, merely to irritate the passion of
the monarch, who, unconscious of the extent of her ambition, believed
her to be simply anxious to secure herself against future disappointment
and the anger of her family; and thus finding that his entreaties were
unavailing, he resolved to employ another argument of which he had
already frequently tested the efficacy, and on his return to
Fontainebleau he despatched the Comte de Lude to the lady with what were
in that age termed "propositions."

It is, from this circumstance, sufficiently clear that Henry himself was
far from feeling any inclination to share his throne with the daughter
of Charles IX's mistress; and that, despite the infatuation under which
he laboured, he already estimated at its true price the value of
Henrietta's affection. Nevertheless, the wily beauty remained for some
short time proof against the representations of the royal envoy; nor was
it until the equally wily courtier hinted that Mademoiselle d'Entragues
would do well to reflect ere she declined the overtures of which he was
the bearer, as there was reason to believe that the King had, on a
recent visit to the widowed Queen Louise[67] at Chenonceaux, become
enamoured of Mademoiselle la Bourdaisiere, one of her maids of
honour[68], that the startled beauty, who had deemed herself secure of
her royal conquest, was induced to affix a price to the concession which
she was called upon to make, and that M. de Lude returned bearing her
_ultimatum_ to the King.[69]

This _ultimatum_ amounted to no less than a hundred thousand crowns;[70]
and, setting aside the voluntary degradation of the lady--a degradation
which would appear to have been more than sufficient to disgust any man
of delicacy who sought to be loved for his own sake--it was a demand
which even startled the inconsiderate monarch himself, although he had
not sufficient self-command to meet it with the contempt that it was
calculated to excite. Well had it