a firm
adherent of M. de Soissons, while conversing with the Marquis de
Coeuvres on the subject of the increasing feud between the Princes of
the Blood, suggested that he could perceive no more certain method for
the Count to maintain himself in favour at Court than that he should
effect the marriage of one of his daughters with the son of the Italian
favourite. This project startled the Marquis, who never for an instant
suspected that the proposition could have originated with M. de Soissons
himself; and whose proud ancestral blood boiled within him at the idea
of so close an alliance between one of the first subjects of France and
an adventurer of obscure birth, whose very claim to respectability was
even yet disputed. He was, however, fated to feel even greater surprise
when, a short time subsequently, as both parties were conversing with
the Marquis in the Queen's gallery at Fontainebleau, he heard a third
person openly, and without the slightest hesitation, enter upon the
subject with Concini himself; who, with evident gratification but
affected humility, immediately replied that such an alliance was an
honour to which he could not pretend, but that were it ever to be
seriously proposed to him, he could only reply in the words of Cardinal
Farnese to an individual who suggested to him an arrangement which at
once flattered his self-love and appeared impossible of completion, "_Tu
m'aduli, ma tu mi piaci_." The subject was not pursued, but it was one
not readily to be forgotten by those who were aware that it had been
mooted; and there can be little doubt that the self-esteem of the
Marquis d'Ancre gained fresh force, even from a passing allusion to the
possibility of such an event.

Encouraged, as it would appear, by the brilliant prospect thus opened
up for his son, Concini soon began to think no aggrandizement beyond the
reach of his ambition; and readily overlooking both personal hatred and
political good-faith in the pursuance of his darling passion, it was not
long ere he argued that since a Prince of the Blood had seen fit to
solicit an alliance with himself, he might readily infer that a noble of
inferior rank could not but esteem it as an honour; and accordingly he
commenced a negotiation with the Duc d'Epernon, between whose second
son, the Marquis de la Valette, and his own daughter he desired to
effect a marriage. This proposal was, however, resented as an insult by
the Duke, who was not sparing in his c