t I used this hasty advice with discretion, considering that
my brother might one day or other repent having given it, as
he had everything to hope, in his present situation, from the
bravery of this officer.

My brother returned to France accompanied by Marechal de Biron.
By his negotiation of a peace he had acquired to himself great
credit with both parties, and secured a powerful force for the
purpose of raising the siege of Cambray. But honours and success
are followed by envy. The King beheld this accession of glory to
his brother with great dissatisfaction. He had been for seven
months, while my brother and I were together in Gascony, brooding
over his malice, and produced the strangest invention that can
be imagined. He pretended to believe (what the King my husband
can easily prove to be false) that I instigated him to go to
war that I might procure for my brother the credit of making
peace. This is not at all probable when it is considered the
prejudice my brother's affairs in Flanders sustained by the war.
But envy and malice are self-deceivers, and pretend to discover
what no one else can perceive. On this frail foundation the King
raised an altar of hatred, on which he swore never to cease till
he had accomplished my brother's ruin and mine. He had never
forgiven me for the attachment I had discovered for my brother's
interest during the time he was in Poland and since.

Fortune chose to favour the King's animosity; for, during the
seven months that my brother stayed in Gascony, he conceived
a passion for Fosseuse, who was become the doting piece of the
King my husband, as I have already mentioned, since he had quitted
Rebours. This new passion in my brother had induced the King my
husband to treat me with coldness, supposing that I countenanced my
brother's addresses. I no sooner discovered this than I remonstrated
with my brother, as I knew he would make every sacrifice for
my repose. I begged him to give over his pursuit, and not to
speak to her again. I succeeded this way to defeat the malice
of my ill-fortune; but there was still behind another secret
ambush, and that of a more fatal nature; for Fosseuse, who was
passionately fond of the King my husband, but had hitherto granted
no favours inconsistent with prudence and modesty, piqued by his
jealousy of my brother, gave herself up suddenly to his will, and
unfortunately became pregnant. She no sooner made this discovery,
than she altered her conduc