ted his letters, together with the
royal message, Charles, as had been previously arranged, pleaded want of
leisure to enter upon public business; upon which the envoy proceeded to
pay his respects to the Queen, who briefly replied that his Majesty
having given her his permission to return to the capital, she should be
able when there to discourse with him at greater length. Bassompierre
then withdrew, and was escorted by all the great nobles to his carriage.

This commencement, as will be at once apparent, was sufficiently
unpromising, but the French envoy was in a position of such
responsibility that he dared not suffer himself to be discouraged; nor
had he been long in England ere he became painfully convinced that the
petulance and want of self-control in which Henriette wilfully indulged,
daily tended to widen a schism that was already too threatening.
Nevertheless, Bassompierre remained firmly at his post. Matrimonial
feuds in high places were no novelty to the brilliant courtier of Henri
IV and the confidant of Marie de Medicis; and he at once felt that he
must enact at St. James's the same role as Sully had formerly
represented at Fontainebleau and the Louvre; nor did his experience of
the past fail, moreover, to convince him of the policy of endeavouring
in the first instance to effect a reconciliation between the Queen and
the favourite. This was, however, no easy task; but at length the
zealous Marquis succeeded in the attempt, as he informs us in his usual
naive style.

"On Sunday the 25th," he says, "I went to fetch the Duke and took him
with me to the Queen, where he made his peace with her, which I had
accomplished after a thousand difficulties. The King afterwards came in,
who also made it up with her and caressed her a great deal, thanking me
for having restored a good understanding between the Duke and his wife;
and then he took me to his chamber, where he showed me his jewels, which
are very fine."

On the morrow, however, when Bassompierre went to pay his respects to
Henriette at Somerset House, he discovered that he had personally lost
considerably in her favour, as she vehemently complained that he
sacrificed her dignity as a Princess of France to expediency; and had
espoused the cause of her adversary instead of upholding her own. To
these reproaches the French envoy replied by explaining the difficulty
of his position, and the earnest desire of his sovereign to maintain
peace; but this reasoni