t myself nothing.
To-day, Madame la Princesse de Nemours wishes me to accompany her to
Lisbon as her secretary, or rather as her friend.

"Being about to acquire supreme power as a sovereign, she intends, by
some grand marriage, to keep me there, and then appoint me her
lady-in-waiting."

"And you submit without a murmur to such appalling exile?" I said to
Madame Scarron. "Is such a pretty, charming person as yourself fitted
for a Court of that kind, and for such an odd sort of climate?"

"Madame, I have sought to shut my eyes to many things, being solely
conscious of the horribly forlorn condition in which I find myself in my
native country."

"Have you reckoned the distance? Did the Princess confess that she was
going to carry you off to the other end of the world? For her city of
Lisbon, surrounded by precipices, is more than three hundred leagues from
Paris."

"At the age of three I voyaged to America, returning hither when I was
eleven."

"I am vexed with Mademoiselle d'Aumale for wanting to rob us of so
charming a treasure. But has she any right to act in this way? Do you
think her capable of contributing to your pleasure or your happiness?
This young Queen of Portugal, under the guise of good-humour, hides a
violent and irascible temperament. I believe her to be thoroughly
selfish; suppose that she neglects and despises you, after having
profited by your company to while away the tedium of her journey? Take
my word for it, madame, you had better stay here with us; for there is
no real society but in France, no wit but in our great world, no real
happiness but in Paris. Draw up another petition as quickly as
possible, and send it to me. I will present it myself, and to tell you
this is tantamount to a promise that your plea shall succeed."

[Mademoiselle d'Aumale, daughter of the Duc de Nemours, of the House of
Savoy. She was a blonde, pleasant-mannered enough, but short of stature.
Her head was too big for her body; and this head of hers was full of
conspiracies and coups d'etat. She dethroned her husband in order to
marry his brother.--EDITOR'S NOTE.]

Mademoiselle d'Aubigne, all flushed with emotion, assured me of her
gratitude with the ingenuous eloquence peculiar to herself. We embraced
as two friends of the Albret set should do, and three days later, the
King received a new petition, not signed with the name of Scarron, but
with that of D'Aubigne.

The pension of two thousand francs,