lt for a young girl of my age to discuss,
but your majesty imposed silence on me. Your majesty belongs not
to yourself alone: you are married; and every sentiment which would
separate your majesty from the queen, in leading you to take notice
of me, will be a source of profoundest sorrow for the queen." The
king endeavored to interrupt the young girl, but she continued with a
suppliant gesture. "The Queen Maria, with an attachment which can be
well understood, follows with her eyes every step of your majesty which
separates you from her. Happy enough in having had her fate united to
your own, she weepingly implores Heaven to preserve you to her, and is
jealous of the faintest throb of your heart bestowed elsewhere." The
king again seemed anxious to speak, but again did La Valliere venture to
prevent him.--"Would it not, therefore, be a most blamable action," she
continued, "if your majesty, a witness of this anxious and disinterested
affection, gave the queen any cause for jealousy? Forgive me, sire, for
the expressions I have used. I well know it is impossible, or rather
that it would be impossible, that the greatest queen of the whole world
could be jealous of a poor girl like myself. But though a queen, she is
still a woman, and her heart, like that of the rest of her sex, cannot
close itself against the suspicions which such as are evilly disposed,
insinuate. For Heaven's sake, sire, think no more of me; I am unworthy
of your regard."

"Do you not know that in speaking as you have done, you change my esteem
for you into the profoundest admiration?"

"Sire, you assume my words to be contrary to the truth; you suppose me
to be better than I really am, and attach a greater merit to me than God
ever intended should be the case. Spare me, sire; for, did I not know
that your majesty was the most generous man in your kingdom, I should
believe you were jesting."

"You do not, I know, fear such a thing; I am quite sure of that,"
exclaimed Louis.

"I shall be obliged to believe it, if your majesty continues to hold
such language towards me."

"I am most unhappy, then," said the king, in a tone of regret which was
not assumed; "I am the unhappiest prince in the Christian world, since
I am powerless to induce belief in my words, in one whom I love the best
in the wide world, and who almost breaks my heart by refusing to credit
my regard for her."

"Oh, sire!" said La Valliere, gently putting the king aside, who had
appr