Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 15, 2025
I related how, near La Fere, at the time of the Flanders campaign, Madame de la Valliere's coach, at the risk of offending the Queen, left the main road and took a short cut across country, so as to get on ahead, and arrive before anybody else. By this the Duchess thought to give her royal friend a great mark of her attachment.
"I stooped down, it was a pocket-handkerchief. For a moment I had an idea that when I stumbled against your majesty I must have been the cause of the handkerchief falling from your pocket; but as I felt it all over very respectfully, I perceived a cipher at one of the corners, and, on looking at it closely, I found that it was Mademoiselle de la Valliere's cipher.
"I must answer, then." "Oh! sire, immediately after supper? Your majesty will fatigue yourself." "You are quite right; study after eating is notoriously injurious." "The labor of a poet especially so; and besides, there is great excitement prevailing at Mademoiselle de la Valliere's." "What do you mean?" "With her as with all the ladies of the court." "Why?"
"Well, monsieur, it will always remain on record, to the king's eternal honor, that he allowed M. Fouquet to flee; and the more guilty he may have been, the greater will the king's honor and glory appear, compared with such unnecessary misery and shame." Louis kissed La Valliere's hand, as he knelt before her. "I am lost," thought Colbert; then suddenly his face brightened up again.
At every step Bragelonne took, he advanced further into that mysterious apartment which had witnessed La Valliere's sighs and still retained the perfume of her presence. Bragelonne fancied he perceived, as he inhaled the atmosphere, that the young girl must have passed through.
"Monseigneur," he said, "I placed the letter on the very place I told you: and I ask only half an hour to prove to you that the letter is in Mademoiselle de la Valliere's hand, or to bring you back the letter itself." Aramis looked at the valet scrutinizingly. Fouquet was ready in placing confidence in people, and for twenty years this man had served him faithfully.
Her figure was ugly and clumsy, but her eyes bespoke great intelligence, though they were somewhat too bright. Her mouth was very pretty and her smile uncommonly agreeable. Her complexion was fairer than La Valliere's, her look was more bold, and her general appearance denoted her intriguing temper. She had very beautiful light hair, fine arms, and pretty hands, which La Valliere had not.
The King had not been expecting so desperate a resolve as this, nor did he feel inclined to hinder her from making it. He left the Portuguese ambassador, who witnessed his agitation, and hastened to Madame de la Valliere's, who had left her apartments in the castle at daybreak.
"The king!" exclaimed Mademoiselle de Montalais, in her astonishment, letting La Valliere's head fall upon the ground. "Yes, it is the king; but that is no reason why you should abandon your companion. Who is she?" "It is Mademoiselle de la Valliere, sire." "Mademoiselle de la Valliere!" "Yes, sire, she has just fainted." "Poor child!" said the king. "Quick, quick, fetch a surgeon."
"What makes you start in that manner, Monsieur de Manicamp?" said Madame, ironically; "do you mean to say you would be impertinent enough to suspect that young lady's honor?" "Madame, in the whole course of this affair there has not been the slightest question of Mademoiselle de la Valliere's honor."
Word Of The Day
Others Looking