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" be early in my attendance on the Queen to-day, and you shall accompany me," said Madame de Mercœur to Francesca. "Mademoiselle de Montpensier, so long an exile from the court, has at last obtained permission to return; she will arrive this morning. Have you any curiosity to see this heroine of the Fronde?"

"Indeed I have," answered Francesca; "my only fear is, in seeing so many new faces, that I shall forget from remembering too much. The whole of my former life would not fill one week of my present existence."

"I, too, recall," replied the Duchesse, "How bewildered I felt at first. I really lost half of what I wanted to observe, through fear of losing any. But we must be quick. I myself long to see if our Princess return with her former unbroken spirit. There is a saying of hers when a child,