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Rh 148 LOUISE DE LA VALLIERE. plied the queen-mother. *'But what are the plots you speak of?'* "We have, it seems, certain misunderstandings with Holland to settle.'* "What about?" "Monsieur has been telling me the story of the medals." "Oh!" exclaimed the young queen, "you mean those medals which were struck in Holland, on which a cloud is seen passing across the sun, which is the king's device. You are wrong in calling that a plot — it is an insult." "But so contemptible that the king can well despise it," replied the queen-mother. "Well, what are the flirtations which are alluded to? Do you mean that of Madame d'Olonue?" "No, no; nearer ourselves than that." "Oasa de usted," murmured the queen-mother, and with- out moving her lips, in her daughter-in-law's ear, and also without being overheard by madame, who thus continued: "You know the terrible news?" "Oh, yes; Monsieur de Guiche's wound." "And you attribute it, I suppose, as every one else does, to an accident which happened to him while hunting?" "Yes, of course," said both the queens together, their interest awakened. Madame drew closer to them as she said, in a low tone of voice, "It was a duel." "Ah!" said Anne of Austria, in a severe tone; for in her ears the word "duel," which had been forbidden in France during the time she had reigned over it, had a strange sound. "A most deplorable duel, which has nearly cost Monsieur two of his best friends, and the king two of his best servants." "What was the cause of the duel?" inquired the young queen, animated by a secret instinct. "Flirtations," repeated madame triumphantly. "The gentlemen in question were conversing about the virtue of a particular lady belonging to the court. One of them thought that Pallas was a very second-rate person compared to her; the other pretended that the lady in question was an imitation of Venus alluring Mars; and thereupon the two gentlemen fought as fiercely as Hector and Achilles." "Venus alluring Mars?" said the young queen, in a low tone of voice, without venturing to examine into the allegory very deeply.