Page:Secret History of the French Court under Richelieu and Mazarin.djvu/41

Rh on ill terms with you, and that M. de Châteauneuf does not love Madame de Chevreuse, and ridicules her with 47, (some unknown lady, perhaps Madame de Puisieux, whom Châteauneuf had long loved.) About her, I am in no concern; I believe M. de Châteauneuf faithful and affectionate to me, and shall be so to him through my whole life, provided that, as he has merited the good opinion which I have formed of him, he does not hereafter give me cause to lose it. I am in despair at not being able to send you to-day the picture of Madame de Chevreuse which I promised you.

"You have pledged yourself to many things, but it is necessary that you should know that the slightest failure will displease me exceedingly. Beware, therefore, of what you promise. It would be dishonorable to you if your actions did not conform to your words, and shameful to me if I suffered it. I say to you once more that you should not pledge yourself to so much if you are not well assured that you will never fail in it. I require but little where I do not expect all; but when you have promised this to me, and I have accepted the promise, I shall not be satisfied if there is the least reserve.

"I counsel you, being as yet unable to command and wishing no longer to advise you, to wear the diamond which I send you, so that on seeing the stone which has two peculiarities, one, of being firm, the other, so brilliant that it shows the slightest defects from afar, you may remember that you must be unshaken in your promises in order to please me, and must be guilty of no faults that I may not remark any.

"The cardinal is in a better humor towards Madame de Chevreuse than he has been since his return. He wrote to me this evening that he was extremely troubled about my illness, that all the favors of the king failed to give him pleasure while I remained in my present condition, and that the gayety of M. de Châteauneuf had convinced him that he bore no love to Madame de Chevreuse; that he had heard of her illness without concern; and that if Madame de Chevreuse had seen his