He was as kind as I expected him to be, and said to me, 'What, my old friend, could you have thought that I desired to send you there?
You know well that I love you.'" "Ah, my dear Marechal, let me compliment you," said Madame d'Effiat, in a soft voice.

"I recognize the benevolence of the King in these words; he remembers the affection which the King, his father, had toward you.
It appears to me that he always accorded to you all that you desired for your friends," she added, with animation, in order to put him into the track of praise, and to beguile him from the discontent which he had so loudly declared.
"Assuredly, Madame," answered he; "no one is more willing to recognize his virtues than Francois de Bassompierre.

I shall be faithful to him to the end, because I gave myself, body and fortune, to his father at a ball; and I swear that, with my consent at least, none of my family shall ever fail in their duties toward the King of France.

Although the Besteins are foreigners and Lorrains, a shake of the hand from Henri IV gained us forever.

My greatest grief has been to see my brother die in the service of Spain; and I have just written to my nephew to say that I shall disinherit him if he has passed over to the Emperor, as report says he has." One of the gentlemen guests who had as yet been silent, and who was remarkable for the profusion of knots, ribbons, and tags which covered his dress, and for the black cordon of the Order of St.Michael which decorated his neck, bowed, observing that it was thus all faithful subjects ought to speak.
"I' faith, Monsieur de Launay, you deceive yourself very much," said the Marechal, to whom the recollection of his ancestors now occurred; "persons of our blood are subjects only at our own pleasure, for God has caused us to be born as much lords of our lands as the King is of his.
When I came to France, I came at my ease, accompanied by my gentlemen and pages.