Nor was the pledge an idle one, as immediate measures were adopted to effect this act of justice towards the Queen.

The negotiation was renewed by two autograph letters from the King himself, addressed respectively to the Comte d'Entragues and the Marquise de Verneuil, which were long preserved in the library of Joly de Fleury, but are now supposed to be lost.

Copies of both had been, however, fortunately taken by the Abbe de l'Ecluse,[246] and as they are highly characteristic of the monarch, and cannot fail to prove interesting to the reader, we shall insert them at length.
To M.d'Entragues the King wrote as follows: "M.

d'Entragues, je vous envoye ce porteur pour me rapporter la promesse que je vous baillay a Malesherbes je vous prys ne faillir de me la renvoyer et si vous voulez me la rapporter vous mesme je vous diray les raisons qui m'y poussent qui sont domestiques et non d'estat par lesquelles vous direz que jay raison et reconnaitrez que vous avez ete trompe, et que jay un naturel plutost trop bon que autrement, massurant que vous obeyrez a mon commandement, je finirai vous assurant que je suis votre bon mestre." The letter addressed to Madame de Verneuil bears the same date, and runs thus: "Mademoiselle, lamour, Ihonneur et les bienfaits que vous avez recus de moi, eussent arrete la plus legere ame du monde si elle n'eut point ete accompagnee d'un mauvais naturel comme le vostre.

Je ne vous picqueray davantage bien que je le peusse et dusse fair, vous le savez: je vous prie de me renvoyer la promesse que savez et ne me donnez point la peine de la revoir par autre voye: renvoyez moi aussi la bague que je vous rendis l'autre jour: voila le sujet de cette lettre, de laquelle je veux avoir reponse a minuit." These specimens of royal eloquence were unavailing; evasive answers were returned by the King's messenger, and entreaties having proved ineffectual, threats were subsequently substituted, upon which the arrogant Marquise was ultimately induced to relinquish her claim to ascend the throne of France, on condition that she should, at the moment of delivering up the document, receive in exchange the sum of twenty thousand silver crowns and the promise of a marshal's _baton_ for her father the Comte d'Entragues, who had never been upon a field of battle.
This condition, onerous as it appears, was accepted; and the father of the lady finally, but with evident reluctance, restored the pernicious document to the King in the presence of the Comte de Soissons and the Duc de Montpensier, MM.