The king remained silent.
"Nay, but tell me!" repeated La Valliere, vehemently.
"I regret to confess it," replied the king, bowing coldly.
The young girl uttered a deep groan, striking her hands together in despair.

"You do not believe me, then," she said to the king, who still remained silent, while poor La Valliere's features became visibly changed at his continued silence.

"Therefore, you believe," she said, "that I settled this ridiculous, this infamous plot, of trifling, in so shameless a manner, with your majesty." "Nay," said the king, "it is neither ridiculous nor infamous, it is not even a plot; it is merely a jest, more or less amusing, and nothing more." "Oh!" murmured the young girl, "the king does not, and will not, believe me, then ?" "No, indeed, I will not believe you," said the king.

"Besides, in point of fact, what can be more natural?
The king, you argue, follows me, listens to me, watches me; the king wishes perhaps to amuse himself at my expense, I will amuse myself at his, and as the king is very tender-hearted, I will take his heart by storm." La Valliere hid her face in her hands, as she stifled her sobs.

The king continued most pitilessly, he revenged himself upon the poor victim before him for all that he had himself suffered.
"Let us invent, then, this story of my loving him and preferring him to others.