had made up her mind to a love-match. "Guess it in four, guess it in
ten, guess it in a hundred," wrote Madame de Sevigne to Madame de
Coulanges: "you are not near it; well, then, you must be told. M. de
Lauzun is to marry on Sunday at the Louvre, with the king's permission,
mademoiselle . . . mademoiselle de . .. mademoiselle, guess the name
. . . he is to marry Mademoiselle, my word! upon my word! my sacred
word! Mademoiselle, the great Mademoiselle, Mademoiselle daughter of the
late Monsieur, Mademoiselle grand-daughter of Henry IV., Mademoiselle
d'Eu, Mademoiselle de Dombes, Mademoiselle de Montpensier, Mademoiselle
d' Orleans, Mademoiselle, cousin-german to the king, Mademoiselle
destined to the throne, Mademoiselle, the only match in France who would
have been worthy of Monsieur!" The astonishment was somewhat premature;
Mademoiselle did not espouse Lauzun just then, the king broke off the
marriage. "I will make you so great," he said to Lauzun, "that you shall
have no cause to regret what I am taking from you; meanwhile, I make you
duke, and peer, and marshal of France." "Sir," broke in Lauzun,
insolently, "you have made so many dukes that it is no longer an honor to
be one, and as for the baton of marshal of France, your Majesty can give
it me when I have earned it by my services." He was before long sent to
Pignerol, where he passed ten years. There he met Fouquet, and that
mysterious personage called the Iron Mask, whose name has not yet been
discovered to a certainty by means of all the most ingenious conjectures.
It was only by settling all her property on the Duke of Maine after
herself that Mademoiselle purchased Lauzun's release. The king had given
his posts to the Prince of Marcillac, son of La Rochefoucauld. He at the
same time overwhelmed Marshal Bellefonds with kindnesses.

[Illustration: The Iron Mask----14]

"He sent for him into his study," says Madame de Sevigne,--and said to