sufferings of all kinds. The longer I live, the more I see that we are
never so near a reverse of Fortune as when she is favorable, or so near
receiving favors as when she is maltreating us. For that reason, Madame,
if one were wise, one would take her inconstancy graciously."

The time had come for Madame des Ursins to make definitive trial of
Fortune's inconstancy. She had gone to meet the new queen, in full dress
and with her ornaments; Elizabeth received her coldly; they were left
alone; the queen reproached the princess with negligence in her costume
Madame des Ursins, strangely surprised, would have apologized, "but, all
at once there was the queen at offensive words, and screaming, summoning,
demanding officers, guards, and imperiously ordering Madame des Ursins
out of her presence. She would have spoken; but the queen, with
redoubled rage and threats, began to scream out for the removal of this
mad woman from her presence and her apartments; she had her put out by
the shoulders, and on the instant into a carriage with one of her women,
to be taken at once to St. Jean-de-Luz. It was seven o'clock at night,
the day but one before Christmas, the ground all covered with ice and
snow; Madame des Ursins had no time to change gown or head-dress, to take
any measures against the cold, to get any money, or any anything else at
all." Thus she was conducted almost without a mouthful of food to the
frontier of France. She hoped for aid from the king of Spain; but none
came; it got known that the queen had been abetted in everything and
beforehand by Philip V. On arriving at St. Jean-de-Luz, she wrote to the
king and to Madame de Maintenon: "Can you possibly conceive, Madame, the
situation in which I find myself? Treated in the face of all Europe,
with more contempt by the Queen of Spain than if I were the lowest of
wretches? They want to persuade me that the king acted in concert with a
princess who had me treated with such cruelty. I shall await his orders
at St. Jean-de-Luz, where I am in a small house close by the sea. I see