the King to consent to his remarriage after the usual term of mourning
was at an end.

"Whom have you in view?" asked his brother. He replied that he proposed
to wed Mademoiselle--the grande Mademoiselle de Montpensier--on account
of her enormous wealth!

Just then Mademoiselle was head over ears in love with Lauzun. She sent
the Prince about his business, as I believe I have already stated.
Moreover, she remarked: "You had the loveliest wife in all
Europe,--young, charming, a veritable picture. You might have seen to it
that she was not poisoned; in that case you would not now be a widower.
As it is not likely that I should ever come to terms with your
favourites, I shall never be anything else to you but a cousin, and I
shall endeavour not to die until the proper time; that is, when it shall
please God to take me. You can repeat this speech, word for word, to your
precious Marquis d'Effiat and Messieurs de Remecourt and de Lorraine.
They have no access to my kitchens; I am not afraid of them."

This answer amused the King not a little, and he said to me: "I was told
that the Palatine of Bavaria's daughter is extremely ugly and ill-bred;
consequently, she is capable of keeping Monsieur in check. Through one
of my Rhenish allies, I will make proposals to her father for her hand.
As soon as a reply comes, I will show my brother a portrait of some sort;
it will be all the same to him; he will accept her."

Soon afterwards this marriage took place. Charlotte Elizabeth of
Bavaria, though aware of the sort of death that her predecessor died,
agreed to marry Monsieur. Had she not been lucky enough to make this
grand match, her extreme ugliness would assuredly have doomed her to