laid them before the Princes and great lords, to be deliberated upon, in
order to settle a plan of operations.

To arrange such a plan a delay of some days was requisite. During this
interval, the Queen my mother walking in the park with some of the
Princes, my brother Anjou begged me to take a turn or two with him in a
retired walk. He then addressed me in the following words: "Dear sister,
the nearness of blood, as well as our having been brought up together,
naturally, as they ought, attach us to each other. You must already have
discovered the partiality I have had for you above my brothers, and I
think that I have perceived the same in you for me. We have been
hitherto led to this by nature, without deriving any other advantage from
it than the sole pleasure of conversing together. So far might be well
enough for our childhood, but now we are no longer children. You know
the high situation in which, by the favour of God and our good mother the
Queen, I am here placed. You may be assured that, as you are the person
in the world whom I love and esteem the most, you will always be a
partaker of my advancement. I know you are not wanting in wit and
discretion, and I am sensible you have it in your power to do me service
with the Queen our mother, and preserve me in my present employments. It
is a great point obtained for me, always to stand well in her favour. I
am fearful that my absence may be prejudicial to that purpose, and I must
necessarily be at a distance from Court. Whilst I am away, the King my
brother is with her, and has it in his power to insinuate himself into
her good graces. This I fear, in the end, may be of disservice to me.
The King my brother is growing older every day. He does not want for
courage, and, though he now diverts himself with hunting, he may grow
ambitious, and choose rather to chase men than beasts; in such a case I
must resign to him my commission as his lieutenant. This would prove the
greatest mortification that could happen to me, and I would even prefer