His Majesty
intends to give her hand to one of the half-dozen of his courtiers
who are at present intriguing for it. Happily, as she is little
over sixteen, although marriages here are often made at that age,
the question does not press; and I trust that he will not decide
for a year, or even longer. But if you were to be seen much at her
side, it might be considered that you were a possible rival, and
you might, if the king thought that there was the slightest risk of
your interfering with his plans, find yourself shut up in the
Bastille, or at Loches, or some other of the fortress dungeons, and
Adele might be ordered to give her hand at once to the man he
selected for her.
"There is hope in time. Adele may in time really come to love one
of her suitors, and if he were one of those whom the king would
like to favour, he would probably consent to the match. Then, the
king may die. It is treason even to suppose such a thing possible;
still he is but mortal; or something else may occur to change the
course of the future.
"Of one thing I have decided: I will not see Adele sacrificed. I
have for the last four years managed to transmit a considerable
portion of the revenues of my estates to the hands of a banker in
Holland; and if needs be I will again become an exile with her, and
wait patiently until some less absolute monarch mounts the throne."
It was not so easy, however, to silence the mouths of the gossips
of Versailles as the Marquis de Pignerolles had hoped.
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