" Other equally
flattering remarks were to be heard from women of the Castlemain stamp,
but the men were a unit in praising the new beauty.
Of course the king soon declared his undying love for her, and she
answered, laughing:--
"If your Majesty will swear by your grandmother's great toe that you have
never before spoken to a woman in this fashion, I'll listen and believe,
but failing the oath, you must pardon me if I laugh."
"I hope you would not laugh at your king?" he asked.
"Ay, at the Pope," she retorted, "if I found him amusing."
"But if I swear by the sacred relic you name, never again so long as I
live to speak in this fashion to any other woman, may I proceed?"
returned the king.
"I would not be a party to an oath whereby my king would be forsworn,"
she answered.
To which the king replied: "I shall say what I please to my most devoted
subject. Am I not the king?"
"I am content that you say what you please if you grant me the same
privilege," answered Frances.
The king laughed and said he would gladly grant the privilege in private,
but that in public he had a "damnable dignity" to uphold.
* * * * *
After the dancing was over for the evening, the king offered Frances a
purse of gold to be used at the card-table, but she declined, and as
nearly every one else went to the tables, the duchess granted leave to
Frances, Mary, and myself to depart.
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