ANECDOTE OF BOISSETJIL. 85

turned home in fury, and like a man In despair. Has familiars
were frightened, and in their disquietude angled to learn what
had happened. At last he told them, said he was lost, and
that for a few inches the King forgot all his services, which
had led to so many conquests; he declared that henceforth he
would leave the trowel fco the King, bring about a war, and
so arrange matters that the King should have good need
of him!

He soon kept his word. He caused a war to grow out of
the affair of the double election of Cologne, of the Prince of
Bavaria, and of the Cardinal of Furstemberg; he confirmed it
in carrying the flames into the Palatinate, and in leaving,
as I have said, all liberty to the project upon England; he put
the finishing touch to his work by forcing the Duke of Savoy
into the arms of his enemies, and making him become, by the
position of his country, our enemy, the most difficult and the
most ruinous. All that I have here related was clearly
brought to light in due time,

Boisseuil died shortly after D'Avaux. He was a tall, big
man, warm and violent, a great gambler, bad tempered,—who
ofton treated M. le Grand and Madame d'Armagnac, great
people as they were, so that the company were ashamed,—and
who swore in the saloon of Marly as if he had been in a tap-
room. He was feared; and he said to women whatever came
uppermost when the fury of a cut-throat seized him. During
a, journey the King and Court made to Nancy, Boisseuil one
evening sat down to play in the house of one of the courtiers.
A player happened to be there who played very high.
Boisseuil lost a good deal, and was very angry. He thought
he perceived that this gentleman, who was only permitted on
account of his play, was cheating, and made such good use of
his eyes that he soon found this was the case, and all on a sud-
den stretched across the table and seized the gambler's hand,
which he held upon the table, with the cards he was going to
deal. The gentleman, very much astonished, wished to with-
draw his hand, and was angry. Boisseuil, stronger than he,
said that he was a rogue, and that the company should see it,