"You have not told me yet, Andrea, what takes you to Blois," quoth I then.
"You shall learn. Little do you dream how closely interwoven are our
morning adventures with this journey of mine. To begin with, I go to Blois
to pay my d?voirs to the lady whom his Eminence has selected for my future
wife."
"You were then right in describing this as a mission of great delicacy."
"More than you think--I have never seen the lady."
"Never seen her? And you go a-wooing a woman you have never seen?"
"It is so. I have never seen her; but his Eminence has, and 't is he who
arranges the affair. Ah, the Cardinal is the greatest matchÂmaker in
France! My cousin Anna Martinozzi is destined for the Prince de Conti, my
sisters Olympia and Marianne he also hopes to marry to princes of the
blood, whilst I dare wager that he has thoughts of seating either Maria or
Hortensia upon the throne of France as the wife of Louis XIV., as soon as
his Majesty shall have reached a marriageable age. You may laugh, De
Luynes, nevertheless all this may come to pass, for my uncle has great
ambitions for his family, and it is even possible that should that poor,
wandering youth, Charles II.
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