“We remained some days at Fontainebleau,” he says, “playing the most frenzied game that I have ever heard of. Not a day passed on which there were not gains or losses of 20,000 pistoles. The counters of the least value which were used were for 50 pistoles. The highest were worth 500 pistoles; so that it was possible to hold in one’s hand at one time counters to the value of 50,000 pistoles. I won that year there more than 500,000 francs at play, notwithstanding that I was distracted by a thousand follies of youth and love. The King returned to Paris, and from there went to Saint-Germain. Play on the same scale continued, and Pimentel won more than 200,000 crowns.” In July, Madame d’Entragues and her two daughters returned from Malesherbes, and went to stay at Conflans, Madame de Verneuil in one house, and Madame d’Entragues and Marie in another. Marie, however, frequently found a pretext for spending the night with her elder sister, and on these occasions, says Bassompierre, “M. de Guise and I played the part of knights-errant and went to visit them.” After a short stay at Conflans, the d’Entragues returned to Paris, where Marie and Bassompierre had another quarrel--for what reason he does not tell us--and “he broke entirely with her.” Like the last, however, it would not appear to have been of long duration. At the beginning of August, the Duke of Mantua came to the French Court, where, as the husband of the Queen’s sister, he was magnificently entertained. His Highness, however, seems to have spent a considerable part of his visit at the card-tables, for, “being a great gambler, he was delighted to take part in the high play which went on, which was to him extraordinary.” When the Duke took his departure, Bassompierre, who spoke Italian fluently, was deputed to accompany him on his homeward journey so far as Montargis. CHAPTER X