Lysis, Rosset tells us, was sprung from one of the most noble and renowned Houses of France. At seventeen he had acquired an extraordinary reputation for bravery, which increased till "jamais la France depuis le valeureux Roland, ne porta un tel Palladin." Afterwards "il vint à la cour du Prince qui venoit de quiter une Couronne estrangere, pour recevoir celle qui luy appartenoit par les droits de la loy Salique, [i. e. Henry III, who gave up the throne of Poland on succeeding to that of France.] . . . Les rares dons dont il estoit accomply luy acquirent tant de part aux bonnes graces du premier Prince du sang Royal, qu'il estoit tousiours aupres de luy. . . . Mais l'envie . . . tous les jours . . . faisait de mauvais rapports a sa Maiesté de Lysis, de sorte qu'elle le voyoit d'aussi mauvais oeil, que l'autre Prince, son proche parent, faisoit conte de sa prouësse." He had never been the victim of love, but he was instantly captivated by the beautiful eyes of a lady whom he met at an assembly at the house of a Judge in one of the towns of which he was Governor. "Ceste beauté, pour le respect que je dois à ceux a qui elle appartenoit, sera nommée Sylvie. . . . Cette dame . . . estoit mariée avec un grand Seigneur, jeune, vaillan, sage, discret et courtois." She would not at first gratify her lover's passion, though she granted him "de petites privautez," which only fanned the flame. He wrote her a letter in which he declared that if she refused him her favour, it meant his sentence of death. She replied in a temporising manner that when he had given proofs of his fidelity, she would decide as to what she ought to do. Rosset asserts that these two letters are not invented, but that he obtained them from a friend who had made a collection of such epistles, and who "a esté curieux de sçavoir le nom des personnes qui les ont escrites."