He must separate the office
from the man, or the child.'
All that could be done was that I should write a humble apology for
my son. Otherwise they told me he would certainly be taken from so
dangerous a person, and such a dread always made me submissive to the
bondage in which we were all held.
Was it not strange that a Queen who would with her own hands minister
to the suffered in the hospital should be so utterly ignorant of her
duties in bringing up the heir of the great kingdom? Gaspard, who
was much younger, could read well, write, and knew a little Latin and
English, while the King and his brother were as untaught as peasants
in the fields. They could make the sign of the cross and say their
prayers, and their manners COULD be perfect, but that was all. They
had no instruction, and their education was not begun. I have the
less hesitation in recording this, as the King has evidently
regretted it, and has given first his son, then his grandsons, the
most admirable masters, besides having taken great pains with
himself.
I suppose the Spanish dislike to instruction dominated the Queen, and
made her slow to inflict on her sons what she so much disliked, and
she was of course perfectly ignorant of their misbehaviour.
I am sorry to say that Gaspard soon ceased to be shocked. His aunt
declared that he was becoming a loyal Frenchman who he showed off his
Louvre manners by kicking the lackeys, pinching Armantine, and
utterly refusing to learn his lessons for the Abbe, declaring that he
was Monsieur le Marquis, and no one should interfere with him.
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