"What is it, M. de Bassompierre?" she
said. "What am I to decide?"
"To-day, in the forest, I found a ring, madame," he answered,
coming forward." I told Mademoiselle de la Force of my
discovery, and she now claims the ring."
"I once had a ring like it," cried mademoiselle, blushing and
laughing.
"A sapphire ring?" Bassompierre answered, holding his hand
aloft.
"Yes."
"With three stones?"
"Yes,"
"Precisely, mademoiselle!" he answered, bowing. "But the stones
in this ring are not sapphires, nor are there three of them."
There was a great laugh at this, and the Queen said, very
wittily, that as neither of the claimants could prove a right to
the ring it must revert to the judge.
"In one moment your Majesty shall at least see it," he answered.
"But, first, has anyone lost a ring? Oyez! Oyez! Oyez! Lost,
in the forest, within the last three days, a ring!"
Two or three, falling in with his humour, set up absurd claims to
it; but none could describe the ring, and in the end he handed it
to the Queen.
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