Note 22 — HISTORY OF THE REVOLUTIONS OF PORTUGAL. (continued 2)
Reading edition
Mello, whom the king of Portugal sent into France on this occasion, was witty and intelligent; and speaking to the queen of France, the sister of Philip the IVth, he expressed his fear that his embassy must be painful to her majesty, since it tended to deprive the king her brother of a kingdom: to which the queen replied, “It is indeed a truth that I am the sister of his catholic majesty; but am I not at the same time the mother of the dauphin?”
The queen, conversing afterwards with different noblemen who accompanied the ambassador, in the Castilian tongue, Mello took the liberty of asking why she had not addressed him in the same language? “From the fear of giving you pain,” answered the queen. “That would have been the case,” replied Mello, “had I regarded you as a Castilian, but as a great queen the effect would have been different.”