France. Lord Middleton visits Maria Beatrice d’Este (of the Duchy of Modena) to ask her son James III to convert to Protestantism, even if only superficially, so as to open the doors to the English throne for him. The regent (declared as such by Louis XIV) responds that, even if she had consented, her son would never have accepted the unfavorable trade-off between the eternal glory of heaven and the earthly glory of the crown.
