It is related that Anne of Austria one day told Bautree — a councillor of State, poet, and member of the French Academy, but famous for his facetiousness — that she desired to see his wife. Bautree promised to present her. ‘Only, madame,’ he added, ‘she is hard of hearing.’

‘Never mind,’ replied the Queen; ‘I’ll speak loud.’

Bautree hurried home and announced this flattering news to his wife, but at the same time told her to raise her voice, even to the pitch of shouting, as Her Majesty could only hear with difficulty. As soon as the Queen perceived Madame Bautree she began to raise her voice and Madame Bautree shouted back with all her might. The two ladies made a pretty noise between them, and the King, to whom Bautree had confided the audacious hoax, held his sides with laughter.

— “Hoaxes,” Strand, October 1903